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BOOK REVIEW – Attack on Pearl Harbor: Strategy, Combat, Myths, Deceptions

By Alan D. Zimm, Casemate Publishing, Havertown, PA (2011) Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, Ph.D. There seems to be no end to new publications on the subject of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. By September 2014, WorldCat (an international library catalog) listed 18,353 publications and other media on Pearl Harbor;

BOOK REVIEW – The Second Pearl Harbor: The West Loch Disaster, May 21, 1944

By Gene Eric Salecher University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK (2014) Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, Ph.D. Among the maritime accidents during World War II in the Pacific Theater is the 1944 Port Chicago disaster, a munitions explosion at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine located in Port Chicago, California near San Francisco. The 17 July

BOOK REVIEW – Cold War Command: The Dramatic Story of a Nuclear Submariner

Captain Dan Conley RN (Ret.) OBE and Captain Richard Woodman, Merchant Navy, (Ret), Seaforth Publishing, Inc., Barnsley, England (2014) Reviewed by Rear Admiral William J. Holland, Jr. USN (Ret.) The authors use Conley in the third person as the vehicle to critically review the actions and internal workings of the Royal Navy and its Submarine Service

BOOK REVIEW – Sunk in Kula Gulf: The Final Voyage of USS Helena and the Incredible Story of Her Survivors in World War II

By John J. Domagalski, Potomac Books, Washington, DC (2012) Reviewed by John Grady The greatest strength of John Domagalski’s Sunk in Kula Gulf lies in the interviews he conducted with survivors of the cruiser Helena’s sinking after it was torpedoed early 6 July 1943. While I found the first few chapters’ routine, the story picks

BOOK REVIEW – We’ll All Die As Marines: One Marine’s Journey from Private to Colonel

By Colonel Jim Bathurst USMC (Ret), IUniverse, (2012) Reviewed by Curt Marsh, Col USMCR (Ret) This is a very engaging autobiography of one Marine’s career worth reading by fellow Marines as well as anyone interested in recent Marine Corps history. The book covers the period from his enlistment in 1958 after dropping out of High

BOOK REVIEW – Fallujah Redux: The Anbar Awakening and the Struggle with Al Qaeda

By Daniel R. Green and William F. Mullen III, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2014) Reviewed by Craig Whiteside Events this past summer in Iraq have been disappointing to those observers who felt that Iraq was on the road to a brighter future. This is particularly true after the tremendous investments made by the United

BOOK REVIEW – Deadly PT Boat Patrols, A History: Task Group 50.1 New Guinea 1942-43

By Allan L. Lawrence, Self-Published with assistance from the Ellington Printery, Ellington, CT (2014) Reviewed by Nathan D. Wells The strategic impact that the U.S. Navy exercised during the Second World War, especially in the Pacific Theater of Operations, is well known. The combination of aircraft carrier battle groups and amphibious task forces proved a

BOOK REVIEW – Silent Strength: Remembering the Men of Genius and Adventure Lost in the World’s Worst Submarine Disaster

By D. Allen Kerr, Jetty House, Portsmouth, NH (2014) Reviewed by Greg Stitz Silent Strength: Remembering the Men of Genius and Adventure Lost in the World’s Worst Submarine Disaster can best be summed up using the title of one of its own chapters – “One Disaster, 129 Stories.” Silent Strength is the story of USS

BOOK REVIEW – Fire On The Water: China, America, and the Future of the Pacific

By Robert Haddick, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2014) Reviewed by Nathan Albright This book is one of several (including the essay collection Rebalancing U.S. Forces) books published this year by the Naval Institute Press that encourages a greater awareness, interest, and focus on the serious strategic problems China presents to the security and well

BOOK REVIEW – Axis Midget Submarines: 1939 – 1945

By Mark Stille and Jamie Prenatt, Osprey Press, Great Britain (2014) Reviewed by James H. McClelland Sr.          Senior Defense Department analyst Jamie E. Prenatt collaborated with retired Navy Commander and frequent Osprey author Mark E. Stille to research and write Axis Midget Submarines. Prenatt, who has taught military history, war gaming,

World War I Centennial Symposium: The Thirst is Real

By Matthew Eng “History never repeats itself. Sometimes, it rhymes” – Dr. Sean McMeekin A packed crowd huddled into the MacArthur Memorial Theater in Norfolk, VA yesterday to listen to several well-known authors and historians speak on various topics surrounding the First World War. The Memorial graciously hosted the World War I Centennial Symposium (2014-2018) in

BOOK REVIEW – THE ROYAL NAVY – A History Since 1900

By Duncan Redford and Philip D. Grove, I. B. Tauris, London, England (2014) Reviewed by Charles Bogart The book under review is the fourteenth book within the A History of the Royal Navy series sponsored by The National Museum, Royal Navy Section. The authors of this large book attempt to do the impossible: tell the

BOOK REVIEW – Star-Spangled Sailors – A Novel of the Brave Watermen Defenders of Chesapeake Bay in the War of 1812

By Carey Roberts, Self-Published, 2011 Reviewed by David K. Hildebrand, Ph.D. Historical fiction provides a compelling call for the reader to go well beyond traditional history. I for one have been long happy to absorb the facts, theories, and analyses often well crafted into secondary sources, such as Steve Vogel’s excellent telling of the near cataclysmic

BOOK REVIEW – Q Ship VS U-Boat: 1914-18

By David Greentree, Osprey Publishing, New York, NY (2014) Reviewed by Sam Craghead With its dependency on merchant ship deliveries, the success of German U-Boats caused grave danger to Great Britain’s lifeline of food and supplies. Created as a countermeasure to the German submarines during World War I, service on a Q Ship became one of

BOOK REVIEW – Into the Dark Water: The Story of the Officers of PT 109

By John J. Domagalski, Casemate Publishers, Havertown, PA 2014 Reviewed by: Tim McGrath Mention PT 109 to the “Greatest Generation” and “Baby Boomers” and you will conjure up a slew of memories: the tie-clips worn by men working for John F. Kennedy in the White House, the bestselling book by Robert J. Donovan, and the