By Adm. James Stavridis, USN (Ret.) and Ancell, R. Manning, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2017) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter Mersky, USNR (Ret.) Advisory books like this are often difficult to organize and write, no matter who the author is. Post-publication comments always include books that were not noted for whatever reason the correspondent expresses,
By Thomas C. Clark, CreateSpace Independent Publishing (2017) Reviewed by Charles Bogart Who was Lt. William Henry Jaques and why write a book about him? How about the fact that in 1896, upon the election of William McKinley as President of the United States, W. H. Jaques was the odds-on favorite to be Assistant Secretary
By William Schleihauf and Stephen McLaughlin, Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley, UK (2016) Reviewed by Rear Adm. William J. Holland, Jr. USN (Ret.) This Staff Appreciation was an official study directed to explain and analyze the maneuvers of the British Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland. As students of that period are aware, major controversies erupted
By Jerry Kuntz, State University of New York, Albany, NY (2016) Reviewed by Charles H. Bogart Readers of this book encounter the fascinating story of the development of hard hat diving in the United States between the years 1820 and 1880. This period saw hard hat diving develop from being a scientific curiosity to one
By William D. Spidle, Specialty Press, Forest Lake, MN (2017) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter Mersky, USNR (Ret.) Vought’s sleek, high-performance fighter remains an object of fascination and appreciation many years after it left service with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, as well as the French Aeronavale and the Philippine Air Force. I, myself, have
By Douglas C Dildy and Pablo Calcaterra, Osprey Publishing, UK (2017) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter Mersky, USNR (Ret.) The war in the Falklands was something of a surprise coming as it did relatively soon after the Vietnam War and the taking of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam by the Communist government troops from North
By Robert Forsyth, Osprey Publishing, UK (2017) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter Mersky USNR (Ret.) Most readers probably think that by 1943 the U-Boat threat was over. But, it wasn’t. After the so-called Battle of the Atlantic 1940-1942, which pitted German submarines and their crews against the lightly defended Allied convoys, often with disastrous results for
By Istvan Toperczer, Osprey Publishing, Ltd. UK (2017) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter Mersky USNR (Ret.) When the Soviet Union’s MiG-21 appeared in the early 1960s, very little was known about it, which was typical of most new designs from the USSR. Grainy, out-of-focus photos taken at parades and aerial displays did little to add to
By Seth Cropsey, Encounter Books, New York, NY (2017) Reviewed by John Grady Seth Cropsey’s latest book is an excellent primer on the state of today’s weakened American naval forces and some ways that he thinks can right them now and strengthen them in the longer run to meet the future changing challenges from Moscow,
By William J. Brown. Self-Published (2017) Reviewed by Charles H. Bogart This book was written by the son-in-law of Emil Rezek who, in 1917 at the age of 18, joined the U.S. Navy. Not finding the Navy to his liking, Emil left his ship, changed into civilian clothes and joined the U.S. Army. In August
By Lawrence Goldstone, Pegasus Books Ltd., New York, NY (2017) Reviewed by Louis Arthur Norton Lawrence Goldstone’s Going Deep is a complex tale of competitive inventiveness, ruthless commercial subterfuge, naval dithering, governmental corruption, foreign intrigue and occasional shenanigans. The author opens the book with the stunning wartime success of the German U-9 (Unterseeboot 9), an
By Jane B. Donovan, New Room Books, Nashville, TN (2017) Reviewed by Suzanne Geissler, Ph.D. Henry Foxall (1758-1823) was a transplanted Englishman, a devout Methodist, and an industrialist who could rightly be considered America’s first defense contractor. This is the first biography of Foxall and is long overdue considering the significant role he played, not
Edited by John Andreas Olsen, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2017) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter Mersky, USNR (Ret.) This proved to be one of the most difficult book I have reviewed over the years. It is not the usual historical survey of war, or of a nation’s air force in a war or period. No
By John Dibbs and Kent Ramsey, Osprey Publishing, UK (2017) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter Mersky, USNR (Ret.) This new coffee-table-size book is the result of an ambitious project. The end product is a collection of many excellent photographs, a few of which are fairly well known, but for the most part are new and are
Christopher M. Bell. Oxford University Press, New York, NY (2017) Reviewed by Larry Grant Winston Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty in Herbert Asquith’s Liberal government from 1911 to 1915. Among the many initiatives he undertook as wartime First Lord was his advocacy for a naval assault on the Dardanelles, a narrow strategic strait
