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The Darkest Hour, Volume 1: The Japanese Naval Offensive in the Indian Ocean 1942 – The Opening Moves

By Michał A. Piegzik Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, Ph.D. Readers won’t confuse this book, just published in the Asia @ War Series No. 31 (Warwick, England: Hellion and Company Limited, 2022) with similar titles: The Darkest Hour by Caroline Tung Richmond (New York: Scholastic Press, 2016) is an espionage novel about women in World

Warship Builders: An Industrial History of U.S. Naval Shipbuilding, 1922-1945

Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, Ph.D. There has been a deluge of new books and recent articles focusing on American wartime shipbuilding, 1939-1945, witness Evan Mawdsley’s The War for the Seas: A Maritime History of World War II (New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 2019) and Jamie McGrath ‘s  “Peacetime Naval Rearmament, 1933-39:

Pearl Harbor Tactical Studies Series

Reviewed by Dr. Charles C. Kolb, Ph.D. This innovative series of well-researched, highly-illustrated hardcover volumes provides detailed combat narratives of the 7 December 1941 Japanese attacks on United States military bases in Hawaii which would, within days, lead to American declarations of war against Axis powers and entry into both the Pacific and European Theaters

BOOK REVIEW – Predicting Pearl Harbor: Billy Mitchell and the Path to War

By Ronald J. Drez, Pelican Press, New York, NY (2017) Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, Ph.D. In my assessment of Attack on Pearl Harbor: Strategy, Combat, Myths, Deceptions (Alan D. Zimm, Philadelphia and Oxford: Casemate Publishers, 2014), I pointed out that “WorldCat (an international library catalog) listed 18,353 publications and other media on the Japanese

BOOK REVIEW – Britain’s War: Into Battle, 1937-1941

By Daniel Todman, Oxford University Press, New York, NY (2016) Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, Ph.D. This massive volume represents a unique piece of research and chronologically covers a period of history that is of great interest to your reviewer: the background to and initial stages of World War II.  My own particular interests focus

BOOK REVIEW – Very Special Intelligence: The Story of the Admiralty’s Operational Intelligence Centre, 1939-1945

By Patrick Beesly, Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley, UK (2015) Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, Ph.D. In June 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II in Europe, Patrick Beesly joined the Royal Navy as a Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) officer, became a Sub-Lieutenant (Special Branch), and was appointed to the Naval Intelligence Division (NID 2) in

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 Secret War for the Middle East: The Influence of Axis and Allied Intelligence Operations during World War II

By Youssef Aboul-Enein and Basil Aboul-Enein, Naval Institute Pree, Annapolis, MD (2013) Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, Ph.D. The Secret War for the Middle East: The Influence of Axis and Allied Intelligence Operations during World War II should not be confused with Andrew Rathmell’s Secret War in the Middle East: The Covert Struggle for Syria,

BOOK REVIEW – Proceed to Peshawar: The Story of a U.S. Navy Intelligence Mission on the Afghan Border, 1943

By George J. Hill, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, (2013) Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, Ph.D. George J. Hill, a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Medical School, served in the Marines Corps and U.S. Public Health Service until he retired as a Captain, Medical Corps, USNR, in 1992. He is the son-in-law of Albert W.