By Edward Farley Aldrich, Guilford, CT: Stackpole Books, (2022). Reviewed by Ed Calouro When he first set out to write The Partnership: George Marshall, Henry Stimson, and the Extraordinary Collaboration That Won World War II, author Edward Farley Aldrich did not plan to write a dual biography. His original intention was to focus on the
Reviewed by Ed Calouro Battleship buffs and authorities on capital ships are familiar with the dictum that once HMS Dreadnought was commissioned in 1906, all existing battleships thereby became obsolete. Indeed, all-big-gun battleships from 1906 forward were considered dreadnoughts or, subsequently, super-dreadnoughts. Capital ships built before 1906 with a mixed or intermediate main armament, were
Reviewed by Ed Calouro A long evolutionary arc traces the design and development of metal battleships. It generally dates to the Battle of Hampton Roads in 1862 between the ironclads USS Monitor and the CSS Merrimack (Virginia). Surely, the behemoth super dreadnoughts of the Yamato-class sit at the apogee of this arc. At 63,315 tons
Reviewed by Ed Calouro Most histories of World War II at sea rightly focus on the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and Germany. After all, these nations’ navies did the bulk of the fighting. The French, Italian, and other fleets generally receive short shrift. John Jordan and Robert Dumas have shifted the spotlight in their
Reviewed by Ed Calouro John Roberts, a leading expert on British capital ships and warships of World War II, is the author of a technical history of the battle cruiser HMS Repulse. The title of his latest book is Battlecruiser Repulse: Detailed in the Original Builders’ Plans. It is not the typical warship biography – normally a narrative
USN Battleship vs IJN Battleship: The Pacific 1942-44 By Mark Stille Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK (2017) Reviewed by Ed Calouro Mark Stille has succeeded in squeezing significant information into a limited number of pages. Stille is a retired USN commander and a graduate of and former faculty member at the Naval War College.
British & German Battlecruisers: Their Development and Operations By Michele Cosentino and Ruggero Stanglini. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2016. HMS Dreadnought and the Invincible-class battlecruisers transformed naval warfare when they were laid down in 1905 and 1906. Dreadnought, the first all-big-gun battleship, made previous ships of the line obsolescent if not
By Mark Lardas. Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, SC (2016) Reviewed by Ed Calouro Author Mark Lardas has written a short, succinct, and largely successful illustrated history of the second generation dreadnought battleship Texas. Though not on par with Paul Stillwell’s longer and more detailed biographies of New Jersey, Arizona, and Missouri, this book nevertheless serves as
By Philip Kaplan, Pen & Sword Maritime, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England (2015) Reviewed by Ed Calouro Devotees of big-gun battleships apparently cannot get their fill. In Battleships: WWII Evolution of the Big Guns, prolific author Philip Kaplan has completed his third volume in the “Images of War” series about these warships. In 2004, Kaplan wrote
By Robert C. Stern, Seaforth Publishing, Pen & Sword Books Ltd, Barnsley, South Yorkshire England, (2015) Reviewed by Ed Calouro Robert C. Stern has added yet another authoritative work to his long list of titles about naval warfare written over the past thirty years. Having examined submarines, destroyers, aircraft carriers, kamikazes, and the U.S. Navy
By Peter J. Holloway, Book Guild Publishing, Sussex, England (2014) Reviewed by Ed Calouro HMS Wasp is a work of historical fiction which largely mirrors the author’s own life experiences, especially his own time in the Royal Navy. The novel’s first chapter opens in the 1950s with Edward “Ted” Harris as a probationary teacher at
