By Chris Goss, Osprey Publishing, New York, NY (2016) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter Mersky, USNR (Ret.) This new book details one of World War II’s least known but, at the time, most efficient aircraft, if only for its psychological effect on allied, especially British, morale. For approximately three years, the Condor patrolled the convoy routes
Edited by David C. Evans, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (Hardcover,1986; Paperback, 2017) Reviewed By: Michael F. Solecki The Japanese Navy In World War II is a collection of interviews/essays previously published in various volumes of the United States Naval Institute’s Proceedings, as well as other publications from the 1950s and 1960s by former witnessing
Andrew Lambert, ed., Naval Institute Press Annapolis MD (2017) Reviewed by Joseph Moretz, Ph.D. Announcing the death of Sir Julian Corbett in 1922, The Times of London believed the nation had lost ‘a naval historian of remarkable gifts.’ Corbett was certainly that, but he was also much more as Andrew Lambert ably amplifies in this
Andrew S. Erickson, Ed. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2016) Reviewed by Dwayne Day, Ph.D. On April 26, China’s first indigenously-built aircraft carrier, still lacking a name, slipped into the sea. The smart-looking vessel bears a strong resemblance to China’s only operational carrier, built by the Soviets and bought from Ukraine. This new ship will
By Peter E. Davies, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK and New York, NY (2016) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter Mersky, USNR (Ret.) No. 116 in the highly successful Combat Aircraft series from this prolific publisher and author, this new book is an excellent compilation of Navy squadrons that flew the F-4 in Southeast Asia. It’s one of
By Dave Stockwell, Book Publishers Network (2016) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter B Mersky, USN (Ret.) The Vietnam War (roughly 1964-1973) was not only a series of albeit hard-fought, bloody aerial campaigns by aircrews who flew from hot, humid airfields throughout Southeast Asia, or the equally hot, humid undulating flight decks of Seventh Fleet carriers in
By AW1 Marc J. Frattasio, USNR (Ret), Self-Published (2016) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter D. Mersky, USN (Ret.) When you get a huge book like this with more than 700 heavily illustrated pages, it is a true labor of love. The author is a retired P-3 aircrewman and knows of which he writes. His wife is
By Kevin Emmet Foley, Hellgate Press, Ashland, OR (2016) Reviewed by William H. White Fort Enterprize is listed and sold as “historical fiction.” It is certainly fiction, but its historical claim leaves much to be desired. When a writer injects a fictitious character or several into an accurately portrayed historical context, it’s historical fiction; when
By Lisle A. Rose, University of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO (2016) Reviewed by Capt. Andrew C. A. Jampoler, USN (Ret.) Dr. Lisle Rose has taken on a challenge in this, his seventh book for the U. of M. Press. This history of U.S. Navy operations during World War I rightly begins by explaining that the
By John Wukovits, Da Capo Press, Boston, MA (2017) Reviewed by Charles Bogart The U.S. Navy’s World War II operational history in the Pacific is the story of destroyers, Tin Cans, engaging Japanese surface ships, submarines, and airplanes. The author, within the pages of this book, allows the reader to become part of the ships
By Eric Wentz, Tate Publishing, Mustang, OK (2013) Reviewed by Capt. Ralph L. DeFalco III, USN (Ret.) A novel in the best tradition of the works of Frederick Forsyth and Dan Brown, Killing Sharks: De Profundis by Eric Wentz is a thriller that takes the reader from the desolate mountains of the FATA on the
By Norman Friedman, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2016) Reviewed by Corbin Williamson, Ph.D. Fighters Over the Fleet takes prolific author Norman Friedman into one of the few areas of naval weaponry he has not previously examined.[1] Building on his earlier work on aircraft carrier development with Thomas Hone and Mark Mandeles as well as Freidman’s
By Christopher P. Magra, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK (2016) Reviewed by John R. Satterfield, DBA Although impressment, or the taking men by force into military or naval service, has been widely practiced throughout history, the British Royal Navy (RN) is most often associated with its use. For about 150 years, from the late 17th
By Thomas McKelvey Cleaver, Philadelphia: Casemate Publishers, 2014 Reviewed by Jason McHale While thousands of pilots served in the United States Navy during the Second World War, perhaps no group had as much luck at being in the right places at the right times than Carrier Air Group 15 (CAG-15). They first deployed on USS
By Rod Andrew Jr., Marine Corps University, History Division, Quantico, VA (2015) Reviewed by Timothy Heck Colonel Rod Andrew’s The First Fight is part of a larger official commemorative effort dedicated to the Marine Corps’ involvement in Southeast Asia from the early 1960s until 1975. This pamphlet history by Marine Corps University is a concise
