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USS Olympia – Second Saturday Webinar

Our November Second Saturday webinar commemorating the Centennial of the World War I Unknown Soldier’s arrival at the Washington Navy Yard aboard USS Olympia. This program features Patrick K. O’Donnell, author of The Unknowns: The Untold Story of America’s Unknown Soldier and WWI’s Most Decorated Heroes Who Brought Him Home, and a panel including Naval

The German Armoured Cruiser SMS Blücher

Reviewed by CAPT Richard Dick, USN (Ret.) The German Armoured Cruiser SMS Blücher is a 2018 offering in the Kagero Publishing series, “Super Drawings in 3D.” It truly lives up to the series title. It is a collection of breathtaking color 3D renderings of the Blücher, commissioned in 1909 and sunk at the Battle of Dogger Bank in January

German Battleship Helgoland: Detailed in the Original Builders’ Plans

Reviewed by CDR Tobias R. Philbin III, PhD, USNR (Ret.) This is a professionally executed and beautifully produced exposition of the original plans of the second class of German dreadnought, the originals of which now reside in the collections of the UK National Maritime Museum (NMM). As it happens, this reviewer has some familiarity with the

British Town Class Cruisers: Design, Development & Performance; Southampton & Belfast Classes

Reviewed by Charles Bogart.  The ten ships that formed the Town Class of light cruisers were the epitome of Royal Navy all gun cruiser development. Armed with twelve 6-inch guns mounted in four turrets, they participated in every European Theater naval campaign of World War II and two of the class also saw action during

The Lusitania Sinking: Eyewitness Accounts from Survivors

Reviewed by Kenneth J. Blume, Ph.D. The torpedoing and then sinking of the Cunard liner Lusitania on 7 May 1915 is of course one of the iconic events of World War I—with broad military/naval and diplomatic consequences.  Anthony Richards tells the story from a human perspective, with the bulk of the book drawing upon contemporary

The Navy’s First Enlisted Women: Patriotic Pioneers

Reviewed by Mary S. Bell, PhD. Women have volunteered to serve during every war or conflict since the U.S. fought for its independence in the 18th century. However, there is little written on women’s roles in winning the nation’s wars relative to the amount written on men’s roles. The contributions of women and other minorities

French Armoured Cruisers 1887-1932

Review by Mr. Charles Bogart Between 1887 and 1910, France built 26 armoured cruisers. These ships were built as single units or as part of a class of ships that numbered between two and five units. Despite the homely looks of French warships during this period, French naval architectural design, at this time, was in

Victory Without Peace

Imagine chaos raging from France through Germany that surrounded the end of the slaughter on the Western Front in the fall of 1918. Or the new rounds of killings that accompanied the revolution in Russia through 1924 and engulfed the Baltic States, ravaged Poland and ripped East Prussia from Berlin. As well, the privation of

BOOK REVIEW – America’s Sailors in the Great War: Seas, Skies, and Submarines

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

BOOK REVIEW – The Battle of Jutland

By Geoffrey Bennett (originally published B.T. Batsford Ltd., London, UK 1964), Pan & Sword Books Ltd. Barnsley, UK (2015) Reviewed by Tim McGrath Few historians, on land or sea, can match the depth and breadth of the work of Captain Geoffrey Bennett. As a Royal Navy officer who served Great Britain in war and peacetime,

The First U.S. Naval Electric Propulsion Plant

By Captain George Stewart, USN (Ret.) This post provides a basic description of the turboelectric propulsion plant aboard the collier USS Jupiter (AC 3) in its original configuration. Much of this information was obtained from the textbook Practical Marine Engineering (1917) by Captain C.W. Dyson, USN. Additional information was obtained from an article in the

FDR’s Vision Fulfilled: A Visit to the National Museum of the Royal Navy

By David F. Winkler As the United States fought a two ocean war during World War II, the commander-in-chief had a post-war vision of a naval heritage complex with representative ships of the late 18th century, the Civil War era, the new Steel Navy, and World War I astride of an interpretive naval museum. To

U.S. Naval Leadership in World War I: Discussed and Debated at Greenwich

By David F. Winkler Historian Naval Historical Foundation With the Battle of Jutland centennial in our recent wake, the British Commission for Naval History, The British Commission for Maritime History, and The National Maritime Museum hosted a conference titled “The First World War at Sea, 1914-19” on June 3-4, 2016, at the National Maritime Museum