Military History

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 War II designed for teens and young adults. Neither will it be confused with “The Darkest Hour” a science fiction film or “The Darkest Hours” British television series (8 episodes, 2013) Nor with the award winning “Darkest Hour” with Gary Oldman (Universal Pictures, 2017), the historical fiction war film about Winston Churchill’s early…

The Condor Legion (Air Force Magazine, February 2013)

Reviewed by Lt. Col. Andrew D. Dausman, USMCR In Unsinkable, James Sullivan delivers a comprehensive account of USS Plunkett during World War II (WWII). A Gleaves-class destroyer, Plunkett saw action in North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, Omaha Beach, and the Allied invasion of Southern France. According to Sullivan, Plunkett is one of the few, perhaps only, warships to fight in every Navy-supported European invasion during WWII. While Sullivan is a seasoned writer for the New York Times and National Geographic Travel Magazine, Unsinkable is his first book. Sullivan tells Plunkett’s story through the wartime experiences of the ship’s crew members, one of which …

Reviewed by Jeff Schultz Mariano Sciaroni and Andy Smith’s “Go Find Him and Bring Me Back His Hat”: The Royal Navy’s Anti-Submarine Campaign in the Falklands/Malvinas War is an important look at the relatively obscure rivalry between a few Argentine diesel submarines and the Royal Navy’s anti-submarine defenses such as helicopters, warships and the Royal Air Force’s maritime patrol aircraft which tried to limit the threat to the Task Force vessels as they transited to the disputed islands. Most related books focus on the land and air aspects of the war instead of the exhausting battle above and beneath the sea fought by tired crews trying to find elusive diesel subma…

By Staff Historian Dr. Dave Winkler It was an honor back in 2011 to meet Tom Hudner who toured the Cold War Gallery that the Naval Historical Foundation had raised funds for. Ten years earlier the NHF hosted a symposium about the Korean War to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Korean War and the Hudner rescue attempt to save Ens. Jessie Brown was discussed in detail and retired Vice Adm. Gerald Miller stood up in the back of the Navy Memorial theater to state he had been on the bridge of Leyte when radio transmissions of the loss of Brown’s aircraft and Hudner’s subsequent ditching of his aircraft to attempt to extract Brown were received. Miller recalled Le…

By David F. Winkler, Ph.D. Staff Historian Ten years ago, delegations from the U.S. and Russian Federations met at the Naval Observatory to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Incidents at Sea Agreement (IncSea) on May 25, 1972, as part of the Nixon- Brezhnev Summit held in Moscow. After a historical overview provided by this author and reflections provided by the former Secretary of the Navy – John W. Warner – who negotiated the accord representing the United States, shot glasses were filled and gulps of vodka marked a festive occasion. Now with the fiftieth anniversary falling on the first anniversary of the passing of Warner, with a ground …

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 five years Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson and US Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall, worked side-by-side in the War Department. While undertaking his extensive research on these two major World War II leaders, Aldrich concluded their stories could not properly be told without also describing their upbringing, educ…

Reviewed by Joseph Moretz, PhD The story of the American War of Independence has oft been told but rather less has been said of the maritime portion of that story and less still has been told from the perspective of the Royal Navy. It is to this end that Quintin Barry, a retired solicitor and employment judge, offers Crisis at the Chesapeake: The Royal Navy and the Struggle for America 1775-1783 as a rejoinder. In a well-reasoned and highly readable monograph, Barry surveys that war’s broader naval context and the competing challenges faced by Admiralty and flag officers alike as they sought to restore imperial control on the rebellious American colonies. Hindsigh…

John H. Maurer and Erik Goldstein (editors), Naval Institute Press, (2022). Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, Ph.D. The editors are well-published senior scholars, well-equipped to undertake the organization and editing of this volume which focuses on the interwar years of two global conflicts. Professor John H. Maurer is the Alfred Thayer Mahan Professor of Sea Power and Grand Strategy and served as the Chair of the Strategy and Policy Department at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Erik Goldstein serves as Professor of International Relations and History Boston University; his research interests include diplomacy, formulation of national diplomatic s…

As stated: http://www.titanmissilemuseum.org/

http://www.navyhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Hendrix-Roosevelt-195x300.jpgBy Henry J. Hendrix, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 2009. Reviewed by Thomas P. Ostrom Captain Henry J. Hendrix, USN brings an impressive background of naval professionalism and scholarly credentials to the task of writing this history of President Theodore Roosevelt (TR) and the 14-month global cruise of the Great White Fleet of U.S. battleships named after U.S. states, and assorted auxiliary vessels in 1907-1909. The author, a 20-year veteran at the time of his book’s publication, performed six overseas deployments, studied at the Naval Postgraduate School, and earned a Ph.D. f…

By Norman Polmar Photo courtesy of U.S. Naval Institute (Editor’s note: This is the seventeenth in a series of blogs by Norman Polmar—author, analyst, and consultant specializing in the naval, aviation, and intelligence fields. Follow the full series here.) In July 1983 a friend asked my wife, Beverly, and me to attend a bar-b-q at his home. Among the few others at the gathering was a rather tall, interesting young man wearing sun-glasses. I was introduced to Tom Clancy and his wife. I knew immediately who he was. The year before he had an article published in the Naval Institute Proceedings —“The Floating Shell Game.” His article called for placing MX ballisti…

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 Historical Foundation Staff Historian Dr. David Winkler with current Air Force and former Marine historian Kara Newcomer. The post Blog first appeared on Naval Historical Foundation. View the full article

Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, Ph.D. Developing the Naval Mind is an important, thoughtful volume written by two Naval Academy history professors is designed for officers of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps but also serves Sailors and Marines of all ranks as a compendium on developing professionalism and skills needed to rise through the ranks. Likewise, it can also serve the officers and enlisted men of our other sea services, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine, but also is valuable to officers and enlisted men of the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force, as well as the U.S. Space Force. Moreover, it can serve as a significant source for the members of other nations’ land, sea…

Top 5 Naval Battles of the Asia-Pacific (The Diplomat, The Naval Diplomat blog)

After a span of eight years, Captain Beardsley, a member of the Naval Historical Foundation, responded to a survey to participate in the Foundation’s oral history program. At the same time, fellow NHF member and Professor of History at William Paterson University Suzanne G. Bowles, also expressed interest in participating. Because Dr. Bowles already knew Captain Beardsley as a member of the Northern New Jersey chapter of the Navy League, it was an ideal match. During the session with Dr. Bowles, Captain Beardsley discussed his duties as Commanding Officer of USS PC 1140 and USS PCE-R 858. USS PC 1140 served in the Atlantic and Mediterranean in 1944. The ship served as a …

By Dwight S. Hughes, Savas Beattie, Barnsley, El Dorado Hills, CA, (2021.) Reviewed by Capt. Richard Dick, USN (RET). Dwight Hughes’ Unlike Anything That Ever Floated is an excellent overview of the conception, hurried development, and brief (but spectacular) service of the ironclads Monitor and Virginia and the men who built, directed, commanded, and sailed in them. While not the definitive history of either ship, the book covers the human, technical, strategic, and tactical aspects of their careers well and incorporates recent discoveries from ongoing work on the recovered portions of Monitor being preserved and studied at the USS Monitor Center at the Marin…

Reviewed by Capt. Richard Dick, USN (Ret.) Dr. Richard Hingley’s new book provides a fresh assessment of the Roman conquest of Britain from Julius Caesar’s first raid in 55 B.C. through the building of Hadrian’s Wall (roughly along the current border between England and Scotland) to about 130 A.D. Hingley also adds a higher-level overview of Rome’s short-lived efforts under Emperors Antoninus Pius and Septimius Severus to push the border of Roman Britain to the edge of the Scottish Highlands and to establish a network of client chieftains even further north. The book assesses the factors that led to the initial attack and subsequent invasion, as well as Rome’s s…

Reviewed by CAPT Chuck Good, USN (Ret.) “Stealth at Work” is a chapter title in this interesting and clever little book, and it fits the book itself. To outward appearance, this is a breezy picture-book, geared towards tourists and dilletantes visiting the museum ship herself at her berth in Belfast; a light souvenir, easy to slip in a backpack with the offering of a “tanner (sixpence)” in the donation bucket. But the book’s stealth is what is hidden in between the myriad of sketches, photos, vignettes, sidebars and color plates: a concise, lucid and quite professional history of the early years of World War I in the North Sea. The story takes us from mobilization to …

http://navyhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_2338-003-1-scaled-1024x328.jpgThe NHF Five Star Mess Night beyond the Fight Top in the Navy Museum With Covid restrictions finally lifted, the Naval Historical Foundation hosted its third annual Mess Night on Saturday, November 5 at the National Museum of the United States Navy. As with previous Five Star Mess Nights, the event was built around a theme and this year’s centennial of U.S. naval aircraft carriers provided the appropriate occasion for the event. Although the USS Langley (CV 1) had been placed in commission in March of 1922, it was not until the autumn of that year that the converted collier got underway…