Silent Steel: The Mysterious Death of the Nuclear Attack Sub USS Scorpion Review

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(More customer reviews)USS Scorpion's sinking remains a controversial topic more than 35 years later. But the focus has always been on the ship and not on the crew, all of whom perished aboard the submarine.
Stephen Johnson deftly weaves the personal stories of crew members with that of the ship itself. Scorpion was a cranky, failure-prone submarine and her crew had to work doubly hard to keep her in service. The never-ending failures and breakdowns caused at least one crew member to transfer off the ship, though his guilt haunted him for the rest of his life.
Along the way we see that the Navy hadn't learned its lesson from the sinking of the Thresher just five years earlier. Though Scorpion had been back-fitted with several "SUBSAFE" modifications, her emergency-blow system remained inoperable due to design defects for the rest of her brief life. The Navy seemed more interested in holding repair costs down, rather than the safety of a nuclear warship and her crew.
Johnson's style is subtle and understated, and is thus more effective at conveying the human tragedy of the sinking than the semi-hype of Sherry Sontag/Christopher Drew ("Blind Man's Buff") or John Craven ("The Silent War").
Those looking for a definitive explaination of the sinking may be disappointed -- as with many technical failures, there are far more questions than answers.
Intriguing, sobering, ultimately very sad, and very worthy. A tribute to those who died beneath the restless sea. Highly recommended.

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Beyond the Wild Blue: A History of the U.S. Air Force, 1947-2007 Review

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(More customer reviews)To anyone wondering what "Beyond the Wild Blue: A History of the U.S. Air Force 1947-1997" is about, I would recommend a careful look at the title. The title tells one exactly what the book is and is not. It is not a history of American Airpower, although the development of the Army Air Corps is briefly presented as background. It is not a history of the Air Force in war, although the war record of the Air Force is given its due. Beyond the Wild Blue is the history of the U.S. Air Force during the first 50 years of its existence. It is, in essence, an organizational history of the Air Force.
Reviewers often report that an historical book "reads like a novel". I would say that Beyond the Wild Blue develops like a novel. At the end of a novel the reader often realizes that it possesses a theme or a point to which the whole book has contributed. That is the case with this book. The ultimate point of "Beyond the Wild Blue" is that the Air Force has been an organization which has constantly striven, through a continuing research and development program, to achieve its mission through the advancement of aerospace technology. Through his telling of the story of the Air Force as it developed from a stripped down force in the years after World War II to the technological marvel which won the Gulf War, Walter Boyne brings us to realize how the organizational strategy of the Air Force has brought it to the point at which it is the power which it is today. He also makes us realize the degree to which the Air Force depends on the technical expertise of its officers and enlisted personnel in achieving its mission.
Throughout this book, Boyne mixes facts with his candid assessments of personnel who have affected the history of the Air Force. Generals, Secretaries of Defense and the Air Force as well as politicians all come in for forthright praise or criticism. Two of Boyne's heroes figure prominently in the story. General of the Air Force Hap Arnold, who had commanded the Army Air Corps in World War II, guided the Air Corps to its birth as an independent service and inspired its quest for technological superiority. General Curtis LeMay, more than any other officer, imprinted his personality and ideals on the Air Force, much to the benefit of the service and the nation.
Through this book we see the Air Force, at its inception, as a force poorly equipped with World War II leftovers. Ill-prepared at the start of the Korean War and handicapped by politically imposed rules of engagement, the Air Force was, nonetheless, able to establish air superiority throughout the peninsula and, thereby, contribute to the United Nations' successes.
Through the Cold War years of the fifties and early sixties, the Air Force preserved the peace largely through its capability to deliver nuclear weapons, both by manned bomber and ICBM.
The Vietnam War was, for the Air Force as well as all of the American military, a frustrating conflict. The handicaps imposed by politically inspired rules of engagement were more serious even than those imposed in Korea. As an example, pilots were forced to risk their lives trying to destroy trucks individually, while being prevented them from destroying freighters full of trucks in North Vietnamese ports.
After Vietnam, the Air Force continued its technological improvement at an uneven pace, varying with the political winds of the day. The ultimate payoff for the Air Force research and development programs would come in the Gulf War. In this war air control was established, not by defeating an enemy challenge in the air, but by preventing the challenge from arising. The destruction of Iraqi radar and communications kept the enemy planes hunkered on the ground. The ability of air power to pick apart Iraqi defenses and destroy and demoralize its ground forces proved the ultimate vindication of the Air Force research and development programs.
Throughout this book, Boyne presents an agreeable blend of narration about individuals, equipment, organizational concepts and war stories, detailed enough to hold the interest without leading to boredom.
This book addresses all aspects of Air Force service. Fighters, Strategic and Tactical bombers Air Lift and refueling all are given proper attention. The recent reorganization of the Air Force Commands was clearly explained. The changing demands of the American public that victory must be swiftly achieved with few casualties, either of friendly or enemy forces or noncombatants, and the Air Force's ability to meet those demands were presented as a logical result of the continuing research and development programs.
I was particularly impressed by the description of the refueling capabilities which can now keep aircraft flying virtually indefinitely. Equally impressive is the story of the B-52, which may have a useful life of 75 years from first flight to final retirement.
At the conclusion we are presented with an Air Force which has the potential to deliver military punch of unprecedented scope and dimensions. In an era in which the availability of overseas bases may be limited, the Air Force has the capability, through refueling, of delivering ordinance to virtually any place on earth through missions originating in the United States. Although beyond the temporal scope of this book, the continuation of the technological advancement was seen in the Bosnian operation in which bombing runs originated and ended in Missouri by warriors who would spend their nights at home with their families .
This book is a fitting tribute to the men and women who have carried the story of the United States Air Force into the Wild Blue and Beyond.

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The second edition of Beyond the Wild Blue, an update of the popular history originally released in 1997, is a fascinating look at sixty turbulent years of Air Force history. From the prop-driven armada of World War II to the most advanced Stealth weaponry, from pioneers like General Henry "Hap" Arnold to glorious conquests in the Gulf War, Beyond the Wild Blue is a high-flying study of the triumphs (and failures) of leadership and technology.

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The CSS Hunley: The Greatest Undersea Adventure of the Civil War Review

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(More customer reviews)Nine men in a rigged-out steam boiler cranked out of Breach Inlet near Mt.Pleasant, S.C. and changed naval history forever. It was not until 50 years later in 1914 that the next ship would be brought down by a submarine. This crisply written account is an excellent introduction to one of the most facinating subplots of the entire War for Southern Independence. Forced by necessity to outwit their industrial foe the South resorted to and developed many innovations to counter the vulnerability their rivers and coastline presented. Mines (then called torpedos), ironclads, floating batteries and rams were just a few. It is this writers opinion than none were so bold, desperate, courageous and far-thinking as the H.L.Hunley. It was actually the third of three built by Watson & McClintock of New Orleans. Horance Hunley completely underwrote the second which sunk in Mobile Bay and contributed a third of the funds for the final sub which bore his name.Simple in its construction, unforgiving of error she claimed three crews, including her namesake before she took her place in history. Meet the men and ideas which gave her life against the backdrop of a desperate Charleston holding on against a merciless enemy. Only now in a specially designed laboratory in Charleston is she finally yielding the secrets of what happened that fateful night in Feb. 1864.

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Seeking ways to break the Union Army's coastal blockade, the Confederates manufactured the CSS Hunley, the first submarine in history to sink an enemy ship. The CSS Hunley tells a story of personal courage, technical ingenuity, and grim persistence during the United States' most trying conflict.

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Guns of the Civil War Review

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(More customer reviews)A new book on CW weapons! My hands could not order it fast enough. However, what arrived was not worth the wait. The author has filled the book with numerous photographs of weapons, uniforms, and accouterments that should not be there. I expect integrity from authors and Adler has fallen short. Many of the weapons are modern reproductions or worse, the English fowling piece on page 247 being a prime example as the author admits he had it made by a fellow in Pennsylvania. There are original guns shown, but the fakes spoiled it for me. Lest I fail to give the devil his due, the photography is excellent-clear and crisp. My issue is with the subjects depicted. Also, there is no new research or startling revelations in the text, which was culled from other sources. Better books await the discriminating reader in other places.

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Guns of the CivilWar celebratesthe 150th anniversary of the Civil War(1861–1865) with an elegant andrichly detailed history of Colt, Henry,Manhattan,Remington, Sharps,Spencer, and S&W Firearms, and guns by many other rivalsandcontemporaries. This essential overview of the legendary guns andarmsmakersof the Civil War era includes exquisite photography of thehandguns, rifles, andmuskets, with numerous close-ups that capture thedetail of each piece.

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Ironclads At War: The Origin And Development Of The Armored Battleship Review

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(More customer reviews)While the subject matter of this book was of great interest to me, I found it to be so poorly written that it was unreadable; the prose is dull and redundant, there are numerous grammatical errors, and the information provided is utterly superficial. The same material is covered in much greater detail in H. w. Wilson's "Ironclads in action" (1895), a book of which this seems to be but a poor repetition. Even the graphics in Conway's "All the worlds ships 1860-1905" are far superior. If you are a serious scholar of naval history - or even a casual wargamer - find another book.

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This detailed treatment of Civil War ironclads in the broader context of world naval developments has sparked a debate among U.S. Naval strategists. Many readers will learn for the first time of the influence on both Union and Confederate observers of Crimean War and other European armor, and learn the subsequent history of many Civil War naval vessels that later saw action in Peru, Paraguay, and Japan.

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Naval Ceremonies, Customs, and Traditions Review

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(More customer reviews)This is an excellent source of knowledge with a wealth of information. If you want to know about the origins of Naval terms and how certain Naval traditions came about (ie..The Crossing of the Equator, Change of Command ceromonies) this book explains most of it. My only complaint is that it revolves around the officer community too much. I think it would have helped to add some more enlisted info too! So I highly reccomend this book! Fair Winds and Following Seas!

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First published in 1934, this book has enjoyed a reputation both as an authoritative guide to conduct in a contemporary maritime setting and a fascinating historical reference on the ways of the sea and sailor going back to the earliest days of sail. Now updated to cover all the sea services, this new edition fully reflects today's diverse force while at the same time exploring the maritime history of the United States, its flag, and the U.S. Navy's uniforms. A new chapter on naval ceremonies offers more details than ever on such events as award presentations and changes of command. A separate chapter on the popular "Dining In" ceremony explains its beginnings and evolution and tells how to plan and execute such an event. There is also greater coverage of Marine Corps and Coast Guard history and traditions. In addition to discussing the derivation of traditions and customs of the sea services, this latest update has been reorganized for ease of use by the professional seaman planning an upcoming event as well as the armchair sailor curious about the origins of naval customs and terms. It is the only up-to-date book on the subject available. 132 photographs. 6 x 9 inches.--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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War and the State in Early Modern Europe: Spain, the Dutch Republic and Sweden as Fiscal-Military States (Warfare and History) Review

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(More customer reviews)That is what this book is about - how early modern European states were constructed, manufactured, bought, or cajoled into existance. Jan Glete writes an informative synthesis of old and new interpretations to examine state building in Spain, the Dutch Republic, and Sweden. It is military history with a strong dose of economic and social theory to examine how central governments used the development of permanent military organizations to "sell" protection and to "extract" resources, and thereby enhance or enlarge the authority of that government. He calls the end product the "fiscal-military state."
Overall, this thesis is not new (book first published in 2002), particularly as it relies heavily on Charles Tilly, Michael Roberts, Geoffrey Parker, John Elliott and other heavy hitters for the Early Modern historigraphic review. Changes in warfare technology, tactics, ideas along with changes in bureaucracy coupled with population expansion gave centralizing rulers the means to gain more influence and power; warfare provided the opportunity. What is new and interesting is that Glete uses the idea of protection selling (could be equally usefully called imperialism) to explain how Spanish and Swedish monarchs and Dutch states could gain willing cooperation from domestic elites, cities, and foreign lands. Those governments most "efficient" (this word is used a lot) prospered and expanded - when the cost of protection became too high or "inefficient" then the state lost its ability to maintain itself (a very long discourse on the so-called decline of Spain illustrates this well).
Structurally, the reader does have to wade through two chapters heavy on theory and historiography, but the background is essential to understand fully the historical narrative that uses economic and social history terms frequently to make the arguement. Chapters on Spain, Dutch Republic and Sweden make good use of published sources and contrast each society well to show how the same ideas was compatible with various forms of early modern governments. The final chapter probably needs to be read first, as it most efficiently brings the author's ideas into focus.
Finally, the author assumes a good deal of background knowledge of 1500-1700 of European history and of the basic historiography - excellent and comprehensive bibliography is a strong point of the book.


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War, Technology, and Experience aboard the USS Monitor Review

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(More customer reviews)One reviewer called this book, "a gem of a book... promises to be one of those small classics in the history of technology that sets a new standard for how the core questions of the field are framed and addressed." Right on! It's also a small classic in that it brings carefully documented history in the reach of the ordinary literate reader. This book is so well written that it reads like an adventure story rather than a dry history. It also debunks the myths about the Monitor that we learned as children, showing that the designer, the seamen, the politicians all contributed in their own ways to the myths. By referring to the diaries of one of the officers of the ship, the book brings every detail to rich and human life. We share the insights of the famous political and literary figures of the day, from Abraham Lincoln to Nathaniel Hawthorne to Herman Melville. We learn what really happened at Hampton Roads and what it all means for us today. And we learn about how "Smart weapons displace heroism from the field to the laboratory, from warriors to engineers, and from spectacle to secrecy." Everyone interested in the history of technology, the history of war, and the ways writers interpret events of the day will want to read this fine little book.

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BRITISH BATTLE-FLEET: Its Inception and Growth Throughout the Centuries (Conway Classics) Review

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(More customer reviews)from Norman times to the time of the Dreadnought. The book focuses totally on the development of the British Battle fleet, following it from war to war, helped along by colour plates, photographs and line-drawings of ships and their designs. Fred T. Jane knows his ships and this book was FIRST published in 1912. For people interested in the creation of the British Battle Fleets and the pre-World War One status of the navies, this is the book for them.
If you like this book, also try ; The Great Admirals:Command at Sea 1587-1945 edited by Jack Sweetman.

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Fred T Jane (1865-1916) could almost be termed the father of modern navaljournalism. He produced his first reference book in 1882 at the time of the Royal Navy's bombardment of Alexandria, a collection of his own pen and ink sketches to inform the public aboutthe ships taking part. Then followed his All the World's Fighting Ships in 1897,published since then as an annualreference book covering the world's navies.In one sense Jane was a product of the time, reflecting public interest in naval affairs and the size ofthe world's fleets in particular, but he also helped to shape public perceptions. He increased public knowledge of the characteristics of warships, their armaments, propulsion andprotection. He was a prolific writer, both of quasi-fictionand of valued references, butalways his purpose was to add to public knowledge. The ImperialRussian Navy (1899) was followed by The Imperial Japanese Navy (1904), reflecting the Japanese victory over Russia that year. The public had to wait for The British Battle Fleet until1912, when the naval arms race with Germany was nearing its climax. The book is rightly seen as a classic, read as much for its views on the future of naval warfare as its detailed statistics. As Jane notes in his preface, itdiffers from most'standard' histories in being concerned with the creation of fleets rather than arcane dissection ofancient sea-fights. He covers the whole sweep of British naval history from Alfred the Great to the era of the Dreadnought battleship, and the colour illustrations by W L Wyllie RA and an incisive introduction by the naval historian Antony Preston add a final flourishto a unique history.?

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Command at Sea Review

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(More customer reviews)A text for naval officers, with chapters on taking command, commissioning a ship or submarine, organization and administration of the command, and roles of various officers. Other subjects include maintenance and logistics, safety, training and inspections, independent operations, and forward operations and combat philosophy. Includes a glossary, and appendices of sample plans and orders. This edition incorporates changes in the field since 1982, and discusses lessons learned from the Persian Gulf, Bosnia, and Haiti.
Command at Sea is an unusual degree of responsibility & accountability that is placed on the shoulders of one individual. There is an excert on page four of the book that defines that degree of responsibility. It reads;
"In each ship there is one man alone who in the hour of emergency or peril at sea can turn to no other man. There is one man alone who is ultimately responsbile for the safe navigation, enigineering performance, accurate gunfire and morale of his ship. He is the Commanding Officer, He is the ship".
If ever there was situation where the Comamnding Officer experienced the paramount of this statement, it was Commander Paul Rinn, skipper of the USS Samuel B. Roberts, on April 14, 1988. The ship was escorting Kuwati tankers in the Persian Gulf when it entered a mine field.CDR Rinn ordered his crew to general Quarters. Then the ship began backing down and following it's wake. A mine exploded, blowing one of the ships's engines off it's mount and into the overhead. CDR Rinn knew that the survival of his crew depended on his actions, the crew watched every move he made. Throughout the night the crew fought fires, controlled flooding, treated the injured and saved their ship. In the predawn hours of April 15, 1988 CDR Rinn walked through his ship. He saw his crew, some exhausted, some sleeping, some talking quietly. The fought to save their ship, a ship that was sinking and they won. All the training, all the hours of drills had paid off. At 0503 the Quartermater of the Watch, QM2 Nicholson made the deck log entry, "Observed Sunrise".
This is job of the Commanding Officer, this is Command at Sea. You can delegate the responsibility, not the accountability. Can you take the challenge?

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When Computers Went to Sea: The Digitization of the United States Navy Review

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(More customer reviews)Today's high bandwidth technologists have nothing over the NTDS architects who masterminded the solution to the very complex engineering problems presented by warfare: real time data acquisition and weapons assignment. (The penalty for error is death of comrades in battle.)
The story is told with all the warts and struggles, which ring true: inter-departments squabbles, jousting with Congress and contractors, resistance of the fleet commanders. It's all there.
The complexity of engineering project management with multiple contractors, tough cost and schedule constraints remain the same in the new millennium. A good addition to the reading list for any business school.
I confess to being biased. My father, Captain Joseph Stoutenburgh, USN Ret., is a principal in the book. When I was 6 years old I did not understand why Dad was gone for weeks at a time. Now I know he was altering forever the nature of tactical warfare and in turn the geopolitical reach of the United States.

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When Computers Went to Sea explores the history of the United States Navy's secret development of code-breaking computers and their adaptation to solve a critical fleet radar data handling problem in the Navy's first seaborne digital computer system - that went to sea in 1962. This is the only book written on the United States Navy's initial application of shipboard digital computers to naval warfare.Considered one of the most successful projects ever undertaken by the US Navy, the Naval Tactical Data System (NTDS) was the subject of numerous studies attempting to pinpoint the reason for the systems inordinate success in the face of seemingly impossible technical challenges and stiff resistance from some in the military. The system's success precipitated a digital revolution in naval warfare systems.Dave Boslaugh details the innovations developed by the NTDS project managers including: project management techniques, modular digital hardware for ship systems, top-down modular computer programming techniques, innovative computer program documentation, and other novel real-time computer system concepts.Automated military systems users and developers, real-time process control systems designers, automated system project managers, and digital technology history students will find this account of a United States military organization's initial foray into computerization interesting and thought provoking.

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Rapid Fire: The Development of Automatic Cannon and Heavy Machine Guns for Armies, Navies, and Air Forces Review

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(More customer reviews)It should be evident that one cannot fully understand the history of combat aircraft, ships, or vehicles, without having some knowledge of the weapons that armed them. During the last century, heavy automatic guns have been an essential part of this armament. But unfortunately their study has been very much neglected, and with distressing regularity one finds information that is incomplete, misleading, or plain wrong. The existing literature about automatic guns and their ammunition is perhaps more reliable, but mostly limited to weapons of smaller calibre.
This book at last fills the gap by offering a wealth of information on these guns. Because it is virtually the only comprehensive discussion of this subject, it can be considered essential reading for anyone interested in the technical aspects of modern military history. The author has made the subject accessible to people without any previous knowledge about guns, but the work also contains enough extensive and detailed information to be attractive to the specialist. It is primarily a book about guns, but it does give careful consideration to the important relationship between gun design and application. It can be read as a history, but also consulted as a reference. Despite the specialist subject the book should appeal to a wide audience, encompassing researchers and modellers, people with an interest in guns as well as those with in an interest in aircraft, ships, or armoured vehicles.
Of the six chapters, the first two contain a technical explanation cartridges, guns, and related subjects. The basic operating principles behind different types of guns are clearly explained, and a brief history of their development is given. The advantages and disadvantages of different types of guns, related to their intended applications, are also discussed. The author has chosen to avoid formulas and extended discussions of ballistics, but the principles of gun action are illustrated.
The next three chapters then discuss these applications, in armies, navies, and air forces. It explains how the military of different branches and different countries approached the armament problems, and how this determined the development and isntallation of guns. The sixth chapter discusses future developments, and mentions some of the current experimental guns --- most of the book is limited to guns that saw service.
Of the five appendices the first is a history of anti-tank and heavy rifles. The second contains tables with complete data related to heavy automatic weapons, including service cartridges and guns up to a calibre of 57mm. The last three appendices contain scale drawings of cartridges and guns. The book concludes with a glossary, a bibliography, and an index.
Despite its technical subject "Rapid Fire" is well-written, clear and concise. The book has been well edited and produced, and a good balance between text and illustrations was achieved. The limitations of the work are a consequence of the need to pack an enormous amount of information in a compact format, in all 297 pages including about 30 pages of color photographs. I can recommend this book without reservations, and in the hope that when knowledge spreads, errors will no longer be repeated!

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This work will be of interest to enthusiasts of the technical aspects of military, naval and aviation history. It provides a comprehensive account of the use of heavy machine guns, automatic cannons and their ammunition, featuring coverage of cartridge design and various projectiles.

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Technological Change and the United States Navy, 1865-1945 (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology) Review

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(More customer reviews)William McBride's book is accurately titled, although it needs to be understood that this is a social history of naval technological change, not technological history (nor economic history) per se. However, the little he does say about technology is mostly well informed, at least up to 1945 -- he has avoided the technological know-nothingism of many of the others who write on such subjects. He served as a junior naval officer and this background seems to stand him in good stead in forming his judgements about people and events.
The principal theme is the rise and evolution of ideas about battleships and their rivals for naval dominance. There are no profound new insights here, but on the whole McBride does a good job with his subject. He elaborates the picture in important respects and has many thoughtful observations to offer.
McBride sometimes is rather quick to impute motives to individuals and groups without much substantiation or consideration of alternative hypotheses. No doubt he is correct in most of these judgements, and he is less summary than many authors on these subjects have been, but I personally would have preferred a somewhat more measured approach.
Unfortunately, his prose can be off-putting at some times, due to his fondness for clothing fundamentally common-sensical concepts in obscurantist academic jargon. Fortunately, there is not too much of this and most of the book is reasonably readable.
One regrettable distortion comes in his somewhat tortured discussion of the naval arms limitations treaties (the Five Power Treaty of 1921 and its 1930 and 1936 London Treaty sequels). Although it has little to do with his ostensible subject, McBride ventures into judgments regarding the effects of various U.S. actions on opinion in Japan and the Imperial Japanese Navy, apparently without having consulted some of the most important scholarship on the subject. For instance, I can find no citation of his to James Crowley's book, Japan's Quest for Autonomy, with its extended and authoritative treatment of the U.S. as well as Japanese side of the London Treaties. Nor does he cite David Evans' and Mark Peattie's essential study of the Japanese Navy, Kaigun. These sources, based in extensive Japanese-language primary research, paint quite a different picture than McBride favors regarding the impact of the U.S. naval expansion of the 1930s on Japanese Navy views, relative to other influences. This is a self-inflicted wound: if he was unable to conduct more thorough research in the issue, peripheral as it is to his main point, McBride could perfectly well have avoided forming judgements regarding it without loss to his main arguments.
I puzzled over McBride's bald assertion that "the [rigid] airship could have succeeded," citing its supposed high search rate. He does make one citation to a book that examines this question in some detail and comes to quite different conclusions (Richard Smith's The Airships Akron & Macon), but seems to have relied principally on other sources. Few who have studied the issue carefully would agree with him -- some years ago, two of the last of Goodyear's rigid airship engineers disagreed flatly with him in the course of an extended discussion I had with them regarding proposals for reviving the technology.
It is understandable that there is no reference to the recent study by Thomas Hone, Norman Friedman, and Mark Mandeles, American & British Aircraft Carrier Development, 1919-1941 -- no doubt McBride's book was already in press by the time it appeared. Nevertheless, this is unfortunate, as their insights and evidence would have enriched McBride's work significantly in some areas.
In his final chapter, McBride ranges far beyond the period he set for himself, attempting not only to draw sweeping conclusions but to provide policy recommendations. Regrettably, this is the weakest part of the book. He is too ready to pronounce conclusions without careful analysis and without having developed strong evidence or given adequate consideration to alternative hypotheses. His treatment of recent developments often seems quite ill-informed and many of his confidently-asserted predictions seem dubious or even silly in light of what has transpired since the book was written. And he indulges especially in dense academic jargon in this section. Most readers will want to skip this chapter, and will retain a better opinion of the book for having done so.
Notwithstanding some lacunae, however, on the whole this is a valuable study of the process by which the U.S. Navy adapted itself to changing technology and needs in the period between the Civil War and World War II.
Will O'Neil

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Navies have always been technologically sophisticated, from the ancient world's trireme galleys and the Age of Sail's ships-of-the-line to the dreadnoughts of World War I and today's nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines. Yet each large technical innovation has met with resistance and even hostility from those officers who, adhering to a familiar warrior ethos, have grown used to a certain style of fighting. InTechnological Change and the United States Navy, William M. McBride examines how the navy dealt with technological change-from the end of the Civil War through the "age of the battleship"-as technology became more complex and the nation assumed a global role. Although steam engines generally made their mark in the maritime world by 1865, for example, and proved useful to the Union riverine navy during the Civil War, a backlash within the service later developed against both steam engines and the engineers who ran them. Early in the twentieth century the large dreadnought battleship at first met similar resistance from some officers, including the famous Alfred Thayer Mahan, and their industrial and political allies. During the first half of the twentieth century the battleship exercised a dominant influence on those who developed the nation's strategies and operational plans-at the same time that advances in submarines and fixed-wing aircraft complicated the picture and undermined the battleship's superiority.In any given period, argues McBride, some technologies initially threaten the navy's image of itself. Professional jealousies and insecurities, ignorance, and hidebound traditions arguably influenced the officer corps on matters of technology as much as concerns about national security, and McBride contends that this dynamic persists today. McBride also demonstrates the interplay between technological innovation and other influences on naval adaptability-international commitments, strategic concepts, government-industrial relations, and the constant influence of domestic politics. Challenging technological determinism, he uncovers the conflicting attitudes toward technology that guided naval policy between the end of the Civil War and the dawning of the nuclear age. The evolution and persistence of the "battleship navy," he argues, offer direct insight into the dominance of the aircraft-carrier paradigm after 1945 and into the twenty-first century.

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Warships of the Civil War Navies Review

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(More customer reviews)It is a general description on nearly all vessels of the ACW. Format entry for all vessels including small tugs. I found it to be a great reference for tabletop wargaming the ACW navy period. Many authors of game rules should read this. It lists all the guns and modifications to the number and type of guns during the war. However, early sailing vessels used in the war are lightly covered and can be found in detail in another book for that period.

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The Great Wall at Sea: China's Navy Enters the 21st Century Review

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(More customer reviews)The Great Wall at Sea is on balance a decent introduction to the modern Chinese Navy that is geared more towards breadth than depth. It tries to put the current state of the Navy in a historical context, and explains briefly training, recruiting, personnel administration, fleet organization, systems, the maritime interests of the Chinese (as best it can), and fleet exercises. This provides a lot of fundamental, basic information which is a solid foundation for understanding the Chinese Navy, but in and of itself does not go far enough to deliver any such in depth knowledge of it or any elegant analytical conclusions of intentions.
One draws several major impressions of the Chinese Navy
- It is becoming increasingly technically oriented, and at a fast pace, especially with regards to its manning and training. However it still has a long way to go and its Soviet model fleet structure, with each fleet having it's own training commands and systems, makes progress uneven and relatively uncoordinated.
- The Chinese Navy evolved from the Mao-era coastal defense force into a "green water" Navy, i.e. one capable of projecting power several hundred miles beyond it's own shoreline but not across the world the way practically only the US Navy can anymore.
- It is divided into three fleets which are practically their own Navies. One geared towards the Korea/Japan region (which is getting the most advanced destroyers), one geared towards Taiwan (which is sub-intensive), and one geared towards the South China Sea, which is where the amphibious forces are located. From this force structure the author cautiously deduces that China is strategically more worried about physically seizing the Spratley Islands and other nearby chains to secure a source of reliable oil, as they claim these are their territorial lands (based on a convoluted and not traditionally accepted worldwide definition of the continental shelf belonging to their country and not the 12 mile offshore standard). The fear of a surface action is against the modernizing South Korean and extremely capable Japanese navy, whereas the Taiwan strategy appears to be based on sea denial using submarines rather than amphibious invasion. The author knows he is on tenuous ground making these assertions about strategy from force structure (usually you go the other way around, build a force structure from strategy but you can "invert" the problem to try to figure out your enemy, but it's not a one-to-one correlation, one force structure can be the result of multiple strategies.) For example, it wouldn't be physically difficult for the South Sea fleet's amphibious forces to swing north to invade Taiwan, even though it's in another fleet's AOR.
- The Chinese have strategic maritime interests in securing sources of oil, but little ability to currently protect sea-lanes from the Persian Gulf to their own shores. They are however laying the groundwork for such a capability with ties to countries along the route, such as Myanmar, Pakistan and Iran.
- The Chinese Navy has does not have a robust enough amphibious force yet to invade Taiwan and does not appear to be modernizing their amphibious forces particularly.
- The gem of the Chinese Navy, according to Maoist theory, has always been their SSBN force, consisting of a single not working too well sub right now. However they are currently working on a new design and will continue to build an SSBN based nuclear deterent.
- The Navy is organizationally hampered by too much autonomy and overlapping administrative functions between the three fleets. The three fleets also have a difficult time coordinating action apparently.
- The individual fleets are conducting impressive combined arms exercises however and the competence of individual chinese Navy sailors and officers is generally quite high.
- The Navy used to be a political Navy, with literally two chains of command, one operational and one political based on the old Soviet model. It is not terribly well known how political it remains with the modern changes underway in China, nor which chain of command would have ultimate authority in any conflict situation.
- The Chinese do not have sufficient domestic ship building and design capabilities to arm a modern force and will rely on foreign systems for some time, including Russian and European sources primarily.
There's a lot of information in the book, and some attempts at analysis of Chinese strategy and where they want to take their Naval force in the future. Currently the Chinese Navy is an amalgam of disparate types and technologies (making logistical supply difficult) and equally confusing in terms of its administrative and operational structures.
With the quick pace of Chinese military modernization this book -through no fault of its own- is probably already somewhat dated.
The biggest drawback of the book for me however was that it lacked a chapter that had vital statistics and background on the major ship, sub, helo, aircraft and weapons systems the Chinese navy used. Nor does it have any information regarding the number of hulls in the Navy, their types, their names and designations, and their fleet assignment. Although the above info would be a "snapshot in time" only, it would have been useful nonetheless for better being able to gauge just how capable the Chinese Navy is.
Recommended for Naval Officers, Defense Analysts, Defense Contractors working with Naval Systems, and people interested in gaining in depth information about China and particularly its military.

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Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941 Review

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(More customer reviews)A few years ago I read a short book on the Pacific War written by H.P. Wilmott. For those who don't know of him, Wilmott taught at Sandhurst for many years, and is probably one of the top two or three historians of the Pacific War. At the end of the book there was an annotated bibliography. I always like this, as opposed to a regular bibliography, because the annotations tell you what the author thinks of various sources, and that in turn tells you something about his thinking. But sometimes the recommendation is more direct: you trust the author, and he tells you something is worthwhile. In this instance, he said that he wasn't sure how Pacific War historians got along before the book Kaigun was published. Needless to say I went out and got one. It's not a cheap book, there aren't used copies cheaper, there's no paperback available. It's still worth every penny, and I will tell you below why you need it.
There are, of course, a bushel and a half of books about the war in the Pacific during World War II. Many of them note that the Japanese fought the war in an unusual fashion, and most note differences in technology, strategy, tactics, and philosophy. Some of these things are vaguely explained by the differences in Western and Japanese society, but at best the explanations are vague. This leaves a huge gap in the history of the Pacific War.
Kaigun fills this gap. The authors basically explain every question of this type involving the Japanese Navy in World War II, from why their cruisers had long ranged torpedoes to why their navy's intelligence was so poor to why they insisted in planning as if the American Navy would act in particular ways (even after it had demonstrated that it would act in other ways). Much of the differences between the Japanese and American Navies stemmed from the fact that the Japanese had to modernize so quickly. This circumstance had background in that Japan had little naval tradition, and no ships really on which to base a modern navy. While this meant that Japanese Naval modernization had many pitfalls, it also had advantages, notably a lack of old traditions and hoary rivalries that plagued other nations' Naval modernization programs.
The authors spend a considerable length of time discussing Japan's wars with first China and then Russia in the early stages of their modernization. China proved little challenge in a Naval sense, but Russia was a much more formidable opponent, though the Japanese defeated them decisively. While the war itself is discussed at some length, a great deal of time is also spent discussing the aftermath, and the war's influence on Japan's strategy, tactics, and philosophy in future wars. As far as the authors are concerned, Tsushima was the principle reason the Japanese Navy spent most of the thirties planning for a major confrontation between the U.S. Navy and their own combined fleet. The latter confrontation was apparently modeled rather closely on Tsushima, which was pretty much the same strategically, though the directions and the scale were of course different.
This book is full of information, much of it not available elsewhere in English. Frankly, if you are interested in the War in the Pacific, I agree with Wilmott, adding my faint echo to his endorsement: this book is invaluable. It's also, as a side note, very well written. Highly recommended.

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