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Electronics and Sea Power
Vice-Admiral Sir Arthur Hezlet, Royal Navy (Retired), K.B.E., C.B., D.S.O., D.S.C. New York: Stein and Day, 1975. 318 pp. Maps. Illus. Append. Bib. $15.00 ($12.00 for members).
Reviewed by Norman Friedman
must seem to officers at sea that the sole purpose of such systems is to give Washington detailed control. There may be some comfort in the discovery that this controlling impulse is not new. In the Crimean War, both the British and the French governments regarded the new telegraph with delight in view of the power it gave them over their admirals and generals. In fact, the French Commander-in-Chief offered "to resign a command impossible to exercise ... at the extremity, sometimes paralysing, of an electric wire.”
The telegraph was imperfect in that it did not permit communication with
Radio intercepts were already affecting naval operations in World War I.
©H.S.F. sails at 2100/ 1
(Dr. Friedman has been a defense analyst on the staff of the Hudson Institute since 1973- During that time his fields of interest have included the U. S. -Soviet naval balance and the potential of precision-guided weapons {"smart bombs”). He is currently writing a history of U. S. destroyer design. An associate member of the Naval Institute since 1963, Dr. Friedman received his Ph.D. in theoretical (solid-state) physics from Columbia University in 1974.)
This remarkable book is the last of a trilogy. Since 1967, Vice Admiral Sir Arthur Hezlet has written on what he considers the three greatest influences on sea power in this century: submarines, aircraft, and electronics. The last is by far the subtlest and the most pervasive of the three. The influence of electronics also has had a practical effect longer, dating to the middle of the last century, than the other two.
By electronics Hezlet means all of the electrical devices in a navy: first the telegraph, then the electric searchlight and the electric fire control gear which made long-range fire practical; and, more recently, radio, sonar, radar, and computers. In each case he goes beyond technical history to show both how that technical development affected the exercise of sea power, and also how well the technology lived up to its advertising. The result is a series of very useful historical analogies.
For example, little-discussed, but extremely important elements of modern navies are the command-and-control nets linking them together. Often it
4
(2} Radio intercepts show ^ that High Seas Fleet is to put to sea on 17th. April but give no indication of its purpose The Grand Fleet is ordered to sea **' soon as it is dark on 17th.
By 1850/18th. radio intercepts ^ indicate that H.S.F. is back in harbour. G.F. released.
Radio intercepts give no ^ indication that minefield has been laid and it is supposed that H.S.F. put to sea for exercises.
STEIN AND DAY
17th. to support minelayers which are already at sea.
ff?) H.S.F. is in harbour by 1700/18 th.
HIGH SEAS
ships at sea. Radio was adopted enthusiastically, and in the Russo-Japanese War we see not only tactical communication but also elementary electronic warfare: signal intercepts and jamming. In a world in which we may find ourselves increasingly unwilling to use active radar (for fear of intercepts) the lessons of electronic warfare in the radar-less days of 1904-1905 and 1914-1918 may come to seem more relevant. Certainly they represent a history never previously assembled in coherent form. Hezlet describes, as no one else has, the importance of radio intelligence to both the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet. For example, the Germans have claimed that the 1915 sorties of their battle fleet were attempts to "entice” the Grand Fleet into their home waters, where mines and U-boats might tip the balance the Germans’ way. Hezlet regards this as unlikely in that the Germans didn’t advertise their departures with radio messages designed for British wireless intelligence. Their enticement consisted solely of exposure to chance sightings by British submarines they assumed (often incorrectly) patrolled before the German bases.
The earliest forms of sonar were also employed in World War I, and Hezlet comments on their well-known effect in convincing the Royal Navy that it had the submarine problem well in hand. Perhaps we should find in the disastrous consequences of this error a cautionary note for our own belief in our far more sophisticated sensors and in the war- gamed conclusions we have drawn about their efficacy.
In World War II, radar was added to the electronics arsenal. Once more it is striking how early electronic warfare considerations dominated operations: HMS Hood approached the Bismarck with her gunnery radar turned off so as not to give away her presence. Only gradually was it discovered that radar intercepts were not as easily detected and pinpointed as had been suspected—now, when quite possibly they are, we are still unlearning that happy lesson.
These are only a few of the points Hezlet makes in a generally excellent book. He has, it seems to this reviewer, been extremely clear in his treatment of technical problems. If there is any disappointment at all, it is in the brevity accorded the postwar decades. And, this deficiency can be explained as a matter involving security restrictions. In any case, the lessons of the previous century remain quite applicable to this one.
Les navires de guerre frangaise de 1850 a nos jours (The French Navy From 1850 to the Present)
Francis Dousset. Brest, France: Editions de la Cite. 366 pp. Illus. 210 F (Approximately $48.00).
Reviewed by Arthur Davidson Baker III
(Mr. Baker, an analyst with the Navy Department, was a 1963 magna cum laude graduate of Harvard. His active duty service included duty in a destroyer escort and with the Naval Intelligence Command. He has contributed to a number of books and periodicals, including the Naval Review and Proceedings.)
The design of warships, particularly the external arrangement of those features whose appearance is left to the individual taste of the naval architect, has resulted in national design styles which, to some extent, mirror not only the designer’s idiosyncrasies but the spirit of his nation and times. Thus, the Victorian warships of the Royal Navy displayed a sedate, almost complacent demeanor, while those of the contemporaneous U. S. Navy had a cockier, more belligerent air. But the French Navy, from the first days of metal-hulled warships to the present day, has always had combatants which have displayed a stylish bravado and an aura of dash, peculiarly French.
True, the fantastic seagoing medieval fortresses of the famous naval architects Dupuy de Lome, de Bussy, and Bertin proved woefully deficient in combatant capabilities and damage resistance when put to the test at Gallipoli or, with ships built to French concepts for Csarist Russia, at Tsushima. The incredible plow bows and sharply-raked, tumble-home sides gave these ships a fiercely belligerent air but also served a functional purpose—the former, to shift buoyancy forward to compensate for the weight of the bow-mounted guns and cut away beneath them to reduce blast effects, and the latter to provide the maximum degree of end-on fire for the closely- clumped groups of beam-mounted guns. Unfortunately, the plow bows often made the ships poor sea boats, and the tremendous tumble home, although theoretically compensated for by the stabilizing factor of the extensive top hamper (superstructure and rigging), greatly reduced the righting arm at increasing angles of heel. Coupled with the very narrow and low armor belts favored and
the great freeboard of the hulls made the French ships extraordinarily vulnerable to loss through flooding from shell penetrations and consequent capsizing. No matter, to the naval buff the ships looked magnificent and, much like the fierce-looking Soviet ships of today, more than halfway achieved their purpose through bluff.
The French naval historian and warship enthusiast Francis Dousset has succeeded to a great degree in his attempt to capture the entire scope of the evolution of French naval ship design from 1850 to the present. His medium is a picture book, with 695 well-chosen and often unusual views of ships—many of extreme rarity, but others, particularly of current units, familiar to purchasers of Jane’s Fighting Ships and Flottes de Combat. Dousset has provided short but highly informative captions for his photographs. Each chapter on the different warship types, from battleships to auxiliaries, is introduced by an excellent short essay on design evolution. The ship characteristics table which closes the book is far from comprehensive, but the data illustrate the trends of design over the last 125 years.
Indeed, the author/compiler can scarcely be faulted for his part in the production, but the publisher most certainly can. The price, even for a book with this many illustrations printed on good quality paper, is exhorbitant. The layout of the photographs seems to have been dictated for the compositor’s convenience, and many—indeed, the majority of views—could have appeared much larger had a more judicious arrangement of the blocks of caption text been made. The halftone photo printing is often overexposed and sometimes obscures the highly detailed glass-plate negative photographs of the late 19th century French naval architects’ complex creations. There are, however, few outright proofing errors.
Although the reader will inevitably be drawn to the unique French warships of the past, attention should be paid to the modern French designs portrayed. At a time when most U. S. authorities seem preoccupied with analyzing Soviet efforts to the exclusion of naval developments elsewhere, the French have been fostering an entire spectrum of formidably equipped ships of graceful and, more important, functional design. The modern destroyers of the Tourville or Suffren classes or the Georges Leygues-diss frigates now under construction should convince even the Naval Ship Engineering Center that a warship need not have to look as though it had been designed by a computer. The French helicopter carrier and cadet training ship Jeanne d’Arc is the obvious inspiration for the Soviet Moskva-c\2.ss helicopter cruisers. Strong traces of French influence are evident in the new Dutch Kortenaer (Standard)-class frigates. French-built small combatants and the ubiquitous Exocet missile have made many small navies the instant equals of their larger but more traditionally- equipped neighbors—while providing jobs for French shipyard workers and welcome foreign exchange currency.
Les navires de guerre franchise, although flawed by poor production, is a fine introduction through photography to the French Navy, a fleet which, regardless of its operational vicissitudes, has always had ships which catch the eye and command admiration. The text is entirely in French, but it is in easy French, filled with naval terms common to many languages; readers with only a basic knowledge of the language will find no difficulties in reading and enjoying this book.
The Lusitania Disaster:
An Episode in Modern Warfare and Diplomacy
T. A. Bailey and P. B. Ryan. New York: The Free Press, A Division of Macmillan Publishing Company, Inc., 1975. 340 pp. Illus. Bib. $10.95.
Reviewed by Neville T. Kirk
(Professor Kirk is a member of the History Department of the Naval Academy, where for 15 years he was, successively, chairman of the naval history, American diplomatic history, and American foreign policy courses. He received his undergraduate and graduate training at Columbia University. He is co-author of American Sea Power Since 1775, Sea Power, and Contemporary Governments of the Major Foreign Powers, and recently retired as Captain,
U. S. Naval Reserve.)
No episode of human tragedy has become more firmly fixed in the substance of American history than the Lusitania story. The U-boat torpedo which sent the supposedly unsinkable British liner—the world’s largest then in regular passenger service—plunging to the bottom a dozen miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland on the afternoon of 7 May 1915 touched off a shock of horror, magnified by the agency of mass journalism, such as the people of the United States had never before permitted themselves to manifest. The ship herself was gone in less than 20 minutes; 1,198 passengers and crewmen perished, including 128 of the 197 Americans, and 35 of 39 infants. Popular revulsion centered chiefly on the deliberateness of the attack. Such slaughter of noncombatants, women and children, to a generation not yet conditioned to the World
NOTICE!
TRAVELLERS intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or of any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travellers sailing in the war zone on ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk,
IMPERIAL GERMAN EMBASSY
WASHINGTON. D. C.. APRIL 22. 1918.
The above advertisement appeared in several U. S. newspapers shortly before the liner began her last voyage. Profile diagram of the Lusitania, top, shows position of torpedo hit. Note the distance between the hole and the ammunition storage, making it unlikely that second explosion was from ammo.
War II-type bombing, was little less than regression to barbarism of a sort which had not been seen in the warfare of advanced European nations for nearly 300 years. Of greater significance, the disaster decisively turned American public opinion in a pro-Ally direction and made the U-boat a symbol of ruthlessness and lawlessness. Its contribution to the ready acceptance by most Americans of entry into the war in 1917 would be immense.
In view of the military, political, and legal implications, it was inevitable that controversy should swirl about this disaster on the sunlit sea, literally from the moment that the first embittered survivors were brought ashore in neighboring Queenstown (now Cobh). One of them, Charles E. Lauriat, a few months afterwards was the first out with a book, but by then the press already was airing charges of incompetence against the crew and inadequacy of the ship’s lifesaving equipment. In 1972—some hundred key books and articles later—with the appearance of British journalist Colin Simpson’s The Lusitania, the controversy had shifted across the spectrum from "German plot” and "ambush” to the charge that an Admiralty-Churchill conspiracy had brought about the destruction of the great Cunarder in order to get the United States involved in the war on the Allied side. A planned Royal Navy escort through the submarine zone was therefore withdrawn before her arrival, it was asserted.
A balanced perspective has now been restored with the publication of the scholarly and highly readable work under review. Of the authors, one, the acknowledged dean of American diplomatic historians, brings to the book the results of what is virtually a lifetime’s study of Woodrow Wilson’s foreign policies; the other, a Research Associate of Stanford’s Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace and recently
Deputy Director of the Naval History Center, introduces a new dimension to Lusitania studies with his contribution of notable technical competence. The result is a book which bids fair to live up to its jacket claim: "The Real Answers Behind the World’s Most Controversial Sea Tragedy.”
The authors cannot avoid taking issue with Colin Simpson on many fundamental matters. They explode the Admiralty-Churchill conspiracy thesis; they argue for the Lusitania's unquestionable stability, that she was at no time armed, that she carried no high explosives, that the much publicized "second explosion” was caused by bursting boilers and not detonated ammunition or any other explosive, and that she carried no soldiers. Much responsibility for the sinking is placed on Captain William Turner’s disregard of Admiralty instructions.
In terms of moral justification, the authors equate the "U-boat blockade” with the Allied long-distance "hunger blockade” and take a critical view of Wilson’s "strict accountability” and inflexible insistence that U-boats "warn before sinking.” Subsequent history incontestably has vindicated their viewpoint. One yet can query, however, if the major blunder did not rather lie with a politically insensitive Oberkom- mando which abandoned a demonstrably viable submarine policy—imposed by the Wilsonian demands—for an "unrestricted” escalation which inevitably involved intervention of the American industrial colossus, the utter ruin of the Kaiser’s empire, and the ultimate precipitation of the Hitlerian holocaust.
Books of Interest to the Professional
Compiled by Professor Jack Sweetman, Associate Editor
NAVAL AFFAIRS
The Battle of the Philippine Sea
W. D. Dickson. London: Ian Allen, 1975. 256 pp. Maps. Illus., Append., Bib. £4.50 (Approx. $11.25).:
The greatest carrier battle ever fought, the Philippine Sea (19-21 June 1944), resulted in the utter destruction of Japanese naval air power. Although most of the Japanese carriers escaped, without trained pilots they had lost their raison d’etre. Four months later at Leyte Gulf, Japan’s last desperate gamble on turning the tide of the Pacific War, the carriers could be used only as decoys. This detailed study traces both sides of the battle and analyses the "Jutland Controversy” concerning Admiral Spruance s decision to continue to close the Saipan beachhead the evening before it began.
The British Submarine
Commander F. W. Lipscomb, OBE, Royal Navy (Retired). Greenwich, England: Conway Maritime Press, 1975. 284 pp. Maps. Illus. Append. £6.50 (Approx. $16.25).
The enlarged and updated edition of a work originally published in 1954, this well- illustrated history traces the British Submarine Service from the launching of the American-built Holland I in 1901 to today’s Swiftsure-class nuclear-powered fleet submarines. There are also interesting chapters, written for the intelligent layman, on how submarines work. The author commanded British submarines before and during World War II.
Dreadnought: The History of the Modern Battleship
Richard Hough. New York: Macmillan, 1975. 268 pp. Illus. $14.95.
Richard Hough’s classic pictorial history of the dreadnought battleship, first published in 1964, appears in a fifth printing which notes the deployment of the USS New Jersey (BB-62) in the Vietnam War.
Duel between the First Ironclads
William C. Davis. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1975. 201 pp. Maps. Illus. Append. Bib. $8.95.
The epic engagement between the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (ex-USS Merri- mac) at Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 9
March 1862 forms the climax of this well researched and readable history of the first fighting ironclads. The men who built and commanded them are also portrayed. The author is editor of Civil War Times Illustrated.
[SI Letters and Papers of Alfred Thayer Mahan
Robert Seager II and Doris D. Maguire (Editors). Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1975.
Three volumes. 2,330 pp. Illus. Append. Bib.
Note. $96.00 ($76.00).
Monumental is the word to describe the scope and scholarship of this edition of the private papers of Alfred Thayer Mahan. Mahan was a prolific and often revealing correspondent and diarist. Although the publisher estimates that, despite the editors’ exhaustive research, probably not more than 20 to 25% of Mahan’s letters have been recovered, those that have provide an absorbing self-portrait of the personal, professional, and intellectual development of the man whose theories of sea power made him one of the most influential strategic thinkers of all time. The physical format of these handsomely printed, burlap-bound, boxed volumes is as impressive as their contents.
131 Naval Shiphandling
Captain R. S. Crenshaw, Jr., U. S. Navy (Retired). Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1975. 479 pp. Maps. Illus. Append. $19-50 ($15.60).
The thoroughly revised, fourth edition of this standard reference reviews the principles of shiphandling and offers proven techniques for solving the problems normally encountered in today’s complex naval operations. Major additions include a chapter on single-screw ocean escort vessels and another on new hull types and propulsion systems.
[31 Privateers & Volunteers: The Men and Women of Our Reserve Naval Forces, 1776-1866
Captain R. E. Stivers, U. S. Naval Reserve. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1975. 502 pp. Append. Bib. $17.00 ($13.60).
This well-researched work is the first of a projected two-volume treatment which will comprise the definitive history of the American naval reservist. Although the U. S. Naval Reserve did not officially come into existence until 1915, its antecedents are traced back to
revolutionary times by defining a naval reserve as that portion of a nation’s manpower which, while not enrolled in a regular military service in peace, becomes available to carry out or support naval operations against an enemy in time of war—the Privateers & Volunteers of the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Civil War. Captain Stivers is a veteran of over 30 years’ service in the Navy Reserve.
Schlachtschiff Scharnhorst
Lieutenant Commander Heinrich Bredemeier, German Navy (Retired), revised by Vice Admiral Caesar Hoffmann, German Navy (Retired) and Captain Helmuth Giessler, German Navy (Retired). Herford, West Germany: Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, 1975. 276 pp. Maps. Illus.
44 DM (Approx. $17.00).
The battleship Scharnhorst had one of the most eventful careers of any World War II German naval vessel. In the Norwegian Campaign of 1940 she engaged the British battlecruiser Renown and later surprised and sank the carrier Glorious. From January to March 1941 she carried out cruiser warfare against British Atlantic convoys. In February 1942, together with her sistership Gneisenau and the cruiser Prinz Eugen, she made the Channel Dash. In December 1943, she was sunk during an attempt to intercept an Arctic convoy in the last major surface action in the European theater. Her story is told in this revised and enlarged edition of a work first published in 1962. All three authors served on board her.
BOOK ORDER SERVICE
Members may order books of other publishers through the Naval Institute at a 10% discount off list price. (Prices quoted in this column are subject to change and will be reflected in our billing.) The postage and handling fee for each such special order book of a United States publisher will be 75<t; the fee for a book from a foreign publisher will be $1.00. When air mail or other special handling is requested, actual postage and handling cost will be billed to the member. Books marked [31 are Naval Institute Press Books. Books marked s are Naval Institute Book Selections. All prices enclosed by parentheses are member prices. Please use the order blank in this section.
£5 The Ships & Aircraft of the U. S. Fleet.
Samuel L. Morison and John S. Rowe. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1975. 294 pp. Illus. $14.50 ($11.60) paper.
The tenth edition of this well-known reference provides a comprehensive, detailed coverage of the ships and aircraft of the U. S. Navy and Coast Guard, together with the missiles and conventional ordnance they carry. Its 500 photographs illustrate almost every class of ship and type of aircraft and missile in the American naval service.
USS Bowfin (SS287)
Lieutenant Commander Arnold S. Lott, U. S. Navy (Retired) and Hull Technician Chief Robert F. Sumrall, U. S. Naval Reserve; technical research by Robert S. Egan. Annapolis, Md.: Leeward Publications, 1975. 36 pp. Illus. $2.50 (paper).
Although the format is unchanged, an increasing sophistication is evident in the content of publication No. 5 in Leeward’s "Ship’s Data” Series. A Balao-class fleet submarine, the Bowfin was commissioned on 1 May 1943 and made nine Pacific war patrols, sinking 16 enemy ships, a total of 67,882 tons, plus 22 small craft. Stricken from the Navy list in 1971, she is now on display in Pearl Harbor.
MARITIME AFFAIRS Atlas of Maritime History
Christopher Lloyd. New York: Arco, 1975. 144 pp. Maps. Illus. $35.00.
The naval and maritime history of the Western world, from the Greek and Phoenician empires to the recent rise of Soviet sea power, is graphically recorded by the 74 color maps and numerous illustrations of this grand format atlas. However, the simplified style of some of the battle maps (for example, of Midway), though visually attractive, is not equal to the complexity of the events depicted. Christopher Lloyd, formerly professor of history at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, is editor of The Mariner’s Mirror.
No Time on Our Side
Roger Chapman. New York: W. W. Norton, 1975. 168 pp. Illus. Append. $7.95.
For three days in August 1973 author Chapman and his companion, Roger Mal- lison, were trapped 1,575 feet beneath the surface of the Atlantic in the damaged minisubmersible Pisces III. No one had ever been rescued from a submarine vessel at such a depth. This remarkable narrative records both ends of the operations by which Chapman and Mallison were saved.
Ocean Waste Disposal Practices 1975
Alexander W. Reed. Park Ridge, N.J.: Noyes Data Corporation, 1975. 336 pp. Maps. Bib. $24.00.
Based on government-sponsored research reports, this book evaluates waste discharges and practices as they affect the littoral regions of the United States and projects their ultimate influence on the world ocean. The data presented provides a basis to weigh possible long-term consequences of oceanic pollution and resultant changes in ocean ecosystems with the benefits derived from ocean dumping and its alternatives.
The Post-War Cunard Story
W. H. Mitchell. Deal, England: Marinart Ltd., 1975. 81 pp. Illus. £2.75 (Approx. $7.00).
The demise of the North Atlantic liner is the melancholy theme of this brief history of the postwar operations of the Cunard Line. The famous ships distinguished by the line’s black-banded, red funnel during this period— from the veteran Aquitania to today’s Queen Elizabeth 2—are pictured and described.
Royal Yachts of Europe: From the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century
Reginald Crabtree. North Pomfret, Vt.: David & Charles, 1975. 95 pp. Illus. $12.95.
All extant European royal yachts and many of their predecessors from 20 monarchies, past and present, are described in this pictorial survey. Among the most famous vessels included are Wilhelm II’s Hohenzollem, Nicholas II’s Standart (which ended her career as a Soviet minesweeper), Queen Victoria’s three Victoria and Albert's, and the present-day Britannia.
Sailing Ships of the Maritimes: An Illustrated History of the Shipping and Shipbuilding in the Maritime Provinces of Canada 1750-1925
Charles A. Armour and Thomas Lackey. Toronto, Canada: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1975. 224 pp. Illus. Append. Bib. $19.95.
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In the heyday of the sailing ship, the Canadian Maritime Provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island) were among the world’s leading shipbuilding areas. Over 26,000 vessels had been built by 1900 and, in the peak years of the 1860s, the
Maritimes supplied one-quarter of British shipping. This handsome pictorial surveys the development of Maritime sailing ships from 18th century privateers to early 20th century schooners.
Seaports: An Introduction to Their Place and Purpose
Captain L. G. Taylor, British Merchant Navy. London: Brown, Son & Ferguson, Ltd., 1974. 164 pp. Illus. £4.57 (Approx. $11.40).
The fundamental principles underlying the organization and administration of port procedures and supporting activities are explained. Captain Taylor was formerly Training and Education Officer to the British Transport Docks Board.
Shark Frenzy
John Clark. New York: Grosser & Dunlap, 1975. 112 pp. Illus. Bib. $3.95 (paper).
Marine biologist John Clark, formerly curator of the New York Aquarium, provides a popular state-of-the-art report on research into shark attack and defensive measures.
MILITARY AFFAIRS
A Concise Encyclopedia of the Second World War
Alan Reid. Reading, England: Osprey, 1974. 232 pp. Maps. Illus. £3.95 (Approx. $8.60).
This reference to the 1939-1945 war is divided into five parts: a general chronology; a chronological outline of major campaigns; an alphabetical who’s who; a survey of the opposing armed forces; and a review of the civilian wartime experience. Emphasis is placed on the European theater.
The Glider War
Colonel James A. Mrazek, U. S. Army (Retired). New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1975. 304 pp. Maps. Illus. Append. Bib. $12.95.
Beginning with the German coup <k main against the reputedly impregnable Belgian fortress of Eben Emael in May 1940, combat gliders played an extensive role in World War II. Their employment by the American, British, German, and Russian armies is described in this military history. One chapter treats the U. S. Navy’s stillborne transport-glider program of 1941-1943.
Human Relations in the Military: Problems and Programs
George Henderson (Editor). Chicago, 111.: Nelson-Hall, 1975. 291 pp. Append. Bib. $14.00.
The articles collected here focus on seven human relations areas within the military: leadership, race relations, women’s equality, military justice, drug and alcohol abuse, health care, and civil service. Its general thesis is that although the military services are presently in the forefront of human relations training, much remains to be done. Dr. Henderson is director of the human relations program at the University of Oklahoma.
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
The Great Detente Disaster: Oil and the Decline of American Foreign Policy
Edward Friedland, Paul Seabury, and Aaron Wildavsky. New York: Basic Books, 1975. 210 pp. $7.95.
The argument of this study is that an overeager and excessively personalized policy of reducing tensions with the U.S.S.R. has prevented the United States from establishing an effective Middle Eastern policy and left both the Western Alliance and the Third World hostage to the Organization of Petrol Exporting Countries (OPEC). It concludes that the issue is not whether the United States should play world policeman, but whether it will summon the will to protect its own vital interests. The authors all teach at the University of California at Berkeley.
The United States and Saudi Arabia: A Policy Analysis
Emile A. Nakhleh. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1975. 69 pp. Maps. $3.00 (paper).
U. S. policy towards Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer, is explored by an American Middle East expert. The politico- economic problems confronting Saudi society in its transition from tribalism to modernity are also examined. Professor Nakhleh’s thesis is that Saudi Arabia will remain a cornerstone of American Middle Eastern policy for years to come and that their relations must be based on a clear perspective of their mutual interests and concerns.
World Power Assessment: A Calculus of Strategic Drift
Ray S. Cline. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1975. 173 pp. Maps. Append. $12.75 ($4.95 for paper from Georgetown University Center for Strategic & International Studies, Washington, D.C.).
The problem of devising realistic parameters for assessing national power is extremely complex. The author proposes a formula according to whose terms perceived power equals population size and geographic position, economic strength, and military capability times the admittedly elusive coefficient of strategic purpose and national will. Applying this formula to today’s great and superpowers, he finds that the world power balance is tipping against the United States and suggests a policy of increased support for key allies as a means of reversing this trend. A veteran of the OSS and CIA, Dr. Cline also served as Director of Intelligence and Research in the Department of State, 1966-1973. Since then, he has been Executive Director of Studies at the Georgetown University Center for Strategic and International Studies.
GENERAL
The Greatest Disasters of the 20th Century
Frances Kennett. London: Marshall Cavendish, 1975. 152 pp. Maps. Illus. £2.99 (Approx.
$7.50).
This pictorial chronicle of 25 major contemporary catastrophes includes several of naval or maritime interest. Among them are the loss of the USS Thresher (SSN-593), the sinking of the Titanic, the Mono Castle fire, the crash of the British airship R101, and the burning of the Hindenburg.
Wine and Bitters
Isabelle K. Saveli. New City, N.Y.: The Historical Society of Rockland County, 1975. 60 pp. Illus. Bib. $4.00 (paper).
The subtitle of this attractive little monograph leaves nothing to the imagination: "An account of the meetings in 1783 at Tappan, N.Y. and aboard HMS Persenerance between George Washington and Sir Guy Carleton, commanding generals of American and British forces at the close of the American Revolution.” The only time the military leaders of the late conflict met in peace and on an equal footing, the conference was held to arrange the details of the British evacuation. "Wine and bitters” were the refreshments Washington offered Carleton at the end of their first conversation.
RECORDINGS
Voices of World War II
Richard Lidz, producer director; Marc Goldbaum, editor. New York: Macmillan, 1975. $119-00.
It is a shame that the price of this engrossing program will largely restrict it to institutional users. The 12 cassettes of which it consists provide what amounts to an oral history of World War II. Excerpts from the speeches of such leaders as Churchill, Roosevelt, and Hitler and contemporary newscasts are complemented by eyewitness accounts and postwar interviews describing the war on all fronts. Total playing time is 12 hours and 45 minutes. A 20-page listener’s guide contains program notes, documentation, a chronology, and nine maps. A number of the selections dealing with U. S. naval operations are from the Naval Institute’s Oral History Collection.