BOOK DEPARTMENT
Members of the Institute, both regular and associate, may save money by ordering books through its Book Department, which will supply any obtainable book. A discount of 10 per cent is allowed on books published by the Institute, and 5 per cent on books of other publishers (government and foreign publications excepted). Address Secretary-Treasurer, U.S. Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland
THE WAR: FIRST YEAR. By Edward Mclnnis. Toronto: Oxford University Press. 1940. 312 pages. $1.50.
Reviewed by Ensign W. D. Lanier, U. S. Naval Reserve
This book consists of a brief sketch of the events leading up to the declaration of war and a detailed account of the story of the next twelve months, up to September 1, 1940. It is complete, accurate, factual, and concise—and to any member of the fighting services, invaluably instructive.
This reviewer was struck by the number of lessons the book contains—the immense number of instances in which bad judgment, weak leadership, and timid thinking outweighed the gallantry and self-sacrifice of the men in combatant action. Examples of mistakes by the allied governments are many, but five may be noted in particular.
The Allies sat quietly by and watched the German machine annihilate Poland when only 20 enemy divisions, without aircraft and without mechanized forces, faced them on the Western front.
The democratic governments, convinced the war could be won cheaply drifted along from September to April without intense effort or greatly increased production of war materials.
Hitler’s venture into Norway succeeded because the Admiralty refused to let Sir Roger Keyes lead a fleet assault on Trondheim, and because the expeditionary force was characteristically “too late and too little.”
The fall of Belgium made the fall of France inevitable because the Maginot line had not been extended along the Belgian border and because there was, in spite of repeated warnings, no concentration of reserve forces in that sector.
The gallant French Army went down to defeat because it was abandoned by the government and betrayed by incredibly poor staff work.
Five instances out of a great number, but perhaps they furnish a lesson on how much success or failure will depend on the quality of leadership.
THE ANATOMY OF BRITISH SEA POWER: A History of British Naval Policy in the pre-Dreadnought Era, 1880-1905. By Arthur J. Marder, Research Associate of the Bureau of International Research of Harvard University and Radcliffe College. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1940. 580 pages. $5.00.
Reviewed by Assistant Professor Stanley Gray, U. S. Naval Academy
To the student of naval history who has been chiefly interested in the high spots, this book ought to be of great corrective value, for it deals with a long period of peace which was nevertheless revolutionary.
It begins with a British Navy just being jolted out of 60 years’ slumber by the introduction of the ironclad. It closes with Sir John Fisher daring (rightly or wrongly) to outmode his own fleet with the first Dreadnought. In between there had been the armored cruiser, the first submarines, and a great deal of serious thinking by British naval officers.
It begins with a Britain who was mistress of an empire she did not cherish. It closes with a Britain determined to fight off a crassly new German imperialism. In between there had been the partition of Africa, the Fashoda incident, the first Moroccan Crisis, and the Far-Eastern scramble of 1897-1905.
It begins with a fleet which worshipped spit and polish. It closes with a fleet in which tactics and gunnery had become subjects of earnest professional study and practice.
Through all these complex and technical problems, Mr. Marder moves with ease, thoroughness, and modesty. “Not being a naval expert, my sole aim has been to give the facts. . . .” True, the author rarely expresses an opinion. But the “facts” include voluminous quotations from scores of men who were experts. The amateur strategist could well use this volume as a case book— although there were no British wars, there were plenty of scares—and his solutions would have the benefit of comment by able, if not Nelsonian, British admirals.
This is a book rich in facts, in problems, in ideas, and splendidly rich in dress. It is a pleasure even to handle it.
PRIMER OF NAVIGATION. By George W. Mixter. New York: D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc. 1940.337 pages. $4.00.
Reviewed by Lieutenant Commander R. E. Jasperson, U. S. Navy
For years it has been accepted as axiomatic that the subject of navigation cannot be taught without reference to right ascension and sidereal time. Here, finally, is an author who proves that the science can be taught and the art practiced without a detailed knowledge of these confusing terms. It may be likened to the tearing away from lunar distances—of which the majority of modern practical navigators have not the slightest conception. Yet they manage to get about quite handily.
George W. Mixter was a Colonel in the Air Service, U. S. Army, during the latter part of the World War. He is an engineer by profession and a yachtsman and practical navigator by avocation. His schooner Teragram has sailed in many an ocean race and cruised in many waters. The author has been his own navigator for many years and anyone who has ever navigated a yacht on soundings or in deep water will appreciate that the job of determining the position of a man-of-war (barring submarines) is child’s play compared with establishing a fix in a bounding yacht where the “height of eye” is from 6 to 12 feet and the chart table is seldom canted at an angle of less than 30°.
With this identification of the author as one who “knows whereof he speaks,” his lines of attack and methods of presentation should bear more weight.
The contents of this admirable book may be summed up partially by reference to the Foreword, as follows:
This book is a “Primer” of modern navigation both coastwise and at sea. Designed to teach surface navigation to the novice, it also includes material of value to experienced skippers, to aviators undertaking celestial navigation, and to Merchant Marine officers interested in recent development of the art.
A complete course in elementary piloting is presented in the opening chapters. Necessary instruments and tools and their use, the everyday methods of mariners along the coast, and the errors to be guarded against are discussed and illustrated. Colored plates of light and buoy systems assist in' understanding much of the data found on charts and in other publications.
The treatment of celestial navigation has been simplified. No knowledge of mathematics beyond simple arithmetic is required; neither the terms of trigonometry nor of logarithms are used. Most of the older methods, commonly repeated in textbooks, have been omitted. The original drawings are unique in that they are pictures, marked by plain words, rather than conventionally lettered mathematical figures.
... All sights of the sun, moon, or stars are worked by civil time, the kind of time we live by, thus avoiding the confusing subjects of sidereal time and right ascension which have mystified generations of students. . . .
Work forms, of original design, present the most important aid yet offered to those beginning the practice of celestial navigation. They provide for the principal computations of the navigator at sea and reflect the rules for doing the work. The value of these forms to yachtsmen and others who practice intermittently is evident.
The statements set forth in these opening paragraphs are amply borne out in the text. The book is timely in one respect— it presents the subject in such a manner that the applicant for a billet in the service, either on the surface or in the air, can master and put it into actual practice in short order. This, as has been pointed out, has been made possible by the elimination of a great deal of “deadwood.” It has been argued that it is impracticable to teach the rudiments of nautical astronomy without referring to right ascension. Yet a moment’s sober reflection will reveal that all a student need understand is the fact that the meridian of Greenwich occupies a certain angular position with reference to the vernal equinox at any instant throughout a year and that this position may be measured to the eastward or westward and tabulated in convenient form. Also that the equinoctial is simply the intersection of a plane through the equator with the celestial sphere. With these in mind an understanding of a “Geographical Position” whose co-ordinates are Greenwich hour angle (longitude) and declination (latitude) becomes relatively simple.
The chapter on lines of position by means of observations of the heavenly bodies is most happily titled, “Lighthouses in the Sky.” From a description of lines of position obtained from bearings of lighthouses, markers, etc., the author leads the student into an understanding of how the sun, moon, and stars serve as “lighthouses” in the sky. No other author known to this reviewer treats the subject in such a simple, readily understood manner.
The book is profusely illustrated with cuts, in the execution of which no pains or expense has been spared. The text has been several years in preparation and is up to date in every respect. Every new method and wrinkle which has appeared recently has been studied carefully and if it seemed to have sufficient merit to stand the test of time it has been incorporated into this primer.