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SECRET MISSION SUBMARINE. By Lieut. N. L. A. Jewell, M.B.E., D.S.C., R.N. As told to Cecil Carnes. New York: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. 1944. 159 pages. $2.00.
Reviewed by Lieutenant William E. Wilson, Jr., U. S. Naval Reserve
Like all submarine skippers in the present War> Lieutenant Jewell, captain ol the British sub Seraph, has more than enough material f°r a book of lively adventure; but he has also had the privilege, in addition to his more routine experiences, of engaging in three secret missions, two of which have already become an important part of the history of the war.
In October of 1942, Lieutenant Jewell was called to a meeting at Government House in Gibraltar at which he was informed that his submarine has been chosen to take General Mark Wayne Clark to a rendezvous with Erench patriots in North Africa. He devotes the first third of his book to a modest but exciting account of that venture, letting the reader see the already familiar expedition from an entirely new point of vantage—the bridge and the wardroom of the vessel that carried the Americans to and from their meeting with the French.
With equal modesty, Lieutenant Jewell describes how, later, he picked up General
Giraud off the coast of southern France and carried him to safety on the last leg of his fabulous escape from the Germans. The French General had insisted that he would leave France only on an American submarine; and, since no American undersea boat was available, Lieutenant Jewell and his British crew had to impersonate Americans, Captain Jerauld Wright, U. S. Navy, taking over, in name, the command of the British boat. It was understood that General Giraud did not speak English, and for that reason his rescuers were confident that their ruse would succeed, although some of the English aboard were disturbed by the fear that they might have to break out an American flag on his Majesty’s craft. In the middle of the voyage back to Gibraltar, after everyone had talked freely about the situation in Giraud’s presence, the Frenchman confounded them by quietly opening a conversation in English himself. They were never to learn, however, whether he was deceived by their hoax or saw through it and tactfully refrained from comment.
Because the third of his secret missions is still a secret, the author was able to allude to it only in passing; perhaps someday it will make another book. The last fifty pages of the present volume are filled with anecdotes about other adventures in the Mediterranean, less significant historically, but equally hazardous. This “action report of the H.M.S. Seraph” is modestly told, readable, and interesting.
VERTICAL WARFARE. By Francis Vivian Drake. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc. 1943. 142 pages. $3.00.
Reviewed by Lieutenant Commander Walter A. Wiley, U. S. Coast Guard (Retired)
The author of Vertical Warfare shows a complete knowledge of his subject, approaches it in a careful, analytical manner and handles it in a clear, concise scholarly style, comparable even to that of Baron Jimini in his Art of War or his Life of Napoleon. Also the book contains many excellent photographs and other illustrations which add much to its clearness, after the manner of a newsreel.
It tells briefly how scientifically conducted warfare is no longer merely two dimensional in character but has now become at least three dimensional, this third dimension being the vertical one traced, followed, or used by submarines and airplanes. The treatment shows how the operations of land, sea, and air forces have become mutually interdependent.
The functions of both land-based war planes and of carrier-based planes are described, as well as their types, purposes, and manner of operation. Bombing operations are discussed, and the effectiveness of bombing as compared with artillery fire.
The book is both instructive and extremely interesting—multum in parvo, in this respect serving as a most useful manual in its special field.
TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND FLYERS. By Willard Wiener. Washington, D.C.: The Infantry Journal. 1945. 196 pages. $2.75.
Reviewed by Lieutenant Denning Miller, U. S. Naval Reserve
Most people will remember our national gasp of astonished admiration when the President first called for an annual production of 50,000 airplanes. Even greater than building the aircraft was the problem of procuring the aviators to fly the planes. This in turn brought up the question: Where were the instructors who were needed to train the pilots?
Willard Wiener tells the story of how the Army Air Forces turned to the civilian flying schools and how these schools supplied the primary flight training of “Two Hundred Thousand Flyers.” This program dated back to the early part of 1939. In those days the Army, we are told, was without appropriations and could offer the civilian operators little more than a letter of intent, so onesided as to be valueless as a form of contract. Love of flying, liking for a gamble, sense of patriotism, all blended together to cause the eight owners of the first flying schools selected to sign up anyway.
Mr. Wiener’s account of the establishment and growth of Civilian-AAF Pilot Training is liberally punctuated with stories and anecdotes about the owners and instructors, the trainees and Air Force representatives, who had to work together to make the program a success. The style in which all this is told is personal, informal, and authentic. Perhaps intentionally, however, the organization of the material is so casual that the reader’s picture of the enormous difficulties overcome and the tremendous results achieved is obscured by racy yarns of cadets learning to fly or of graduate pilots in action overseas.
ASIA ON THE MOVE. By Bruno Lasker.
New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1945. 196 pages. $3.00.
Reviewed by Lieutenant William W.
Jeffries, U. S. Naval Reserve
For centuries the population of Eastern Asia has been on the move. The basic cause of these wholesale migrations has been the inequality of natural resources and economic opportunity within various areas. Social, political, and military factors have served as stimulants both to initiate and further these movements. This perennial migration has been made even more tremendous and heart-rending in recent years by the world-wide depression and the advance of the Japanese military machine.
Thumbnail Reviews
Other Men’s Flowers. An Anthology of Verse Compiled by A. P. Wavell (Field Marshal Viscount Waved). New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. 1945. 406 pages. $3.50.
In attempting to solve this “lack of balance between population and resources” niore is needed than mere industrialization and birth control. There must also be population exchange between nations, improved systems of communications, the recognition of skill as a human resource, and an understanding of the peculiarities of Asiatic social conditions.
Of particular interest to the reader of Asia 011 the Move will be the author’s account of Japanese treatment of the population within the invaded areas and their activities there ni quest of products and a labor supply. Similarly, though this book is primarily a study in demography, it contains an excellent economic and sociological analysis of the areas from Japan and Northern China down through the Netherlands Indies.
This book is intended to be a history, an analysis, and a prophecy. Mr. Lasker has done an excellent job as far as his purpose Js concerned. The author’s general conclu- S10n is of great significance to all people. Mr. Lasker contends that the problem of Asiatic population drift is an international °ne and that for its own security the entire world must concern itself not only with the solution of the immediate problem of relief to the wartime dislocation of population but also with the basic factors which for centuries have brought about the perennial migrations within Asia.
It is a surprise package, this anthology selected by one of the outstanding soldiers of our day,” °f the poems he has loved and for the most part earned by heart. They are mostly the old favorites—plenty of Browning, Kipling, Masefield, "Urns, the Elizabethans, the “Rubaiyat,” the Ballad of Reading Jail,” and at the end an attractive sonnet by the anthologist. It is a selection .at will delight any martial man who, not at ad lrupossibly, has a taste for good verse.
Management of Inspection and Quality Control. By J- M. Juran, former Chief of Inspection Con
trol Division, Western Electric Co. New York: Harper Brothers. 1945. 233 pages. $3.00.
Written by a pioneer in modern methods of inspection, this is a clearly presented textbook for plant executives, shop supervisors, and inspection engineers. It deals with the actual processes of inspection, use of inspection data, organization of the inspection department, and the development of “quality mindedness” at all levels, from top executives down.
Russian War, 1855, Baltic. Official Correspondence. Edited by D. Bonner-Smith, Admiralty Librarian. Published for the Navy Records Society, Vol. LXXXIV. 1944.
A volume of Crimean War naval correspondence was published by the Navy Records Society last year and reviewed in these columns. The present volume is a continuation covering the year 1855 and relating wholly to operations of the Allied forces in the Baltic. Since the activities were limited to blockade and commerce warfare, the correspondence has only a limited general interest.
Important Professional Books
Andrews, John Paul. Gliding and Soaring; a Manual of Silent Flight. New York: McBride. 1944. $2.75.
Bernard, L. L. War and its Causes. New York: Holt. 1944. $4.25.
Brink, Chaplain Eben C. And God Was There. Philadelphia: Westminster Press. 1944. $1.00. A book to bring a rekindling of faith to our fighting men.
Cooke, David C. The Aircraft Annual. New York: McBride. 1945. $3.00.
Comprehensive and detailed history and analysis of all the new aeronautical developments of the past year.
Crane, Aimee, Editor. Art in the Armed Forces. New York: Scribner’s. 1944. $5.00.
War pictures by men in action.
Creasy, Sir Edward S. Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World. Harrisburg, Pa.: Military Service Publishing Co. 1944. $3.00.
With nine new chapters and thirty maps by Robert H. Murray.
Dallin, David J. The Real Soviet Russia. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1944. $3.50. The workings of the government, of the secret police, of the Army and of the party within the party of workers and peasants.