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Naval Disaster in Newfoundland

By Captain George Stewart, USN (Ret.) This post provides a description of the events surrounding the loss of USS Truxtun (DD 229) and USS Pollux (AKS 2) by grounding off the coast of Newfoundland in February 1942. Because over 200 lives were lost, it is considered to be one of the worst disasters in Naval

BOOK REVIEW – The German and the Austrian Navies: Vol. I and II (Second Edition)

Reviewed by Captain Winn Price, U.S. Navy Reserve (Retired) A couple of years ago, I reviewed the first edition of Marc Nonnenkamp’s two volume set, The German and the Austrian Navies. In my previous review, I highlighted many admirable qualities of these two volumes: 1) The comprehensive coverage of every ship that served in the

BOOK REVIEW – Cushing’s Coup: The True Story of How Lt. Col. James Cushing and His Filipino Guerrillas Captured Japan’s Plan Z and Changed the Course of the Pacific War

By Dirk Barreveld, Casement Publishers, Havertown, PA (2015) Reviewed by Nathan Albright Every once in a while there is a book about a forgotten or neglected aspect of World War II history that makes a reader wonder why this story has not been turned into a movie.  Cushing’s Coup is one of those books, managing

BOOK REVIEW – Big Gun Battles: Warship Duels of the Second World War

By Robert C. Stern, Seaforth Publishing, Pen & Sword Books Ltd, Barnsley, South Yorkshire England, (2015) Reviewed by Ed Calouro Robert C. Stern has added yet another authoritative work to his long list of titles about naval warfare written over the past thirty years. Having examined submarines, destroyers, aircraft carriers, kamikazes, and the U.S. Navy

BOOK REVIEW – Airpower Reborn: The Strategic Concepts of John Warden and John Boyd

Edited by John Andreas Olsen, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2015) Reviewed by Colonel Curt Marsh, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve (Retired) Airpower Reborn is an excellent update on strategic concepts and theory with an emphasis on airpower’s strategic usefulness. Although this book is a part of a new History of Military Aviation series edited by

BOOK REVIEW – Long Night of the Tankers: Hitler’s War Against Caribbean Oil

By David J. Bercuson and Holger H. Herwig, University of Calgary Press, Calgary, Alberta, Canada (2014) Reviewed by Diana L. Ahmad, Ph.D. All the action in World War II did not take place in Europe, North Africa, or the Pacific.  David J. Bercuson and Holger H. Herwig thoroughly explained how Hitler’s Kreigsmarine endangered the course

BOOK REVIEW – General Henry Lockwood of Delaware; Shipmate of Melville, Co-builder of the Naval Academy, Civil War Commander

By Lloyd J. Matthews, University of Delaware Press, Newark, DE (2014) Reviewed by Nathan D. Wells Those who watch the annual Army-Navy football game and be not a bit awestruck by the competing corps of cadets and midshipmen might not realize that these two friendly rival institutions have an interesting connection. Henry Lockwood was an

BOOK REVIEW – Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor

By James M. Scott, W.W. Norton & Company, New York (2015) Reviewed by John R. Satterfield, DBA In the spring of 1992 at my local airport, two B-25 bombers landed and taxied to the FBO to refuel. I found out that they were headed to Washington, DC, for a low-level flight down the Mall to

BOOK REVIEW – The Myth of the Press Gang: Volunteers, Impressment, and the Naval Manpower Problem in the Eighteenth Century

By J. Ross Dancy, Boydell Press Woodbridge, Suffolk, England (2015) Reviewed by Mark Lardas If you rely on nautical fiction or even some histories (John Masefield’a among them), you might believe the Royal Navy of the Age of Fighting Sail was mainly composed of impressed men, with many – if not most – conscripts being

BOOK REVIEW – Coffins of the Brave: Lake Shipwrecks of the War of 1812

Edited by Kevin J. Crisman, Texas A&M University Press. College Station, TX (2014) Reviewed by James P. Delgado. Ph.D. Large in size and large in scope, Coffins of the Brave is a tour de force.  Published in 2014 to coincide with the bicentennial of the end of the War of 1812, this 415-page opus reflects

An American Inferno over Vietnam: Violent Skies Symposium Recap

“To the fair world: and heedless of repose We climb’d, he first, I following his steps, Till on our view the beautiful lights of Heaven Dawn’d through a circular opening in the cave: Thence issuing we again beheld the stars.” – Inferno, Canto XXXIV (Dante Alighieri) They were your friends and neighbors in your hometown.

PRESS RELEASE – Violent Skies Joint Symposium to Close with keynote speaker Jim Knotts, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                     October 5, 2015 Media Contact: Sarah Maguire  (703) 649-2781 [email protected] (DUMFRIES, Va.) – The organizers of the Violent Skies: Air War over Vietnam conference being held at National Defense University on October 15-16, 2015 (www.violentskies.org) are pleased to announce that Mr. Jim

Historical “Murderer’s Row” Photograph at Ulithi Update

We have received some updates from a blog post written in July 2012. The original article, “Looking for Assistance on WWII Ship Recognition at Ulithi Atoll,” caught the eye of David Stubblebine, a contributor to the World War II Database. According to Stubblebine, he cross examined several war diaries with a berthing chart of the

Death and Rebirth: 2015 McMullen Naval History Symposium Recap

  By Matthew T. Eng In his introduction to the 1995 essay collection Doing Naval History, Naval War College Professor Dr. John B. Hattendorf discussed the (then) current state of naval history. Using information gathered at the 1993 Yale-Naval War College conference, Dr. Hattendorf noted the dangers of moving forward in the field: “While there

A Conversation with Knox Award Winners

This past Friday, the Naval Historical Foundation held a special banquet honoring the myriad accomplishments of this year’s Commodore Dudley W. Knox in Annapolis, Maryland. The banquet also served as the final event of this year’s McMullen Naval History Symposium. Two of this year’s recipients, LCDR Thomas J. Cutler and Dr. Kenneth J. Hagan, were