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Inaugural Dunn Prize Winners Announced
This year, the Naval Historical Foundation launched the Vice Admiral Robert F. Dunn NROTC History Essay Competition to select the best essays written for the “Introduction to Sea Power” course at units around the nation. The Naval Historical Foundation has a long record of recognizing naval history excellence from middle school students at National History
Bats Against the Axis PART IV: 11 Days in September
A Four-Part Blog Series By Matthew T. Eng Baseball in Norfolk radically changed the lives of the countless sailors stationed there during World War II. As a means of diversion, sailors at NTS Norfolk created their own private baseball utopia amidst the horrors of war waiting for them in the European and Pacific Theaters. The
Bats Against the Axis PART III: The Beginning of a Rivalry
A Four-Part Blog Series By Matthew T. Eng Baseball in Norfolk radically changed the lives of the countless sailors stationed there during World War II. As a means of diversion, sailors at NTS Norfolk created their own private baseball utopia amidst the horrors of war waiting for them in the European and Pacific Theaters. Part
Bats Against the Axis PART II: King McClure and His Loyal Subjects
Baseball in Norfolk radically changed the lives of the countless sailors stationed there during World War II. As a means of diversion, sailors at NTS Norfolk created their own private baseball utopia amidst the horrors of war waiting for them in the European and Pacific Theaters. Part two of the four part series. READ PART
Bats Against the Axis: Diversion, Community, and Heritage at the 1943 Navy World Series (PART I)
A Four-Part Blog Series By Matthew T. Eng In the summer of 1943, the best baseball in the United States was played in Norfolk, VA. Unfortunately, you couldn’t just buy any ticket to see diamond stars like Fred Hutchinson, Dom DiMaggio, and Phil Rizzuto play that year – you had to enlist. This four part
The Anchored Roots of Naval History: American Export Explores Storied Family Past at Navy Department Library
By Matthew T. Eng “Every family has a history. Every family has a story. This helps explain why you are the way you are.” It’s fall here in Washington, D.C. The hot summer heat and brown grass are finally giving way to cooler temperatures and changing leaves. For some, this pleasant change in weather can
BOOK REVIEW – THE ROYAL NAVY – A History Since 1900
By Duncan Redford and Philip D. Grove, I. B. Tauris, London, England (2014) Reviewed by Charles Bogart The book under review is the fourteenth book within the A History of the Royal Navy series sponsored by The National Museum, Royal Navy Section. The authors of this large book attempt to do the impossible: tell the
BOOK REVIEW – Star-Spangled Sailors – A Novel of the Brave Watermen Defenders of Chesapeake Bay in the War of 1812
By Carey Roberts, Self-Published, 2011 Reviewed by David K. Hildebrand, Ph.D. Historical fiction provides a compelling call for the reader to go well beyond traditional history. I for one have been long happy to absorb the facts, theories, and analyses often well crafted into secondary sources, such as Steve Vogel’s excellent telling of the near cataclysmic
BOOK REVIEW – Q Ship VS U-Boat: 1914-18
By David Greentree, Osprey Publishing, New York, NY (2014) Reviewed by Sam Craghead With its dependency on merchant ship deliveries, the success of German U-Boats caused grave danger to Great Britain’s lifeline of food and supplies. Created as a countermeasure to the German submarines during World War I, service on a Q Ship became one of
BOOK REVIEW – Into the Dark Water: The Story of the Officers of PT 109
By John J. Domagalski, Casemate Publishers, Havertown, PA 2014 Reviewed by: Tim McGrath Mention PT 109 to the “Greatest Generation” and “Baby Boomers” and you will conjure up a slew of memories: the tie-clips worn by men working for John F. Kennedy in the White House, the bestselling book by Robert J. Donovan, and the
BOOK REVIEW – Voyage to Gallipoli
By Peter Plowman, Rosenberg Publishing/Transpress, Australia (2013) Reviewed by Michael Wynd Just in time for the beginning of the First World War centennial commemoration in Australia and New Zealand, Peter Plowman has produced a work on the transports that took the Anzacs to Gallipoli. Although he has previously published a general work on troopships, Voyage
BOOK REVIEW – A History of the Royal Navy: The Napoleonic Wars
By Martin Robson, I. B. Tauris, London, England (2014) Reviewed by Mark Lardas Every century or so, the British write a quasi-official, multi-volume, comprehensive history of the Royal Navy. The turn of the twentieth century saw publication of the seven-volume The Royal Navy: A History from Earliest Times to the Present edited by the inimitable
BOOK REVIEW – World War I for Kids: A History with 21 Activities
By R. Kent Rasmussen, Chicago Review Press, Inc., Chicago, IL (2014) Reviewed by Jim McClelland Kent Rasmussen, a well-known author who has written or edited more than twenty books, recently produced World War I for Kids. He is best known for the award-winning book, The United States at War, as well as many volumes on
The New Naval History in the Digital Frontier
In September 2013, I presented a paper at the 2013 McMullen Naval History Symposium. My paper analyzed the Confederate Navy in public memory and commemoration. The panel my colleagues and I submitted to the conference discussed the various roles Confederate naval forces played during the American Civil War. Unlike my fellow panelists, the majority of
