By Ronald S. Coddington, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD (2016) Review by Thomas P. Ostrom Ronald S. Coddington has chronicled the lives of dozens of Confederate and Union sailors in the War of the Rebellion (1861-1865) in his magnificent photographic and narrative history. In the Foreword, Professor Craig L. Symonds traced the general backgrounds
BOOK REVIEW – Implacable Foes, War in The Pacific, 1944-1945
By Waldo Heinrichs and Marc Gallicchio, Oxford University Press, New York, NY (2017) Reviewed by Capt. Howard R. Portnoy, USN (Ret.) With the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II approaching, it seems an appropriate time to reexamine our perceptions of the war to determine if revisions are necessary. It appears reasonable to
2017 Knox Naval History Award Winners Announced
By Dr. David F. Winkler In 2013, the Naval Historical Foundation (NHF) initiated the Commodore Dudley W. Knox Award to acknowledge a lifetime body of work that embraces scholarship, leadership, and mentoring in the field of naval history. The inaugural presentation during the 2013 Naval Academy McMullen Naval History Symposium included Dr. Phillip Lundeberg, Dr.
BOOK REVIEW – Fw 200 Condor Units of World War 2
By Chris Goss, Osprey Publishing, New York, NY (2016) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter Mersky, USNR (Ret.) This new book details one of World War II’s least known but, at the time, most efficient aircraft, if only for its psychological effect on allied, especially British, morale. For approximately three years, the Condor patrolled the convoy routes
BOOK REVIEW – Chinese Naval Shipbuilding: An Ambitious and Uncertain Course
Andrew S. Erickson, Ed. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2016) Reviewed by Dwayne Day, Ph.D. On April 26, China’s first indigenously-built aircraft carrier, still lacking a name, slipped into the sea. The smart-looking vessel bears a strong resemblance to China’s only operational carrier, built by the Soviets and bought from Ukraine. This new ship will
Never Call Me a Hero: An Interview with Author Laura Orr
By Matthew T. Eng The Naval Historical Foundation is gearing up for our annual meeting on Saturday, 3 June. This year’s focus will be the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway. Our guest speaker this year will be Dr. Timothy Orr, co-author of Never Call Me a Hero: A Legendary American Dive-Bomber Pilot Remembers
BOOK REVIEW – Route 9 Problem: The Battle for Lang Vei
By Dave Stockwell, Book Publishers Network (2016) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter B Mersky, USN (Ret.) The Vietnam War (roughly 1964-1973) was not only a series of albeit hard-fought, bloody aerial campaigns by aircrews who flew from hot, humid airfields throughout Southeast Asia, or the equally hot, humid undulating flight decks of Seventh Fleet carriers in
BOOK REVIEW – Fort Enterprize
By Kevin Emmet Foley, Hellgate Press, Ashland, OR (2016) Reviewed by William H. White Fort Enterprize is listed and sold as “historical fiction.” It is certainly fiction, but its historical claim leaves much to be desired. When a writer injects a fictitious character or several into an accurately portrayed historical context, it’s historical fiction; when
2017 NHF Annual Meeting
Sat, June 3, 2017 11:00 AM – 2:30 PM EDT Cold War Gallery, Washington Navy Yard Join with other members as we commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway and celebrate the character and courage of the greatest generation. In addition to the business portion of our agenda, we have a special program
BOOK REVIEW – America’s Sailors in the Great War: Seas, Skies, and Submarines
By Lisle A. Rose, University of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO (2016) Reviewed by Capt. Andrew C. A. Jampoler, USN (Ret.) Dr. Lisle Rose has taken on a challenge in this, his seventh book for the U. of M. Press. This history of U.S. Navy operations during World War I rightly begins by explaining that the
BOOK REVIEW – Tin Can Titans
By John Wukovits, Da Capo Press, Boston, MA (2017) Reviewed by Charles Bogart The U.S. Navy’s World War II operational history in the Pacific is the story of destroyers, Tin Cans, engaging Japanese surface ships, submarines, and airplanes. The author, within the pages of this book, allows the reader to become part of the ships
BOOK REVIEW – Killing Sharks: De Profundis
By Eric Wentz, Tate Publishing, Mustang, OK (2013) Reviewed by Capt. Ralph L. DeFalco III, USN (Ret.) A novel in the best tradition of the works of Frederick Forsyth and Dan Brown, Killing Sharks: De Profundis by Eric Wentz is a thriller that takes the reader from the desolate mountains of the FATA on the
BOOK REVIEW – Fighters Over the Fleet: Naval Air Defence from Biplanes to the Cold War
By Norman Friedman, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2016) Reviewed by Corbin Williamson, Ph.D. Fighters Over the Fleet takes prolific author Norman Friedman into one of the few areas of naval weaponry he has not previously examined.[1] Building on his earlier work on aircraft carrier development with Thomas Hone and Mark Mandeles as well as Freidman’s
Operation Praying Mantis: An Enterprise Combat Mission
In April 1988, Cdr. Arthur N. Langston was embarked on the carrier Enterprise – his first deployment on the famed carrier – and recalled how naval aviation came into play during Operation Praying Mantis. On April 14, the frigate Samuel B. Roberts struck an Iranian-laid mine in the Persian Gulf. In retaliation, on April 18,
BOOK REVIEW – The First Fight: U.S. Marines in Operation Starlite, August 1965
By Rod Andrew Jr., Marine Corps University, History Division, Quantico, VA (2015) Reviewed by Timothy Heck Colonel Rod Andrew’s The First Fight is part of a larger official commemorative effort dedicated to the Marine Corps’ involvement in Southeast Asia from the early 1960s until 1975. This pamphlet history by Marine Corps University is a concise
