With a provocative title, the fast-paced novel captures the reader from the first page and offers an elaborate plot, capitalizing on relevant NATO concerns over Russian ambitions toward the Baltic States. The novel unfolds scene-by-scene, like a novel ready-made screenplay. The chapters are short and driven by character and plot development. There is just enough
This massive book is obviously a labor of love on the part of the author. Much of it is formatted like a scrapbook, covering almost thirty years of naval history. The book covers: Tunny’s operations in World War II, where the boat was honored by earning two Presidential Unit Citations, making it one of the
Many people find reading about pirates in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries exciting and romantic. Pirate Hunter takes a different approach with Captain Woodes Rogers challenging those buccaneers for profit and fame, as well as efforts to enhance Great Britain’s power. Most people likely know Rogers as the captain who rescued Alexander Selkirk in 1709
Anybody that needs to move themselves or some object, are required by nature to navigate to some degree. The early true history of navigation, however, is conjecture at best. Since navigation gives the appearance of an inherent trait to humans, we tend to take it for granted as it is just something they do. As
In his influential 1997 book Dereliction of Duty, H.R. McMaster described the Joint Chiefs of Staff as “Five Silent Men” who acquiesced to a gradual escalation of the conflict in Vietnam without a clear vision of how military action would secure American policy aims. The Greene Papers, Nicholas Schlosser’s carefully curated selection of General Wallace
Peter D. Shay’s outstanding freshman effort is both a personal and institutional history of a small tactical Navy helicopter unit in Vietnam, HA(L)-3 “Seawolves,” that reads fast and furious, but not without a penchant for details. The story is an exciting for read for any aviation enthusiast or military historian. The Navy’s only “brown water”
Bouko de Groot’s Dutch Navies of the 80 Years War, 1568-1648 provides a thoughtful exploration into a lesser-known historical period, with insights into the critical years of formative Dutch history culminating in the breakaway from Spain and creation of the subsequent United Provinces of the Netherlands. As the title suggests, this work focuses on the
This brief volume about the role of the United States Navy on the rivers and canals of Vietnam is a wonderful addition to the historiography about the war in Southeast Asia. Filled with photographs and original works of art by Navy personnel, the faces of the war are presented in a way that makes the
Robert Brown’s German Destroyers is an impressively concise work which expertly details the Kriegsmarine’s destroyer classes of World War II in such a manner as to please the historian, ship modeler and naval enthusiast simultaneously in a thoughtful and energetic presentation well supported by a range of varying images. Brown divides the 64-page book into
No name is more synonymous with the Cold War battle for intelligence between the United States and the Soviet Union than Frances Gary Powers. The May 1960 shoot down of a U-2 over the Soviet Union removed the veil of secrecy of the airplane’s existence and chilled already frosty relations between geopolitical competitors. The pilot’s
Aaron S. Hamilton earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in History in 1995 at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia and calls himself an avocational historian and amateur maritime archaeologist. Hamilton has spent more than twenty years working with primary source documents related to the last year of World War II. His thesis was on
Philip Kaplan is a well-established author with some forty titles spanning aviation, naval and general military subjects such as Wolfpack, Chariots of Fire, Little Friends, Grey Wolves and One Last Look. In this work, [apparently] the second Kaplan wrote for the “Building for Battle” series from Pen & Sword, he tackles the subject of the
The author is a retired military officer (Brig. Gen. Delaware Air National Guard, Retired) a native of Newark, Delaware, a third generation Delaware Guardsman, and a career Air Force veteran. A graduate of the University of Delaware, General Wiggins also holds a Master’s degree from National Defense University in National Resource Strategy. He is a
If the employment of destroyers during peace time and war time is of interest to you, this is a must-read book. The authors have crafted one of the finest ship histories this reviewer has encountered. HMS Venomous was one of the 67 V and W class destroyers built by the Royal Navy during the last
The story of the Royal Navy during World War II often centers around one of the five battleships of the King George V Class (KGV): HMS King George V, HMS Prince of Wales, HMS Duke of York, HMS Anson, and HMS Howe. The author of this book has crafted a tour de force that examines
