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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 – 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

In Just Two Simple Paragraphs

By Stewart Milstein Universal Ship Cancellation Society It is a simple penny postcard without a return address. It was mailed on Nov 8, 1939 and bears a USS Guam (PR-3) cancel with the location Wanhsein between the killer bars. The card is addressed to Helen Bloomer of Eagle Rock, CA (A neighborhood of Northeast Los Angeles).

BOOK REVIEW – We are Sinking, Send Help!

By Commander David D. Bruhn, U.S.Navy (Retired), Heritage Books, Berwyn Heights, MD (2015) Reviewed by David Kronenfeld We are Sinking, Send Help! presents readers with a well laid out chronology of US Navy salvage vessels and their contributions to the African, Mediterranean and European theaters of battle during World War II. Commander Bruhn carries the

BOOK REVIEW – The Ship That Wouldn’t Die: The Saga of the USS Neosho and a World War II Story of Courage and Survival at Sea

By Don Keith, Penguin Group, New York, NY (2015) Reviewed by Michael F. Solecki During the Battle of Coral Sea in May 1942, the Japanese sank Neosho and her escort Sims. A sidebar of the battle until recently, the sinking of these two ships developed into a fascinating story of survival and heroism. I am

BOOK REVIEW – The Battle for Britain: Interservice Rivalry between the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy, 1909-40

By Anthony J. Cumming, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2015) Reviewed by Rear Admiral W. J. Holland, Jr. USN (Ret) Subtitled Interservice Rivalry between the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy, 1909-1940, Cumming takes up the cudgel he previously wielded in The Royal Navy and the Battle of Britain to beat Air Marshall Hugh

2015 Beach Award Winners Chronicle Battle off Samar

Executive Director Captain Todd Creekman joined Ingrid Beach, wife of the late Captain Edward L. Beach, Jr., a naval historian, author, and long-time NHF board member, to present Midshipman Dana Petersen and Midshipman Philip Youngberg with the Captain Edward L. Beach, Jr. Naval History Award at the United States Naval Academy’s annual History Department Awards

The Battleship Guns at NASA’s AMES Research Center

By Matthew T. Eng Battleship guns helped win the Second World War. What about the race to the moon? Bob Fish, author and USS Hornet Museum trustee, recently visited NASA’s AMES Research Center in Sunnyvale, CA, to investigate the possibility of cooperation and collaboration of STEM-related programming. While there, Bob visited the Hypervelocity Flight Test Facility

BOOK REVIEW – Edge of Valor

By John J Gobbell, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2014) Reviewed by Commander George Wallace, U.S. Navy (Retired) If you have read the first four books in the Todd Ingram series, you will have followed Commander Ingram’s World War II exploits from the siege of Corregidor, through Guadalcanal and the Solomons to the Indian Ocean

Ditty Bag: Japanese Navy Minister Flag

Ditty Bag: Collections of the Naval Historical Foundation An Artifact and Collections Blog Series Imperial Japanese Navy Minister Flag The Meiji Restoration saw an end to the Tokugawa shogunate rule of the Edo period in favor of imperial rule in Japan. The implementation of new political structures drastically changed the methods of military decisions and

Ditty Bag: Vanguard Shoulder Boards

Ditty Bag: Collections of the Naval Historical Foundation An Artifact and Collections Blog Series From Dock to Deck: Vanguard Shoulder Boards Bernard Gershen, a Polish tailor, immigrated to the United States in 1903. Settling in New York City, the tailor stayed in southern Manhattan as he sought work in his trade. Gershen furthered his stitching

“FLIVVERS – THE FIRST STEAM TURBINE DRIVEN DESTROYERS

By George Stewart A “flivver” is an American slang term used in the early twentieth century to refer to any small car that gave a rough ride. These “flivvers” were primarily small, inexpensive and old. In the context of the United States Navy, “flivvers” refer to the two specific classes of destroyers that entered service

BOOK REVIEW – The Admirals’ Advantage: U.S. Navy Operational Intelligence in World War II and the Cold War

Written by Christopher Ford and David Rosenberg, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2014) Reviewed by John R. Satterfield, DBA This paperback reissue is the outgrowth of a series of operational intelligence (OPINTEL) “Lessons Learned” studies by Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) reserve units conducted between 1994 and 2004. It also includes as well as a

Born on the Seventh of December: The Significance of a Pearl Harbor Birthday

By Matthew T. Eng There are some things in life we cannot change. As hard as we try, time ceaselessly moves alongside absolutes such as the changing of seasons or the color of the sky. You can even set your watch to the inexorability of afternoon traffic on the DC beltway. Of all these constants