Archive Results For: WW1
Book Review-‘Churchill’s Admiral in Two World Wars: Admiral of the Fleet Lord Keyes of Zeebrugge and Dover GCB KCVO CMG DSO’ by J. Crossley
This is the first biography of Roger Keyes for some decades and fills a surprising gap in the literature. Keyes had a hugely successful career and was an archetypal son of the British Empire. Born in India in 1872, where his father was commander of the Punjab Frontier Force, he was one of nine children. […] Read More
Filed under: WW1 | Interwar | WW2
Subjects include: Biography
Book Review-‘The Russian Baltic Fleet in the Time of War and Revolution 1914–1918’ by S. N. Timirev (trs S. Ellis)
The First World War was a turbulent time for the Russian navy, rebuilding after the humiliation of the Russo-Japanese war of 1904–5, engaging with the German navy which was supporting the advance of troops into the imperial Russian territories of Lithuania and Latvia, and finally being debilitated by the effects of the 1917 revolution. A […] Read More
Filed under: Baltic | WW1
Subjects include: Biography | Navies
Book Review-‘The Kaiser’s U-Boat Assault on America: Germany’s great war gamble in the First World War, by H. J. Koerver
This book by Hans Joachim Koerver is a welcome new addition to histories of the first U-boat war. This is the author’s fifth book to examine aspects of this period. His first three were edited reprints of key Room 40/ NID (Naval Intelligence Division) documents housed at the National Archives, Kew. This included publication in […] Read More
Filed under: WW1
Subjects include: Strategy & Diplomacy | Submarines
Book Review-‘ Silver State Dreadnought: The remarkable story of battleship ‘Nevada’’ by S. M. Younger
USS Nevada was one of the first of a new generation of American dreadnoughts. She and her half-sister Oklahoma pioneered ‘all or nothing’ protection and oil burning as designed. She had turbines, but the US Navy was still worried about potential range disadvantages of these power plants and thus made Oklahoma a reciprocating engined vessel, […] Read More
Filed under: WW1 | WW2 | Post WW2
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Navies | Shipbuilding & Design
Book Review-‘British Dockyards in the First World War: Transactions of the Naval Dockyards Society Volume 12’ by P. MacDougall (ed.)
In his post-war study of the First World War, The World In Crisis (vol. 1, 1911–14) the former First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, observed drily that during the ‘naval scare’ of 1909, ‘The Admiralty had demanded six ships; the economists offered four; and we finally compromised on eight.’ This was a response to […] Read More
Filed under: WW1
Subjects include: Harbours & Dockyards
Book Review-‘How the Navy Won the War: The real instrument of victory, 1914–1918’ by J. Ring
Debates over what role British seapower might play in a European conflict long preceded the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. The idea that sea power might enable Britain to limit her military commitment to the Continent remained an alluring prospect throughout the conflict, and has proven no less attractive to many commentators […] Read More
Filed under: WW1
Subjects include: Navies
Book Review-‘The United States Merchant Marine in WorldWar I: Ships, crews, shipbuilders and operators’ by G. H. Williams
This book aims to provide the first complete overview of the American Merchant Marine in the First World War. The author has drawn on contemporary newspapers, magazines, trade publications and official records to trace the history of how America responded as a neutral power in trading through a war zone and then the official response […] Read More
Filed under: WW1
Subjects include: Merchant Marines
Book Review-‘Mr Midshipman VC: The short accident-prone life of George Drewry, Gallipoli hero’ by Q. Falk
I must be getting old. It took two days for the penny to drop, before I ‘twigged’ the derivation of the title, connecting it to Marryat’s immortal midshipman. This is not an academic biography. Rather it is more like one of those boy’s books, by G.A. Henty or Percy F. Westerman, which encouraged all right-minded […] Read More
Filed under: WW1
Subjects include: Biography
Book Review-‘U.S. Marine Corps Women’s Reserve ‘They Are Marines’: Uniforms and equipment in WorldWar II’ by J. Moran
The United States Marine Corps has a mantra ‘First to Fight.’ They are also ‘Last to Adapt’ having been traditionally resistant to societal changes. Reportedly, the former Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Joseph F. Dunford, who just retired as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was the sole service head to oppose […] Read More
Filed under: WW1 | Interwar | WW2
Subjects include: Miscellaneous
Book Review-‘After Jutland: The naval war in northern European waters June 1916–November 1918’ by J. Goldrick
Rear-Admiral James Goldrick combines enormous experience as a serving officer at sea and ashore with a well-earned reputation as a first-rate naval historian. Recently he rewrote one of his early works, The Kings Ships Were at Sea, as a more comprehensive and deeply and maturely analysed Before Jutland covering naval operations in northern European waters, […] Read More
Filed under: WW1
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics