Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: wodin

Can I just reiterate...Helion Publishing is a publisher of quality. I've yet to read a book published by them that has disappointed me in any way what so ever. Infact most of my favourite reads have been published by Helion. SO if you like the look of a book and it's published by Helion I say GET IT!

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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ORIGINAL: warspite1

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ORIGINAL: warspite1

I've started reading The Naval War in the Baltic 1939-45 (Grooss)

Okay start - the author writes in a clearly understandable and easy to read way, but he's spent the first chapter giving a very potted history of countries that border the Baltic Sea. Not uninteresting in itself, but too little to be really useful and so not really sure that this was needed.

I read on.....

warspite1

Given all the talk of Dunkirk and, having fired up Decisive Campaigns: Warsaw to Paris for the first time, I think I will put this on hold and head back to the Western Front 1940 stylee.

To that end I have just started Dunkirk the Patriotic Myth (Harman).

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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ORIGINAL: Zorch

Two forthcoming books - 'Neglected Skies: The Demise of British Naval Power in the Far East, 1922–42 '.

'Neglected Skies uses a reconsideration of the clash between the British Eastern Fleet and the Imperial Japanese Navy’s First Air Fleet in the Indian Ocean in April 1942 to draw a larger conclusion about declining British military power in the era. In this book, Angus Britts explores the end of British naval supremacy from an operational perspective. By primarily analyzing the evolution of British naval aviation during the interwar period, as well as the challenges that the peacetime Royal Navy was forced to confront, a picture emerges of a battle fleet that entered the war in September 1939 unready for combat.
By examining the development of Japan’s first-strike carrier battle group, the Kido Butai, Britts charts both the rise of Japan as a wartime power as well as the demise of the Royal Navy. Japan, by concentrating their six largest aircraft-carriers into a single strike force with state-of-the-art aircraft, had taken a quantum leap forward in warfighting at sea. Simultaneously, British forces found themselves outmatched in this Eastern theatre and Britts makes the case, by looking at a set of key battles, that this is where the global supremacy of Britain’s naval power ended.'

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'Eastern Theatre …that is where the Global Supremacy of Britain’s naval power ended'

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By primarily analyzing the evolution of British naval aviation during the interwar period,

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as well as the challenges that the peacetime Royal Navy was forced to confront, a picture emerges of a battle fleet that entered the war in September 1939 unready for combat.

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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ORIGINAL: warspite1

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ORIGINAL: Zorch

Two forthcoming books - 'Neglected Skies: The Demise of British Naval Power in the Far East, 1922–42 '.

'Neglected Skies uses a reconsideration of the clash between the British Eastern Fleet and the Imperial Japanese Navy’s First Air Fleet in the Indian Ocean in April 1942 to draw a larger conclusion about declining British military power in the era. In this book, Angus Britts explores the end of British naval supremacy from an operational perspective. By primarily analyzing the evolution of British naval aviation during the interwar period, as well as the challenges that the peacetime Royal Navy was forced to confront, a picture emerges of a battle fleet that entered the war in September 1939 unready for combat.
By examining the development of Japan’s first-strike carrier battle group, the Kido Butai, Britts charts both the rise of Japan as a wartime power as well as the demise of the Royal Navy. Japan, by concentrating their six largest aircraft-carriers into a single strike force with state-of-the-art aircraft, had taken a quantum leap forward in warfighting at sea. Simultaneously, British forces found themselves outmatched in this Eastern theatre and Britts makes the case, by looking at a set of key battles, that this is where the global supremacy of Britain’s naval power ended.'

warspite1

This might be an interesting book. I wonder what ‘set of key battles’ the author is going to look at? But I am not confident that this is going to be looked at in the right way (I hope I'm wrong).

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'Eastern Theatre …that is where the Global Supremacy of Britain’s naval power ended'

Well no, not really. Britain’s naval supremacy ended with Washington (and was going to end even without the WNT). The UK stole a march on everyone with the Industrial revolution. As such she was able to punch above her weight for so long. But by the start of the 20th Century that was long since a thing of the past, and everyone was catching up – or had gone past the UK. Countries were right-sizing. That the UK should maintain naval supremacy forever was not even remotely possible.

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By primarily analyzing the evolution of British naval aviation during the interwar period,

If the evolution of naval aviation is the primary analysis then it’s not clear what this book would add over and above the likes of Friedman’s Fighters over the Fleet and British Carrier Aviation or Hobbs’ British Aircraft Carriers.

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as well as the challenges that the peacetime Royal Navy was forced to confront, a picture emerges of a battle fleet that entered the war in September 1939 unready for combat.

He says battlefleet, but as we know from what happened, we are essentially talking about air power here. Well the Japanese didn’t go to war for more than 2 years after 1939 and I think it’s interesting to look at the World’s navies at that time i.e. not compare the RN 1939 to the IJN 1941. It’s then important to look at things on a level playing field. Doing things that way doesn't alter the outcome - but at least tells the whole story.

Of course it’s true that the RN had been hampered by the Government decision to allow the RAF to control naval aviation. That decision had only recently been reversed when war broke out. The Fleet Air Arm was small in size and with outdated bi-plane aircraft. But what aircraft did the Japanese have aboard their aircraft carriers in 1939? Indeed how many carriers did they have in 1939 (Hiryu had only just been completed when war broke out)? The blurb for the book mentioned the Japanese put their six carriers together (the British were performing multi-carrier exercises long before the Japanese), but the British development in that two year period was somewhat hampered by having three fleet carriers lost and two new armoured carriers put out of action.

The Japanese navy meanwhile were free to develop some excellent naval aircraft over the coming years – while the British were fighting for survival and much effort and resource that would have gone to the FAA was necessarily diverted to the Battle of Britain and elsewhere.

There is also the point that the British and Japanese navies had different needs.

One other point of course. Naval supremacy isn’t just about shiny battleships and sexy aircraft carriers. For an island nation, protection of sea lanes is pretty much top priority. The Japanese maybe should have spent a little bit more time, effort and resource on anti-submarine warfare…..

So yes, the Royal Navy had lost naval supremacy – as a function of the size and economic strength of the UK. But I hope this book attempts to properly explain that there is a whole lot more to the story than that. There was also something of a perfect storm that brewed up. By 1939 the British had at last got around to bringing the RN aircraft carrier fleet up to date with six armoured carriers on order and the RN had taken control of its own aircraft (although the aircraft would take time to develop - and planned stop gap purchases from the US did not come through on time). But the war - a war that was to show the critical importance of dominance of the skies - came about before the inter-war problems could be rectified. While the Japanese had time to develop her carrier fleet, the British were having to crisis manage everything in a bid to stay alive.

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ORIGINAL: warspite1

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ORIGINAL: warspite1

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ORIGINAL: warspite1

I've started reading The Naval War in the Baltic 1939-45 (Grooss)

Okay start - the author writes in a clearly understandable and easy to read way, but he's spent the first chapter giving a very potted history of countries that border the Baltic Sea. Not uninteresting in itself, but too little to be really useful and so not really sure that this was needed.

I read on.....

warspite1

Given all the talk of Dunkirk and, having fired up Decisive Campaigns: Warsaw to Paris for the first time, I think I will put this on hold and head back to the Western Front 1940 stylee.

To that end I have just started Dunkirk the Patriotic Myth (Harman).

warspite1

Well it's good to read books from all sides - but its not necessarily a good thing for the old blood pressure.

First couple of chapters down and I have to say the book is well written, not by any means a difficult read. But clearly the author has a particular weed up his behind and falls over himself to get dig after dig in.

As a classic example, he pointedly refers to the fact that the British did not respond to Queen Wilhelmina's request for assistance... but the French did. But having made that point he then fails to provide any context. He singularly fails to explain that French assistance was all part of Gamelin's disastrous Breda Variant that took away the French 7th Army from the reserves (and that would otherwise have been available to aid the defenders of the Meuse). i.e. the French coming to the aid of the Dutch was already in the plan - not some extra assistance that the French conjured out of thin air

Oh well, I suppose the book helped with his pension planning....

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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ORIGINAL: Yogi the Great

I'm reading "What Book Are You Reading at the moment"

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ORIGINAL: loki100

ok, its not a book as such:

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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ORIGINAL: warspite1

All this talk of who started WWI, I think I'll read The Sleepwalkers (Clark) again. From memory this was quite a slog but ultimately satisfying. The author argues against Fischer's idea (and others) that there was a German plan to start a war and that instead, the politicians of the major powers essentially sleptwalked their way to war...

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ORIGINAL: warspite1

All this talk of who started WWI, I think I'll read The Sleepwalkers (Clark) again. From memory this was quite a slog but ultimately satisfying. The author argues against Fischer's idea (and others) that there was a German plan to start a war and that instead, the politicians of the major powers essentially sleptwalked their way to war...

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ORIGINAL: Jagdtiger14

Ok Warspite, what was it you wanted to discuss? I'll let you start. Can we also not use insulting language towards each other please? Thanks!

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805