Naval History

The popularity of the sea romances by С S Forester, Dudley Pope, Alexander Kent, Patrick O'Brian and so on, indicates that many people are fascinated by the story of the 'wooden walls' and the men who sailed them. Reading these may prompt one to wonder about the exact manner in which things were managed aboard the old sailing man-of-war.

How exactly was the anchor weighed, how was sail trimmed to best advantage, how did one heave to, and so on? A good deal of information about this sort of thing is to be found in the textbooks used by the young gentlemen who attended the naval schools in the 1800s, the most systematic and comprehensive accounts being in languages other than English. Seamanship was, and is, for the most part a practical subject, learnt primarily by doing rather than reading, and there was no overwhelming need to commit everything to paper. These accounts were written to complement rather than supplant practical instruction, and some technical points which are skated over because they were self-evident at the time, are often quite obscure to the modern reader.

There are, moreover, formidable problems with some technical terms, since not all are to be found in the modern standard dictionaries. Initially, struggling with the blurred Gothic characters of a page of archaic Swedish, was like trying to decipher a passage in Minoan Linear B. Gradually, however, I was able to get things pretty well sorted out and reading through this material became relatively straightforward...

This publication contains the detailed analysis of the primary documentation from both the USN and Japanese on the famous naval Battle off Samar on October 25, 1944. It is the great work and the must have book for naval historians. The author looks at the action of that battle in a very detailed manner and the text of the book supplemented with a great number of historical photographs.

The chronological analysis performed within this work is very accurate and is not just the evaluation of the battle but rather a minute-by-minute description of the events that took place in the course of the battle. The book shall be treated as the essential reading not only for naval historians but for everyone seriously interested in battleship combats of the past. The approach to the presentation of information applied by Robert Lundgren, who is the author of this title, allows the readers to witness the battle as if they really participated in it.

The content of the book has been arranged in pretty chronological order but the author switches from one vessel to another, covering both American and Japanese ships. He has also provided readers with the charts of the tracks for the ships fighting on both sides, and this has been greatly appreciated by the lovers of naval history, both professionals and enthusiasts.

Addressing a meeting of the British Association in April 1891, the veteran traveler and photographer John L A Thomson gave a ringing declaration of faith in the importance of photography as a recorder of history's onward march. Looking hack on the great figures of history, he bemoaned the lack of accurate images of their features and the world in which they lived.

But at last technology had caught up with the great feats of the human spirit, and at tin-high noon of Victorian endeavor photography was on hand to bear witness to the inexorable surge of achievement: 'We are now making history, and the sun picture supplies a means of passing down a record of what we are, and what we have achieved in this nineteenth century of our progress.'

The art and science of photography was half a century old when Thomson made these remarks and the industrial nations of the world were climbing towards a peak of maritime and economic expansion. In the minds of men like Thomson, the camera's impartial eye, guided and controlled by the skill and discrimination of the photographer, would serve to document this growth, the industries and triumphs, the men of mark and a civilizing mission to the world at large.

The naval ships of the German Navy fleet that participated in the Second World War are deservedly treated as one of the most popular subjects in the whole naval history, and the present publication compiled jointly by Klaus-Peter Schmolke and Gerhard Koop has been already appreciated by all naval enthusiasts and found to be one of the best collections available.

In fact, it is one out of the six volumes prepared by these authors, with each of the volumes dedicated to one particular class of ships. This book addresses the Deutschland class warships. It provides readers with the finely detailed technical description of the warship, outline of the services and numerous informative and perfectly illustrated ship plans, maps of the naval battles and quite substantial collection of photos. Apart from the professional naval historians, the book will be of great use for the ship modelers who are willing to build a model of the Deutschland/Lutzow class and require a good pictorial reference.

The texts and statistics presented by the authors are very informative and useful. Note that the drawings included in the book are very correct and the main content starts with some general historical overview, followed by the chapters on the operational life of the vessels and the overview of the overall success of those ships.

This book written by the Professor Michael B. Miller offers readers completely new framework for understanding globalization process which took place over the past century. The author shows how the maritime infrastructure of Europe made modern consumer and production possible, through a highly detailed analysis of the maritime ports, shipping and trading companies operating worldwide.

In his publication, the author also did his best to explain how and why the ability to manage the logistics was affecting the outcome of both world wars. The publication will give reader a truly superb account of the European maritime history as well as the one of globalization, it may be treated as the very valuable addition to the scholarship on this subject as it is full of the information and debate. The volume starts with a new perspective on the globalization that took place in the historical periods of XIX-XX centuries mainly focusing on the European maritime shipping, cargo transportation, ports and trades, and also all networks linking them.

One of the main objectives of this book was to conduct a thorough and deep research in the information contained in the official archives in the several countries. The book also contains the detailed discussion of the relationships between the local and global and will therefore be of interest for the historians of globalization.

This monograph prepared by William Kirkland was specifically published to provide all interested parties with the first hand information relating to the Destroyer Squadron 18 which participated in the critically important naval battle upon which the overall success of the Europe campaign depended. The experience at Omaha Beach could be viewed as typical of most United States naval ships that were engaged at Normandy.

From the other side, it appears quite clear from the thorough research conducted by the author, that this squadron together with the British counterparts, had a major influence on the breakout and the overall success of the naval campaign that followed and realized. Subject contributions have certainly provided a sound basis for the discussion to be held among the veterans of that war and for the future researches to be performed by the war historians, and also as a professional account of the naval actions supporting the Normandy landings.

The story told by the author reports on the events that took place at the Omaha Beach as they were seen from the ashore/afloat and illuminated by the eyewitnesses. The main declared objective of this report was to intimate the relationships between the soldiers of both First and Twenty-Ninth Divisions that really helped make that glorious victory possible.

The book by the world recognized expert in the field, Lawrence Paterson tells its readers the full and true story of the very last days of the famous U-boats, shedding some light on how their surrender has been accomplished. The author has performed a very thorough and meticulous research when working on the content of his book. The author is reporting in the experience of numerous surrendered U-boats.

He has also addressed the destruction of the U-boats of the German fleet after the war as well as the disposition of some not scuttled U-boats. The publication presents a readable account of the above mentioned boats and will be appreciated by all naval historians; note, however, that the information contained in the volume will also be useful for the novices willing to develop a strong knowledge of the subject.

Apart from the information presented in the form of the text, there are more than hundred photographs. This is a must for the serious collectors of the books on naval history and it has been positively met by all other readers, as well. In fact, the main intention of the author of this volume was to uncover some new material relating to the process surrender process and how this was actually handled...

First of all, it should be noted that the present title is not actually intended to mislead readers into considering it a serious work of naval history. Ron Cope, the author of the volume, leaves that to those with far more professional abilities than he would claim to have. However, he believes it should be considered as being the first definitive record of accounts from those who were actually involved in the First British Battle of Narvik.

It comprises their own experiences regarding how they managed to survive after the battle and also escape capture by the enemy. The author's position is that he cannot vouch that all the accounts are fully factual although from the sheer volume that we have been able to gather, there must be a lot of truth. However, he can definitely confirm the crew members of the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla were there and during the ensuing years were still able to describe what they had witnessed.

In addition, the author had to accept that all the information obtained by him from the crew members' families and friends, passed on either verbally or in the form of paper documents or tape records, is indeed true and fully correct. His efforts has eventually resulted in this perfectly researched and informative publication providing readers with the insightful and important content.