A Great War Novel

I just finished The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Montsarrat. This is a novel about small escorts in the Battle of the Atlantic told mainly through the eyes and experiences of two officers; LTCDR Ericson, Commander of HMS Compass Rose a brand new “Flower-class” corvette and Lockhart a newly minted RNVR Sub-LT also appointed to HMS Compass Rose. The book follows the careers of the two men through the entire war.

The book is extremely well written and absolutely enthralling. Monsarrat has an outstanding ability to describe the environment so vividly as to almost make you feel like you are there. His descriptions of the difficulties of life about a cold, wet, corvette that would “roll on wet grass” during the height of Atlantic winter gales will almost leave you shivering. The scenes he draws of the horrors of submarine warfare and the plight of the merchant and escort crews whose ships are torpedoed out from under them will, if you’re anything like me, remain with you for the rest of your life.

In fact, reading  Monsarrat at a young age caused quite a bit of cognitive dissonance in how I viewed American submariners such as Mush Morton, Sam Dealy and Dick O’Kane whose exploits I had read of and appreciated before reading this book. I wonder if there is such literature recounting the Japanese experience with American submarines?

At any rate, this is a first class book, I can’t recommend it highly enough. It is one I take down from book shelf and read every couple of years.

5 for the year.

An Overview of Union Littoral Warfare

Just finished STRANGLING THE CONFEDERACY: Coastal Operations in the American Civil War by Kevin Dougherty. This is a slim little volume that gives a fairly broad overview of Union efforts on the Confederate littoral. After a brief setting of the stage which describes the broad situation, the major players on both sides and introduces the US Navy Board, the book is arranged chronologically. Each major operation gets, essentially a chapter. Finally the book sums up the Union strategy, how well the strategy was implemented and, interestingly compares the Union planning and strategy with the current US planning and doctrine for littoral warfare.

The book is well written and basically succeeds at its mission which is providing a broad overview of coastal operations. All the key information is here. Although I would have preferred more detailed information on the operations themselves (there is nothing like a comprehensive Order of Battle for any of the operations) and I am really interested in the strategic effects of these operations on the Confederate’s military position, criticizing this book for not including these things seems a bit unfair. I’m reviewing the book the author wrote, not the one I wished he had written. That being said the book could use a few more maps.

Highly recommended, but it will probably just make you want to know more, which ain’t necessarily a bad thing.

4 for the year.

1st in the Masters of Rome Series

Next up was Colleen McCullough’s The First Man in Rome. This is the first a historical novel in a series (Masters of Rome) that recounts the fall of the Roman Republic and the subsequent Civil War and transition to the Roman Empire under Caesar Augustus. This first book deals with the emergence of Gaius Marius who came to prominence as the result a military crisis. In 112 BC, Rome found itself fighting a stalemated war with Numidia at the same time as several hundred thousand Cimbri were threatening to invade from the Northwest. After the Cimbri annihilated a couple of Roman armies at the battles of Noreia, Burdigala and Arausio, Marius was elected Consul an unprecedented 6 times (5 times in a row!), reformed the Roman Army and soundly whipped the Cimbri.

The book is simply put, outstanding. McCullough has thoroughly researched ancient Rome and she shares all that research with us.  The book has a simply amazing glossary running to more than 100 pages which serves to orient the reader. McCullough’s writing is excellent, her characterizations are effective, in short this book was simply a pleasure to read. I can’t wait to get to the other six!

3 for the year.

An Excellent Little WWII Memoir

Crack! and Thump; With a Combat Infantry Officer in World War II by Barry Basden and Charles Scheffel. This was an excellent little (231 pages) memoir of a rifle platoon leader (later company commander) in the 9^th ID from North Africa to Germany.  Scheffel participated in pretty much the entire North African campaign, and fight across France and into Germany. His book is a very good, workman like description of life at the “sharp end” form a company grade officer’s perspective. Unlike many other memoirs from company grade officers, Scheffel seems to get all of his facts right and somewhat  refreshingly he doesn’t seem to have any axes to grind. I recommend it highly!

 

2 for the year

From Pax Britannica to Pax Americana

Picking Up the Reins: America, Britain and the Postwar World by Norman Moss is a succinct little book on the post war decline of Britain’s economic, diplomatic and military power and the concomitant emergence of the US as the dominant power in the “free world”. It gave a fairly thorough account in only 256 pages. Moss described the economic problems of post-war Britain, which led it to withdraw from many of its world-wide military commitments. This withdrawal resulted in something of a “power vacuum” which the Soviets attempted to exploit to advance international Communism. The book also illustrates the difficulty Truman had focusing the American people and Congress on external affairs and extending US military power to cover those “gaps”. The culmination of the book is its description of the passage and implementation of the “Marshall Plan” which was instrumental in the reconstruction of Europe and firmly cemented America’s role as leader of the “free world”  The writing was lively and consistently interesting with little tidbits and factoids scattered throughout to put the larger issues in perspective. I enjoyed it immensely!

 

1st book of the year!