Nineteen Weeks: America, Britain, and the Fateful Summer of 1940 

By Norman Moss. Houghton Mifflin Co., 2003. ISBN 0-618-10471-2.

Some historians will point to a particular battle or campaign as the deciding factor in World War II. Author Norman Moss, however, says it was the 19 weeks in the spring and summer of 1940 that determined the war’s outcome.

Nineteen Weeks is Moss’ crisp analysis of events, decisions, and personalities that played crucial roles in 1940 when Nazi Germany had overrun most of western Europe, Britain stood virtually alone, and the United States struggled with its conscience over intervention. This is Moss’ seventh book, including Klaus Fuchs: The Man Who Stole the Atom Bomb (Grafton Books, 1990). 

In Nineteen Weeks, Moss, a historian, discusses the pivotal events and decisions that occurred during that fateful period from May 10 to the end of September 1940. Moss cites this period as particularly important because France and Belgium surrendered, Britain survived Dunkirk and the London Blitz and briefly considered a negotiated peace with Hitler, and America decided to discard its isolationist position and support Britain and the Allies.

Moss’ treatment of these complex subjects is superb. Displaying energy, analysis, and critical thinking, he offers an informative and entertaining lesson about how the war in Europe very nearly came to an end in 1940. 

He also offers revealing insight into the three most prominent personalities—Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and Adolf Hitler. According to Moss, Churchill was the one man in all Britain who could unite its people in determined resistance to Nazi aggression. Roosevelt played both sides, antiwar and interventionist, to buy time and gain advantage for the United States. And Hitler could have invaded Britain successfully in the summer of 1940, but he did not have a plan for such an invasion because he thought the British eagerly would seek peace.

Moss provides excellent descriptive chapters on the blitzkreig, the fall of France, and the remarkable evacuation at Dunkirk, as well as the Royal Air Force versus the Luftwaffe and the bombing of London. This is a comprehensive study of the drama, uncertainty, and courage of the men and women whose decisions ultimately would decide the fate of the free world in 1940.

Operation Cyanide: Why the Bombing of the USS Liberty Nearly Caused World War III 

By Peter Hounam. Vision, 2003. ISBN 1-904132-19-7.

In a timely counterpoint to A. Jay Cristol’s book, The Liberty Incident (Brassey’s, 2002, reviewed in the September 2003 issue of Military Officer), Peter Hounam’s new book offers a distinctly different explanation for the deadly Israeli attack on a U.S. Navy ship in the Mediterranean in 1967, during the Arab-Israeli Six Day War.

On June 8, 1967, the U.S. surveillance ship Liberty was bombed, strafed, and torpedoed by Israeli aircraft and motor torpedo boats. Thirty-four Americans were killed and 171 were wounded. The Israelis always have claimed the attack was an unfortunate accident, a case of mistaken identity. And U.S. officials (and author Cristol) agree.

Hounam, however, says in his book that the attack was a deliberate act, planned and executed by the Israelis with the full knowledge and support of the U.S. government. Hounam argues that the Liberty and its crew were sacrificed as part of a desperate geopolitical gambit that nearly started World War III.

Hounam is a British writer who once was the chief investigative journalist for London’s The Sunday Times. He also has written The Woman from Mossad (Vision, 1999). Working for the BBC in 2000, Hounam investigated the Liberty attack, a project that resulted in a BBC television program, “Dead in the Water,” and this book.

Hounam interviewed Liberty survivors, some Israeli participants, and many others with much less direct participation, but he provides scant documentary evidence. Most revealing is that Hounam found little archival evidence at all regarding the attack: The Navy inquiry apparently is incomplete and has not yet been fully declassified, and Congress never has conducted an investigation. Much of Hounam’s evidence is based on speculation and hearsay, and everything he discovered led him to conclude there has been a government cover-up.

Still, Hounam’s arguments and questions raise doubts about the veracity of the official explanation that the attack on the Liberty was accidental. He provides a gripping account of the attack as the ship is blasted by Israeli planes and warships. The crew survivors Hounam interviewed say they are convinced the attack was no accident, and they wonder why Congress never investigated (as it has in most other peacetime naval disasters).

Hounam provides an excellent chapter on the political and military background and execution of the Six Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors in June 1967. He also offers an intriguing scenario that suggests the United States wanted to use the Liberty incident as a pretext for an attack on Egypt, to get rid of Egypt’s President Nasser.

The book’s title comes from an obscure reference to a mysterious military plan called “Operation Cyanide,” which may have involved U.S. nuclear submarines. Hounam even suggests a nuclear air attack that targeted Cairo actually was launched by the U.S. Sixth Fleet but later was recalled.

Hounam clearly suggests a conspiracy between the White House and Tel Aviv to create a shocking incident that would justify U.S. intervention on the side of the Israelis. Some of his conclusions may be speculation, but the bits and pieces he provides add up to more questions than answers. The biggest question of all is why Congress has never conducted its own investigation into the unprovoked attack on a U.S. naval vessel by an ally.

Convincing answers may never be found, but the questions will remain. See also Liberty survivor James M. Ennes’ book, Assault on the Liberty (Ivy Books, 1987).

— Reviews by William D. Bushnell

Member Books

FICTION

The Firefly. By Capt. P. T. Deutermann, USN-Ret.
Deutermann’s ninth novel of suspense is set in Washington, D.C., where a Saudi plot to decapitate the American government is uncovered by a retired secret service agent. The problem is that the new Department of Homeland Security doesn’t want to believe it. They should have listened.
St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. (212) 674-5151. www.stmartins.com or www.ptdeutermann.com. ISBN 0-312-20377-2. 387 pp. $24.95 plus postage.

Assured Response. By Capt. Joe Weber, USMC-Ret.
The time is the near future. Osama bin Laden has been succeeded by a generation of even deadlier terrorists who will stop at nothing in their fanatical quest to destroy the United States. Conventional security is no longer enough. Former military pilots Scott Dalton and Jackie Sullivan are the government’s newest weapons – operatives so secret that their very existence is denied by the officials who hired them. Armed with the most up-to-date technology and equipment, their mission is to prevent a plan of nuclear holocaust that will begin at the Canadian border and explode in the centers of American power.
Ballantine Books, 1745 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10019. (212) 782-8373. www.ballantinebooks.com. ISBN 0-89141-842-3. 371 pp. $25.95 plus postage.

Twin Vendetta. By Lt. Col. William N. Edwards, USAF-Ret.
The fall of France during World War II sets up separate dilemmas for Louisa Dumas and Frank Miller. The dual protagonists complement one another as a “two-man” team of Spitfire fighter pilots in combat during Allied military operations. After Louisa is unmasked as a woman, their problems mount as they are assigned to occupied Germany.
Milrose Publications, 329 S. Mayfair Avenue, #26, Daly City, CA 94015. (650) 991-3921. www.miracleofedsa.com. ISBN 0-9700515-1-4. 345 pp. $20.00 postpaid.

Tales of the China Marines. By Col. Edward J. Spasek, USMC-Ret.
This book of historical fiction contains amusing and unusual experiences involving the U.S. Marines who were stationed in China to protect American civilians and government property during the 1930s. The Marines who served in China were often referred to as “China Marines.”
Xlibris Corporation, 439 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19101. (888) 795-4274. www.xlibris.com. ISBN 1-4010-5494-3. 252 pp. $18.95 plus postage.

NON FICTION

“…of Sea and Sand.”: A Drama of Two Living Deserts. By Lt. Cmdr. Bruce F. Barber, USN-Ret.
The Mexican frontier is not for everyone although parts of it are Paradise to a surprising number of American and Canadian retirees. Within the frontier, San Felipe is a rapidly expanding wintering- over-haven. Mexicali’s shopping centers are suddenly being discovered as are Ensenada’s restaurants and the Guadalupe Valley’s wineries. Read about all this and more in Barber’s book.
Black Forest Press, P.O. Box 6342, Chula Vista, CA 91909-6342. (800) 451-9404. ISBN 1-58275-035-1. 366 pp. $21.90 postpaid.

Soldiers Lost at Sea: A Chronicle of Troopship Disasters. By Capt. James E. Wise Jr., USN-Ret., and Scott Barron.
Heroism, tragedy, devotion to duty, and scandal are just a few of the ingredients that make up this dramatic account of troopship losses in wartime. International in scope, the book offers a compilation of stories about historic troopship disasters caused by torpedoes, aerial attacks, mines, surface fire, friendly fire, and poor planning by military decision makers.
Naval Institute Press, 291 Wood Road, Annapolis, MD 21402-5034. (410) 295-1081. www.usni.org. ISBN 1-59114-966-5. 296 pp. $29.95 plus postage.

MEMOIRS

Flying through the Years: A Trilogy of Short Tours and Collection of Short Stories. By Lt. Col. Bob Lanzotti, USA-Ret.
Lanzotti provides his memoirs as an Army helicopter pilot during three overseas tours, all conducted during the turbulent decade of the sixties. Each tour contains at least a score of short stories that pay well-earned homage to the achievements of the men he served and flew with during what he recalls as his greatest adventure.
Dorrance Publishing Company, 701 Smithfield Street, Third Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15222-3906. (412) 288-4543. www.dorrancepublishing.com. ISBN 0-8059-6195-X. 169 pp. $19.00 plus postage.

Warriors: An Infantryman Memoir of Vietnam. By Col. Robert Tonsetic, USA-Ret.
In the tumultuous year of 1968, Robert Tonsetic relates his experience as an infantry company commander, leading the bravest men in the bloodiest year of the war. Through the Tet and May offensives, through night airmobile assaults, through fetid, pitch-black jungles, Tonsetic and his men did their job and earned the title “Warriors”.
Ballantine Books, 1745 Broadway, NY, NY 10019. (212)782-8373. www.ballantinebooks.com. ISBN 0-89141-844-X. 198 pp. $7.50 plus postage.

Friendly and Enemy Skies. By Lt. Col. Robert “Bob” Armstrong, USAF-Ret.
This memoir is based on Armstrong’s Combat Diary as a B-17 bomber pilot with the U.S. 8th Army Air Force during WWII. Flying out of England, he flew 32 combat missions over Germany and German occupied territory. Each mission is described along with articles about the same mission taken from the military newspaper “Stars and Stripes.” Included are 17 special inserts, 30 black and white photos, and four color photos.
Available from the author, 3011A Nutmeg Lane, Hutchinson, KS 67502. (620) 663-9108. rlm67502@alltel.net. ISBN 061512473-9. 250 pp. $22.00 postpaid.