Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea

By Robert K. Massie. Random House, 2003. ISBN 0-679-45671-6.

In 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, the world’s two largest naval fleets faced each other across the North Sea. Both Britain and Germany knew that a decisive naval battle could determine the outcome of the land war. Control of the seas would mean victory.

Castles of Steel is the second book in Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Robert Massie’s superb two-volume history of naval warfare in the World War I era. While Dreadnought (Random House, 1991) describes Europe’s race for bigger, faster, and more heavily armed capital ships before 1914, Castles of Steel offers a well-presented, comprehensive history of naval actions during the war. Massie focuses on warship design and construction, sea battles, and naval strategy as well as the politics, rivalries, and jealousies of the civilian and naval personalities from 1914 to 1918.

A hefty book at 865 pages, Castles of Steel probably is the best World War I naval history written. Massie’s research is thorough, and his presentation is dramatic and exciting. He describes the battles of Jutland, Coronel, and the Falklands as well as the curious British naval failures in the Mediterranean and the Dardanelles. He describes the first naval battle between ocean liners, the first aircraft carrier-based air strike, and the deadly voyages of commerce raiders, submarines, and Q-ships.

While Massie’s descriptions of naval warfare are gripping, his portrayals of the sailors, captains, and admirals in both the navies are revealing. Massie says Adm. Jackie Fisher, the father of the dreadnought battleship, was an arrogant, stubborn old man. Winston Churchill, the first sea lord of the admiralty, was sacked after the disaster at Gallipoli. And there was the cautious Adm. David Beatty, whose comment during the battle of Jutland was typically British: “There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today.”

Massie describes Grand Adm. Alfred von Tirpitz’s extraordinary efforts to create Germany’s High Seas Fleet and Adm. Maximilian von Spee’s remarkable voyage across the Pacific with his armored cruiser squadron. He also details the exploits of Karl von Muller, the captain of the Emden, the most successful German commerce raider of the war.

Touched with Fire: Five Presidents and the Civil War Battles That Made Them

By James M. Perry. Public Affairs, 2003. ISBN 1-58648-114-2.

America’s wars always have produced heroes for the nation, but only one, the Civil War, also produced five presidents.

In Touched with Fire, author James Perry highlights the Civil War adventures of Ulysses Grant, Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley. Perry describes their wartime service and how their experiences later led them to the White House. He concludes that while all five men were competent, successful soldiers, they were not particularly good presidents. Perry is an award-winning journalist who has written five other books, including Arrogant Armies: Great Military Disasters and the Generals Who Made Them (John Wiley & Sons, 1996).

This is a new approach to Civil War history, and Perry pulls it off extremely well. He cleverly combines war with politics, revealing how wartime experiences, blended with strong personality and ambition, helped shape political futures. Simply put, the war made them presidents.

Predictably, Perry begins with Grant, the most famous and most popular Union general. He describes Grant’s leadership style and his remarkable battlefield successes in some of the war’s most stunning and bloody victories—Forts Henry and Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, the Wilderness, and Cold Harbor. Perry also tells how Grant parlayed his post-war popularity into a two-term presidency, and how he almost was elected to a third term.

Less well-known, but equally dramatic, were the wartime exploits of Hayes, Garfield, Harrison, and McKinley, and it is here that Perry really shines. His stories of these four men reveal heroism, dedication to duty, and surprising tactical ability (especially for volunteer amateurs). Hayes and McKinley actually served together—Hayes as an officer and McKinley as a young enlisted man in an Ohio regiment. They fought well at obscure battles like Carnifex Ferry, Cloyd’s Mountain, and Cedar Creek.

Harrison, a colonel commanding an Indiana regiment, saw little action until he marched with Sherman through Georgia in 1864. When his regimental surgeon could not be found, Harrison personally gave first aid to his own wounded.

The most fascinating character perhaps was Garfield. He was a treacherous schemer and a shameless womanizer, but he could lead volunteer soldiers. As Perry describes, Garfield’s bold leadership of a small army in the Big Sandy Valley of southeast Kentucky earned him fame at home and a seat in Congress.

These men survived the horrors of war and the hazards of politics, waving the “bloody shirt” of patriotism to win election to the White House. None of them had great success as president, and two were killed in office. McKinley sums it up well, describing why he always preferred being called major: “I earned that. I am not so sure of the rest.”

— Reviews by William D. Bushnell

Member Books

FICTION

Dingus Dreaming. By Col. Alex A. Vardamis, USA-Ret.
A seminal work on canine literacy. During the formative, house-training phase of his life, Dingus suffers a blow to the head from the New York Times. Suddenly transformed from lowly mongrel to literate canine, Dingus struggles, Candide-like, to understand the nature of good and evil and learns what it means to be a dog (with a weak spot for Steinbeck). Written with an inspired ear for the satiric, Vardamis marries literature to farce. Pleasing, though never facile, this book asks what it is to be a reader, what it is to participate in literature. Buoyant and charming, there is simply no way to appreciate Dingus other than to do as he does: chew through the book.
Creative Arts Books Company, 833 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94710. (800) 848-7789. www.creativeartsbooks.com. ISBN 0-88739-532-5. 119 pp. $13.95 plus postage.

NON-FICTION

The Phonics Counterpart. By Cmdr. Allan Forst Geimer, USN-Ret.
A complete language course covering the alphabet, phonics, use of the dictionary, reading, and comprehension. This is a powerful tool to teach reading due to its focus on the most common “non-phonetic” words. It includes a list of 395 words that are indispensable to reading and also a list of 1,188 words that are essential. The two lists represent 65 percent of the words that appear on any written page. Teaching aids, covering proper use of flash cards and techniques that bring results, are included so there is no “teacher’s manual” needed.
Available from the author, 1702 East Street, Two Rivers, WI 54241-3056. (920) 553-7000. ISBN 1-886-358-02-9. 143 pp. $42.40 postpaid.

The American Foreign Legion: Black Soldiers of the 93rd in World War I. By Lt. Col. Frank E. Roberts, USA-Ret.
Still segregated in World War I, the U.S. Army was reluctant to use its 93rd Division of black soldiers in combat with its own units an instead assigned the division’s three National Guard regiments and one draftee regiment to the French Army. The battle field successes of these African Americans under the French at the height of the German offensives in 1918 turned white expectations of failure upside down. Their bravery and heroism gained the respect of the French and Germans alike and called into question the U.S. Army’s policy of racially segregating its divisions. The full story of their accomplishments is told here for the first time.
Naval Institute Press, 291 Wood Road, Annapolis, MD 21042. (800) 233-8764. www.navalinstitute.org. ISBN 1-5114-734-4. 288 pp. $29.95.

America’s Splendid Little Wars: A Short History of U.S. Engagements From the Fall of Saigon to Baghdad. By Capt. Peter Huchthausen, USN-Ret.
Huchthausen has written a timely and fast-paced account of our nation’s recent armed conflicts. His understanding of the military functions, combined with gripping story-telling ability, provide a keen insight into how America’s armed forces have handled more than a dozen engagements – from the Iran hostage crisis and interventions in Lebanon and Grenada to the Gulf War, Somalia, and Bosnia conflicts. Although many of the accounts read like the best military thrillers, Huchthausen relied on solid research, including eyewitness accounts, intelligence reports, and his own background as a naval analyst and attaché, to craft a fresh, sophisticated, and riveting analysis of modern-day history.
Penguin Books, 375 Hudson Street, NY, NY 10014. (212) 366-2272. www.penguin.com. ISBN 0-14-200465-0. 304 pp. $15.00 plus postage.

Miracles of the American Revolution: Divine Intervention and the Birth of the Republic. By Lt. Col. Larkin Spivey, USMC-Ret.
This is Spivey’s second book in which he explores the intertwined spiritual and military histories of America. The book is designed to appeal to skeptical readers in that there is no assumption made about the reader’s beliefs and actual historical events are the focus throughout. The main divisions of the book include: the ideas, the men, the battles, and the miracles of the American Revolution.
Allegiance Press, 10640 Main Street, Suite 204, Fairfax, VA 22030. (703) 934-4411. www.allegiancepress.com. ISBN 1-594675-36-8. 270 pp. $19.95 plus postage.

A Death in the Family: Dealing With Grief’s Slow Wisdom. By Col. Garnett C. Brown Jr. USAF-Ret.
Here is a practical guide for the many tasks confronted in dealing with death. This is a personal, sometimes painful revelation, wherein Brown shares, with simple honesty, the lonely times following the death of his wife and his eventual rebirth to life. The message here is that even while you are suffering the unimaginable loss of a person dear to you, that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and that time does heal.
PublishAmerica, P.O. Box 151, Frederick, MD 21705. (877) 333-7422. www.publishamerica.com. ISBN 1-4137-1888-4. 69 pp. $17.95 postpaid.

Banana River: Sea Stories and War Diaries form a World War II Navy Base. By Barbara Marriott.
Banana River is a curving landlocked salt river bordered by a thin strip of land between it and the Atlantic Ocean. The land was inhabited by hoards of sand flies and mosquitoes. At a time when the Nazi’s were torching Europe, the sand was shaped into a naval base. The sand flies and mosquitoes shared space with the young men who came to prepare for war. All the men had in common was their youth. Yet, in a time that threatened their lifestyle, their country, and the world, these strangers became a cohesive unit that worked together, played together, and in some cases died together. Woven into the mix was a mysterious spot called the Bermuda Triangle. Into the blend were added man and his courage, his humor, and his indomitable will. The cast of characters includes a local yachtsman, an ambassador’s son, a daredevil Navy pilot, and a variety of courageous, ingenious, and humorous players. The sea and sky were the canvas of aviation war machines that became the hunters and killers of the deadly efficient submarines lucking just off its shore—the German Wolf Pak. Welcome to Banana River Naval Air Station.
AuthorHouse, 1663 Liberty Drive, Suite 200, Bloomington, IN 47303. (888) 519-5121. www.authorhouse.com. ISBN 1-4184-1957-5. 146 pp. $16.75 plus postage.

Abandoning Vietnam: How America Left and South Vietnam Lost Its War. By Lt. Col. James H. Willbanks, USA-Ret.
Willbanks addresses the issue of whether America’s departure from Vietnam produced the “peace with honor” promised by President Richard Nixon or whether it was simply an empty wish meant to distract war-weary Americans from a tragic “defeat with shame.” While Willbanks doesn’t offer any easy answers to that question, his book discusses why America’s strategy for exiting the Vietnam War failed and left South Vietnam to a dismal fate.
University Press of Kansas 2501 West 15th Street, Lawrence, KS 66049-3905. (785) 864-4155. www.kansaspress.ku.edu. ISBN 0-7006-1331-5. 377 pp. $39.95 plus postage.

We Were Soldiers Once… And Young: Ia Drang—the Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam. By Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore, USA-Ret., and Joseph L. Galloway.
In November 1965, some 450 men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Hal Moore, were dropped into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by two thousand North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only 2 1/2 miles away, a sister battalion was massacred. Together, these actions constitute one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War. The Americans faced what seemed to be certain destruction. Moore and Joe Galloway, the only journalist on the ground throughout the fighting, interviewed hundreds of men who fought there. How these heroes persevered makes a vivid portrait of war at its most devastating and inspiring.
Ballantine Books, 1745 Broadway, NY, NY 10019. (800) 733-3000. www.presidopress.com. ISBN 0-345-47264-0. 453 pp. $7.50 plus postage.

The Saga of LST 224. By Lt. Cmdr. Carl Smith, USNR-Ret.
This is the account of LST 224 from April 2, 1943, the date she was laid down at Seneca, Ill., by the Chicago Bridge & Iron Company to April 9, 1948, when she was sold as scrap to Bethlehem Steel Company. It is the story of her gallant crew who traveled 50,000 miles on her during WWII and participated in six D-day landings in the Pacific Theater: Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Saipan, Tinian, Peleliu, and Iwo Jima. Ten chapters are written by members of the crew.
Main Street Publishing Inc., 206 E. Main Street, Jackson, TN 338301. (866) 457-7379. www.mainstreetpublishing.com. ISBN 09741294-6-1. 252 pp. $18.00 plus postage.

Pacific Clipper: The Untold Story. By Col. Albert S.J. Tucker Jr., USAF-Ret., and Matthew W. Paxton IV, with Eugene J. Dunning.
This history highlights the harrowing escape from the Japanese by Pan American’s Pacific Clipper. Its successful flight around the world, the wrong way, to safety was a spectacular feat of airmanship and intrepidity by Captain Ford and his crew, against overwhelming odds, and at a time when such performance by a commercial airliner was thought to be impossible.
Clipper Story Productions, P.O. Box 1157, Lexington, VA 24450. (540) 463-3113. ISBN 0-9709658-1-8. 142 pp. $27.95 postpaid.

Management Analysis in Public Organizations: History, Concepts, and Techniques. By Cmdr. Ray C. Oman, USNR-Ret., et. al.
The most authoritative publication on its topic, the book covers the management analysis function in government / public organizations focusing on the key concepts, tools and techniques used by analysts with particular emphasis on analytical studies conducted to assist managers and executives in decision making. Purchase of the book includes a free 1/2 hour consultation with the author.
Greenwood Publishing Group, 88 Post Road West, P.O. Box 5007, Westport, CT 06881-5007. (800) 225-5800. www.greenwood.com. ISBN 0-89930-403-6. (224 pp.) 88.95 plus postage. Or from the author, 4825 Fort Sumner Dr., Bethesda, MD 20816, roman@udc.edu. $60 plus postage.

Jump Start Your Career: Finding the Right Job after Military Service. By Col. Jerry Crews, USA-Ret.
Author Jerry Crews has more than 35 years of military service and travels across the country counseling members of the armed forces about to enter the civilian work force. Crews makes this transition process simple by detailing a transition execution plan that uses the military's basic planning principles. Topics also follow a military approach with their concise, simple and to-the-point style. Jump Start Your Career has three objectives. First, to help service members recognize that their core values, work ethic, and self-discipline will translate into civilian work force success. Likewise, the second goal is to instill a sense of confidence. Finally, the book aims to motivate retiring military members by making the transition process simple, balanced, and approachable. The book is written primarily for current military members who are leaving service in the civilian workforce. However, anyone—civilian or military, young or old—changing careers or jobs can benefit from the basic principles of Jump Start Your Career.
Thomson Learning, 10650 Toebben Dr., Independence, KY 41051. (800) 354-9706.
http://e-catalog.thomsonlearning.com/cust_offers/. ISBN 0-7593-4064-1. (111 pp.) $15.95 plus postage.

Captain Bucko’s Nauti-Words Handbook: Fascinating Facts and Fables About the Origins of Hundreds of Nautical Terms and Everyday Expressions. By Lt. Cmdr. Roger Paul Huff, USN-Ret.
Huff’s book sets a new standard for content and readability. Sea dogs and pollywogs alike find its captivating sea stories, practical information, and intriguing backgrounds of puzzling nautical terms and common sayings presented in a style that is entertaining, informative, and fun to read.
iUniverse, 620 North 48th Street, Ste. 201. Lincoln, NE (877) 823-9235. www.iuniverse.com. ISBN 0-595-31529-1. 146 pp. $14.95 plus postage.