An outstanding biography of the redoubtable Native American warrior Osceola that captures both the fury of battle and the political complexities (and An outstanding biography of the redoubtable Native American warrior Osceola that captures both the fury of battle and the political complexities (and treacheries) of the Great Seminole Wars.
Taken together, the three Seminole Wars of 1816 to 1858 were the longest, most expensive, and most deadly of all the American Indian Wars. And while names such as Sitting Bull, Geronimo, Crazy Horse, and Red Cloud are well remembered for the stiff – and often bloody -- resistance they offered to encroaching American settlers and military, the Floridian Osceola is arguably the most notable Native American tactician, fighting the U.S. military to a standstill in a guerilla campaign until he was treacherously captured under a falsely waved ‘white flag.’
Thom Hatch’s biography of Osceola and the Great Seminole War is an enjoyable, easily read, compact biography of both the warrior and his armed resistance to the American government’s forced deportation of the Seminole tribes from southern Florida to reservations west of the Mississippi. For me, war books amount to little if an author can’t vividly recreate the major battles of a campaign. In this area, Hatch excels, recreating key engagements in the conflict, as columns of federal troops and militiamen beat through the Florida swamp and brush in search of Osceola’s out-numbered braves, who lurk ghost-like in the tangle weed of the next hummock.
And while this had its hooks in me simply for its military prowess, Hatch’s writing skills are hardly limited to bullets and cannonades. In fact, his talent in explaining the complex relationships between different Native American tribes – Creek and Seminole – as well as the Native Americans’ loyalty to the so-called Dark Seminoles, escaped slaves and free blacks adopted into the tribe, are critical to understanding the near-impossible conditions the U.S. government imposed upon the Seminole people, hardening Osceola’s resolve to fight. Hatch also does a nice job of picking apart the ‘treaties’ the U.S. Government brought to table, exposing the paperwork as little more than flim-flam that would be casually ignored as soon as an inconvenient word was found on a page.
Osceola and the Great Seminole War is good history: detailed without being monotonous, gritty but spirited; replete with action and politics, balancing great people with great events, and most importantly (for me anyway), peppered with historical curio that make you say right out loud, “Really?” -- for example, in this one, there’s the story of coining the phrase ‘if the creek don’t rise” and the riddle of poor dead Osceola’s missing head. For whatever the reason, this reading year has been a little tough on me -- I just haven’t hit on many really good books -- so it’s nice that as we creep toward the final quarter of 2024 to find a five-star gem like this one. ...more
’She embraced her oldest son, then with her right hand slipped off the wedding ring she always wore on her left finger and handed it to Billy. Surpris ’She embraced her oldest son, then with her right hand slipped off the wedding ring she always wore on her left finger and handed it to Billy. Surprised with the gesture, and reluctant to accept it, Billy added the ring to the dog tags that dangled from his neck. She wanted to give him something to keep him safe.’
While there seems to be a lot of disagreement on who exactly was the last U.S. serviceman to be killed in World War II – Google it and you’ll get a return that offers several different choices – historian John Wukovits details the deaths of four Naval airman who are certainly candidates for that unfortunate distinction. Pilots Harrison, Sahlof, Hobbs and Mandelberg were all shot down by Japanese zeros while returning from an aborted bombing run in the hours just after peace had been officially declared. Outside of fueling the ego and perpetuating a bitter vendetta Admiral William F. Halsey held against the Japanese – along with many other Americans it must be said -- the attack and loss of life are hard to justify.
With Dogfight Over Tokyo, Wukovits provides a battle history for these young pilots and their colleagues in Navy Air Group 88 from recruitment through training to posting on the USS Yorktown, and eventual combat in the skies over the home islands of Japan. While the format is similar to other books in this genre, Wukovits offers one of the better, layman’s picture of aircraft carrier purpose and operations, vividly describing launch, recovery, and management procedures – in a way that is thankfully neither boring nor too technical. He also shines in his combat essays, the bombing runs over various Japanese targets are well done and particularly special is the chapter of the rescues of downed servicemen by Dumbo PBY-Catalina rescue planes.
The real difference, however, between this book and others is the attention to detail Wukovits pays to the home front and the anguish mothers, fathers, siblings and fiancés faced wondering if their sons were still alive and well in Pacific. We continue to take for granted the super-speed of information that now flows instantaneously around the globe and simultaneously to millions with a button push. Families in World War II waited weeks or months from servicemen abroad and we are agonized by the start reality that the loved ones could be gravely injured, captured or dead for months before they knew, vainly sending letters, cards and care packages that would never be opened.
A serviceable narrative for the armchair history buff, Dogfight Over Tokyo is a good read, well-researched and well written. It might not have much appeal to the more casual reader, but if military history is your thing, then I’d check this one out.
P.S. And whether or not these four airman were actually the war’s last casualties (or was it airmen Philip Schlamberg as CNN seems to think … see https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/11/asia/a...) really makes little difference. Their loss and Schlamberg’s (who disappeared that day as opposed to being verifiably shot down), both coming after the Japanese surrender, remains tragic. ...more
“Everyone was saying that Gibraltar would be forced to capitulate before the end of September; everyone believed it; and if there were any unbelievers “Everyone was saying that Gibraltar would be forced to capitulate before the end of September; everyone believed it; and if there were any unbelievers, they didn’t dare show it.”
Lasting 1,323 days from June 21, 1779 to February 2, 1783, the siege of fortress Gibraltar by Spanish and French forces marked the longest siege in British history. Punctuated by an epic artillery duel – where opposing forces fired unrelentingly upon one another for years(!) – the battle for The Rock was also marked by a daring British sortie against enemy lines, a bloody duel between the fort a string of floating Franco-Spanish naval batteries, privation, tragedy and heroism.
With a string of similarly good histories to their credit, historians Roy and Lesley Adkins deliver much of what you’d expect from this one. Well-researched, eminently readable, compelling history amply illustrated by first person accounts from soldiers, statesmen and civilians on both sides on the conflict. (The numerous diary reports from women – soldiers’ wives who stayed with their husbands and families as the siege began – are of particular credit as early military histories often offer spartan few accounts from non-combatants, let alone women).
For the American readers, Gibraltar offers crucial context to the American War for Independence which is far too often taught in isolation to the larger global war raging between the European powers. The siege of Gibraltar, the nearby island of Minora, and even the threatened invasion of England itself kept scores of British troops and ships from the American shores and, as the Adkins persuasively argue, it was these conflicts on the far side of the Atlantic that helped allow the American colonists to secure their independence by draining English resources into other theaters. As even contemporary politicians lamented, “the possession of America has been sacrificed to the retention of Gibraltar.”
A very nice book to add to your military history shelf on a pivotal battlefront that is oft overlooked. ...more
”The most significant warship of the Civil War, and ultimately the most effect commerce raider in the entire history of naval warfare, was loose on th ”The most significant warship of the Civil War, and ultimately the most effect commerce raider in the entire history of naval warfare, was loose on the vast, concealing ocean,”
A captivating biography of man and ship, Stephen Fox’s Wolf of the Deep is a well-told and researched history of Captain Raphael Semmes and the Confederate cruiser CSS Alabama. Together, the pair’s worldwide depredations during the American Civil War fairly paralyzed Yankee shipping and created a nautical bogyman that shook the Union shipping industry to a near grinding halt.
Fox skimps neither on details nor wit, painting the full picture of the impact the Alabama and her infamous Captain had on both domestic and international relations, including the dance of spies, industrialists, and stool pigeons in merry-old England that helped birth the ship and give succor to her captain. And while historical details are plentiful, Fox’s tale collects no dust; this is a rip-roaring tale of nautical warfare -- an adventure novel as much as historical nonfiction – that sings of cannon-fire, the sting of salt air and frothy water, and the acrid smoke of burning merchantmen slipping as blackened hulks to a watery grave.
There is a wonderful balance in Fox’s work. His depictions of both Semmes and the Alabama are rich enough to bring both to life on the book’s pages; at the same time, there is no avoiding that Semmes -- in defending a government that practiced slavery -- ultimately ends up on the wrong side of history. Fortunately, Fox lets Semmes speak for himself – pirate-soldier, hero-villain, cavalier-brigand Fox’s captures the conflicted duality of the man and his mission and presents it ‘as it was’ for the reader.
Somehow … I’ve ended up with quite a pile of maritime Civil War books; here’s hoping the rest are half as good as this one. ...more
The humble ship Cynthia Olson -- old, slow and of virtually no military value – was destined to die simply because she was in the wrong place at the v The humble ship Cynthia Olson -- old, slow and of virtually no military value – was destined to die simply because she was in the wrong place at the very worst of times.
Lost amid the overwhelming carnage of the 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor is the tale of the modest commercial steamer Cynthia Olson sunk that same Sunday morning as she crossed paths with a scouting Japanese submarine on the open seas between the U.S. west coast and the Hawaiian islands. The steamer was ferrying lumber and, though she managed a brief distress call, the 33 crew and ship were never seen again.
Historian Stephen Harding applies a very fine mesh as he sieves through American, Canadian and Japanese sources (including eyewitness accounts from the captain and crew of the marauding I-26 sub) to answer the riddles that linger over the grave of the lost ship. First, was the unassuming cargo vessel actually attacked before the first bombs fell on Pearl Harbor? Second, if so, should her distress call have warned American forces of the impending Japanese assault? And finally, what happened to Cynthia Olson’s crew -- whom Japanese submariners have long insisted they left in the ship’s lifeboats, riding the swells well before the steamer slipped beneath the waves?
Harding’s research is meticulous – beginning at the point the keels were laid on both the Cynthia Olson and her attacker IJN Submarine I-26 and extending well through the tale’s final denouement as investigative reporters and military historians in the 1960s salvage the story of the lost cargo vessel from obscurity and adding a few important missing pieces to her tale. Harding’s conclusions about ‘what really happened’ on the high seas that morning are well reasoned and, for at least this ‘mystery of history,’ the reader closes Dawn of Infamy with at least a plausible solution.
As the author admits, the sinking of the Cynthia Olson is perhaps ‘just’ an historical footnote. But Harding’s rationale for pursuing the tale are both candid and compelling. The end result is ‘good’ history and an honest eulogy for the 33 men who sailed the lumber hauler on her final voyage. ...more
Compelling from page one to the final epilogue, vividly told and entertainingly written.
The struggle for North America between the English and French Compelling from page one to the final epilogue, vividly told and entertainingly written.
The struggle for North America between the English and French empires of the mid-1700s may be sadly forgotten by the majority of modern Americans, but for me, the French and Indian War has always been immensely interesting, notable not only for the daunting hardships of life on the frontier but also because of its cultural clash between the old European powers, increasingly independence-minded provincials, and the indigenous tribes, pushed to desperation by relentless colonial expansionism.
With The Siege of Fort William Henry, historian Ben Hughes pens an engrossing account of one the most notorious military actions of the war: the siege, surrender and subsequent massacre of English and colonial troops stationed at a small fort on the south end of Lake George. Hughes spins a richly detailed narrative that deftly blends the actions and perspectives of the major antagonists – British, French, Native American and colonial – into a seamless tale, punctuated by numerous firsthand accounts of the transpiring events.
The storytelling is smooth and eminently readable, poignant, violent, and even occasionally gruesome, replete with little nuances and character details that echoes with the boom of cannonades, the patter of small arms, and the screeches, shouted orders, and war whoops of enemy combatants. The Siege of Fort William Henry is a delectable treat for the amateur history buff: compelling from page one to the final epilogue, vividly told, and entertainingly written. ...more
”Radio Tokyo described Hiroshima as a city of death … peopled by [a] ghost parade, the living doomed to die of radioactive burns.”
For most of Hiroshim ”Radio Tokyo described Hiroshima as a city of death … peopled by [a] ghost parade, the living doomed to die of radioactive burns.”
For most of Hiroshima Nagasaki, author Paul Ham delivers a compelling account of the U.S. bombings of two Japanese cities at the close of World War II, ushering in the age of atomic energy and providing the first frost to the upcoming Cold War. The history is nicely done with Ham providing an engaging overview of the ‘top secret’ Manhattan Project and a cool minute-by-minute account of the actual airstrikes, balancing the cool military-mindedness of the mission with the pilots’ first pangs of moral consciousness about the terrible Pandora’s Box being opened. Vivid, hellish descriptions of the two bombs’ explosive power and unimaginable consequences make for a ghoulish tour de force as Ham wisely gives us both a ‘before-and-after’ of the two Japanese cities, peopling the metropolises with a number of Japanese citizens – many of whom were children at the time of the attack – who offer firsthand accounts of the bombs’ terrible effects and stamping the almost incomprehensive destruction with a shuddering human pathos.
Much of the book is therefore amazing, but it is also history with a slant as Ham roots around in the politics of the decision to drop the bomb in an attempt to myth-bust the rationale and justification for the attacks, putting the kibosh on the notion that the atomic bombings were at all necessary, were at all important in saving American lives, or had any actual impact on ending the war. Ham does a credible job of stacking the evidence for his point of view, but I found his argument ultimately unconvincing and heavily dependent on the ‘certainties of hindsight.’ Even assuming that everything Ham asserts is unequivocally correct, his perspective seems to depend upon U.S. leaders of the time also being aware (and certain) of the same facts as the historian … and that those in the ‘real-time’ of war were able to sift those same facts from all the other bits of information and rumor that permeate the fog of combat. My guess is ‘certainty’ was much harder to come by during the War and that the simpler explanation – that U.S. leaders were ready to put any option on the table to avoid a ground war in Japan and end the conflict as quickly as possible to avoid even the slight risk of greater American causualties – is a more likely reality. Maybe the atomic bombings were ultimately unnecessary – as Ham asserts – but I don’t think that the U.S. brass knew that with any certainty at the time.
Ham’s theories aside, I usually don’t capsize a book just because I can’t entirely get on board with the writer’s perspective – especially when a book is admittedly great elsewhere – but Ham fairly turns his perspective into a bludgeon halfway through the narrative. After zipping through the first 300 pages, things turned terribly tedious over the last hundred pages or so – which is a shame because there is certainly more amazing work as to be found as Ham captures the tragic lives of the hibakusha (bomb-affected people) with a voice that is both compelling an emotionally poignant. Sadly, even that feels over-powered by the screed of the final chapters.
Mixed emotions on whether to recommend this one. Compelling, but Ham’s urge to ‘make a point’ is over-sold and keeps this unquestionably important history from telling itself. ...more
For most history buffs, James Donovon’s The Blood of Heroes covers not just ‘everything-you-need-to-kn ”You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas!”
For most history buffs, James Donovon’s The Blood of Heroes covers not just ‘everything-you-need-to-know’ about the fall of the fortress Alamo on February 23, 1836, but also ‘just-about-all-you-need-to-know’ about the entire Texan War of Independence. While the battle for the Alamo is certainly the prominent peak of the book, Donovon does an excellent job of tracing the birth of the fledging Lone Star republic from the first waves of norteamericano immigration right up to the war’s eventual conclusion at the Battle of San Jacinto.
To his credit, Donovon’s history is well-balanced, examining both the Texan and Mexican perspectives of the insurrection. And, perhaps more importantly, is that the tale is not just the story of a single battle (or even a series of battles), but the story of the people on both sides of the conflict. From the well-known figures of Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, William Barret Travis and Santa Anna to the more obscure Moses Rose (the man who escaped the Alamo) and survivor Susanna Dickinson, Donovon offers compelling biographical sketches of these individuals whose lives fatefully intersected at the old Spanish mission.
Donovon’s depiction of the early morning attack on the Alamo and final stand of its defenders is whip-smart, gripping and precise, so much so that you can just about hear the cannon roar and the crack of marksmen’s rifles, then catch the scent of discharging powder. In crafting the tumult of that day, Donovon draws heavily upon the perspectives of not just the surviving Texans but also of the Mexican military leaders, offering a refreshingly interesting perspective of the often-uncomfortable position these senior soldados found themselves within while serving under the self-styled ‘Napoleon of the West’ Santa Anna.
In fairness, there are few spots where the narrative does show a a few scuff marks. There are points where the book seems to slip a bit and repeat itself as the story skips forward and back to follow a few of the core characters and the ‘afterword’ (while thoroughly erudite) seems an unnecessary appendix -- more suited to an academic journal then tail end of a popular history book.
Still, The Blood of Heroes is a solid four star read and is a great, single book study on the wild and bloody beginnings of the State of Texas.
P.S. And if you happen to live in the same neck of the woods as I do and were ever wondering how Fannin County, Georgia, got its name, Donovon supplies the backstory behind the guy who became our county’s namesake: Colonel James Walker Fannin. Although he arguably died well, it’s not quite the unblemished tale of unabashed heroism and good judgment to bring home to the kinfolk. ...more
Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more … the Bloody Red Baron was rolling out the score … eighty men died trying to end that spree … of the Bloody Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more … the Bloody Red Baron was rolling out the score … eighty men died trying to end that spree … of the Bloody Red Baron of Germany.
Peter Kilduff offers a compelling biography of one history’s greatest pilots: the German World War I ace Manfred von Richthofen, the Bloody Red Baron of Germany. In his signature red-detailed airplanes, Richthofen racked up eighty victories over the trenches of western front, double that of his closest aerial competitor, making him not only the deadliest ace of the era, but a wartime celebrity on both sides of the front.
Kilduff – in tracing Richthofen’s career in meticulous detail – delivers a compelling account of both the military aspects of the Baron’s career as well as insight into the personality of the man who would become leader, mentor, and inspiration to a generation of German aviators. Drawing heavily from primary sources (including Richthofen’s own writings), Kilduff paints a vivid picture not just of Richthofen, but of also of his fellow pilots; the two inseparable as combat evolves over the course of the war from singular knights jousting on flying steeds to massed aerial offensives pitting wings of fighters against one another.
It is perhaps one of the more fascinating aspects of the book: the transition from Richthofen as an independent, blue-blooded hunter, chivalrously taking to the air to duel, to Richthofen as air operational commander, wounded, raw, and undoubtably disheartened by watching man-after-man chewed to bloody pieces by bullets and fire in both the air and on the ground. The bitterness is clear in Richthfen’s remarks to his mother after his icily dismisses a few minor town functionaries:
I felt sorry for the people and asked if he would be a litter friendlier the next time. Manfred bolted up with an almost brusque movement, his eyes narrowed and hard [and said]: “When I fly out over the fortified trenches and the soldiers shout joyfully at me and I look into their grey faces, worn from hunger, sleeplessness and battle – then I am glad, then something rejoices in me. You should see it; often they forget all danger, jump out on to the roofing, swing their rifles and wave to me. That is my reward, Mother, my nicest reward.”
Perhaps the only drawback for the casual reader to Kilduff’s excellent biography is the density of military terms – most in German -- and the fine nuance of aircraft identification. While one can appreciate the great pains, Kilduff has taken to accurately identify every plane and pilot, the detail is often much to chew upon and feels like a bumpy interruption to the overall plot.
For history fans, tough, especially of aerial warfare, this is a good one. ...more
The four Americans came to Kyrgyzstan looking for adventure, but they did not hope to find it at the point of a gun.
With Over the Edge, author Greg Ch The four Americans came to Kyrgyzstan looking for adventure, but they did not hope to find it at the point of a gun.
With Over the Edge, author Greg Child tells the harrowing tale of the kidnapping of four American mountain climbers by Islamic extremists in the remote Kara Su valley of southern Kyrgyzstan in August 2000. The tale is riveting, tense, dramatic and a page-turning thriller. The book is also a great little military history of the petite guerre waged between Kyrgyzstan commandos and the insurgent Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) which sought to destabilize the neighboring states of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan during two border incursions in 1999 and 2000.
To his credit, Child delivers a full picture of the dramatic few weeks, capturing the viewpoint not just of the American climbers, but of the Kyrgyz of soldiers; the German, Ukrainian, and Australian climbers who were also in the region at the time of the battles (some of whom were also taken hostage); and even a few members of the Islamic terrorist faction who perpetrated the attacks. Child deserves particular credit for the detail he gives to the lives and sacrifices of the common Kyrgyzstan soldiers – such as Turat Osmanov and Ruslan Samsakov. While the story of the American climbers is undoubtably compelling (and the selling point of the book to an American audience), Child is careful to balance the plight of the climbers alongside the tragic deaths of dozens of Kyrgyz soldiers, who were killed defending their country and who had been friends to the foreigners in the region.
Over the Edge is strong 4-star read, of interest not just to outdoor adventure enthusiasts but also to military history buffs. The only soft spot in the book is where Child must make a spirited defense against the scree of a few pre-social media trolls who seem headscratchingly determined to characterize the climbers travails as a flight of fantasy, but the dénouement where two of former hostages are able to come face-to-face with the surviving (now jailed) terrorists is worth reading to the final page.
“It’s easy to die. It’s the keeping-on-living that’s hard.”
With 81 Days Below Zero, author Brian Murphy recounts the larger-than-life, World War II su “It’s easy to die. It’s the keeping-on-living that’s hard.”
With 81 Days Below Zero, author Brian Murphy recounts the larger-than-life, World War II survival story of First Lieutenant Leon Crane who parachuted out of a crashing B-24 Liberator into the remote Alaskan wilderness during the depths of winter. Crane miraculously survived more than two months of sub-zero temperatures, blinding snowstorms, and treacherous ice flows, largely through a lot of hard-nosed determination, a good of deal of smarts, and some amazing luck.
Murphy does an excellent job of recounting Crane’s story in a crisp, clear narration with the strength of the tale obviously centering on Crane’s harrowing trek through hundreds of miles of frozen wilderness. Even knowing that Crane survives the ordeal does little to lessen the dramatic tension as Crane falls from the spiraling bomber or huddles within the shrouds of his silken parachute on the banks of the frozen Charley River awaiting a rescue that will never come or feels his boots slip through cracking ice to frost over in mere seconds. Crane’s story is compelling and a great wilderness survival story.
Unfortunately -- as writer Murphy admits – this tale was not written until after Crane’s unfortunate demise. As a result, the primary sources are rather thin and, while Murphy makes the most of all the detail he does have, the book tends to digress to fill pages. Some of these digressions are interesting. I certainly enjoyed the hardscrabble history nuggets about Alaska’s pioneer miners, roadhouse owners, and frontiersmen and the glimpse of the cloak-and-dagger life with the Russians at Ladd Field. However, as good as some of these historical anecdotes are, they do feel a bit like interruptions to the more interesting main story of Crane’s journey, sidetracking the mood, momentum, and tension that Murphy successfully builds around the pilot’s odyssey.
Still, if you are a fan of World War II history or wilderness survival, I’d say give this one a go. 81 Days Below Zero probably deserves a slightly higher rating than the three stars I’m giving it -- maybe more like a 3.75 -- for a solid real-life adventure story with a nice bit of Americana packed in around it. ...more
It is about what happened on the ground, in the streets, and on the rooftops of Benghazi, when bullets flew, buildings burned, and mortars rained. Whe It is about what happened on the ground, in the streets, and on the rooftops of Benghazi, when bullets flew, buildings burned, and mortars rained. When lives were saved, lost, and forever changed.
With 13 Hours, Mitchell Zuckoff delivers a compelling account of what happened at two U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012. Bolstered by eye-witness accounts, Zuckoff takes great pains to deliver as objective an account of the attacks as possible, offering a forensic analysis of the security situation within the city before the incident and then a step-by-step tactical account of the multiple assaults against U.S. State and CIA facilities.
The narrative is absolutely riveting, framed in crisp, clear prose that makes it easy to keep turning pages. The opening chapters, offering a short history of Libya and the curious sibling rivalry between the sister cities of Tripoli and Benghazi is just as engaging -- a perfect executive summary of the dangerous corner of the world that U.S. operatives found themselves working within. Perhaps just as importantly, Zuckoff juggles a large cast of real-life characters expertly, capturing much of the key players’ personalities so that they become much more than just names on historical paper. He also excels at painting a vivid picture of Benghazi city, where the urban warrens become as much a player in the unfolding drama as the city’s human inhabitants.
As Zuckoff points out in his introduction, this book is not a political treatise. Sure … it might be argued that the point of view certainly favors that of the storytellers – in this case, the GRS security team members – but 13 Hours is hardly a political hatchet job. What is clear (and maybe only in hindsight) is that the Benghazi attacks were hardly spontaneous. Instead they were coordinated multi-pronged assaults against two separate U.S. installations, supported by both reconnaissance and heavy weapons, staged on the anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attacks ever to take place on U.S. soil.
I suspect that everyone with either cable or a Twitter feed has heard the word ‘Benghazi’. But the full story beyond the hashtag is far more complex, dynamic, and sadly tragic for the four Americans who lost their lives there. 13 Hours is a highly recommended read for students of both current events and military history. ...more
Historian Donald A. Davis gives us a rich history of the U.S. mission to kill Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the man who masterminded Get Yamamoto!
Historian Donald A. Davis gives us a rich history of the U.S. mission to kill Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the man who masterminded the attack on Pearl Harbor and led the Japanese navy during World War II. For a man who was as much an American arch-nemesis as Hitler during the war, the wildly gutsy mission to kill Yamamoto is – surprisingly – largely forgotten today. Fortunately, Davis adroitly reconstructs the daredevil attack from both American and Japanese sources, offering a nicely balanced and entertainingly told account of the airmen and machines that met over the skies of Bougainville Island on April 18, 1943.
It’s a compelling read, especially as Davis offers a fascinating sketch of Yamamoto the man – warrior and poet -- and the chess match played between US and Japanese forces across the Pacific. Davis’s inspection of the crash site of Yamamoto’s downed Mitsubishi G4M bomber is particularly riveting – a case-closed, post-mortem on one of history’s most notable military commanders. He also probes the controversaries spilling out of the aftermath of mission – of leaked intelligence, mad grabs for credit, and passing the buck on blame. As the one of the book’s cover blurbs accurately attests, there are plenty of ‘heroes, villains and idiots’ in this one.
Final Verdict: An excellent soldier’s view of the war in Pacific, capped off by a white-knuckle mission to get one of the war’s most notable figures. Davis pulls no punches in sifting past the propaganda (either personal or institutional) to dig into exactly what happened that day, delivering a masterful account of the final fate of the famed Japanese Admiral and assigns credit to the ragtag American pilots who brought him down. ...more
If the story wasn’t real, it would sound terribly far-fetched.
Russian sailors, antagonized by poor treatment, seize control of thei Runaway battleship!
If the story wasn’t real, it would sound terribly far-fetched.
Russian sailors, antagonized by poor treatment, seize control of their country’s most powerful battleship – the Potemkin -- murdering many of ship’s officers and sparking widespread revolt in Russia’s principle seaport of Odessa. That a navy could lose control of its most powerful warship seems inconceivable – almost as inconceivable as the fact that before this book, I had never even heard of the Potemkin mutiny. Thankfully, Neal Bascomb’s Red Mutiny offers a definitive account of the uprising that is not only wonderful world history, rich with detail and nuance, but a tautly written tale with all the tension and twists of a high-action, military-grade thriller.
For historians, Bascomb offers a compelling account of the ills that provoked the mutiny, the burgeoning socialist movement that helped serve as catalyst for the event, and the consequences of the incident which reverberated across the Russian Empire and presaged the coming Russian Revolution. And while Bascomb never loses sight of the overall historical import of this event, he is hardly a stodgy armchair scholar. The sailors’ takeover of the battleship is pulse-pounding and the Potemkin’s subsequent engagements in Odessa, against the Russian Black Sea fleet, and in Theodosia are just as riveting. And this is one of those rare cases where the less you know about the real-life incident, the better; there are plenty of historical twists and turns – from lurking spies to high seas betrayal – that make for some pretty high, historical drama.
I love books about ships at sea, storms and naval engagements. Red Mutiny is one of the best of these tales … a larger-than-life real story … a page-turner from start to finish … delivered by an author who can expertly mix equal parts history with drama to craft a first-rate book. Highly recommended! ...more
In many ways it was the death struggle of the Japanese Navy.
C. Vann Woordward’s account of the battle of Leyte Gulf is thrilling military history, chr In many ways it was the death struggle of the Japanese Navy.
C. Vann Woordward’s account of the battle of Leyte Gulf is thrilling military history, chronicling the final clash between the U.S. and Japanese fleets near the Philippine Islands that would ultimately give Allied forces hegemony over the Pacific seas. The scale of the battle is epic as battleships, carriers, destroyers, submarines, and aircraft duel, and Woodward offers a detailed (but amazingly comprehensible) account of the fight’s strategy and tactics. More importantly, Woodward loses none of the drama of the battle or the heroics of the sailors and airmen who fought that day, giving a riveting account of men at war. You can fairly hear the smack of waves, the pounding of guns, and the screech of diving aircraft.
Just as importantly, Woodward doesn’t just recount the story of the battle, he also does a good job of answering the ‘why’ of things, climbing into the heads of the battle’s leaders. Why did Admiral William Halsey take the power U.S. 3rd fleet on what amounted to a ‘wild goose chase’ halfway through the battle, leaving elements of the U.S. 7th fleet fairly at the mercy of the Japanese? And why, when those ships were at his mercy, did Japanese Admiral Takeo Kurita retreat instead of attack? Drawing on interviews taken from both sides after the armistice, Woodward digs deep into the minds of the commanders on that day, noting that save for a few crucial decisions and a few key mistakes, the Battle of Leyte Gulf might just as easily been an ignominious defeat for the Allies rather than a turning point victory.
Given that the Battle of Leyte Gulf is generally considered to be the largest naval battle of World War II and, by some criteria, possibly the largest naval battle in world history, it’s a bit of shame – and yet another testament to capriciousness of history – that most Americans have probably never heard of the engagement. Woodward’s book is the perfect vaccine for that particular ill – dramatic and readable – a daredevil account of a pivotal moment in history.
P.S. Woodward originally wrote his account of this event in 1947 -- nearly contemporary to the war itself. As the preface admits, new information has come to light regarding the battle in the intervening decades, information that simply was not available to Woodward at the time he wrote his account. Despite it's age and these imperfections, Woodward's telling is still quite good and far from stodgy. ...more
In November 1950, a noose was tightening around the necks of U.S. Marine and Army forces fighting on the We either hold this hill … or everybody dies.
In November 1950, a noose was tightening around the necks of U.S. Marine and Army forces fighting on the Korean peninsula. The troops, which had routed the North Korean military and were advancing steadily northward to the Yalu River, appeared poised to take complete control of North Korean territory. But what American troops didn’t know was that they were walking right into a trap. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers had slipped into the frozen mountains of North Korea and lay in wait for American forces. As the trap closed, U.S. forces found themselves hopelessly outnumbered and nearly encircled, a few narrow roadways south the only possible means of escape.
For the U.S. Marines fighting in the Chosin Reservoir, salvation lay through a treacherous mountain range and the Toktong Pass, a strategically vital choke point on the road south, held open by a meager 246 Marines and navy corpsmen of Fox Company.
The Last Stand of Fox Company is the gripping account of the unit’s dog-fight with a much larger Chinese force and the Marines tenacious efforts to hold the hill against overwhelming odds. Authors Drury and Clavin dig right into the trenches of the battlefield, offering a gritty account of the battle that rings like a heavyweight championship bout, round after round of punches echoing off the frozen landscape. In addition to giving an amazingly detailed – yet easily readable – account of the conflict, Drury and Clavin also dig deep into the men who fought amid the snow and rock. It’s a tough as nails battlefield biography of the skirmish and the men who fought it, replete with details from the gruesome to the heroic to the bittersweet. It’s rare to find a book that captures so much of the courage, the pathos, and the nuance of a battle in a format that is also so eminently readable.
I highly recommend this one – especially as a companion to David Halberstam’s The Coldest Winter. The one flaw in Halberstam’s book (and it's just a little itty-bitty crack in an otherwise magnificent work) is the rather short shrift it gives to the engagements in the Chosin; Drury and Clavin’s book plugs that imperfection perfectly. I would still say read Halberstam first -- and get the big picture of the conflict -- then come back to The Last Stand of Fox Company for a brilliant exclamation point to any layman’s study of the Korean War....more
A virtual war report from the frontlines of the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
Gregory Feifer’s The Great Gamble is a rock solid, eminently readable histor A virtual war report from the frontlines of the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
Gregory Feifer’s The Great Gamble is a rock solid, eminently readable history of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, chock full of details, political drama, military engagements, and the conflict’s great horrors. Peeling back the secrecy of the old Soviet regime, Feifer provides a compelling account of the fall of the Afghan communists – a complex tale of power struggles, assassination and miscalculation -- the eventual entry of the Soviets into the war, the rise of both moderate and extremist mujahideen fighters, and the grueling conflict that followed, a brutal guerilla struggle that was plagued by atrocities on both sides.
To his credit, while Feifer offers a pretty clear ‘big picture’ of the war, he also humanizes it, telling the stories of the men who fought it. Retelling the memoires of many Soviet ‘grunts’ who battled on the ground and air, Feifer pens a virtual war report of the conflict that is both gritty and soul-searching. This ‘boots on the ground’ perspective is brilliantly told and turns what could have otherwise been a very stale documentary into a page-turning combat journal. The opening days of the war, the assassination of Hafizullah Amin, and the taking of the Taj-Bek palace, in fact, reads like a real-life thriller.
Of course, there are some obvious parallels between the Soviet war in Afghanistan and that of the earlier British and now American experiences there. Certainly, Feifer’s book fills an essential gap for those seeking to understand how America ended-up in Afghanistan … a primer on ‘how-we-got-to-where-we-are-today.’ But just as importantly, Feifer’s book is a documentary of men at war and, regardless of nationality or political persuasion, how war effects those soldiers forever. It is also a telling testimony to the common people of Afghanistan and the suffering they have endured as rival armies dueled, shelled, and destroyed their homes, their families, their lives.
The Great Gamble is another chilling testament to the adage that war is indeed hell. ...more
Of all the major figures of the American Civil War, Confederate president Jefferson Davis remains one o “History has not been kind to Jefferson Davis.”
Of all the major figures of the American Civil War, Confederate president Jefferson Davis remains one of the most enigmatic. He rates a short footnote in most high-school history books, dwarfed in stature by his contemporaries: the military men Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant and, of course, by his Union counterpart Abraham Lincoln, arguably the greatest American president. Davis though only reluctantly took the role of commander in chief of the Confederacy and, when he did, he expected his task to be a lot more literal, leading the armies of the rebel republic into battle like a modern George Washington. In Embattled Rebel, historian James M. McPherson takes a much needed look at Davis’ role as commander in chief as he balanced the planning of military strategy and tactics against a rising tide of political and domestic woes.
McPherson makes for a wonderful storyteller. Despite a tremendous cast of characters and the inherent complexities of the American Civil War, his text remains light and breezy, the unfolding story clear and uncluttered. It would be easy to get lost in anything as sweeping as the tale McPherson has chosen to tell or bogged down in a mire of names, rank and political positions, but the author lays everything and everyone out on the table with neat efficiency and clearly marked place settings. All is easy to follow and, as a primer to the fundamentals of the Civil War, there’s no better guide. McPherson also does an excellent job in his portrayal of Davis – detoxifying the Confederate president’s personality from simple villain to beleaguered bureaucrat. While it’s impossible to overlook the splinter of slavery that sticks like log in Davis’ eye, it is possible to empathize with his frustrations and feel his harried fatigue as the burden of building a country from scratch falls squarely on his shoulders. While some of his choices were poor, Davis also displays amazing tenacity and quite a bit of guts, right down to riding into the midst of battlefields to personally survey the raging assault.
And while the insight into the military mechanics of Davis’ presidency is unfalteringly interesting, the casual reader should be aware that McPherson’s focus is a narrow one. The story pretty much begins and ends with Davis’ time as commander in chief and we get little of his pre- or -post history. This is a bit of a shame since -- and I think I'm speaking for most casual readers here -- it’s pretty unlikely that any but the most diehard civil war buffs will come back for more of good old Jeff Davis. I would have liked a page or two on Davis’ background and a little bit more about his years after his capture to round out (and complete) his story.
Ultimately, though, as an unrepentant pro-slavery confederate, Davis ends up the wrong side of history and, while McPherson does not recuse him his faults, he does paint a balanced portrait that if it does not make Jefferson Davis completely admirable, it does point out those traits and actions in the Confederate president that are admirable. As McPherson himself points out, “After spending many research hours with both Lincoln and Davis, I must confess that I find Lincoln more congenial, interesting and admirable. But in fact I found myself less becoming less inimical toward Davis that I expected when I began this project.”
And perhaps that is as fair a shake as any historian is ever going to give Jefferson Davis....more
Exceptional history … as riveting as any thriller … clearly, concisely told … drenched with emotion … an amazing tale of human endurance and heroism! Exceptional history … as riveting as any thriller … clearly, concisely told … drenched with emotion … an amazing tale of human endurance and heroism!
On January 23, 1968, North Korean naval and air forces seized the USS Pueblo, a Navy spy boat, cruising in international waters. One U.S. sailor was killed in the attack and 82 others were captured and imprisoned in a North Korean jail for 11 months, enduring brutal beatings and psychological torture. The incident could have easily sparked a second Korean War, and it is simply startling that the story of the spy ship Pueblo is today largely forgotten American history.
Fortunately with Act of War, historian Jack Cheevers offers a definitive military and political history of the incident that is as riveting as any thriller, rich with important details, and drenched in the roller-coaster emotions of Pueblo’s crew. On one level, Act of War is a first-rate history book as Cheevers unpacks the hazards and complexities of the Pueblo’s spy mission and untangles the Gordian knot of U.S.-Korean relations in easily understandable language.
At the same time, Cheevers balances the historical narrative against the plight of the Pueblo’s crew, which from the battle on the high seas to their harsh incarceration, is white-knuckled, visceral and intensely personal, wrought with despair, endurance, defiance and bravery. In Act of War, Cheevers does more than tell history; he forges an emotional bond between the reader and the men who lived these events -- enough to make me cheer out loud as these men came home and snarl at the Navy brass holding their ‘kangaroo’ court of inquiry into the incident.
This one is an easy five stars – it is well researched, well written, and a ‘can’t-put-it-down’ page turner. It’s unconscionable that the Pueblo incident should fade from memory; thankfully, the story couldn’t have found a better champion than Jack Cheevers.
P.S. That final fate of good ship Pueblo is one of those too ‘weird-to-believe-epilogues.’ Unlike it’s sailors, the USS Pueblo remains a prisoner of North Korea. Like the Bonnie and Clyde death car that now sits in a Las Vegas casino, the Pueblo is now a popular tourist attraction in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. Visitors are allowed to board the ship and see its secret code room and crew artifacts. More bizarrely, the U.S.S. Pueblo is still a commissioned ship of the U.S. Navy and the only one currently being held captive. ...more
As an adolescent America spilled west toward California and the Pacific, it was the western deserts that posed the most s A gem of Wild West Americana!
As an adolescent America spilled west toward California and the Pacific, it was the western deserts that posed the most serious barrier to expansion. Tortuous heat, paucity of food and water, and hostile peoples pressured the U.S. Government of the mid-nineteenth century to not only map safe routes for travelers and settlers, but to provide military protection through the sparsely populated barrens. More easily said than done of course; horses, mules, and even oxen – the most common modes of transportation – fared poorly in the desert wastes as the whitened bones of many of these beasts, left bleaching in the rock and sand, attested.
So why not use camels?, mused American military planners. If the mighty animals could trot across the arid dune seas of Arabia with ease, why not the deserts of the American southwest?
Thus begins the U.S. military’s nearly forgotten flirtation of with a camel-mounted cavalry – a tale rather rippingly told by author Forrest Bryant Johnson. Beginning with the importation of the camels to Texas, Johnson traces their use in explorations across the southwest and then on into the novel’s titular battle against the Mojave Native Americans. And while the camels remain a rather nice through line for the narrative, Johnson offers a refreshingly broad look at the events and issues that shaped pre-Civil War western settlement. The book also offers a nice little biography of explorer Edward Fitzgerald Beale and a few other western notables – but its Johnson’s recounting of the Mountain Meadows and Rose Wagon Train massacres that really make the pulse pound. This book may be about camels, but there’s some pretty high drama in there too and a rather sophisticated portrayal of the great forces that shaped the political and military landscape of the period.
Admittedly, it did take me a few chapters to settle into this book, but once I started turning the pages, I was completely immersed in this obscure corner of the Old West. Interesting, insightful, dramatic, and filled with larger than life historical personalities, The Last Camel Charge will make you feel the hot, desert sun on your back and put sandy grit in your teeth.
P.S. Would recommend this book as a great companion read to Edward Dolnick’s Down the Great Unknown, which covered John Wesley Powell’s exploration of the Grand Canyon. Tensions with the Mormon settlers in Utah play a pretty big role in the culmination of that story and Johnson lays the groundwork for those issues in The Last Camel Charge with a white-knuckle recounting of the infamous Mountain Meadows massacre and subsequent deployment of U.S. troops to Utah. ...more