Book Reviews – Fire and Fortitude and Island Infernos

I had meant to post a book review of John McManus’ Fire and Fortitude last year after I read it, but never got around to it. With the release of the second books in the series, Island Infernos, it seemed like a good time to review both books. McManus is writing a trilogy of books covering the U.S. Army in the Pacific during World War 2. Fire and Fortitude and Island Infernos are the first two books in the series. When talking about land battles in the Pacific, popular history tends to focus on the efforts of the Marines. McManus points out that U.S. Army had more troops to the Pacific than the Marines and similarly fought tough actions against the Japanese across the Pacific.

 

Fire and Fortitude covers the U.S. Army in the Pacific from 1941 to 1943. The book has some pre-war discussion and then goes on to actions at Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, New Guinea, Guadalcanal, the rest of the Solomon Islands, China, the Aleutian Islands, and the Gilbert Islands. McManus does a good job of covering the combat in the Philippines, which is often skipped or given little mention in most histories. McManus also spends a lot of time covering American POWs, which is another topic that is usually only found in subject specific books. The New Guinea section does a good job of discussing the difficulties of jungle fighting on the island for both the Allies and Japanese. Army involvement on Guadalcanal and rest of the Solomon Islands is area that is a footnote in many histories but is well covered in the book. The book ends with the Gilbert Islands Campaign. Where McManus provides a good explanation of the differences between Marine and Army strategy for island invasions and how Marine General Holland “Howlin Mad” Smith felt the Army wasn’t aggressive enough during the campaign. After finishing the book, I thought it was a good start to the series and really captured the Army’s actions.

The series continues with Island Infernos, which came out in late 2021 and covers Army Pacific actions in 1944. The book starts out with the continuing action in New Guinea and other efforts to isolate the Japanese at Rabaul. It covers the amphibious actions to bypass and cutoff Japanese strongpoints and set the stage for the invasion of the Philippines. The book then goes on to cover the invasions in the Marshall Islands, Marianna Islands, and the return to the Philippines. McManus also revisits America POWs, which again is rarely covered by most histories. As in the previous book, Island Infernos gives detailed accounts of the Army's actions and internal in-fighting.
 

Both books are well researched and long. They are not for a casual reader or for a quick look at a single campaign. General Douglas MacArthur plays a key role in both books, and I felt like McManus provided a balanced view of this controversial leader. Praising and pointing out flaws where appropriate. 

 There is an obvious comparison to be made between this series and Rick Atkinson's work on the Army in the European Theater. The writers have different styles. I think Atkinson is a better writer, but it is close. That said, I think the McManus books are definitely worth the read, especially if you have in World War 2 Pacific land battles. For those of you who are unsure about this, I would recommend checking with your local library to see if they have copies of the books (I’m a big fan the Seattle Public Library and libraries in general), so you can have a look without having to buy.
 

From a gamer’s point of view there is a lot in these books. If you’re looking for new ideas for Pacific battles (and not just the usual Marines vs. Japanese), these books have what you want. The main problem is there are very few miniatures manufacturers that make 28mm U.S. Army in the Pacific figures. That said, I’ve been thinking about scenario ideas for Company B’s Alamo Scouts and SeeBees figures. Island Infernos has an interesting section on the formation of the Alamo Scouts and their first recon mission on Los Negros island. It got me wondering if I could make a scenario on that using Osprey’s Black Ops rules.

Book Review - Six Victories: North Africa, Malta, and the Mediterranean Convoy War

Six Victories: North Africa, Malta, and the Mediterranean Convoy War November 1941 - March 1942 provides an in-depth account of the naval action in the Mediterranean during fall 1941 and winter 1942. The book covers a critical period in the war from the arrival of Force K at Malta through the Second Battle of Sirte. The book's title is based on six key victories, three British and three Axis, that happened during this time. The author, Vincent O'Hara, draws from British, German, and Italian archives to cover the information from both sides. 

 

The book starts out with an overview of sea power in the Mediterranean in 1940-41and then moves to a chapter on communications, intelligence, and logistics. This second chapter sets the stage for the rest of the book and some new information (at least to me) on communications and intelligence capabilities for both sides. Most English histories of the war talk about Ultra and the British code-breaking skills, making it appear that the British had the upper hand. But O'Hara reveals that the Germans and Italians both had successes in breaking the Royal Navy's tactical codes and merchant ship codes. In the overall intelligence fight, O'Hara gives the Axis powers the edge, with statistics to back up his conclusion. The logistics portion of the chapter also has some interesting facts. The Mediterranean naval was was basically a war of logistics, with both sides trying to get supplies through the enemy to keep their forces in North Africa or Malta in supply. One thing that is rarely discussed is the port capacities for the destinations, which greatly affected the size and timing of convoys. In 1940, the two primary Axis ports, Tripoli and Benghazi, could only support off-loading five cargo ships or three cargo ships respectively. By December 1941, Tripoli had increase capacity to six or seven large ships, but Benghazi remained limited to three ships. These numbers were lowered even more by bad weather and enemy air attacks. This helps explain why Italian convoys were generally small and run more often than convoys to Malta. The final part of the chapter talks about the Italian Navy's fuel situation, which ended up limiting training, escort sizes, and operations against Malta convoys. 

 

With the stage set, the remaining chapters cover the action, starting with the arrival of Force K at Malta. The time period from the end of October through the middle of December 1941 was the high point of Royal Navy operations. During that time less than a third of the supplies shipped from Italian ports arrived in Libya. Shortages of ammunition and fuel forced the Afrika Korps to retreat four hundred miles. Then, in the space of thirty hours, this all changed. First, Italian naval forces broke the blockade by fighting through a major convoy that arrived in time to blunt the British advance; next, Force K plowed into a minefield that basically removed them from action; and finally, a daring attack by Decima (X) MAS, specialized Italian commandos, crippled the Royal Navy's battleships in Alexandria. The swing in fortune was immediate and dramatic. After this Axis forces would implement a blockade of Malta and maintain maritime superiority until the arrival of Anglo-American forces for Operation Torch in November 1942. 

 

Overall I found Six Victories to be a good read, especially for anyone interested in naval operations in the Mediterranean. Some of the battle descriptions are not as detailed as other books I've read, but the information on convoys and other operations more than make up for this. Vincent O'Hara has written a lot of interesting naval books and Six Victories is a good addition to that group.

 

From a wargamer's point of view, this book can provide some great ideas for setting up battles or a mini-campaign. It provides a good commander's eye view of the battles that can be used to implement some good "fog of war" rules for battle scenarios.

Book Review - The Strike Wings: Special Anti-Shipping Squadrons 1942-45

The Strike Wings tells the story of Coastal Command’s three anti-shipping strike wings during World War II. The strike wings were formed in 1942 to attack German coastal shipping off the Dutch and Norwegian coasts to disrupt shipments of iron ore and other minerals vital to the German war effort. Coastal Command had made efforts to interdict this traffic from the start of the war, but it wasn’t until the Beaufighter Mk VIC and torpedo armed “Torbeau” version became widely available that they had a plane that could effectively handle the job.

The Beaufighter was originally designed as a heavy fighter variant of the Bristol Beaufort bomber. Early versions were used as long-range fighters and night fighters (which were equipped with air intercept radar). The Mk IC version was modified for Coastal Command use, with additional fuel tanks and hardpoints for bomb mounts. The Mk IC version was deployed to the Mediterranean and proved effective in attacks against Axis shipping and ground targets. This led to the development of the Mk VIC version and the formation of strike wings.

The book covers some of the early developments of the strike wing attacks and tactics. Including discussions about the anti-flak and fighter work, along with the development of rockets which would become the weapon of choice for the strike wings. There are several maps that show the location of ships and how attacks were carried out. The book also talks about the formation of the Banff Strike Wing, which used the De Haviland Mosquito Mk VI as its strike aircraft.

Coastal Command Torbeau (Wkikpedia)

In addition to going after convoys, the strike wings were also hunted U-boats and other German navy ships. Around the D-Day period, one wing was tasked with protecting invasion and post-invasion shipping from any interference by the German navy. The book has some nice discussions of these operations.

In addition to mission accounts, the book also has an appendix showing the airfields where the squadrons were deployed and one that lists the ships and submarines that were damaged or sunk by strike wing attacks. The author used the German records to match strike wing claims against actual losses, although the list does not include convoy escort vessels that were damaged in the attacks.

The author flew in strike aircraft of Coastal Command after World War II and was able to speak with many strike wing veterans. The descriptions of attacks are supported by first-hand accounts of the action from the aircrews involved.

The Strike Wings provides a good overall history of Coastal Command's strike wings. The action described in the book is very different from the bomber and fighter battles over Europe and in the Pacific. I would recommend it to anyone interested in World War II aerial combat.

From a gamer’s point of view, the book provides a lot of information and ideas for scenarios. The maps and appendices provide good information on potential game set ups and the forces involved. The Beaufighters and Mosquitos of Coastal Command’s strike wings attacked a variety of shipping targets and sometimes had to fight off German fighters escorting those ships, so there is a lot of interesting action.

Book Review - In the Hurricane's Eye

 In the Hurricane's Eye, The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown is the final book in Nathaniel Philbrick's coverage of the American War of Independence (the previous books are Bunker Hill and Valiant Ambition).

The book starts out talking about the three major hurricanes that happened in October 1780. These hurricanes ravaged the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. The worst storm had winds estimated at 200 miles per hour, killed over 22,000 people, and damaged or sank British, French, and Spanish warships. These storms give the book its title. Philbrick goes on to talk about the current situation for both sides of the war and the importance of ships for movement and resupply, setting the stage for the rest of the book.

The next event covered is Benedict Arnold's (now serving in the British Army) attack into Virginia along Chesapeake Bay. George Washington sends the Marquis de Lafayette with a small army to oppose Arnold. Washington also talks the French into committing their fleet to try to trap Arnold. The Royal Navy catches wind of the French fleet's movements and races to intercept them, leading to the Battle of Cape Henry. While the French are unable to move into Chesapeake Bay, they do major damage to the British fleet and Philbrick suggests the French missed a chance to change the war here.

The book then moves to the British Army's campaign in  South Carolina and North Carolina. It covers the battles of Cowpens and Guilford Courthouse as General Cornwallis moves the British army north into Virginia. With the British settling in around Yorktown, the American and French saw an opportunity to trap Cornwallis.

At this point in the war, Washington was still hoping to retake New York from the British. However, the French generals and the strength of the British position around New York City finally convinced Washington that taking on Cornwallis was the best course of action. So, the combined armies headed for Virginia. But they still needed the French fleet to prevent resupply or evacuation of Cornwallis' army. While the allied armies raced toward Yorktown, the British and French fleets were racing to get into position at Chesapeake Bay.

The French fleet, under Admiral De Grasse, was being tracked by the British fleet, led by Samuel Hood. But the British were uncertain of De Grasse's final destination - was it Chesapeake Bay or New York? The British fleet was slightly faster than the French fleet and beat them the the bay. But when they didn't see any French ships, they decided to head for New York.Once the British fleet arrived in New York, it joined up with the ships there and turned back to Chesapeake Bay, where the French were waiting. Setting up the Battle of the Chesapeake (also known as the Battle of the Virginia Capes). The book describes the battle and aftermath, with the British falling back to New York and leaving the French in control of the bay.

With the British sealed up in Chesapeake Bay, the book moves to the siege of Yorktown. The overall action is described, along with the final decision to surrender. This essentially ended the fighting in North America.

The remainder of the book follows up on the final resolution of the revolution, the troubles in the American army and Washington's efforts to keep the American army in line. The book ends with a chapter that gives a short description of what happened to each of the main characters in the story. 

Overall, In the Hurricane's Eye is a good general history of the last years of the American Revolution. It does a good job of describing the situation, the personalities involved, and the events. The book is easy to read and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in the American Revolution, although you might want to start out with Philbrick's Bunker Hill and Valiant Ambition.

For gamers, the book provides you with information on the major battles, especially the sea battles, for putting together some interesting scenarios and alternative battles. But you will probably need to go to other sources for more details on the troops and ships available at the time.

Rules/Book Review: Wargaming the Spanish Armada

I’ve been intrigued with the Spanish Armada for some time. There are a number of interesting books and games available on the subject and I have some Armada boardgames, but I’ve always been little reluctant to get into gaming the era with miniatures. I decided to spend a little Christmas gift certificates to get a copy of the Spanish Armada book in the Battle of Britain series of book-games.

The Spanish Armada book cover

Each book in the Battle for Britain series, there are seven all-together (and they are launching a Fleets in Profile series this year), covers a different war in British history. Each include profile illustrations of soldiers and weapons to cut out, along with easy to play wargame rules. The Spanish Armada book has all the major ships you need to recreate the navies that clashed in the English Channel in 1588 and has instructions on how to cut out and assemble them. It also includes a coastline, islands, and a sea surface with squares for playing the game. The rules are quick and easy to play, but still show the differences between Spanish and English ships and tactics. The book also includes short descriptions of the overall campaign and the different ships on each side, along with tactical suggestions for ship captains when playing the game. There are six scenarios in the rules (four historical, one hypothetical, and one generic) and a campaign game. So, there is really a lot packed into book.

Spanish Fleet description from the book

To start a game, you need to have your play area and ships, along with some six-sided dice for combat and a deck of cards for determining the wind information. The turn sequence for the game is Spanish move and shoot, then the English take their turn and can move and shoot or shoot and move. Movement is pretty basic with most Spanish ships only able to move one square, while most English ships can move two. If you are playing with the Orders rule, you roll a die at the start of the turn to determine how many ships you can move. There are also movement limitations based on the wind speed and direction (determined before the start of play). One interesting rule is that the Spanish transports don’t normally move during the game; they only move if they are hit by English gunnery. This does make games more fun that just doing the typical stern chase.

A page of English ships (click on the image for a closer look)

The movement information, damage and gunnery information for each ship type is summarized on a card.

Ship summary cards

For gunnery combat you roll a number of six-sided dice based on the firing ship type and range, with sixes being hits. When ships take enough hits, they become crippled and no longer move and can be forced to surrender. The English automatically reload their guns when they move, while the Spanish roll to see if they reload their guns. So, the Spanish have to think about when to fire their guns. There is also a rule for Spanish boarding (the English cannot initiate boarding). But a Spanish ship has to be in the same square as an English ship to try this and that isn’t very likely.

The campaign plays through a series of scenarios as the Armada moves through the Channel giving each side options for attacking the enemy (including a chance for the Spanish to attack ports or invade from Flanders). There are chances to resupply and repair your forces between battles too.

I haven’t cut out any ships yet, but I did play a couple battles with some stand-ins and the game played quickly and smoothly. There is a rules summary sheet, which I referred to when first getting started, to help with any basic questions.

The Spanish Armada book gives you ships, easy-play rules, and a basic history all a comprehensive little package. The author also gives you permission to copy the pages, so that you don’t have to cut up the book. Overall, I was pretty happy with the game and think this is a worthwhile purchase.

Book Review - The Earth is Weeping

The Earth is Weeping: The Epic story of the Indian Wars for the American West is a one volume history of the Western American Indian Wars. This book covers a lot of ground and while author Peter Cozzens does not go into details for all the events, he does include and talk about all the major events.

The book starts out in 1861 with the Dakota Sioux uprising and goes on to cover Red Cloud’s War, the Modoc uprising, battles in Apacheria with Cochise, the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the pursuit of the Nez Perce, the pursuit of Geronimo, ending with the Ghost Dancers and Wounded Knee.

Because the opposing forces involved are small, when compared to most long wars, Cozzens is able to provide enough detail on to keep things interesting. But overall, Cozzens writing style is more text book and history than sweeping colorful epic. That said, the book does provide insight into what the different Indian tribes, leaders, and generals were thinking during each of the conflicts.

The western Indians never really united to oppose the white settlers and soldiers. There were times they formed temporary alliances, but mostly they continued to make war on each another, while some joined with the soldiers against tribes that were old enemies (Apaches often scouted for the U.S. Army against other Apaches and several Plains tribes worked with the Army).

Cozzens does a good job of showing the rivalries between tribes, Army generals, and even the United States’ Indian policies. He clearly talks about the injustice of broken treaties, but he also covers abuses by Indians against settlers and other tribes.

At the beginning of the book Cozzens says that he wrote the book to try to bring historical balance to the story of the Indian wars and I think he succeeded. Overall, the book provides good coverage of the American Indian Wars and ties them together, and I would recommend it. However, if you are looking for detailed accounts of a particular campaign, you might want to look for a specific book on the campaign.

For gamers, this book can provide a lot of scenario ideas, names, and places for Indian War battles. But it won’t give you a stirring narrative to build battles around. For that I would suggest some John Ford movies.

Book Review – The Conquering Tide

The Conquering Tide is the second book in Ian Toll’s Pacific War Trilogy. In this book covers the World War II in the Pacific from mid-1942 through mid-1944.

The first half of the book covers the Guadalcanal campaign and the American offensive up the Solomon Islands. While a lot of this is information you have probably seen or read before, Toll does introduce some new material that covers things from the Japanese point of view.

After the Solomon Islands, Toll takes a break from the island hopping campaign to cover the submarine war. This is primarily done by focusing on the patrols of USS Wahoo (SS-238) to illustrate what was happening in that part of the war. But there are a few other submarine stories there too.

The book then moves to the American attacks into the Gilbert and Marshall Islands in 1943 and 1944. These chapters show the evolution of American technology, tactics, and firepower from the battles around the Solomon Islands. Toll makes it pretty clear that the Americans were coming up with new ways of fighting, while the Japanese were stuck in pre-war ideas and spending too much time in inter-service rivalries. The book does point out similar inter-service problems on the American side, but it also shows how the Americans were able to work through those problems. The book continues with the campaign through the central Pacific with air attacks on Truk and the invasions in the Marianas Islands. The dominance of American carrier airpower is plainly shown in the Battle of the Philippine Sea (AKA the Marinas Turkey Shoot).

Throughout the book Toll interweaves stories from Australia, the United States, and Japan to show what was happening on and how the war was seen from the home front. This provides a nice balance with all the battles and gives a good idea of struggles the Japanese people faced during this time.

While most of the book covers what the admirals and generals were saying and doing, it still has lots of good operational and tactical stories too. As with the first book in the series, there are lots of first-hand accounts of the different actions.

Toll has become one of my favorite authors for naval history. His Six Frigates book was great and I enjoyed Pacific Crucible, the first book of the Pacific War Trilogy. The Conquering Tide bites off a big chunk of World War II in the Pacific and I found the first half (on Guadalcanal) to be a little slow. However, the rest of the book is good and brings out some new material. Overall, I would recommend reading The Conquering Tide and I think it is a good addition to books on the Pacific War. The one flaw I see in the book is that it really focuses on the drive through the central Pacific and says very little about the fight in the New Guinea area.

From a gamers point of view, this book provides lots of gaming fodder for naval, air, and land games. After reading the book I could see a number of interesting situations that don’t usually show up as wargames. The raid on Truk alone provides new air and naval actions, and there are a number of land gaming ideas around the different island invasions.

Book Review - War at the End of the World

War at the End of the World covers the often overlooked World War II campaign in New Guinea. There aren’t a lot of books (at least in the U.S.) on the New Guinea campaign, which always seemed a bit strange to me since it was a hard fought campaign that involved Americans and it could arguably be said that it was as important as the actions in the Solomon Islands.

The book starts out with the Japanese invasion of New Britain in 1942, then moves to Japanese and Allied operations on New Guinea in 1943, and ends with the last major operations on the western end of New Guinea in August 1944. The author, James Duffy, covers a lot of strategic and tactical aspects of the campaign and includes Japanese and Australian perspectives. The book has a good chapter on the fighting along the Kokoda Trail, but it still tends to concentrate on American involvement and especially on General Douglas MacArthur’s role. The subtitle “Douglas MacArthur and the Forgotten Fight for New Guinea” gives you an idea of how important Duffy thinks MacArthur’s leadership is in the campaign’s overall success. The book does do a good job of talking about the Allied strategy for outflanking and isolating groups of Japanese troops across the island to cut off their supplies; forcing them to either surrender, starve, or die of disease.

Overall, the book provides a really good overview of the campaign and battles. But it does not go too deep into any of the battles or get too detailed about the units involved in the battles. It does have a pretty extensive bibliography that can point the way for those that want more details. It is a good book and I would recommend War at the End of the World to anyone with an interest in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

From a gamer’s point of view, the book gives lots of ideas for land battles (I originally got it to get some ideas for my 28mm Australians shown here). It doesn’t have as much for the naval and air gamers, but you can still pick up some ideas.

2015 Gaming Year in Review

It is the end of another year and time to look back and forward to gaming projects. Looking back at my plans for 2015, I laid out four ideas.

1) Run the St Nazaire Raid (Operation Chariot) game at Enfilade 2015.

This was a successful project that won an award at Enfilade. A pretty good start to the year.

2) Paint up some Japanese opponents for my 28mm Bolt Action Aussies.

I picked up a box of Warlord Games Imperial Japanese infantry and some support weapons, but have not started work on these figures. So, this only gets a 25% completion. which is probably a little generous, but it is the time of year to be generous.

3) Work on rules and miniatures for modern submarine game.

I painted up the Chinese (PLAN) Type 092 Xia class ballistic missile submarine (photos coming soon) that I ordered from Shapeways earlier this year and I’ve written out some ideas for rules, but I haven’t actually played any games with them. Since I already have a good number of submarine models ready, I’m going to score this a 50% completion.

4) Get back to my 15mm Age of Sail project.

With the completion of the DANG 2015, I’m going to mark this as 100% successful. I do have a few other ships to complete, but I finished up the everything I wanted to get done.

Odds and Ends: I talked about putting together some armies for the Lion Rampant rules, but that never really got started. However, I did get through my Summer Solo Project, which was probably time better spent.

Overall, I’ll give 2015 a 2.5 - 3 out of 4 for gaming projects. Which means it was a pretty good year.

Book Reviews

Besides gaming projects, there were a couple new books that I read but didn’t review this year.

To Crown the Waves: The Great Navies of the First World War 

This is the World War I version of On Seas Contested (reviewed here). This book provides a comparison of the major navies of World War I, including the Royal Navy, the German Navy, the French Navy, the United States Navy, the Italian Navy, the Austro-Hungarian Navy, and the Imperial Russian Navy. It also has some short overviews of the Japanese and Ottoman navies. Like On Seas Contested, the book covers information about the organization and doctrine used by each navy, along with a section on wartime experience that gives an outline of a navy’s operations and development during the war. It is a good book to get deeper into how the navies operated, but it isn’t for everyone.

British and Commonwealth Warship Camouflage of WWII: Volume II: Battleships & Aircraft Carriers 
Full Disclosure: I helped with the editing of this book, so my opinion might be somewhat biased. 

I enjoyed the first volume in this series, but in many ways I prefer this volume. This book covers camouflage for battleships and aircraft carriers. Since there were fewer of these ships than the destroyers and escorts of the first volume, the book provides a much better view of the evolution of camouflage schemes during World War II. Additionally, it provides information on the weapons and radar changes for the ships. This is a great book for anyone with an interest in ship camouflage and will be of particular interest to modelers and other hobbyist because of the wide variety of camouflage patterns.

Looking to 2016

I haven’t really thought too far ahead. DANG usually takes up the last quarter of the year and since I let the gamers vote on the project, it is hard to know what it will be. However, I do have a few items on my plate:

1) Channel Dash project for Enfilade 2016. My friend Kevin talked me into doing this project for Enfilade. We are planning on two games, one involving the air attacks (it will be similar to the Tirpitz game from 2013) and one involving the MTB attack. I’m tasked with providing the ships for the game. I’ve got most of the MTBs and German escorts for this project, but the big work will be completing models of the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Prinz Eugen in 1/700 scale. It should be a fun little project

2) Finish the modern submarine rules. I’ve been toying around with these and it is time to do some serious work.

3) Work on the Japanese opponents for my 28mm Bolt Action Aussies. Another holdover from 2015. But since I’ve got the troops, it should be easy enough to get this going.

Odds and Ends: I’d still like to do up some Crusades era armies for Lion Rampant and I have some Galactic Knights ships to finish up (and play with), but I expect that some other bright shiny game project will draw my attention. So I’m keeping my other options open for now.

Book Review – British and Commonwealth Warship Camouflage of WWII: Destroyers, Frigates, Sloops, Escorts, Minesweepers, Submarines, Coastal Forces and Auxiliaries

 [Full Disclosure: I was involved in proof-reading this book, so my opinions might be a little biased.]

This is the first volume covering British and Commonwealth warship camouflage during World War 2 (the second volume is expected to cover battleships and carriers, with cruisers filling up the third volume). This book covers all the different classes of destroyers, frigates, sloops, corvettes, and other escorts, along with submarines, auxiliaries and coastal force craft. There are over 700 color illustrations in the book showing the different camouflage patterns (official and unofficial) used in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Pacific. You can tell that a lot of research went into the book, since many of the camouflage schemes are hard to find in other sources. Additionally, the ship descriptions provide information about weapons and electronics on ships, including changes during the war.

Overall, I think that British and Commonwealth Warship Camouflage of WWII is a great reference book. It provides great information in one volume, so if you want to know what colors to use while painting small ships from the Royal Navy and other Commonwealth navies, then this is the book for you. The descriptions of weapons and radars will also be helpful for modelers, making it a valuable resource.

For gamers, this book is all about how to paint your ships. This might sound limiting, but it really isn't. There is a lot of information in this one book and, if you are a World War 2 naval gamer, it will really help you decide the best way to paint up your fleets.

While it is really interesting to read the descriptions and look at the paint schemes, this book does make me realize that I’m going to have to repaint some of my coastal forces ships. Apparently they used a lot more green and blue colors and less grey than I originally thought. It will mean some extra work for me, but that will make for some more colorful games.

Book Review - On Seas Contested: The Seven Great Navies of the Second World War

On Seas Contested is a joint collaboration by seven different authors and three editors covering the major naval powers during World War 2. The book has chapters on the navies from the United States, Japan, United Kingdom and Commonwealth, Germany, Italy, France, and Soviet Union. While there are a lot of books on the navies and naval actions during World War 2, I can’t think of one other book that compares all the navies at this level.

The editors set up a chapter outline for each author to follow covering each navy’s: History, Mission, Organization (including personnel and intelligence), Doctrine (surface, air, submarine, anti-submarine, amphibious, trade protection, and communications), Material (ships, aircraft, weapons, and logistics), and an Assessment of the navy’s wartime operations. The authors all worked independently, so every now and then some information is repeated between the chapters. However, it is not repetitive but is used to illustrate the different views each navy had on the information. Each chapter has a lot for anyone interested in naval history.

I found the sections on Doctrine and Material particularly interesting, since not every navy planned to fight in the same manner and knowing those differences really shows why certain decisions were made when procuring ships, aircraft, and weapons. I also thought the section that provided the assessment of wartime operations was interesting. That section wasn’t just a rehash of winners and losers; but an evaluation of how a navy performed given its pre-war plans and wartime changes. I really though all the authors did a good job of assessing the performance of the navies. It was also interesting to see information on the French and Soviet navies. Those two are often neglected when talking about World War 2 naval operations.

Overall, I enjoyed On Sea Contested and thought the authors did a good job getting all the information into the pre-defined outline. However, because there really isn’t much on battles, this probably isn’t a good book for the casual naval historian (if there is such a person) and I certainly understand that not everyone is interested in how the Italians trained their sailors or Soviet’s anti-submarine warfare plans. But if you are interested in reading information on why navies did certain things during the war, this is a book for you.

For gamers, this book can provide ideas for setting up victory conditions and orders for naval actions. It can also give you some ideas for special rules for different navies should operate.

Finally, there is a website for the book that provides backgrounds on the authors and editors, along with some extra material and links to primary sources and other naval websites. Even if you don't get the book, the On Seas Contested website is worth a look.

A Few Book Reviews

It is one week away from DANG and I’m currently recovering from my planned shoulder surgery (I needed to have a tendon repaired and part of a bone shaved off), so this post was done by one-handed typing. The recovery time has given me the opportunity to read and re-read many books and I thought I’d share them here. The first two are naval books, while the last doesn’t really have anything to do with ships or wargaming, but was a good read.

Neptune’s Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal by James Hornfischer 
Hornfischer has done some really great work in his previous books of creating personal narratives about sailors at war and Neptune’s Inferno continues that habit. Unlike land combat, where the object is to kill/wound/demoralize enemy troops, naval combat is all about the ships. That is where most books concentrate their story, on the ships as objects of war while the men that crew those ships (except for the admirals and captains) often sit in the background, out of sight. While Hornfischer does talk about the ships in battles and what the admirals/captains were doing and thinking, he also takes you into the turrets and below deck to see what the other officers and sailor were doing.

The book also covers higher levels with accounts of Nimitz, Ghormley, Halsey, and the Marines on Guadalcanal. Hornfischer also touches on the Marines denouncement of the Navy for abandoning them, while also pointing out the Navy suffered three times the casualties as the Marines and adding several stories about positive Marine-Navy interactions.

Overall, Neptune’s Inferno is an engaging book with lots of good stories. While I would have liked to have seen more about the Japanese sailors too, that is a minor quibble and certainly doesn’t make this book any less worthwhile.

For gamers this book will make you want to pull out a naval game and play it. There isn’t a lot of new information here, but it vividly illustrates the chaos and command/control issues inherent in battles. It might even give you some ideas about throwing some chaos into your games.

Islands of Destiny: The Solomons Campaign and the Eclipse of the Rising Sun by John Prados 
John Prados starts out this book saying that he is out to show that the Solomons Campaign, not the Battle of Midway, was the real turning point during World War II in the Pacific. Prados goes through the list of Japanese forces available after the battle to show that while Midway was bad, it wasn’t devastating and that the Japanese forces were still on par with (or even slightly better than) American forces. The book goes on to cover the actions in the Solomons and the decisions behind the actions from both the American and Japanese point of view.

There isn’t much new information about the battles themselves, but there is a lot of new and really interesting stuff on the intelligence efforts on both sides. This information does a great job of explaining how the battles were shaped and why they happened when they did. There is a lot of new information from American and Japanese sources and Prados writing makes it a thought-provoking read.

As far as his argument about Midway not being the turning point of the war, it is solid but I’m not convinced. I see his point, but (in my opinion) without Midway the battles around the Solomons don’t happen and the American turn to offense probably doesn’t happen until 1943. That said, I still enjoyed the book and highly recommend it, especially now that it is out in a paperback edition.

From a gamer’s point of view, the information on intelligence resources for the Americans and Japanese should prove valuable for setting up your own mini-campaigns/scenarios and knowing how much information to give the players. I know it already influenced what I’m doing for the upcoming DANG game.

The Victory Season: The End of World War II and the Birth of Baseball's Golden Age by Robert Weintraub 
The Victory Season is ostensibly about the 1946 baseball season, but there is really so much more to this book. Yes, it has a description of the season and exciting seven-game World Series, but it also has stories about what was happening in the United States in the year after World War II ended. It includes stories about labor unrest and the general shortages as the country shifted from a war-time to peace-time economy. It also has the account of Jackie Robinson’s year with the Dodger’s minor league team in Montreal.

There are stories about player experiences during World War II. Not just the experiences of the stars, but of the minor leaguers and players that would become famous. There is a story about an ETO ‘World Series’ played after the war ended in a converted Hitler Youth Stadium. The Victory Season also mentions Japanese ballplayers, many which served and died during the war. There aren’t too many books that talk about Japanese players and even though it is a short mention (around a page), it was nice to see.

The main things I liked about this book was the way it interwove the story of the baseball season into what was happening in the United States in 1946 and the wartime experience, not leaving each as a separate tale. The book skips back and forth a lot, making it seem a little disjointed at times, but overall it works. I picked this book as an e-book from the library and was really happy with it.

Book Review - Intrepid Sailors: The Legacy of Preble's Boys and the Tripoli Campaign

Intrepid Sailors tells the story of the American Third Mediterranean Squadron, commanded by Commodore Edward Preble, during the war against Tripoli in 1804. The book starts off with a background on the war, the squadron, and the main historical characters that were involved in the action. The names of the Americans will be familiar to most readers, especially if you have read any other history about the U.S Navy or just looked at the names of American warships. Mainly because almost all of the young officers with the squadron (such as Stephen Decatur, Richard Somers, Charles Stewart, and James Lawrence) became heroes during the Tripoli War or went on to greater exploits later. The author does make the point that many of the men of the Third Mediterranean Squadron went on to become role models for future generations of American sailors.

After setting the scene the book goes right into action, describing the grounding and capture of the frigate USS Philadelphia, commanded by Captain William Bainbridge. Preble, on the frigate USS Constitution, did not learn about the loss of Philadelphia until almost a month after the event and almost all of the actions for the Third Mediterranean Squadron would revolve around the captured frigate and her crew. In addition to the stories of the special mission to burn the captured Philadelphia and the subsequent gunboat battles between the Americans and Tripolitans, Intrepid Sailors also covers a number of other actions that are only briefly mentioned in most other books.

The author, Chipp Reid, did a good job of using original sources and later interpretations to create an interesting narrative about Preble's squadron. There is a lot of good information on the men and ships of the squadron, along with an explanation of how difficult it is to maintain a blockade with limited resources. The book has a good mix of familiar and new information (or at least it was new to me) and I found it an enjoyable read. There were a couple places where Reid seemed to repeat himself, making me wonder if parts of the book were printed as separate articles somewhere, but overall I liked the book and would recommend it.

For gamers, the book will have a limited appeal. If you are interested in the American - Tripoli War, this book will provide a lot of new information about the ships and men involved in the war, along with ideas for scenarios. If you have an interest in small-scale naval actions during the Age of Sail, the book could give you some ideas for cutting out operations, coastal actions, and other small scale battles.

Some Book Reviews and Last Post for 2012

As part of my last post of 2012, I wanted to talk about a few books I read during the year. None of the books are very new and I'm limiting this post to ones that might interest naval gamers.

Empire of Blue Water: Captain Morgan's Great Pirate Army, the Epic Battle for the Americas, and the Catastrophe That Ended the Oulaws' Bloody Reign, by Stephan Talty

This book covers the exploits of Henry Morgan during his 30-year career as a pirate/privateer in the Caribbean. The book primarily covers the Morgan's attacks on the Spanish Empire at sea and on land, including his attacks on the major Spanish ports in Panama and South America. It also looks at the general political situation in the Caribbean during that period. Talty talks about the difficulties of organizing pirate expeditions, maintaining control of those men, and what happened after the expedition. Talty also notes early in the book that not a lot of records were kept from this time, but he does a good job of filling in details. Although one thing I didn't really like was that he invented an ordinary pirate character for the book that he would use to explain the difficulties of the common buccaneers. I thought this was the least effective part of the book and could have been explained just as well without the invented character.

Empire of Blue Water is a nice little history of the Caribbean in the late 1600s. For gamers, it gives lots of ideas for pirate raids and what the troops (pirate and Spanish) were like.

Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 by Ian Toll

This is Ian Toll's second book. His first was the wonderful Six Frigates, which covered the early history of the American Navy, so I was expecting a lot. After the wide-ranging time frame covered by Six Frigates, I was a little disappointed that Pacific Crucible was only covering 1941-42 (and only from Pearl Harbor through the Battle of Midway). But that disappointment soon disappeared as I got further into the book. Rather than just covering the same basic military history of Pearl Harbor, the early American responses, the Battles of Coral Sea and Midway, Toll delves deeper into how these historical events came about and the strategic views for each side. There is a really good explanation of the Japanese thoughts and goals, including how the Army and Navy took over the Japanese government and their general lack of cooperation with each other. There are good sections on Admirals Nimitz, King, and Yamamoto, along with the relationship and meetings of Churchill and Roosevelt. The book also draws on a lot of eyewitness accounts for the battles.

I found Pacific Crucible to be a quick and interesting read. Even if you are familiar with the first six months of World War II in the Pacific, I think you will read something new or see events with a different twist. I'm hoping that Toll will continue writing the history of World War II in the Pacific, but I think it will take a lot of time to do that in this level of detail. For gamers, there is some good information on the Wake Island relief force and other early American raids that aren't gamed very much, along with there are lots of little ideas that can be added to your games. Overall I really enjoyed the book and recommend it.

If By Sea: The forging of the American Navy - from the Revolution to the War of 1812. By George Daughn

I reviewed Daughn's 1812 book in another post, but never posted anything about his first book. As the subtitle says, this book cover the American Navy from the American War of Independence (AWI) through the War of 1812. The thing that really sets it apart from the other books on the early U.S. Navy is the focus on the AWI time period; about half the book covers the period from 1775 until 1783. Daughn does a good job covering the wide variety of ships and actions during this time, from Boston Harbor to the Bahamas raids and John Paul Jones. The book is worth reading for those sections alone. Which is a good thing, since the book only covers the next 30 years in broad strokes. It hits on all of the major actions and events, but not in much detail. It isn't that the writing or information is bad, it is just done better in other books.

If By Sea gives a good overall history of the American Navy through 1815 and especially during the American War of Independence. I felt the last half of the book wasn't as informative as the first half, but that might only be because of other books I've read. For gamers, there is a lot of different stuff here, although they are all pretty small actions.

2012 in Review
Looking back on what I posted about plans for 2012 (look at the end of this post), I did get through some but not all of them. I didn't do very much work on my 15mm Age of Sail stuff, but I did complete a bunch of 1/600-1/700 scale ships and some of the 'grab bag' items (the Galactic Knights spaceships and some aircraft). So, it was too bad of a year. I haven't really thought about projects and plans for 2013. I will probably just pick out a few projects here and there without any set goals in mind. I do need to figure out what I want to do for Enfilade 2013(I've already got some ideas kicking around). Drumbeat 2013 is coming up in mid-January, but I think I will just attend and play games rather than running games.

Finally, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year and thank you for reading my meandering posts and adding comments.

Civil War Naval Book Reviews and Year End Post

As part of my research for the Up the River mini-campaign, I read through a couple short histories on American Civil War naval actions and I thought I'd share my thoughts on these books, along with my thoughts for 2012.

The Civil War at Sea, by Craig Symonds

Craig Symonds has several good books on Civil War naval topics and this book provides a good overview of all the aspects of the naval war. The book starts out with a discussion of the ships, guns, and other technologies for each side of the conflict. Symonds does a good job of explaining the strengths and limitations of each side and the impact of new technologies. The book then goes into chapters that cover the Union's blockade strategy and Confederate blockade runners, the Confederate war on commerce, naval forces on the western rivers, and operations against the major Southern port cities. The book does a really nice job of explaining the difficulties the Union had in coordinating ground and naval forces to implement the overall strategy, but it doesn't skimp on the view from the Confederate side.

The Civil War at Sea is a short book, only around 200 pages, but pack a lot of information into those pages. This is one of the best one-volume books on the naval portion of the Civil War that I have seen and I would recommend it. It is a good book for people just starting to read about the subject or for those that want a single reference book. For gamers, it provides enough information to create your own scenarios, historical and hypothetical. Overall, lots of good stuff is in the book.

Mr. Lincoln's Brown Water Navy: The Mississippi Squadron, by Gary Joiner

This book provides a good general history of the Union naval efforts on the western rivers. It provides information about the organization, ships, and men of the Union riverine navy. There is some good discussion about evolution of the Mississippi Squadron from a few ships under Army command to a full squadron under command of a Navy flag officer. The book covers the major and minor actions for the squadron, there is a whole chapter devoted to the Red River campaign, along with the action of the Navy's blue-water squadron that captured New Orleans and came up the Mississippi.

Mr. Lincoln's Brown Water Navy is a short book, around 225 pages, and is an interesting read. While the book doesn't go into great detail about the different ships in the squadron, it does have lots of information about the different battles and minor actions that can be fodder for gaming ideas. This is a good book, but I would only recommend it if you have an interest in the riverine battles. However, I do think it is a good complement for Symonds The Civil War at Sea.

Plans for 2012
While it seems obligatory for gaming bloggers to write something about plans for 2012, I have to admit that I really haven't made any. There are things that I want to work on (it is really an unending list), but I'm sure there will be stuff the pops up at the last minute that will draw my interest. With that in mind, here is a short list of the stuff I'm thinking about for 2012.

15mm Age of Sail ships and figures: This is an on-going project that I really need to get back to. I've got several ships and lots of figures ready to paint, but for some reason I just haven't been able to motivate myself to go back to them. It would probably help if I could find a set of rules I really like. The new 18mm line from Capitan Miniatures look interesting and I'm sort of hoping they find and American distributor. But I really need to finish up the stuff I have before buying more.

1/600 and 1/700 scale ships: I'll continue to expand my line of WWII and post-WWII ships for small scale actions (using Action Stations and Bulldogs Away). I really like this scale and the battles I've come up with are usually a lot of fun. I will probably add a few ships for Enfilade games and to round out my collection. I would like to see more modern Chinese ships in the scale (Are you listening P.T. Dockyard?) and some others for doing hypothetical battles in the South China Sea and Spratly Islands. Additionally, I should get back to the Raid on St. Nazaire project that Kevin and I have talked about.

Grab Bag: I need to go through my miniatures box to see what is there. I keep thinking I would like to get back to doing some air battles, but don't have anything specific in mind right now. Kevin and I are also tinkering around with the idea of playing some small space battles using the Galactic Knights rules (yes, I know I bought a Super Galactic Dreadnought at Enfilade 2011, but I'm not sure how deep I want to get into this). There are also a few other things kicking around, but I doubt I will get to them in 2012.

Wishful Thinking: One project I have always wanted to do is a modern submarine game. I've collected a lot of the 1/700 scale plastic model kits (which only provided a limited number of submarine types) and over the past few years I've been watching the growing line of 1/700 scale resin kits from OKB Grigorov. They have actually come out with a pretty extensive range of Cold War and Post-Cold War submarines (U.S., Soviet/Russian, British, and German). 1/700 scale might be a little too large to actually game with, but it could be fun. That is, assuming that I could find a set of rules that worked for that scale. So, until I find some extra time and money, this will just remain on the "Wishful Thinking" list.

Book Review - 1812: The Navy's War

With the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 coming up, I've been expecting to see a lot of new books covering this little remembered war. Here is my take on the new book from George C. Daughan, 1812: The Navy's War.

This book is sort of a follow-up to Daughan's previous book, "If By Sea," which covered the creation of the American navy from the Revolutionary War through the War of 1812. I say "sort of" because If By Sea did have some coverage of the War of 1812, while the new book is only about the War of 1812.

Based on the sub-title and the author's previous work, you might think that this book would only be about naval actions during the War of 1812. But Daughan also does a good job of providing information about the politics involved (on both sides), the overall strategic plans, and the land campaigns (even those that didn't have a naval component).

The book starts out explaining the causes of the war from the point of view of each side, but mostly from a naval angle (Daughan doesn't talk very much about the issues on the western frontier of the U.S.). On the sailor's rights issue, Daughan even goes into some detail about how if the Royal Navy would have treated its sailors better there would not have been as high of a desertion rate and it wouldn't have had to impress so American sailors. While this is provides some interesting insights into the Royal Navy, I don't think the Royal Navy was ready for the sort of reforms he points out.

One interesting thread that runs throughout the book is the idea that President Madison was taking the expected actions of Napoleon into account when starting and planning for the war. I don't think I've read any other books that play this up as Daughan does. I think that Madison and the other people pushing for war were hoping that England would be too involved fighting Napoleon to take major actions against the United States and would be willing to settle the war quickly. But I don't think they were really making plans based on Napoleon's actions.

After the war starts, the book goes on to describe the major land campaigns and naval actions, with pauses to talk about each side's plans and the political situations. Most of the land actions have enough information that you get a good idea of what happened, with only a few (such as the attack on Baltimore after the burning of Washington and the Battle of New Orleans) covered in extra detail. The book does cover some land actions that other War of 1812 books skim over, such as the actions in Michigan area and Andrew Jackson's actions against the Creeks. On the naval side, the book does a good job of covering the major battles during the war (the frigate actions, the Battle of Lake Erie, and Battle of Lake Champlain) along with lesser known actions by American sloops and privateers. There was also really good information on the U.S. Navy's involvement in the New Orleans campaign, which is often brushed over by most War of 1812 histories. In fact, I really liked the chapter on New Orleans. The book also gives some information about the U.S. Navy's post-war expedition against the Barbary States. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more detail on the what was happening in Lake Ontario, but I have other books for that.

The book finishes with the post-war attitudes taken by each side and the importance of the war in changing the relationship between Britain and the United States.

Overall, 1812: The Navy's War is well written, informative, and I enjoyed reading it. The book does a good job of providing an overall view of the War of 1812, with a naval focus. From a wargaming point of view, the book should provide some ideas for land and naval scenarios for the War of 1812.

A Couple More Books

As I've mentioned elsewhere, the main focus for my gaming is the smaller battles of the War of 1812 and the battles against the Barbary Pirates. It seems that I talked Mark Waddington into scratch-building the opposing War of 1812 fleets from Lake Ontario (who knew I could be so persuasive!) in 1/600 scale. Now that he has finished up the ships (I hope to share some pictures of his ships soon), we've been talking about the rules for playing out the battles. But since I've been busy with other stuff, I'm trying to re-focus on the project by going back through some of the books on the battles on the Great Lakes. I thought I share my thoughts on a couple of books I've been going through to get back up to speed. Both books were written by Robert Malcomson.

Warships of the Great Lakes 1754-1834: This book is a lighter history of the warships and battles on the Great Lakes, including Lake Champlain and Lake George. Even though it is s relatively short book, only 160 pages, it still does a good job covering of the different ships. There are lots of tables giving information about the ships and some nice illustrations. There are more detailed books out there about specific battles, but I can't think of any others that cover all of the battle on all the lakes during the three wars of this period (French and Indian War, American Revolution, and War of 1812). It is a nice book to have if you are interested in the lake battles and is a good supplement to some of the other books on the lake battles.

Lords of the Lake: The Naval War on Lake Ontario, 1812-1814: This is probably the best book I've read about Lake Ontario during the War of 1812. The book does a get job of setting the stage for the action on the lake, talking about the major characters involved, and then following through with not just how things happened, but why. The book does a good job of describing the hardships each commander faced with building a fleet in what was essentially a wilderness. It also covers the interaction between naval and land forces around Lake Ontario and in other theaters. This makes it a lot easier to understand the different strategies employed by each side during the different stages of the war. The appendices have a breakdown of the ships available throughout the conflict and those that were present at the different battles.

Lords of the Lake is a pretty easy read (even at over 400 pages), has some good maps and illustrations, and extensive endnotes. Malcomson even includes a glossary, so you can make sure you understand the various nautical terms used in the book (such as the differences between a schooner, sloop and snow). I highly recommend this book if you have any interest in the naval battles on the Great Lakes during the War of 1812.

A Couple of Short Book Reviews

Sorry I haven't posted any updated recently, I've been pretty busy with work the past week and haven't been able to do much miniatures work. But I thought I would post a couple book reviews as a little blog filler. Hopefully you find them useful.

Both of the books in this post deal with the War of 1812. Considering next year is the 200th anniversary of the war, I expect we'll see a lot more books on the subject.

Perilous Fight: America's Intrepid War with Britain on the High Seas 1812-1815, By Stephen Budiansky

Budiansky's book takes a different tack to the naval portion of the War of 1812. Rather than focusing on the details of the naval actions, he turns his eye more toward the personalities involved in those actions, primarily viewed from the American side. While Budiansky does talk a little about the creation of the U.S. Navy, the book really starts out with the American war against the Barbary States in 1803, introducing the reader to Edward Preble, Stephen Decatur, and the unlucky William Bainbridge. After this introduction, the author moves on to the causes of the War of 1812 and general strategies for both sides.

The book goes on to cover the initial frigate vs. frigate victories by the Americans, but more from the viewpoint of how the commanders, politicians, and public viewed the battles than an actual blow-by-blow account. There are some places that I think the author follows some popular legends about these actions, but overall the story is pretty good. However, If you read a lot of book about the early U.S. Navy, there isn't much new in these portions of the book.

One section that does add might add some new information for readers is the chapter on American Privateers. This chapter provides a little about how the privateers outfitted their ships and operations, but the real meat of the chapter covers what happened to those ships that were captured by the Royal Navy. In addition to talking about the conditions on prison ships in the Caribbean and England, the author covers the eventual transfer of many privateers to Dartmoor Prison. I actually found the section on Dartmoor to be one of the most interesting sections of the book. Mainly because it was something that I didn't know a lot about.

The book only briefly touches on the naval actions on the Great Lakes and Chesapeake, but based on the subtitle, that is pretty much what I expected.

Overall, the book was an easy read and good introductory book for people that haven't read anything about the naval war of 1812. It does provide a little more insight into the personalities of the American frigate captains and the Secretary of Navy, William Jones, during the war, but if you are looking for detailed battle discussions, you probably want to look elsewhere. I would recommend the book, but I would also recommend reading Ian Toll's Six Frigates in conjunction with Perilous Fight.

Flotilla: The Patuxent Naval Campaign in the War of 1812, by Donald G. Shomette

This book is an updated and enlarged version of a 1979 book of the same title. Flotilla covers the formation, operations, and dissolution of Commodore Joshua Barney's Chesapeake Flotilla during the War of 1812. The book is pretty detailed in coverage of the flotilla. The first appendix has the muster roll of every man in the flotilla, including when they joined, their station (what they did), and when they were discharged (or in some cases, killed); while the third appendix has reproductions of some the fleet maneuvers that Commodore Barney planned to use with the flotilla.

The book starts out by looking at the English actions in the Chesapeake Bay early in the war, which included devastating raids throughout the region. For the most part American officials were at a loss on how to combat the British. In late 1813, Joshua Barney proposed the formation of an independent flotilla of gunboats and war barges to stymie the British efforts. Because of Barney's past success, having been a successful captain in the Revolutionary War and privateer during the War of 1812, the offer was accepted and Barney started outfitting the group.

The book goes pretty in-depth into the organization, building, and outfitting of the flotilla and the gunboats (the second appendix of the book lists the cost and materials used in the building of the row galley Black Snake, including the number of rounds for each cannon on the galley). If you are a rivet counter, I expect you will find this very interesting. Because the author is a marine archeologist involved with researching the history of the flotilla, he is very up-front about what is known about the gunboats for the flotilla and what is guesswork.

Once the flotilla is fitted out, the book moves on to its deployment and the battles it fought in. There are some really good descriptions of the Battles of St. Leonard's Creek and militia actions during various British raids (side note: as a wargamer, I found a lot to like in these descriptions, since I could actually see ways of turning these battles into game scenarios). The books continues on with the eventual abandonment of the gunboats and the participation of the flotilla's sailors in the Battle of Bladensburg. It finishes up with a little about the archeological research into the flotilla.

Flotilla covers a little known aspect of the War of 1812 and I really enjoyed this book. This is probably because it was a subject I didn't know a lot about and because I could see myself creating some gaming scenarios based on the actions described in the book. That said, it is a pretty expensive book (I would guess that is because it had a limited print run), so unless you have the extra money to spend on it, I would suggest checking with your local library to see if they have a copy or can get one through inter-library loan.