Vincent P. O'Hara
Список книг автора Vincent P. O'HaraSix Victories
Six Victories relates one of the most interesting and instructive naval campaigns of World War II: the Mediterranean war on traffic in the fall and winter of 1941-42. It is a cautionary tale of how sea power was practiced, and how it literally shifted 180 degrees overnight. The book is based on British and Italian archival sources. It emphasizes strategic context, the role of intelligence, and the campaign’s logistics. It is well-paced and entertaining but also authoritative. The book’s conclusions are controversial but based on compelling evidence.
In October 1941 the British Admiralty based a surface strike force in Malta to attack Axis sea lanes between Italy and Africa. Aided by ULTRA intelligence, submarines and bombers based in Malta, this force dominated the Central Mediterranean. From the end of October through the middle of December 1941 less than third of the supplies shipped from Italian ports arrived in Libya. Shortages of ammunition and fuel finally compelled 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, the strike force plowed into a minefield laid by Italian cruisers; and finally, in a daring attack, Italian commandos crippled the Mediterranean Fleet’s battleships in port. The swing in fortune was immediate and dramatic.
Six Victories shows how information provided by ULTRA was often offset by the Italian ability to read British codes and take corrective actions even as British strikes forces were approaching their target. It examines how the Italians improved the protection of their traffic and how, in conjunction with Germany, came to dominate the Central Mediterranean and isolate Malta. The book the ends with the triumph of Axis sea power as expressed in the late March 1942 Second Battle of Sirte which initiated a period of Axis domination in the Central Mediterranean.
Six Victories breaks new ground in the historiography of World War II. It relates lessons that are relevant today and should be required reading for all who practice the art of power at sea as well as those who want to understand the intricate and interrelated factors that are the foundations of military success. It is also a good and compelling story.
Clash of Fleets
Struggle at Sea is an operational history that records every naval engagement fought between major surface warships during the First World War. The book is organized into seven major chapters. The first introduces the technology, the weapons, the ships, and the doctrine that governed naval warfare in 1914. The next five chapters treat each year of the war and are subdivided into sections corresponding to major geographic areas. The elements of these geographic chapters are the battles themselves. This organization allows the massive sweep of action to be presented in a structured and easy to follow format. The book includes engagements fought by the Austro-Hungarian, British, French, German, Ottoman, and Russian Navies and covers actions fought in the Adriatic, Aegean, Baltic, Black, and North Seas as well as the Atlantic, India, and Pacific Oceans. A conclusion analyzes and summarizes the role of surface combat in the Great War and compares these actions to those fought in the major naval wars before and after.<p>Struggle at Sea is concerned with the questions of why battles occurred; how the different navies fought, and how combat advanced doctrine and affected the development and application of technology. Certain key or interesting battles are described in greater detail to give better insight into the period’s naval warfare. Moreover, every battle is placed in context. The result is a holistic overview of the war at sea as it affected all nations and all theaters of war. A work with this content and format has never been produced.<p>In addition to providing detailed descriptions of actions and setting them in their historical contexts, the book develops several themes. It shows that World War One was a war of navies as much as a war of armies. The Entente Powers would have lost the war had they lost control of the sea, while the Central Powers faced slow strangulation due to the Entente naval blockade. It shows that surface combat and the ability to impose surface combat power had a major impact on all aspects of the naval war and on the course of the war in general. This work also shows that systems developed in peace do not always work as expected; that some are not used as anticipated; and that others became unexpectedly important. There is much for today’s naval professional to consider in the naval conflict that occurred one hundred years ago.