News, Articles and Comment

BRE. The latest book review is now available. It considers a book providing an account of the USAAF’s Seventh Air Force and its contribution to the Central Pacific campaign in the Second World War.

Ed. In October 1938, in the aftermath of the Munich conference, Admiral Sir Reginald Plunkett-Drax argued that the international situation necessitated radical defence measures, including national service. Reprinted from the NR’s Archive [26/4, p. 595]. A 15 minute read.

BRE. The latest book review is now available. It considers a book providing an account and analysis of the US campaign against Tokyo in the final months of the Second World War.

Ed. Despite being described by General Eisenhower as “one of the most gallant and aggressive actions of the war,” this amphibious assault has been the subject of much critical comment after the fact. The author provides a recapitulation of events, and controversies, 80 years on. A 30 minute read.

Ed. Originally published in 1963 [51/4, p. 430] as a reprint from Cross & Cockade magazine, the author provided a fascinating retelling of the final flight of Peter Strasser, the iconoclastic chief of Imperial Germany’s Naval Airships, who refused to recognize that by August 1918 British air defences had doomed the Zeppelins to military obsolescence. A 30 minute read.

BRE. The latest book reviews are now available. One considers a reprint of a 1946 memoir of convoy and corvette operations in the Battle of the Atlantic. The other looks at the US approach the neutralisation of the Japanese bastion of Truk in the Pacific during the Second World War.

Ed. In his analysis of strategic lessons to be drawn from the Second World War [40/4. p. 432], Captain S. W. Roskill, RN, wrote, “It took much ‘sad experience’ to show that Malta could have been properly defended and could have been kept in use as a base.” Roger Plumtree reconsiders the Maltese narrow margin with the question in mind: was Roskill wrong? A 15 minute read.

Ed. In a June 1946 article for the Commonwealth and Empire Review, Admiral Sir Frederic Dreyer detailed the vital importance of anti-submarine warfare for the protection of Britain’s merchant shipping. An expanded version of the article was published in the NR [34/3, p. 243], with Admiral Dreyer taking to task the ‘bomber mafia’ who had favoured the strategic destruction of Germany over the imperative to protect Britain’s convoy lifelines. Admiral Dreyer’s article is republished here as part of the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic. A 20 minute read.