Right up front, I have to say, this is one of the best books that USNI Press has put out in some time. Skillfully written an English professor and retired USNR Captain, Dr Shenk has crafted an excellent treatise on this heretofore little known fleet.
The US Black Sea Fleet operated from Constantinople from the end of the First World War through the horrors of Russian famine and Turkish genocide of Christians until 1923.
Shenk weaves a tale of the egotistical Admiral Mark Bristol USN, who essentially outdid the State Department as the most important American figure in the region. Bristol allowed the use of naval radios to transmit stories for reporters and news services that painted him or his policy in a favorable light. In addition, Bristol often allow the use of destroyers to transport persons or groups in his favor around the region.
The fleet was mostly destroyers augmented by cruisers or battleships for short periods and commanded from ashore or from yacht USS Scorpion (pictured below), which was often used for social functions by Bristol. Some of the young officers serving in theater would become well known in World War Two and after: Kinkaid, Gallery and Leahy to name a few.
Constantinople was the Roaring 20s was full of desperate White Russians who had fled the Bolshevik takeover at home. To make ends meet, many would perform any type of job they could get such as teachers, maids, waitresses and even prostitutes. Anyone could walk into a restaurant in Constantinople and be served by a former princess.
US Navy ships were permitted to deliver food aid to starving Russians at Black Sea ports. US sailors were first hand witnesses to bodies lying everywhere due to the famine.
The animosity between Greece and Turkey during this period was intense and Greece invaded parts of Turkey to support native Greeks in Turkey. Many of these Greek residing in Turkey were prevented from fleeing and many ended up dead. The Black Sea Fleet was instrumental in saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of fleeing Greek and Armenian refugees at Smyrna and elsewhere.
Also during the fleet's period of existence was the slaughter of at least one million Christian Armenians in Turkey, a fact that Bristol did not fully comprehend while it was happening. Ninety years ago the idea of that kind of genocide as practically unthinkable in Bristol's defense.
Wow, I've not been as gripped reading a history since I read Barbara Tuchman's classic Guns of August in high school.
We certainly hope that Professor Shenk writes again soon.
Yorke Island and the Uncertain War, Defending Canada's western coast during WWII
By Catherine Marie Gilbert
9780919537934 Ptarmigan Press Campbell River 2012
Yorke Island, at the entrance to Sunderland Channel near Sayward, has had very little coverage is the history of Canada or British Columbia. Kudos to Ms Gilbert for correcting this oversight.
Yorke Island was slowly developed slowly in the late 1930s in the frugal Mackenzie King government of the day, which was loath to spend anything on defense. With war looming in August of 1939, local militia were ordered to activate personnel for duty at York Island, whose duty was to protect the northern approaches to the vital Georgia Strait which includes Vancouver and southern Vancouver Island. Initially the island was home to army personnel but later additions were from the Royal Canadian Air Force and Royal Canadian Navy.
One of the most famous persons assigned to the island was the famous Vancouver policeman, Bernie Smith. Smith enjoyed duty on the island, but many did not as there were a few suicides and personal anguish. But being wartime this was probably true at many military installations all over the world.
Profusely illustrated, the book makes a welcome addition to the historical record.
By Norma Andreasen
ISBN 9781466485426 Self published 2004
This book is a good example of why we don't normally review self-published works. The text changes font, websites are reference with hyperlinks not taken out and the research is somewhat lacking.
While the book is an attempt to record the disappearance of tanker Esso Williamsburg in 1942, it tries to be an homage to the US Merchant Marine in general during the Second World War.
Good selection of photos, but the reproduction was not very good. In the text, destroyer HMCS Kootenay spelled Skootenay. Ships of Convoy 101 - research on the convoy would have been nice.
A real disappointment, this book presents like an essay from a high school freshman.
By Robert Jackson
ISBN 9781848846586 Paperback 176 pages March 2012
Everyone has a good idea about the history of the famous aircraft of the 20th Century, but about the ones that were, to be polite, not so great.
Author Jackson has done a commendable job of telling the story of some the quirky and novel designs. These range from dirigibles and aircraft, combat and civil, from biplanes to jets.
The text is fairly well written and flows quite well.
Great work and we hope Mr Jackson puts out another book.
By Alistair Smith
ISBN 9781848846678 Paperback 144 pages Pen and Sword Press July 2012
Smith has done a very good job attempting to make sense of this private photo collection illustrating just what life was like on a Second World War U-boat. Amazingly none of the subjects seem to mind which leads one to conclude that there was no censorship ban on photography as in most Allied navies.
A few minor errors of note in the text:
-There was no Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1941
-Misidentifies the ubiquitous drifter, used by most European navies, as merchant vessels
- No Type XXI submarines went to France in German service
- Cam ship aircraft pilots would bail out near a ship and not just over land
- Allied Convoy commander was a Commodore not a Commander
- Confused a boat rope with boat lowering in one caption
- Photo on page 144 looks like a toilet seat and hence why the crewmember was in that awkward spot
Apart from this, the photos and most of the text gives one of the best looks at what it was like to have served in the U-boat force with one of the highest fatality rates of any service during this conflict.
Congratulations to Mr Smith and Pen and Sword on this worthwhile addition to the historical record.
By Edward C Raymber
ISBN 9781591147244 Paperback/eBook 240 Pages US Naval Institute Press March 2012
This book is an excellent account of life as a hard hat navy diver just prior to and the first two years of US involvement in the Second World War. Based in California, the author and his dive team were rushed to Pearl Harbor via aircraft to take part in the desperate attempt to recover survivors from the sunken ships of the famous Japanese attack. Great detail is recorded on the trials and tribulations with some success. Unfortunately most of the efforts later turned to recovery of bodies and valuable items. The exhausting work left many with what in those days were probably cases of undiagnosed PTSD from seen bodies floating around inside sunken ships. One eerie instance even tells of coming across a compartment where some crewmembers of a capsized ship stayed alive for several days before succumbing.
Later parts of the book detail a brief stint on an Apaches Class fleet tug before it was sunk in the Solomons from enemy action. The survivors were taken ashore and employed on Guadalcanal and Tulagi in various capacities, all the while experiencing the horrors of the snake-infested terrain and combat operations.
This book is an excellent opportunity for the reader to familiarize themselves on what life was like for the junior enlisted personnel of those momentous times.
By Thomas Wildenberg
ISBN 9781591149699 Paperback/Ebook 288 Pages 1998 US Naval Institute Press March 2012
This book is in a nice easy to read format and contains some photos of rare and famous aircraft. The art of dive bombing was practiced by all navies in the 1920s through to the final aircraft employed - the Grumman A-6 Intruder. This book covers the development of the dive bomber for the US Navy & Marine Corps up the their successes in the Battles of Coral Sea and Midway.
For aviation buffs, this book would make a welcome addition to their collection.
