Derek Nudd's Blog - Posts Tagged "ww2"

The Longest Campaign: Britain's Maritime Struggle in the Atlantic and Northwest Europe, 1939–1945 by Brian Walter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


As a single volume work covering six years of unremitting combat we can't expect this book to delve into minute detail, and it doesn't. Events that have attracted multi-volume studies in their own right are covered in a few paragraphs. What this does very well is draw together the different threads - blockade, U-boat, airborne - of the northern battle and relate them to the wider conflict.
Some surprising insights emerge. Despite the absence of the large set-piece battles found in the Pacific and South-East Asia theatres the sheer, continuous grind of warfare in the Atlantic and northern waters let to eye-watering losses on both sides. The other side of the coin is the staggering volume of materiel delivered to Russia, Britain and Western Europe, especially in the last eleven months of the war.
The point is made with tables, lists and extensive references. The first two of these may slow the reader down a bit but are worth pausing over for a moment.



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How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler by Peter Pomerantsev

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What is the point of history?
This account describes Sefton Delmer's struggle to win the trust both of his sponsors in the WW2 Political Warfare Executive and of his listeners in Nazi Germany's civilian population and armed forces. It shows how Goebbels' control of the media had shifted many people's perception into an alternative universe where propaganda 'frontal assault' by facts and reason cannot penetrate. Delmer's genius lay in picking up the enemy's own message, sugaring it with news (often true) and music, and projecting it to the point of caricature. Listeners were thus tricked into thinking for themselves.
Returning to my first question, Pomerantsev repeatedly relates the mental imprisonment of the German population to the techniques used by today's tyrants and would-be tyrants. As a US resident of Ukrainian heritage we can guess at the examples that spring most readily to his mind. None of us is immune, though, from the real or imagined misfortune growing into a grievance and then into something much darker.
Here is perhaps the book's main weakness. It is lively and thought-provoking, but rooted in the moment of its publication. Goebbels stands as a cautionary tale down the ages but modern tyrants come and go - there will always be another one along in a minute.



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Women in Allied Naval Intelligence in the Second World War: A Close Secret by Sarah-Louise Miller

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Perhaps the title of this book is missing a word - it should be 'Women in Allied Naval Cryptographic Intelligence in the Second World War'. The author deals almost exclusively with cryptography. She justifies her focus by stating in Chapter 2, ‘The most useful form of intelligence, rather, was communications intelligence (COMINT)…. To study the wider picture here would limit the depth of the research into the true nature and implications of the women’s work, and so it is necessary to choose a small number of case studies.’ The Conclusion recognises that this leaves other fields unaddressed and that more work will be needed to complete the picture. Undoubtedly the Y (intercept) service and codebreakers accounted for the largest number of both men and women co-opted into intelligence work, as well as the greatest investment in equipment. Even so...
Miller excavates some interesting personal stories of Wrens sucked into different aspects of the work, particularly as it expanded to face the threat from Japan. The scramble to train Japanese linguists is covered, though the course sponsored by Bletchley is given fuller treatment than the one at SOAS. It is slightly surprising that she didn't pick up on Sadao Oba's account in The Japanese War: London University's WWII Secret Teaching Programme and the Experts Sent to Help Beat Japan. It os also surprising that she does not mention Helen Fry's Women in Intelligence: The Hidden History of Two World Wars. Overall it adds little to our understanding of the Wrens' part in the conflict.
Where the book does score however is in the parallel accounts of the Royal Navy's Wrens and the US Navy's WAVES (and their civilian oppos). The latter's contribution, at least to my knowledge, is far less explored. The similarities and contrasts are illuminating. One thing that struck me was that the WAVES seem to have known a lot more about the content and destination of the messages they handled than their British equivalents, being far less compartmentalised. Equally GCCS Naval Section passed its output to the Admiralty's Operational Intelligence Centre, which synthesised intelligence from multiple sources and disguised its origin before passing it out to the fleet. American operational commanders seem to have been far more aware of the source of the intelligence they received.
A personal beef: if I had been Miller's editor I would have encouraged her to go a bit easier of the phrase 'kill chain', which she seems inordinately fond of. Nonetheless it is a pleasure to read a book written in clear, concise English and which clearly has been edited before publication.



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The Price of Victory: A Naval History of Britain: 1815-1945 by N.A.M. Rodger

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


We have been waiting some time for Rodger to complete his survey of British naval history since The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649 ­- 1815 was published in 2004. It was worth the wait, which he explains in the foreword.
As with previous volumes the author develops his argument by considering policy & operations, government & administration, ships & weapons, and social history as parallel threads. The book thus addresses navy, nation and their global context as an integrated whole.
The much-overworked phrase 'panoramic scope' is wholly appropriate here and it would be unreasonable to expect deep analysis of individual events from primary sources. We don't find it. Instead we meet well-written, impressive scholarship based on a lifetime's research (the bibliography is 70 pages long) looking at events from a refreshingly different angle.
Which is not to say that Rodger avoids controversy. Some famous British admirals receive an entertainingly caustic assessment of their ability, while his view of US skills and behaviour in WW2 is positively biting.
The book's title refers to the challenge new enemies and weapons posed to Britain's nineteenth century dominance. Their defeat came at a heavy and permanent cost to the country's economy. This is a theme the author returns to in the Epilogue where he asserts, 'British people were already well disposed towards the United States, and largely unaware of the extent to which dislike of Great Britain was a core element of American patriotism. While the war lasted, the Englishman in the street had little sense of the degree to which American assistance had sustained the common war-effort on terms that deliberately undermined the British economy.' He goes on to quote data in support of this thesis.
The book is illustrated with 10 useful and well-drawn maps, 64 generally well-chosen illustrations, and amplified by five appendices. There will be disagreements but it deserves a place in any library.



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Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-45 by Max Hastings

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


On a positive note, Hastings in this enormous volume covers the last phase of the European conflict from the British, American, Russian and German angles and from perspectives ranging from grand strategy to foot soldier or civilian caught up in the maelstrom. It is written with his usual energy and clarity. So why only three stars?
He claims to have learned and grown since writing Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy. It is not always obvious how - the Hastings haste to get on his soapbox and say how much better things would have worked if so-and-so had done this instead of that is still evident. As is his underlying admiration for the fighting skills of the autocracies' soldiers. This may at times obscure 'home advantage', the edge given to desperate men and women fighting on familiar terrain.
Where he digresses from his main theme some factual lapses creep in. One is his account of the sinking of Tirpitz, another - surprising for a former editor - is when he discusses the US forces' newspaper Stars and Stripes without mentioning Hugh Cudlipp's British equivalent, Union Jack.
So, well written and comprehensive but, despite the length, I can't feel I'm getting the whole story.



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