Derek Nudd's Blog, page 2

The Price of Victory

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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Women in Allied Naval Intelligence

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 Command of the Ocean

The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649 ­- 1815 by N.A.M. Rodger

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is the middle book of Rodger's three-volume history of the Royal Navy, covering 166 formative years of almost continuous warfare. It begins with the execution of Charles I and ends with the Royal Navy undisputed master of the world's oceans. He ends with Marshal Gneisenau's scathing assessment of Bonaparte:
"for it is the events which he has brought about which have raised England's greatness, security and wealth so high. They are lords of the sea, and neither in this dominion nor in world trade have they any rivals left to fear."
Beginning with the Civil War and ending with the Napoleonic wars and the American war of 1812-14, the author devotes chapters for each natural time break to operations, administration, social history and ships. He thus places the purely naval business in its political, social and technological context. A conclusion debates the different explanations for the rise of Britain's naval dominance, and to my mind strongly challenges the reader to ask whether Britain can afford not to maintain a strong navy.
The text is amplified by seven appendices, notes, glossary, maps and index. There are useful plate sections which reproduce contemporary paintings. In a perfect world I would have wished them to be in colour but no doubt the cost impact would have been prohibitive.
Rodger's series has justly gained enthusiastic reviews. We should bear in mind though that, in order to cover the ground, he has to keep up the pace. Whole books have been written about some of his paragraphs. As a cruise through the period, though it's difficult to beat (but for a shorter read try Wilson's Empire of the Deep: The Rise and Fall of the British Navy)



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How to win an information war

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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Unapproved Routes

Unapproved Routes: Histories of the Irish Border, 1922-1972 by Peter Leary

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Let's start with the good news. I had not appreciated how profound the impact of the 1925 Boundary Commission's failure was. Leary draws this out well, and dedicates chapters on different aspects of the tensions created by the Irish border (and local workarounds). One especially startling fact (to me) was that the shipping channel to access the major British naval base at [London]Derry in WW2 ran through Free State territorial waters. Both countries found it convenient to turn a blind eye.
Unfortunately the book repeatedly betrays its ancestry as a PhD thesis. There are long digressions into historical antecedents and philosophical / political theory which have little or no relevance to the trials of people trying to cope with the mess wished on them by bureaucrats, politicians and ideologues. The book could have been far more relevant to a world of hardening frontiers if it had focussed on the topic in hand.
Which is not to say there is no useful, thought-provoking content here. It just takes a bit of work to draw out.



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Life on the Edge

Life on the Edge: Peter Danckwerts GC MBE Frs by Peter Varey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Many readers associate the name Danckwerts with the admiral of that name. This biography of his son Peter casts light on a very different but no less remarkable man.
A research chemist in 1939 and thus in a 'reserved occupation' he could have passed the war in relative comfort and safety, but chose to sign up with the RNVR and was quickly pitched into the dark arts of bomb disposal. Working through the London Blitz threw up an interesting question of precedence. If a suspect device was a bomb the army (usually first on the scene) would deal with it. If a mine they would clear the area and call the navy.
The constant, lethal battle of wits between the mine designers and countermeasures officers is well illustrated by the book's 'Backgrounder' cut-outs which give technical and social context throughout the work.
Danckwerts' post-war career is equally fascinating, taking in MIT and Cambridge as a founding father of chemical engineering as an independent discipline in the UK.
The book is well written (if not quite a page-turner) by an author who clearly knows the subject. There is an index and a comprehensive list of sources but no notes.



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Dead Crude

Dead Crude by Chris Blackwater

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I wondered how Blackwater would follow the claustrophobic tension of Emergency Drill. I need not have. Set on an island where oil workers and locals form mutually hostile communities, our PI protagonist has his work cut our investigating a murder which might not have happened. Blackwater sprinkles enough clues in our path to intrigue us but still produces a surprise final twist. The narrative is sprinkled with observational humour, starting with the pun of the title. Above all, the author's familiarity with the industry of the setting shines through. Strongly recommended.



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The Tailor of Panama

The Tailor of Panama by John le Carré

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Here, John le Carré gives full rein to his disgust and disillusion at his old trade. There are no, repeat no sympathetic characters - just villains and victims who are buried in the avalanche they have started between them.
As with most of le Carré's output the story is superbly crafted but remains somehow unsatisfying. As a reader I would like to respect (if not identify) with someone in the writer's world.



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Monsignor Quixote

Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This retelling of Cervantes' story places a priest and a communist ex-mayor in (just) post-fascist Spain, sharing the challenges of a vaguely-defined road trip and a temperamental old Seat 600. Each is forced to weigh his faith against his doubts, their friendship and their discovery of the world around them. In a work that combines readability with thoughtfulness Greene challenges us to look beyond our silos and understand that people who see things differently do not have to be monsters. This is a message at least as relevant to our time as a to any other.



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Normandy: The sailors' story

Normandy: the Sailors' Story: A Naval History of D-Day and the Battle for France by Nick Hewitt

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Longest Day, Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers - in literature and film the story of D-Day tends to start when the landing craft ramp drops or the jump light flares green. Hewitt looks at it from a different angle. He describes the Battle of the Seine Bay as the second most important naval campaign in the west, after the Battle of the Atlantic. He notionally defines it as running from the 1943 decision to land in Normandy to the fall of Le Havre on 12 September 1944.
Throughout the period the German defenders used destroyers, torpedo boats, submarines, coastal artillery, aircraft, mines and ultimately the desperate 'small battle units' against increasing odds to deter and then disrupt the approaching storm. Once it broke, as Hewitt points out, a single transport sunk could cost the Allies equipment and more importantly personnel equivalent to weeks of combat losses.
Overall it went well, which obscures the fact that it was not cost-free. During Operation Neptune alone the British Naval Staff History cites 917 ships and smaller craft lost or damaged (out of some 7,000 taking part). This was a significant percentage in its own right, not least because it represented a similar number of craft unavailable for the follow-up.
Hewitt covers each aspect of the operation in detail, from establishing control of the Channel and beach reconnaissance to logistic organisation and a separate look at each beach. The Mulberry Harbours and Pluto pipeline are covered as is the defence of the beaches up to the final withdrawal of Kriegsmarine forces from the Channel and Biscay ports. His tribute to the work of RN beachmasters' organisation reminded me of a comment in one of my father's letters home: 'The atmosphere was very hearty and congenial, as Vic Boyes remarked, even the MPs were smiling at us. '
Mines were perhaps the greatest danger, with continuous laying and novel influence mines occasionally defeating even the most strenuous sweeping efforts. Never mind the danger to the poor sweepers! One novel countermeasure not mentioned was the use of army gun laying radar from 112 and 146 Heavy AA Regiments to track minelaying aircraft off Arromanches and Port-en-Bessin. The sets were accurate enough to spot the fall of mines and direct navy minesweepers to the appropriate track (History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: Anti-Aircraft Artillery P.313).
This book is a valuable addition to the literature on the subject. Opinions will vary on some of Hewitt's arguments - I have heard differing views on the value of shore bombardment and the reasons for the loss of the American Mulberry, for example. A few (very few) typos have squeezed past the editors ('let he who is without sin cast the first stone'). There is a useful plate section in the middle, comprehensive notes, bibliography and index.
So, definitely a four-star keeper then.



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