Naval History

Here is the final volume of Admiral Morison's monumental work on the naval history. The book consists of three big chapters - Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Miscellaneous Operations. The text part is supplemented with numerous illustrations. Several useful and informative maps and charts have also been provided in the publication in order to help reader get some better understanding of the operations that took place in the course of the World War Two campaigns.

This nice title is expected to serve as a practical source of reference and knowledge. In his excellent work, Admiral Morrison has made an attempt to thoroughly examine two famous naval campaigns in which he did participate personally, namely Okinawa and Iwo Jima. He has described all consequences of the kamikaze attacks on the ships of the United States Navy fleet and discussed the strategy that did actually lead to the final campaigns of that war and to the dropping of the A-bombs.

The author has also addressed the logistical problems connected with supplying the armies and fleets far away from the bases, submarine attacks, and quite controversial loss of the famous USS Indianapolis, providing readers with the detailed account of the negotiations that resulted in the Japan's surrender.

This publication was prepared by Roy Fenton, who is the well-known author of more than twenty books on shipping history. Throughout the history, the tramps ships were always called the taxi of the seas. They had no regular schedules and voyaged everywhere and anywhere, picking up and dropping off various cargoes, mainly bulk cargoes like timber, grain, coal, oil and others.

In this book the author did his best to describe the evolution of the tramp ships over the course of more than hundred years. The preset introductory publication is expected to provide the readers with the close look at the design and construction of the tramp vessels together with the description of their machinery installations, also covering the operation and management of the subject vessels as well as the life and work of the officers and crew members.

The main body of the book consists of the three hundred wonderful photographs of the individual vessels that are vividly illustrating the whole process of development of the tramp and maritime trade in the end-XIX century, both World Wars and post-war times. Each of the captions provides the ship dimensions, shipyards and owners, as well as valuable notes. The design features of the ships have been highlighted to make this book a classic one, inspiring all historians and enthusiasts of the merchant shipping.

The content of the present book is mainly focusing in the maritime conflicts looked at as one of the parts of the process of transformation that took place in Europe from the end-XVIII century to the mid-XVII century. The main lines of the subject transformation are quite well-known, Looking from the maritime perspective, some of the parts of this transformation process were considered particularly important.

The long-distance maritime trade has significantly increased and the role of the capitalist entrepreneurs in human society has become much more important in Europe. In the whole Mediterranean area, in the Ottoman and Spanish empires dominated in the beginning of the XVI century. The last decades of the XVI century and early decades of the XVII century showed the rapid rise of both political and economic power of the north-western Europe and stagnation of the Mediterranean...

In this publication, the author has emphasized the role of the maritime conflicts in the naval history and transformation of Europe, in particular. It starts with the clear description of the important role of the warfare, followed by the major technology as well as tactics and strategy, information on changing maritime societies, maritime wars, organizations and states, maritime state formation and Atlantic warfare, galley navies, major sailing navies and wealth of other important and valuable historical information.

Japan's Pacific War against the United States was a massive gamble from the outset. When her seemingly endless struggle for the dominance of China had turned into an attritional slugging match. Japan had found it difficult to secure the raw materials she needed in order to continue, particularly rubber and oil. Lacking domestic supply, it might have been reasonable for Japan to plan on the basis of imports from other countries in Asia, but such supplies were largely controlled by Western democracies opposed to her expansion.

Britain ruled Malaya, where most of the rubber might be sourced; while a Free Dutch administration still controlled Indonesia, despite Holland having been overrun by Japan's German allies in 1940. Indonesia had oil and rubber, but exports to Japan had been suspended by the colonial government. The alternative choice for oil was the USA herself, but she too opposed Japan's brutal imperial expansion, banning oil exports in 1941.

As a result. Japan therefore reasoned that it should seize a "Southern Resource Area" to address this problem. Once Malaya. Indonesia and other Allied holdings in Eastern Asia were secured. Japan would be able to prosecute and complete the war in China. Once that was done. Japan would be able to exploit Chinese economic potential fully, which was the main strategic goal...

Arthur Morey and Don Keith, the authors of the present publication, are the world recognized experts in the field of naval history. Most of the books dedicated to the Coral Sea Battle, are treating the Neosho attack as a footnote, while in this one a completely different angle has been taken sticking with Sims and Neosho ships, together with their crew members as they participated in the battles against Japanese armed forces.

The story told on the pages of this volume is full of heroic endurance as well as human failings. The author does not try to airbrush the actually inglorious facts. Instead, he makes his best to balance all associated elements in order to build a satisfying narrative text with the human interest and magnetic appeal. As a consequence, combined efforts of the authors have resulted in the best-selling title which has already been found to be one of the most successful volumes on naval history. The publication offers its readers a riveting portrayal of the people serving on board the Neosho naval ship and their courageous actions under the conditions of the extreme duress.

Note, however, that it is much more than just another saga dedicated to this vessel as the authors also go into a huge amount of various details related to the several aspects of the Battle of the Coral Sea, addressing how exactly these events were relating to the Neosho and people on board.

A genuine treasure for the people interested in Scotland's history. This volume belongs to the famous series titles "The Making of Scotland" focusing on how the Vikings did make Scotland the centre of the great seafaring kingdom and also how and why their influence can still be felt in Orkney and Shetland.

The book starts with the prologue providing a very short historical background. In fact, in the time period around AD 800 there was no place called Scotland, there was only a territory a quite varied geography that, with the course of the time, became the Scotland, and subject territory was inhabited by people of different customs and culture.

There were many kings and chieftains. No borders existed and the contemporary boundaries of the country were actually meaningless to the inhabitants of that time. And, of course, subject territorial boundaries would definitely be irrelevant for seafaring Vikings coming from Scandinavia.

That is why one of the main objective of the present work was to bring alive the whole context in which seafaring Vikings did operate in Scotland of the past and to demonstrate what part Scotland did actually played in the world of Vikings. In fact, Vikings traveled much further than any of the Europeans had ever traveled and this allowed them to establish an excellent communication network over really great distances...

The book by an expert in the naval history and an excellent writer, Angus Konstam, is an excellent and interesting dedicated to the pirate ships of XVI-XVII centuries. The topics covered by the author of this volume include the design of the pirate ships of those times, their origins and conversion; among the vessels addressed there are both pirate flagships and relatively small ships.

The narrative text of the publication is fascinating and provides readers with many important technical details; of course, as it is implied in the title of the book, its main subject is the pirate ship. It shall be noted that this book is not about the pirates themselves since so many publication have already been released covering their life and activities as it rather concentrates on the ships themselves.

But those readers who wanted to find the information about their vessels, will greatly appreciate the whole content of this remarkable work which will be very helpful to them in terms of providing a brief yet informative overview of the pirate ships supplemented with numerous illustrations for the better and clearer picture. The book will definitely increase their understanding of the broad variety of the vessels actually used by the pirates of the past and of the associated terminology.

Today, the Indian Ocean to which this book is dedicated to, remains the least researched geographic region of the world. However, there have been significant cultural exchanges around its shores and across its waters. Edward Alpers, professional historian and the author of this volume has explored all complex issues relating to the above mentioned cultural exchange in the region through combining historical approach with the insights of geography, anthropology and other relevant disciplines.

The volume has already proven to be an excellent source of relevant information providing all interested readers with a brand new perspective from which is it easier to get better understanding of the Indian Ocean. What the author has tried to underline in his work was that the oceans shall not be treated only as just barriers; they are rather connecting barrier which have proven their dominance in shaping the history. The publication is packed with valuable information supplemented with the numerous very useful ocean maps and photographs.

The opening chapter of the volume is setting up the history and discussing the monsoons considered crucial to understanding some maritime patterns.... In short, this book is a very good introduction to this undeservedly under-studied region and its content will be of great interest for all lovers of the oceans and history.