Ed Rotondaro
01-05-2010, 08:09 PM
Hi all:
I finished a couple of Osprey books over the holidays and here is my report:
US Cruisers versus Japanese Cruisers 1942 (Duel #22).
Author Mark Stille is no stranger to naval matters and has already written several titles for Osprey. This title follows the Duel series format of giving you the overview of what drove the design of the weapon systems being compared. Stille does a nice job of summarizing the effect that the various naval limitation treaties had on the creation of cruisers. He describes each class of what are now considered Treaty cruisers (i.e. ships limited to 10,000 tons and guns no larger than 8"). He covers all the US treaty cruisers as well as their Japanese counterparts. Then he details the strategic situation whereby these ships were deployed, in this case the South Pacific from 1942 thru mid 1943.
I personally think the entire Duel series could use a serious makeover. Due to the size of the titles, you rarely get enough examples of the weapons in action to make a truly informed judgement of their merits. Stille only details two actions, Savo Island and Cape Esperance to show the capabilities of the ships in question. Now was Savo Island a triumph of superior IJN ship design or US naval inexperience? Was Cape Esperance a vindication for US Treaty cruisers or just a case of Admiral Scott catching the IJN with its pants down? I don't agree with the author's contentions that this was the end of cruiser battles per se. He neglects the Komandorski Islands (one of the rare daylight surface actions), plus numerous other cruiser battles in 1943. Again I fault the size of these titles. Opsrey would be better served with adopting the 90 plus page format of their campaign series for the Duel books.
Despite this, the book does a good job of detailing the various cruiser designs that bore the brunt of the surface battles in 1942-43. While there is nothing here that most forum members with good libraries need, it is a great introduction for those who don't want ot fork out the $80-$100 for the Naval Institute books on US and IJN cruisers.
Russian Battleship vs Japanese Battleship Yellow Sea 1904-1905(Duel #15)
This title covers the first modern battleship combats and is from one of Osprey's rising stars, Dr. Robert Forczak is a retired Lt. Colonel in the US Army with a PhD in International Relations and National Security. I was more familiar with his extensive reviews of military history books on a certain internet bookseller who must remain nameless (hint it begins with an A and ends with an n). He has recently become one of the better authors in the Osprey stable and generally writes about land combat in Europe during WWII. This book though is quite an excellent read and actually adds a great deal to our understanding of both the development of naval combat in the 20th century and the battles that made up the Russo-Japanese war.
Forczak summarizes the many complex issues that were effecting the development of modern naval warships. Whether it is gunnery and fire control or ship design and armor, he gives the reader a lot of detail in his opening chapters. The influence of the French navy on the Russian navy is made clear as was the British navy on the Japanese. The ships are well described and there are both photographs and excellent color plates showing the various classes. The strategic situation is laid out and the navies themselves are well dscribed. Forczak makes a good point that both training and martial spirit were far more important in deciding the outcome of the Russo-Japanese war than technology. Indeed the Russians in many cases had better equipment than was previously assumed. The existing Pacific squadron under Admiral Makharov was well trained and had high morale. His death when his was lost to a mine probably did more to lose the war than any single factor.
This is one of the few Duel series where enough battles are described to give the reader a good feeling for how the war at sea was fought. Despite their use of surprise torpedo attacks, the Japanese didn't achieve the kind of results they had planned on. Also in the first two meetings between the fleets, Japanese long ranged gunnery was no more accurate than Russian and neither side could pierce the armor belts of their targets. Russian plunging fire proved to be a warning of things to come in WWI.
The main development that worked against the Russians was their unwillingness to aggressively seek battle until their Black Sea Fleet joined them. Instead they forted up in Port Arthur and let the Japanese army's 11" howitzers put them out of action. By the time that the Black Seas Fleet had arrived it was tired, worn out and totally unready for battle. Admiral Togo had his fleet switch to HE shells rather than AP and concentrated on starting fires. The real killer turns out not to be the IJN's battleships, but rather their armored cruisers which operated with the battleline. Their 8" and 6" guns smothered the Russian ships upperworks and created massive damage and fires that were difficult to put out. Only when the range was closed to about 4KM did the 12" main guns begin punching holes into the Russian ships and start heavy flooding. It is notable that several of the battleships lost captized. There was one magazine explosion from a fire that raged out of control as well.
Forczak does a nice breakdown of the number of shots fired and approximate number of hits recorded. Japan's real edge was a faster rate of fire and the use of Barr and Stroud range finders that they obtained from Great Britain.
Overall this was probably the best in the Duel series so far along with Steve Zaloga's book on the Sherman versus the Panther (which I should post a review on in the future).
I finished a couple of Osprey books over the holidays and here is my report:
US Cruisers versus Japanese Cruisers 1942 (Duel #22).
Author Mark Stille is no stranger to naval matters and has already written several titles for Osprey. This title follows the Duel series format of giving you the overview of what drove the design of the weapon systems being compared. Stille does a nice job of summarizing the effect that the various naval limitation treaties had on the creation of cruisers. He describes each class of what are now considered Treaty cruisers (i.e. ships limited to 10,000 tons and guns no larger than 8"). He covers all the US treaty cruisers as well as their Japanese counterparts. Then he details the strategic situation whereby these ships were deployed, in this case the South Pacific from 1942 thru mid 1943.
I personally think the entire Duel series could use a serious makeover. Due to the size of the titles, you rarely get enough examples of the weapons in action to make a truly informed judgement of their merits. Stille only details two actions, Savo Island and Cape Esperance to show the capabilities of the ships in question. Now was Savo Island a triumph of superior IJN ship design or US naval inexperience? Was Cape Esperance a vindication for US Treaty cruisers or just a case of Admiral Scott catching the IJN with its pants down? I don't agree with the author's contentions that this was the end of cruiser battles per se. He neglects the Komandorski Islands (one of the rare daylight surface actions), plus numerous other cruiser battles in 1943. Again I fault the size of these titles. Opsrey would be better served with adopting the 90 plus page format of their campaign series for the Duel books.
Despite this, the book does a good job of detailing the various cruiser designs that bore the brunt of the surface battles in 1942-43. While there is nothing here that most forum members with good libraries need, it is a great introduction for those who don't want ot fork out the $80-$100 for the Naval Institute books on US and IJN cruisers.
Russian Battleship vs Japanese Battleship Yellow Sea 1904-1905(Duel #15)
This title covers the first modern battleship combats and is from one of Osprey's rising stars, Dr. Robert Forczak is a retired Lt. Colonel in the US Army with a PhD in International Relations and National Security. I was more familiar with his extensive reviews of military history books on a certain internet bookseller who must remain nameless (hint it begins with an A and ends with an n). He has recently become one of the better authors in the Osprey stable and generally writes about land combat in Europe during WWII. This book though is quite an excellent read and actually adds a great deal to our understanding of both the development of naval combat in the 20th century and the battles that made up the Russo-Japanese war.
Forczak summarizes the many complex issues that were effecting the development of modern naval warships. Whether it is gunnery and fire control or ship design and armor, he gives the reader a lot of detail in his opening chapters. The influence of the French navy on the Russian navy is made clear as was the British navy on the Japanese. The ships are well described and there are both photographs and excellent color plates showing the various classes. The strategic situation is laid out and the navies themselves are well dscribed. Forczak makes a good point that both training and martial spirit were far more important in deciding the outcome of the Russo-Japanese war than technology. Indeed the Russians in many cases had better equipment than was previously assumed. The existing Pacific squadron under Admiral Makharov was well trained and had high morale. His death when his was lost to a mine probably did more to lose the war than any single factor.
This is one of the few Duel series where enough battles are described to give the reader a good feeling for how the war at sea was fought. Despite their use of surprise torpedo attacks, the Japanese didn't achieve the kind of results they had planned on. Also in the first two meetings between the fleets, Japanese long ranged gunnery was no more accurate than Russian and neither side could pierce the armor belts of their targets. Russian plunging fire proved to be a warning of things to come in WWI.
The main development that worked against the Russians was their unwillingness to aggressively seek battle until their Black Sea Fleet joined them. Instead they forted up in Port Arthur and let the Japanese army's 11" howitzers put them out of action. By the time that the Black Seas Fleet had arrived it was tired, worn out and totally unready for battle. Admiral Togo had his fleet switch to HE shells rather than AP and concentrated on starting fires. The real killer turns out not to be the IJN's battleships, but rather their armored cruisers which operated with the battleline. Their 8" and 6" guns smothered the Russian ships upperworks and created massive damage and fires that were difficult to put out. Only when the range was closed to about 4KM did the 12" main guns begin punching holes into the Russian ships and start heavy flooding. It is notable that several of the battleships lost captized. There was one magazine explosion from a fire that raged out of control as well.
Forczak does a nice breakdown of the number of shots fired and approximate number of hits recorded. Japan's real edge was a faster rate of fire and the use of Barr and Stroud range finders that they obtained from Great Britain.
Overall this was probably the best in the Duel series so far along with Steve Zaloga's book on the Sherman versus the Panther (which I should post a review on in the future).