by RNS | Oct 14, 2020 | Beating Tsundoku
Trevor Barnes, Dead Doubles (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2020)
Recent books on the major spy cases of the post-war era have mainly focused on notorious individuals – Philby, Burgess, MacLean, Fuchs, and Blake – with the multiple participant Portland Spy Ring becoming a bit lost in the shuffle. Until now. Trevor Barnes, in his brilliant exposition Dead Doubles, narrates and analyses a spy case that was every bit as potentially damaging to British national security as anything those traitors achieved and puts the Portland Spy Ring into the top echelon of British espionage disasters.
After a series of notes identifying the players in this drama, and a teasing preface, Barnes methodically unpacks the case. He begins with the investigation, from the initial police report in 1955, which was all but discarded, through the painstaking process of uncovering two couples of ‘illegals’ – deep undercover spies, living publicly normal lives in England – that were connected by their Soviet handler, Konon Molody. One couple, the Cohens/Krogers, you might describe as ‘proper’ spies that the FBI had been hunting for years, while the other couple were a greedy opportunist and his deluded mistress. Between them, they stole secrets relating to the Royal Navy’s submarine development programme. Their trial proved problematic because MI5 could not reveal much of the top-secret evidence that played a pivotal role in the investigation, but a hanging judge and seemingly compliant defence ensured conviction and prison sentences for all concerned. The Cohens and Molody were exchanged for British spies, receiving a hero’s welcome in the Soviet Union, while Houghton and Gee served their time, married, then faded into obscurity. Barnes leaves us with the uncomfortable suggestion that the spy ring was much wider, and perhaps deeper, than this group.
Dead Doubles is a gripping story merged with scholarly analysis. Barnes has a novelist’s touch, though more LeCarre than Fleming, with an eye for the telling detail as he folds his characters into the narrative. He also exposes the messiness of the espionage game where small mistakes can have huge consequences, professionalism and rank amateurism clash, and people on all sides are rarely who they appear to be for good and bad. Dead Doubles, therefore, ranks as one of the best of the recent crop of books on Cold War espionage and is surely the definitive account of the Portland Spy Ring.
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by RNS | Oct 13, 2020 | Beating Tsundoku
Thomas Newdick, German Bomber Aircraft of World War II (Amber Books, 2020) & German Fighter Aircraft of World War II (Amber Books, 2020)
When I was a wee boy, I used to dig feverishly into the newly opened cereal boxes for cheap plastic WWII aircraft toys – I still remember my first Heinkel HE-111. I have had a soft spot for WWII warplanes ever since. So, it was with great nostalgic happiness that I received two new books from Thomas Newdick on WWII German bombers and fighters.
After a brief introduction, each book is arranged by type of plane then chronologically. Newdick narrates the technical development of the plane with box-outs summarizing the weight, dimensions, powerplant, speed, range, ceiling, crew, and armament. The plane is graphically illustrated, sometimes in various liveries, and a few of the more famous planes are given a two-page ‘action’ illustration with annotations. Newdick also sprinkles some contemporary black and white photographs through his texts. However, the range of warplanes does not fall into such convenient categories as bombers and fighters. Therefore, Newdick adds seaplanes, transports and gliders, ground-attack, reconnaissance, and helicopters to his bombers, while the fighters are split into single-seat monoplanes, jet and rocket fighters, and heavy fighters.
Newdick’s two books provided quite a satisfying rummage for an evening. There are many other books covering the same subjects, of course, but these ones are quite small compared to the coffee-table book I have on my shelf, while covering everything I need to know about the planes. Newdick only covers technical aspects of the planes, which is appropriate for a series labelled Technical Guide, but some operational context would have been useful. The colour illustrations are first class and modelers might find them helpful. Air wargame enthusiasts will also appreciate Newdick’s efforts. My favourite of all the planes was still the Heinkel HE-111, which would make five-years-old me, digging in my cornflakes, very happy!
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by RNS | Oct 12, 2020 | Beating Tsundoku
Karen Schaefer, German Military and the Weimar Republic (Pen & Sword, 2020)
Germany in November 1918 lay prostrate at the feet of its conquerors as they dictated the terms of German surrender. The country had to pay massive reparations and demilitarize while setting up a democracy that went against the national grain. That would be a tall order for any nation. General Hans von Seeckt took command of the army and was tasked with finding a new strategic role for it. History has not treated him well, regarding him as closed-minded and one of the old guard. In this absorbing book, Karen Schaefer has a different interpretation to run by you.
Schaefer begins with the literature on Seeckt and finds it lacking any consideration of his strategic ideas. Historians, contends Schaefer, have argued that Seeckt was an undefeated general chasing dreams of renewed war but without understanding the new military or political realities. Schaefer disagrees in just about every respect with that portrait. The rest of her book tells us why. She sets out her stall by contrasting Seeckt with Erich Ludendorff, an undoubted hero of World War I and an advocate of total war. Schaefer then steadily builds her case, examining Seeckt’s views on military strategy and his political philosophy that favoured civil authority over the military and a defensive, balanced posture by Germany. However, rising military and political opposition, against the backdrop of economic turmoil and a new aggressive nationalist spirit bent on revenge for Versailles, derailed Seeckt. He retired in 1926, but the arguments remain between his vision and that of Ludendorf, Seeckt’s nemesis.
German Military and the Weimar Republic is derived from Schaefer’s PhD thesis and it shows for better and worse. Her book is structured as an argument narrowly tied to Seeckt and his political-military philosophy, and as such relies on at least an understanding of the Weimar Republic background to fully comprehend. I suspect that significantly reduces Schaefer’s audience, which is a pity because her book is well-written and her thesis appears solid. To make this work for a wider audience, she needed more context and perhaps more pit-stop summaries for her less knowledgeable readers to catch their breath. Nevertheless, Schaefer provides a valuable window into military thinking during that vital period when Germany still had choices, however limited, and is therefore an important book worth reading for students of the Weimar Republic.
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by RNS | Oct 9, 2020 | Beating Tsundoku
Dennis Oliver, Panzer III (Pen & Sword, 2020)
The latest volume in Pen & Sword’s Tank Craft series focuses on the Panzer III during Operation Barbarossa, Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Oliver briefly narrates the origins of the Panzer III, which he describes as ‘reliable and sturdy’, and highlights that eleven of the seventeen panzer regiments that invaded the Soviet Union were equipped with them. He helpfully adds a timeline of that assault, so that we can get our chronological bearings, and organizational charts for the panzer units. With that out the way, Oliver gets into all the technical aspects that tank enthusiasts feast on. He does that on a unit by unit basis and, as you might expect, it is very informative.
There are two sections that make these books fly. The first is the colour plates of the tank, illustrating the camouflage patterns while adding more technical details. These are almost uniformly grey with the exception of a whitewashed panzer for the winter and a tropical camouflage for a panzer unit that was supposed to go to Africa but may have been sent east instead. The second stand out section is the completed model kits of Panzer IIIs. These are simply jaw-dropping for a novice like me, though I suspect even the best modelers will be impressed by the attention to detail. Oliver adds a section on model manufacturers so that you can emulate the masters in this book – good luck with that! A number of black and white photographs round out this offering on the Panzer III.
At first glance, this seems rather a narrow topic for a Tank Craft book, but there are enough variations and units to justify its inclusion in the series. Moreover, the quality of information and production are excellent. Anyone interested in tanks will find this book worthwhile; as for modelers embarking on a panzer III on the eastern front project, a copy of this should be on their craft desk.
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by RNS | Oct 7, 2020 | Beating Tsundoku
Bojan Dimitrijevic and Milan Micevski, Tito’s Underground Air Base (Helion, 2020)
Where would you hide your Air Force in the event of a nuclear war? This was a question that preyed on the minds of Yugoslav military planners in the early phases of the Cold War. Their answer: carve out the inside of a hill and put the warplanes in it. So begins the fascinating story of Tito’s Underground Air Base brought to us by two experts in Yugoslav military history.
The base started with the question that became an idea then reality. Dimitrijevic and Micevski describe the ‘Top-Secret’ base’s planning and construction near Bihać, now in Bosnia – it was not Top-Secret for long. Work began in 1957 and took nearly a decade to complete, though the first asphalt covered runways were laid down in 1964. Mig-21 fighters arrived in 1968 with elaborate air defence systems already in place, but the base was already behind schedule. When Tito visited a second time in 1970, the interior galleries were still not fully operational. Further problems followed when exercises revealed how vulnerable the base was and crashes were not infrequent before 1973. But the situation improved through that decade and into the 1980s. In the early 1990s, however, Yugoslavia fell apart and the base found itself on the frontline of an increasingly bitter war, and the divisions in the country were mirrored among the pilots and support crews at the base. In 1992, the UN arrived in the wake of the peace agreement and flying became restricted. But the situation became untenable and the base was evacuated in May with much of it destroyed. The only remaining functional part was the radar station as a Serb facility, but it too had to be evacuated and destroyed in 1995 while under attack from Croat and Muslim militias.
This slim but information packed book is an excellent new addition to Helion’s Europe @ War series. The authors examine every facet of life and work in the underground air base; they might be accused of providing too much detail at times. Many photographs of the base, planes, and personnel accompany the text, and the colour plates of the MIG-21 aircraft are exceptional. Anyone interested in Cold War air forces will enjoy this book, and even if you are not Tito’s Underground Air Base is a surprisingly good account of an operational military base during the Cold War.
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