by RNS | Dec 7, 2020 | Beating Tsundoku
Kevin Turton, Britain’s Unsolved Murders (Pen & Sword, 2019)
In Britain’s Unsolved Murders, Kevin Turton presents a selection of thirteen crimes committed between 1857 and 1957. Turton sets the scene, provides a narrative of the murder and trial if there was one, then gives his verdict.
Some of the unsolved murders in Turton’s book are more famous than others; for example, the infamous Scottish verdict of ‘Not Proven’ delivered to Madeleine Smith in 1857 and the atrocious desecration of the young Bradford boy John Gill in 1888. While all of the murders contain a central mystery – who did it – a couple are truly baffling, namely the murders of Florence Nightingale Shore in 1920 and Evelyn Foster on a lonely moor in 1931. Others appear to have a more ready explanation to hand and only an investigative or trial error prevented the murderer being unmasked. In one case a jury member refused to convict the apparent murderer through his own conviction against Capital Punishment.
Turton narrates these stories in an engaging style, laying out the events in a straightforward manner. They are a good jumping off point for further reading, but some of the murders already have their own historian, most notably Diane Janes’ Death at Wolf’s Nick which is a brilliant forensic examination of an unsolved murder. A frustrating lack of footnotes and references, however, blunt further investigation by the reader into other cases. Turton also does not make it clear why he chose these murders across that particular century while leaving out many others and not including more modern cases. Given his personal edge to his verdicts, perhaps the title might be better read as Kevin Turton’s Casebook of Unsolved Crimes? Nevertheless, this works as a true crime book within that genre, but as an appetizer rather than a main course.
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by RNS | Dec 1, 2020 | Beating Tsundoku
Stephen Emerson, North Vietnam’s 1972 Easter Offensive (Pen & Sword, 2020)
On paper, South Vietnamese prospects for winning the Vietnam War in 1972 looked as good as they ever had. Although the US was pulling out, its funding enabled South Vietnam to field one of the world’s biggest and best armed military forces. The policy of Vietnamization was going well apparently, but all was not as it seemed. Stephen Emerson narrates what happened next in an engaging little book.
Across the borders of South Vietnam, 225,000 North Vietnamese soldiers were massing, waiting for the order to strike. This was no peasant army, but a well-armed Soviet and Chinese backed force, whose commanders were willing to gamble on maintaining supply lines while overcoming the South Vietnamese resistance. On 30 March, NVA tanks rolled across the DMZ supported by a massive artillery barrage and 30,000 troops. More fighting broke out in April at the Cambodian border just north of Saigon, along the coast, and through the Central Highlands. ARVN defences collapsed in front of all this despite continuous air-strikes and American naval support. Then the NVA paused, allowing the Americans to escalate their air support for South Vietnam. Massive air-strikes followed, but the NVA pressed ahead with their offensive. The ARVN suffered great losses but held on where they could, particularly around Hue and the besieged An Loc. At Kontum, meanwhile, the NVA lost up to 40,000 troops in a losing effort. A lull followed again with both sides licking their considerable wounds, but the NVA had won ground. Only now they had to defend their gains.
In retaliation, President Nixon unleashed the full power of America’s Air Force on North Vietnam, hitting transportation and supply links the hardest. The North Vietnamese air defences had improved, causing some losses for the Americans though not enough to stop the pounding. While this was ongoing, the ARVN counter-attacked on the ground. After initial success, that offensive stalled too through attrition. Nevertheless, the ARVN crawled its way forward to regain much of what they had lost in the Easter Offensive and by September the NVA’s Easter gamble had failed. North Vietnam’s reluctance to negotiate saw the B-52s return in December, which changed minds if not hearts, and peace talks resumed. Emerson concludes with his analysis of the campaign that he regards mostly in terms of North Vietnamese miscalculations, though Hanoi’s gamble had exposed fatal flaws in South Vietnam’s ability to defend itself, which would end with defeat three years after the Easter Offensive.
North Vietnam’s 1972 Easter Offensive is a solid if unremarkable addition to Pen & Sword’s Cold War 1945-1991 series. Emerson teases out the main themes of the fighting that he reveals as much more intense than the textbook dismissal of the Offensive, as little more than strategic manoeuvring before peace talks, suggests. He is aided by informative maps and many colour and black and white photographs to tell a deeper story and one that deserves our attention if we are to understand the closing stages of the Vietnam War.
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by RNS | Nov 30, 2020 | Beating Tsundoku
Phil Carradice, The Battle of Tsushima (Pen & Sword, 2020)
In 1904, a Russian Imperial fleet sailed on an 18,000 mile voyage into disaster at the hands of a Japanese fleet under the command of a master admiral. What could go wrong for the Russians did go wrong, but the seeds of their destruction lay in Moscow. Nevertheless, the Japanese made full use of all their considerable advantages to win the ensuing battle. In The Battle of Tsushima, prolific writer Phil Carradice narrates the story of one of the most decisive battles in naval history, and one with world changing consequences.
The battle’s origins were laid in 1891 through an assassination attempt on a Russian prince while on a visit to Japan. Czar Nicholas, as the prince became, swore revenge. With his accession in 1894 and Russian expansion into the Far East, he thought he had it. But it was Japan that declared war on Russia in February 1904. To win they had to defeat the Russian fleet and chose the brilliant Admiral Togo Heihachiro to do it. He almost achieved his objective with a surprise attack on Port Arthur. When the repaired Russian fleet sailed out in August, Admiral Togo crushed them. The Czar despatched his Baltic Fleet with “Mad Dog” Zinovi Rozhestvensky in command. They had to sail 18,000 miles while taking on coal, conducting repairs, which would be many, and with mostly conscript crews.
The voyage was as bad as could be feared. False reports of Japanese torpedo boats in the North Sea were British trawlers and fired upon, which nearly resulted in war. The Russian fleet split in two at Tangiers, one to go through the Suez Canal and the other around Cape of Good Hope. Morale fell and class division appeared in the heat of Africa and toil of being at sea. Mechanical problems slowed the fleet too. The fleet reunited at Madagascar only to hear that Port Arthur had fallen and there would be no joint Russian fleet operations from that direction. Politics also intervened to make the situation worse. Morale plummeted further and fear spread, leading to mutinies. Defeat seemed certain, but the fleet sailed on.
Meanwhile, the Japanese prepared for combat. They had technical superiority and battle-hardened crews. In May, the Russian fleet, bolstered by reinforcements, moved towards Tsushima, hoping to make it to Vladivostok. On 27 May, the Japanese spotted them. Togo ‘crossed the T’ placing him at an advantage to the Russian’s battleships. Soon, Japanese shells poured into the Russians, and what they missed torpedoes hit. The battle was a catastrophe for the Russians; two-thirds of her ships went to the bottom, 4,380 sailors died. Carradice concludes with apportioning blame, the battle’s cultural legacy, and a curious epilogue describing the assassination of Czar Nicholas II.
The Battle of Tsushima is an absorbing read, though the battle itself takes up little room. Carradice writes history with a novelist’s touch, perhaps too much so at times, and highlights the farcical nature of the Russian voyage halfway round the world to inevitable defeat. The plight of that fleet is an extraordinary story that deserves its place on your naval history shelves.
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by RNS | Nov 23, 2020 | Beating Tsundoku
Javier Garcia de Gabiola, The Paulista War Volume 1 (Helion, 2020)
Almost every nation has suffered a Civil War at one time its history. Brazil is no exception. In fact, Brazil went through a series of civil wars, beginning around 1889 and ending in its biggest challenge in 1932. For three months, 100,000 Government troops took on 32,000 rebels from Sao Paulo, known as Paulistas, who wanted a new constitution. Javier Garcia de Gabiola brings us that story in an entertaining magazine-style book in Helion’s Latin America @ War series.
Gabiola narrates the causes of the Paulista rebellion that began in civil unrest and ended in full-scale war. He describes the Federal army that outnumbered and outgunned the opposing Paulista forces by a considerable margin. Though both sides used much the same weapons, the Paulistas never had enough, nor did they have an adequate supply of ammunition. The apportionment of heavy weapons also favoured the Government forces, as did aircraft. The Paulistas had to improvise, therefore, just to stay in the field. Gabiola continues his narrative, bringing the Paulistas into open conflict and the first operations, although their hoped for allies in neighbouring provinces failed to turn up. This was a war fought on a number of fronts, all covered well by Gabiola, who makes particular mention of the air war. He leaves this volume with the Paulista collapse along the coast.
Helion is onto something with this series of books, opening a continent of historical wars that are rarely covered in English. Gabiola’s contribution is an excellent addition to that library. Nor have the production values been spared: The Paulista War contains black and white photos, propaganda posters, and high quality, full colour illustrations of warplanes and uniforms; although Gabiola has a thing about who wore what helmets for some reason. He also includes good, clear maps, which makes events easier to follow. The result is an engaging read and I look forward to Volume II.
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by RNS | Nov 21, 2020 | Beating Tsundoku
Robert Forsyth and Nick Beale, Arado Ar234 Bomber and Reconnaissance Units (Osprey, 2020)
The German ME262 receives most of the plaudits when it comes to jet warplane development, but Robert Forsyth and Nick Beale tell the story of a different jet aircraft: the Arado Ar234 bomber. It is an interesting tale with an undercurrent of ‘what might have been’ running through it.
Forsyth and Beale begin with the concept and development; testing started in 1943, though the first flew in March 1944. They then follow a detailed narrative of finding pilots and testing this unusual machine, which is perhaps surprisingly interesting given this is often skipped over to get to the operational material. The Ar234 flew its first reconnaissance mission over Normandy in July 1944, but weather, technical issues, and Allied attacks on German airfields disrupted continued missions. Taking photographs was one thing, dropping bombs quite another as far as technical considerations went. But Ar234s dropped bombs on Liege on Christmas Eve 1944, sparking a flurry of missions, some of which took place at night. They did well, working in conjunction with ME262s, and proved a problem for the Allies. Nevertheless, the Germans lacked the resources to maintain more than just a few Ar234s and Allied control of the skies hindered them further with Tempests, Spitfires, and Mustangs shooting down planes the Germans could ill afford to lose. As the war drew to close, the Ar234s performed multiple and sometimes effective missions, and to the credit of their pilots they fought on until the end against hopeless odds.
The story of the Ar234 is told with authority and the depth of the authors’ research clearly shows. The accounts of the Allied pilots tasked with bringing these warplanes down are particularly well handled. As you should expect with Osprey, the text is laced with useful black and white photographs and the usual high quality colour illustrations. Aviation enthusiasts and modelers will appreciate this book, but it is a good read for anyone interested in the latter days of the Third Reich.
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by RNS | Nov 18, 2020 | Beating Tsundoku
Tim Saunders & RobYuill, The Light Division in the Peninsular War 1808-1811 (Pen & Sword, 2020)
The British Light Infantry during the Peninsular campaigns in the Napoleonic Wars were at the heart of the action. They fought toe to toe with the French in the advance and on the retreat. Tim Saunders and RobYuill tell their story and describe the lives of the soldiers on and off the battlefield.
In typical fashion, the British were slow to adopt Light Infantry on more than a nominal scale, with no battalions until 1803, though they had a Rifle Corps from 1800. This became the 95th (Rifle) Regiment under Sir John Moore. Light Infantry served in the Peninsular campaigns of 1808/1809, by which time the Light Division had been formed. The Riflemen that travelled to Portugal were soon in action at Rolica and Vimiero. The unfortunate Moore found himself in command of the Peninsular army in October 1808 and despite his best efforts they found themselves in full retreat by December in the face of the French advance into northern Spain. The Light Infantry were very busy covering that retreat to prevent it becoming a rout. They were hard-pressed all the way to Corunna where with the rest of the army they stood and fought a pitched battle in which Moore was killed but the army escaped by sea. In 1809, the Light Infantry returned to the Peninsula under Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington. This was to be a very different campaign with the Light Infantry leading the advance against the retreating French, helping to drive them out of Portugal if only temporarily. In 1810, they took up outpost duties, skirmishing with the French across the lines. They also began working with the Portuguese Cacadores light infantry. The French pushed the British back again, but the Light Infantry proved a consistent thorn in their side with skilled and disciplined skirmishing tactics. In the Winter of 1810-1811, the Light Infantry proved their worth again protecting the lines of Torres Vedras, Wellington’s defensive position in Portugal. In 1811, Wellesley took the offensive again this time for good with the Light Infantry to the front as usual.
Saunders and Yuill cover well-trodden ground in this book as far as the campaigns go, but the focus on the Light Infantry is an interesting angle. The authors deliver solid combat narratives with primary sources incorporated skilfully, particularly the reminiscences of Rifleman Harris of the 95th. They add box-out text sections, covering extraneous information such as weapons, equipment, and uniforms. Reenactor photographs showing loading and basic tactics, including the famous Plunkett Position, and clear maps and modern photographs of terrain illuminate the narrative. Napoleonic wars enthusiasts will enjoy this book very much.
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