by RNS | May 21, 2020 | Beating Tsundoku
Paul Westermeyer, The United States Marine Corps (Casemate, 2019)
Paul Westermeyer’s slim volume on the US Marine Corps (USMC) is part of Casemate’s Short History collection. It is split into six chapters, each defining an era of USMC history. It is a longer history than some might suspect, having been weaned on John Wayne WWII movies, grainy Vietnam War footage, and shocking HD television news stories from the blurred frontlines of Iraq.
The USMC dates to 1775 when Congress authorized its formation. They performed like other marines, fighting ship-to-ship or carrying out amphibious landings. With independence secured, it would not be long before the USMC became the spearhead of US foreign policy, performing the role of an Expeditionary Force against the Barbary Pirates among other actions. Ever since, the USMC has been involved in every major combat from capturing John Brown at Harper’s Ferry in 1859 to patrolling the chaotic streets of Fallujah in the 21st Century. Westermeyer argues that the USMC came of age from 1899 to 1919, covering the Spanish-American War and World War I. The latter also saw the USMC deploy two aviation units. The inter-war period was a time of learning and putting doctrine into place, which was timely given the work they had to do in the island-hopping campaign against the Japanese in WWII, though they made their WWII reputation defending Guadalcanal. The USMC has rarely seen peace, and during the Cold War they fought in Korea, saving themselves and Korea with their legendary withdrawal from the Chosin Reservoir, and Vietnam where they fought the Tet Offensive to a standstill in key locations such as Hue. By the 21st Century, the USMC had developed into a powerful combined-arms force, incorporating the latest technology on land and in the air, but each Marine is never allowed to forget that no matter his specialty he is a rifleman first. As such, the USMC has fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, developing their tactical abilities while maintaining their strategic role as America’s expeditionary force.
Westermeyer’s tidy narrative of USMC history is interspersed with vignettes, describing the USMC’s various roles and adding colour to the story. His accounts of pivotal battles highlight the multiple roles the Marines have adopted, though he allows some of the lengthy quotes to escape his authorial control. The United States Marine Corps also contains useful illustrations and photographs that assist the narrative. Though more detailed histories exist, this is certainly an excellent introduction to the USMC and a great companion to take along if you visit the superb USMC museum in Virginia. 8/10.
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by RNS | May 20, 2020 | Beating Tsundoku
Jim Thayer, Tango 1-1 9th Infantry Division LRPS in the Vietnam Delta (Pen & Sword, 2020)
Jim Thayer volunteered to fight in the Vietnam War as Long Range Patrol Ranger. The personnel specialist in charge of assigning Thayer thought he was either mentally impaired or possessed of an insatiable death wish. He may have had a point. Tango 1-1 is Thayer’s memoir of his immersion into combat at the very tip of the American spear and it is a hair-raising ride.
Thayer was already a soldier when he re-enlisted to fight in Vietnam, but he had never seen combat. He was familiar with the routines of army life, though service in the LRP was anything but routine. He joined Team 1-1, a small unit of warriors inserted by helicopter, truck, or boat into potentially lethal situations in the Mekong Delta. Most missions were interesting but uneventful, Thayer writes, but his team also captured Viet Cong guerrillas; conducted reconnaissance missions that ended in firefights; set ambushes as hunter/killer teams; and fought pitched battles against NVA regulars. The Rangers used a variety of weapons to suit their missions. Some of those were conducted in a jungle environment but most were out in the open among paddy fields and along riverbank villages. Vietnamese PRUs sometimes went with the LRPs and proved themselves able soldiers.
Thayer became team leader through attrition, and was awarded numerous medals, including the Silver Star, which he paid for with a serious wound that earned him some time in Japan. When he returned, Thayer took to going on patrol in bare feet and wore a headband rather than a hat; he “looked more like a Mandalay pirate”. Thayer’s memoir also discusses his down time at USO shows, barracks life, eating a captured pig, and drinking beer, but he focuses more on the drama of Vietnam where he endured falling off a truck at high speed, fire ants, snakes, searing heat, monsoon rains, booby traps, enemy ambushes, watching comrades die, being wounded slightly but eventually severely, and a failed marriage. During the end phase of his tour of duty, Thayer began experiencing PTSD and recognized that combat had worn down his mental acuity and self-confidence and that luck played a large part in his survival. While on compassionate leave, Thayer was assigned to a training unit. After more surgery, Thayer left the army for a career in law enforcement.
Tango 1-1 is more than a personal memoir, but a homage to Thayer’s unit and the men he fought alongside. While the usual Vietnam tropes of heat and smell and culture-shock are in the book, Thayer avoids the sometimes wearisome ‘literature’ of the Vietnam War to tell straightforward stories of men in combat, although why he opted for simple chapter headings rather than give his stories titles eludes this reviewer. In addition, the blurb taken directly from a Stars & Stripes propaganda piece on Rangers does him no favours by casting some doubt on the veracity of his experiences. Nevertheless, Thayer’s memoir is testimony to the real courage these men displayed in alien conditions against a tenacious enemy. Those interested in Vietnam, and in particular LRPs and their tactics will enjoy Thayer’s memoir and learn a lot from it. Highly Recommended. 8/10.
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by RNS | May 19, 2020 | Beating Tsundoku
Mike Ingram and Graham Evans, The Battles and Battlefields of Northamptonshire (Northamptonshire Battlefields Society, 2020)
When thinking of English battlefields, does Northamptonshire spring to mind? Me neither. Yet Boudicca fought here, as did Saxons, Vikings, Lancastrians and Yorkists, Cavaliers and Roundheads, and there is a curious historical footnote to do with the Battle of Waterloo. It turns out that this somewhat nondescript English county lays claim to being something of a crossroads in English military history. Mike Ingram and Graham Evans bring us all the action in The Battles and Battlefields of Northamptonshire, complete with lots of maps and photographs.
The authors begin with a potted history of the county, which was a strategic, political, religious, and economic centre; in short, an area worth fighting over. The location of Boudicca’s climactic fight with the Romans is uncertain, but why not Northamptonshire? Ingram and Evans posit two possible sites. A trip through Saxon Northampton follows, but if they fought the Vikings, as they surely did, then we do not know where. We are on familiar ground in the mediaeval period surrounding the Baron’s Wars, but no battles just sieges. Then comes the Battle of Northampton in 1460, during the Wars of the Roses. This battle put Northampton firmly on the military history map and the battlefield is mostly still intact. It is also the subject of a separate, and accurate, book by Mike Ingram. The other Wars of the Roses battle, Edgcote in 1469 was not really a WoR battle at all, argue the authors, but an internal struggle among the ruling factions in England. You can visit this one too. We leap forward to the 17th Century and the Midland Rebellion of 1607, which was more of a massacre of protestors rather than a battle. Northamptonshire was a proper battleground during the English Civil War. Some minor fighting is narrated as well as the vitally important Battle of Naseby in June 1645. The authors describe this campaign and battle in some detail. Even the Jacobite Rebellions of the 18th Century saw some action in Northamptonshire, sort of, with the Black Watch Mutineers being run to ground in 1743 as they marched back home from London. The last ‘combat’ seen in the county was actually a movie reconstruction of the Battle of Waterloo that took place in 1913; there were two casualties, though nothing serious. A generous and welcome plug for the Northamptonshire Battlefields Society concludes Northampton’s military story.
The Battles and Battlefields of Northamptonshire is a tidy little volume that does a little more than what you might expect on first viewing, especially with a very boring cover – never judge a book by it, they say. The text is clean, nimbly skipping across an often complex historical background to some of the battles being described; the sprinkling of photographs and maps help illustrate those. Ingram and Evans have therefore succeeded in putting Northamptonshire on the military history map with this collection of informative and entertaining stories. They have written a very useful guide for battlefield visitors, and hopefully those interested in protecting Northamptonshire’s important historical record. 8/10
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by RNS | May 18, 2020 | Beating Tsundoku
Mike Ingram, Richard III and the Battle of Bosworth (Helion, 2019) 
The momentous Battle of Bosworth fought on 22 August 1485 was a significant turning point in English history. In the first of a new series by Helion Publishing, From Retinue to Regiment, historian Mike Ingram takes on the task of narrating a new version of the battle based on historical sources and recent archaeology.
Ingram lays out his groundwork with a detailed survey of his sources, the family trees of the Houses of York and Lancaster, and an annotated timeline of the Wars of the Roses. He then provides a detailed background to the Wars as a series of connected events rather than a continuous conflict. Ingram goes back into the 14th Century to untangle the roots of this complex dynastic struggle that also involved France and Burgundy. Events accelerated with the accession of the utterly inept Henry VI. Then with the English defeat at Castillon in 1453 the storm broke and open warfare erupted between competing nobles while Henry VI lay catatonic. Many battles were fought, and the Throne changed hands several times, but by 1485 the crisis was coming to a head with Richard III as King and Henry Tudor landing in Wales with a small force.
Here Ingram breaks off with an illuminating chapter on 15th Century warfare, and biographies of Richard and Henry, an overview of the connections between Henry, France, and Burgundy, and an account of the events leading up to the Battle of Bosworth. Henry landed on 1 August 1485 near Milford Haven and marched into England, gathering troops as he went. Richard III mustered his army and advanced to meet him. That encounter took place at Bosworth where Richard died in battle and Henry emerged triumphant. By then events were already disappearing into misty legend and historians ever since have attempted to reconstruct the battle.
The general story of Bosworth is well known – a kingdom for my horse, and all that – but we are short on details. Or we were until battlefield archaeology conducted in the 2000s changed the game completely. Ingram has jumped on the new evidence to describe a very different Bosworth but one that makes sense of the physical and source evidence. His interpretation is convincing and likely to stand the test of time. Ingram concludes with three appendices on finding the battlefield, Richard III’s grave, and the likely order of battle.
Ingram’s book is well written and nicely illustrated throughout, with some plates in colour. His expertise in the area of battlefield reconstruction shows through clearly, and his analysis of the evidence is skilful. This is not only an enjoyable book therefore, it is authoritative. Highly recommended. 9/10
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by RNS | May 18, 2020 | Beating Tsundoku
Christopher Duffy, The Army of Frederick the Great, 2nd Edition (Helion, 2020)
It might seem odd to review a book first written in 1974, but Christopher Duffy makes it clear this new edition is not a rehash but a ‘radical refashioning’ of what was already a seminal work on the Prussian Army under its greatest commander. In the thirty years since its release, Duffy has continued studying Frederick the Great’s army, reviewed his earlier findings, and revised his thinking on some key aspects: that is how the practice of history is supposed to work.
After surveying the historical background of Prussia and the pivotal role of the military in its survival and success, Duffy examines each element of the already impressive army that Frederick inherited. He begins with Frederick as King and Commander; how he managed and led his army through vigilance and discipline. Duffy works his way through the command structure in characteristic detail then recruitment, training, and conditions of service. Frederick also bent the Prussian economy to the service of the military and the State, which became synonymous for the most part. Each of the main elements of the army comes under Duffy’s careful gaze, beginning with the all important Infantry. He takes us through their organization, equipment, and tactical formations and practice, recognizing their strengths and deficiencies. The brilliant Prussian Cavalry is next with Duffy stressing that this was Frederick’s creation rather than his inheritance. Frederick’s understanding of artillery, however, proved a great weakness. He also had little time for his Navy, but the King’s grasp of engineering and logistics enabled Frederick to gain the strategic advantage for most of his campaigns.
It was Frederick’s application of concentration of force, iron discipline, and extraordinary energy that made him so effective strategically and tactically, and Duffy highlights this through a narrative description of Frederick’s wars and battles. The King was not always successful, of course, and the procession of battles inevitably weakened the army, but Prussia survived the onslaughts of the Seven Years War, a major achievement in itself. The stalemate that ended the War of the Bavarian Succession, however, demonstrated the decay that had set into the Prussian Army for what was Frederick’s last campaign. Duffy concludes with a consideration of Frederick’s military legacy that did not survive intact in practical terms through Napoleon’s military revolution, but there is no doubt surrounding his greatness in his own lifetime.
The Army of Frederick the Great is a detailed and comprehensive work that is essential reading for anyone interested in 18th Century warfare. Duffy covers everything you need to know about Frederick’s army and then some. This new edition is well written, with effectively deployed quotes from Prussian and foreign observers, placing Frederick’s army in its European context. The text is liberally sprinkled with illustrations and maps, though some colour plates might have been helpful. Duffy’s use of bullet points is also a bit irritating, and avoidable, as are the occasional typos. Nevertheless, what was a pivotal work in 1974 remains so today in its upgraded version, and I suspect will continue to be that way in the future. Highly recommended. 9/10
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by RNS | May 17, 2020 | Beating Tsundoku
Anthony Tucker-Jones, Hitler’s Panzers The Complete History 1933-1945 (Pen & Sword, 2020)
For most of us, I suspect, the infamous German blitzkrieg of World War II rested on their ability to punch through defensive weak points with tanks and pour into the enemy’s rear areas, causing chaos then collapse. Then with Tigers and Panthers prowling around battlefields, the Germans possessed the best tanks of the war. We have, therefore, a sense of German technical superiority in tanks, and it is remarkable that they lost, but lose they did. How? With that in mind, I approached Anthony Tucker-Jones’s Hitler’s Panzers The Complete History 1933-1945 in eager anticipation of finding some answers. I was not disappointed.
Tucker-Jones begins after Versailles when Germany was forbidden to build tanks, but as in most things they worked their way round that prohibition. Tank development continued under Heinz Guderian who could see better than most how important they would be in a future war. Panzer I and IIs were quickly developed but neither matched what was needed in a main battle tank. The Panzer III was an improvement and the Panzer IV became the workhorse tank for the army, especially when it was up-gunned to compete with the Soviet T-34. The Panzer VI Tiger carried the potent 88mm gun but it was very heavy and slow as was the production of them. The same fate befell the Panzer V Panther and Tiger II. The increasing allied bomber raids on factories accounted for most of that, but the latter were both delayed in design and production. In addition, Tucker-Jones argues that these heavy tanks presented as many tactical problems as they solved.
Part II takes us into battle with the German tanks. Tucker-Jones examines the creation and tactics of the Panzer Divisions, featuring the attacks on Poland and France, and the desert campaigns. He demonstrates that the Panzer I and IIs lasted further into the war than they should have, helped by the Allies, especially the British, having distinctly average tanks. The Panzers IIIs and IV’s, chewed those up but could not cope with Allied airpower. The Tiger did well too, as expected, but their capture helped the Allies find ways to defeat them. Out in the East, the Panzers were simply overwhelmed by numbers, though lost opportunities and premature and piecemeal deployment played their part. The Panthers, in particular, were subject to mechanical failures and poorly trained crews that mitigated their power on the battlefield. The Panzers fell victim to attrition in Normandy and on the retreat into Germany.
Part III surveys the switch in emphasis from Panzers to Sturmgeschütz (Stugs), assault guns that became indistinguishable from Panzers in their role during the increasingly desperate struggle to save Germany. The Germans needed tank killers and support weapons, and Stugs fit that bill. They were also easier to build than panzers when Germany had to plug the gaps in their Panzer ranks. In Part IV, Tucker-Jones moves onto missed opportunities, starting with the Battle of the Bulge, which ultimately did not go well for the Germans. The Soviets too had worked on defeating the German heavy tanks. Tucker-Jones concludes that the Panzer IV was the best German tank of the war not the more touted Panther. For the Tigers and Panthers, he argues there simply was not enough of them to make more than a tactical difference.
Hitler’s Panzers The Complete History 1933-1945 is a well-written book that covers all the basics of the German tanks and then some. It is a balanced account too: it will satisfy those who want an authoritative account while providing a platform for further study. Tucker-Jones might have leaned on Guderian as a source a bit too much, but that does not interfere with the thrust of his arguments or the enjoyment of his book. Highly Recommended. 9/10
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