May 2023 MBR The Military Shelf

The Military Shelf

Flawed Commanders and Strategy in the Battles for Italy, 1943-45
Andrew Sangster, author
Pier Paolo Battistelli, author
Casemate Publishers
1940 Lawrence Road, Havertown, PA 19083
www.casematepublishers.com
9781636243122, $37.95, HC, 288pp

https://www.amazon.com/Flawed-Commanders-Strategy-Battles-1943-45/dp/1636243126

Synopsis: Wars never run according to plan, perhaps never more so than during the World War II Italian campaign of 1943-45, where necessary coordination between the different armies added additional complexity to Allied plans. Errors in the strategies, tactics, the coalition tensions, and operations at campaign command level can clearly be seen in firsthand accounts of the period.

With the publication of "Flawed Commanders and Strategy in the Battles for Italy, 1943-45", co-authors Andrew Sangster and Pier Paolo Battistelli have produced a new account that examines the Italian campaign, from Sicily to surrender in 1945, and explores the strategy, intentions, motives, plans, and deeds involved.

"Flawed Commanders and Strategy in the Battles for Italy, 1943-45" then offers a detailed insight into the five commanders who led the battles in Italy -- the two British commanders, Montgomery and Alexander; two American, Patton and Clark; and the leading German commander, Field Marshal Kesselring.

Their personal notes and accounts, taken alongside archival material, provides some surprising conclusions -- revealing that Montgomery was not quite the master of war he is portrayed as; that Patton had serious flaws, exposed by wasting men's lives to save a relative and overlooking the shooting of prisoners of war; that Clark lost lives to bolster his image; that Alexander the gentleman was far too vague to be effective as a senior leader. Meanwhile, condemned war criminal Kesselring appears to be the most efficient and also, like Alexander, one of the most popular leaders.

Critique: A simply fascinating read from cover to cover, "Flawed Commanders and Strategy in the Battles for Italy, 1943- 45" is an iconoclastic study that is a remarkable work of seminal scholarship. Essential reading for military history buffs, students, and academia, "Flawed Commanders and Strategy in the Battles for Italy, 1943-45" is a unique and highly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library World War II history collections and supplement curriculum studies lists. It should be noted that "Flawed Commanders and Strategy in the Battles for Italy, 1943-45" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $17.49).

Editorial Note #1: Dr Andrew Sangster holds his doctorate in Modern European History as well as degrees in Law, Theology, History and English. He has written several biographies including Lord Alan Brooke, Beria, Franco, Goring, Goebbels, Himmler, a history of France 1936-46 and an account of the main European Secret Services before 1939.

Editorial Note #2: Dr Pier Paolo Battistelli gained an MA degree in the University of Perugia, Italy, and was awarded a Ph.D. degree at the University of Padua, Italy, with a thesis on the German-Italian military partnership during WWII. Dr. Battistelli is active as a translator, a military history consultant, and author, publishing a number of books on different subjects of history related to WWII. (https://www.casematepublishers.com/author/pier-paolo-battistelli)

Skagerrak: The Battle of Jutland Through German Eyes
Gary Staff
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (US distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.penandswordbooks.com
9781399077163, $26.95, PB, 288pp

https://www.amazon.com/Skagerrak-Battle-Jutland-Through-German/dp/1399077163

Synopsis: In January 1916 Vizeadmiral Scheer took command of the High Sea Fleet. This aggressive and pugnacious German military leader embarked upon a vigorous offensive program which culminated in the greatest clash between dreadnought capital ships the world had seen. Although outnumbered almost two to one, Vizeadmiral Scheer conducted a provocative operation on 31 May 1916. Who would prevail: the massive preponderance of British heavy caliber cannon, or the aggressive tactics of the street fighter Scheer?

Manning the ships of both sides were the technically skilled and talented seamen who were prepared to carry out their duties loyally and courageously until the very end. Over 8,500 men perished in less than 10 hours of fighting, a horrendous loss, even by World War One standards.

With the publication of "Skagerrak: The Battle of Jutland Through German Eyes", author and historian Gary Staff gives voice to many of the German Navy participants, from a German perspective, on this tumultuous battle fought over 100 years ago.

These men gave their all and are gone now, but not forgotten.

Critique: Original published in 2016, this new complete and unabridged paperback edition is Informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of Appendices, seven pages of Notes, and a seven page Index, "Skagerrak: The Battle of Jutland Through German Eyes" is an exceptionally well written, organized and presented account that is an inherently fascinating read and an important and valued contribution to community, college, and university library World War I history collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, and military history buffs that "Skagerrak: The Battle of Jutland Through German Eyes" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.99).

Editorial Note: Gary Staff (https://www.usni.org/people/gary-staff) is a former airline pilot but he has been fascinated with naval history, and specifically with the Imperial German Navy (Kaiserlischmarine) for decades. He has visited archives in Britain, Germany and elsewhere to study, and often translate for the first time, official documents relating to this subject. His previous books for Pen & Sword are The Battle for the Baltic Islands 1917; Battle on the Seven Seas and German Battlecruisers of World War One.

The Great Redan at Sebastopol
James W. Bancroft
Frontline Books
c/o Pen & Sword Books
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.penandswordbooks.com
9781399060523, $49.95, HC, 224pp

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Redan-Sebastopol-Victoria-Crosses/dp/139906052X

Synopsis: On 18 June 1855 British assault troops moved out of their trenches before Sebastopol in the Crimea, and attacked the formidable Russian bastion known as the Great Redan. They came under such a murderous fire from the Russian defenders that the attack faltered, and the British were eventually forced to fall back. As they did so, they left over 1,000 comrades dead and dying out in the open and at the mercy of enemy snipers.

The Siege of Sebastopol saw the development of trench warfare for the first time. Using eyewitness accounts and unpublished letters, with the publication of "The Great Redan at Sebastopol: The Most Victoria Crosses Awarded for a Single Action", author and historian James W. Bancroft tells the riveting story of how the men coped with the terrible conditions as they prepared for the assault -- as well as the events during and after the fighting. Among the anecdotes is an officer who had the ingenious idea of warming up cannon balls in the camp fires and taking them into the tents at night to keep warm; and he went on to live for over a hundred years!

Well-known for his depth of research, Bancroft questions a number of points regarding the Great Redan that are commonly believed to be historical fact. Quoting the father of Alexander the Great, it was the Russians who, soon after the assault on the Great Redan, first referred to the British as, 'An army of lions led on by donkeys'. For over 100 years it was stated in many publications that the most Victoria Crosses awarded for a single action was the eleven presented for actions during the defense of Rorke's Drift during the Zulu War in 1879. However, as Bancroft reveals, twenty of the lions who fought at the Great Redan received Britain's highest gallantry award, in whole, or in part, for their actions on 18 June 1855.

"The Great Redan at Serbastopol" also includes biographical tributes to many of the men who were killed in action, gives details of the places where they are commemorated, and provides biographies with all the up-to-date information concerning the twenty Victoria Cross recipients.

Critique: Informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of a section of black/white Plates, two Appendices (Crimean War VCs by Units & Redan 60th Anniversary Commemoration), a six page listing of Bibliography and Research Sources, and a three page Index, "The Great Redan at Sebastopol: The Most Victoria Crosses Awarded for a Single Action" is an impressively informative and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, community, college, and university library 19th Century British Military History collections and supplemental curriculum Crimean War studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, military history buffs, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Great Redan at Sebastopol" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $22.49).

Editorial Note: In the four decades that James W. Bancroft has been writing he has produced more than 100 books and articles, the subjects of which reflect his varied interests. He contributed a number of articles for The New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and his book Rorke's Drift: The Zulu War, 1879 has been re-printed seven times.

Black Tulip
Erik Schmidt
Casemate Publishers
1940 Lawrence Road, Havertown, PA 19083
www.casematepublishers.com
9781636243030, $19.95, PB, 240pp

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Tulip-Hartmann-Worlds-Fighter/dp/1636243037

Synopsis: With the publication of "Black Tulip: The Life and Myth of Erich Hartmann, the World's Top Fighter Ace", author Erik Schmidt presents the dramatic story of history's top German fighter ace, Luftwaffe pilot Erich Hartmann. "Black Tulip" is also the story of how his service under Hitler was simplified and elevated to Western mythology during the Cold War.

With over 1,404 wartime missions, Hartmann claimed a staggering 352 airborne kills, and his career contains all the dramas you would expect. There were the frostbitten fighter sweeps over the Eastern Front, drunken forays to Hitler's Eagle's Nest, a decade of imprisonment in the wretched Soviet POW camps, and further military service during the Cold War that ended with conflict and angst.

Just when Hartmann's second career was faltering, he was adopted by a network of writers and commentators personally invested in his welfare and reputation. These men, mostly Americans, published elaborate, celebratory stories about Hartmann and his elite fraternity of Luftwaffe pilots. With each dogfight tale put into print, Hartmann's legacy became loftier and more secure, and his complicated service in support of Nazism faded away. A simplified, one-dimensional account of his life (devoid of the harder questions about allegiance and service under Hitler) has gone unchallenged for almost a generation.

"Black Tulip" locates the ambiguous truth about Hartmann and so much of the German Wehrmacht in general: that many of these men were neither full-blown Nazis nor impeccable knights. They were complex, contradictory, and elusive. This book portrays a complex human rather than the heroic caricature we're used to, and it argues that the tidy, polished hero stories we've inherited about men like Hartmann say as much about those who've crafted them as they do about the heroes themselves.

Critique: A fascinating and impressively informative biography/history of the German Ace fighter pilot Erich Hartmann, "Black Tulip: The Life and Myth of Erich Hartmann, the World's Top Fighter Ace" is especially brought to the attention of readers with an interest in Military Aviation History in general, and World War II History & Biographies in particular. Originally published in hardcover in 2020, this new paperback edition of "Black Tulip" is especially appropriate for persona, professional, community, and academic library collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students and military history buffs that "Black Tulip" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Tantor & Blackstone Audio, 9798200168989, $39.99, CD).

Editorial Note: Erik Schmidt (https://www.erikschmidtwrites.com) has made a career of researching complicated topics. A former magazine editor and senior marketing writer, he has an MFA in creative nonfiction and a lifelong love of history and aviation. He is a freelance writer living in Denver, Colorado with his family.

Matchlocks to Flintlocks: Warfare in Europe and Beyond, 1500-1700
William Brban
Frontline Books
c/o Pen & Sword Books
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.penandswordbooks.com
9781399020626, $29.95, PB, 304pp

https://www.amazon.com/Matchlocks-Flintlocks-Warfare-Europe-1500-1700/dp/1399020625

Synopsis: In the early modern world three dominant cultures of war were shaped by a synergy of their internal and external interactions. One was Latin Christian western Europe. Another was Ottoman Islam. The third, no less vital for so often being overlooked, was central and east Europe: Poland/Lithuania, Livonia, Russia, the freebooting Cossacks, a volatile mix of variations on a general Christian theme.

With the publication of "Matchlocks to Flintlocks: Warfare in Europe and Beyond, 1500-1700", Professor William Urban offers a fascinating narrative in the form of an integrated account of early modern war at the sharp end: of campaigns and battles, soldiers and generals. Temporally it extends from the French invasion of Italy in 1494 to Austria's Balkan victories culminating in the 1718 Treaty of Peterwardein. Geographically it covers ground from the Low Countries to the depths of the Ukraine.

That narrative in turn focuses Urban's major analytical points: the replacement of crowd armies by professionals, and the professionals integration into crown armies: government-supervised, bureaucratized institutions. The key to this process was the mercenary. Originally recruited because the obligations of feudal levies were too limited, mercenary forces evolved operationally into skilled users of an increasingly complex gunpowder technology in ever more complex tactical situations. By the end of the seventeenth century, soldiers were identifying with the states and the rulers they served.

Critique: Originally published in hardcover in 2011, "Matchlocks to Flintlocks: Warfare in Europe and Beyond, 1500- 1700" is now available in a paperback edition from Frontline Books. Featuring a number of illustrations, twenty-four pages of Notes, a six page bibliography of Readings, and a seven page Index, "Matchlocks to Flintlocks" is a superbly presented work of seminal historical scholarship and recommended as a core addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university Library European Military History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted that now "Matchlocks to Flintlocks" is also available for students, academia, historians, and military history buffs in a digital book format (Kindle, $8.99).

Editorial Note: William L Urban (https://department.monm.edu/history/urban.htm) is an internationally recognized authority on the history of European warfare. He served as L Morgan Professor of History and International Studies at Monmouth College (Illinois). For several years he was editor of the Journal of Baltic Studies. He has written some two dozen scholarly books including The Teutonic Knights (2003) and Small Wars, and their Influence on the Nation State (2016)

Lucky Hitler's Big Mistakes
Paul Ballard-Whyte
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (US distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.penandswordbooks.com
9781399074377, $34.95, HC, 336pp

https://www.amazon.com/Lucky-Hitlers-Mistakes-Paul-Ballard-Whyte/dp/1399074377

Synopsis: Adolf Hitler's military experiences during World War I in no way qualified him for supreme command. Yet by July 1940, under his personal leadership the Third Reich's armed forces had defeated Poland, Czechoslovakia, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium and France. The invasion of Great Britain was a distinct reality following Dunkirk. Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania had become allies along with the acquiescent military powers of Mussolini's Italy and Franco's Spain.

These achievements prompted Field Marshal Willem Keitel, the Wehrmacht's Chief of Staff, to pronounce Hitler to be 'the Greatest Commander of all time'.

But then the disastrous decision to tear up the treaty with the Soviet Union and launch Operation Barbarossa in 1941 occurred. As described in "Lucky Hitler's Big Mistakes" by Paul Ballard-White's meticulously researched and highly readable study, Hitler's blind ideology, racist hatred and single-mindedness led him and his allies inexorably to devastating defeat.

How far was it good luck that gave Hitler his sensational early political and military successes? Certainly fortune played a major role in his survival from many assassination attempts and sex scandals. "Lucky Hitler's Big Mistakes" concludes that from 1941 onwards, the Fuhrer's downfall was entirely attributable to military misjudgments that he alone made.

Lucky: Hitler's Big Mistakes exposes the enigmatic Dictator for what he really was -- incredibly lucky and militarily incompetent.

Critique: An inherently fascinating and original study, "Lucky Hitler's Big Mistakes" features an eleven page Glossary, a seven page Bibliography, a six page Index. Not to be missed is a special 'What Happened to Each Character' list. Informed and informative, deftly organized and presented, "Lucky Hitler's Big Mistakes" is a valued and valuable inclusion for both community and academic library World War II History/Biography collections and a critically important addition to supplemental curriculum Adolph Hitler studies lists. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Lucky Hitler's Big Mistakes" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $12.99).

Editorial Note: Paul Ballard-Whyte (www.luckyhitler.com) has also recently published a short story set in Afghanistan titled 'The Three Birthdays' and has previously written and directed several short films.

A Photographic History of Amphibious Warfare 1939-1945
Simon Forty, author
Jonathan Forty, author
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (US distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.penandswordbooks.com
9781399082655, $42.95, HC, 256pp

https://www.amazon.com/Photographic-History-Amphibious-Warfare-1939-1945/dp/1399082655

Synopsis: Amphibious operations have always been an important element of warfare, but they reached their climax during the Second World War when they were carried out on a large scale in every theater of the conflict. That is why "A Photographic History of Amphibious Warfare 1939-1945", wide-ranging, highly illustrated World War II history of amphibious warfare by Simon and Jonathan Forty is of such immense value.

"A Photographic History of Amphibious Warfare 1939-1945 " gives graphic accounts of the main amphibious assaults launched by the major combatants, in particular the British, American, German and Japanese -- and not just large-scale landings like those in North Africa, Normandy, the Philippines and Okinawa, but also raids such as Dieppe and St Nazaire and evacuations like Dunkirk and Kerch.

The rapid development of amphibious tactics and equipment is an essential element of the story, as are the vital roles played by the navies, air forces, armies and special forces in each complex combined operation. Of special note is the section on amphibious operations that were planned but didn't happen, such as the German invasion of Britain and the Italian and German operation against Malta.

Critique: Simply packed from cover to cover with black/white historic photos, "A Photographic History of Amphibious Warfare 1939-1945" is a seminally informative, exceptionally well organized, and reservedly recommended core addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library World War II naval history collections and supplemental curriculum studies reading lists, it should be noted for students, academia, and WWII military history buffs that "A Photographic History of Amphibious Warfare 1939-1945" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $18.99).

Editorial Note: Simon Forty was educated in Dorset and the north of England before reading history at London University's School of Slavonic and East European Studies. He has been involved in publishing since the mid-1970s, first as editor and latterly as author. Son of author and RAC Tank Museum curator George Forty, he has continued in the family tradition writing mainly on historical and military subjects including books on the Napoleonic Wars and the two world wars. Recently he has produced a range of highly illustrated books on the Normandy battlefields, the Atlantic Wall and the liberation of the Low Countries with co-author Leo Marriott.

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