July 2023 MBR The Military Shelf

The Military Shelf

Patton's War
Kevin M. Hymel
University of Missouri Press
113 Heinkel Bldg., 201 S. 7th Street, Columbia, MO 65211
https://upress.missouri.edu
9780826222787, $39.95, HC, 490pp

https://www.amazon.com/Pattons-War-Leadership-August-December-Experience/dp/0826222781

Synopsis: "Patton's War: An American General's Combat Leadership August-December 1944" is second of three volumes of Patton's War and picks up where the first one (Patton's War: An American General's Combat Leadership, Volume I: November 1942-July 1944) left off, examining General George S. Patton's leadership of the U.S. Third Army.

This volume follows Patton's contributions to both the Normandy and Brittany campaigns -- the closing of the Falaise Pocket in Normandy, and racing to the port cities in Brittany. It ends with Patton and his corps rescuing the besieged town of Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge.

As he did in the preceding volume, Hymel relies not only on Patton's diaries and letters, but countless veteran interviews, surveys, and memoirs. He also provides a unique insight missed by previous Patton scholars. Instead of using Patton's transcribed diaries, which were heavily edited and embellished, he consults Patton's original, hand-written diaries to uncover previously unknown information about the general.

This second volume of military historian Kevin Hymel's groundbreaking work shows Patton at the height of his generalship, successfully leading his army without the mistakes and caustic behavior that almost got him sent home earlier -- even if we also see a Patton still guided at times by racism and antisemitism.

Critique: A massive and impressively informative military biography, "Patton's War: An American General's Combat Leadership August-December 1944" is informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of Illustrations, Maps, a twelve page Bibliography, sixty-two pages of Notes, and a twenty-two page Index. This seminal volume is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library World War II Histories & Biographies collections and supplemental WWII curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, historians, and military history buffs that "Patton's War: An American General's Combat Leadership August-December 1944" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $29.99).

Editorial Note: Kevin M. Hymel (https://www.usni.org/people/kevin-m-hymel) has served as a historian and writer for the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force for the last fifteen years and is a historian/tour guide for Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours, where he leads the "In Patton's Footsteps" tour. He is also a regular contributor to WWII History and WWII Quarterly, and the author of three books, including Patton's Photographs: War as He Saw It.

No Sacrifice Too Great
Gregory Fontenot
University of Missouri Press
113 Heinkel Bldg., 201 S. 7th Street, Columbia, MO 65211
https://upress.missouri.edu
9780826222848, $39.95, HC, 616pp

https://www.amazon.com/No-Sacrifice-Too-Great-Experience/dp/0826222846

Synopsis: The U.S. 1st Infantry Division (1st ID), familiarly known as the Big Red One, adapted to dynamic battlefield conditions throughout the course of its deployment during World War II by innovating and altering behavior, including tactics, techniques, and procedures. Both the Division's leaders and soldiers accomplished this by thinking critically about their experiences in combat and wasting little time in putting lessons learned to good use. Simply put, they learned on the job (in battle and after battle) and did so quickly.

In telling the Division's WWII story, which includes an extensive photographic essay featuring many previously unpublished images, this edition of "No Sacrifice Too Great: The 1st Infantry Division in World War II" by Gregory Fontenot includes the stories of individual members of the Big Red One, from high-ranking officers to enlisted men fresh off the streets of Brooklyn, both during and after the conflict. Colonel Fontenot's rare ability to combine expert analysis with compelling narrative history makes No Sacrifice Too Great an absorbing read for anyone interested in the military history of the United States.

Critique: Enhanced with the inclusion of Maps, three Appendices (Tactical Symbols; 1st Infantry Division Organization Chart; Table of Ranks through Lieutenant Colonel), a twelve page Selected Bibliography, and a twenty-eight page Index, "No Sacrifice Too Great: The 1st Infantry Division in World War II" is a critically important and unreservedly recommended contribution to personal, professional, community, and academic library World War II military history collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for military history buffs that "No Sacrifice Too Great" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $37.95).

Editorial Note: Gregory Fontenot (https://www.fpri.org/contributor/gregory-fontenot) is a retired Colonel of the U.S. Army. He is currently a consultant on threat emulation for Army experimentation and a working historian. He was lead author of On Point: The US Army in Operation Iraqi Freedom published by CGSC Press and is the author of The 1st Infantry Division and the US Army Transformed: Road to Victory in Desert Storm, 1970-1991, winner of the 2017 Army Historical Foundation award for Unit History, as well as Loss and Redemption at St. Vith: The 7th Armored Division in the Battle of the Bulge.

The Philadelphia Campaign, 1777
Michael C. Harris
Casemate Publishers
1940 Lawrence Road, Havertown, PA 19083
www.casematepublishers.com
9781636242644, $24.95, PB, 128pp

https://www.amazon.com/Philadelphia-Campaign-1777-78-Casemate-Illustrated/dp/1636242642

Synopsis: The British Army in North America conducted two campaigns in 1777. John Burgoyne led one army south from Canada to seize control of the Lake Champlain-Hudson River corridor resulting in the battle of Saratoga. Burgoyne's defeat led to that army's capture. Rather than assist Burgoyne's campaign, William Howe led his army from New York City on the Philadelphia campaign. Although Howe captured Philadelphia, the events of 1777 led to the French Alliance and ultimately American victory in American Revolution.

Critique: With the publication of "The Philadelphia Campaign, 1777" by historian Michael C. Harris, the reader is treated to a fully illustrated account of the Philadelphia campaign that places this American Revelational War campaign into its historical context and explains the importance of this particular military campaign to the eventual outcome of the war.

Critique: Profusely and informatively illustrated in full color throughout, "The Philadelphia Campaign, 1777" provides a succinct account of one of the pivotal battle campaigns of the American Revolution that would insure the emancipation of the colonies and their subsequent transformation into the United States of America. While a very highly recommended pick for personal reading lists and community library American History collections and supplemental American Revolution curriculum studies lists, it should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Philadelphia Campaign, 1777" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.49).

Editorial Note: Michael C. Harris (https://www.battlefields.org/contributors/michael-c-harris) has worked for the National Park Service in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Fort Mott State Park in New Jersey, and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission at Brandywine Battlefield. He conducted tours and staff rides of many of the east coast battlefields. He has written two books on the Philadelphia Campaign: Brandywine: A Military History of the Battle Lost Philadelphia but Saved America, September 11, 1777, and Germantown: A Military History of the Battle for Philadelphia, October 4, 1777.

SOG Medic
Joe Parnar, author
Robert Dumont, author
Casemate Publishers
1940 Lawrence Road, Havertown, PA 19083
www.casematepublishers.com
Blackstone Audiobooks
https://www.blackstonelibrary.com
9781612006338, $32.95, HC, 288pp

https://www.amazon.com/SOG-Medic-Stories-Vietnam-Fence/dp/1612006337

Synopsis: Elite units carried out many dangerous operations during the Vietnam War, the most secret and hazardous of which were conducted by the Studies and Observations Group, formed in 1964.

In the years since the Vietnam War, the elite unit known as SOG has spawned many myths, legends and war stories. Special Forces medic Joe Parnar served with SOG during 1968 in FOB2/CCC near the tri-border area that gave them access to the forbidden areas of Laos and Cambodia.

With the publication of "SOG Medic: Stories from Vietnam and Over the Fence", Parnar recounts his time with the recon men of this highly classified unit, as his job involved a unique combination of soldiering and lifesaving. His stories capture the extraordinary commitment made by all the men of SOG and reveal the special dedication of the medics, who put their own lives at risk to save the lives of their teammates. Parnar also discusses his medical training with the Special Forces.

During his tour with SOG, Parnar served as a dispensary medic, chase medic, Hatchet Force medic and as a recon team member. This variety of roles gave him experience not only in combat but in dealing with and treating the civilians and indigenous peoples of that area. There is a graphic account of a Laotian operation involving America's most decorated soldier, Robert Howard, during which Parnar had to treat a man with a blown-off foot alongside nearly fifty other casualties. It is a reminder of the enormous responsibility and burden that a medic carried.

Critique: An impressively informative and inherently interesting combination of memoir and history, this new edition of "SOG Medic: Stories from Vietnam and Over the Fence" is further enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of additional photos and maps. An important and highly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library Viet Nam War histories, biographies, and memoirs, "SOG Medic" is also available in a paperback edition (9781636243207, $24.95), in a digital book format (Kindle, $12.99), and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackstone Audio, 9798200307623, $34.99, CD).

Editorial Note #1: Joe Parnar (https://www.modernforces.com/veteran_joe_parnar.htm) served in the U.S. Army Special Forces from August 1966 - April 1969. After military service he became involved in several veterans' organizations. He is a lifelong member of the American Legion and served as Commander of Gardner Post 129 in 1989 and 1990. He is a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, Vietnam Veterans of America, and the Special Forces and Special Operations associations.

Editorial Note #2: Robert Dumont was born in Oklahoma in 1947 and graduated from Tusla University before moving to Brooklyn, NY. He worked in the General Research Division of The New York Public Library before retiring in 2010. He co-authored Bac Si: A Green Beret Medic's War in Vietnam (Casemate 2014) with Jerry Krizan and has also written two fiction collections, "Borough of Churches" and "NYC Transit[s]."

Hard Aground
Andrew C. A. Jampoler
The University of Alabama Press
PO Box 870380, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0380
www.uapress.ua.edu
9780817321390, $115.00, HC, 320pp

https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Aground-Tennessee-Maritime-Archaeology/dp/081732139X

Synopsis: With the publication of "Hard Aground: The Wreck of the USS Tennessee and the Rise of the US Navy", Andrew C. A. Jampoler brings together three intertwined stories documenting the US Navy's strategic and materiel evolution from the end of Civil War through the First World War. These incidents had lasting consequences for how the navy would modernize itself throughout the rest of the twentieth century.

The first story focuses on the reconstruction of the US Navy following the swift and near-total dismantling of the Union Navy infrastructure after the Civil War. This reconstruction began with barely enough time for the navy's campaigns in the Spanish-American War, and for its role in the First World War. Jampoler argues that the federal government discovered that the fleet requested by the navy, and paid for by Congress, was the wrong fleet. Focus was on battleships and cruisers rather than destroyers and other small combat vessels needed to hunt submarines and serve as convoy escorts.

The second story relates the short, tragic life of the USS Tennessee (later renamed Memphis), one of the steel-hulled ships of the new Armored Cruiser Squadron that was a centerpiece of the navy's modernization effort. The USS Tennessee was ordered on two unusual missions in the early months of the First World War, long before the United States formally entered the war. These little-known missions and the ship's shocking destruction in a storm surge in the Caribbean serve as the centerpiece of the story. Threaded through the narrative are biographical sketches of the principal players in the drama that unfolded following the ship's demise, including two of Tennessee's commanding officers: Vice Admiral Sims, who commanded the US Navy squadrons deployed to Europe in support of the Royal Navy; Rear Admiral William Caperton, who commanded the Caribbean squadron before the Memphis (formerly the Tennessee) was lost; Charles Pond, squadron commander during the wreck; and the American ambassador to the Ottoman court, President Wilson's enthusiastic supporter, Henry Morgenthau.

Jampoler rounds out this fascinating account with the story of how the USS Tennessee's destruction prompted fierce deliberations about the US Navy's operations and chains of command for the remainder of the First World War and the high-level political wrangling inside the Department of the Navy immediately after the war, as civilian appointees and senior officers wrestled to reshape the department in their image.

Critique: Enhanced informatively for the reader with the inclusion of illustrations, a ten page Epilogue, an eight page Bibliography, and a sixteen page Index, "Hard Aground: The Wreck of the USS Tennessee and the Rise of the US Navy" is an exceptionally well researched, written, organized and presented historical study of the American navy and key figures involved in shaping what it into the force it would become today. While also available for personal reading lists in a paperback edition (9780817361082, $34.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $33.20), "Hard Aground: The Wreck of the USS Tennessee and the Rise of the US Navy" is a especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library 20th Century U.S. Naval and Military History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Andrew C. A. Jampoler (https://jampoler.com) retired from the US Navy in 1986 after a twenty-four-year career, which included serving as an officer in the Strategic Plans and Policy Division of the US Navy staff and service on the personal staffs of the chief of naval operations, the secretary of defense, and the commander in chief of the US Pacific Fleet. He is author of nonfiction books about incidents in maritime history, including Embassy to the Eastern Courts: America's Secret First Pivot Toward Asia, 1832-37 and Congo, the Miserable Expeditions and Dreadful Death of Lt. Emory Taunt, USN.

Kapaun's Battle
Jeff Gress
3rd Coast Books
https://www.3rdcoastbooks.com
9781946743480, $17.95, PB, 239pp

https://www.amazon.com/Kapauns-Battle-Jeff-Gress/dp/1946743488

Synopsis: "Kapaun's Battle" by Jeff Gress is a powerful testament to the heroism of US Army Chaplain Emil Kapaun (Medal of Honor). The story follows him, from the start of the Korean War until his death as a Prisoner of War in a Communist Chinese Prison Camp in 1951, following the destruction of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Regiment of the US 1st Cavalry Division in November 1950.

"Kapaun's Battle" is the story of a true American hero. It's the biography of a young man, from a humble Kansas farming family, whose Catholic faith led him to the priesthood. Kapaun became an Army Chaplain in Southeast Asia during World War II and then a parish priest. He volunteered to return to the Army as tensions rose on the Korean Peninsula. It is the exceptional story of Father Emil Kapaun's selfless bravery and of his dedication to the men he ministered to during the Forgotten War.

In 1993, Pope John Paul II declared Father Kapaun a Servant of God, the first stage on the path to canonization. In 2013, Kapaun posthumously received the Medal of Honor from President Obama for his actions in Korea. He was the ninth American military chaplain Medal of Honor recipient.

Although "Kapaun's Battle" is relevant to every freedom-loving American and indeed people worldwide, it is especially intended for the enlightenment of students in schools and universities, along with members of religious congregations and military personnel, to the incredible impacts that one humble, pious American can have on the lives of so many by sacrificing his for them.

Critique: One of those heartfelt, heart-breaking, and truly inspiring biographies that stirs the emotion and inspirationally impacts the reader, "Kapaun's Battle" will linger in the mind and memory of the reader long after this outstanding military biography has been finished and set back upon the shelf. While especially and unreservedly recommended for personal reading lists and community/academic Korean War Military History and 20th Century American Biography/Memoir collections, it should be noted that "Kapaun's Battle" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $4.99).

Editorial Note: Jeff Gress (https://www.3rdcoastbooks.com/jeff-gress) is a novelist, screenwriter, and movie producer who has been writing for over twenty years. He recently started his own production company, Landing Hill Pictures, hoping to turn many of his stories and novels into movies or TV series.

Pirin Planina: Tragic and Comic Episodes from Captivity
George Topirceanu
Center for Romanian Studies
c/o Histria Books
www.histriabooks.com
9781592111497, $29.99, HC, 220pp

https://www.amazon.com/Pirin-Planina-Episodes-Captivity-Literature/dp/1592111491

Synopsis: With the posthumous publication of "Pirin Planina: Tragic and Comic Episodes from Captivity", Romanian a Romanian poet, short story writer, and humorist, who in 1926 was awarded the National Poetry Prize. The late George Topirceanu (1886-1937) provides a new generation of readers with an account of his experiences as a soldier during World War I.

Despite his bleak surroundings and vivid descriptions of death and tragedy that he witnessed, Topirceanu managed to find humor in the most unusual circumstances, making "Pirin Planina" a truly unique account of the War. His experiences will leave the reader perplexed as Topirceanu's unique blend of drama, tragedy, and humor immerses the reader into the world of a soldier during World War I.

Critique: Illustrated with black/white drawings by Olga Bogozenco, ably translated into English by Diana Livesay, and featuring an informative introduction by A. K. Brackob, the military memoir of the late George Topirceanu, "Pirin Planina: Tragic and Comic Episodes from Captivity" is a valued and unreservedly recommended contribution to personal, professional, community, college, and university library World War I military history/biography collections. It should be noted for students, academia, military historians, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Pirin Planina: Tragic and Comic Episodes from Captivity" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).

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