Christopher (seadragontampa) -
I was hitting my teenage years when Reagan started his military buildup and the four Iowa class battleships were brought out of retirement. A point of bias disclosure I'm from Iowa and I remember the mocking quotes that this was like digging up Custer to modernize the Army.
So when I first saw this book I was egger to read it and I went into it understanding that the author had the stance that the battleship was a vessel over rated and always short of actual performance measure. He then sets about to support his thesis.
Overall, Scared Vessels is an excellent history of transition from wooden sailing ships to metal hull ships and the development of the battleship. What is interesting as the author develops this history is that he starts out on a world view and keeps this up until World War II and then its as if the rest of the world's battleships have all suddenly disappeared.
Throughout the book Robert O'Connell continually twists and manipulates facts and events in order to fit his mold that the dreadnoughts never severed a function. A few people realize that the second most important naval battle of World War I after Jutland occurred at the Falkland Islands and O'Connell dismisses it by saying that this would have never happened if there had been submarines in the area.
When it comes to World War II, O'Connell has made such a pitch that the battleship was an over rated relic that he completely skips over the Bismarck episode. The author eliminates this wrinkle in his thesis by just ignoring the fact that the Bismarck was a such threat to the merchant fleet that British pulled every ship they had to find her. The British have even admitted that if the Bismarck and Tirpitz had sailed together there was little they could have done to stop that amount of firepower short of stripping the Atlantic of every warship to engage them. He then goes on to dismiss the role they played as part of the carrier task forces by saying it could have by done by other ships. He conveniently leaves out that the US nearly suffered what would have its greatest battle loss had it occurred and that it would have been inflicted by Japanese battleships. During the Battle of Leyte Gulf the American invasion force was left unprotected. It was only by the happenstance of the Japanese admiral thinking he had been discovered and turning around that prevented those behemoths tearing through anchored transports and a few destroyers. Casualties would have been in the tens of thousands.
The ending of the book, the period covering from 1945 to 1992 when the last battleship was taken out of of service is covered in five pages. When the New Jersey arrived off of Vietnam the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army had to respond by moving everything inland out of range of her guns. When the New Jersey arrived off of Lebanon in the 80's they had their first ceasefire in years that last more than a couple of days. Her presence was considered so important that her trash had to be transferred to another ship for disposal so that she never left station. He then taken one incident of errant barrage to dismiss her contribution. The Navy tried an airstrike and in turn had aircraft shot down with one crew man taken prisoner. Airstrikes were only continued after the New Jersey and then the Iowa took out the anti-aircraft batteries protecting the Bakka Valley.
A truly thorough review of battleships' "failures" would have been better done if O'Connell would have spent a little more time examining how they were or were not used verses just constantly beating the drum that the ships themselves were flawed.
This is a great book for someone interested naval history. Just remember that for whatever reason the author has decided that the battleship is a vessel never served any real purpose and should never have been built.
So when I first saw this book I was egger to read it and I went into it understanding that the author had the stance that the battleship was a vessel over rated and always short of actual performance measure. He then sets about to support his thesis.
Overall, Scared Vessels is an excellent history of transition from wooden sailing ships to metal hull ships and the development of the battleship. What is interesting as the author develops this history is that he starts out on a world view and keeps this up until World War II and then its as if the rest of the world's battleships have all suddenly disappeared.
Throughout the book Robert O'Connell continually twists and manipulates facts and events in order to fit his mold that the dreadnoughts never severed a function. A few people realize that the second most important naval battle of World War I after Jutland occurred at the Falkland Islands and O'Connell dismisses it by saying that this would have never happened if there had been submarines in the area.
When it comes to World War II, O'Connell has made such a pitch that the battleship was an over rated relic that he completely skips over the Bismarck episode. The author eliminates this wrinkle in his thesis by just ignoring the fact that the Bismarck was a such threat to the merchant fleet that British pulled every ship they had to find her. The British have even admitted that if the Bismarck and Tirpitz had sailed together there was little they could have done to stop that amount of firepower short of stripping the Atlantic of every warship to engage them. He then goes on to dismiss the role they played as part of the carrier task forces by saying it could have by done by other ships. He conveniently leaves out that the US nearly suffered what would have its greatest battle loss had it occurred and that it would have been inflicted by Japanese battleships. During the Battle of Leyte Gulf the American invasion force was left unprotected. It was only by the happenstance of the Japanese admiral thinking he had been discovered and turning around that prevented those behemoths tearing through anchored transports and a few destroyers. Casualties would have been in the tens of thousands.
The ending of the book, the period covering from 1945 to 1992 when the last battleship was taken out of of service is covered in five pages. When the New Jersey arrived off of Vietnam the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army had to respond by moving everything inland out of range of her guns. When the New Jersey arrived off of Lebanon in the 80's they had their first ceasefire in years that last more than a couple of days. Her presence was considered so important that her trash had to be transferred to another ship for disposal so that she never left station. He then taken one incident of errant barrage to dismiss her contribution. The Navy tried an airstrike and in turn had aircraft shot down with one crew man taken prisoner. Airstrikes were only continued after the New Jersey and then the Iowa took out the anti-aircraft batteries protecting the Bakka Valley.
A truly thorough review of battleships' "failures" would have been better done if O'Connell would have spent a little more time examining how they were or were not used verses just constantly beating the drum that the ships themselves were flawed.
This is a great book for someone interested naval history. Just remember that for whatever reason the author has decided that the battleship is a vessel never served any real purpose and should never have been built.
