3 comments about Crusader Castles in the Holy Land 1097-1192 (Fortress).

1. This book, another in the collection on Castles and architecture, focuses on the Castles in the area known as the Levant, or the Holy Land, built during the period of 1097-1192. The focus is on the castles that were in use or used by the Crusaders during the time of the Crusades.
   
   This series of books, the Fortress books by Osprey, are some of the best tools that can be utilized by anyone who is doing research on the areas or time periods noted in the titles, and this book is no exception.
   
   The book contains not only valuable information on the types and structures of Castles in the Holy Land, but the maps, timeline, drawings and photos, and basic history incorporated into these books make them a pleasure to read and excellent sources of information for anyone doing research or getting into the study of the Crusades.
   
   First, let's look at the discussion of the castles. The book presents the layout of the land, the need for defenses, the types and styles of castles, from the freestanding towers to the hilltop fortifications to the man-made and enhanced cave-fortresses. While we are more familiar with the stone edifices, there were also wooden fortresses, and there is discussion on how and why for the building materials chosen. There is also discussion on the choices of structures and layouts.
   
   The outline of the crusades is presented so that the reader becomes familiar with the place names, the route of the original crusades and the reason for placement of these castles. The book very effectively lays out the battle strategies, key placement of fortifications, and how they were, or were not, effective against the invasion and occupation of opposing forces.
   
   What makes this book outstanding are the references to events, incidents and places all through the crusade story. Excellent reference maps make the progress of the crusaders and locations of key fortifications easy to visualize and follow. What had been lacking in many books on the crusades, visual aids to follow as well as a time line progression, is more than made up for in this book. There is even a chart for the names of the castles referenced in Medieval French or Latin, Arabic and Turkish or Hebrew. This is a fantastic reference for reading other histories of the crusades from various language sources.
   
   There are also wonderful illustrations of what the castles looked like at the time they were built, giving some great layouts to better explain how a castle was put together and it's purposes, what the original plan was for protection and fortification, and how some of these castles appear today. Black and white photographs show how they have withstood the test of time and attack.
   
   There are some lovely illustrations of constructions and use of these castles as well as illustrations involving battles at various castles. The historical detail of period clothing, machines, armor and weapons give the reader a very realistic visual of what life was like at that time.
   
   There is a timeline at the beginning of the book that places events, battles and even natural disasters into perspective as you follow the history of the crusades. This is a key piece of information that makes this book very easy to follow.
   
   The material is well researched, well thought out as far as how to include the most amount of information in the space provided. While the focus is not the Crusades itself but rather the military aspect of the crusades in relation to battles and defenses, it can not help but include key events, military groups, religious centers and the general story of the Crusades.
   
   This book can augment any other reference you will be looking at, whether a school project or just curious reading. For the maps and time line alone it is a valuable resource. Include the look at the military strategies, the culture and the life style of the time, and it is probably one of the best resources for the price point as well as ease of reading and understanding. No college degree required here.
   
   The book has a good outline in the table of contents, a bibliography (Further Reading), a glossary of terms that you will not encounter elsewhere, and an index that makes for easy reference.
   
   A great reference tool, one that will surly find it's way into school libraries as well as home libraries for it's value as a well done, well researched and easy to understand book. medievalcrusadesbabe



2. David Nicolle has written many excellent books on medieval history for osprey publishing. This book however gives the impression that it is too quickly published. If the author and publisher had spend a little more time on it, removing the flaws, it could have received 5 stars.
   
   The book covers interesting examples of crusading castles and fortifications in the middle east of 1097-1192, including the unknown (for me) cave-fortress of Ain al Habis (La cave de Sueth). Do not expect the well-known big crusader castles in this book (except saone), these are covered in his next book. The information makes the book well worth for anyone interested in castles and crusader history.
   
   However, the flaws are many. The most annoying are the maps and drawings of Cave de Sueth. Why has the publisher placed an illegible picture (72 dpi or even lower) here? This is even more strange as the picture originates from another (scientific) manuscript of the author. He must have access to a good quality image (Due to this book, I now have a copy of this manuscript, which contains excellent pictures).
   
   Other flaws of the book are:
   - Some of the color illustrations do show very little interesting parts of the castles (for instance The Hospitallers take over the castle of Turris Rubea in the 1190's).
   - Plans of castles do not appear at the place where they are described in the text. Other plans shown are not mentioned at all in the text, as well as descriptions of castle plans in the text have no image of the plan.
   - Some photographs show hardly any information.
   - Two maps showing the castles of the region are very detailed and in full color, whereas two maps other regions are crude and black and white.
   
   In conclusion:
   If you want a general book on crusader castles, buy another book which is better presented. If you are a castle-enthousiast or interested in this period of history, this book is still worth your money.



3. Crusader Castles in the Holy Land 1097-1192 is one of Fortress series by Ospery that fills in the fortification of the Christian States that were erected by the Crusaders to defend their lands against the Muslim counter attacks. The book helps explain the who, what, why and where the castles were erected. It is a very insightful book that will help people who want to know how the Christain Lands were defended.

2 comments about Japanese Castles 1540-1640 (Fortress).

1. This book provides a good overview of Japanese castles from the introduction of stone bases and walls in 1540 to the introduction of long range bombardment in 1640. The book provides information on the Japanese castle's history, layout and castle elements, daily life, operational history, and information on the castles today. There are many photos from the Turnbull's travels and excellent illustrations by Peter Dennis.

   Anyone familiar with the Osprey series books will be happy with this edition. As someone not familiar with Japanese castle history, the book gave me an excellent overview and understanding of their role. It also has a good bibliography for getting more information.

   However, there are a few shortcomings in the book. I dislike the author's tendency to jump around in the narrative. "As previously mentioned...", "As noted earlier...", "As will be explained later..." I also wish there were a good map of the castles showing locations, build dates, and other info. The author leaves this responsibility to other books.

   The illustrations are excellent, full of detail, and wonderful bird's eye and cutaway views. The battle illustrations contain many tiny tales in some of the details. The cutaway views contain many interesting vignettes. My edition of the book has one of the castle keep illustrations on the cover. My only complaint with the illustrations is that I would love to see more.

   All in all, a very good, well illustrated overview of the subject matter.




2. Japanese Castles 1540-1640
   By Stephen Turnbull
   Osprey Publishing
   
   Illustration and Images: 4 of 5 stars
   Content: 3 of 5 Stars
   
   If you are looking for a primer for Japanese Castles, then this book is great for it. But if you are looking for something more in depth, I would look elsewhere. While Mr. Turnbull does an excellent job of describing the basic set up and aspects of construction of the castle, the other sections of the book leaves much to desire. I especially found the chapter of castle life very sparse and lacking. Also he has a tendency to state interesting facts but never quite follow them up to the satisfaction of the reader. A good example of this is on page 35 when he discusses the story of a thief who ties himself to a kite to steal the gold scales of the shachi (the dolphin on top of the castle keep used to ward off misfortune) of Nagoya castle. This is further seen in the operational history section, where he seems to just ramble off facts about castles and sieges leaving the reader's appetite stimulated but not sated.
   
   On the plus side, Peter Dennis's illustration lends itself nicely to Turnbull's text as do the photographs. This is a nice aid, as sometimes I found the written description hard to imagine and the pictures help gelled an image in my mind. The only complaint I have is that description of Azuchi in the book states that the topmost room was octagonal, yet in the images of it, the top room is rectangular and the second to the top is the octagonal one. Also as a gamer, I also wish there was more maps but one can't always get everything.
   
   Please don't get me wrong, there is a lot of good information in this book about general layout of a Japanese castle and their defenses and I will probably use it as quick reference material. This though is why I consider it a primer, it left me wanting more information and curious to see if there are better books on castles (maybe ones with maps).

No comments about Castles, Battles, and Bombs: How Economics Explains Military History.

4 comments about Castles: Their Construction and History (Dover Books on Architecture).

1. As an Army Officer the study of military history is a professional necessity. The book: Castles their Construction and History has proven to be an incredible aid to this end. I am stationed in Europe and use the book as a guide when I travel and explore the castles in Germany, France and Italy. The book is very technical, it wastes some space giving detailed step by step descriptions of many castles but the casual reader of history will find the drawings, photos and overviews of history very interesting. The text of the book is rather dull to the non-history buff. It was very useful as a reference book while at the University of Florida.



2. I bought this book because, well to put it plainly, I have always wanted to design a castle of my own. Having no real talent for architecture, I thought I'd see how others had done it before, and why they made the decisions they did. This book does a lot for the novice who wants to learn these things, but does so with enough illustrations to keep the readers interest through the text. I can see why another reviewer said it would make a good textbook -- it reads like one, and provides quite the education!

   Add it to a military history collection, a chivalric texts collection, or to your Lego room for the next time you want a more powerful castle than the kit suggests (but, putting little lego men heads on pikes at the gates may be going overboard).




3. There is no fluff and no romanticizing. This book is just plain hows and whys on castle construction and their evolution from wooden stockades to stone fortresses. It examines the changes in defenses as warfare evolved. It is dry reading, but this is bare bones information with no fantasizing....just what I wanted.



4. This book was written in the 1930's but it is indeed a timeless record of castles from BC to the age of fortifications. I first thought that this was too old of a book but after reading it, it is clearly a great castle book. The real treasure is that it was compiled before Hitler bombed the crap out of Europe. It is chronilogical. It is refereced perfectly. The illustrations include floor plans with scales and north arrows. Building sections keyed to the floor plans. Renderings and photographs keyed to the text. Sidney takes you thru all the different building types and features that make a castle. My favorite is the "Keep". The text is very easy to follow. I was amazed at Sidney's gift of describing without the aid of photographs and drawings castle configurations. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a book that gets to the core of the subject of castles.

5 comments about THE BLACKGLOOM BOUNTY (THE SCYTHIAN STONE (5 Book Series)).

1. This exciting book has all the makings of a great adventure movie: A mystical, mythical world, great suspense, an evil villain to thwart, a likeable hero to cheer for, and a romance to boot! Can't wait to see it on the big screen.
   
   Two Wrongs



2. This exciting book has all the makings of a great adventure movie: A mystical, mythical world, great suspense, an evil villain to thwart, a likeable hero to cheer for, and a romance to boot! Can't wait to see it on the big screen.
   
   Two Wrongs



3. The Blackgloom Bounty by Jon F. Baxley is Mr. Baxley's first foray into the fantasy genre. The second book in this series is titled The Regents of Rhum and is forthcoming, no exact publication date as of yet. The series is set in Britain, albeit with a fantasy medieval twist. This is evident in the verbiage characters use, as well as landmarks they talk about. I was a little hesitant at first, as traditionally fantasy books set on Earth don't work well with the style of fantasy I like. However, Mr. Baxley mixes the two almost seamlessly and allows the reader immerse themselves in the story while using the area as nothing more than an anchor. I barely noticed it was earth, and when I did it did not detract from the story at all.
   
   The plot of this book, is actually several plots interspersed among several subplots. The main story arc follows a young man who becomes caught up in a series of events that are out of his control, but are also very important to his destiny. One of the subplots is that of a noble seeking revenge for a deed done on his family. Another subplot is that of one of the characters trying to plan for the eventual downfall of a foe, and how he maneuvers others into actions to help him accomplish this. Yet another subplot is that of a long lost `hero' who is now back and seeking to decimate all who helped in his clan's downfall. There are a couple other subplots as well, but delving into those may be possible spoilers and I would not want to do that. Suffice it to say, this novel is deep in plot and the various plots tie-in to each other fairly well. The one downfall of having all these interwoven plots is that, at times, I had a little trouble discerning what was what and who was doing what. It took a paragraph or more to remember each angle.
   
   The characters are well written, but do suffer from clichés at times. For instance, the character Kurzurk is an old magician that, when needed, has many answers. The character of Brude is pretty much a one dimensional fighter bent on revenge. The main character Daynin is the clichéd young man finding his destiny with the help of a select group of people. Finally, there is the obligatory love interest, Sabritha. Excluding the clichéd characters, they are interesting. In fact, my two personal favorites are Brude and Sabritha. Aside from Daynin, there is not a great deal of character development. For the most part, the characters that start the novel end pretty much the same way. I was a little disappointed in this as I was expecting, partly due to the size of the novel 438 pages, there would have been more. This seems to be a story that is mostly carried by the strength of the story and not the strength of the characters. Don't get me wrong though, the characters, aside from the clichés, are not bad it just seems they could have been more behind them.
   
   I do have two criticisms about this novel.
   
   Firs, as I have already mentioned, the lack of depth in the characters. By and large, I felt the characters were pulled along in this book by the story. The little character development, aside from Daynin was also mildly disappointing.
   
   Secondly, the set up of the book is such that each chapter holds multiple points of view. It is easy to know when the point of view shifts, however these shifts happen very fast and occur many times in a single chapter. To me, while I was reading this novel, it almost seemed too much. I am wondering if the novel would not have been better served by having smaller chapters focusing on an individual point of view, or maybe even having one chapter contain only two points of view. It made it feel somewhat frenetic paced and at times actually slowed down my reading so I could comprehend what was going on.
   
   Mr. Baxley writes a solid prose, that is both fluid and rich. He allows the reader to see his vision, but to also use their respective imagination to fill in the rest of the details. Some authors try to cram so many details into their novels that it almost handcuffs the reader into seeing only the vision of the author and nothing else. That is not the case here, Mr. Baxley balances both in a very effective manner.
   
   When all is said an done, this is a solid novel. For a first time fantasy author, this is a highly polished book with a very well written plot. Is this a perfect novel? No. However, there is enough quality here, that I will be revisiting these characters in their adventures in the next installment, and hopefully more after that. Every novel is a learning experience, and I am very curious to see how Mr. Baxley has grown as an author. I think this would be a very good book for the casual fantasy fan. It would also be a good novel for those fantasy fans who are able to look past the clichéd characters. All in all, an enjoyable read. If I had the opportunity I would rate this as a 3.5 out of five.



4. This book is pure dreck. The characters are flat, the prose is painfully stilted, and the author's abuse of the English language is shameful. It's full of oximorons (like "equally greater"), cliches, and outright misuse of words (like brace - which the author frequently uses to mean many. It typically means a pair). Don't waste your time or money on this one.



5. I enjoyed this story. There were a few times that I felt like I missed part of the story, because it seemed to have jumped ahead. I had gotten a free PDF copy of this book for my Kindle, so maybe it was an error in the file.
   
   I will definitely read the sequels to see how the story continues. I will agree with some of the posters that not enough time was spent drawing us, as readers, into caring about the characters. By the end of the book you are interested in their outcome because you've spent so much time with them, but I still feel like I didn't really have any kind of emotional investment in any particular character. That would be the only change I would recommend for future sequels.
   
   Overall, I enjoyed the book and feel that Mr. Baxley will turn this into a wonderful series.

2 comments about London 1914-17: The Zeppelin Menace (Campaign).

1. Osprey has avoided covering aerial campaigns until recently because of the difficulty in providing appropriate maps to cover a snapshot in time. In Campaign number 193, author Ian Castle provides the first effort by this series to address an aerial campaign, by focusing on the German Zeppelin raids over London in 1915-18 (the dates in the title are incorrect). Parts of this book are fairly well-written and interesting, particularly concerning British efforts to intercept the Zeppelins, but the author seemingly puts all his effort into reconstructing each Zeppelin raid in loving, excruciating detail rather than providing any real insight or analysis of the actual campaign. Furthermore, the greatest weakness of this volume is the failure to adequately link or cover the Zeppelin raids with the Gotha and RVI bomber raids of 1917-18 (exactly three unconnected sentences mention the bomber raids). A campaign volume that addresses the German strategic bombing campaign against London in the First World War but only covers the Zeppelins and ignores the far more destructive bomber raids has failed to provide a coherent depiction of the military operations. London 1914-17 does benefit from some excellent photographs (the best being postcards that depict actual Zeppelin shoot-downs in 1916-7), but it does not provide the kind of campaign overview that most readers expect.
   
   After a very brief introduction that spells out the German intent to use lighter-than-air airships as a weapon of war, the author launches a messy section that jumbles together opposing commanders, opposing plans and opposing forces all in one lump. Readers looking for the order of battle will have to flip all the way to the end of the volume. It's hard to make much of this agglomeration of information in this section, other than it is poorly packaged and presented and that the author was in a hurry to get to his raid descriptions. The 75-page campaign narrative per se is broken into four sections, covering the 1915, 1916, 1917 and 1918 raids. The fact that only 9 Zeppelin raids actually reached London in 1915-18 allows the author to cover each raid in great detail and to provide a map for each raid, showing exactly where it dropped bombs in London. Indeed, the author's approach is more in line with the format of the Battleground Europe series - blow-by-blow descriptions followed by photos of the site then and now. No detail is too small for this author, including mentioning that SL.2 `destroyed some boxes of tea and bags of salt..' (pp. 32), LZ90 `broke windows, roof tiles and killed three chickens,' (pp. 51) and L.31 `destroyed 40 horticultural glasshouses.' For each raid, the author actually mentions most bombing victims by name and age. However, German casualties, except for a few well-known captains such as Mathy, are virtually ignored (there is one photo of a German cemetery in UK at the end). At times, the level of detail is quite tedious and adds little to the campaign narrative. The volume has a total of 12 2-D maps (Zeppelin bases, RFC bases plus 10 more maps covering individual raids) but no 3-D BEV maps. London 1914-17 also has four battle scenes by Christa Hook (London's first Zeppelin raid, 31 May 1915; an airfield at night; the attack on SL.11; Heinrich Mathy's leap from L.31). To be honest, these battle scenes look rather crude and not as good as the work of other Osprey artists such as Peter Dennis, Howard Gerrard, etc.
   
   Initially, the German Zeppelins met virtually no effective resistance from the British and the only real hazard was bad weather and mechanical defects, which caused about 2/3rds of the Zeppelin raids to abort. However, by September 1916 the British had developed incendiary bullets for their fighters and Zeppelins began to be shot down with regularity. Nevertheless, the author has a tendency to `hype' the Zeppelin raids, several times referring to them as `devastating' or `successful.' For example, he uses these terms to describe two raids in September 1915 which resulted in the deaths of only 40 Londoners. While certainly a tragedy, the death of 40 civilians in a city the size of London was no worse than a bad train accident and the bomb damage was very spread out, prevented concentrated destruction. Indeed, most of the time the German Zeppelins had a hard time even finding London and the fact is that these attacks were merely random terror bombing.
   
   By the end of the volume, the author offers up only a few meager crumbs of summation and analysis. He states that these nine Zeppelin raids inflicted 1,915 casualties (incl. 557 dead), of which only 685 were in London. German losses in personnel are not listed, but they were 6 Zeppelins and about 130 personnel. He does not note that the Gotha raids inflicted more casualties (2,908) than the Zeppelins, at less cost (28 bombers lost over England with about 80 crewmen) and dropped more bombs on London. Indeed, it is amazing that the author can recount the number of chickens a given raid killed, but not the total tonnage of bombs Zeppelins dropped on London. If he had bothered to provide anything like analysis, it would likely indicate that the German Zeppelin raids were a total failure in both achieving their purpose of crushing British home front morale and an extravagant waste of German resources. Indeed, it is odd that German chose to continue building bigger and more expensive Zeppelins when it was obvious that they were very vulnerable and a better solution - heavy bombers - were in hand by 1917. Perhaps the German leadership should be forgiven for over-estimating the effects of strategic bombing (which continued for several more decades), but they also miscalculated in adding terror-bombing to their resume. When combined with first-use of chemical weapons and unrestricted submarine warfare, the Zeppelin raids on London would only served to highlight German ruthlessness and brutality to neutral nations like the United States and help to widen the war. Unfortunately, this volume does not serve to place the Zeppelin raids in their wider context and fails to assess their role in contributing to Imperial Germany's defeat. This book is primarily about smashed shop windows, not the dynamics of strategic-level warfare.



2. The text of "London 1914-1917 The Zeppelin Menace" is a thoroughly informative account of Germany's Zeppelin Campaigns against London during WWI. Also included are an abundance of photographs, detailed maps, and dramatic, color illustrations that vividly recreate various quintessential battle scenes.

3 comments about Cathar Castles: Fortresses of the Albigensian Crusade 1209-1300 (Fortress).

1. Crusades were not all in the Middle East. These crumbling remnants of fortifications from the 1200s bespeak a time of Christian v. Christian warfare as the Catholic Church tried to stamp out the Cathar movement the establishment considered to be heretical. Today, one can visit all these places, some with short walks, others after more difficult hikes. Part of a now more than 50-volume "Fortress" series from Osprey, this combines an informed text, photos, wonderful color reconstruction (and cutaway) diagrams, data on the places today, and a short reading list. There is not a lot about these structures published in English, making this even more useful. As one who has been in many of these castles, I recommend the book to anyone traveling in the region.



2. Cathar Castles does not go into overwheming detail about the Albigensian Crusade, nor should it...it does supply a nice and very complete background however. It centers, quite sensibly on the Castle's themselves.
   
   Expert artwork by Peter Dennis breaths life into the old Southern French Fortresses, the works are clear and vivid...and magnificently detailed. A very descriptive narrative by Marcus Cowper complements the illustrations...or they complement each other, that would be more to the point. Everything is explained including a nice conclusion on visiting these Castle's today.
   
   A very nice 'fit' into Osprey's rather large collection of Castle's, Forts, Strongholds and Defenses that existed in many lands through the centuries.



3. In less then 62 pages, Macus Cowper does a fantastic job going into the details and structures of the major fortresses of the Albigensian Crusade that took up most the 13th century in southern France. The short book centered itself around the castles belonging to Cathars, a heretical movement that took hold in that part of France and subject to a major crusade to wiped it out.
   
   The book comes with a decent background to the Albigensian Crusade how the castles affected the entire campaign as they withstood the crusade before finally falling. Looking at the photos and the illustrations, it took a lot of determination by the invaders to take some of these places. The book comes superbly well illustrated with detail drawings and diagrams of some of the castles, photographs and map of their locations. The text is well written and nicely researched. The author obviously got a pretty good command of the subject and it looks like he visited the actual locations himself.
   
   The book also could serves as a nice historical travel guide as well since the author was kind enough to put in visiting hours and other such material into this book. The book come well recommended and should provide a good companiion piece to a more scholarly work on the Cathar that often come with a lot of words but little illustrations or photos.

5 comments about Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea.

1. This is simply a terrific quickly paced and scintillating read about the role of the Royal Navy and the Imperial Navy of Germany during the Great War. I did not expect to be so enthralled, but Massie writes with both such intimacy and scope, and terrific characterization, not acerbically like Tuchman, but comfortably and excitingly.



2. Massie's book is an apt,worthy sequel to his earlier DREADNOUGHT.
   I feel the former is best read in association with later.Here I offer a different perspective of naval war.
   
   
   Action starts with the escape of German battle cruisers Goeben,Breslau to Constantinople. Despite its superior fire power ,numerical preponderance
   the British Mediterranean fleet failed to intercept the passage of German ships. This by no means a small achievement when one considers the fact Goeben's boiler tubes were leaking horribly which reduced steam pressure retarding its speed. Besides both German ships were powered by poor quality coal.
   
   For nearly 4 years two powerful navies in the world locked horns in a mortal combat designed to establish control over seaways. Despite all the encomiums heaped on Grand Fleet fact goes the former failed to annihilate German High Sea Fleet.Twice during the course of engagement at sea [Dogger Bank,Jutland] Admiral Scheer's fleet managed to evade destruction.This can be attributed to poor battle coordination among different units of Grand Fleet and frequent communication breakdown which resulted in faulty manoeuvres.This becomes all the more galling considering the fact Room 40 of British admiralty pierced German naval ciphers and was knowing latter's plans in advance.So great war at sea resulted in a tactical stalemate also due to German fleet's reluctance to come out of its den and seek battle.
   
   However Allies came very close to breaking deadlock at Gallipoli campaign.I feel if the British had vigorously pressed the attack on the narrows as Churchill and junior officers of Admiral de Robeck's staff wanted chances wee Royal navy could have broken into Sea of Marmara.Admiral Robeck lost his nerve when two of his ships struck mines and sank.Ironically, at that point the Turkish resistance was also losing steam as she was fast depleting ammunition stocks.This crucial fact somehow escaped British notice with the result allies failed to exploit it. Here is where good intelligence comes very handy.
   
   Book ,it appears ,does not attach much importance to sub surface war. Though the fact goes German U boat posed most formidable threat to Britain's maritime supremacy.Allied war effort teetered on the brink due to depredations of U boats. Finding difficult to withstand the strain admiral Jellicoe pleaded for more destroyers to serve as convoy escorts. Americans obliged ; it partially diminishes the scale of allied triumph over Imperial German navy.
   
   Ultimately American intervention proved crucial ,decisive. Wheather US was truly neutral before she embroiled herself in hostilities with Imperial Germany remains debatable. I feel US was uneven its application of neutral laws.After the imposition of British maritime blockade of Imperial Germany London started seizing American vessels on specious pretexts . Though President Wilson lost patience and wanted to protect American rights, he had no will to use US naval forces to pressurise London to accept American principle of freedom of sea. Instead US drifted into a war with Germany.
   
   Let me say this a true neutral does not intervene in the quarrel of others.Here covert American support unnecessarily prolonged war which would have ended in a stalemate.Under such circumstances ,European balance of power would also have been restored which could have precluded the emergence of Hitler,Nazi party upon the post war political landscape.
   
   Despite the triumph of allied navies ,they could not savor victory.Admiral Scheer had the last laugh. British attempt to lay their hands on High Sea fleet was frustrated when Germans scuttled their ships at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys.
   
   Book's tenor in unmistakably anglophile so I liked it only in patches.For instance,author's narration of voyage of German East Asia squadron across the pacific was gripping,colourful.The squadron was intercepted destroyed in the battle of Falklands.
   
   On the whole a well-written book.. Author has again couched the text in a beautiful prose. A significant addition to growing literature on Great War at Sea.



3. Having read "Dreadnought". buying this sequel was automatic on account of how well the first volume was written. "Castles of Steel" is a worthy sequel, that has an extensive bibliography, and is extremely well written. This book gives an excellent overview of the entire theater of operation, though I felt that this volume provided a bit more British than German perspectives, whereas "Dreadnought" appeared more balanced in approach. Nevertheless, the subject matter is extensive and fascinating and certainly complete in coverage. You will want to purchase books that focus on particular battles if you are looking for high detail but there is no doubt that this is just about the best narrative summary out there. This book is brimming with fascinating personalities and describes flawlessly their interactions and how these warring spirits stamped the early 20th century.



4. Thinking that a second of his battlecruisers had just vaporized under German shelling at the Battle of Jutland in June 1916, British Admiral David Beatty muttered: "There's something wrong with our bloody ships." Then he ordered the ships to move in closer for another attack.
   
   This episode, apparently quite famous in Britain, sums up the great ambivalence of the British view of war at sea in World War I. On the one hand, Beatty represents the best of British naval history - the aggressive and supremely confident commander angling for the offensive that will annihilate the enemy as Nelson did at Trafalgar. On the other hand, there was something wrong with the bloody ships. Why didn't the British navy wipe out the German navy? Was this the first hint that the world had finally caught up with the British Empire?
   
   Massie picks up where he left off in "Dreadnought" to tell the tale of what happened to the great ships created in the prewar arms race. He tells the tale primarily from the British perspective, and his essential thesis is that the Brits should not be quite so ambivalent about the naval theater in World War I. The British strategy under Jellicoe, the commanding Admiral of the Grand Fleet, assumed that the German High Seas fleet in an of itself posed no threat. The goal, then, was not to take big risks in an attempt to wipe out the German fleet. Rather, the British goal was to maintain control of the seas, and if the Germans wanted to hide out in port for much of the war, that was just fine.
   
   Massie persuasively demonstrates the soundness of Jellicoe's strategy. It was this control of the seas that allowed the Allies to slowly starve the German populace and war machine and, with the assistance of tenacity of the British and French troops on the Western Front (and with the not inconsiderable help of a 4 million man American army), win the war.
   
   In addition, Massie sees the one great battle between the two full fleets, Jutland, as a great British victory. Britain lost more ships, but the Germans turn and ran when met with the superior firepower of the Grand Fleet and essentially stayed put in port thereafter. The battle is described with great vividness, and Massie can write a wonderful historical narrative.
   
   Still, while focused on the British viewpoint, Massie gives the Germans their due. Beatty, who commanded a squadron under Jellicoe, foolishly failed to consolidate his forces and was trounced by German Admiral Hipper before Beatty successfully lured the rest of the German fleet back to Jellicoe, who gave them a good shelling after choosing the precisely correct maneuver. It is also clear that German engineering of their ships gave them important advantages. To be sure, German guns were less in number and were smaller in caliber. This size difference was critical at the time - it allowed the big British ships to stay out of the German range and just pound away. But German gunnery was far superior to the British, and unlike the "bloody" British ships, German ships were built not to sink.
   
   Yet, while the Germans had begun to match Britain in naval engineering and seamanship, they could not hope to compete with the naval machine put together by the British Empire over the centuries. The Brits had ships, bases, allies, men all over the world. Thus, the German Far East squadron, when it tried to wreak havoc and return to Germany never really had a chance. The German High Seas fleet stayed in port for good reason: it takes more than a few good ships to control the seas.
   
   Massie tells the tale of the shifting of the naval war to the submarine and explains how the convoy system won the war at sea.
   
   The Gallipoli disaster is well told and Massie tends to be pro-Churchill. Churchill bears responsibility for the disaster, but not sole responsibility. As for Beatty, Massie can't help but admire him, yet, in the end, portrays him as the lesser man to Jellicoe and as a political operator who treated Jellicoe and Churchill quite shabbily.
   
   The book's focus on the personalities and thinking of the high command is a flaw. The story of war is the story of logistics, luck, and the performance of junior officers and men at critical turning points. Commanders think they are moving chess pieces, and their thinking in doing so is fascinating. But it is also frequently a delusion, and Massie would have done well to turn some of the focus away from the high command.
   
   This is a wonderfully written historical narrative and sustains its essential thesis that the big ships and overall superiority of the British navy helped win the war.



5. I quite liked the aspects of this book that dealt with the personalities of people like Jellicoe. While the sections on the politics of the Sea War tended to drag a little overall the book is an excellent summary of the major battles at sea during WWI. I rather hoped the sections on the submarines would be longer but the focus of the book was more on the dreadnoughts and battlecruisers.

1 comments about Japanese Castles AD 250--1540 (Fortress).

1. Stephen Turnbull's Japanese Castles AD 250-1540 is a follow up to his earlier work that covers the Japanese castles from 1540 to 1640. This short book proves to be a fine introduction to the gradual evolution of the development and design of classical Japanese castle that played an important part in all of their internal wars. The author goes all the way back to the early ancient Japan to the beginning of the Sengoku Period to trace this development.
   
   The book comes well endowed with photos, drawings and illustrations that proves to be quite good. Many of the photos are taken in color and appears to be recently photographed. All are very helpful in aiding the author's narrative. Only major weakness I saw in this book was that there wasn't much diagrams on the basic design and layout of many of these castles as they developed over time. Still, since this book is an introductory format, I may be asking too much for any Osprey book to go into that much detail.
   
   I truly hope that some day, Mr. Turnbull will actually write a real book on the Japanese castles since these Osprey books only touches the tip of the very large iceberg. Until then, this book will have to do. If you brought any or all of the author's previous Osprey fortress books on Japan, then getting this book would be a no-brainer. Its well written, superbly researched and easy to read. It does accomplished it purpose of introducing the reader to the basic history of Japanese castles during the period of 250-1540. Book come highly recommended for anyone interested in this subject matter.

5 comments about Himmler's Crusade: The Nazi Expedition to Find the Origins of the Aryan Race.

1. This book tells the story of the nazi excursions into the tibetian areas in search of establishing their race agenda. Lots of "reports" of such journeys have been referenced throughout the years, this book gives the facts, of the actual journeys, the "experements", and the men themselves. Good info for those who want to look at factual information about this subject rather than hype.



2. I found it quite interesting and certainly thought provoking! While the book did, at times, drag a bit, overall I believe that it is a well researched and highly enlightening story about the Nazis' odd interest in Tibet.



3. This is a good yarn ruined ! The subtitle of the book is, "The true story of the 1938 Nazi expedition into Tibet". If the author had limited himself to this he might have had a winner on his hands, but sadly for the reader it didn't work out that way. The actual story of Schafer's expedition could have been told in less than 200 pages, but Hale pads it out to over 500 pages, with so much extraneous material that book becomes frankly boring.
   
   The book is full of adjectives which show that the book is not really objective, but is a tour de force of Hales own opinions. As an example, whether you agree with her or not, Savitri Devi's books do not deserve the epithet "repellent" ! Odd perhaps, but not repellent. Hale's book is also full of petty (and not so petty !) errors of fact and figure which call into question the thoroughness of his own research. For instance, on page 53 he misnames Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Also in several places, despite describing himself in one part of the book as a "British journalist", he makes that so American mistake of confusing Britain with England, as on page 231 where he says, "Hitler calculated that France and England wanted to avoid war". He repeats this confusion in several places. On page 440, he says, "After September 1939 no-one in the German High Command could predict the outcome of a war with England". Mr. Hale, Germany was never at war with England ! The war was with Britain, of which England is just one part. It was noticeable too that some of the more lurid "quotes" in the last part of the book lack references to show where they came from, like Beger on Jewish female bottoms on page 489. This detracts from the authenticity of such remarks.
   
   The last 100 pages or so of the book have absolutely nothing to do with the 1938 Nazi Expedition into Tibet, but are yet another reiteration of the sins of Germany in World War 2, and I suspect this was put in purely to make the book politically correct and ensure publication.
   
   In sum, this could have been a very interesting book if Hale had stuck to the subject in hand. It does shine through in places when the actual expedition is being written about, but the rest of the book is so dull that the good parts are overshadowed. I was left with the abiding impression that the boring parts one and two were only there as an excuse for the politically correct part three. All three parts were so full or errors, minor and major, that the book is useless as a research tool, and it is so dull that it is not even a good yarn.
   
   Shame really, but I suppose it might be a cure for insomnia !



4. History makes strange bedfellows. Here we see the Nazi (or more exactly Himmler's) flirtation with Tibet, and Tibet's aristocracy. A fascinating real world "Indiana Jones" adventure into one of history's strangest chapters.
   
   The author also touches on the role of eugenics and physical anthropology in this strange but true tale. This is fascinating but in the end I didn't find it completely satisfying.
   
   Unfortunately they painted a too monochrome view of German physical anthropologists here. Some of the individuals they paint as black hats, were more complex and probably thus more interesting.
   
   In particular I'm referring to their discussion of Felix von Luschan. In this book he is painted as the worst kind of scientific cannibal, but elsewhere (see the discussion in Jan Klein's textbook "Where Do We Come From?") we are told in 1922 he issued a "Ten Commandments", designed to guide the general public away from racialist error. In these commandments he seems to explicitly rejected the viewpoint Christopher Hale attributes to him.
   
   For example, von Luschan's second Commandment says "(t)here are no savages, there are only different cultures. The real barbarians are those ignorant white men who are unable to fathom other races and who exploit them." This is the kind of thing we would expect to hear from "human brotherhood gurus" Margaret Mead or Ashley Montagu, not from a "Nazi mad scientist".
   
   I don't doubt Hale's findings, but something does not compute here. Maybe the gap between Nazi mad scientist and human brotherhood guru is less than we thought. There is obviously a fascinating chapter yet to be unearthed.



5. This is the story of a Nazi expedition into Tibet. The expedition was commissioned by Himmler and led by zoologist Ernst Schaffer. Whilst there were plenty of regular science done in Tibet, much of the expedition had more sinister motives. The expedition included an anthropologist who measured the skulls of Tibetans as part of Himmler's pet project to trace the roots of the Aryan race to Tibet. Hale outlines several other examples of Nazi mysticism, pseudoscience and historical revisionism. He also provides plenty of background info on what happened before and after the expedition but at times these tangents become too much.
   
   The book is an eye opener to the dangerous nature of romantic illusions of mysticism, lost civilisations and more. It also provides info a unique link between Tibet, the British and Nazism and how the three interacted in a very curious way in the 30s. However Hale could have been more organised, coherent and relevant (for instance probing beyond the surface of some of the mystic beliefs described). A good intro to an extremely weird aspect of WWII history, but not the defining word.