The Railroads of the Confederacy (Five Stars)

When the Civil War began the sheer mileage of railway lines of the North far outstripped those of the South. However, Mr. Black's book points out that several Confederate military operations in the South were made possible due to the ability of the CSA to concentrate at key points using "interior lines of communication." This was more obvious at the beginning of the war than towards the end, because the Confederacy was loath to place the control of the railroads under the government, unlike the North which recognized the need to to have control over the rails to support the war effort and created the U.S. Military Rail Road (USMRR). The various states backed the "property rights" of the myriad railroads and prevented (for the most part) the dismantling of minor lines in order to keep strategic ones open. But it was a doomed endeavor, as iron was almost impossible to find and the machinery needed to keep the railroads in safe working order were lacking.

Black's writing is very good and engaging. Illustrated with maps and photographs.

As If They Were Ours: The Story of Camp Tyson (Three Stars)

During World War II the United States had to create entire services and branches to its military which simply didn't exist in wartime. One of the capabilities the U.S. Army determined was essential was the use of barrage balloons, a passive air defense weapon which had been determined to be useful in preventing low-level air attacks. The technology was simple: hoist a balloon into position with its mooring cable into place. The cable would be almost impossible for a pilot to detect and if he hit at high speed it could shear off wings, damage propellers, rip off items from the fuselage, etc. Some were also equipped with explosive charges and others were part of "aprons" which were linked together with further cable hanging on the connecting line.

While the technology was outwardly simple there were skills to be learned when handling the barrage balloons and this was the purpose of the Camp Tyson. Many Coast Artillery battalions were formed there with the intention of training them in the use of these defensive weapons.  McFarlin's book discusses the training that was conducted with the balloons but only so much as he could glean from interviews with former soldiers assigned to the camp. In fact, most of the book is a trip down memory lane that just happens to include the barrage balloons in it.

This is not to say it is a bad book, more that it primarily concerns itself with the area around Paris, Tennessee. I thought it was interesting for its discussion of the segregated barrage balloon units and their employment on the Normandy beaches but much of it was redundant because the same topic was sometimes dealt with by different participants. Nevertheless, a good book to have, especially if you visit Paris and want to see the remains of the balloon infrastructure on site.

Freezing People is Not Easy (four stars)

Bob Nelson was there at the very beginnings of Cryonics, the science of freezing people in the hope of returning them to life at a future date, free of the disease that killed them and ready to resume life. However, as Nelson noted, this is not a simple task. Aside from the technical issues with properly freezing a body you have to deal with grieving family members and money. All three of these became a headache for Mr. Nelson as time went by, from the need for cryo-capsules (never acquire one from a wigmaker), to family members emphatically against the freezing of their loved one (despite his or her wishes) to deadbeats who fail to pay for upkeep on the materials needed to maintain capsules at a proper temperature or even to pay costs agreed upon in advance. Some of these issues are the same as those funeral directors have to deal with. In any case, it is an interesting read and Nelson, who was part of the team who froze the first human to be cryogenically preserved, is the just the person to tell it.

Russian Wristwatches (Four Stars)

This book provides a wide, but incomplete, sampling of Soviet-made watches. It features a lot of the Vostok and Ampfibia watches, but not Raketas. Still, a good reference for someone interested in the topic and who might be interested in collecting.

40M Nimrod Tank Destroyer and Armoured Anti Aircraft Gun (Four Stars)

This book discusses a rare antiaircraft weapon, the Nimrod Tank Destroyer and Antiaircraft Gun fielded by the Royal Hungarian Army and used on the Eastern Front during WWII. Lavishly filled with photos and tables, the book describes the evolution of the weapon system as a dual-use vehicle, for destroying enemy tanks and for engaging aircraft. They were based on the same Hungarian-made chassis as the army's light tank and so could keep up with the armored columns advancing into the USSR. The excellent license-built 40mm Bofors gun gave good service against enemy aircraft, as well as close troop support and the destruction thin-skin vehicles and even (thanks to its rapid-fire capability) light armor. However, it was clear that only larger-caliber guns could take on the KV-1s and the T-34s of the Red Army and after Stalingrad the weapon was retained as a mobile antiaircraft weapon, officially deployed in "autocannon companies."

The only book I've ever seen on this topic, it only lacks one thing: first-hand accounts of the weapon in combat. The weapon system obviously did see combat and it would be interesting to learn how the crews felt about its effectiveness, how well it did against aircraft, how was it deployed against tanks... the book never quite goes there.

I review almost exclusively history books (with rare exceptions). I will eagerly review any book having to do with antiaircraft or air defense. I am also interested in books on Africa, but again, mostly the history of the continent, especially in the 20th Century. Get in touch with me for more information. Most of my book reviews are also on Goodreads and Amazon.

The Polar Bear Expedition (three stars)

Even as WWI was wrapping up the Allies (Britain, France and the United States) sent troops to Murmansk and Archangel, ostensibly to guard war material sent to their ally Russia. Russia, unfortunately, had come under the control of the Bolsheviks and had pulled out of the war, allowing the Central Powers to turn their full attention to the Allies fighting in France and Italy.

It turned out that the Allied intervention, led by the British, had more grandiose plans than simply guarding war material which, in any case, had been looted by the Bolos prior to their withdrawal into the hinterland. The British hoped to push past the Reds and to link up with White forces opposing the Bolsheviks, perhaps even as far as the Trans-Siberian Railroad. This was held at the time by the Czechoslovak Legion, an extremely well-armed and disciplined force that was an island of order in a land of chaos.

With this plan in mind, the British broke up the 339th Infantry Regiment and sent individual companies (and sometimes platoons!) up the Dvina and Onega Rivers to push the Bolsheviks away from the base at Archangel and to hold positions for other Allied forces to jump off from in the Spring of 1919... Allied forces that never came.

The author obviously did a lot of good research on this topic, much of which is based on personal accounts of those soldiers who participated in the operations. He discusses the poor weapons the doughboys were given (American-made Mosin-Nagants), the poor food provided by the British and the sidelining of the American regimental command and control structure. Add to poor morale was the obvious fact that the Bolos were increasing in numbers and despite giving way initially were getting bolder as the winter dragged on.

The style of writing gave me some pause, however. The author tried to grab the reader's attention at the beginning of each chapter by a gratuitous scene of violence and desperation, often by people he had not introduced us to yet. Also, the book opened with a serious mistake on page one of Chapter One, when it described the German's St. Michael Offensive as "advancing eastward." Advancing eastward would have had the Germans moving towards Berlin, not Paris, or in military parlance "retreating."

Illustrated with excellent photos and maps.