Thread of the Silkworm (Five Stars)

Dr. Tsien Hsue-shen was a gifted academic, a man who rapidly reached the pinnacle of Chinese science in the early 20th Century and then went to America to continue his education. Originally trained as a steam-power engineer, Tsien rapidly showed himself to be a genius when it came to airflow physics, which in turn had ramifications in aviation and the United States' efforts in rocketry, which were paltry. He helped design American rockets BEFORE examples of the German V2 were available for study. Ms. Chang paints a portrait of a man driven by his love of science and his single-minded study of problems. Unfortunately, he ultimately chose to go to Communist China (as opposed to Nationalist China) and to give the benefit of his wisdom to a regime which would design missiles capable of reaching the United States with nuclear warheads, not to mention other weapons used against America and its allies. Well-written and illustrated with photos.

Defense of Japan 1945 (Five Stars)

By the second half of 1945 Japan was all but defeated. All that was left was a final invasion of the Home Islands by the Allied armada that was being organized offshore. The militarists who had dragged Japan into war now planned a final battle for the homeland.

In this book the coastal, antiaircraft, naval and ground defenses of Japan itself are discussed and illustrated, everything from the conventional coast artillery fortresses to the rocket-launched jet kamikazes. As usual with Osprey, the book includes excellent photos, original artwork, maps and tables which explains the evolution of Japan's home island defense plan. While hardly an in-depth book, it does serve to provide an understanding of both the fixed-defenses and the mobile defenses available to the Japanese army and navy. A neat little book on this topic!

The Battle's in the Sky (three stars)

This book primarily looks at the war experiences of Sergeant Douglas Temperly, REME. Sergeant Temperly was assigned to a Light Anti-Aircraft (LAA) battery where his skills as a member of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers were sorely needed in keeping the Bofors 40mm guns in good functioning order (not to mention the battery's associated vehicles). John Kruse has done a good job with the documentation he has on Temperly himself as well as unit records and other primary sources to give us an idea of the conditions and circumstances under which the Sergeant worked in wartime. While not perhaps as glamorous as being assigned to gun duties with the Bofors and blazing away at the Luftwaffe, Temperly's role (and the many thousands of men like him) as a technician was critical to keeping those guns firing. His trials and tribulations are certainly worth noting and give us a human perspective to the struggle against Germany.

That was the "upside." The downside is that the self-publishing house did no favors to the author by allowing it to go out with the layout that it did. The book has a Table of Contents that is superfluous as the page numbers it uses do not appear on the individual pages. "Extra" material at the end of each chapter is centered between the top and bottom margins of the last page of the chapter. Topic headers are often found at the bottom of the page, with the first paragraph of the material appearing on the next page. It could be that the layout is more Kindle-friendly, but I have a copy of the printed book. There are some good contemporary photos, but several are clumped together in Appendix 2 instead of with the text.

I liked the story. I wasn't so crazy about the way the book was laid out to tell it.

Tsushima 1905: Death of a Russian Fleet (Five Stars)

The Russo-Japanese War was just one of many disasters that would overtake Russia after 1900. The Battle of Tsushima saw the destruction of some of the best ships in the Russian fleet at the hands of the Japanese, a new up-and-coming naval power in Asia. Mark Lardas does an excellent job of discussing the evolution of the confrontation, from Russia's aggressiveness in northeast Asia to Japan's decision to launch a "first strike" against the Russian Pacific Squadron at Port Arthur. He also hits important points regarding both the decrepitude that the Russian fleet sent all the way from the Baltic was suffering from and the refurbishment that the Japanese ships enjoyed at port facilities during that lengthy trip.

As always, this Osprey book has excellent maps, original artwork and contemporary illustrations as well as a narrative that does justice to this topic. It even gives information about two of the surviving ships which remain as museums: the HIJMS Mikasa (at Yokosuka) and Avrora (St. Petersburg). Mikasa is both an eye-opener as an example of a pre-dreadnought warship and as a museum about the Russo-Japanese War.

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.

Red Star Over The Pacific: China's Rise and Challenge to U.S. Maritime Strategy (Five Stars)

In the past, China's military technology was not a real threat to U.S. or Soviet interests. As recently as the 1980s the People's Liberation Army was largely an infantry force,  backed by towed artillery and using MiG-15 fighters for air cover. While it possessed nuclear weapons it maintained a modest number of missiles. Its navy was primarily concerned with shore security.

Not anymore.

The People's Liberation Army Navy today is rapidly becoming a force to be reckoned with. It is equipped with warships bristling with anti-ship missiles and new attack submarines that are hard to detect. The PLAN is also looking at how to break out of the US-lead "containment" created by the First and Second Island Chains which it sees surrounding it.

The authors do an excellent job of studying the published works of many of China's strategic thinkers and naval theorists. The development of Chinese capabilities has coincided with new ways of looking at how to use the sea weapons they now possess and how to apply historical lessons to China's strategic situation. China has not had an ocean-going fleet for centuries, and certainly not in one in the era of screw propulsion, big guns and missiles. The authors draw parallels between China's efforts to challenge the United States in the Pacific to Imperial Germany's attempt to challenge Great Britain's mastery of the Atlantic. While there are some parallels (China, like Germany, is building a fleet with technology which renders older vessels obsolete) there are differences too, that the United States ignores at its peril.

While no means an "easy read" this book is undoubtedly important for understanding where the strategic balance lays today in the Pacific. The only fault I find in it is a lack of maps and perhaps some graphics comparing Chinese and U.S.-Allied ship capabilities.

The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China (Four Stars)

I prefer to have a complete history written by the same person. Rather, this one is broken down by periods and then each period is covered by a different person (or persons). This leads to different weight being given to the different periods, based upon (I'm assuming) the emphasis given by the different historians writing this.

The first couple of chapters suffered from typos... not enough to seriously distract from the text but surprising in a book from Oxford. Also, the book fails to address in the later chapters the role of the PLA in China's "economic miracle" and it's relationship to both the military complex and the economy as a whole. Indeed, even FINDING the PLA listed in the index is a chore. You wind up going to Military Forces: Communist: People's Liberation Army (PLA). Even then, it does not break it down further despite the PLA's role in the Cultural Revolution and other aspects of Communist China.

Nor does it seem interested in discussing China's expansionism: the One-Belt, One-Road (OBOR) has seen the Chinese construction of overseas facilities (most notably in Djibouti) and other projects financed through international agreements which put the smaller signatories at a disadvantage. While this does make for both easier access to raw materials for China and better access for its goods to Europe and Central Asia, it also provides possible basing for China's increasing military power projection. The book barely mentions the Spratleys and does not discuss China's claims in the South China Sea, it's construction of "new" territory to enforce those claims or its disregard for international law in this area. Indeed, "Spratleys" isn't even listed in the index.

I did learn what I wanted about the post-Cultural revolution China and also revisited the period from 1900 to the 1960s. Unfortunately, it was rather redundant in places and the emphasis on civil rights in one chapter and economics in another tiresome. The volume is well-illustrated with photographs and maps. I believe that it could have been a better book, however.