Aviator F-series App

[Marsilius Boa]

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Three years before, he had been a colonel and senior instructor with the 33rd Illinois National Guard Division. He received his first star on 1 October 1936, almost 35 years after being commissioned a second lieutenant on 13 January 1902.

From this sea of biographical information, the author has distilled the influences, the characteristics, the experiences, and the circumstances which contributed to the education of the great soldier-statesman during the period 1880-1939.

He depicts George Marshall, as a norma* boy whose scholastic record prior to entering Virginia Military Institute was poor. Perhaps the spark which lighted the fuse to the ambi' tion which was to take this Uniontown, Pennsylvania, youth to such heights is to be found in his own words. Speaking of his older brother, Stuart, with whom he was never close, General Marshall, 60 years later, re' called with noticeable emotion the following'

Regular and Associate Members may save by j dering books of other publishers through the Nav^ Institute. A discount of 10 per cent is allowed on st> books (except on foreign and government pubn tions, and on books on which publishers do not S'vC^e discount). Allow reasonable time for orders to ^ cleared and books to be delivered directly to yoU g publishers. Address the Book Department, V. Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland.

to nineteenth in a class of 47. He demon- crated a bent for leadership and discipline and was chosen as first captain, which put 0tl him, a Yankee, the stamp of highest approval of the Virginia Military Institute.

At Fort Benning, as assistant commandant of the Infantry School, he inveighed against the complicated, stereotyped concepts and emphasized the simple solution. He encouraged improvisation and discouraged too great a dependence on the classical elements of decision such as contour maps which might not be available in battle. He was an advocate of open warfare and warfare of movement, thinking the American temperament better suited to such than to trench warfare. He was an early advocate of air and ground forces teamwork. He encouraged new thinking and tolerance of ideas which might produce constructive discussion. He had a great aversion to paperwork and ever sought to reduce or simplify it. He enjoyed teaching and was good at it.

He certainly had confidence in himself; he also had great self discipline and a compulsion to excel. Much of his duty having been with citizen soldiers, he understood the civilian point of view better than most of his military contemporaries. These duties had also added influential friends to his long list of highly placed Army friends, first among whom was always General Pershing.

The author is uniquely qualified for this work. Following World War II service with the Coast Guard, where he served at sea, he turned to the study of history and earned his doctorate from the Claremont Graduate School. Here he trained in the seminars of that fine maritime historian, John Haskell Kemble. Professor Johnson now teaches history at the University of Alabama. In brief, he has the credentials to write serious naval history.

Chronologically, the book moves along at clipper-ship pace from the September morning in 1818 when Captain John Downes in the Macedonian stood out of Boston for the Brazilian coast and thence round Cape Horn. The final paragraphs deal with the creation of the combined U. S. Fleet in December 1922, and the basing of its Battle Fleet on the Pacific Coast. The Pacific Station was then shut down; Vice Admiral Eberle, with his new oil-burning dreadnoughts, now guarded the whole Pacific against intrusion.

Ships, commodores, and diplomats scud across the pages as the history of the Pacific Station unfolds; there is, however, no confu" sion. An opening chapter examines the geI1' eral problems that most commodores faced when commanding in the Pacific: communications, supplies, repairs, desertions, and the constant threat that decisions made without adequate advice would be judged in a get1'

Written in the first person, the authorship of this book is hidden under the unlikely pseudonym of Aleksandr I. Zhdanov, who skippers two Soviet submarines, the IT-7 cruising in the Mediterranean and the F-689 along the U. S. coast. Zhdanov spies on U. S. men-of- war with impunity, plants underwater navi-

Reviewed by Harold Andrews (This is tm second of a two-part review of 13 books by Mr- Andrews. The first part was published in the February 1964 Proceedings. Author, publication data, and price of each volume are listed in the first part oj the review.)

Much of the current interest in historical aviation and aircraft is directed toward the World War I period. The United States, as 3 latecomer in the war, did not contribute many combat aircraft to the growing wartime aviation effort. U. S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps pilots flew a limited variety of Allied aircraft in combat. Therefore, the books dlS' cussed in the first part of this review, covering U. S. military aircraft, only touch briefly 0,1 the aircraft of World War I.

While many publications dealing wit World War I aviation appeared in the pre' World War II period, there were almost no at' tempts to compile a definitive account 0 World War I aircraft developments. P1)^' fished material on World War I aircraft m

Creased after World War II, and in recent Years the void has been largely filled. This has ^een due primarily to the products of the two British publishers, Harleyford and Putnam. *he latest products of these publishers reflect difference in approach that has characterized their efforts.

Additional types of aircraft rate a half page, rising text ancj photos, while a good many j;hers are depicted in several pages of photos .1 Prototypes and little-used models. An open- lng section on operational use of reconnais- SaOce and bomber aircraft in the war provides ati excellent introduction. Details, in text and 1 tiotos, of guns, bombs, and equipment make bP another section. This is followed by a sec- n on external colors and markings. Data ajles and an index of types finish up this tractive volume.

three-view drawings, and data tables accompany the narrative. Squadron usage and serial numbers are included in many cases. While the small three-views are all to a uniform standard in appearance, a few of them show some surprising errors when checked against a wide range of photos of the aircraft in question.

The third book in this World War I group, The German Giants, another Putnam book, switches from the broad view to a remarkably detailed look at what were in many ways the most remarkable aircraft of the War. The fact that the largest airplanes ever used by the Germans to bomb England were products of the 1914-1918 War is not generally realized.

The authors have divided the book into two parts: the first covers R-plane operations; the second describes the different models that were built or were under construction or that had been projected at the end of the war.

The seaplane and flying boat R-planes sponsored by the German Navy are also described. The latter were all Dornier products, and evolved into a final all-metal monoplane prototype. Service evaluation was underway at the end of the War.

MacDonald and Company of London. They are published in this country by Doubledayj and, in contrast to most of those previously discussed, are widely available without special ordering. Each of these current books falls >n one of three series which MacDonald/ Doubleday offers: famous fighters/bombers of the Second World War, the MacDonald

Famous Fighters of the Second World WcU Volume 2 is the fourth in a series covering die more significant and widely used World Wa^ II combat aircraft types. Two volumes 0 bombers and the first fighter volume preceded it. All are similar in layout and content and are of a standard size, 7X10 inches.

Well-known British aviation writer an aircraft historian William Green has packe his usual quota of detailed information inltj the story of each airplane. Emphasis is place on details of each variant that existed in die

aircraft either as a prototype, production ttiodel, or modified version for special tests. Photographs are plentiful, a three-view tone drawing depicts one model of each design fnd small side-view line drawings further filustrate most of the principal versions. A data table for one version is included, though figUres for most are scattered through the text. No other publication presents anywhere near the total content of information for all 12 of these famous fighters.

greatest criticism in the six volumes so far available. Preceded by four volumes of fighters, Flying Boats (Volume 5) and Floatplanes (Volume 6) are the latest to be published. The content of these volumes is a distilled version of that in the famous fighters/ bombers series; both series are authored by William Green. As in the other MacDonald

books, photographs are plentiful throughout these volumes. At least one three-view line drawing (of varying accuracy) illustrates each basic design, with additional side views for significant versions, and a data table covers one version.

From the variety to be found in this collection of aircraft books, it is evident that selection for any bookshelf depends on intended use. As a general reference on American combat aircraft, American Combat Planes is without question the first choice. For those interested in only the three principal World War 11 U. S. Navy fighters, Famous Fighters of tht Second World War, Volume 2 will give the most thorough coverage. And for those with a general interest in all U. S. Navy fighters, U. S. Navy and Marine Corps Fighters 1918-1962 would be a better choice with its three-views and greater coverage.

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