Download or read book U S Cruisers An Illustrated Design History written by Norman Friedman and published by . This book was released on 2020-10-15 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like other books in Norman Friedman's design-history series, this one pays attention to all designs, even those that never left the drawing board, since every proposal made is a link in the evolution of the cruiser force. Friedman, a recognized authority on U.S. warships, uncovers the reasoning behind the many radical changes in U.S. cruiser design, which culminated in the series of Aegis missile ships. He deals both with evolving technology and with those changes in the doctrine and role of the U.S. Navy that clearly affected cruiser design, Because the nature of the cruiser is somewhat ill defined, his book discusses a wide variety of ships, from the battleship-like armored cruisers of the turn of the century the battle cruisers of 1916 to scout cruisers and the Atlantas, ships that were, in many ways, enlarged destroyers. It covers the emergence of "peace cruisers," which were essentially large gunboats, and the post-1945 command and missile cruisers. The World War II Alaska-class large cruisers are also included. Friedman shows how the path from the first steel cruisers to the ultramodern Ticonderogas defines many of the themes of U.S. naval development: the transition from a coastal defense/commerce raiding navy to a navy designed to seize and exploit command of the world's oceans, and from a navy of independent cruisers on foreign stations to a battle fleet navy and then a carrier navy. Arms control is another important theme of this book. Friedman explains how cruiser design, much more that the design of any other category of ship, has been affected by the constraints of naval arms limitation treaties. He uses the Erie-class gunboat, a "slow cruiser," and the original Cleveland, an abortive design that stayed within the 8,000-ton limit prescribed by the London Treaty of 1936, as examples of attempts to exploit treaty restrictions. Also carefully examined are the many post-World War II cruiser projects, both those that were built, like the nuclear powered Long Beach, and those that were not, like the specialized command ship of 1968. In every case, the author discusses not merely what was tried, but why it succeeded or failed. A.D. Baker III and Alan Raven have drawn detailed scale outboard and plan views of each cruiser class and of major modifications to many classes. The author has provided inboard profiles and sketches of abortive projects. Numerous photographs complement the text. Appendices include ship characteristics and data on ship careers. U.S. Cruisers is essential reading for those concerned with the future of the U.S. Navy. Naval historians and architects alike will find this the most comprehensive reference available on the subject.

Download or read book Anatomy of Failure written by Harlan Ullman and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2017-11-15 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why, since the end of World War II, has the United States either lost every war it started or failed in every military intervention it prosecuted? Harlan Ullman's new book answers this most disturbing question, a question Americans would never think of even asking because this record of failure has been largely hidden in plain sight or forgotten with the passage of time. The most straightforward answer is that presidents and administrations have consistently failed to use sound strategic thinking and lacked sufficient knowledge or understanding of the circumstances prior to deciding whether or not to employ force. Making this case is an in-depth analysis of the records of presidents from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama and Donald Trump in using force or starting wars. His recommended solutions begin with a "brains-based" approach to sound strategic thinking to address one of the major causes of failure ----the inexperience of too many of the nation's commanders-in-chief. Ullman reinforces his argument through the use of autobiographical vignettes that provide a human dimension and insight into the reasons for failure, in some cases making public previously unknown history. The clarion call of Anatomy of Failure is that both a sound strategic framework and sufficient knowledge and understanding of the circumstance that may lead to using force are vital. Without them, failure is virtually guaranteed.

Download or read book Warship Builders written by Thomas Heinrich and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2020-11-15 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Warship Builders is the first scholarly study of the U.S. naval shipbuilding industry from the early 1920s to the end of World War II, when American shipyards produced the world's largest fleet that helped defeat the Axis powers in all corners of the globe. A colossal endeavor that absorbed billions and employed virtual armies of skilled workers, naval construction mobilized the nation's leading industrial enterprises in the shipbuilding, engineering, and steel industries to deliver warships whose technical complexity dwarfed that of any other weapons platform. Based on systematic comparisons with British, Japanese, and German naval construction, Thomas Heinrich pinpoints the distinct features of American shipbuilding methods, technology development, and management practices that enabled U.S. yards to vastly outproduce their foreign counterparts. Throughout the book, comparative analyses reveal differences and similarities in American, British, Japanese, and German naval construction. Heinrich shows that U.S. and German shipyards introduced electric arc welding and prefabrication methods to a far greater extent than their British and Japanese counterparts between the wars, laying the groundwork for their impressive production records in World War II. While the American and Japanese navies relied heavily on government-owned navy yards, the British and German navies had most of their combatants built in corporately-owned yards, contradicting the widespread notion that only U.S. industrial mobilization depended on private enterprise. Lastly, the U.S. government's investments into shipbuilding facilities in both private and government-owned shipyards dwarfed the sums British, Japanese, and German counterparts expended. This enabled American builders to deliver a vast fleet that played a pivotal role in global naval combat.

Download or read book The Admirals Advantage written by Christopher Ford and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2014-04-15 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This analytic and historical study provides a revealing look at naval operational intelligence by embracing the fundamental question of what OPINTEL is and how it answers the fundamental question "Where is the enemy, in what strength, and disposition, and what is he doing right now?" It is primarily the result of an Operational Intelligence Lessons-Learned Symposium held at the National Maritime Intelligence Training Center in Dam Neck, Virginia, 12-13 September 1998. The participants included senior intelligence professionals whose mandate was to explore the ramifications of the evolution of naval operational intelligence since World War II. Current practices were also explored with inputs from current practitioners as represented by various fleet and shore commands. Additional sources for the study were oral interviews and correspondence with senior members of the intelligence community. The authors have scrupulously taken the work as close to the edge of security classification as is possible to enhance its value without being damaging to national security.

Download or read book U S Battleships written by Norman Friedman and published by US Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2016-03-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book covers the development of U.S. battleships, from the Maine and Texas of 1886, through the Montana class of World War II, up to the recommissioned Iowas. It examines the original designs as well as the many modifications and reconstructions these ships underwent during their long and active careers. Like the other books in Norman Friedmans design-history series, U.S. Battleships is based largely on formerly classified internal U.S. Navy records. But research for this book has also included a full survey of British files, both those compiled when American ships served with the Royal Navy in the two world wars and those supplied by British battleship designers attached to the U.S. Navy. In addition, the author consulted official battle damage reports to help evaluate various designs.

Download or read book Decision at Sea written by Craig L. Symonds and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006-10-23 with total page 585 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From thunderous broadsides traded between wooden sailing ships on Lake Erie, to the carrier battles of World War II, to the devastating high-tech action in the Persian Gulf, here is a gripping history of five key battles that defined the evolution of naval warfare--and the course of the American nation. Acclaimed military historian Craig Symonds offers spellbinding narratives of crucial engagements, showing how each battle reveals the transformation of technology and weaponry from one war to the next; how these in turn transformed naval combat; and how each event marked a milestone in American history. - Oliver Hazard Perry's heroic victory at Lake Erie, one of the last great battles of the Age of Sail, which secured the Northwestern frontier for the United States - The brutal Civil War duel between the ironclads Monitor and Virginia, which sounded the death knell for wooden-hulled warships and doomed the Confederacy's hope of besting the Union navy - Commodore Dewey's stunning triumph at Manila Bay in 1898, where the U.S. displayed its "new navy" of steel-hulled ships firing explosive shells and wrested an empire from a fading European power - The hairsbreadth American victory at Midway, where aircraft carriers launched planes against enemies 200 miles away--and where the tide of World War II turned in the space of a few furious minutes - Operation Praying Mantis in the Persian Gulf, where computers, ship-fired missiles, and "smart bombs" not only changed the nature of warfare at sea, but also marked a new era, and a new responsibility, for the United States. Symonds records these encounters in detail so vivid that readers can hear the wind in the rigging and feel the pounding of the guns. Yet he places every battle in a wide perspective, revealing their significance to America's development as it grew from a new Republic on the edge of a threatening frontier to a global superpower. Decision at Sea is a powerful and illuminating look at pivotal moments in the history of the Navy and of the United States. It is also a compelling study of the unchanging demands of leadership at sea, where commanders must make rapid decisions in the heat of battle with lives--and the fate of nations--hanging in the balance.

Download or read book Dorwart s History of the Office of Naval Intelligence 1865 1945 written by Jeffery Dorwart and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 539 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the history of the founding in 1882 and operation through two world wars of America's first permanent intelligence agency, the Office of Naval Intelligence. In this study Dr. Jeffery M. Dorwart shows how and why a tiny late 19th century U.S. Navy bureau created to collect information about foreign warship design became during two world wars a complex and sometimes troubled domestic and worldwide intelligence agency. More significantly, this history of O.N.I. demonstrates how the founders and first generations of U.S. naval officers trained to man warships at sea confronted what seemed an inherent dilemma in new missions that interfered with providing technical and operational information to their navy. Dorwart explains the forces that created this dilemma and how ONI officers responded in different ways to their intelligence mission. This history recounts how from the very beginning ONI duty during the last decades of the 19th century seemed conflicting. Some found the new assignment very rewarding in collecting and collating data for the U.S. to build a "New Navy" of steel and steam-powered warships armed with the latest rifled ordnance. But other naval officers saw assignment to this tiny office as a monotonous dead-end assignment endangering their careers as shipboard operators. Dorwart shows how the first and second world wars and interwar period dramatically accelerated the naval intelligence office's dilemma. The threats in both oceans from powerful enemy navies equipped with the latest technology and weaponry gave an urgency to the collection of information on the strategies, warships, submarines, and aircraft development of potential and actual naval enemies. But at the same time ONI was asked to provide information of possible domestic threats from suspected enemy spies, terrorists, saboteurs or anti-war opponents. This led ONI officers to wiretap, break and enter, pursue surveillance of all types of people from foreign agents to Americans suspected of opposition to strengthening the U.S. Navy or becoming involved in world wars. This history explains that many ONI directors and officers were highly motivated to collect as much information as possible about the naval-military capabilities and strategies of Germany, Italy, Japan, and even allies. ONI officers understood that code-breaking was part of their job as well. But this all led some to become deeply involved in domestic spying, wiretapping, breaking and entering on private property. These extralegal and at times illegal operations, Dorwart argues, confused some ONI officers, leading to too much information that clouded vital intelligence such as Japanese plans to attack American naval bases. In the end, this study demonstrates the dilemma confronted between 1882 and 1945 by dedicated U.S. naval officers attached to or collecting information worldwide for the Office of Naval Intelligence.

Download or read book Agents of Innovation written by John Trost Kuehn and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2008-11-01 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agents of Innovation examines the influence of the General Board of the Navy as agents of innovation during the period between World Wars I and II. The General Board, a formal body established by the Secretary of the Navy to advise him on both strategic matters with respect to the fleet, served as the organizational nexus for the interaction between fleet design and the naval limitations imposed on the Navy by treaty during the period. Particularly important was the General Board’s role in implementing the Washington Naval Treaty that limited naval armaments after 1922. The General Board orchestrated the efforts by the principal Naval Bureaus, the Naval War College, and the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in ensuring that the designs adopted for the warships built and modified during the period of the Washington and London Naval Treaties both met treaty requirements while attempting to meet strategic needs. The leadership of the Navy at large, and the General Board in particular, felt themselves especially constrained by Article XIX (the fortification clause) of the Washington Naval Treaty that implemented a status quo on naval fortifications in the Western Pacific. The treaty system led the Navy to design a measurably different fleet than it might otherwise have in the absence of naval limitations. Despite these limitations, the fleet that fought the Japanese to a standstill in 1942 was predominately composed of ships and concepts developed and fostered by the General Board prior to the outbreak of war.

Download or read book A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy written by Paul Dull and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2012-12-12 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For almost 20 years, more than 200 reels of microfilmed Japanese naval records remained in the custody of the U.S. Naval History Division, virtually untouched. This unique book draws on those sources and others to tell the story of the Pacific War from the viewpoint of the Japanese. Former Marine Corps officer and Asian scholar Paul Dull focuses on the major surface engagements of the war—Coral Sea, Midway, the crucial Solomons campaign, and the last-ditch battles in the Marianas and Philippines. Also included are detailed track charts and a selection of Japanese photographs of major vessels and actions.

Download or read book The Port Chicago Mutiny written by Robert L. Allen and published by Heyday Books. This book was released on 2006 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During World War II, Port Chicago was a segregated naval munitions base on the outer shores of San Francisco Bay. Black seamen were required to load ammunition onto ships bound for the South Pacific under the watch of their white officers--an incredibly dangerous and physically challenging task. On July 17, 1944, an explosion rocked the base, killing 320 men--202 of whom were black ammunition loaders. In the ensuing weeks, white officers were given leave time and commended for heroic efforts, whereas 328 of the surviving black enlistees were sent to load ammunition on another ship. When they refused, fifty men were singled out and charged--and convicted--of mutiny. It was the largest mutiny trial in U.S. naval history. First published in 1989, The Port Chicago Mutiny is a thorough and riveting work of civil rights literature, and with a new preface and epilogue by the author emphasize the event's relevance today.

Download or read book Theodore Roosevelt s Naval Diplomacy written by Jerry Hendrix and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2014-07-15 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines President Theodore Roosevelt’s use of the United States naval services as supporting components of his diplomatic efforts to facilitate the emergence of the United States as a Great Power at the dawn of the 20th century. After reviewing the development of Roosevelt’s personal philosophy with regard to naval power, the book traverses four chapters that reveal Roosevelt’s use of the Navy and Marine Corps to support American interests during the historically controversial Venezuelan Crisis (1902-03), Panama’s independence movement (1903), the Morocco-Perciaris Incident (1904) and the choice of a navy yard as the sight for the negotiations that ended the Russo-Japanese War. The voyage of the Great White Fleet and Roosevelt’s actions to technologically transform the American Navy are also covered. In the end the book details how Roosevelt’s actions combined to thrust the United States forward onto the world’s stage as a major player, and cemented T.R’s place in American history as a great president despite the fact that he did not serve during a time of war or major domestic disturbance. This history provides new information that finally lays to rest the controversy of whether Theodore Roosevelt did or did not issue an ultimatum to the German and British governments in December, 1902, bringing the United States to the brink of war with two of the world’s great powers. It also reveals a secret war plan developed during Panama’s independence movement which envisioned the United States Marine Corps invading Colombia to defend the sovereignty of the new Panamanian republic.

Download or read book Incidents at Sea written by David F Winkler and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2017-12-15 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on extensive State Department files, declassified Navy policy papers, interviews with both former top officials and individuals who were involved in incidents, David F. Winkler examines the evolution of the U.S.-Soviet naval relationship during the Cold War, focusing in particular on the 1972 Incidents at Sea Agreement (INCSEA). In this volume, an updated edition of his classic Cold War at Sea, Winkler brings the story up to the present, detailing occasional U.S.-Russia naval force interactions, including the April 2016 Russian aircraft “buzzings” of the USS Donald Cook in the Baltic. He also details China’s efforts to militarize the South China Sea, claim sovereignty over waters within their exclusive economic zone, and the U.S. Navy’s continuing efforts to counter these challenges to freedom of navigation.

Download or read book Circle of Treason written by Sandra V Grimes and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2013-11-15 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While there have been other books about Aldrich Ames, Circle of Treason is the first account written by CIA agents who were key members of the CIA team that conducted the intense “Ames Mole Hunt.” Sandra Grimes and Jeanne Vertefeuille were two of the five principals of the CIA team tasked with hunting one of their own and were directly responsible for identifying Ames as the mole, leading to his arrest and conviction. One of the most destructive traitors in American history, CIA officer Aldrich Ames provided information to the Soviet Union that contributed to the deaths of at least ten Soviet intelligence officers who spied for the United States. In this book, the two CIA officers directly responsible for tracking down Ames chronicle their involvement in the hunt for a mole. Considering it their personal mission, Grimes and Vertefeuille dedicated themselves to identifying the traitor responsible for the execution or imprisonment of the Soviet agents with whom they worked. Their efforts eventually led them to a long-time acquaintance and coworker in the CIA’s Soviet-East European division and Counterintelligence Center, Aldrich Ames. Not only is this the first book to be written by the CIA principals involved, but it is also the first to provide details of the operational contact with the agents Ames betrayed. The book covers the political aftermath of Ames’s arrest, including the Congressional wrath for not identifying him sooner, the FBI/CIA debriefings following Ames’s plea bargain, and a retrospective of Ames the person and Ames the spy. It is also the compelling story of two female agents, who overcame gender barriers and succeeded in bringing Ames to justice in a historically male-oriented organization. Now retired from the CIA, Grimes and Vertefeuille are finally able to tell this inside story of the CIA’s most notorious traitor and the men he betrayed.

Download or read book Sailing at the U S Naval Academy written by Robert W. McNitt and published by US Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This heavily illustrated book chronicles sailing's unique heritage at the Naval Academy from 1845 onward. It begins in the days of fighting sail, when the reputation of a naval officer depended principally on his ability to handle a square-rigged ship and when sailing was the central activity of the school. Sailing offers vivid descriptions of training aboard the grand old practice ships - Constitution, Constellation, and Macedonian - under master mariners like Stephen B. Luce, then moves to the 1930s, when some energetic midshipmen revived the sailing program by entering intercollegiate competition and offshore racing. By 1995 the program was the most popular midshipman activity; academy sailors won the Dinghy National Championship four times in five years and the top prize in the Newport-to-Bermuda Race - after fifty-four years of trying! Written by a well-known sailor and longtime ocean-racing coach at the Academy, the book is filled with dramatic stories of great races and adventurous cruising. And it records the history of the famous Luders yawls Fearless, Dandy, and Flirt, and the donated boats Vamarie, Highland Light, and Royono, among others, plus sixty years of intercollegiate small-boat racing. It also documents the academy's development of the Quick Stop man-overboard rescue maneuver and its Safety at Sea seminar program, both of which have been adopted nationwide. Admiral McNitt credits the contributions and support of the Fales Committee, the Naval Academy Sailing Squadron, and other civilian groups who have provided invaluable support over many years. Appendixes list Dinghy National Championship winners, midshipman All-American sailors, the performance of academy boats inthe Bermuda race, and members of the Fales Committee.

Download or read book The Bluejackets Manual written by and published by . This book was released on 1943 with total page 1232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Female Tars written by Suzanne J. Stark and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2017-09-01 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The wives and female guests of commissioned officers often went to sea in the sailing ships of Britain’s Royal Navy in the 18th and 19th centuries, but there were other women on board as well, rarely mentioned in print. Suzanne Stark thoroughly investigates the custom of allowing prostitutes to live with the crews of warships in port. She provides some judicious answers to questions about what led so many women to such an appalling fate and why the Royal Navy unofficially condoned the practice. She also offers some revealing firsthand accounts of the wives of warrant officers and seamen who spent years at sea living—and fighting—beside their men without pay or even food rations, and of the women in male disguise who served as seamen or marines. This lively history draws on primary sources and so gives an authentic view of life on board the ships of Britain’s old sailing navy and the social context of the period that served to limit roles open to lower-class women.

Download or read book The Herndon Climb written by James McNeal and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Herndon Climb is an important and meaningful ritual in Naval Academy culture. Scaling the heavily greased, 21-foot tall Herndon Monument as a group at the very end of the year for "plebes," or freshmen, the Climb marks a major turning point in the lives of all Midshipmen, who are relieved of their low status at the moment they complete the task. The book is culled from interviews with more than fifty subjects, including participants in Climbs over the past six decades, with personal observations from the 2019 and 2018 events. Co-author James McNeal recalls the joyful pride of participating in the Climb as a plebe in 1983, and his experience helps bring vivid detail to the memories and reflections of his fellow Midshipmen. The book also includes a discussion of the career of William Lewis Herndon, whose heroic sacrifice at sea inspired the monument, and also traces the history and development of the modern Climb to its roots in the earliest plebe celebrations.