Warfare and military history Archives - Page 4 of 4

AK-47 – Larry Kahaner

Published on March 24, 2009

Cover of AK-47

AK-47
Larry Kahaner
258 pages including index
published in 2007

The AK-47 is such an iconic weapon that it’s even present on the flag of Mozambique. As a brand, ít’s as global as Coca Cola, as omnipresent as McDonalds. It’s the prefered weapon of every guerilla or freedom fighter everywhere and is therefore almost always used as the weapon of choice for Hollywood bad guys, just like its heroes used the true blue American M-16. More seriously, the AK-47, because it’s so widespread and cheap has influenced the outcome of more wars in the past sixty years than perhaps any other weapon. In America meanwhile it not only became the symbol of the third world terorist, but also the face of domestic crime, as “the gnagbanger with an AK-47” became the symbol of the evil the gun control lobby was fighting against with the assault rifle ban.

Such an iconic weapon deserves a history that does justice to it, something that goes beyond the usual war nerd recitation of design history and battle use, but which also looks at the cultural and political impact of the AK 47. Larry Kahaner has tried to write such a book with AK-47: The Weapon that Changed the Face of War, but isn’t quite up to the task. Judging from the list of titles mentioned on the inside front cover, his true calling lies more in business management books. AK-47 is too slight and too shallow to do justice to this weapon.

Sherman and Firefly – Terry J. Gander

Published on May 3, 2008

Cover of Tanks in Detail - Sherman & Firefly

Tanks in Detail – Sherman & Firefly
Terry J. Gander
96 pages
published in 2003

This is, like the book on the Panzer III an entry in the Tanks in Detail series. This series takes a tank or (part of) a tank family and aims to provide a reasonably indepth look at its development and characteristics, aiming for an audience of World War II enthusiasts and military modelers. They’re sort of inbetween those general overview volumes disposing of all WW2 tanks in less than 200 pages and the really hardcore 500 page tomes that detail each nut and bolt of a particular tank model. There’s only a limited audience for these books, especially books about lesser known tanks, so they tend to be pricey and short, often with a
greater emphasis on pictures than on text. Nevertheless when done well they’re a good introduction to a particular tank or tank model.

Unfortunately, I don’t think these volumes are particularly well done, as I also said in my Panzer III review. Much of the information found here could also be found by a trawl through Wikipedia, let alone some of the more dedicated World War II sites. The pictures on the other hand are copious, but mainly show various Sherman models in action or on display, more as illustration than as an augmentation of the main text, though there are some good interior shots and pictures of the various engines used. Unfortunately however, unlike the Panzer III volume, there are no colour side views to show off the camouflage schemes used on the Sherman, nor are there any technical drawings to scale.

Panzer III – Terry J. Gander

Published on April 20, 2008

Cover of Tanks in Detail - Panzer 3

Tanks in Detail – Panzer III
Terry J. Gander
96 pages
published in 2004

Tanks in Detail is one of those overpriced series of military technology books quarely aimed at those of us with war nerd tendencies: short, packed with photos and drawings and going into slightly obsessive detail on a subject normal people at best find boring, at worst somewhat creepy. Reading books on warfare and military history can be justified because war is an important part of our history and it’s important to understand it, but you can’t justify this sort of book that way. This is for people who like their tanks, people like, well, me. As long as I don’t have to pay full whack for this, that is. At 12 pound 99 this isn’t exactly cheap for such a slender book, but fortunately the local remainder bookstore had these for five euros each. At that price, it was worth it.

Tanks in Detail – Panzer III is a reasonable introduction to the main German tank of the first half of World War 2, but which contains little that couldn’t be found on the internet for free. What makes up for it are the photos and drawings, especially the colour side views at the end of the book showcasing the various camouflage schemes used. There are some good pictures and drawings of the interior of the panzer III as well, showing e.g. the instrument panel and the gun mount. For those interested in such things, like model builders, there are however too few of these drawings to be helpful, nor is it clear which scale is used for the drawings and even dimensions aren’t given. It’s all a bit slapdash, to be honest.

Intelligence in War – John Keegan

Published on January 3, 2008

Cover of Intelligence in War

Intelligence in War
John Keegan
443 pages including index
published in 2003

John Keegan is one of the better known British military historians, having been a lecturer at Sandhurst before becoming defence editor at the Daily Telegraph, as well as writing a slew of books about military history. Keegan seems to write two kinds of books: the first kind follows a war or campaign in some detail, while the second takes a specific aspect of war (or even war as whole) and follows its development through the ages. Intelligence in War is an example of the second kind. As you may guess, he’s somewhat of an establishment historian, accepting and understanding that war is an essential part of human nature, even if an unfortunate part. He’s therefore more interested in writing how wars are fought than how they come to be. Within those limitations he’s an excellent history writer, one of my favourites when it comes to military history.

Intelligence in War, as said, is typical of Keegan’s work. Through the careful selection of several case histories Keegan examines the role intelligence plays in warfare and its limitations and capabilities to influence battles. Keegan distinguishes five separate stages intelligence has to go through to be able to influence a battle: acquisition, delivery, acceptance, interpretation and implementation. Due to difficulties that can arise at each stage, Keegan is skeptical about how influential intelligence is for a given battle. His main thesis is that intelligence can be useful in battle, but is rarely decisive, even in those cases which are supposed to be the examples of intelligence determining the outcome of battles. For Keegan, intelligence is only ever a secondary factor in winning or losing battles, with things like the relative balance of forces and the determination and will of the opposing troops and commanders being much more important.

Russia’s Air Power in Crisis

Published on October 30, 2007

Cover of Russia's Air Power in Crisis

Russia’s Air Power in Crisis
Benjamin S. Lambeth
233 pages including index
published in 1999

The end of the Cold War was strange, because it wasn’t the nuclear holocaust we all imagined it was going to be, the final confrontation between the free west and the communist east. Instead it ended with a whimper, not a bang, as the Soviet empire collapses from the inside. With it crumbled the Russian army, which went from being an unstoppable menace to a laughing stock in the space of less than a year. Budgets were slashed, careful gathered stockpiles of weapons were destroyed or sold, units were brought back from Eastern Europe and when the USSR itself split, suddenly not just the army was split over a dozen different countries, but also its supporting infrastructure of weapon plants, repair depots and design bureaus…

The various new Russian army branches therefore had to meet formidable challenges in the post-Soviet era, perhaps none more so than its airforces. It’s this that’s the subject of Russia’s Air Power in Crisis, which looks at these problems through a somewhat American lens. This is most visible in the constant references the author makes to the role American airpower played during the First Gulf War and the impression this made on the Russians. More subtly, it’s also visible in the assumption of how airpower should be used, in that a proper airforce should be like the USAF and adhere to its philosophy. It speaks for Lambeth that he recognises this tendency in himself, when he discusses what might have been the outcome if the balloon had gone up and the Soviet and NATO airforces had met each other in the skies above Western Europe.