COAST ARTILLERY, JOURNAL - Air Defense Artillery

BOOK REVIEWS
The Naval History of the World War-The United States in the War 1917-18. By
Thomas G. Frothingham, Captain, U. S. R. Harvard University Press. 1926.
5%/lx 8:14/1. 301 pp. $3.75.
This is the third and final volume of Captain Frothingham's study, compiled
from official sources, and even more readable than the earlier volumes. Indeed
this reviewer-though in no suspense as to the happy ending-found it as stirring
as a good adventure story.
Although there were no major naval engagements, the writer considers the
naval operations during these two years to have been of great, even of paramount,
importance, and it is just here that the reviewer finds provocation to quarrel with
Captain Frothingham, who seems not always in full agreement with himself. For
example:
At this time [the beginning of 1917] the influence of Sea Power had
grown to be unmistakable, and it had become the outstanding factor in the
World War.
It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the end of 1917 the whole war
was being fought on the seas ....
It is a convincing and inspiring picture to look over the vast expanse of
the World War and to realize that in the last stage Sea Power was the im.
pelling force which was bringing final defeat to Germany.
But we must never forget that the final curtain had been rung down by
the decisive victory, on a military field of battle, gained by a military force
[reviewer's italics] which had obtained its military superiority by means
of Sea Power .•
It was the actual physical defeat of the German armies that brought
about disaffection and revolution in Germany.
Captain Frothingham fails to see clearly at all times that the war had to be
fought and won by land forces on the battlefields of Europe, that the operations
of Sea Power in providing for safe transportation to France of troops and supplies,
though essential to allied success, did not decide, but contributed, to the
decision of the issue.
It should be recognized that the decisive factor in the war was the American
Army, drawn into the war by the German government's illusive hope of winning
by its Sea Power (the submarines). No one could indicate this more strikingly
than has Captain Frothingham himself.
It was a strange stroke of fate for the Central Powers that this provocative
means of warfare [unrestricted V-boat warfare] originally conceived in
an unfavorable situation, was eventually to he carried out in a most favorable
situation, when there were other means of victory [plainly a powerful
militarY effort in France following the Italian defeat and Russian collapse]
actually in the grasp of the Central Powers.
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