Activation of new aaa units - Air Defense Artillery

76
The
Price Of
Power
By HANSON BALDWIN
k sober statement of the price the
United States must pay for its present
position in the world-a tough, sharp
estimate of the capabilities of the
United States and Russia, as they face
each other-a study of the industrial
facilities, the economic mobilization,
the intelligence service which the
United States must have to ensure its
safety In 1948 and the decades to
come.
$3.75
AIRBORNE
WARFARE
By
MAJ. GEN. JAMES M. GAVIN
The organization and equipment,
tactics and strategy of the airborne
armies of the future-landing zones,
perimeters, airheads, problems of
command, defense against airborne
attack, employment of service and
supply elements-all the problems
apt to confront the airborne trooper
or commander of the future, with
suggested solutions.
178 PAGES, MAPS, PHOTOS, INDEX.
$3.00
Order from
Coast Artillery Jourllal
631 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington 4, D. C.
THE COAST ARTILLERY JOllRNAL
The purpose seems to have been to tell
as much about all the events in the Pacific
aerial campaigns as one book could hold.
The author has succeeded in doing this
and if due allowance is made for the scope
and limitations of such an informal, popular,
narrative history, this seems 10 be
better than any yet published in its field.
The Hood of names, dates, places, missions
and statistics will bog down the reader
in spite of the fact thnt the text is seasoned
with interesting tidbits selected with the
expert eye of a capnble newspaper correspondent.
Moreover, it is not a critical
study and the author makes only a passing
reference to criticisms or failures of the
AAF. The photographs used as illustrations
are with few exceptions poorly selected
and might well have been replaced by a
few good maps.-JoHN R. CUNEO.
Dull Excitement
REBEL RAIDER. Edited by Lt. Commander
Harpur Allen Gosnell, USNR.
University of North Carolina Press. 218
Pages; Appendices; Index; $3.75.
On June 30, 1861, a Confederate ship
slipped out of Pass a l'Outre at the mouth
of the Mississippi, past the blockading
Brooklyn of the Yankees, and on to a series
of naval adventures as exciting as any
you'll find in a top-notch fiction story. This
ship was the CSS Sumter commanded by
Captain Raphael Semmes. She was a small,
converted packet capable of carrying only
eight days' fuel, but the havoc she wrought
among Northern shipping made her one
of the most feared of Confederate vessels
and made a Southern hero out of her
skipper.
The material for Rehel Raider was
culled directly from Semmes' Memoirs ot
Service Afloat, and it was regrettable, indeed,
that the narration of this exciting
Civil \Var episode was so inadequately
recounted. Provided with all the ingredients
for an appetizing repast, Semmes succeeded
only in making hash of it. Instead
of brightening up the numerous and exciting
chases, captures and fighting, he lets
the text bog down with monotonous notes
attempting to establish the legality of his
actions under international law.
Thus far, we have held only Semmes
responsible for this unfortunate presentation.
Editor Gosnell tells us in the preface
to Rehel Raider, "The narrative alone is
reprinted here; all of the extraneous material
with which it is so profusely interspersed
and surrounded has been eliminated."
Readers will take exception to
this. Far too much extraneous material is
still left and Gosnell has muffed a beautiful
chance for an outstanding work by not
doing a thorough rewrite of his material.
Students of the Civil \Var might just as
well fortify their libraries with the original
Semmes memoirs. And for entertainment,
I say, "\Vait awhile"; for some enterprising
biographer or historical novelist is sure to
make use of this fine, exciting framework.
-LIEUT. COL. ROBERT F. COCKU:-:.
] ,,/y-A "g"'l
Tough Going
DUNKIRK. By A. D. Devine, DSI\l. E.
P. Dutto:, & Company. 311 Pages; In- I
dex; $4.,0.
\Vithdrawal from the Continent when
the going got too tough was nothing new
for a British Army. For a thousand years ~
the British had been invading Europe ~
from across the English Channel. Alwa)'s
war plans provided, iT) case of necessity,
for an orderly retreat to the sea with evasive
action which would make possible evacuation
of land forces by Britain's sea arm.
Nineteen times during the Napoleonic
wars alone, British forces were withdrawn
without serious losses across the moat to
Britain's island fortress. Dunkirk should
have been one more retreat to the sanctuary
of the sea in this long succession of
Bri{ish Continental wars.
But the plans went wrong. The armies
of Britain's allies crumbled suddenly and
completely before the German onslaught.
British forces were driven rapidly from
the interior and along the coast until there
remained only the open beaches of Dun.
kirk. The town was broken and battered
and the harbor was shattered and useless.
Ten miles of beach were alive with tens
of thousands of British soldiers under fire
from German planes and artillery.
A hastily organized Heet of warships,
merchant vessels and small craft was assembled
to evacuate this trapped British
Expeditionary Force and the French First
Army. For nine days and nights the evacuation
continued. Ships were sunk and
men were drowned but the boats continued
to shuttle back and forth while a
rear guard was fighting a desperate battle
in the streets of Dunkirk against O\'erwhelming
German forces.
Three hundred and thirty-nine thousand
men came safely across the Channel to
England's shores: All the armament of the
Expeditionary Force was lost, but f:~m
Dunkirk there came a resurgence of Bntlsh
national spirit that carried Britain through
months and vears of bitter warfare to
another decisi~'e victory against a Continental
enemv.
The auth~r, one of England's foremost
militarY analvsts and a well known war
corresPonden;, was himself wounded at
Dunkirk and won a DSl\1 for his operation
of a small vessel. His story is d()CUmented
from war office reports ;nd logs of
the vessels engaged in the nine days' operation.-LT.
CoL. PRESLEY \V. i\lELTO:;.
ANZIO BEACHHEAD. American Forces
in Action Series. Historical Division,
Department of the Anny. 122 Pages;
1\laps; Photographs. For sale by the
Superintendent of Documents, Government
Printing Office or the Infantry
Journal Book Service. S 1.50.
In the more than four years that have
passed since that grim a~d bloody and
long darkness that was Anzio Beachhead,
nothing has come to light that makes the
episode more militarily justifiable. Jbe