Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/July 2021/Book reviews


 * By Peacemaker67

This is a highly detailed (over 400 pages) and readable book about a subject that has not received a thorough examination in the past. I bought it primarily because it covers the operations of the torpedo boats that ended up in Yugoslav hands after World War I, several of which I have brought to FAC. The Adriatic was largely isolated from the wider World War I naval warfare in the North Sea, Atlantic and Mediterranean by the Allied blockade of the Straits of Otranto between Otranto in Italy and Valona (modern day Vlorë) in Albania. The fighting was dominated by Austro-Hungarian bombardments of the Italian coast and concerted attacks on the Otranto Barrage, along with numerous clashes between smaller ships. Italian, French and British ships operated in the Adriatic, but generally battleships on both sides remained in port and cruisers of various types led the larger actions. There was also significant submarine activity by all sides, including German submarines operating from Austro-Hungarian ports.

While the information in the book is excellent and a welcome addition to knowledge on this fairly obscure aspect of World War I, it contains many previously unpublished photographs, and the bibliography shows the extensive research that Freivogel has conducted, it has two significant flaws. The first is that the author, the previously published naval historian Zvonimir Freivogel is a Croatian Yugoslav by birth who lives in Germany and the publishing house is Croatian, and the book has obviously not been copy edited by someone with a knowledge of naval history whose first language is English. The result of this is a lot of poor grammar throughout. There are a few minor factual errors and typos, but not enough to significantly mar the book, and they would have been picked up by a thorough copy edit. The second is a flaw that is unforgivable in a history reference book, and that is the lack of an index. The bolding of all ship names in the text is a very poor substitute for this omission. Sadly, the two major flaws detract from a book which would be a solid four and a half stars with a solid copy edit and an index. I hope future editions will incorporate these improvements.

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 * By Nick-D

Australia's First Campaign covers the operations undertaken by the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (ANMEF) during the first months of World War I to capture German New Guinea. It is one of the most recent works in the rather handy Australian Army Campaigns Series, and was written by the experienced historian Robert Stevenson.

This book may be the last word on the military operations in New Guinea during World War I. The campaigning in the region pitted a hastily organised ad-hoc brigade and a powerful Royal Australian Navy taskforce organised around a battlecruiser and two cruisers against about a thousand German police reservists, most of whom were locally recruited Melanesians who had received little training. The fighting was limited to small skirmishes during the Battle of Bita Paka on 11 September 1914. Stevenson devotes 201 pages to these modest operations, and covers them in a considerable detail as a result. The book covers both Australian and German perspectives on the campaign, and includes very useful analysis. As is standard for this series, the book is very well illustrated with photographs and colour maps and its price ($A20) is a bargain.

There are some areas for improvement. I would have liked to see more about the New Guineans' experiences of the campaign, but this may not have been possible given that Stevenson notes that both the Germans and Australians took little trouble to record them at the time (with the Australians not even bothering to provide much details on the casualties suffered by the New Guineans serving with the Germans). The book could have also been usefully extended by an extra chapter to properly cover the Australian occupation of German New Guinea, but I guess it was judged to be out of the scope of a work focused on military operations.

It's hard to see a better book ever being published on this topic, and I'd strongly recommend it.

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