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Naval History Special Editions
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Naval History MAGAZINE
Washington Naval Treaty: A Centennial View • Acts of Valor: VADM James Stockdale, USN
U.S. Naval Institute www.usni.org February 2022
Amphibious Ops, Medieval-Style • Acts of Valor: Nathan Green Gordon, USN
U.S. Naval Institute www.usni.org
DRUMBEAT
Hitler’s U-boat Assault on America’s Coast MIDWAY
Pivot Point of the Pacific War
Target: Balikpapan Nimitz After Hours Shipbuilding Brothers: Unsung Heroes of the War of 1812
June 2022
Coral Sea: The Intel Factor Last Voyage of U-701 Naval Historical Whodunit Solved?
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Experience the drama of the high seas! Enjoy fascinating accounts of the people who shaped our naval heritage. . . and the events that defined the legacies of our great maritime nation.
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May 2022
384 pp. | 6 x 9 Hardcover |
978-1-68247-729-8 $49.95 | Holiday Price: $24.98
The U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps’ Approach to the Airplane, 1907–1917
BY LAURENCE M. BURKE II
“At the Dawn of Airpower provides a much-needed comparative study of the airplane’s early adoption among the military branches, one that illustrates the interdependence between technological change and doctrinal development and offers important lessons on how bureaucracies adopt, adapt to, and promote emerging high technologies.”
—Sean Seyer, assistant professor, University of Kansas, author of Sovereign Skies: The Origins of American Civil Aviation Policy
At the Dawn of Airpower examines the development of aviation in the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps from their first official steps into aviation up to the United States’ declaration of war against Germany in April 1917. Burke explains why each of the services wanted airplanes and shows how they developed their respective air arms and the doctrine that guided them. His narrative follows aviation developments closely, delving deep into the official and personal papers of those involved and teasing out the ideas and intents of the early pioneers who drove military aviation.
LAURENCE BURKE is the aviation curator at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, VA. He has taught history at the United States Naval Academy as a post-doc and then was curator of U.S. Naval Aviation at the National Air and Space Museum for several years before starting the job at Quantico.
April 2022
366 pp. | 6 x 9 Hardcover |
978-1-68247-732-8 $36.95 | Holiday Price: $18.98
Innovating Victory
Naval Technology in Three Wars
BY VINCENT P. O’HARA AND LEONARD R. HEINZ
Innovating Victory: Naval Technology in Three Wars studies how the world’s navies incorporated new technologies into their ships, their practices, and their doctrine. It does this by examining six core technologies fundamental to twentieth-century naval warfare including new platforms (submarines and aircraft), new weapons (torpedoes and mines), and new tools (radar and radio). Each chapter considers the state of a subject technology when it was first used in war and what navies expected of it. It then looks at the way navies discovered and developed the technology’s best use, in many cases overcoming disappointed expectations. It considers how a new technology threatened its opponents, not to mention its users, and how those threats were managed.
VINCENT P. O’HARA is an independent naval historian and the author of thirteen works, including Six Victories, Torch, and Clash of Fleets.
LEONARD R. HEINZ worked for many years as a financial services lawyer while maintaining an active interest in military and naval history. He has written articles and designed wargames on naval topics.
March 2022
352 pp. | 6 x 9 Hardcover |
978-1-68247-436-5 $49.95 | Holiday Price: $24.98
October 2022
224 pp. | 6 x 9 Hardcover |
978-1-68247-770-0 $39.95 | Holiday Price: $19.98
The Birth of Precision Bombing in World War II
BY RAYMOND P. O’MARA
—Norm Augustine, retired CEO of Lockheed Martin
Rise of the War Machines: The Birth of Precision Bombing in World War II examines the rise of autonomy in air warfare from the inception of powered flight through the first phase of the Combined Bomber Offensive in World War II. Raymond P. O’Mara builds a conceptual model of humans, machines, and doctrine that demonstrates a distinctly new way of waging warfare in human-machine teams. Specifically, O’Mara examines how the U.S. Army’s quest to control the complex technological and doctrinal system necessary to execute the strategic bombing mission led to the development off automation in warfare.
RAYMOND P. O’MARA retired from the U.S. Air Force in 2016 as a colonel, having flown the F-15 in operations and operational test assignments. Following his retirement, he worked in commercial aerospace and advanced technology startup companies and is an independent defense and technology consultant.
The Road to Pearl Harbor
Great Power War in Asia and the Pacific
EDITED BY JOHN H. MAURER AND ERIK GOLDSTEIN
“In this impressive, well-documented anthology, Maurer and Goldstein provide insights into the interconnected problems and issues confronting the powers of Asia, Europe, and the United States during the interwar years, and the military and foreign policy dilemmas faced by their leaders. Indispensable to understanding the pathway to Pearl Harbor!”
—J. Michael Wenger, co-author, Pearl Harbor Tactical Studies series
The Road to Pearl Harbor offers a timely examination of the conflict in the Pacific prior to the attacks on Pearl Harbor and offers lessons applicable to understanding contemporary Great Power flash points between Asia and the West. This volume brings together renowned historians and analysts of grand strategy to map out the fateful decisions that culminated in war. The contributors take a pragmatic view of the policy and strategy options, as well as the decisions made by the leaders of the great powers. This important history underscores that the choices made by political, military, and naval leaders mattered in determining questions of war and peace.
JOHN H. MAURER serves as the Alfred Thayer Mahan Professor of Sea Power and Grand Strategy in the Strategy and Policy Department at the Naval War College.
ERIK GOLDSTEIN is professor of International Relations and History at Boston University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
October 2022
352 pp. | 8½ x 10⁷⁄₈ Hardcover
978-1-68247-602-4 $44.95 | Holiday Price: $22.48
ALSO IN THE PEARL HARBOR TACTICAL SERIES:
March 2022
264 pp. | 6 x 9 Hardcover |
978-1-68247-755-7 $44.95 | Holiday Price: $22.48
The History of Wheeler, Bellows, and Haleiwa Fields and the Attacks of 7 December 1941
BY J. MICHAEL WENGER, ROBERT J. CRESSMAN, AND JOHN F. DI VIRGILIO
A Pitiful, Unholy Mess is a detailed combat narrative of the 7 December 1941 Japanese attacks on O‘ahu’s Wheeler, Bellows, and Haleiwa Fields. Since these bases comprised O‘ahu’s fighter defenses, the Japanese needed to neutralize these bases (particularly Wheeler Field) to prevent U.S. aircraft from interfering with attacks on the Pacific Fleet. Although the loss of life at the three fields was less than that sustained by the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, the attacks caused destruction and mayhem that proved disastrous and wrenching.
Military historian J. MICHAEL WENGER has co-written eleven books, and numerous journal articles, newspaper features, and reviews. His main interest is Japanese carrier aviation and doctrine in World War II. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Naval historian Robert J. CRESSMAN lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. His The Official Chronology of the United States Navy in World War II received a John Lyman Book Award (1999) and his body of work on U.S. naval aviation history was recognized by the Admiral Arthur W. Radford Award (2008). He is currently editor of the on-line Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
Military historian JOHN DI VIRGILIO lives in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is the author of two groundbreaking articles related to Pearl Harbor and is recognized for his extensive research on Japanese naval ordnance, and for his illustrated Pearl Harbor battleship damage profiles.
Commanding Petty Despots
The American Navy in the New Republic
BY THOMAS SHEPPARD
“Sheppard’s engaging account analyzes the complex interactions that led to the emergence of the U.S. Navy as an institution. He describes how formative principles like aggressive action, fierce independence, and a firm commitment to the primacy of civilian authority established a foundation that influences the Navy to this day.”
Commanding Petty Despots: The American Navy in the New Republic tells the story of the creation of the American Navy. Rather than focus on the well-known frigate duels and fleet engagements, Thomas Sheppard emphasizes the overlooked story of the institutional formation of the Navy. Sheppard looks at civilian control of the military, and how this concept evolved in the early American republic. For naval officers obsessed with honor and reputation, being willing to put themselves in harm’s way was never a problem, but they were far less enthusiastic about taking orders from a civilian Secretary of the Navy. Accustomed to giving orders and receiving absolute obedience at sea, captains were quick to engage in blatantly insubordinate behavior towards their superiors in Washington.
THOMAS SHEPPARD is an assistant professor of Military History at the Marine Corps University Command and Staff College in Quantico, Virginia. He earned his doctorate in military history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His work has appeared in the Journal of Military History and Strategic Studies Quarterly.
