Customer Reviews

Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Robert K. Massie has produced another masterpiece of narrative history, comprehensive without being dry and fascinating in every detail. In Castles of Steel he takes up the story he started with his 1991 bestseller Dreadnought: the struggle between Britain and Germany for sea mastery during the Great War.

The book begins with the final days of peace in July 1914, when Europe realized that the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand was about to trigger a major war. Massie describes the calculations of the British and German leadership as they moved toward conflict. One of Massie's greatest skills as a writer is his ability to create short but thorough biographical sketches, seen here most vividly in his treatments of Jellicoe and Beatty, the men who were to lead the British Grand Fleet. Massie also has an eye for odd humorous moments, as in his amusing description of the trick a German ship played on an unsuspecting French colony soon after war was declared.

After the war actually begins Massie focusses on the manuevers of the British and German fleets as they prepare for action. Another narrative track traces the steps of the politicians like Winston Churchill and Prince Louis of Battenberg who are setting war policy. Massie's main focus is on the British, and he thoroughly analyzes successes like the Battle of Dogger Bank and disasters like the Gallipoli landings. The climax of the book is the Battle of Jutland in 1916, which was the only major clash between the two navies. Massie also documents the submarine war and details how it eventually brought the United States into the conflict. The last few pages of the book describes the scuttling of the surrendered German fleet at Scapa Flow, symbolic of the enormous waste caused by the whole conflict.

Castles of Steel is a fitting companion to Dreadnought and will certainly be considered one of the most comprehensive, yet accessible, histories of the Great War.

For those of you who have read Mr. Massie's "Dreadnought," which detailed the German/British battleship "arms race" leading up to WWI, and who have been waiting for years for the sequel....here it is. And is it great! Fans of the author know that he is a master of narrative history. His books read like good novels, and he excels at capturing personalities with telling anecdotes. At the beginning of "Castles Of Steel" he explains how Kaiser William compensated for his withered left arm, and basically useless left hand, by building up his right arm. William also wore large rings on the fingers of his right hand. He would shake hands with a steel-like grip and watch with amusement as his victim winced. To quote the author "...the hand shaker said merrily, 'Ha ha! The mailed fist! What!' " This small episode not only tells us a lot about William's personality, but the expression he uses also reminds us of his Anglophilia (he was, after all, Queen Victoria's grandson). In a similar way, Mr. Massie conjures up the characters of other people who are important to this story. On the British side: Beatty, Jellicoe, Churchill, Jacky Fisher, David Lloyd George, etc. On the German side: Hipper, Scheer, Tirpitz, Hindenburg, Ludendorff, etc. The major pre-publication concern about this book would have been: could Mr. Massie satisfy not just the fan of narrative history but also the fan of military history. After all, unlike the author's previous books, this book was to be primarily about battles rather than personalities. It turns out that we needn't have had any worries on that score, either. In particular, the descriptions of The Battle of the Falkland Islands and of Jutland are brilliant. The author explains the events leading up to the battles, the strategy, the tactics, etc. He takes us, in a clear manner, step-by-step through the battles and the aftermath. You feel as though you are on-deck with the various admirals as they make their decisions. Mr. Massie also covers the importance of Naval Intelligence during the war - the British, early on, broke the German code and usually knew ahead of time what was planned.(Despite the fact that, seemingly by magic, the British fleet always seemed to pop up whenever the German fleet ventured out to sea, the Germans refused to believe that their codes had been compromised.) Things might have turned out very differently in the several North Seas battles if it weren't for this. Mr. Massie also covers the British blockade of Germany, the Dardanelles/Gallipoli fiasco, the U-Boat War (and the sinking of the Lusitania), the entry of the United States into the war, etc. Another big plus for this book is that it will probably generate disagreement and discussion amongst academics and serious students of the war. Mr. Massie isn't afraid to tell us about who he admires and who he doesn't much care for. Thus, he clearly thinks Jellicoe superior to Beatty (especially at Jutland)and he thinks Jellicoe was treated in a very shabby manner by the politicians - especially David Lloyd George. Mr. Massie, while admiring Churchill, thinks he made many mistakes during his tenure as First Lord (and not just during the Dardanelles/Gallipoli period), and that these mistakes were caused by Churchill's overconfidence, coupled with his total lack of any background regarding naval affairs. Setting aside Jacky Fisher's histrionics and peevish personality, Mr. Massie generally gives the First Sea Lord high marks for his perspicacity regarding military matters. After all, Fisher made the WWI British navy what it was, and he also realized the importance of submarines. The author makes a strong case that Fisher clearly knew that the Dardanelles/Gallipoli campaign, if done the way it was ultimately done, would be a huge mistake. Churchill, with his youth, energy, eloquence and misplaced (in this case) self-confidence wore down Fisher and, at least for awhile, got the First Sea Lord to shelve his doubts and get "on-board" regarding the scheme. Mr. Massie takes the sensible view that the German use of unrestricted submarine warfare forced a very reluctant Woodrow Wilson to commit the U.S. to the war. While American forces didn't win the war, the huge numbers of fresh troops streaming into Europe made it clear to Germany that she no longer had any realistic prospect of victory - hence, the German decision to accept an armistice. Mr. Massie wisely steers clear of counterfactuals, but it is interesting to think about what might have happened if Germany had resisted the use of unrestricted submarine warfare and the U.S. had stayed out of the war. At the very least, the one million German soldiers who were freed up for use on the Western front due to the collapse of Russia would not have been counterbalanced by the flood of American troops. A minor criticism of the book is the lack of maps. They are few and far between and some more would have been very helpful in following along during the extended battle sequences. But, hey, when a book is this good...well, you can't have everything!

I would think that anyone who read and liked Robert Massie's "Dreadnought" should appreciate his new "Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea". As in the earlier book, although the ships and navies of the two rival nations are always at center stage, it is the people who built those ships and directed their activities and operated them and - in this book - fought them that really make the text vivid. And what personalities! Winston Churchill, the extraordinary Jacky Fisher who was the true father of the Dreadnought-type battleships that defined the era, the glamorous Admiral David Beatty who captivated the British public, Kaiser Wilhelm, Admiral Franz von Hipper ... If anything, the narrative in "Castles of Steel" is even more compelling than that of the first book because it deals with the drama and chaos of World War One itself. Massie's narrative lucidly explains the course of the naval war from the very opening days until the German High Seas Fleet scuttled itself after the conclusion of hostilities to prevent its delivery to its enemies. Along the way, several complex, controversial episodes are examined, including the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign and the Battle of Jutland, the great clash of battle fleets towards which decades of naval technical development had been aimed. Massie does not shy away from exploring the bitter in-fighting that erupted after the guns of battle had fallen silent, and he appears to present the arguments on both sides of controversies fairly. Although his portrait of Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty is as an ambitious politician whose directives sometimes seeded chaos rather than order, Massie by no means holds Churchill solely or perhaps even chiefly responsible for the Gallipoli debacle. The admirals and generals on the spot are shown to have repeatedly erred and provided London with faulty advice. With Jutland, Massie's basic sympathy is clearly with the quiet, somewhat cautious Jellicoe rather than with his flamboyant subordinate, David Beatty, who according to Massie later did much to rob Jellicoe of deserved credit while evading blame for his own errors. Although the great dreadnoughts and battle cruisers - the "castles of steel" of the title - are never far from the main narrative thrust, U-boat warfare and diplomatic maneuvering (and the politics of the British Admiralty) are given their due.

Although a long book at over 800 pages, "Castles of Steel" is nonetheless a powerful, fast-moving history of naval warfare as it emerged into the modern era of steel and radio.

Even a reasonably serious general reader of World War I histories is likely to be far better acquainted with the war on land than the war at sea. After all, what else is there to know besides the Battle of Jutland, the sinking of the Lusitania, the German U-boat offensive and the reactive convoy system? OK, some may have heard of Dogger Bank and recognize that Gallipoli was originally an entirely naval operation until practical difficulties turned it into the disastrous land offensive which has become synonymous with misadventures of the kind. That's it, right? Actually, no, not by a long shot. And if you want to know the "rest" of the WWI story, and perhaps come to agree with the view shared by Author Massie and many other historians that British sea power was the war's ultimate determinant, then this is the book for you.

Another reviewer points out that the book appears to have been largely derived from secondary sources, and that may well be true. But Massie's masterful amalgamation, if you will, nonetheless produces a stunning panorama that if not entirely original in its sources, is surely an example of the very finest scholarship of the kind and an "original" in both its sweep and its marvelous presentation in terms of language and story-telling.

I made the same "secondary source" comment about Winston Groom's 2002 book on the fighting in the Ypres salient, "A Storm in Flanders," but there is between the two works a distinction with a considerable difference. The Ypres story has been written about with sufficient frequency over the last 90 years that any new telling runs the risk of being downright familiar to serious WWI readers, and so it is with "Storm"; I could have sworn that I had in hand only a slight variation of the several works on the subject I have read. Thus, my conclusion that Groom's book amounted to little more than a nicely turned out rehash. Not at all worthless, just of limited value to the serious WWI reader.

Such is not the case with "Castles". The book undertakes nothing less than a thorough account of the entire war at sea and succeeds like nothing else I have ever encountered. Secondary the sources might have been, but the result is indisputably first-rate. Take our "five-star" word for it: you will not only enjoy the read, but will forever after be comfortable that you understand and appreciate the significance of the "forgotten" side of the war.

Dreadnought was a masterpiece! I eagerly looked forward to Castles of Steel. I enjoyed it, but found that it fell one star short. Massie's genius is his interweaving of biography into history. Dreadnought did this brilliantly, especially with Jackie Fisher. While Castles of Steel has extensive biographical passages on the various British leaders (including a risque love verse by Beatty), it is sadly lacking in biographical information on the German leaders. The only German leader who gets much coverage is Ludendorff, a General. I cannot believe that there are no sources of biographical information on Hipper or Scheer.

The other shortcoming, which is really why I deducted one star, is the paucity of maps. There were maps showing where the battles happened, and the initial tracks for Jutland, but three or four maps of the various phases of the action at Jutland would have been very helpful, given the confusion of the battle iteslf. I would also have appreciated maps of the other actions in the North Sea. The map showing the location of the sinking of the Luisitania is a waste of a page.

All in all, a good, engaging read, but it could have been better.

This book is simply the best, most extraordinary and knowledgeable account of the Great War at Sea 1914-18. No other study or similar volume compares to what Mr. Massie has done here.
This book follows on his excellent account of the build up to the Great War and the development of the dreadnought. His last book on this subject (Dreadnought: Britain Germany and the coming of the great war) detailed the great naval arms race that made war 'inevitable'. This book details the actual conflict.

The author argues that while the arms race made war inevitable the German high commands decision not to boldly use the navy condemned it to failure. The author tells many fascinating tales in his book. He has excellent character sketches of Churchill, Scheer and Tirpitz. He also looks at the amazing story of the 'Goeben' a German surface raider.
He looks at the advent of unrestricted submarine warfare. He also looks at the battles that did take place like the River Plate(Falklands) and Dogger Bank as well as the bombardment of British coastal cities by German ships.
The climax of the volume is the battle of Jutland. The author tells in stunning detail every action packed minute of this epic clash of steel on the high seas.
An amazing book, sure to be THE standard on the subject for years to come. Massie's prose is beyond comparison, he writes history to make you feel it, to give you an appetite for the wide range of subjects he touches upon. All WWI enthusiasts and naval buffs will love this book as will the common reader with an interest in history.

This book proves to be a highly readable and entertaining account of the naval warfare during the First World War, mostly from the British perception. All the major battles fought between the British and Germans are clearly written and describes here as well as some of the more interesting characters of the naval scenes. The author appears to be firmly in John Jellicoe's camp. Although at first look, it might be a general history of war at sea, its not. This is more or less, a strict view from the British point of view with a few German bones tossed in. French naval activities are almost non-existence in this book.

I think I read in one of the previous reviews about lack of maps. This I think is one of the major weaknesses of this book. Author is now writing military history book instead of policy oriented book of Dreadnought. In military books, you need to have maps of battles you are writing about. Somehow, I think Mr. Massie missed the ship on this one. It would have been nice if he included more photos as well, photos of men and ships that he was writing about.

But overall, I found this book to be a great read and lucky of me, I do have other sources in my library that got the maps and photos. While I don't think reading Dreadnought is a mandatory thing before reading Castles of Steel, it would probably helped greatly if people did read Dreadnought first. The author provides interesting insights and the book proves to be well written and researched.

Robert Massie is a master of compelling popular history. Castles of Steel is a masterpiece. It is a retelling of the sea war during WWI, particularly from the British point of view. The sea war has always taken a back seat to horrific ground war--the astounding losses in single ground battles made the sea war seem insignificant in comparison.

And so it is. But Massie has uncovered a fascinating story, in particular the standoff between the British and German fleets in the North Sea. His recounting of the Battles of Dogger Bank and Jutland make for compelling reading, as are his description the two great South American battles (the defeat of the British at Coronel and the British revenge at the Falkland Islands).

He tells his story crisply. His prose is clear and exciting. And he goes below the mechanics of ship movements to introduce us to some wonderful characters: the doomed Admiral Craddock, the victorious but ultimately ill-fated Admiral Spee. Likewise the two great British admirals, the impetuous Beatty and the beloved Jellicoe.

I read the book in giant gulps late into the night.

Highly recommended to any lover of popular history.

Robert Massie has done it again -- another "Massive" tome on a topic that doesn't initially seem fascinating, but turns out to be a spellbinding narrative of central importance. Before reading "Dreadnought", this book's predecessor, my understanding of the Anglo-German naval race was limited to a dry few paragraphs in general histories of World War I. Massie put the drama and all its personalities at center stage and showed how crucial Kaiser Willhelm II's vanity fleet was in provoking Britain's turn toward the Entente, an alignment which proved fatal to the Second Reich.

"Castles of Steel" picks up the story with the outbreak of war in the summer of 1914. It is much more of a military history than its political/diplomatic precedessor, with detailed and often gripping descriptions of naval battles and pursuits. Massie neglects to offer a basic tutorial on the ships of the day, so it's up to the reader to learn on the job about the differences between battleships and battle cruisers, twelve inch guns and eight inch guns, coal and oil power, etc. But it can be done. Massie is at his best in describing the action of surface fleets. Each naval engagement of the war, from minor skirmishes and raids to epic battles like Jutland, are given microsopic treatment. Such a detailed narrative allows Massie to draw insights that might be invisible from a simplified overview. Events in war cause subtle chain reactions. One British admiral's caution in interpreting Winston Churchill's muddled orders lets a German ship escape and leads to his court martial; a few months later, on the other side of the world, one of his colleagues charges into a fatal and pointless battle to avoid the same fate. The escaped German ship is decisive in swinging Turkey into the war; within a year Churchill's career--and perhaps the war itself--is on the line in the daring and hapless Gallipoli operation to knock Turkey out. And so on.

Castles of Steel will thoroughly dispell the notion that the two great fleets were largely passive throughout the war (excluding Jutland) and that the naval war was a bit of a sideshow to the real action on land. He shows how decisive even an indecisive result at sea could be--as long as Britain could maintain its blockade on Germany while avoiding strangulation of its commerce by the U-boat campaign. Massie is also strong on showing how Jutland--whatever its tactical outcome--must have been a strategic defeat for the High Seas Fleet, since it left the U-boats as Germany's only offensive option at sea. That in turn led to America's entry and Germany's certain defeat on land. Massie is not as interested in the details of the U-boat war. Although his chapter on the subject is able and informative, he does not attack it with the same passion and detail as he does the surface ships. In that he resembles his hero in this book, Admiral Jellicoe, a master of surface warfare who respects and fears these new weapons, but does not really make them his own.

Like most military histories, this book could have used about ten times the maps the editors saw fit to include. Massie's narrative is masterful, but visual aids will always help to track the complex movements of hundreds of ships.

I also wish that Massie had spent as much time getting inside the heads of the German commanders and sailors as he did their English counterparts. There is an inexplicable gap, for example, between the professional, courageous and highly capable High Seas Fleet at Jutland in 1916 and the demoralized, mutinous ships that failed to stir themselves from port eighteen months later to seek a final confrontation with the British. What happened to these men who had once been eager for a fight, and who claimed never to have been defeated? Massie gives us a few clues--the effects of the blockade, the deterioration of Germany's position on land, the (mostly) universal reluctance to engage in suicide missions. But this is one of the rare points on which the reader wishes for more detail.

Still, Castles of Steel is a marvelous effort, and I am willing to pick up whatever Mr. Massie cares to write next and carry it straight to the cash register--that is, if I can lift it.

I have always believed that the First World War ranks as one of mankind's most tragic and unnecessary mistakes. This book does a fine job explaining at least a portion of how this tragedy came about, at least from the naval angle and perspective. This book has enough detail to satisfy experts, but is written in a fashion that the more casual reader with an interest in history will both enjoy and benefit from reading. This is indeed a fascinating look at an underexamined subject.

Mr. Massie's basic thesis is that Germany's construction of a great war fleet (the misnamed "High Seas Fleet") was a disaster for the country. Kaiser Wilhelm appears to have caused his country to build this fleet for reasons of prestige and national pride. But to Britain the existence of the High Seas Fleet was a challenge to Britain's national survival, for Britain's domination of the seas, and prevention thereof by any possible hostile power, was not merely a matter of prestige or pride. It was life and death. By building a huge fleet at immense cost, Germany produced a dagger aimed at England's heart. As someone observed, without domination of the seas, England was finished as a power, but without domination of the seas, Germany remained the foremost European power by virtue of its army and position on the European continent. The existence of the German fleet at the onset of hostilities essentially guaranteed and necessitated England's entry into the Great War on the allied side. Once Germany began waging the war at sea--a war it did not really need to fight--this guaranteed eventual American entry into the war, which in turn inevitably tipped the balance against her. Seen from this perspective, the construction of her fleet was a strategic disaster for Germany.

The book is interesting for both its narrative and insight into the famous sea battles of the war, as well as for its discussion of great naval leaders. The reader will learn about admirals Jellicoe and Beatty, men who became legends in their own lifetimes. While most of us are familiar with Winston Churchill's later career as Britain's great war leader in the Second World War, many readers will be delighted to learn about Churchill's pivotal role in the First World War. The author's insights here are fascinating and controversial, but to me ring true.

Although this book has perhaps more detail than non-specialists necessarily want or need, it is a relatively easy read due to the author's clear, crisp style of writing, and his interesting look at not just the facts, but also the personalities, of the naval aspect of the great war. For readers interested in learning about both the causes of the great war, and the battles at sea that comprised it, this is the book to read.