Customer Reviews

Poland's Navy, 1918-1945

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Naval and WWII buffs will find this book quite informative. A missing chapter of WWII has been written by Peszke. He starts with the Polish Navy's development between the world wars and provides the background for its WWII activities. Serving as a separate national force in the Royal Navy for most of WWII, the Polish Navy played a substantial role for its size. Its officers and men crewed destroyers, submarines and mine warfare vessels. They fought in the Mediterranean, English Channel, Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, and Norway. Accounts of battles, personal profiles and plans for a future navy make for interesting reading. Of particular value are the appendices which include a list of major naval units. THE FORGOTTEN FEW: THE POLISH AIR FORCE IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR by Adam Zamoyski is a complement to Peszke's work. With Poland now a free nation, it can be expected that additional unbiased information about its part in WWII will be forthcoming.

A well researched and written description of how the Poles contributed to the War against Hitler on the high seas and other waterways. Though small in total number and size of ships and boats, Poland's Navy made an immense and constant contribution to the war effort. As mentioned by the other reviewers, the final product suffers from a proper proof reading and editing effort. The typos and other grammatical errors seem to multiply as the book marches to its finale - almost as if a deadline was getting nearer and less care taken to proof the text. I still give it 4 Stars as a valuable contribution to the sacrifices made by the "forgotten" allies.

Poor Mr. Peszke. What he really could have used from his publisher was a good editor and a good proof reader. The book has numberous typos and grammatical errors, all of which are inexcusable and no fault of the author's. The writing is a bit clumsy in spots, and could have used a bit more "punching up" and tightening, which a good editor would have provided. These faults notwitstanding, Mr. Peszke is to be highly commended for a very well research and well structured presentation of a fascinating aspect of WWII. I would still recommend this book, as I found the subject matter well presented and was kept interested and engaged throughout. The only interuptions were when the aforementioned typos and editorial vacuums emerged, and where I found myself thinking "that's unfortunate, as Pescke's effort and subject matter deserve better."