Customer Reviews

Testing American Sea Power: U.S. Navy Strategic Exercises, 1923-1940 (Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series)

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Commander Felker has provided naval historians with an analysis of what the American Navy was doing between the two world wars. Military personnel will give this a more analytical review than an amateur naval historian such as I. However, from the civilian perspective, this book is extremely illuminating. Naval war games were used to apply new technology, specifically aircraft carriers and submarines. However, these games were usually controlled or supervised by those whose strict adherence to Mahan often allowed little leeway for new ideas and the appropriate applications of the new weapons of war. Many issues were new to me. For instance, even though many of these games were years after World War I, American naval personnel were considering plans for a war against Great Britain. Despite the Germans' success with submarines as weapons for blockade, many American commanders considered them almost irrelevant in modern warfare. Even aircraft carriers were slow to gain acceptance, though their relevance was proved many times in simulation. In retrospect, the dismissal of the marines as a primary amphibious force bordered on the ridiculous. The primary problem for most seemed to be in marrying Mahan's principles to modern weaponry. It was hard to accept that there would be no more Trafalgars, but that in the future wars would be made up of continuous battles. While the simulations and tests did not allow for every subsequent event that followed in World War II, they were invaluable in determining how the new technology worked. In the end, Mahan's principle of defeating the enemy's navy remains intact. The methods changed and no doubt will continue to do so. Naval personnel should find this extremely useful (hopefully Mr. Felker's midshipmen will). However, it is a great read for us civilians as well.