Customer Reviews

Tracking the Axis Enemy: The Triumph of Anglo-American Naval Intelligence

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The title of Alan Harris Bath's book, The Triumph of Anglo-American Naval Intelligence: Tracking the Axis Enemy might better be How the Brits and Americans came to love each other and succeed inspite of themeselves. Fully the first half of the book focuses on the byzantine workings of three governments bordering on the Atlantic to coordinate their efforts and information: Canada, England and the United States. By way of perspective, it must be remembered that even in the interwar period, many American military planners still considered England the greatest single potential threat. The paradigm shift from foe to friend probably required a great deal of soul searching for the participants--it certainly required a great deal of tedious writing from the author of this book.

Bath in his final chapter, In Retrospect, provides a concise overview of the problems that faced the producers, handlers and users of strategic and operational intelligence. Obviously an experienced military intelligence professional, Bath summarizes many of the problems in military inteeligence, and gives the reader a good understanding of the complexities of coaltition and allied operational intelligence planning, gathering processing and dissemination.

In the absence of unclassified single volume works on the subject of naval intelligence in World War II, Bath's book is a necessary evil, but I would read only the introduction, Chapters 5 & 9, and the conclusion.

The previous reviewers were I think, looking for a different type of book.
For those looking for an edge of your seat adventure story of intelligence activities out in the field, it is a failure. However Mr. Bath was clearly having a different goal in writing this analysis. The book is an in-depth study of allied intelligence cooperation during the Pacific war. Nothing more and nothing less. What worked and what didn't work in intelligence cooperation and why? On those counts the author fully succeeds.

With the importance of coalition warfare and intelligence in the 21st century, there
are many who would find this study fascinating and informative.

It ought to be called tracking the bureaucratic enemy within. It might be a chronicle of the victory of necessity over bureaucratic inertia and turf wars, but it is as dull as a gray stone on a gray wall. There are loads of minutiae about personalities, dates, mistrust, etc. No doubt but that this is historical information ought to be recorded somewhere, but not where I might plunk down my money and buy it. There is next to nothing about technique or efficacy. Read the library's copy. This one is going back to the used book store (if they will take it back).