Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Cold Comfort, May 31, 2003
Paul Kemp's classic of the sometimes forgotten Arctic Convoys during WW2 is still good reading after so many years.He goes into detail about each convoy including their route of travel, their stops along the way and the dogged German resistance they encountered. A full chapter is devoted to the often touchy subject that the Arctic Convoy system is now infamous for, that of the PQ17 debacle and the recriminations that still exist today. Many blame high command for the famous scatter order, but as we know the message was misread and the results are tragic. All the while the nation receiving this aid, the USSR, did nothing to help or assist in any way what so ever. In my opinion a very selfish and ungrateful act. Photos are provided and are well discribed.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Action in the North Atlantic!, April 19, 2007
The Allied convoys that supplied war materials to Russia in World War II faced not only German U-boats, surface ships and aircraft but also the fearsome Arctic Ocean weather. Whatever the dangers to be faced, Churchill and Roosevelt had vowed to support their Russian ally so the convoys sailed...sometimes into disaster. Noted naval historian Paul Kemp chronicles the voyages and combats endured by the Allied merchant marine and Naval crews in this book from Castle Books.
The Arctic convoys story has been told many times but Kemp's book benefits from use of wartime reports and first-person narratives. Each convoy is comprehensively described as are the background events and political underpinnings of the whole convoy effort. In discussing the mistakes made, coverage seems evenhanded, brickbats being thrown where deserved.
Though somewhat dated, Kemp's book is a good read, both insightful and exciting.
******
The book, a straight reprint of a 1993 Arms and Armour Press book, was obviously done in the pre-spellchecker days. Small typos run throughout the book.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Could have been better..., January 20, 2006
At first, book seems rather promising. The subject is interesting, and author's message is easy to follow. However, it seems like it has been written in two different periods of author's life, many years apart. The description of individual convoys or that of German side appears scholar-style: sometime it is too dry, making an impression it has been written by a junior high school pupil trying to be as accurate as possible. However, "Russian" part of the book is... Well, I fond it really difficult to understand why an author who writes about Arctic convoys has little idea about the date when Germans have invaded Soviet Union. Or what was the composition of Soviet Nordic (Polar) Fleet (I could hardly believe myself seeing that Kemp had mistook old WW1-time "Novik"-class destroyer "Kuibishev" for a cruiser!). Or that he does not know that a local (and correct) name for the major port is Arkhangelsk, not Arkhangel... Etc, etc... Well this book has good parts indeed, but I would not recommend it much. Additionally, the message "they did not appreciate us enough!" seems to be the one of the major driving force of Kemp's writing, making him fill the pages with repetitive stories of Russian drinking and lack of smile. And Russian name to support this message (Victor Kravchenko, enthusiastically blaming USSR for lack of appreciation and admiration) could have been selected better: after all, the text cited by Kemp is "I Chose Freedom", the memoirs by political fugitive, who start making his living by writing what is required by the moment. In the end, I would like to conclude that neither the military nor historical part of this book is very sound. It could be a good introductory reading, but it has too much modern politics in it to serve this purpose well. Good sides of this book (for example, good review of Churchill-Stalin contacts regarding Second Front issue) do not compensate for mid-class writing in other parts.
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