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BOOK REVIEWS Michael L. Hadley and Roger Sarty. Tin- comic-opera) and the telling observations Pots and Pirate Ships: Canadian Naval of a German cruiser captain on the sorry Forces and German Sea Raiders 1880-1918. state of the Canadian navy in 1912. Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen's The second part, 1914-1916, documents University Press, 1991. xxvi + 391 pp., Great Britain's repeated dismissal of Ca• maps, photographs, bibliography, index. nada's pleas for help in establishing its own $34.95, cloth; ISBN 0-7735-0778-7. naval defence. Great Britain wanted men and, as with the army, got them. Canada, Here is an important book for serious with practically no resources of its own, study on the roots of Canada's defence received short shrift in the Admiralty's pri• policy as well as the early years of her orities. Three successful U-boat voyages to navy. It is a fascinating read. Co-authors the United States in 1916 are minutely Hadley and Sarty have previously made detailed. One of them calmly sank half a substantial contributions to our naval dozen merchant ships off Nantucket Light historiography. This book combines Sart/s while US Navy destroyers looked on, rais• expertise on Canadian naval policy and ing interesting niceties on neutrality and operations during World War I with law of the sea. Hadley's special knowledge of German With the stage set for a major assault naval policy and U-boat operations. It in North American waters, Part Three organizes a vast amount of material, much takes us through the unrestricted U-boat of it newly dredged, in a most effective warfare of 1917-18 and Canada's response. way. It introduces players not previously The patrols of the six U-boats are closely, noted in this context and presents revealing indeed intimately chronicled. The map views of many key characters, including showing "U-boat routes and sinkings 1918" Vice Admiral Charles Kingsmill and Dep• off the eastern seaboard could have been uty Minister Georges Desbarats. Moreover, made much more helpful to the reader had it brings to life the reactions of politicians it shown the tracks of the U-boats rather and the public to the march of events. than isolated, undated positions. Part One, from 1880 to 1914, covers Rising to the challenge, Canada's navy the great power alignments and some fasci• had blossomed by the summer of 1918 to nating background on German imperialist some 120 little ships. With the lack of clashes with the burgeoning United States, preparation, shoreside staff, resources and her designs on North America and turn-of- support, it is not surprising that they were the-century diplomatic intrigue. There are half-equipped, defect-ridden and their accounts of German intelligence gathering crews only partially trained. Still, the little and rumour-mongering in the United navy controlled shipping in coastal waters States and Canada (some verging on capably, escorted coastwise and ocean- 37 38 The Northern Mariner bound convoys and swept harbour small press run, the revisors noting that approaches for mines. Twenty-eight vessels "the book was so unusual at the time, it were sunk in Canadian waters by the U- represented a risky project in publishing boat "pirates" in the late summer of 1918, terms...and [they] restricted the extent of yet of these, most were fishing vessels, only the work...The full manuscript could not be two were substantial steamers, and not one published." (p. vii) Wartime bombing raids was sunk in convoy. on 22-23 November 1943 destroyed much That was the real measure of effective• of the Oberkommando der Marine, includ• ness of the ramshackle little navy. But it ing stocks of old documents from the was simply not understood. The press Imperial Marine, the Office of Technical reported wild rumours and howled over the Information Service, and the Research, loss of fishing vessels as naval officers in Invention and Patent Office. Thus the Halifax indulged in "pink teas." While revisors have had considerable trouble public and politicians hailed the army's checking Grôner's facts, especially from the victories, they contemptuously dismissed building programs of the 1930s and 1940s. their "tinpot" navy for failing to do what no Over a hundred tons of German naval one in Canada, or in Britain, had ever documents survived and were taken to Brit• given it the means to achieve. At war's end ain, not to be returned for researchers' they turned away from their navy once benefit until 1965. Thus it was not until more. 1966 that a first revised edition of the work Footnotes, bibliography and index are was produced, now divided into two vol• first rate. With this minutely chronicled umes, one on major warships, the other on work in hand one can far better understand submarines and other vessels. This edition, the sad historical fact that, except in time published in German in 1983, has been ex• of later wars, the navy has never really cap• panded by about forty percent, with par• tured the support of Canadians. ticular attention to technical descriptions and development rationales for the ship Tony German classes. A rough version of Volume Two, Old Chelsea, Qu6bec produced in 1968, was also updated and released this past fall. Mr. Grôner died in Erich Groner (revised and expanded by 1965, leaving that work in its initial format. Dieter Jung and Martin Maass). German This edition is entirely in English. Warships 1815-1945. Volume One: Major While the book is primarily a reference Surface Vessels. Annapolis: Naval Institute tool, to be used to determine dates and Press, 1990. xii + 228 pp., drawings, tables, details of any ship that served Germany notes, abbreviations, index. US $49.95 or and its predecessor states as naval vessels, Cdn $68.50, cloth; ISBN 0-87021-790-9. it contains much that is intriguing, and Canadian distributor, Vanwell Publishing, certainly a wealth of technical minutia. The St. Catharines, Ontario. drawings of every class, from the sailing gunboats ceded to Prussia by Sweden at This book's German origins go back to the 1815 Congress of Vienna to the designs 1936, when Erich Groner first published for the projected massive "H Class" 1939 Die deutschen Kriegsschiffe 1815-1936. battleships that were never built, are Another version, with minor corrections, superb. Drawn to a constant scale of was issued in 1944. The original had a 1/1250, the smaller and earlier little ships Book Reviews 39 are really too small to be of much use Burkard Baron von Mullenheim-Rechberg except for comparisons. But the details of (trans. Jack Sweetman). Battleship the battle cruisers of World War I and the Bismarck: A Survivor's Story. New and large destroyers of World War II give suffi• expanded edition; Annapolis: Naval Insti• cient information for careful study, with at tute Press, 1980, 1990. xxi + 467 pp., maps, least one and often two plans provided. photographs, tables, appendices, bibliogra• Each class and ship is incorporated in phy, index. US $24.95, cloth; ISBN 0-87021- tables, covering its construction, propulsion, 027-0. Canadian distributor, Vanwell Pub• armament, handling characteristics, and (of lishing, St. Catharines, Ontario. particular value to historical writers) a brief summary of its career, which in most cases Robert D. Ballard with Rick Archbold. The means just giving classifications and the Discovery of the Bismarck. Markham, ONT: final end of each. Propulsion and arma• Viking/Madison Press, 1990.232 pp., maps, ment details are extensive, and the Jane's- photographs, paintings, diagrams, appendix, style tables are useful and authoritative. In index. $40, cloth; ISBN 0-670-83587-0. particular, earlier small gunboats, "torpedo steamers" (1874-1876) and pre-World War In May 1941, most of Europe had fallen I torpedo boats, as well as vessels that under Hitler's control; Britain stood alone preceded the German federation of 1871, against the German juggernaut. Apart from had not previously been well documented the sinking of Graf Spee, the repulse of the in English. The careers of vessels seized by Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain and some the Germans in the Netherlands, France, minor naval triumphs, there was little Italy and elsewhere in 1940-1943 are briefly encouragement for the beleaguered British covered, making this a comprehensive people. When the BBC announced on 24 reference volume. Of considerable interest May that HMS Hood, the pride of the are detailed plans for seven aircraft car• Royal Navy, had been sunk by the German riers, none of which ever progressed to any battleship Bismarck, the universal British extent except Graf Zeppelin which, although reaction was appalled silence. largely completed, never had a chance to Three days later, Bismarck was herself launch an aircraft. sunk by the Royal Navy. The senior sur• While the organization of the chapters vivor was Burkard Baron von Miillenheim- is a bit confusing, page header references Rechberg, a Lieutenant Commander and and an extensive index make for easy Bismarck's Fourth Gunnery Officer. He searching. A useful note for writers: the later became West Germany's consul gen• authors give dates for the various forms of eral in Toronto and eventually an ambassa• the German Navies (Kaiserliche Marine— dor in the West Indies. In 1975, after he 18n-1918;Reichsmarine~l921-1934;Kriegs- retired, he decided to write an account of marine--1934-1945). And now we have the the birth, life and death of Bismarck. The resurgent Bundesmarine. For those with a first edition in English translation was particular naval interest, this is a most published in 1980. This is a new and greatly valuable specialised book.