Read Online The Sinking of the Prince of Wales Repulse The End of the Battleship Era Martin Middlebrook Patrick Mahoney 9781844150755 Books

Product details Paperback 366 pages Publisher Pen and Sword Maritime; paperback / softback edition (September 22, 2014) Language English ISBN-10 1844150755

The Sinking of the Prince of Wales Repulse The End of the Battleship Era Martin Middlebrook Patrick Mahoney 9781844150755 Books Reviews

• Martin Middlebrook with Patrick Mahoney have written a short history one comes to expect from Middlebrook. The 350+ page book is broken down into 16 well organized chapters that cover the background of Capitol ships such as the Prince of Wales and Repulse, the philosophy of why the were sent to Asian waters, the mission, the battle, sinking , rescue, and analysis.
  
  Four clear maps are provided, two diagrams of the first torpedo attack with subsequent flooding on Prince of Wales, and 34 photographs over 14 pages. These all help the reader visualize what happened on that day, that in reality, need not have occurred.
  
  Middlebrook and Mahoney are adept at discussing and second guessing the decisions made in sending these two ships to their fate, with the benefit of hindsight (they state this up front and often), and this allows the reader to make their own decision on whether to cast blame on those who made the choices, or the philosophies of the time in regard to battleships/battle cruisers being able to withstand air attack while at sea, and the dreadfully wrong conclusion that the Japanese, and their equipment was inferior.
  
  The air attack itself from opening defensive fire, to the ships sinking took about two hours under mostly clear skies and calm seas. The high altitude bombing had little effect, but the torpedo attacks were the fateful key to the battle, which proved very one sided -The Prince of Wales and Repulse sunk in exchange for three aircraft lost. The torpedo attacks are riveting as portrayed, and easily visualized by the reader.
  
  Air power trumps sea power, as Billy Mitchell predicted. When one thinks of the Battle of Midway, the opposing naval forces never saw each other. The super Japanese battleships Yamato and Musashi were done in by naval AirPower. Middlebrook hints that even now, our aircraft carriers are obsolete, in the evolution of naval warfare.
  
  As an after thought, the mission of the Prince of Wales and Repulse was eeriely similar to the voyage of the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen. Cover was blown, but they continued fatefully on their way. Single torpedo hits to the stern of both Prince of Wales and Bismarck took away their mobility, and put the nail in their coffins.
  
  If you have enjoyed any of Martin Middlebrook’s other books, you will appreciate this book as well.
• Having personally known the LT RCNVR , long since past away, who was the Radar Officer on HMS Prince of Wales at the time she engaged the Bismark along with HMS Hood when the later was sunk, and later when this gentleman was in the same duty when both the POW and HMS Repulse were sunk by Japanese torpedo bombers. and the many reminiscences he related to me about both actions from his point of view, it was indeed very interesting reading this very well written and all encompassing story form both the Royal Navy point of view and the Japanese successful sinking of two the RN's biggest battleships. The gentleman I knew survived both battles and went on to a very successful career in the RCN, retiring as a rear admiral.
• This is an excellent history of the disaster of Singapore which I had had only a limited knowledge of. The author goes into great detail about the ships, heir history and the weakness of both. Repulse was a World War I battle cruiser, which had been modernized but was still old and had the weaknesses of the design. Prince of Wales was new but had not had an adequate time at sea to work out all the problems and it was poorly ventilated for service in the tropics. Both were sent into harm's way by an admiral who did not believe airplanes could sink capital ships.
  
  The details of the attack are described based on both British and Japanese sources. The fatal torpedo wound of the Prince of Wales was only recognized after the war when divers inspected the wreck, which is in shallow water off Malaya. An excellent discussion of a major war event that led to the loss of Singapore, although its fate was probably sealed before the war began.
• This e-book tells the backstory of why the ships were selected for the Singapore posting. The e-book also discusses the prejudiced that the battleship supporters had against airplanes (planes could never sink battleships ). Also, the e-book discusses the prejudice that each side had against the other; in particular that Asians could not fight or fight well. In a lot of ways, the story is heartbreaking from the sinking of both capital ships till many of the sailors and Marines becoming prisoners of war. I learned a lot about the battle. I have one major complaint against the book there are a lot of misspellings especially towards the end where I saw “2014” many times. Still, even with the misspellings, I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in World War II in the Pacific.
• Since this is a recent edition, we get the advantage of the releases of official records of the Japanese military, with the history gathered from the people who were there while the incidents were still clear. A good read.
• I was not aware, as an American, that the P.O.W. and the Repulse had been sunk so quickly in the first few days of the war in the Pacific Theatre. I can't remember any documentaries giving this disaster very much coverage. Instead, they go on to talk about how quickly the British garrisons were overwhelmed by the Japanese. This book gives a good description of how and why the Japanese were able to do their own 'blitz' in S.E. Asia. The author has done a fine job of gathering so much first-hand information, and then organizing it in a very readable manner.
• Bad thing about reading history is you might know the ending. I hated to finish this book because so many brave men died and the ending was the same. Good account of a sad event in British Naval history. Good men on both sides. Well written account that a non Naval military historian could follow.
• There was a lot of the good info, but basic conclusion of the book is based on the timetable of what would have happened has air cover been called without delay. That timeline is 10 minutes off (wrong math), causing some of the central arguments in regard to analysis of Tom Phillips decisions to fall apart.