SHIP'S LIBRARY

Warship. A four-hour television documentary series produced by Granada Television for Thirteen/WNET New York. Executive producer: Beth Hoppe. Premiering on 7 and 14 November 2001 (Check local Public Broadcasting System listings).

Reviewed by Richard R. Burgess, Managing Editor

Television viewers who never tire of war documentaries on the History, Discovery, or Wings channels are in for another treat in November when the Public Broadcast System premieres a four-part history of the technological development of the modern warship. The episodes concentrate not on operational accounts of battles but of the innova- tors and technological milestones that brought naval warfare from the zenith of the age of sail to the nuclear age in less than 150 years.

The first episode, Sea Power, covers the developments that eclipsed the age of sail--including steam engines, screw propellers, improved cannon, gun turrets, exploding projectiles, and armored plate--and culminated in the advent of such ironclad ships as the Royal Navy's HMS Warrior and, of course, the CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor.

The second episode, Big Guns, picks up from the premature demise of the Monitor and tracks the evolution of the big-gun battleship during the "Age of Uncertainty," when technological change overcame limitations in propulsion, seakeeping, and armament as well as disastrous setbacks in ship design. This era was highlighted by the development of the steam turbine, more efficient propellers, self-propelled torpedoes, more practical turrets, and long-range guns, as well as the revolution in gunnery training. The result was the first definitive battleship, HMS Dreadnought. History's largest confrontation of battleships and battle cruisers at Jutland--even as the beginnings of naval aviation were foreshadowing the battleship's demise--is highlighted. This episode stops abruptly at Pearl Harbor, and therefore does not include the battleship clashes at Guadalcanal and in the Surigao Strait, nor the Tomahawk cruise missiles that gave the U.S. Navy's Iowa-class battleships a virtually global reach in the 1990s.

Episode Three, Submarines, dutifully covers Bushnell's Turtle and CSS Hunley, the first submarine to be victorious in actual combat, and is especially illuminating in its discussion of the development of the torpedo and of John Holland's efforts to produce the first practical submarine. The depiction of Holland's attempt to design a submarine that the Irish could use to strike the British is especially engaging, and turned ironic when the Royal Navy co-opted his design. The submarine's use in the two World Wars receives a good overview, with such developments as radar and the snorkel depicted, as well as the torpedo problems faced by the U.S. Navy submarines, particularly in the Pacific, until 1943. The advent of nuclear power in the USS Nautilus, the introduction of the nuclear-tipped Polaris missile--carried by the USS George Washington--and the important role played by the USS Albacore in pioneering the modern submarine hull design conclude this episode.

Episode Four, Aircraft Carrier, provides excellent coverage of the early development of naval aviation and does not leave out the several innovations introduced by the Royal Navy during World War I. The importance of the 1921 naval arms limitation agreements in forging the carrier as the wave of the future is emphasized, and the Royal Navy's attack on the Italian fleet at Taranto in 1940 is properly depicted as the first significant manifestation of carrier air power--and one the Japanese used with greater impact the following year. The post-war accommodation of jets and nuclear weapons forced additional innovations--including, to cite but one example, the mirror landing system. (The episode entertainingly re-enacts the role played by an English secretary and her make-up mirror in demonstrating that new concept.)

Warship includes rich documentary footage, much of it familiar to veteran viewers, but enough new footage as well to capture interest. Unfortunately, the series surrendered to the all-too-common tendency to erroneously use footage out of context, especially in the depiction of twin-engine Japanese bombers--and even some American bombers!--striking Pearl Harbor. The series is enhanced by commentary from many experts in naval history and technology, particularly the always articulate Norman Friedman. This series is well worth two evenings. *

On Seas of Glory: Heroic Men, Great Ships, and Epic Battles of the American Navy, by John Lehman. New York, N.Y.: The Free Press, 2001. [Internet: www.simonsays.com]

Reviewed by Gordon I. Peterson, Senior Editor

The timing could not be better for the release this month, when the nation's armed services are once again at battle stations, of former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman's new history of the U.S. Navy. As the Bush administration and the Congress debate the future direction of U.S. national-security strategy in the wake of September's terrorist attacks--and determine how to allocate the resources needed for the people and force structure required to execute that strategy--Lehman's eclectic narrative on the grandeur of the American naval tradition serves as a forceful reflection on the Navy-Marine Corps team's continuing prowess--and enduring relevance--as the world's foremost expeditionary-warfare combat force.

Starting with the days of the Continental Navy and its companion fleet of privateers, Lehman serves the reader a rich sampling of the fighting American Sailors, technical innovators, and inspirational leaders who forged the battle legacies and winning traditions of the naval service. As Lehman states, "The physical embodiment of that spirit is to be found in great warships, and the people and ships together have shaped history in epic sea battles from the Revolution through the Cold War."

Novice and naval historian alike should enjoy Lehman's accounts of lesser-known naval personages as well, including Stephen Girard--the wealthiest American of his day at the dawn of the 19th century. Born in France, Girard and his family of shipowners settled in Philadelphia. An outspoken critic of British oppression on the high seas and a tireless advocate of the need for a strong Navy, Girard's loan of $7 million to the U.S. Treasury in 1813 staved off federal bankruptcy and enabled the young U.S. democracy to prosecute the War of 1812 with Great Britain on more favorable terms.

Similarly, Lehman describes how the Jewish Commodore Uriah Philips Levy played a pioneering role in fighting bigotry and religious intolerance in the Navy of the 19th century.

Lehman's more recent history lessons, written by the man who tirelessly crusaded for a 600-ship Navy equal to the strategic imperatives of the Cold War--and one who enthusiastically followed in his father's footsteps to serve proudly in the Naval Reserve--refute many of the criticisms of the Navy voiced by today's pundits and armchair tacticians.

Regarding unsubstantiated allegations of the supposed "vulnerability" of the large-deck aircraft carrier, for example, Lehman's account of the Reagan administration's battle with Libya's contemporary Berber pirates during the 1980s is instructive. It is worth remembering that all NATO allies save Great Britain refused to support U.S. counterterrorist military reprisals against Libya in April 1986--placing an even higher premium on those many acres of sovereign U.S. territory at sea represented by the USS America and the USS Coral Sea aircraft carrier battle groups. Notably, France permitted no overflight of her territory by U.S. Air Force F-111 bombers flying from Britain, forcing a 5,400-mile round-trip mission over the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.

Flawless joint Navy-Air Force teamwork during the "El Dorado Canyon" operation totally intimidated Moammar Gadhafi's large and modern air force. No Libyan fighter aircraft, normally augmented by Syrian and Warsaw Pact pilots, took to the sky. Libya's formidable air-defense system (manned by 3,000 Soviet air-defense technicians) also was completely overwhelmed by precise Navy suppression strikes.

Similarly, at a time when some contemporary observers have questioned the utility of the amphibious-warfare capabilities of the Marine Corps during the 21st century, Lehman's account of how approximately 400 leathernecks of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit from the amphibious assault ship USS Guam seized Grenada's Pearl Airport in October 1982 is a timely reminder of how difficult it is for anyone to predict when, where, or how the nation's--and world's--premier "911" force will be called to action in some future "come-as-you-are" crisis or conflict.

George Lehman, the great grandfather of John Lehman's own grandfather, served as a physician for four years with Gen. George Washington and, later, on the privateer Fair American during the War of the American Revolution. That personal background may help to explain Lehman's emphasis on the relative importance of the privateer in early U.S. naval history. Many navalists may find it difficult to agree, however, with his assertion that in times of future crises it is not inconceivable that a modern version of privateering could play a useful role in augmenting the Navy's fast-shrinking fleet.

An indefatigable advocate for the nation's sea services, Lehman sees the U.S. Navy's role in winning the Cold War as its last golden age. Beyond the inevitable reduction in the size of the fleet during the post-Cold War period, Lehman decries the decline of the Navy in other respects--often in the name of political correctness, a backlash experienced during the 1990s that he likens to President Truman's antinaval policies of the late 1940s.

Lehman writes that his desire to serve as secretary of the Navy "was because I wanted to play my own part in a tradition that was still alive; to reawaken the Navy's spirit of innovation and leadership, end its postwar defeatism, and draw on its past to provide direction for the future."

In that respect, On Seas of Glory well serves the same objectives as the United States embarks on its first war of the 21st century--what is certain to be a protracted and relentless campaign against international terrorists and the nations giving them sanctuary. The Navy and Marine Corps will again have their critical roles to play in this drawn-out war during the months and years ahead--undoubtedly adding many illustrious chapters to John Lehman's admirable retrospective on more than 200 years of America's wars at sea.