This article is the first instalment in The Spear Point. A review of Donald Vandergriff’s Reforging the Sword kicks off that series. [2] Reforging the Sword (hereafter The Sword) is a glance at the U.S. Military’s institutional rot. Vandergriff crafts a tale about how that rot leads to a contemporary Pearl Harbor, a failed response, and the comeback.

The Specter Collective is a terrorist organisation intent on crippling the U.S. [3] They operate on four foundational pillars across society and economic areas. First, sow the seeds of division via flooding social media platforms with disinformation from fake accounts. Second, intercepting 5G [smartphone and internet] communications, launch ransomware and Denial of Service attacks against infrastructure. [4]

Third, Specter agents working for international shipping firms will create critical shortages. They will sell critical supplies, including rare earth minerals and medicines, on the black market. [5]

The Generations Warfare idea is prominent in The Sword. Like with William S. Lind’s The New Maneuver Warfare Handbook, one can disagree with the Generations of War concept, but there is still ample value to be found. [6] Otherwise, this reviewer opted to put aside his differences with that concept for the sake of brevity.

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The Sword’s weakest link is making Cultural Marxism the fall guy.[7] Like woke, Cultural Marxism runs the danger of becoming a tag line for something that is disliked. This reviewer doesn’t endorse left-wing politics, but seeks to avoid placing a blanket over terrible concepts.

Cultural Marxism’s (hereafter Marxism) role in The Sword suffers from two issues. First is how someone new to military history might view Marxism’s role in that tale. If someone replaces systemic failure with Marxism in military history, they are on a historically inaccurate track. Such an occurrence is when long–term institutional cancers cause failings that overwhelm the defenders. *

Throwing a range of ideas into the Marxism soup creates a fog. That fog consists of Diversity, inclusion, left-wing anti-colonial, and power structure ideologies. Bundling diversity and inclusion with those anti- intellectual, anti-merit, and anti- democratic ideologies is a common blunder. [8] That error ensures the fog blankets out assessing those concepts individually.

Diversity and inclusion are concepts covered in that fog. Separating those two matters from the current political climate is revealing. The underlying fallacy is that diversity and inclusion equate to equal opportunity.

Consider the following sound and brief historical example: The prewar Indian Army was steeped in the tradition of service, filling a frontier policing role and staffed with British officers. [9] That represents the partial inclusion of Indian soldiers in the military. [10]

However, the prewar Indian Army structure couldn’t meet wartime circumstances. After the Japanese conquered Burma and threatened India, the Indian Army’s calling was adaptation. After stumbling, improvements included better training, recruiting from expanded geographical areas, and additional Indian Commissioned Officers. [11] The Indian Army’s shift to a national model was supported by that country’s industry and civil service. Senior British military commanders still directed the war. [12]

The Indian Army represented diversity, with predominantly Muslim and Hindu soldiers fighting alongside each other. [13]

The Indian Army transformation included a war-winning inclusivity trend. This reviewer poses the following question to the reader. How to break the cycle of exclusion until wartime circumstances demand otherwise? Coming to grips with evolving societies offers a partial answer to that question.

This reviewer asks the reader to bear in mind that he is providing matters to ponder, but not a complete answer. Judging people by their character and competence is central to this matter. If strategy and manoeuvre are measures of competence, then matters like gender go in the bin.

Also, consider General Stanley McChrystal’s support for transgender people serving in the U.S. Military facing “retirement.” [14] If someone opposes left-wing politics, it doesn’t have to equate to continuing the vicious cycle before history’s rising tide opens doors.

However, Vandergriff’s brutal assessment of the U.S. Military’s failings is The Sword’s strongest discussion starter. A cancerous human resources “universe” has two pillars. First is the up-and-out promotion system that throws out people who don’t rise in the ranks. Competent individuals don’t have the option of remaining in the armed forces at their current rank.

Second is the systems approach to training and promotion. This reviewer doesn’t oppose using systems in the appropriate places. Training fast food workers with the systems approach is sensible. People learn to flip burgers without any previous training and experience. Creativity and problem-solving aren’t required in that sector.

Comparatively, a chef designs and implements restaurant menus. Unlike serving fries, running a restaurant requires an evolving skill set. An institution’s downfall is relying on the “KFC approach” when critical thinking skills are required.

The U.S. Military is welded to the “KFC approach” and “HR cancer” (hereafter, cancer)—careerists who understand how to climb the promotion ladder better than manoeuvre are a cancer symptom. Ticking off boxes for successful training exercises and promotional courses is another cancer symptom.

Moreover, the “KFC approach (hereafter KFC) aligns with traditional text book/rote learning perfectly. Memorising facts and prescribed solutions to scripted scenarios is the KFC approach to education and training.

An officer class filled with careerists and KFC-minded people is a war loser. A toxic road to defeat is behind The Sword’s Pearl Harbor 2.0.

Incidentally, losing systems aren’t confined to the American military establishment. The Australian Army suffers from the same ills. [15] Successfully completing promotional courses and meeting standard requirements are the building blocks of that sickness. A promotional candidate’s potential, problem-solving abilities, and interpersonal and leadership skills are ignored. [16]

Unsurprisingly, the Australian Army experiences a personnel drain. The most talented individuals exit army life for the private sector. [17]

This reviewer will touch upon Vandergriff’s medicine for military and political downfalls. He will return to that topic in The Spear Point’s future instalments. Outcomes-Based Learning replaces the traditional approach to education. A merit-based promotion system that also factors in inspiring leadership replaces the meat factory.

The Sword’s hidden gem is found in Annex B. He provides a glossary for Mission Command, Manoeuvre Warfare, John Boyd’s OODA Loop, and Generations of War. [18] This reviewer will focus upon the author’s Manoeuvre Warfare definition.

Vandergriff’s manoeuvre definition lands on implementation, but doesn’t define the concept. However, he isn’t alone in taking that approach. The old-school military history textbooks documenting campaigns and battles replicated that approach. Space constraints are also worth considering behind his approach.

The Sword’s manoeuvre warfare element is outsmarting and outmanoeuvring the enemy. This is done by attacking the enemy’s weaknesses with high-speed mobility and surprise, rather than hammering away at their strong points. [19] One might consider those elements akin to the ingredients for battlefield victories. The next step is to blend those ingredients into a recipe. The yeast that activates the rising bread is defining the manoeuvring end state.

This reviewer subscribes to Lieutenant-General Francis Tuker’s manoeuvre framework. Tuker’s body of work accomplishes foundational thinking. Tuker’s The Pattern of War defined the power of manoeuvre as massing strength in a location to win. He understood the conditions required for manoeuvre to occur. If flanking attacks aren’t a tactical option, a period of manoeuvre warfare breaking down is underway. [20] Unfortunately, the follow on/restoring battlefield mobility falls beyond the scope of this topic.

Overall, The Sword kicks off the series of that name by highlighting the dangers of military/institutional rot and decay sparking avoidable defeats. After a series of disasters, the search for political and military competency opens new doors. The long road back from strategic calamities to victory is under construction.

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References

[1]

An introduction to The Spear Point series

[2]

Donald Vandergriff

His website:

https://donvandergriff.org/

His Amazon page:

https://www.amazon.com.au/stores/Donald-E.-Vandergriff/author/B09HJTYBVW?ref=ap_rdr&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

His Substack:

Donald Vandergriff

A 26 year Marine and US Army officer. I served enlisted time as a Marine infantryman and enlisted tanker. Author or editor of 11 books and over a 100 articles on leader development, military culture and Maneuver Warfare.

An interview with Vandergriff

[3]

Donald Vandergriff, Reforging the Sword P8

[4]

ibid

[5]

ibid

[6]

[7]

ibid, p. 120.

*

That is the author’s definition of systematic failure in military history to meet time and space constraints. Incidentally, Norman F Dixon’s On the Psychology of Military Incompetence is on this reviewer’s to-read list.

https://www.amazon.com.au/Psychology-Military-Incompetence-Norman-Dixon/dp/0465097804?tag=googhydr0au-22&hvadid=792401821324&hvpos=&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13232851248606247739&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9070850&hvtargid=dsa-1595363597442&ref=pd_sl_72ekj6elm9_e

[8]

For more on radical Cold War and current-day left-wing ideologies, see:

[9]

A War of Empires: Japan, India, Burma and Britain: 1941-45. By Robert Lyman. Osprey, 2022.

Robert Lyman’s Substack

https://substack.com/profile/81667673-dr-robert-lyman-mbe?utm_source=global-search

[10]

For more on the pre-war Indian Army:

Dr Robert Lyman and Jack Bowsher’s The Forgotten War Podcast: Season 3. Episode 1.

The Forgotten War Podcast: Season one review

[11]

A War of Empires: Japan, India, Burma and Britain: 1941-45. By Robert Lyman. Osprey, 2022.

[12]

ibid

[13]

Lieutenant-General Francis Tuker’s While Memory Serves covers Indian Army infantry religious composition in 1947.

https://archive.org/details/1950-while-memory-serves-by-tuker (PDF download)

[14]

https://www.npr.org/2026/02/21/nx-s1-5720178/trump-military-ban-rights-transgender-troops

[15]

https://cove.army.gov.au/article/why-best-dont-rise-leadership-lost-military-promotion-system?fbclid=IwY2xjawPsk4xleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeQwW0TNcvxper7g-Hu-nvCJXScYHucEmAjEDDsO-k3q0UkGWOYUqnha4qfsw_aem_m9745F2nhWBySGYMWjVS4Q%E2%80%9D

[16]

ibid

[17]

ibid

Also see:

Donald Vandergriff

Analysis by Donald E. Vandergriff: The Australian Defence Promotion System as a Reflection of Second Generation Warfare Culture

As a retired U.S. Army major and long-time advocate for military personnel reform, I have spent decades examining how outdated personnel systems hinder the development of adaptive leaders capable of thriving in the chaos of modern warfare. My works, including…

Read more

7 months ago · 5 likes · 1 comment · Donald Vandergriff

[18]

Donald Vandergriff, Reforging the Sword, p. 118

[19]

ibid

[20]

Vandergriff wrote The Sword to spark discussions about the U.S. Military. Following a gross failing outlined in book one of The Sword, he outlines his vision for fixing the causes behind that disaster. Recovering from disaster is the follow–on. [3] Essentially, this reviewer assesses that vision and offers his analysis across each book in the series. This author will review each book in the series after reading them.

Moreover, this review contrasts with how this author usually reviews books. First, by offering the analysis mentioned above, he generates debate and discussion around The Sword’s central themes. This reviewer is meeting Vandergriff’s main effort, while sometimes offering respectful disagreement.

Second, unless the series displays otherwise, character and plot development take a back seat to the author’s main effort. Clearly, judging The Sword in the same manner as “traditional fiction” would be grossly unfair to Vandergriff and the reader. (This reviewer finished reading book one in The Sword series at the time of writing.)

Lastly, the reader’s experiences and background will play a significant role in how they consider The Sword. Aside from historically inaccurate assessments, this reviewer invites the reader to consider that matter in advance. The same goes for how the reader is unlikely to come across an author who shares Vandergriff’s goals and is completely aligned with their views. If the reader came across such a person, they risk having their existing views reinforced.

I hope the reader enjoys The Spear Point. The next article in The Spear Point series is a review of Reforging the Sword. Reforging the Sword is book one in The Sword series.

References

[1]

Donald Vandergriff

His website:

https://donvandergriff.org/

His Amazon page:

https://www.amazon.com.au/stores/Donald-E.-Vandergriff/author/B09HJTYBVW?ref=ap_rdr&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

His Substack:

Donald Vandergriff

A 26 year Marine and US Army officer. I served enlisted time as a Marine infantryman and enlisted tanker. Author or editor of 11 books and over a 100 articles on leader development, military culture and Maneuver Warfare.

[2]

Reforging the Sword:

https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0GMHYF46J?binding=paperback&ref_=saga_sdp_cft_dsk

[3]

Reforging the Sword. By Donald Vandergriff, 2026. P5.

Benjamin R. Young’s Reds, Revolutions, and Rebellions: How China, Cuba, and Vietnam Transformed Guerilla Warfare (hereafter, Revolutions) examines successful and failed revolutions and other struggles with an ideological lens. Revolutions is the second title in the Battlegrounds: Cornell Studies in Military History series, and Young’s second book. [1] He previously wrote Guns, Guerillas, and the Great Leader.

The scope of Revolutions is mostly confined to geography’s impact on revolutionaries’ ideologies. Whereas Robert D Kaplan’s The Revenge of Geography broadly bounds geographical factors to history, Young takes a narrower approach. [2] *

Young begins with Mao Zedong, Võ Nguyên Giáp, Che Guevara, and Kim Il Sung’s ideological divides/how to destroy imperialism and capitalism. [3] Often, those differences involved the role of women and revolutionary triggers. The role of peasants represented an ideological divide between those historical figures. Would the peasants’ uprising overthrow the existing order or would they undertake that task after indoctrination and terrorism? [4]

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Highlighting those differences allows the reader to escape simplistic capitalism and the West versus Communism narratives. However, the reader’s prior knowledge about the wars mentioned in Revolutions will weigh heavily on their reading experiences. That reflects ‘Revolutions’ flat narrative, which embraces ideological analysis, with the outcomes occupying no or minimal space.

Young’s original research shines throughout Revolutions. Among his primary sources are declassified Central Intelligence Agency documentation and U.S. Military and think tanks’ strategic considerations. He also turned to secondary military history and diplomatic matters. [5]

The majority of Young’s narrative reflects how geography influenced [extreme] left-wing ideologies. Crucially, he is a genuine scholar, rather than peddling revolutionary politics as the answer to the world’s woes. For instance, he cites several historians of Maoism, including Arif Dirlik and Stuart Schram, while adding his twist. [6]

Traditional assessments of guerrilla warfare focus on terrain, military and political outcomes. However, Young resets the analysis and shifts the needle. How well Mao, Guevara and Giap’s revolutionary theories fared in export markets breaks new ground. Similar topography didn’t guarantee a successful transfer of ideas.

Young’s ‘ideological travelling model’ is Revolutionaries’ structural foundation. [7] He based that model on Edward W Said’s “travelling theory.” * However, the reader doesn’t have to have prior knowledge about Said to benefit from Revolutionaries. Young’s framework produces sound analysis, but it is confined to his flat narrative.

Young’s travelling model reverses the usual approach to assessing ideas. The focus is on revolutionary ideals travelling, not their outcomes. That is why Cuba and Vietnam’s ties to the Venezuelan Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN) set up a case study for the Revolutions framework.

The FALN absorbed Cuban Foco ideology and arms. [8] They took a leaf out of the Cuban guerilla/overthrow an existing order book. However, away from the countryside, they adapted to urban terror campaigns. Ultimately, FALN alienated people, but without sparking a “glorious revolution.” The FALN returned to the countryside after that strategic failure. [9]

Revolution’s final chapter is where Young’s framework culminates, with current-day events. Two matters conspired to bring the Palestine Cause to the forefront. Before Islamic jihadists [terrorists] latched onto that cause, a Fatah delegation visited Red China in 1964. [10] Mao’s China recognised the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) a year later. Mao’s China was the first country outside of the Middle East to recognise the PLO. [11]

China’s material support for the PLO stood in contrast to Mao’s inflexible ideology. The geographical differences between China and Palestinian areas were the ideological differences. However, that didn’t prevent warm ties between China and the PLO. [12]

However, the Six-Day War transformed the fate of the Palestinian people into a longstanding global issue. That conflict also drove that matter into the hands of Islamic jihadists. This is where Young’s flattened character is most vulnerable. He doesn’t outline how his Said-inspired model works. The reader is left with an unanswered fundamental question. Are revolutionary ideas exported, or are they shared ideals?

In 1964, did Fatah leaders meeting with Guevara influence jihadists’ anti-colonial ideological bends? Guevara informed Fatah about how her was surprised by the absence of an anti- colonial revolution in Fatah’s home region. [13] What does that mean for Young’s travelling model? The same goes for that and pro- Palestinian sentiments entering left–wing global ideologies.

Revolutions is a gold mine for people who are familiar with Young’s travelling model. However, that limits his well-laid-out and researched title to a limited audience. Other readers can still enjoy Revolutions, but they might feel confined to studying extreme left-wing ideological differences, not how those ideas spread.

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References

[1]

Reds, Revolutions, and Rebellions: How China, Cuba, and Vietnam Transformed Guerilla Warfare.

https://www.amazon.com/Reds-Revolutions-Rebellions-Transformed-Battlegrounds/dp/1501788337

Benjamin R. Young

https://keia.org/staff/benjamin-r-young/

[2]

https://www.amazon.com.au/Revenge-Geography-Robert-D-Kaplan/dp/0812982223

The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate. Random House Group, December 2013.

Tim Marshall’s The Power of Geography: Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World also covers the same topic.

[3]

Reds, Revolutions, and Rebellions: How China, Cuba, and Vietnam Transformed Guerilla Warfare. By Benjamin R. Young. Cornell University, 2026. pp. 15- 19.

[4]

ibid, P17-18

[5]

ibid, P12

[6]

ibid, p. 40

[7]

*

This reviewer was able to find the following article, but not an outline of Said’s thinking.

https://www.scribd.com/document/219277690/74625846-Edward-Said-Traveling-Theory

[7]

A, 1966, Time magazine covering the FALN

https://time.com/archive/6634859/venezuela-war-on-subversion/

Reds, Revolutions, and Rebellions: How China, Cuba, and Vietnam Transformed Guerilla Warfare. By Benjamin R. Young. Cornell University, 2026. P2

[8]

ibid, P67

[9]

Reds, Revolutions, and Rebellions: How China, Cuba, and Vietnam Transformed Guerilla Warfare. By Benjamin R. Young. Cornell University, 2026, p. 66, 69

[10]

ibid, p. 110

[11]

ibid

[12]

ibid, P111- 12

[13]

ibid, p. 119

Disclaimer: This author understands how netball and warfare aren’t directly comparable, with no blood spilled after the final whistle. [1] However, there is a curious crossover between sports and military history. How armies and elite-level sporting squads train reflects in how they perform. This author is a Silver Ferns/New Zealand team supporter from the time he spent living across the Tasman.

What do the 2026 Glasgow Commonwealth Games Netball semi- finals and final have to do with winning wars? The question seems absurd until one considers that matter in a tactical and strategic light. This article will briefly cover the second semi-final and the final from the Jamaican standpoint. (New Zealand defeated England in the first semi- final to reach the final. ) [2]

How did Jamaica beat Australia in the second semi-final? Aside from sending Australia to the bronze medal game, they defeated that team for the first time at the Commonwealth Games. [3] The Jamaican coaches, [Head] coach Sasher Gaye Henry and specialist coach Rob Wright, conjured up a tactical masterclass. [4]

Before one examines Jamaica’s tactics, a brief side note is necessary. The Commonwealth Games netball tournament structure means that a team only needs to beat their opposition one time out of ten. [5] The other nine results that would occur in an international series aren’t a factor.

The Suncorp Super Netball’s long-standing role in developing international teams is a long-term norm. The core of the New Zealand, Jamaican and England squads play in the Suncorp league. That league is the brutal training ground for players and coaches. Those teams are loaded with import and Australian players who play alongside or against each other weekly.

For this article’s purposes, netball manoeuvre is placing the players with the ball into spaces to win games.

Jamaica understood that if Australia were permitted to play their usual fast-paced, mobile, high-pressure (hereafter manoeuvre) game plan, they would lose. [6] The Jamaicans opted for a bold, calculated risk: Robbing the Australian side of the ability to manoeuvre, with a western front-style deadlock. [7] Their route to victory relied on breaking the deadlock and the Australians’ backbone.

That 1914- 18 approach represented a departure from conventional netball wisdom. Nine times out of ten, those tactics would result in two possible outcomes. First, the opposing teams spend the match going goal for goal until the final whistle. Second, and most likely, the strongest team breaks the stalemate and wins.

Jamaica employed netball principles, not as a part of their general play, but as their entire game plan. Shutting down the Australian side by contesting every ball/full court defence and closing down the space needed for a mobile mid-court and outfoxing the defenders was the blueprint.

Translated to military tactics: Jamaica’s main effort was built around a reverse slope defence anchored by their Goal Keep, Shamera Sterling-Humphrey, and Goal Shoot Romelda Aiken-George. [8]

Jamaica also departed from their traditional playing style. Rather than aerial passing mixed with athleticism, they opted for a winning approach.

It is worth noting how it was unreasonable to expect the Australian coaches to predict Jamaica’s game plan. However, head coach Stacey Marinkovich and Assistant Coach Nicole Richardson failed to notice how their opposition walked away from their old school playing style. [9] This meant that they didn’t ponder the implications of that change for the semi-final. That omission was likely caused by overconfidence.

How would Australia adapt to Jamaica’s tactics? The answer to that question defined the outcome of that game. Australia’s failure to restore manoeuvre was behind their defeat. However, that failing doesn’t mean Australia didn’t attempt to break the deadlock. Like Germany on the Western Front in 1918, Australia struck first, but lost the war.

Jamaica and New Zealand had twenty-four hours to prepare for the gold medal final. The tactical landscape was radically different, but the same for both sides. Outstanding defenders and tall, dominant shooters were the main efforts. * New Zealand enjoyed the advantage of having stronger mid-court players.

Notably, Jamaica lost to New Zealand in pool play. [10] Also, effectively, both teams faced the issue of how to defeat versions of themselves. Jamaica faced a tactical change-up in a short space of time. How would they prevent the ball from getting into New Zealand’s shooting circle? How would they slow down their opposition’s scoring rate? What could they take away from their pool rounds loss?

Crucially, the same one-off outcome logic mentioned above also applied to the final.

Unfortunately, New Zealand facing turmoil before the Glasgow Games falls beyond the scope of this article. However, two developments sat in the background. First, the ANZ Premiership, New Zealand’s top-level netball competition, pending demise, sent players to the Suncorp league. [11] Second, Noeline Taurua, New Zealand’s head coach, was stood down, but returned in time for the Commonwealth Games. Taurua was the victim of a warped agenda against her. [12]

Why did Jamaica lose to New Zealand in the final? [13] The Jamaican subconscious played their final against Australia. That left them unable to adjust their mindset in the time available. So, their world-class players and skill base weren’t backed by foundational thinking. [14]

New Zealand did enough to win their pool match against Jamaica, but without revealing all their playing cards. This left New Zealand with cards left to play in the finals. At best, there wasn’t much Jamaica could take from the game. At worst, they drew the wrong lessons from that victory. Jamaica might have concluded they had a template for how New Zealand would play in the finals.

Like Australia in the semi-final, Jamaica failed to vary their tactics. Nor did the Jamaican coaches and players find a way to apply consistent pressure to their opposition. The result was a dam-breaking/New Zealand’s lead increasing to a winning margin.

New Zealand’s tactical smarts nullified Jamaica’s defensive efforts ( Shamera Sterling-Humphrey), while playing to their strengths. Noeline Taurua, with Briony Akle, the New Zealand Assistant Coach, figured out how to beat their international mirror counterparts. [15]

The gold medal match resembled a Battle of Cambrai - methodical style contest. The one-off nature of the final ensured that the full scope of manoeuvre never materialised. Neither side’s coaching staff had time to restore a free-flowing, speedy game plan without risking defeat.

Noeline Taurua and her players displayed resilience in the face of netball’s woes in New Zealand.

The Suncorp league and other netball leagues’ role in preparing the players for internationals was one part of the puzzle. * The best coached sides, with sufficient player firepower, made the gold medal final.

World-class players can’t overcome poor coaching. This was shown by England’s poor form before and at the Commonwealth Games. The same goes for Australia’s semi-final demise. However, Australia bounced back to defeat England in the Bronze medal match. [16]

Consider how the best trained army relies on sound battlefield commanders. One advantage armies potentially enjoy over their netball counterparts is identifying talented commanders during training.

Put another way, the next Richard Winters might enjoy the chance to shine. Those who are obviously unfit for command are reassigned to more suitable roles. [17] However, the players in a poorly coached international side are stuck until their national netball body makes coaching changes.

For brevity’s sake, that leaves three unexplored topics. First, until someone is exposed to combat, no one is certain how individuals will perform. Second, why the best assistant coaches don’t always succeed as domestic and international head coaches. Lastly, why incompetent military commanders remain in place.

It is sensible to plan for an opponent’s most likely course of action. However, opposing forces will show signs of altering their tactical and operational game plans. Detecting those alterations and adjusting one’s thinking is a necessary part of the tournament or war-winning puzzle. What do those changes mean for the related coaches’ or military commanders’ plans?

Lastly, the ability to cope with an unexpected shock requires considering that eventuality in advance and also requires flexible thinking. If questioning what the red team is doing doesn’t prevent nasty surprises, it might provide clues to a faster recovery.

The overarching takeaway is that New Zealand’s 2026 Commonwealth Games netball campaign was a strategic gold medal success. By taking a broader tournament view, tactics aligned with New Zealand’s undefeated run.

Moreover, Jamaica demonstrated how tactical prowess/winning games standalone took them to the final, but they fell at the final hurdle. As in military history, strategy trumps tactics, with sound strategists defeating genuine tacticians. However, there is room for broad strokes, provided the knock-out punches are delivered to the enemy at the correct time.

References

[1]

For people who are new to netball:

https://www.glasgow2026.com/sports/netball

https://netball.sport/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/World-Netball-Rules-Book-2024.pdf (PDF download.)

[2]

https://www.bbc.com/sport/netball/articles/c151l288y9xo

[3]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-02/diamonds-lose-jamaica-semifinal-commonwealth-games-netball/106986392

[4]

The Jamaican 2026 Commonwealth Games player and coaching line-up.

[5]

The Commonwealth Games netball draw and results.

https://www.glasgow2026.com/schedule/day-by-day?code=NBL&startDate=2026-07-25

[6]

The Australian 2026 Commonwealth Games netball squad.

https://netball.com.au/news/team-announced-contend-gold-glasgow

[7]

The concept of manoeuvre

[8]

Romelda Aiken-George

https://www.instagram.com/aiken_romelda/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/shamera_humphrey/?hl=en

[9]

The Australian Commonwealth Games netball squad coaches.

https://netball.com.au/diamonds/staff

*

For New Zealand: Grace Nweke is the dominant shooter. Kelly Jackson and Karin Burger are the key defenders.

For Jamaica: The same essential players remained from the semi-final.

[10]

https://netball.sport/events-and-results/commonwealth-games/#FIXTURES

[11]

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/sport/781188/netball-nz-frees-silver-ferns-to-sign-overseas-as-league-future-hangs-in-the-balance

[12]

https://www.nine.com.au/sport/netball/news-2025-silver-ferns-dame-noeline-taurua-reinstated-reputation-damaged-reaction-20251028-p5n62x.html

[13]

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/361013474/silver-ferns-beat-jamaica-final-win-first-commonwealth-games-gold-medal-2010

[14]

Netball-related mindset see:

Nikala Smith, the former West Coast Fever player, Thinking Rewired.

https://www.instagram.com/thinking_rewired/

An in-depth look at mindsets:

Sophie Warner’s MindsetRX

https://www.instagram.com/thinking_rewired/

https://substack.com/@voluptatibusater944504?utm_source=notification

[15]

Briony Ankle, the former NSW Swifts coach.

https://www.silverferns.co.nz/silver-ferns/news/latest-news/silver-ferns-appoint-briony-akle-as-assistant-coach.html

*

I hope South African and other international netball fans will forgive me for not mentioning their domestic leagues below.

The ANZ Premiership

https://anzpremiership.co.nz/

The [UK] Netball Super League

https://www.netballsl.com/

[16]

https://www.skysports.com/netball/news/12415/13569143/commonwealth-games-australia-68-50-england-roses-suffer-comprehensive-defeat-to-diamonds-in-netball-bronze-medal-match

[17]

https://www.war.gov/News/Feature-Stories/Story/Article/3777596/reluctant-wwii-hero-immortalized-with-statue-near-utah-beach/

Imran Mulla’s The Indian Caliphate: Exiled Ottomans and the Billionaire Prince offers a glimpse of the Caliphate’s fate and failed resurrection. [1]

The Indian Caliphate: Exiled Ottomans and the Billionaire Prince (hereafter, The Exiled) provides a historical roller-coaster ride for historical propagandists. For the reader, that wild ride begins with Prince Abdulmejid caught up in Ottoman Empire turmoil. Abdulmejid’s father, Sultan Abdulaziz, was overthrown by the Young Turks in a coup. [2]

Note to the reader: This reviewer has opted to retain Mulla’s spelling in The Exiled.

Notably, The House of Osman fused the Ottomans with the Caliphate. [3] Ottoman rulers turned to “friendly philosophers” for that fusion and to turn the Caliphate away from Sunni influence. [4] The geographical influence of the reinvented Islamic institution reached the subcontinent. However, the [Islamic] Mughal Empire paid token loyalty to the Caliphate’s leaders and global sovereignty claims.

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The Exiled’s opening act provides a solid grounding for the reader. For the reader, that grounded approach outlines WW1’s end, the Ottoman Empire’s demise, and Mustafa Kemal Pasha founding modern-day Turkey. * [5]If someone is new to military history, sufficient background information about those matters is provided until the solid ground cracks.

Abulmejid joined a roller coaster ride after Turkey outlawed the Caliphate in March 1924. [6] His attempts to resurrect the Caliphate are the ride’s ups and downs. Abulmejid’s exile from Turkey represented his launch pad and traumatic displacement. [7]

Mulla displays a talent for gross understatement: His overview of Indians’ opposition to the United Kingdom breaking their wartime promise to protect the Caliphate is telling. The emergence of civil en masse disobedience crossed communal lines, temporarily unifying Hindus and Muslims. [8] While communal divides returned, nationalism remained ingrained.

Mulla’s focus shifts to the Middle East and India, introducing new players to the reader. His Exalted Highness – the Nizam of Hyderabad, a prince, takes centre stage. Osman Ali Khan, the Nizam, ruled a thriving and cosmopolitan Hyderabad. [9]

The Nizam was eccentric and austere. [10] His stingy nature sat alongside marble halls, wonderful fabrics, fine dining and enormous wealth. That wealth wasn’t on Wall Street, but from gold, diamonds and rubies. [11] Culturally, he was knee-deep in Urdu poetry and was his region’s ambassador for that literature. [12]

Urdu’s role in British India is tackled in the Reviewer’s Note below. Readers with expertise in that matter are free to leave a comment below.

Khan opted to support Abulmejid financially. Curiously, he opted to express that support via poetry. [13] Historically, this is where Abulmejid’s roller coaster first slows down. In daily life terms, this meant his family managed to live on the French Riviera. [14]

Moreover, the reader’s experience doesn’t match the Riviera. Mulla doesn’t elaborate upon Khan’s character to explain why he communicates via poetry. Readers are left without the depth behind his personality. Those missing attributes unlock a window into how and why historical figures operated.

The Exiled’s middle section is where Mulla’s work joins its wild ride. At 284 pages, he was left with scope for expanding upon his narrative. That is shown by The Exiled’s coverage of the political struggle/violence in Palestine. That is where his brief overview of Mufti Haj Amin al-Hussani matters.

Mulla treats Hussani as someone who deserted the British for fascism. [15] The danger is that the reader mistakes that undercooked explanation as a justification for Hussani’s actions. Building upon that assessment would have provided the reader with additional information for consideration.

Mulla links the World Islamic Congress (hereafter Congress) to the Palestinian cause. The 1931 Congress was held in Jerusalem. [16] The attendees, including Hussani, rallied against the Jewish presence in Palestine. [17]

The author’s analysis of the Congress’s historical legacy contains two crucial elements. First, Palestine is no longer an Arab and Jewish conflict. Global Islam is linked to the perceived Arab struggle in that region. Second, those links remained in place in the post-war period. [18]

Mulla’s argument about the origins of Palestinian identity rests in the 1930s. The risk is leaving the impression that his case relies on the Palestine issue remaining unchanged. That notion would undercut his argument. Palestine was the geographical area covered by the League of Nations mandate.

The Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, after the Six-Day War, is when the Palestine matters reemerge. Why those matters vanished between the creation of the state of Israel and the Six-Day War is the crux of that matter. The reader is best left to ponder that matter. *

Moreover, The Exiled’s journey finishes on a deathly tone. Abulmejid faced the German occupation of France, before dying in 1944. [19] His death ended his roller-coaster ride without influencing history in his favour.

Hyderabad’s opportunity for autonomy died with India’s independence/partition. Like the rest of India, Hyderabad was overrun by blood-stained communalism. However, Jawaharlal Nehru’s government employed military force to absorb Hyderabad into the Indian state. The Nizam turned down the opportunity for Hyderabad to join Pakistan. [20]

The defunct Ottoman Empire Caliphate never assumed a position of power in the post-war world. Mulla’s outlines of those grave ends return The Exiled to its heights. Abulmejid and Hyderabad’s fates are covered in a solid and informative manner.

However, diagrams/family trees documenting Abulmejid and the other players are missing. Maps covering the subcontinent and the Middle East are also absent. Readers are robbed of handy reference points by those omissions.

Ironically, like Mulla’s source material, The Exiled is a roller coaster. For the reader, with existing historical knowledge, to paper over the low points, there is ample value in The Exiled. The same applies to the reader who is willing to undertake future research about the topics Mulla underdoes. Moreover, The Exiled is unsuitable as a standalone reference title or for someone new to 20th-century history.

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References

[1]

Imran Mulla:

His X account:

https://x.com/Imran_posts

The Indian Caliphate: Exiled Ottomans and the Billionaire Prince.

https://www.amazon.com.au/Indian-Caliphate-Exiled-Ottomans-Billionaire/dp/1805264249

[2]

The Indian Caliphate: Exiled Ottomans and the Billionaire Prince. Imran Mulla. C. Hurst & Co (Publishers) Ltd. P10

[3]

The Indian Caliphate: Exiled Ottomans and the Billionaire Prince. Imran Mulla. C. Hurst & Co (Publishers) Ltd. P16

[4]

ibid

*

Pasha became known as Ataturk, Father of the Turks.

[5]

ibid, P47, 49, 70, 74, 79- 82

[6]

ibid, 89

[7]

ibid, P89- 94

[8]

A brief introduction to the history behind Indian communalism.

https://ijssrr.com/journal/article/view/2273/1717 (PDF download.)

Reviewer’s Note

Urdu was the working language employed by the British in India. British Indian Army Officers and members of the Indian Civil Service employed that language in a ruling-class manner. Grammatically incorrect writing and condescending verbal instructions were hallmarks of that rude manner.

See: https://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/studies/PDF-FILES/Tariq-2%20new.pdf

However, General William Slim, the commander of the Fourteenth Army, was able to address his troops in multiple Indian languages fluently. One of Slim’s contemporaries, Lieutenant-General Francis Tuker, spoke those languages well enough to interact with the local art scene.

Between Slim, Tuker, and imperial rule’s norms, is someone’s character and time spent in India.

See:

Slim’s Defeat Into Victory: Battling Japan in Burma and India, 1942-1945

https://www.amazon.com.au/Defeat-Into-Victory-William-Slim/dp/0815410220

Tuker’s While Memory Serves

https://dn760003.eu.archive.org/0/items/1950-while-memory-serves-by-tuker/1950%20While%20Memory%20Serves%20by%20Tuker.pdf (PDF download).

[9]

The Indian Caliphate: Exiled Ottomans and the Billionaire Prince. Imran Mulla. C. Hurst & Co (Publishers) Ltd. P109.

[10]

ibid, P117 – 118

[11]

ibid, 117

[12]

A sample of Urdu poetry

https://medium.com/poetry-from-the-east/poetry-in-the-east-a-journey-of-discovery-of-urdu-poetry-6197767f41b4

Urdu poetry gatherings (Mushaira)

https://rekhtalearning.com/blog/mushaira-a-history-of-thunderous-and-traditional-w/

The Indian Caliphate: Exiled Ottomans and the Billionaire Prince. Imran Mulla. C. Hurst & Co (Publishers) Ltd. P125 – 27

[13]

ibid. 126-27

[14]

ibid, 129 – 32

[15]

ibid, 142

[16]

ibid, 169

[17]

ibid, 172

[18]

ibid

*

This reviewer recommends Professor Jean-Pierre Filiu’s A History of Gaza. Filiu’s title covers Gaza’s post-war history. He covers Gaza’s time under Egyptian and Israeli control on a fair basis. This reviewer hasn’t come across a similar title covering the West Bank.

https://www.amazon.com.au/Gaza-History-Jean-pierre-Filiu/dp/0190201894

[19]

ibid, 192-93

[20]

ibid, 207-9

James M. Scott is the author of seven books, including Black Snow: Curtis Lemay: the firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb. [1] Scott’s Empire of Ashes: Truman, Hirohito, and the descent into Total War covers the lead-up to Japan’s surrender. [2]

Empire of Ashes: Truman, Hirohito, and the descent into Total War (hereafter Total War) travels the American and Japanese historical roads. Those roads represent contributions to Japan shifting from strategic defeat to doom. *

Scott utilises Total War’s roads to capture the reader with rich texture and details. For the reader new to WW2 history, the historical participants’ backgrounds will fill in the gaps. For people established in military history fields, those holes are often present on the Japanese side. * For instance, Admiral Kantare Suzuki is no longer reduced to a supporting act. Suzuki is sitting in the Prime Minister’s seat. [3]

Scott’s Japan avenues face obstacles that might leave the reader with the mistaken impression that they are underdone. The Supreme War Council consisted of the prime minister, foreign minister, war minister, and war minister, alongside the Chief of the Army and Navy general staffs. [4] Informally known as the Big Six, the War Council enjoyed access to Emperor Hirhoito. [5] Hirhoito rubber-stamped Japan’s China and WW2 misadventures, but without serving as a policymaker. [6]

Aside from Shringenori Togo, the foreign minister, the Big Six’s stubborn refusal to sue for peace shines through. Outside of Japan’s failed peace feeders to the Soviet Union, Scott had no room for additional context concerning that country’s political leadership. *

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Total War, embracing the Manhattan Project’s vast financial, labour, and resource outlays, is an eye-opener for the reader who is new to those details. Major General Leslie Groves, overseeing the location selection for the Atom bomb’s development, is among those matters. Entire communities sprang up around the Manhattan Project’s developmental arms. [7]

Scott’s streets offer the reader the brief opportunity to assess the planned invasion of the Home Islands. Truman approved Operation Olympic, the invasion of Kyushu, for November 1945. [8] Along with the presidential approval, the estimated American casualties from Olympic equated to an escalating bloodbath. (Previously, U.S. military casualties operations against Japan’s home chain islands, including Okinawa, provided the preview for what the future held.)

Scott crystallises how invading Japan was the front and centre option before the Atomic bomb was successfully tested in remote New Mexico. The reader is better placed to weigh up Truman’s decision to authorise the use of the atomic bombs against Japan.

Ultimately, Truman sought a route that would end the war and spare future American blood from being spilled.

Total War’s final section covers the military preparation and dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The addition of Nagasaki is a welcome addition to Total War. In previous histories, Nagasaki is overlooked in favour of Hiroshima’s gruesome historical first. This reviewer is uncertain if the “ Nagasaki Admission” is a product of lazy history or space constraints and other considerations historians and authors face.

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Usually, Total War embraces a journey along historical highways and the atomic destination that ended World War II and ushered in the nuclear era. * How Scott balances historical leanings with the outcomes, but without resorting to a three-volume history, ensures Total War is recommended reading.

References

Note to the reader: The page numbers cited below from Total War are from an advance reader copy.

[1]

James M. Scott

His website:

https://www.jamesmscott.com/

His X account:

https://x.com/jamesmscott3

His Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100032787951220

[2]

Empire of Ashes: Truman, Hirohito, and the descent into Total War.

https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Ashes-Truman-Hirohito-Descent/dp/1324065486

*

Strategic defeat is this reviewer’s term for how Japan faced a losing war before WW2’s end. Notably, the United States Navy’s submarine campaign cut off Japan’s home islands from its imperial possessions.

https://warontherocks.com/talkin-world-war-ii-blockades-and-submarines-in-the-pacific/

*

The reviewer is referring to how, in comparison to Nazi Germany, Japan’s wartime leaders and slide into war are under-documented in the Anglo-speaking world. Moreover, this review is not condoning Japanese militarism, war crimes and their Empire.

[3]

Empire of Ashes: Truman, Hirohito, and the descent into Total War. James M. Scott. W.W. Norton & Company, 2026. P125-26, 184 – 85, 346, 348- 49, 362-63

[4]

ibid, 184

[5]

ibid

[6]

ibid, 115-16.

*

The inclusion of Japan before the atomic bombs also allows Scott to document wartime conditions in that country and the impact of the atomic bombs in Total War.

[7]

ibid, P87- 99

[8]

ibid, 166

*

The elephant in the room is a counterfactual question: What would have happened if Japan had refused to surrender after the atomic bombs were dropped? That question is unavoidable, but it is beyond Total War and this review’s topical scope.

Secretary of State for Defence, Mr Fill – In, wipes the sand from his glowing blond hair. He just returned from a puzzling meeting. The service chiefs reported how the globe was on fire. The military situation is flushed down the toilet.

He reaches for his black phone. The Smartphone networks crumble like a pack of cards. Moving the dial with his finger is a painful art. 1947 is the last four digits of the first endless phone number. He lifts his green-rimmed spectacles and glances down at the yellow paper sheets, titled ‘strategic reserves’.

An automated message plays. “Welcome to the Indian Army hotline.”

“Press One to speak with Lieutenant General Francis Tuker, the commander of the 4th Indian Division.”

“This phone number is no longer available.” The monotone voice ends the call.

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Fill-In scratches his forehead and rummages through the paperwork. His thumb presses against.

British Army Lend- Lease inventory

Requests for the following

Artillery...

The next dialling sequence begins with 1945.

“This service is closed, please contact 0800 globalisation for help.” He throws the receiver across his oak desk, with it rebounding against his pale forehead.

Rubbing his aching pale temple, he locates the last musty page. The last call for the day.

For the Royal Navy, ring, 1991911...

He hears the customary ringtone and dry voice. “No vessels are available for unplanned deployments. Please call again.”

He turns to the empty bucket filled with holes and grains of sand from the ocean’s time. He grips the blue bucket’s handle and throws it in the empty cupboard behind him.

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Mirko Palestrino’s Military Victory (hereafter Beyond Victory) redefines the concept of Victory away from the battlefield. The traditional relationship between wars’ timelines and perceived victories is the foundation, not the endpoint. [1]

Beyond Victory’s foundational framework is deeply rooted in academia. Palestrino goes beyond providing statements, examples of a subject matter, and a conclusion to in-text citations. However, those references support readers with a background in formal military history education. The reader familiar with a temporal (time- related) studies background is ideally suited to that construct.

Palestrino redefines Victory in multidimensional, holistic terms. [2] Shifting away from Victory’s definition tied to the end of hostilities opens up fresh conceptual thinking. He begins with Israel’s attempt to craft a victory narrative in the 2006 Lebanon War. Operation Web of Steel sought a symbolic, and not a battlefield, success. Web Steel failed to achieve traditional military success or the desired outcome. *

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Subject to their personal interests, readers will easily identify with Beyond Victory, integrating seemingly unrelated subject matter into the fold. Computer games and military doctrine are two standouts easily recognisable by the reader.

Beyond Victory argues that Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, and 11:11 represent cultural warfare depictions. [3] Palestrino identifies how Medal of Honor (1999) burst onto the gaming scene and left a lasting legacy. [4] Outside of 11.11, he also acknowledges that gameplay limitations restrict console games’ ability to portray victorious storylines. [5]

How the reader feels about Palestrino’s coverage of the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty games will depend on their interests, outside of military history. Gamers who have played the extinct Medal of Honor series and select Call of Duty titles might enjoy a different perspective. *

This reviewer supports the idea that someone not present during historical events can study and understand those incidents. However, video games, a fictional entertainment medium, are accessible to the general public. People enjoy the option of experiencing gaming first-hand, and not through history books.

The reader who follows that logic is positioned to expand their thinking into Beyond Victory. For instance, war monuments reflect a country’s political leadership or a society’s views on war. Whether the fighting is ongoing or ends, those artworks remain in place. [6]

Additionally, this reviewer appreciates the inclusion of war monuments from outside the Anglosphere, and not related to WW2. Saddam Hussein’s Hands of Victory was constructed in the wake of the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88). In Saddam’s image, with his arms holding swords, that stature furthers a false victory tale. [7]

Beyond Victory successfully reaches its intended target audience. Military history Master’s and Doctorate students will find that Beyond Victory offer them the chance to expand their thinking about when and how wars end. However, informal students who turn to that topic are more likely to avoid Beyond Victory and turn to other, less academic titles.

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References

[1]

Mirkro Palestriono

His Queen Mary University of London profile:

https://www.qmul.ac.uk/politics/staff/profiles/palestrinomirko.html

His X profile:

https://x.com/palestrinomirko

Military Victory: Beyond the Battlefield:

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/military-victory-beyond-the-battlefield-9780198955788?cc=au&lang=en&

*

Traditional military success is this reviewer’s measuring stick for tactical, operational or strategic wartime success.

[2]

Mirkro Palestrino, Military Victory Beyond the Battlefield ( Oxford University Press, 2025). P1- 3

*

Disclaimer: This reviewer played the Medal of Honor games on PlayStation and Xbox 360. He also played Call of Duty 2 on his Xbox 360. His informal lifelong interest in 20th-century military history began before he played those console games.

[3]

ibid, P95- 103

[4]

ibid, P95

[5]

ibid, P99

[6]

ibid, P126 – 132, 140- 146

[7]

ibid, P134

The Iran – Iraq War

https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/iran-iraq-war

The strategic implications of a United States Navy Submarine, the USS Charlotte, sinking the Iranian frigate IRIS Iris Dena, are the focus of this brief article. [1]

Tactically, the sinking of the IRIS Dena was a straightforward task for the United States Navy’s submarine force. The Islamic Republic of Iran Navy’s (hereafter, Iranian Navy) neglect of anti-submarine warfare capabilities sealed that vessel’s fate.

The IRIS Dena is the second warship sunk by a nuclear-powered submarine. The first to share that fate was the Argentinian cruiser ARA Belgrano, sunk by HMS Conqueror during the Falklands War. [2] * Comparisons between the loss of the Belgrano and Iris Dena run into immediate difficulties based on their respective war zones.

The IRIS Dena was accounted for in international waters off Sri Lanka. However, in relative distance terms, the Belgrano was sunk much closer to the active warzone than Iris Dena was in proximity to the Gulf. So why did the United States Navy (hereafter USN) bother with the Iris Dena? That vessel was too far away from Iran and the Gulf to have any impact before getting sunk by coalition air strikes. The answer to that question lies in Iran’s reaction to the incident.

The remaining Iranian naval vessels sought shelter from a neutral Sri Lankan port. The Iranian Navy’s act of self-preservation is their reaction to recent events. [3] However, it’s not unheard of for a warship to seek the sanctuary of a neutral port. After the Battle of the River Plate, the German commerce raider Graf Spee sought shelter in the neutral zone/ Montevideo, Uruguay. Hans Langsdorff, the Graft Spee’s captain, opted to scuttle his damaged ship, rather than face additional combat against the Royal Navy.

Did the Iranian Navy attempt a commerce raiding campaign in the Indian Ocean?

At face value, the above question is absurd. The USN’s submarine force’s global presence, satellite coverage, and probable signals intelligence likely removed the present-day commerce raiding threat. *

However, I invite the reader to consider the following before dismissing the prospect of the Iranians aborting an Indian Ocean Raid. The loss of IRIS Dena and other Iranian naval vessels seeking neutral sanctuary might have halted that planned operation.

After the outbreak of war, insurance issues brought shipping in the Gulf to a halt. [4] Commerce raiders are the tool of the naval underdogs, and Iran fits that billing against the USN perfectly. Iranian surface raiders only needed to inflict enough damage to prevent shipping movements across the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Maritime insurance matters, and not ships lost, would have caused sea-based commerce to pause.

Such a development would have prevented Australia, New Zealand and other countries from importing fuel and other essential supplies.

References

[1]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/04/us-submarine-torpedo-iran-warship-sri-lanka-coast-pete-hegseth

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/article314949686.html

[2]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/2/newsid_2480000/2480241.stm

https://navalhistoria.com/the-sinking-of-the-general-belgrano-a-controversial-chapter-in-naval-history/

*

How the Belgrano was outside the United Kingdom’s declared Exclusion Zone around the Falklands is omitted from this article for brevity’s sake. The controversy around that sinking occurred from people disconnected from military realities.

[3]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/05/iran-ship-sri-lanka-port-after-us-sinking-of-frigate

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c747vezn7zwo

*

German naval raiders operated globally in WW1 and WW2. The German Raider Atlantis is one example from 1940 -41.

https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1949/december/cruise-german-raider-atlantis-1940-1941

[4]

https://www.ft.com/content/865dab47-f9b8-4c81-88e6-15894cbda58c

Alwyn Turner’s A Shellshocked Nation: Britain Between The Wars (hereafter Shellshocked) captures the United Kingdom in the interwar period. Turner captures the United Kingdom from cultural and social perspectives in the generation between the world wars. [1]

Shellshocked Nation’s foundation is slices of British society in the interwar years. The reader finds a multi-storied building consisting of a holistic examination of everyday interwar life. Turner injects occasional commentary concerning historical figures in his narrative.

Turner’s United Kingdom’s currency and incomes guide is a welcome addition to Shellshocked. The reader finds that the guide is a useful background to Shellshocked’s material. Readers who are too young to remember the United Kingdom’s pre-decimal system might employ that guide as reference material. * [2]

Turner’s building is constructed from developments and trends in Shellshocked’s time frame. Entertainment media, literature, and gradually changing societal values are the bedrock.

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How the reader reacts to the building’s well-known factors will determine their Shellshocked experience. This follows on with the reader enjoying the option of connecting Shellshocked elements to the present day. The British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) founding and Hollywood’s international cultural influence are two instances of those topical threads.

John Reith, the man resembling a Victorian-era control freak, with a sense of destiny, founded the BBC. His character was imprinted on the BBC’s operating model, and the emerging radio broadcast industry allowed him that freedom. [3] Beyond support for parliamentary democracy, political neutrality, commercial-free, with revenue raised from a license fee and sales tax on radios. [4]

The arrival of Hollywood films in Britain brought creative, technical, and financial success to cinemas. That development brought new faces and accents from outside of the British Empire into the mother country. [5]

Shellshocked’s pie allows the reader to construct an inter-war person’s life without relying on a specific individual’s accounts. After picking a year, the reader builds a picture around the books, films, and economic outlook that an individual experienced at that time, and how someone’s personal tastes and biases are absent from the equation.

Shellshocked demonstrates how the interwar period is more than a bridge between the world wars. Re-framing the middle of the 20th century offers readers the chance to rethink their understanding of contemporary history, making Shellshocked essential reading.

References

[1]

Alwyn Turner

His X Account:

https://x.com/AlwynTurner

Related website:

https://thelionandunicorn.com/

A Shellshocked Nation: Britain Between The Wars

https://www.amazon.com.au/Shellshocked-Nation-Britain-Between-Wars/dp/1805221876

*

Australia and Kiwi readers might be familiar with the later switch to decimal currencies.

Australia:

https://museum.rba.gov.au/exhibitions/the-decimal-revolution/a-new-currency/

New Zealand:

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/nz-adopts-decimal-currency

[2]

Alwyn Turner, A Shellshocked Nation: Britain Between The Wars ( Profile Books Ltd, 2026). Pxi

(Page numbers correspond to Shellshocked Nation’s PDF review version.)

[3]

ibid, p.97

[4]

ibid, 97-98

[5]

ibid, 91, 95, 242

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Alexandra Churchill and Nicolai Eberholst’s Ring of Fire: A New Global History of the Outbreak of the First World War captures that conflict’s outbreak from eyewitness accounts. Those accounts (hereafter snapshots), along with Churchill and Eberholst’s narration, follow the fallout from war unleashed in chronological order.

Churchill and Eberholst’s (hereafter the authors) narration is structured around snapshots and unfolds with evolving events. How matters unfold across a historical timeline is unusual compared to titles that extensively examine battles and campaigns. Ring of Fire’s geographical and topical focuses differ from chapter to chapter.

Ring of Fire’s window into WW1’s opening serves as the foundation for the snapshots illustrating unseen perspectives and overlooked events. The snapshots form a dense forest consisting of overlooked perspectives and events.

Subject to their existing knowledge, readers will find new paths/topics, for additional reading. Ring of Fire provides reference points that smash historical silos. Put another way, the reader is presented with the opportunity to connect Australia and New Zealand’s colonial period with WW1. [2] Trans – Tasman history between European settlement and WW1 is interconnected, not stand-alone incidents.

Ring of Fire covers how neutral countries fared on the sidelines. The authors demonstrate how neutrality wasn’t a shield against the tsunami of ripple effects from the war’s outbreak. One notable impact of the surging tides was that global commerce came to a halt.

Ships owned by United Kingdom shipping companies were recalled for wartime service. Additionally, a comfortable majority of Cunard’s deck officers were commissioned in the Royal Navy Reserve. [3]

South American countries’ access to international export markets was terminated by the massive chunk of the United Kingdom/ global shipping no longer in civilian service. In one instance, Argentinian sugar and coffee were rotting in harbours by 1914’s end. [4]

The reader is presented with the opportunity to learn more about why armies commit atrocities without condoning those morally abhorrent acts. * Ring of Fire’s forest includes snapshots of war crimes, including the German Rape of Belgium. [5] The backbone behind those bloody snapshots is the author’s explanation of the inexcusable rationale behind those acts.

Among the blood-stained trees are the lesser-known atrocities undertaken by Russian and Austrian-Hungarian troops. Russian soldiers executed German civilians who owned bicycles. Since everyday Russians didn’t own bicycles, it was assumed any person who had access to one was guilty of espionage. The same fate awaited East Prussian civilians who used barbed wire fencing. The Russians associated barbed wire with anti- calvary measures. [6]

The Russian ground forces caught up in “bicycle and barbed wire” mania symbolise armies with a warped moral code and world views.

Ring of Fire debunks two long-standing WW1 narratives. First, the early stages of the war and emerging battlefields – European confinement is a myth. In debunking that myth, the authors cover China, Africa, Japan, and the Pacific. Japan’s entry into the conflict is relatively unknown in the Anglosphere, in particular.

Japan’s offensive against German interests in Tsingtao, China, illustrates the spillover from seemingly unrelated events in Europe and the Balkans. Japan exploited the unfolding situation to expand its allies, and their British Allies, despite any reservations, couldn’t object. [7]

Compared to Japan’s actions, Australia’s seizure of German New Guinea and New Zealand’s capture of Samoa are under-documented but better known. [8]

The trees in Ring of Fire’s forest fall in one aspect. The author’s argument that the Ottoman Empire and Italy entered the war for imperial territorial gain is fragmented. The authors put the horse before the cart, and that risks the reader abandoning that notion. * However, if the reader puts aside that fractured element, Ring of Fire’s ecosystem remains intact.

The authors introduce the reader to how senior military commanders viewed events. When matters took a turn for the worse, battlefield reversals elsewhere failed to relieve the pressure valve. Alternatively, how Generals cope with adversity and ailing fortunes across separate geographical regions in Ring of Fire’s timeline is understated. This recasts the Battle of Tannenberg and the simultaneous German pressure on French forces in a new light for the reader.

Ring of Fire’s forest grows from the authors’ focus on WW1’s ballooning outbreak. For the reader who is new to military history, Ring of Fire provides a framework for their learning journey. The emerging Western, Eastern, and other theatres of war, and “neutral countries,” are part of that historical forest’s ecosystem.

For the long-term WW1 students, Ring of Fire provides a global interconnected perspective. When they opt to read titles that offer in–depth analysis of a battle or campaign, it is possible to marry that assessment with Ring of Fire’s forest.

References

[1]

Ring of Fire: A New Global History of the Outbreak of the First World War

https://www.amazon.com.au/Ring-Fire-History-World-1914/dp/1639369279

Alexandra Churchill:

Her website:

https://www.alexchurchill.co.uk/

Her Bluesky:

https://bsky.app/profile/alexchurchill.bsky.social

Her Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/churchill_alex/

Nicolai Eberholst:

His X:

https://x.com/PikeGrey1418

His Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/pikegrey1418/

[2]

Australia’s colonial period, 1788 – 1901

https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/atwar/colonial

New Zealand’s colonial period has a less clear-cut time frame.

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/history-new-zealand-1769-1914

Also see:

Ring of Fire: A New Global History of the Outbreak of the First World War. Alexandra Churchill and Nicolai Eberholst, Head of Zeus, 2025, pp. 67 – 68

[3]

ibid, 213-14

[4]

ibid 223

*

How this review addresses Ring of Fire’s focus on atrocities reflects positively on the authors. However, given the inherently dark moral character of war crimes, he takes an unusual amount of care when covering them.

[5]

ibid 172 – 175

[6]

ibid 173 – 74

[7]

https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/siege-tsingtao

Ring of Fire: A New Global History of the Outbreak of the First World War. Alexandra Churchill and Nicolai Eberholst, Head of Zeus, 2025, pp. 324 - 332

[8]

ibid 316- 24

*

This reviewer doesn’t invalidate the authors’ conclusions, but assesses the structure of those arguments and how they link to the conclusions.

Nathan K Finney, the soldier-scholar, is an emerging authority on strategy, the military profession, and niche military history topics. His previous books are On Strategy: A Primer and Redefining the Modern Military: The Intersection of Profession and Ethics (co-authored with Tyrell O. Mayfield). Orchestrating Power is his latest and welcome topical addition to his previous works. [1]

Finney’s Orchestrating Power captures the North Carolina Council of Defense, which enabled the war effort through military and societal mobilisation. That Council of Defense (hereafter Defence Council), other unofficial and blatant role was to maintain that state’s white supremacist status quo. [2]

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Orchestrating Power begins with the U.S. entry into WW1. The Woodrow Wilson administration, implementing the Defence Council’s structure, navigated federalism and political wrestling with Congress. Despite the Defence Councils operating at the state level, their birth is from the National Council of National Defense (hereafter the National Council). The National Council consisted of an executive/decision-making and advisory branches.

The Associational State is formed by delegating authority to politically acceptable institutions. Those bodies adapt public policy and balance out competing interests and opportunities. [3]

The Defence Council acted as an intermediary between the state government, Washington D.C, the private sector, African American, and women’s groups. It was in those roles that the Defence Council met the criteria for the Associational State (hereafter, coordinating body or similar).

Orchestrating Power’s narrow focus is on the Defence Council’s role as a wartime coordinating organisation. Finney’s essay writing style provides readers with consistent conclusions throughout and at the end of chapters. These historically accurate points support Finney’s Defence Council analysis.

Beyond the North Carolina racist and elitist rule, Finney doesn’t sufficiently describe the often-mentioned historical figures. Thomas Bickett, the North Carolina governor, is central to events. Bickett’s character’s impact on the Defence Council and his state’s politics is inseparable from the historical record. *

Numerous Defence Council committees and sub-committees addressed an array of pressing issues. Orchestrating Power desperately required diagrams and charts displaying those committee’s details. Those visual tools would have made it easier for the reader to record those committee members. The same applies to the people who exercised Power by appointing committee members.

The Defence Council emerges as an open toolbox intended to address a range of wartime demands. Finney shows how the best tools are open to misuse, and without any disguise. The Defence Council abused its powers to address peacetime issues that threatened the North Carolina Empire. *

The Defence Council actively undermined efforts to improve African American and Women’s rights and social mobility. In one instance, support for “anti- vagrancy” laws and other measures to ensure African Americans remained in farm work is an instance where the establishment manipulated the system in their favour. African Americans fled North Carolina for better-paying jobs and more freedom in other states before the U.S’s late WW1 arrival.

Orchestrating Power’s unspoken strength is demonstrating the Defence Council’s successful disingenuous double act, which lasted until the armistice: The Defence Council organised North Carolina’s mobilisation of people and resources for that state’s contribution to the war effort. However, the Defence Council also worked the levers of Power to maintain the North Carolinian Empire.

Orchestrating Power provides solid research and reference material on the Defence Council’s short yet impactful methods behind North Carolina’s contribution to the U.S. war effort. The snapshot of the North Carolinian Empire double act is an intriguing glimpse into a society grappling with wartime demands and the resulting strains.

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References

[1]

Nathan K. Finney

His website:

https://nathankfinney.com/

His Bluesky:

https://bsky.app/profile/nathankfinney.com

On Strategy: A Primer

https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/combat-studies-institute/csi-books/on-strategy-a-primer.pdf (PDF Download)

Redefining the Modern Military: The Intersection of Profession and Ethics

https://www.amazon.com.au/Redefining-Modern-Military-Intersection-Profession/dp/1682473635

[2]

A broader look at Jim Crow laws:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/freedom-riders-jim-crow-laws/

Background on African Americans falling victim to lynchings:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/emmett-lynching-america/

For North Carolina’s One Party Democratic Party post-reconstruction 1877 and post–coup 1898 rule, see:

Orchestrating Power: The American Associational State in the First World War. Nathan K. Finney. Cornell University, 2025. P 25- 26

[3]

ibid, P4

*

North Carolina’s constitutional arrangements were an outlier, with the executive branch blended with a Westminster-style cabinet. Unlike other state governors, Bickett lacked the Power to veto bills passed by the state legislature.

ibid, P26

*

The North Carolinian Empire is this reviewer’s term for Finney’s description of North Carolina’s white supremacy - morally repugnant, elitist, paternalistic racism and agricultural-based social and economic order. This reviewer noticed the overlap between Finney’s assessment and the European colonial order.

Finney’s original outline of North Carolinian society and economy:

ibid, p26 – 27.

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Dr Robert Lyman and Jack Bowsher’s The Forgotten War Podcast: Burma Campaign WW2 covers that subject matter. [1] This review covers The Forgotten War’s first season, which provides an overview of the Burma Theatre.

Season one spans twelve episodes and concludes with a question-and-answer session. Listeners submitted a range of questions in advance of that season-one finale. Lyman and Bowsher gave informative answers to a range of the audience’s queries.

Aside from serving as an introduction to or refresher on the Burma theatre, the podcast’s other strength is highlighting crucial background factors. First, the allies’ conflicting goals for the Burma war are the lesser-known strategic issue. Nor did Burma’s backwater status, courtesy of the [defeat], Germany First policy, prevent those debates.

General Joseph Stilwell was at the heart of those conflicts, including his entrenched views on those matters. Stilwell faced the British desire to bypass Burma by mounting amphibious operations in Malaysia, with retaking Singapore in mind. The American perception of that strategic thought was tinted by their belief that the British sought to restore their lost Asian Empire outposts.

Additionally, the U.S. valued reopening the Burma Road to resume Lend-Lease supplies to Nationalist China. Ironically, Nationalist China displayed disinterest in Burma, preferring to stockpile U.S. aid for the future resumption of fighting against the communists in that country’s civil war. [2]

Lyman and Bowsher mention a range of titles, including and beyond their authorship, throughout The Forgotten War’s season one run. The listener would benefit from a centralised list of those resources, so they don’t have to refer back to older instalments for the details.

The Forgotten War podcast brings much-needed illumination of the Burma Campaign. Rather than focusing on the overlooked aspect of WW2, Lyman and Bowsher are documenting a remarkable turn in historical events and personalities. An in-depth look at the Burma War occurs in that podcast’s season 2.

The rising tide of current and future conflicts is unlikely to produce circumstances in which the tide turns from defeat into victory. Still, no one can say there wasn’t an opportunity to study that scenario.

Subscribe now

References

[1]

Dr Robert Lyman’s website:

https://robertlyman.com/

His X account:

https://x.com/robert_lyman

His Substack:

The War Room

Ideas and commentary on historical matters and subjects associated with modern international relations, sometimes associated with my writing, and sometimes not!

By Dr Robert Lyman MBE

Jack Bowsher:

Jack Bowsher’s website:

https://historybowsh.com/

His X account:

https://x.com/HistoryBowsh

The Forgotten War Podcast: Burma Campaign WW2 is available from your favourite podcast provider.

[2]

The Forgotten War Podcast: Burma Campaign WW2.

Episode 7. Games of Thrones(ish) in the CBI.

Also see: Robert Lyman’s The Generals, From Defeat to Victory, 1941- 45. Published by Contable, 2008.

Dr Victoria Taylor’s Eagle Days takes the reader on a four-part myth-debunking journey. Taylor provides a framework for understanding and studying the Luftwaffe from the Spanish Civil War to Operation Barbarossa. Taylor employs contemporary accounts to reveal German individuals’ motivations, feelings surrounding events and support for Nazism. [1] Removing historical hindsight tyranny, combined with those source materials, demolishes long-held ideas about rapidly unfolding and parallel events. [2]

Allowing the reader the option of studying Taylor’s methodology, alongside her analysis, is a welcome addition to World War II literacy. Her excellent Afterburners podcast is a terrific way for people to study the Luftwaffe informally, but Eagle Days also offers a glimpse into how to learn military history. [3]

Eagle Days spans sections entitled Agitation, Confrontation, Consolidation, and Diversion. Taylor’s destruction of long-held myths and concepts embraces two interconnected themes across those sections. The Luftwaffe “knights of the air” myth is slayed, and a darker, historically accurate picture emerges.

Eagle Day’s spider web is interconnected by Germany’s service to Hitler’s regime. Luftwaffe ground and aircrews wholeheartedly embraced Nazi ideology. If a member of the Luftwaffe didn’t actively take part in atrocities, they had awareness of those incidents and knew comrades who committed war crimes. (That also applies to German civilians.) *

Taylor’s holistic approach to the Luftwaffe, German civilians’ experiences, and propaganda is Eagle Day’s spider web. ‘Living experiences’ are entangled in the spider web and form the basis for historical reappraisals. * Compared to existing titles, under-documented events are no longer reduced to a single sentence.

Taylor details how the role of the Luftwaffe’s ‘lived experiences’ shaped the Battle of Britain in cultural memory. * German Battle of Britain participants’ memoirs opened the air to post-war revisionist history. Adolf Gallant, the Luftwaffe fighter ace, and General Albert Kesselring are two notable contributors to the knights of the air/clean Luftwaffe myth.

Taylor successfully builds Eagle Day’s thesis around small snippets of eye witness accounts and her analysis. Eagle Day’s Part One/ Agitation particularly follows this disproportionality, impactful style. That stylistic choice impacts the reader’s experience with Eagle Days.

Eagle Day’s strengths are not found in specific chapters and pages. Following Taylor’s spider-web is akin to planting seeds and watching trees grow. * The seeds are the snippets, and the trees are reflecting upon one’s existing Luftwaffe knowledge. This reflection covers the ‘real’ Luftwaffe, compared to the post-war mythology, which Taylor demolishes.

The reader’s reflections/learning about the Luftwaffe will differ based on their existing knowledge and background. How much attention the reader pays to Taylor’s framework and spider-web is also determined by those factors.

Eagle Days’ opening leaves the reader who is new to military history with insufficient background details. During Part Three- Consolidation, Taylor shifts closer to a traditional historical narrative. She maintains the spider-web, along with this reader–friendly change.

Eagle Days is captivating, a lot to unpack, and a thought-provoking title that breaks new ground and reassesses old assumptions, without traditional strengths and weaknesses. Taylor’s highly recommended gift to the reader is their reflections on the Luftwaffe. Eagle Days’ unusually reflective approach and destroying old ideas and myths is recommended reading.

References

[1]

Dr Victoria Taylor:

Taylor’s website

https://spitfirefillyaviation.com/

X (formerly Twitter)

https://x.com/SpitfireFilly

Taylor’s Substack

All and Sundry

Author, 'Eagle Days: Life & Death for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain' (out now!) | Ed., Journal of Aeronautical History | RAF Charitable Trust & National Spitfire Project Ambassador | Rep: Georgina Capel | www.spitfirefillyaviation.com

By Dr Victoria Taylor

Eagle Days

https://www.amazon.com.au/Eagle-Days-Luftwaffe-Battle-Britain/dp/1804549991

[2]

Dr Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson outlines the value of reading historians’ works that are free from retrospective conclusions.

Extra Muros

Reading Forward

In the course of setting the stage for her biography of William the Silent, Cecily Veronica Wedgwood described, in two short sentences, the paradox at the heart of all historical writing. "History is lived forwards,” she wrote, “but is written in retrospect. We know the…

Read more

3 years ago · 20 likes · 3 comments · Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson

[3]

This author’s Afterburners podcast review

*

This reviewer acknowledges that space constraints are a factor in the summary of Taylor’s historically accurate conclusions.

*

‘Living experiences’ is this review’s term for contemporary accounts capturing people’s feelings and actions.

*

‘Lived experiences’ are how the same individuals feel about those events retrospectively.

*

Unlike Eagle Days, other non–fiction books follow a structure built around a central concept followed by the implementation of related ideas. The reader can extract the essential details of the main idea while skipping the remainder of those titles.

Dr Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson’s article, Do you have to read the whole book?

Extra Muros

Do You Have to Read the Whole Book?

Some time ago, at a book fair of some sort, a clever child asked me why the book of mine on display consisted of ten chapters. Much to my chagrin, I could not provide a proper answer…

Read more

2 years ago · 20 likes · 4 comments · Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson

However, Eagle Days’ non-traditional foundational structure spreads across the entire book. If the reader skips one of Eagle Days’ sections, they run the risk of missing out on growing learning trees. It is entirely possible to employ Eagle Days as reference material, but this reviewer suggests reading the subject matter from cover to cover first.

Assessing Explosive Ordnance Disposal in Gaza is dominated by two factors. First, before the war, Gaza was a high population-density urban area. [1] Second, there is a high likelihood of the fighting between the Israeli Defence Force and Hamas resuming after the current ceasefire ends.

Moreover, other examples of removing unexploded bombs occur after a conflict's end. For instance, the Allied occupying powers en-mass cleared unused or unexploded ordnances from post-war Germany. Instead of detonating those potentially deadly stockpiles, dumping those supplies into the ocean was deemed the best option. [2]

However, the current Gaza ceasefire isn't tied to removing remaining deadly hazards. Put another way, the Israeli withdrawal from parts of Gaza is leaving behind the Israeli Defence Force's dud munitions, emplaced mines and unused supply caches. [3] Conservative estimates of those leftover defective weapons aren't unexpected, but that doesn't reduce the problem's massive scale. [4]

The terrible fallout from that Gaza ceasefire omitting Explosive Ordnance Disposal offers several outcomes. Palestinian civilian causalities from unexploded ordnances produce death, injuries and Hamas propaganda opportunities. Moreover, providing those seriously injured people with medical care is an ethical and practical issue for policymakers and implementers to ponder. How Israel gifts Hamas windows for propaganda is also on display.

Moreover, there are two causes of the Israeli Defence Force's increasing casualties from their unexploded ordances. First, a failure to map expended munitions locations leaves ground units vulnerable to landmine disasters and other incidents. Second, Hamas retrieves those armaments from the rubble and employs them against the Israelis. [5] Hamas redeploys landmines and incorporates other armaments into booby traps and improvised explosive devices.

Unfortunately, why the Gaza ceasefire ignores, the war's explosive remnants stem from narrow thinking and existing priorities: One of Israel's main goals is the return of the hostages taken during the October 7, 2023, attacks. [6] The understandable desire to see the hostages return home overrides other factors. Moreover, Hamas is content to exploit Israeli oversights to their advantage.

References

[1]

https://www.britannica.com/place/Gaza-Strip

[2]

https://www.dsm.museum/en/museum/exhibitions/north-sea-wrecks-exhibition/the-legacy-of-two-

world-wars/postwar-munitions-dumping-in-the-german-north-and-baltic-seas

[3]

The Gaza CeaseFire arrangement:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy5klgv5zv0o

Background article:

https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/explosive-remnants-gazas-literal-ticking-bomb

[4]

Ibid

[5]

Ibid

[6]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ye69ey4pyo

Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson's excellent arguments for junior military leaders studying the Korean War inspired this article. [1] Students of military history also have the option of studying the Vietnam War. This article briefly explores the merits of studying the 1st Australian Task Force's role in the Vietnam conflict.

The same self-study framework applies to operations conducted by Free World Military Assistance Forces in South Vietnam. [2] Moreover, the 1st Australian Task Force provides a case study for battalion operations. [3] The reader can access the well-documented actions of platoon leaders, company commanders, battalion commanders, and non-commissioned officers.

Notably, the 1st Australian Task Force primarily fought a self-contained war in Phuoc Tuy province. The advantage of studying military operations conducted at the brigade to battalion level in that manner is the focus on leadership, tactical, and operational details.

Moreover, New Zealand forces served alongside their Australian counterparts in Phuoc Tuy. [4] This allows the reader to study the smaller Kiwi contingent integrated into Australian ground forces.

The 1st Australian Taskforce undertook various tasks, including search and cordon, jungle patrols, nighttime, and ambushes outside villages. Moreover, the reader seeking to study how landmine incidents impact platoons will find ample material.

However, Firebases Coral and Balmoral and the Battle of Binh Ba provide a window into combined arms in action. The reader interested in artillery's enduring value on battlefields will find the Battle of Long Tan particularly interesting.

Apart from the Australian and Kiwi perspectives, the War in Phuoc Tuy is one aspect of the broader War. Unfortunately, South Korea and the Philippines' Free World Military Assistance contributions are under-documented in the Anglo–speaking world. However, despite that roadblock, the U.S. military machine and South Vietnam's armed forces, societal and political ills are open to examination.

Military history students have access to various books covering the Vietnam War. The following are this author's suggestions for people new to or interested in that conflict. The reading list below is incomplete; the reader is most welcome to suggest additions in the comments or skip the section below.

David Hackworth's About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior is a no-holds-barred examination of the War outside Phuoc Tuy. [5]

Michael Sexton's War for the asking how Australia invited itself to Vietnam tackles how the Menzies Government entangled Australia in Vietnam. [6]

Max Hasting's Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975, covers the War from the French involvement to the Fall of Saigon. [7]

Ron Boxhall and Robert O’Neil's Vietnam Vanguard: The 5th Battalion's Approach to Counter-Insurgency, 1966 covers 5RAR's first deployment to Phuoc Tuy. [8]

Disclaimer: This author's father served with 5RAR during that unit's second tour of Vietnam in 1969.

Deborah Challinor's Grey Ghosts: New Zealand Vietnam Vets Talk about their War covers Kiwi Vietnam veterans dealing with Agent Orange and their poor reception upon returning home, among other topics. [9]

Thomas Richardson's scholarly Destroy and Build: Pacification in Phuoc Tuy, 1966 – 72, deals with the gap between Australian commanders' perceived success/taking control of that province and the issues that military and political forces failed to address. Richardson's title also serves as a guide to Phuoc Tuy. [10]

References

[1]

The Tactical Notebook

Should You Study the Korean War?

Lieutenants have much to learn. In addition to dealing with daily duties that are, or, at the very least, ought to be, extraordinarily challenging, you must also devote a great deal of attention to the institutions in whic…

Read more

2 years ago · 32 likes · 7 comments · Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson

[2]

Ibid

Bruce's article introduces the reader to Sir Michael Howard's methodology for studying military history, which embraces context, width, and depth.

Free World Military Assistance Forces:

https://www.vietnamwar50th.com/assets/1/7/VW50th_Allies_Posters_11-6-19REV.pdf (PDF download).

[3]

The 1st Australian Task Force:

https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/event/vietnam

[4]

New Zealand's involvement in the Vietnam War:

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/vietnam-war

[5]

David Hackworth's About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior

https://www.amazon.com.au/About-Face-HACKWORTH/dp/0671695347

[6]

Michael Sexton's War for the asking how Australia invited itself to Vietnam

https://books.google.co.nz/books/about/War_for_the_Asking.html?id=Pk6KPAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y

[7]

Max Hasting's Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975

https://www.amazon.com.au/VIETNAM-MAX-HASTINGS/dp/0062405667

[8]

Ron Boxhall and Robert O’Neil's Vietnam Vanguard: The 5th Battalion's Approach to Counter-Insurgency

https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/vietnam-vanguard

Note to the reader: A PDF version of Vietnam Vanguard is available for download at the above link.

[9]

Deborah Challinor's Grey Ghosts: New Zealand Vietnam Vets Talk about Their War

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2613483-grey-ghosts

[10]

Thomas Richardson's Destroy and Build: Pacification in Phuoc Tuy, 1966 – 72

https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/110718973X?ref_=mr_referred_us_au_nz

Dr Simon Ewing-Jarvie's Indefensible New Zealand covers national security issues ignored by Kiwis. [1] Ewing-Jarive's national security umbrella covers a broad range of topics. He blends societal, political, economic, and military woven into national security matters.

Ewing-Jarive narrates Indefensible New Zealand's three seasons of content. The international reader might question why these matters are significant. The answer lies in New Zealand's extremely insular culture. Moreover, this reviewer has lived in New Zealand for twenty-five years. National security issues slipped under the country's radar until the 2023 General Election. Defence spending levels, Taiwan, and the war in Ukraine made minor appearances.

Indefensible New Zealand's holistic approach to national security allows people to consider topics beyond warfighting. Put another way, Ewing-Jarvie focuses on the journey, not the destination. Taking the national security road trip involves asking foundational questions. These queries are associated with a resilient New Zealand that understands threats to the country's sovereignty and prosperity.

Ewing-Jarive interviewing guests is the only aspect missing from Indefensible New Zealand. Adding guests to his lineup would add other Kiwi or international perspectives, debates, and discussions to the program.

Moreover, Ewing-Jarive hosting decision games represents a possible future and non-traditional avenue for exploring Indefensible New Zealand's array of material. [2]* The New Zealand Defence Force's size, structure and workforce model suits this approach. The same applies to red teaming attacking the land of the long white cloud and other topics. [3]

Indefensible New Zealand provides informative commentary on national security issues. It is a valuable resource for anyone new to, studying, or curious about these subjects.

References

[1]

Indefensible New Zealand:

Indefensible New Zealand can be found on your favourite podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Pocket Casts, and Castbox.

Dr Simon Ewing-Jarvie:

https://unclas.wordpress.com/about-simon-ewing-jarvie/

More from Ewing-Jarvie:

https://unclas.wordpress.com/

[2]

More on decision games:

http://casemethodusmc.blogspot.com/

http://casemethodusmc.blogspot.com/2018/02/dfc.html

The Tactical Notebook

How to Engage Decision-Forcing Cases

Also known as an “historical map problem,” a “decision-forcing case” is an exercise that puts participants in the shoes a real person who, at sometime in the past, was faced with one or more difficult decisions. While usually engaged by a group of people who are engaging the problem at the …

Read more

4 years ago · 16 likes · Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson

The counterfactual angle:

http://casemethodusmc.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-comparative-counterfactual-case.html

*

This reviewer acknowledges that Ewing-Jarvie's material isn't a historical case study. However, counterfactual cases and red teaming opportunities are available.

[3]

Indefensible New Zealand season two: Episode 26: Voluntary National Service

Indefensible New Zealand season one: Episode 8: The Red Team Attacks New Zealand

Dr Victoria Taylor's Afterburners successfully merges her previous in-person lectures into an audio podcast format. [1] Afterburners introduce the listener to the Nazi Party's relationship with the Luftwaffe and other aviation organisations. Crucially, Afterburners covers German historical perspectives previously unpublished in the Anglo Speaking World.    

People who purchase access to Afterburners enjoy the flexibility of accessing the material at their chosen pace and schedule at a low cost. The listener selects from a broad range of in-depth historical analyses at their leisure without advertising interrupting Taylor's narration.

Afterburners continue debunking the Clean Wehrmacht Myth by painting a nuanced picture of the Luftwaffe. Luftwaffe personnel displayed a range of character traits and behaviour toward Nazi ideology. But ultimately, those who displayed ambivalence or defied Nazi ideology served in the same Air Force that participated in the Holocaust and committed other atrocities. [2]

How wartime Germany portrayed the Air Battle for England is a historical propaganda case study. * Afterburners illustrate German propaganda outlet's narratives with contradictory backflips in the mix with deranged Nazi ideology. Put another way; the listener glimpses a window into how Nazi media spin and fabrications operated. [3]

This reviewer was intrigued by the Luftwaffe aircrew's disconnect between Nazi Propaganda and their combat experiences. Repeated and false claims of the RAF's destruction didn't match the unfolding air campaign over England. [4]

Afterburners provides one other standout to this reviewer. The Female Luftwaffe Assistants' (Luftwaffenhelferinnen) broad range of wartime roles was ignored by male historians. [5] From air defence to nursing, these women served in many places. Although the one thing they shared in common with their male counterparts was their service to the criminal Nazi regime. [6]

This reviewer gained insights into the impact of those historians overlooking Female Luftwaffe Assistants' importance to the German war effort. How those historians solely focused on the German men at the frontlines left an incomplete historical record.

Ultimately, those who served with the Luftwaffe or in associated auxiliary roles are eternally dammed to history's dark side. However, Afterburners shines a light on understanding the people and tools that served the Nazi regime. Moreover, Taylor's thought-provoking, nuanced historical assessments are a thread across Afterburners' diverse topical range. [7]

Taylor's Afterburners brilliantly blends her scholarship into podcasts. Her perspectives offer English-speaking people new opportunities to study the Luftwaffe informally. This reviewer hopes Afterburners will move solely to podcast format and explore many untapped subjects.

References

[1]

Dr Victoria Taylor:

https://spitfirefillyaviation.com/about

https://twitter.com/SpitfireFilly

Afterburners:

https://spitfirefillyaviation.com/afterburners

[2]

Afterburners: Episode 7 - 'The Führer's Hammer': National Socialism and the Luftwaffe

The Clean Wehrmacht Myth:

https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/the-clean-wehrmacht-making-a-myth/

[3]

Afterburners: Episode 3 - Paper Victories: the Battle of Britain in Nazi Propaganda

*

From the Luftwaffe's standpoint, the Air Battle for England began with their attacks against Channel convoys. But in the English-speaking world, the Battle of Britain starts with Eagle Day, the assault against radar stations and RAF airfields.

[4]

Ibid

[5] Afterburners: Episode 9 - Female Luftwaffe Assistants in the Second World War

[6]

Ibid

[7]

Afterburners also cover The Luftwaffe Mediterranean, the Balkans & North Africa in 1941, lesser-known elements of the Blitz and how the Germans and the British view Operation Chastise.

Additionally, the Nazi Party's ties to youth aviation cadet organisations are explored.

https://spitfirefillyaviation.com/afterburners

This author intends to go on the record, highlighting Force Design 2030's follies. His first impression of that force restructure is highly unfavourable. A Marine Littoral Regiment stranded in an unspecified Pacific Ocean island location, blockaded by the People's Liberation Army Navy and Air Force, is the danger of unintended Force Design 2030 outcomes.

The dangers to island garrisons isolated and removed from resupply aren't theoretical. Moreover, the Japanese South West Pacific garrisons' grim fates (1942 – 45) immediately sprung to mind. American Air and Sea Power destroyed, reduced or prevented the Japanese from resupplying those units, so Japanese soldiers faced mass starvation and disease outbreaks. [2]

Moreover, other authors have made a similar but geographically specific argument. The Marines Wake Garrison was trapped by the Japanese onslaught in December 1941. Moreover, that is a Marine-centric instance of a garrison facing the unavailability of resupply. [3]

A staple of commentators uncovered Force Design 2030's remaining flaws. Moreover, the remainder of this article will cover those issues topically. Force Design 2030's designers' mindset is welded to permanent Western Front-style defensive stalemates. Furthermore, those thinkers rely on restoring battlefield manoeuvrers, which remains impossible. [4]

However, breaking the deadly Western Front (1914 – 1918 ) deadlock disproves Force Design 2030's underlying assumption. The Germans refused to accept that stalemate and developed infiltration tactics for their deadlock-breaking 1918 Spring Offensive. Despite that offensive's operational success, the outcome arrived too late to alter WW1's outcome. [5]

Additionally, the Allies' 1918 One Hundred Days Offensive continued the returning trend of manoeuvrer. Allied forces employed tanks, infantry cooperation, and air power to break the German Army's back. American, British, and British Empire ground forces smashed the Hindenburg Line, and the subsequent advance continued until the Armistice.

Moreover, the French failed to heed the lesson concerning static warfare's temporary nature. So, the French constructing and relying on the Maginot Line displayed military folly in the interwar years. The Maginot Line's doctrinal backbone was a methodical battle, a concrete defence and positional firepower, a school of thought. [7]

Incidentally, that Western Front deadlock was a geographical oddity. Moreover, General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck's native troops made the opposing British Empire troops look foolish in Eastern Africa. Furthermore, the East Africa Campaign's greater geographical scope permitted battlefield mobility/manoeuvrer. [8]

The German Blitzkrieg supersized their Spring Offensive tactics with voice radio, armour and air strikes to defeat the French in 1940. Moreover, the methodical battle doctrine was discredited by that military calamity and dissected in Robert A. Doughty's The Seeds of Disaster: The Development of French Army Doctrine, 1919-39. [9]

The Marines' global first responders role and capabilities embrace a spectrum from disaster relief to combat operations threatened by budget cutbacks. Moreover, existing cutbacks to fund the future theme continuities with reduced available Marine expeditionary units. [10]

Moreover, global events demonstrated a shortage of expeditionary units. After Russia invaded Ukraine, none of those units were deployed to the Mediterranean. One month later, a Marine unit filled that operational void.

Sixteen thousand Americans stranded in Sudan isn't a Hollywood movie tagline. Evacuating diplomats aside, the means to assist American citizens in Sudan were curtailed. Moreover, the Marine Special Purpose Marine Air Ground task forces' rotational deployments covering global hot spots ended before the Sudan balloon exploded. [11]

A United States Navy amphibious ships shortage also undermines the Marine's first responders capabilities. However, efforts to rectify that issue are scuttled by Force Design 2030's cutbacks to fund the future mantra. [12] Yet congressional pushback to prevent the San Antonio-class amphibious production line from ending will maintain a fleet of thirty-one troop transports. Moreover, amphibious ship numbers would have reached twenty-five under the navy's budget proposal. [13]

The U.S.'s ability to call upon allies to supply logistics and amphibious ships is highly doubtful. For instance, both Royal Australian Navy's Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment ships are laid up with mechanical issues. [14] So, deploying and sustaining warships at sea is problematic or impossible without replenishment capabilities.

Moreover, HMS Ocean's departure shrunk the Royal Navy's amphibious capabilities in 2018. [15] So, geographically, the Marines supplementing missing or under-strength capabilities from their allies is a dicey proposition.

The Marines will incur unnecessary and avoidable causalities from distorting artillery's role in combined arms. Close-in fires/ artillery support will remain integral to combined arms employed tactically and operationally. The requirements for artillery and infantry cooperation span from WW2 to regime change in Iraq. [16]

Equipping Marine Expeditionary Units with High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems depends on global sourcing. However, the Marines fighting multiple wars in separate locations impales that notion. Enemies might join those conflicts to draw U.S. forces away from one area. [17]  

The 12th Marines's transformation to a Littoral Regiment represents a loss of artillery without an enemy firing a shot. [18] So, the Marines face an artillery shortage before entering the next conflict. [19] Moreover, Marine Expeditionary Units require five traditional artillery battalions and three to four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems to support integrated combined arms and manoeuvrer. [20] Yet artillery unit's combat losses aren't factored into those estimates. So, the acute firepower shortage is exacerbated by wartime attrition and the lack of availability.          

However, military thinkers uncritically embrace the missile craze. Clouded minds lack the intellectual curiosity to question the existing wisdom around the Marine's artillery inventory. Precision weapons (missiles and rockets) complement the artillery sledgehammer on future battlefields.

Entirely locating and destroying enemy targets with missiles is fanciful. War remains a human endeavour, so imperfect people commit errors. The military personnel committing those unintentional future errors will leave enemy units untouched. Moreover, those enemy elements are left to the closer-range artillery and other combined elements to eliminate. [21]

In a strange historical twist, the Marines embrace a rebooted Liberty Ship and present-day multi-role vessels concept. [22] The light amphibious ship fills that bizarre space. The Marines' deployment and resupply capabilities in the next Pacific War depend upon those vessels. [23]

Light amphibious ships enjoy the worst aspects of those ships mentioned above. Like Liberty Ships, Light amphibious ships are intended for wartime employment. However, unlike warships, those vessels aren't designed to sustain battlefield damage and with damage control measures. [24] Moreover, the flaws in the design of the light amphibious ships ensure their destruction at the hands of the People's Liberation Army Navy. [25]

Proponents of Light amphibious ships argue that they survive by hiding among isolated islands. [26] However, the people behind that assertion suffer from geographical ignorance. During transit to operational assignments, the Marines' troop and resupply vessels are exposed to enemy action.

Moreover, the vast Pacific distances increase the risk of detection and attack. For instance, a voyage from Hawaii to Wake entails 3200km before in-port camouflage is an option. [27] So, Chinese naval forces sinking Light amphibious ships at sea is an entirely predictable outcome. Aside from predictability, those battlefield losses in personnel and ships represent an unnecessary tragedy.

Another dimension to the discussion of Light amphibious ships is their planned number of vessels compared to Liberty Ships. Unlike their grandchildren, Light amphibious ships won't enjoy the vast numbers of vessels associated with American wartime industrial output. This leaves the Marine's future transport fleet equipped with the worst of both worlds.

Moreover, the Marines are left without the ability to manoeuvre at sea. The fallout from that manoeuvrer loss falls beyond the scope of this article. But there is another hole in the sinking Force Design 2030 ship. *

The people behind Force Design 2030 broke the Marines' relationship regarding innovation, transformation, and testing operational concepts. Sound military ideas emerge from a robust vetting process, revealing the requirements for that project to work. [28] However, Force Design 2030 never underwent that research and development phase, so its flaws aren't exposed before going into practice. [29]

Keeping stakeholders in the dark is another way Force Design 2030 escapes scrutiny. A few people who are developing new products deny an institutional examination of the proposals. Moreover, without critical analysis, product weaknesses can sail into the open seas. [30]

This author desires to go on the record concerning Force Design 2030 kneecapping the Marines. Nor will this author occupy any defence policy-making roles in New Zealand or internationally. So, no policymaker will face a situation where informative commentators ignore red flags. * Since those warnings are going unheeded, leaving history to unfold.

[1]

https://www.marines.mil/Force-Design/

[2]

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pacific-War/The-Aleutians-Rabaul-and-the-Gilberts

https://usnhistory.navylive.dodlive.mil/Recent/Article-View/Article/3278421/reduced-to-starvation-the-japanese-evacuation-of-guadalcanal-january-february-1/

[3]

https://www.mca-marines.org/wp-content/uploads/A-Force-in-Readiness-or-in-Stasis.pdf

(PDF download)

[4]

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/force-design-2030-trying-solve-wrong-problem-205991

[5]

Ibid

[6]

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/from-amiens-to-armistice-the-hundred-days-offensive

[7]

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/force-design-2030-trying-solve-wrong-problem-205991

[8]

https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/world-war-i-articles/the-forgotten-front-east-africa-1914-1918/

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/force-design-2030-trying-solve-wrong-problem-205991

[9]

Ibid

[10]

https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/opinion/commentary/2023/07/07/how-capable-is-todays-marine-corps-to-answer-a-9-1-1-call-not-very/

[11]

Ibid

https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2022/03/18/marine-corps-ends-all-3-of-its-crisis-response-deployments/

[12]

https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/opinion/commentary/2023/07/07/how-capable-is-todays-marine-corps-to-answer-a-9-1-1-call-not-very/

[13

https://news.usni.org/2022/05/10/house-bill-backs-marines-31-amphibious-ship-requirement-over-navys-25-ship-level

[14]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-18/hmas-stalwart-breaks-down-and-undergoing-repairs/103993214

[15]

https://news.usni.org/2018/03/27/queen-decommissions-british-amphibious-warship-ahead-of-sale-to-brazil

https://www.navylookout.com/reflecting-on-the-demise-of-hms-ocean/

[16]

https://www.mca-marines.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Dangers-of-Overselling-McAbee-et-al.pdf

(PDF download)

[17]

ibid

[18]

ibid

The 12thMarines history until 1972

https://www.usmcu.edu/Portals/218/Brief%20History%20of%20the%2012th%20Marines.pdf

The Current 12thMarines

https://www.marines.mil/News/Press-Releases/Press-Release-Display/Article/3588984/12th-marine-regiment-redesignates-to-12th-marine-littoral-regiment/

https://www.12thmlr.marines.mil/

[19]

ibid

[20]

ibid

[21]

https://www.militarytimes.com/opinion/2022/08/08/correcting-the-myth-that-long-range-fires-can-replace-marine-cannon-artillery/

[22]

For more on Liberty Ships:

https://web.archive.org/web/20081203172219/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/1988/3/1988_3_26.shtml

HMNZS Canterbury is an example of a multi-role vessel in service with the Royal New Zealand Navy.

https://www.nzdf.mil.nz/nzdf/our-equipment/ships-and-watercraft/hmnzs-canterbury/

[23]

https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/3708190-the-ugly-truth-can-the-light-amphibious-warship-survive-war-with-china/

[24]

ibid

[25]

ibid

[26]

ibid

[27]

https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Wake-Island

https://www.navylookout.com/should-the-royal-navy-consider-an-alternative-approach-to-multi-role-support-ship-design/

https://news.usni.org/2024/04/26/report-to-congress-on-navy-medium-landing-ship-4

*

In this author's strategic estimation, U.S. and coalition forces regroup in Australia after China invades Taiwan, and the war overspills to Japan, Wake and Guam. The war also closes Pacific sea lanes to commerce.

[28]

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/marine-generals-‘trust-verify’-force-design-2030-206347

[29]

ibid

[30]

https://warontherocks.com/2022/05/are-the-marines-inventing-the-edsel-or-the-mustang/

* This author includes the authors of the articles referenced above in the informative commentary category.

Volume 2 edited by Timothy Heck, B. A. Friedman, and Walker D. Mills, Marine Corps University Press (2024). [1]

On Contested Shores is the sequel to the first instalment in that series. [2] The sequel is organised topically, and chapters fall under the Doctrine and Logistics, Technology and Innovation, Organisations and Training, and Policy and Military Material and Personnel categories. [3]

Individual contributors analyse amphibious operations topics. On Contested Shores' strengths include lesser-known military operations, a focus on logistics and equipment, and lesser-known historical events. 

The separate development of pre-war and WW2 landing craft and wartime amphibious ships shines as topics that are historically often mentioned but seldom studied in–depth. [4] So, those chapters encompassing the marriage between technology developments and doctrine are welcome additions to underappreciated subject matters. 

However, Howard J. Fuller's contribution covering the United Kingdom and the United States of America's competing Western hemisphere interests from 1823 - 1865 is topically sideways. [5] The reader is left without a planned or implemented amphibious operation. Moreover, Fuller's linking the construction of U.S. coastal forts to trans-Atlantic tensions warrants a place in a topically suitable arena. Also, his thesis conclusion deserves additional space and clarity. 

On Contested Shores intends to serve as an inspiration and amphibious operations manual for military practitioners and historians. In The Great Patriotic War, Soviet amphibious operations are a case study for the possible but unwise conduct, so that enters this reviewer's thoughts. [6] Moreover, the Soviets casting amphibious capabilities in supporting roles compared to strategic spearheads opens alternative tactical and operational schools of thought to the reader. [7]

So, this reviewer is further inspired to think beyond the Gallipoli Campaign and D-Day hallmarks. Moreover, this reviewer doesn't endorse historical and future amphibious–oriented logistical, inter-service cooperation, intelligence, and strategic blunders. But a topical glitch aside, On Contested Shores lays a foundation for deeper thinking surrounding amphibious warfare. 

Notes 

[1]

B. A. Friedman

https://bafriedm,an.substack.com/about

Timothy Heck

https://twitter.com/tgheck1

Walker D. Mills

https://twitter.com/wdmills1992?lang=en

[2]

On Contested Shores: The Evolving Role of Amphibious Operations in the History of Warfare edited by Timothy Heck and B. A. Friedman, Marine Corps University Press (2020)

https://www.usmcu.edu/Outreach/Marine-Corps-University-Press/Books-by-topic/MCUP-Titles-A-Z/On-Contested-Shores/ 

https://www.usmcu.edu/Portals/218/OnContestedShores_web.pdf?ver=AazTk0F5BiI2fIn8ElhCBA%3d%3d (PDF download).

[3]

On Contested Shores: The Evolving Role of Amphibious Operations in the History of Warfare

VOLUME 2 edited by Timothy Heck, B. A. Friedman, and Walker D. Mills, Marine Corps University Press (2024). 

https://www.usmcu.edu/Outreach/Marine-Corps-University-Press/Books-by-topic/MCUP-Titles-A-Z/On-Contested-Shores-V2/

https://www.usmcu.edu/Portals/218/OnContestedShores%20vol%202_web.pdf (PDF Download).

[4]

Ibid 

Chapter Two The Landing Craft Controversy, 1934–1942

Chapter Five Amphibious Juggernaut: How the Landing Ship, Tank, and Landing Vehicle,

Tracked, Created the Most Powerful Amphibious Assault System of World War II

[5]

Howard J. Fuller

https://researchers.wlv.ac.uk/H.Fuller

On Contested Shores: The Evolving Role of Amphibious Operations in the History of Warfare

VOLUME 2 edited by Timothy Heck, B. A. Friedman, and Walker D. Mills, Marine Corps University Press (2024). 

Chapter Thirteen U.S. Geostrategic Deterrence and A2/AD at Work in the American Civil War, 1861–1865

[6]

Ibid

Chapter Fifteen Prelude to Stalin's Third Crushing Blow: The Kerch-Eltigen Landing, 1943

[7]

Chapter Three Red Tide over the Beach: Soviet Amphibious Warfare in Theory and Practice