Reviewed and recommended by Don DeNevi“BATTLESHIP ALABAMA”, by Daniel Roger. A Naval History Special Edition, U.S. Naval InstitutePress: 2022, 109 pages, 9”x11”, softcover; $29.95. Visit, www.usni.org.“SILVER STATE DREADNOUGHT – – The Remarkable Story of Battleship NEVADA”, by Stephen M.Younger. Naval Institute Press: 2018, 303 pages, 12”x9”, hardcover; $45. Visit, www.usni.org.“The battleship is still the backboneof the fleet and the bulwark of theNation’s sea defense, and will soremain so long as safe navigation ofthe sea for purposes of trade ortransportation is vital to success in war.”“The sea officer must use the toolswhich science creates of these the mostpowerful and the most known is thebattleship.”Prize Essay, U.S. Naval Institute, 1938In Chapter 5 of “Battleship Modernization’s”, Naval aviator-author-professor John. T. Kuehn
writes, “As for all the world’s major navies, the interwar belief of the U.S. Navy was that the
battleship remained the final arbiter of Naval power. By the end of the treaty system in 1937this remained the mantra of the U.S. Navy. The treaty system relied on capitol ship dominanceas the basis for success. However, by 1937 the U.S. Navy had hedged its bets, in part because itwas forced to by the treaties America had agreed to, but also because of the changing attitudesof America’s younger Naval officers who ‘had grown up’ building and planning for everythingbut battleships. . .”. See, John T. Kuehn’s brilliant “Agents of Innovation – – The General Board
and the Design of the Fleet that defeated the Japanese Navy”, pages 63-87, 2008, reprinted
- Visit, www.nip.org.In his fine, fascinating 108 page treatise on the Alabama, naval historian Daniel Rogerscogently introduces us to one of the ten fastest battleships that the Navy commissionedbetween 1941 and 1944. Providing us novitiates to such battleship speed matters, he presentson page 14 of his book an enthralling table, “U.S. Fast Battleships of World War II”, the likes ofwhich this reviewer has never found in naval literature: per each of the 10, i.e., hull no., keellaid down date, when launched, commissioned, decommissioned, enemy-inflicted damage, andfinal disposition. In Alabama’s case, there was no enemy inflicted damage. Her maximum speedwas her most important distinguishing characteristic. Her speed exceeded 27 knots, keepingpace with the newer enemy battleships and their faster aircraft carriers, cruisers, anddestroyers. She achieved 9 Battle Stars (every description fascinating because of Daniel superbcraftsmanship of narration). No. 9, is especially poignant as the Alabama’s medical team istransferred by bosun’s chair to both destroyers Ault and Borie to save the lives of 34 seriouslywounded. In 1965, the Alabama became a museum in Mobile, still in operation today. Thanks,Daniel – superlative summaries of all nine, enticing us buffs to read further, understand andappreciate all that that was USN in WWII!Stephen M. Younger, who has written extensively on national security, anthropology, andphysics, has given us a masterwork of American naval literature in this biography of thebattleship Nevada. He writes she was not only America’s first modern battleship, but also theundisputed global superpower of battleships. “She was a dreadnought, a ‘superdreadnought’,the first U.S. warship to be oil fired, the first to have a triple-gun main turret, and the first tohave all-or-nothing armor”. In World War I, she was based in Queenstown, Ireland, to provideprotection for American convoys bringing troops to Europe. She survived the naval reductiontreaties of the 1920s, was rebuilt in 1928 with the latest technology, and the only battleship toget under way during the attack in Pearl Harbor. Nevada suffered damage from Japanesebombs and torpedoes and sank in shallow water. Raised and repaired, she did convoy duty inthe North Atlantic before joining the invasion fleet for D-Day and the landings in SouthernFrance. From there, she headed back to the Pacific to provide bombardment support at IwoJima and Okinawa. Truly, mesmerizing descriptions of both her Atlantic and Pacific battle
actions, Stephen. You would be terrific writing naval historical fiction!
