The Treaty Navy

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frontkampfer
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The Treaty Navy

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The Treaty Navy
By James W. Hammond Jr.

From my review of this book on Amazon:

I just finished this book and I have learned so much about how the US Navy was positioned at the beginning of WWII, This book is a concise history of the development of US Navy into a world class player due to influence of Mahan, T. Roosevelt and Sims. The reader will see how the US Navy was poised after WWI to become the most powerful navy in the world and had to step back due to the Washington Naval Arms Conference. Subsequent treaties, congressional budget cuts and public hostility towards having "expensive" ships followed and the author explains how the navy survived, developed new technology and built a balanced fleet concept which included undersea, naval aviation and amphibious offensive capability and the leaders who knew how to use it to defeat Japan. Mr. Hammond explains the fallacy of the "battleship admirals" versus the "carrier admirals" argument which in essence was a effort by both so called groups to determine who the most likely enemy would be. If Great Britain you needed battleships, if Japan you needed carriers and the ability to project across the Pacific. He gives the reader insight to the life of the enlisted men as well and how important it is to have trained sailors manning the ships at a time of low pay and salary cuts. The Marine Corps role in the development of amphibious operations based on lessons learned from the British fiasco of Gallipoli is explained and how Marine involvement in Central American conflicts during the 20's & 30's helped shape the Corp into the instrument used to take the islands the navy would need for bases from the Japanese.

There is so much packed into this book it is hard to relay it all. Suffice it to say, that by reading this book you will understand "why" the US Navy was able to fight Japan when the war that many visionaries like Pete Ellis knew would finally come, versus the "how".

This a great read and well worth the time and investment. I have it at my desk as a reference! Anyone interested see the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Treaty-Navy-S ... r-mr-title
"I will not have my ship shot out from under my ass!"