Acquisitions

Herbert Best. The Twenty-fifth Hour. London: Jonathan Cape, 1940. This must have been about the last flowering of that forgotten genre, the knock-out blow novel. More than that, it's an example of the exceptionally rare post-apocalyptic sub-genre, as it is set years after the end of civilisation and portrays the grim struggle for survival among the ruins. Fun!

David Edgerton. Britain's War Machine: Weapons, Resources and Experts in the Second World War. London: Allen Lane, 2011. A different kind of history of the war, one which places Britain's economic, industrial and scientific strength at its core: in other words, an application of Edgerton's 'warfare state' thesis. I particularly recommend page 375, note 87 and page 387.

Michael Kerrigan. World War II Plans That Never Happened. London: Amber Books, 2011. That strange zone between what might have been and what was. Looks at various operational plans considered at some stage by one side or the other, usually getting as far as getting a codename -- from Operation Stratford to Operation Downfall. Review copy.

Brian Farrell and Sandy Hunter, eds. A Great Betrayal? The Fall of Singapore Revisited. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2010. A diverse collection of articles: strategy, historiography, oral history, operational history. Of particular interest is a contribution by John Ferris on British perceptions of Japanese airpower (includes Darth Vader bonus quote).

A. L. Goodhart. What Acts of War are Justifiable? Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940. In particular, justifiable against civilians (such as bombing, reprisals). No. 42 in the Oxford Pamphlets on World Affairs series.

Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt. The Bomber Command War Diaries: An Operational Reference Book 1939-1945. Hersham: Midland Publishing, 2011 [1985]. A classic (and weighty!) reference listing nearly all Bomber Command missions, targets, results, losses, etc, which I have wanted for some time.

Peter Monteath. P.O.W.: Australian Prisoners of War in Hitler's Reich. Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, 2011. I already own a book called POWbut that is about Allied POWs in general. I probably should read it before I read this one though!

Gerald Dickens. Bombing and Strategy: The Fallacy of Total War. London: Sampson Low, Marston, n.d. [1946?]. That's Admiral Sir Gerald Dickens KCVO CB CMG to you and me, the grandson of Charles Dickens no less. An example of airpower scepticism. I had hoped that it was the 1941 edition, but the 'n.d.' turns out to mean c. 1946. But then I get to see what he makes of the atomic bomb, so that's not so bad.

Michael S. Neiberg. Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of World War I. Cambridge and London: Belknap Press, 2011. Cuts a wide swathe through Europe in 1914 in constructing the argument that contrary to widespread belief, the coming of war was a huge surprise to contemporaries. I waver on this myself; the First World War seems like the most overdetermined war in history, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest it was unexpected. I guess it can be both.

Keith Kyle. Suez: Britain's End of Empire in the Middle East. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2011 [1993]. Suez was not the first time Britain 'intervened' in the Middle East, nor the last; but it was arguably the most disastrously misconceived intervention. A classic (and weighty) account.

Chaz Bowyer. RAF Operations 1918-1938. London: William Kimber, 1988. There were more than you might think -- enough to fill a 300-page book, anyway -- mostly in the Middle East and on the North-West Front. Very well-illustrated (if you like aeroplanes, that is).

Richard Knott. Flying Boats of the Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Ships of the Sky. London: Robert Hale, 2011. The title suggests a somewhat nostalgic view, but then again the Short Empire is a guilty pleasure of mine.

Mark Clodfelter. Beneficial Bombing: The Progressive Foundations of American Air Power, 1917-1945. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2010. The American bomber dream: a more humane kind of warfare through precision bombing. Looks like a worthy update to Michael Sherry's The Rise of American Air Power.

Randall T. Wakelam. The Science of Bombing: Operational Research in RAF Bomber Command. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press, 2009. Eager to read this one. It's chock-full of informationy goodness, such as an appendix illustrating Bomber Command's different bombing techniques, from Shaker 1 through Wanganui 2.

John S. Partington. Building Cosmopolis: The Political Thought of H. G. Wells. Aldershot and Burlington: Ashgate, 2003. A very highly regarded book on Wells' ideas about a world state and how to get one, a subject which I have dipped into insofar as it involves airpower (which is frequently).

Philip Anthony Towle. Pilots and Rebels: The Use of Aircraft in Unconventional Warfare 1918-1988. London: Brassey's, 1989. From air control to counterinsurgency. A bit RAF-centric until after 1945.

Jan Rüger. The Great Naval Game: Britain and Germany in the Age of Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. A book I cited in my thesis. I don't see why the library should have all the fun.