Bruships 35: Personal Wars + a New Book from Pen & Sword

Cutters could make a Chinese armed response look disproportionate, but their size and uncertain suitability for ramming leave them vulnerable in close encounters with larger coast guard vessels.

An immediate US-China war is considered unlikely in January 2021, while China's greater attention to long-term planning is treated as a strategic advantage.

The Reagan-era defense buildup is presented as an example of economic stimulus and technological development that did not require a new war.

Quentin Russell's survey links major Mediterranean battles across two millennia, with room for additional coverage of Venetian-Ottoman warfare and the First World War Adriatic.

The Harry DeWolf class's ice-strengthened hull could be an advantage in confrontations involving ramming, despite criticism of its modest gun.

An allied fleet approached Navarino ready for action while Greek independence still depended on foreign assistance and recognition.

Greek sailors and fireships disrupted an Ottoman-Egyptian plan to recover the islands and squeeze the Peloponnese from land and sea.

The Greek revolt's military crisis, public sympathy abroad, and rivalry among the great powers led to the 1827 Treaty of London.

A proposed historical explanation is that avoiding the royal title helped keep Canadian fishery-protection vessels available locally instead of making them liable for Royal Navy service elsewhere.

Vietnamese pilots' combat experience helped Soviet advisers learn how to use their aircraft against American opponents.

A reading from March to the South Atlantic shows how helicopter shortages, darkness, fatigue, and improvised command arrangements shaped 42 Commando's move to Mount Kent.

The Mount Kent plan coordinated infantry, artillery, mortars, and air defense around helicopter availability and terrain that made heavy missile loads impractical at night.

Plans to use Norwegian infrastructure had reduced the independent helicopter-control capacity needed for an operation in the Falklands.

The second Mount Kent attempt depended on loads that delivered a usable fighting force, specialist movement control, and staff intervention to retain scarce helicopters.

In Nick Vaux's account, Max Hastings secured a helicopter place without the authorization he claimed and later carried a Blowpipe missile toward K Company.

It covers 42 Commando's extensive experience and includes good maps and photographs taken at the time, so its coverage follows the unit's part in the campaign.

A terse P&O message turned Canberra's delivery of troops into San Carlos Water into an understated passenger-service report.

A Warrior platoon checks a route for roadside bombs before collecting troops under fire during an arrest operation in Al-Amarah.

A BBC crew drives an armored Land Rover through shelled Grozny to find a vantage point near the parliament district.

Continuous danger did not produce continuous fear for Bowen, who remembers brief episodes of terror amid periods when he could work calmly.

Collecting a stranded cameraman and his footage kept the BBC crew in a square that also served as an assembly point for Chechen fighters.

Damage to a bridge disrupted the route into Grozny, and the crew chose an improvised river crossing in its armored Land Rover.

An airstrike kills a Chechen fighter and damages the BBC crew's armored vehicle; the crew later infers from its recording that cluster bombs were used.

An Afghanistan satellite-phone anecdote prompts a disagreement over soldiers borrowing journalists' vehicles and the risks to the press.

Harry Patch remembers a precarious pontoon crossing, taped assembly positions, and the limited view of an infantryman at Passchendaele.

A relief in progress contributed to confused German resistance, while a surviving pillbox and approaching prisoners complicated the British advance.

Orders to keep advancing and responsibility for the Lewis gun left Patch unable to help or identify many of the casualties he passed.

Shell holes disrupted formations, but successive objectives and timed artillery lifts organized the advance, with pigeons carrying confirmation to headquarters.

Harry Patch recalled choosing three disabling revolver shots while protecting his Lewis gun, then wondering for years what became of the wounded German.

They Gave Me a Seafire supplies a pilot's view of HMS Implacable's air group, flight-deck hazards, landing practice, and crowded wartime accommodation.

Descriptions of torn landing gear and a barrier crash explain the concern about bringing Seafires back aboard ship.

The carrier's Norwegian operations combined a reported U-boat sinking with the loss of a Firefly later recovered for a museum.

Crossley's pilots had to move and start their own aircraft with a single battery trolley before flying out to Implacable.

Electrical degaussing reduced Implacable's magnetic signature to protect her against magnetic mines.

Harbour landing practice required pilots to watch the ship's heading as well as the batsman's signals.

Crossley remembered a tough flight-deck party with fierce loyalty to Charles Lamb despite frequent arguments.

Naval stewards retain a related support role. A carrier batsman is a separate role concerned with guiding aircraft onto the flight deck.

They are armed naval construction battalions that build bases and infrastructure in expeditionary conditions, often beginning work while a captured area is still dangerous.

High-intensity operations keep senior officers on the bridge or in the combat information center, so a steward brings food and watches for neglected basic needs.

The additional person identified is the ship's senior petty officer. The executive officer's main responsibility is to look after the crew below.

Personal knowledge helps stewards keep captains fed, and a successful working relationship can continue into a later appointment.

The executive officer checks on the chief engineer's welfare while the captain makes operational requests.

The Royal Navy tries to pair officers whose strengths work together, including different strengths in warfare and personnel leadership.

A steward's whisky-for-biscuits exchange supplied food an overworked captain would eat during a Middle East deployment.

Close work with senior officers could reveal a steward's judgment and produce unusually strong recommendations for officer training.

No example comes to mind; the more familiar observation is surprise that an overworked captain had maintained their weight.

Steward support protects senior personnel whose neglected food and welfare can impair the ship's functioning.

A trusted steward can alert the captain to misconduct and overlooked good work through contacts throughout the ship.

The American steward system's segregation legacy accompanies a separate question about how personal support affects command efficiency.

The captain's separate dining arrangements give other officers some respite, while defined steward duties reduce ambiguity about personal favors.

Although cleared of the accusation, North lost the critical window for another major command, and the delay effectively ended the wartime career path he might otherwise have followed.

A severe assessment of Cork and Orrery connects his role in Norway with prolonged inquiries that kept capable officers away from useful service.

Routine household support frees a highly trained commanding officer to spend more time on work requiring command authority.

The premise is overstated: many officers were middle or upper-middle class, and senior admirals often received their titles for naval service.

They can move up with the officer they support, transfer to another officer, or enter officer training with senior recommendations; some also build successful civilian careers.

Many admirals disliked land postings and sought ways back to sea. Cunningham accepted shore command despite his preference for serving afloat.

The quoted reference gives Western estimates of twenty-five to forty-five crew, with a very high proportion of officers and warrant officers and few if any enlisted personnel.

Historically it carried that association, but officers also came from rating backgrounds; the Royal Navy sometimes exceeded the French Navy's minimum intake from the ranks without using a fixed quota.

The Alfa demonstrated radical crew reduction, while later Soviet and Russian choices leave its wider desirability unresolved.

Examples include Renown pursuing Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, American destroyers with Taffy 3, and motor torpedo or gun boats in the Pacific and English Channel.

Carrier operations rewarded battlecruiser speed, while hypothetical G3 carriers would have created a stronger modernization case for Hood, Renown, and Repulse.

The real steward's movement across a ship offers a plausible way to connect senior officers and ordinary crew in fiction.