Craig C. Felker

Challenging notions relating to a reactionary United States Navy overly attached to the big-gun warship, Felker demonstrates the process by how the interwar fleet exercises advanced the art of the possible in the USN; particularly in regards to aviation and submarines. If there was a particular issue it's that the emphasis on taking the offensive to achieve decisive battle in the paradigm posed by Alfred Thayer Mahan did not allow for sufficient consideration of defensive measures against the submarine; leading to the great debacle of Operation Drumbeat. Overall, Felker suspects that the real issue with the interwar USN was not so much an over-reliance on Mahan, but the unwillingness of civilian authorities to allow the Chief of Naval Operations to confront matters of high strategy until it was too late in the day; highly recommended.… (meer)