Book 'Engineers of Victory'

choi

book review on Paul Kennedy, Engineers of Victory; The problem solvers who turned the tide in the Second World War. Random House, 2013.

(1) America and the second world war | The Workshop Heroes; A tribute to the unsung workers. Economist, Mar 2, 2013.
http://www.economist.com/news/bo ... ers-workshop-heroes
("NEARLY 70 years after the second world war and with most of the combatants now dead, a leading historian can praise the Wehrmacht. Not, of course, its evil racism but its military prowess. On the battlefields, writes Paul Kennedy of Yale University, Germany’s soldiers earned universal respect for their 'capacity to react swiftly and fiercely to an assault on any front.' * * * The Wehrmacht possessed a fabulous capacity to recover and strike back; Germany’s paratroopers were ultra- competent; the Reich fought with astounding tenacity. How then did Germany come to lose the war?")

Note:
(a) Wehrmacht
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wehrmacht
(German for "defense force"; was the unified armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945)
(b) reich
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reich

* The English noun reign is, like German noun reich, derived from Latin regnum ("from reg-, rex king").
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reign
(c) The review says Prof Paul Kennedy "does not claim that the Allies’ victory can be explained solely by brute force or by a wonder weapon or by some magical decrypting system."

decrypt (vt; International Scientific Vocabulary de- + CRYPTOgram, CRYPTOgraph; First Known Use 1935):
"DECODE"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/decrypt
(d) The review alludes to "the stupendous might of America’s military-industrial complex."

stupendous (adj; Latin stupendus, gerundive of stupēre):
"causing astonishment or wonder : AWESOME, MARVELOUS"

* Yes, this adjective shares the same Latin root with "stupid" (from stupēre to be numb, be astonished).
(e) Consolidated B-24 Liberator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_B-24_Liberator
(Manufacturer  Consolidated Aircraft [based in Buffalo, NY; shut down by eventual buyer McDonnell Douglas]; Produced 1940–1945; Republic of China[:] About 48 B-24Ms were provided by the US to the Chinese Nationalists after World War II and were used during the Chinese Civil War; People's Republic of China[:] The PLAAF had two B-24Ms captured from the Chinese Nationalists during the Chinese Civil War and operated until 1952)
(f) The review states, "Hedgehog grenades destroyed Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz’s U-boats."
* Hedgehog (weapon)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedgehog_(weapon)
(developed by the Royal Navy in 1942 (and entered service that year); to supplement the depth charge; Hedgehog remained in service with the United States Navy into the cold war)
* Karl Dönitz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_D%C3%B6nitz
(1891-1980; In 1943, Dönitz achieved the rank of Grand Admiral and [was elevated to] Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy; On Apr 30, 1945 after the death of Adolf Hitler and in accordance with Hitler's last will and testament, Dönitz was named Hitler's successor; On May 7, 1945 he ordered Alfred Jodl to sign the German instruments of surrender in Rheims, France)

He commanded, but did not invent, U-boats.
(g) Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-17_Flying_Fortress
(Produced 1936–1945)
(h) T-34
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-34
("a Soviet medium tank produced from 1940 to 1958. It has often been described as the most effective, efficient and influential design of World War II, although its armour and armament were surpassed by later tanks of the era"; engineer Mikhail "Koshkin chose the name after the year 1934 when he began to formulate his ideas about the new tank")
(i) For Mustang fighter, see North American P-51 Mustang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_P-51_Mustang
(Manufacturer North American Aviation [now part of Boeing]; Introduction 1942; section 2.4 Non-U.S. service: China [meaning Chiang's]; People's Republic of China: the Chinese Communists captured 39 P-51s from the Chinese Nationalists as they were retreating to Taiwan)
(j) For US Navy Construction Battalions, see Seabee (United States Navy)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seabee_(United_States_Navy)
(The word Seabee is a proper noun that comes from the initials of Construction Battalion (CB) of the United States Navy; Active 1942-present; Seabees from NMCB-133 deployed to Japan as part of the relief effort after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami)
* The review then remarks, "Seabee statistics are still amazing."
The noun statistics may be followed by singular or plural form of a verb.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/statistics
("noun plural but singular or plural in construction")
(k) The review indicates, "The famous photograph of General Douglas MacArthur fulfilling his 'I shall return' promise to the Philippines was possible only after skilful Seabees had managed the pontoon bridges and causeway units that brought the army ashore."
* skilful (adj): "chiefly British variant of SKILLFUL"
* pontoon bridge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontoon_bridge
(section 1 Ancient China)

It is really a bridge.
* Troops coming ashore over pontoon causeway. US Navy Seabee Museum, June 1944.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/usnavyseabeemuseum/6886636625/
(l) Paul Kennedy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Kennedy
(1945- )
(m) John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Churchill,_1st_Duke_of_Marlborough
(1650-1722; section 3.1 War of the Spanish Succession [read paragraph 1 only])

Quote: "Throughout ten consecutive campaigns during the Spanish Succession war Marlborough held together a discordant coalition through his sheer force of personality and raised the standing of British arms to a level not known since the Middle Ages. Although in the end he could not compel total capitulation from his enemies, his victories allowed Britain to rise from a minor to a major power, ensuring the country's growing prosperity throughout the 18th century.

* War of the Spanish Succession
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Spanish_Succession
(1701–1714; over who had the right to succeed Charles II as king of Spain)

The table, under the heading "Belligerents," lists the two camps. The short answer is Kingdom of France and Spain loyal to Philip lost, and France ambitions contained--whcih was teh essence of European balance of power, a notion that guided European nations for centuries.
(n) The review concludes by saying, "And he [historian Kennedy] is able to cite several instances of British-American-Soviet bickering to sustain the Duke of Wellington’s grumble that having enemies is nothing like as bad as having allies."

I do not know what this alludes to. See Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. Wikiquote, undated.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Wellesley,_1st_Duke_of_Wellington

choi

Andrew Roberts, Tinkerers Triumphant; Grunts and generals get the glory, but it was middle-ranking 'problem solvers' who developed the tools to win World War II. Wall Street Journal, Jan 27, 2013
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 44540714187334.html
("By 1943, only the British and American navies were launching heavy warships, and by August of that year the battle of the Atlantic was won")

Note:
(a) The review opened, "Other historians might narrow it down further—perhaps to the five months between the surrender of Stalingrad in February 1943 and the Germans' defeat at Kursk that July, a period that would also include the surrender of a quarter of a million Axis troops in North Africa in May. But none will disagree that by the time of the Red Army's destruction of German Army Group Center in July 1944, the writing was finally on the wall of the Reich Chancellery."
(i) Battle of Kursk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kursk
(near city of Kursk, Soviet Union [now in Russia]; July and August 1943)
(ii) Army Group Center
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Group_Center
(section 2.6 Destruction of Army Group Centre)

(b) The review continued, "Placing the Rolls-Royce Merlin 61 engine into the P-51 Mustang allowed it to fly at 432 miles per hour, enabling it to destroy Germany's Focke-Wulf 190 fighters then dominating the skies of occupied Europe."
(i) Rolls-Royce Merlin
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Merlin
(the PV-12 became known as the Merlin following the company convention of naming its piston aero engines after birds of prey; production 1936-1950)
(ii) Focke-Wulf Fw 190
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_190
(1941-1945 (Luftwaffe); Manufacturer  Primarily Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG [Where Focke and Wulf were surnames of two founders])

(c) The review indicated, "Similarly, the idiosyncratic Great War pilot Humphrey de Verd Leigh invented the Leigh plane-carried searchlights, which in Mr Kennedy's characteristically vivid language 'would catch in their stunning glare and paralyze U-boats recharging their batteries at night.'"
(i) Humphrey de Verd Leigh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_de_Verd_Leigh
(1897–1980; a Royal Air Force officer; During the Second World War his idea for an anti-submarine spotlight for Coastal Command [of UK Royal Air Force] was developed and named the Leigh Light after him)

(d) The review followed, "The inventors of the cavity magnetron, a miniaturized radar device that could be placed in aircraft like the Vickers Wellington, as well as in smaller ships, are also given their due."
(i) cavity magnetron
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavity_magnetron
(a high-powered vacuum tube that generates microwaves; The compact cavity magnetron tube drastically reduced the size of radar sets so that they could be installed in anti-submarine aircraft and escort ships)
(ii) Vickers Wellington
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_Wellington
(Manufacturer  Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd [surnames of two founders]; a British twin-engine, long range medium bomber; Produced  1936–1945)

(e) The review averred, "Mr Kennedy reminds us that the massive four-engine Lancaster bomber—like the B-17, B-24 and B-29—was capable of carrying the same bomb load as nine Axis medium bombers. The German two-engined Heinkel 111 bombers that had terrorized London earlier in the war simply couldn't cause the necessary damage, which is why nine times more German civilians died from aerial bombing than Britons."
(i) For Lancaster bomber, see Avro Lancaster
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Lancaster
(a British four-engined Second World War heavy bomber designed and built by Avro (cofounded in 1910 at Manchester, UK by Alliott Verdon Roe; thus AVRO] for the Royal Air Force; The "Lanc", as it was affectionately known, thus became the most famous and most successful of the Second World War night bombers, "delivering 608,612 long tons of bombs in 156,000 sorties")
(ii) oeing B-17 Flying Fortress
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-17_Flying_Fortress
(During World War II, the B-17 equipped 32 overseas combat groups, inventory peaking in August 1944 at 4,574 USAAF aircraft worldwide. B-17s dropped 640,036 short tons (580,631 metric tons) of bombs on European targets (compared to 452,508 short tons (410,508 metric tons) dropped by the Liberator and 463,544 short tons (420,520 metric tons) dropped by all other U.S. aircraft). The British heavy bombers, the Avro Lancaster and Handley Page Halifax, dropped 608,612 and 224,207 long tons respectively)
(iii) Boeing B-29 Superfortress
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-29_Superfortress
(Produced 1943–1946; Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era
Avro Lancaster)
(iv) Heinkel He 111
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinkel_He_111
(Produced 1935–1944)

* "Heinkel Flugzeugwerke [1922-1965] was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel." Wiki

(f) Mulberry Harbor
(i) Mulberry. Encyclopaedia Britannica, undated.
http://www.britannica.com/dday/article-9344572
(ii) Nick Enoch, 'An idea of simple genius': Original 1942 blueprints of Mulberry harbour that made D-Day possible and Hitler's architect envious are expected to fetch £60,000
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ ... d-fetch-60-000.html
(A Mulberry harbour "enabled the Allies to land troops, vehicles and equipment on French soil without having to capture a port first" but Allied still had to capture a beach)
(g) For Cherbourg, see Cherbourg-Octeville
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherbourg-Octeville
(officially formed when the commune of Cherbourg absorbed Octeville in 2000)
(h) Tarawa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarawa
is an atoll which includes South Tarawa, capital of Republic of Kiribati.

* South Tarawa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Tarawa
(The meaning of Teinainano is "down of the mast", alluding to the sail-shape of the atoll [when viewed from the sky])