A riveting addition to the literature on scientific innovation during the Second World War.
An engineer hails a lesser-known technological breakthrough of the World War II era.
The United States’ weaponization of nuclear technology and England’s cracking of the Enigma code are often discussed in conversations about the roles of scientists and mathematicians in the Second World War. However, this book suggests that “one small piece of hardware” may have been “the single most important physical invention” that ended the war in Europe. The resonant cavity magnetron paved the way for microwave radar systems that gave Allies a distinct advantage over Nazi Germany. The difference between the radar used during the early years of the war and this new version, the book notes, “was akin to that between the musket and the rifle.” The author convincingly suggests that microwave radar’s abilities to detect U-boats and to give bombers the ability to “see” through overcast skies were essential prerequisites to the successful D-Day campaign. Indeed, the book notes that microwave-enabled bombing campaigns on Nazi factories and infrastructure essentially disabled Germany’s air force before a single Allied soldier stepped foot on the beaches of Normandy. Some academic historians may balk at the author’s overreliance on a handful of secondary sources for historical context, and cynics may question the book’s hagiographic tendencies. However, as a retired electronics engineer who helped design radar equipment used in air traffic control towers, Fine expertly breaks down the complex technology and deftly guides readers through myriad acronyms used by the military and government agencies. The book also tells a compelling story of how a network of “unlikely partners”—including politicians, businessmen, army generals, and university presidents—transformed what was previously a “hazy dream to a few scientists” into a deployable tool. Original interviews with those who made and used the tech, including project engineers and B-17 navigators, complement the narrative, as do ample photographs and illustrations.
A riveting addition to the literature on scientific innovation during the Second World War.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64-012220-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Potomac Books
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Gibbins combines historical knowledge with a sense of adventure, making this book a highly enjoyable package.
A popular novelist turns his hand to historical writing, focusing on what shipwrecks can tell us.
There’s something inherently romantic about shipwrecks: the mystery, the drama of disaster, the prospect of lost treasure. Gibbins, who’s found acclaim as an author of historical fiction, has long been fascinated with them, and his expertise in both archaeology and diving provides a tone of solid authority to his latest book. The author has personally dived on more than half the wrecks discussed in the book; for the other cases, he draws on historical records and accounts. “Wrecks offer special access to history at all…levels,” he writes. “Unlike many archaeological sites, a wreck represents a single event in which most of the objects were in use at that time and can often be closely dated. What might seem hazy in other evidence can be sharply defined, pointing the way to fresh insights.” Gibbins covers a wide variety of cases, including wrecks dating from classical times; a ship torpedoed during World War II; a Viking longship; a ship of Arab origin that foundered in Indonesian waters in the ninth century; the Mary Rose, the flagship of the navy of Henry VIII; and an Arctic exploring vessel, the Terror (for more on that ship, read Paul Watson’s Ice Ghost). Underwater excavation often produces valuable artifacts, but Gibbins is equally interested in the material that reveals the society of the time. He does an excellent job of placing each wreck within a broader context, as well as examining the human elements of the story. The result is a book that will appeal to readers with an interest in maritime history and who would enjoy a different, and enlightening, perspective.
Gibbins combines historical knowledge with a sense of adventure, making this book a highly enjoyable package.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781250325372
Page Count: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
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