Piercing the Fog of War

The writings of Hanson Baldwin in his chosen field of military analysis and military history have been distinguished for more than thirty years by one quality above all others—common sense, that priceless attribute which Lord Chesterfield described as being “in truth very uncommon,” the soil in which the great root-principles of the military art have been nourished since the days of Xenophon and Sun Tzu. This book is one more admirable illustration of the application of common sense, supported by encyclopedic professional knowledge, to the task of presenting military history in- a form understandable to the general reader, while conveying the realization that it is upon the lessons of experience that we must still rely today for the prudent direction of our national strategy.

The “plan of the book,” as described by the author, is built around narratives of eleven of the major battles of World War II, beginning with Hitler’s surprise assault on Poland and ending with the Japanese debacle at Okinawa — where the desperate Kamikaze attacks foreshadowed the coming menace of the missile. Each battle is described both in detail and in depth, and woven into the military events which preceded and followed it so that “collectively, the book is a military panorama of World War II.” Moreover, in each of the eleven chapters, a narrative description which does not lack for drama and human interest is followed by a critical analysis which does not err on the side of hero-worship or reverence for legend.

GE

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George Fielding Eliot

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The writings of Hanson Baldwin in his chosen field of military analysis and military history have been distinguished for more than thirty years by one quality above all others—common sense, that priceless attribute which Lord Chesterfield described as being “in truth very uncommon,” the soil in which the great root-principles of the military art have been nourished since the days of Xenophon and Sun Tzu. This book is one more admirable illustration of the application of common sense, supported by encyclopedic professional knowledge, to the task of presenting military history in- a form understandable to the general reader, while conveying the realization that it is upon the lessons of experience that we must still rely today for the prudent direction of our national strategy.

The “plan of the book,” as described by the author, is built around narratives of eleven of the major battles of World War II, beginning with Hitler’s surprise assault on Poland and ending with the Japanese debacle at Okinawa — where the desperate Kamikaze attacks foreshadowed the coming menace of the missile. Each battle is described both in detail and in depth, and woven into the military events which preceded and followed it so that “collectively, the book is a military panorama of World War II.” Moreover, in each of the eleven chapters, a narrative description which does not lack for drama and human interest is followed by a critical analysis which does not err on the side of hero-worship or reverence for legend.