Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea

I purchased this book after scouring Amazon and Barnes & Noble for a good book on the Battle of Jutland for weeks. Based on previous reviews on Amazon, I settled on "Castles of Steel." I didn't pay attention to the length of the book. When I got the book, I was a bit displeased to see it was so big. I read A LOT, but I had purchased a lot of books and figured I'd have several books wasting away for a long time on my shelf while I trudged through this book... I was wrong."Castles of Steel," despite it's length, is a very quick read. I found myself blazing through pages thanks to Mr. Massie's very engaging style. I loved how the book setup the political and military situations behind the naval engagements, strategies, and actions of The Great War. This isn't just a book on sea battles; it is a fairly good history of the war itself (with the notable exception that it barely touches on the ground war, which is understandable since it is, after all, billed as a book about the naval war). Mr. Massie uses a plethora of direct, first-person sources such as letters between major personalities deeply involved in the war; the bibliography and references sections take up tens of pages. This book was clearly well researched, well written, and deserves all the praise it gets.If I had one complaint about the book, it would be that the first few months of the war take up probably 50% of the book while most of 1915 all the way through the summer of 1919 takes up the rest of the book. It felt weighted poorly in that respect. However, I understand how this was probably necessary given how, post-Jutland, the naval war became very quiet in terms of traditional naval warfare. Another small criticism is that more maps and illustrations might have helped. Many of the chapters describe naval battles in painstaking detail, but without maps, it is hard to keep track of the disposition of ships. Only in the battle of Jutland chapters is there a decent map that shows movement during battle rather than simply the course of battle groups in the time leading up to the actual engagements.It's rare for me to re-read nonfiction books, especially one as long as "Castles of Steel," but I foresee myself keeping this on an open shelf and diving back into this sometime down the road.I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in World War I or naval history. I am strongly considering purchasing some of Mr. Massie's other books, namely "Dreadnought," as he says in the acknowledgments that "Dreadnought" and "Castles of Steel" can be placed together, with "Dreadnought" covering naval warfare innovation and how it influenced European history up to the start of The Great War while "Castles of Steel" picks up in the summer of 1914 and takes readers through the summer of 1919 and the sinking of the German fleet in Scapa Flow.

Robert Massie's Castle of Steel, the follow-up to his book Dreadnought, is a well written, faster paced work than its aforementioned precursor. The background information about the main characters, in particular the British is provided, High might amount to a small book itself. Admiral Jellicoe is portrayed as a quiet, loved, meticulous master of the British Fleet. His contemporary Admiral Beatty is portrayed as more of an impulsive leader of the British battle cruiser squadron.Massie's book recaps the house of cards collapse leading toward the First World War, and chronicles the British sea efforts to scour the sea of Imperial German surface vessels and either bottle up, or lure into battle and destroy the Imperial German fleet. Massie neatly compartmentalizes, lays the foundation for, meticulously recounts the battles, and analyzes battle results and consequences. His battle sequences begin with early skirmishes between British and German vessels, and lead to more telling sea battles including actions in the South Pacific and South Atlantic oceans with the Battles of Coronel and the Falkland Islands, though the ultimate Battle of Jutland, and the famous action by Jellicoe where he crossed the German T.Massie also covers British naval action in the Mediterranean which includes the Dardanelles and Gallipoli as well as the cat and mouse game played between the skirmishes between the German and British fleets in the North Sea, where each side would attempt to lure out the other, in particular with German raids on the coast of England, hoping to entice British ships into traps. Unbeknownst to the Germans, Britain had cracked German codes, and more often than not had a heads up as toward German plans.Castles of Steel describes tactics and strategies of each belligerent empire. Massie also provides the metric for battleship/battle cruiser construction, where the variables of armor, gun caliber, and speed were all to play important roles between the two antagonists. For the most part, the Germans who's ships may have been better constructed and armored, and able to absorb a terrible pounding, were outnumbered and out gunned(in regard to weight of shell), as well as generally slower than their Opponents from England. During an age of far more limited technology, Massie explains the tactics and strategy of the meetings between opposing fleets, two of which were if you fought with larger guns than your opponents, maintain a distance where your enemies guns would be less effective, and the importance of setting suns (silhouetting your enemies to your range finders, while blinding your opponents, all the while as your forces disappeared into darkness) as well as the wind affect on the smoke of your own guns blinding your own range finders. Massie puts you in each of the skirmishes and battles, and you can experience the position of the cat who knows they have the advantage, and the mouse who knows that they will die if they cannot escape.The last major facet of Castles of Steel is the British blockade of Germany, and the vacillation of Germany's direction toward unrestricted submarine warfare. Not to sound the apologist, but Germany was caught between a rock and a hard place. As food and supplies continued to enter Britain, Germany was being slowly strangled. As a last ditch effort to turn the tide on the killing fields of France, unrestricted submarine warfare was effected, which ultimately brought the United States into the war.Massie provides a fair amount of detail in regard to the personal lives of Jellicoe and Beatty, much less of their German counterparts Scheer and Hipper. Perhaps this helps explain the rationale of these powerful contemporaries. Jellicoe, much more conservative by nature, making sure all was in his favor prior to committing to action, whereas Massie portrays Beatty as the dashing peacock, willing to take chances, that almost lead to his demise at Jutland, yet, more by accident, lead the Germans into Jellicoe's trap.Robert Massie's Castles of Steel is an "almost" great book. One small (major) anomaly exists which calls to ones attention, might more mistakes of this nature be included in his book, that detract from what appears to be a glowing historical account between the naval forces of Britain and Germany in the "Great War"? A bottom page note on page 760 lists the American battleships New Mexico, Mississippi, and Colorado as severely damaged at Pearl Harbor, yet none of these listed ships was present at Pearl during the Japanese attack on 12/7/41. In a book that pays so much attention to detail, one might wonder how this mistake was made, and if other such mistakes existed. In a book of 788 pages of text, I submit that this error is insignificant when looking at Massie's Castle of Steel as a whole. This volume is a worthy, and in regard to the guns and thunder of battle, a more "exciting" book than its predecessor Dreadnought, that I would recommend to anybody interested in this theater of world history.

O autor e um excelente contador de historias e um historiador sem maculas.. O livro e simplesmente empolgante e impossível de largar antes do final da leitura.

The style in which the book was written, made the history real. It was easy and enjoyable to read. It is a scholarly work and the research is apparent from the narrative (and the notes at the back). Yet, the author managed to never make it dry or boring. The pages were fact filled, but the accounts were vivid and described in a way that was humane and honest. There were no villains and no hero's. When mistakes were clear, they were presented as mistakes. When foresight was clear, it was shown to be the case. Mistakes and foresight were not judged. It was refreshing to see a clean and clear analysis. The reader can decide how the historic figures fare, making that judgement based on their own moral compass. This is quite an accomplishment, since many of the accounts written about that period tend to veer towards specific points of moral judgement, rather presenting the reader with the facts that are known and verified. The author made a point to indicate when something was speculation or conjecture. If you are interested in First World War naval history, this comes highly recommended.

Start with Dreadnought and enjoy the pack!!

The author hit the right level of detail. Nit just the naval aspects but also the institutional politics. I am now reading Dreadnought. Just as good, so far.

Le sujet est passionnant et écrit avec clarté (le déroulement tactique des batailles reste quand même parfois un peu difficile à suivre pour le non-"native"). Mais attention, il m'est arrivé de noter ça et là, sur des épisodes - anecdotiques - qu'il se trouvait que je connaissais en détail par ailleurs, des erreurs factuelles avérées (après vérification à plusieurs sources). C'est un travail de journaliste, et non d'historien (l'auteur ne donne pas ses sources). Ce genre de petites erreurs jette un peu le doute sur l'ensemble du travail: ou s'arrête la vérité et où commence le roman ? Par ailleurs, les analyses des décisions, des personnages, sont trop tranchées pour être vraiment convaincantes d'un point de vue historique (le récit en gagne en clarté cependant, c'est sûr). Mais bon, 5 étoiles quand même car on passe un excellent moment !