Hanson Weightman Baldwin (1903–1991)

I found some of the writing in the book to be a bit bombastic and pretentious, along the lines of Kaltenborn, Eliot and other 1940s media experts. I changed my mind a bit when reading the notes to the book, which in some ways are more illuminating than the text and analysis, which was old hat even in 1966. There's some interesting material in the notes, including some comments by Halsey and Kincaid about Leyte Gulf that are well worth noting. Of note is that Baldwin was writing before much of the code-breaking secrets of the war came out, though you get some hints about it.… (mehr)

1745 Sea Fights and Shipwrecks: True Tales of the Seven Seas, by Hanson W. Baldwin (read 17 Oct 1982) This tells of ship losses and sea battles from 1816 to 1945, starting with the Medusa in 1817, the mutiny on the Somers in 1842, the Birkenhead loss in 1852, Herndon of the Central America in 1857, Saginaw--an amazing account of Pacific wreck, in 1870, the Mary Celeste in 1872, The Victoria in 1893 off Tripoli, Lebanon, No. 6: a Japanese submarine loss in 1912, the Lusitania in 1915, Jutland in 1916, in 1918 an amazing account of Italians against Austrian ships, in 1929 the last wreck of a sailing vessel, in 1939 the Admiral Graf Spee, in 1942 the Houston, in 1944 Leyte Gulf, and also in 1944 the awful Pacific typhoon, and in 1945 the battle for Okinawa. These are well-written accounts.… (mehr)