The primary usefulness of Your Navy today is to illustrate the dangers of overconfidence in America’s capabilities. That excess of optimism cost the US dearly in 1941.
High Point: The book provides a comprehensive portrait of American naval capabilities just prior to World War II.
Low Point: The failure of American leadership to learn from its military history.
Author: Claude Banks Mayo
Publication Date: 1941
Genre: History
“Honolulu is impregnable and is rapidly becoming a first class Fleet Base.”
“Great Britain possesses a first class naval base at Singapore, well protected.”
These statements from Your Navy by Claude Banks Mayo were published just months before the disastrous attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and the Japanese capture of Britain’s Singapore base in February 1942. Captain Mayo can be excused, though, because this was the prevalent thinking of American military leadership in 1941.
The book is a primer for the layperson of the structure and function of the American navy in its support of national policy shortly before the outbreak of World War II. It may have served well in that function, considering my copy was its fifth printing.
The primary usefulness of Your Navy today is to illustrate the dangers of overconfidence in America’s capabilities. That excess of optimism cost the US dearly in 1941. Hopefully, American leadership will learn from history moving forward in today’s unsettled world.
Sources For This Book
Free eBook (Project Gutenberg): Not available
Free Audiobook (LibriVox): Not available
Available to Purchase: AbeBooks, Biblio, Thriftbooks
