SEA AND AIR POWER

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 72, 17 December 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

SEA AND AIR POWER

“Sea Power in the Next War,” by Commander Russell Grenfell; ‘ Air Power in the Next War,” by J. M. Spaight ('London: Bles),

These books belong to the “Next WarSeries,” issued under the general editorship of Captain Liddell Hart. Both are welLwritten and thoughtful works. Commander Grenfell sees as the.ehief lessons of the last war the superiority of convoying as opposed to patrolling and cruising for the protection of merchant vessels, the restrictive effect exercised. toy submarines upon large warships and the decreasing range of utility of the latter class. In fact he sees little future use for- the large ships and would have a navy consisting mainly of super-destroyers. He has much of interest to say on the defence of trade and Mediterranean and oceanic communications.

Mr. ‘Spaight, until recently a Principal Assistant 'Secretary at the Air Ministry, has written a particularly interesting and authoritative book. After summarizing the ‘lessons of the last war he continues with an examination of the use of the aeroplane in Abyssinia, Spain and China, contrasts the facts with the flights of fancy of various notable writers and in an important conclusion, very ’ well worth reading, he makes the reassuring point that the influence of air power may prove to be pacific. “The nations may fear to unleash the monsters which they have bred,” he writes. “That would be the greatest, the most welcome, contribution that air power could make to ‘the next war’ — that ‘the next war’ never in fact comes."