Featured battle : Port Royal

Part of American Civil War

Date : 07 November 1861

Flag Officer Samuel du Pont with the 'Wabash', 8 other heavy frigates and sloops, and 5 gunboats attacked and reduced Ft Walker and Ft Beauregard at the mouth of Port Royal Sound, South Carolina. He accomplished this by a novel use of his steam-powered ships sailing repeated, elliptical courses into and out of the sound, passing the forts at short range and pounding them from all angles with repeated broadsides. The forts were designed to protect against sailing ships making a steady, straight course into the sound, not steamships able to position the guns to their flanks and rake the battery. When Fort Walker had only 3 of it's 32 guns remaining in action, it was abandoned. Ft Beauregard struck it's colours soon after and the Union had gained an important, deep-water harbour from which to launch operations against blockade runners.

Suez Crisis 1956

David Charlwood
Another in the 'Cold War 1945-1991' series, and in this shortened format they can sometimes 'bite off more than they can chew' - in 128 pages they can sometimes attempt to cover too much and either end up superficial or miss bits out. However this one is just about right. It sets the whole crisis in it's context. It covers the disagreements and wider political climate and you get a good picture of the 'why' and the 'how' of Egypt and President Nasser's move on the canal. It is very light on the actual military action, but good on the political side in particular the actions of Anthony Eden and Eisenhower. It also has an afterward drawing parallels between Suez and the 2003 Iraq war. In all, a good summary of an event that still has echos today.
Pen & Sword Miitary, Barnsley, 2019