Thanks to Osprey Publishing for the review copy and IPMSUSA staff for delivering the book and publishing the review.

Mark Lardas is a real “rocket scientist” who has worked on Space Shuttle analytics and navigation. He is also an accomplished author with at least twelve books on naval topics, and a model maker as well. See his website for more details (www.marklardas.com). He has the gift of dissecting complex subjects (military campaigns) and finding the key fulcrums of change that led to the historical outcomes. He takes a fresh approach to re-analyze with additional information, with an objective, less-jaundiced eye for what really happened. The result is refreshing, especially for something like Tsushima 1905, something naval buffs think they know a lot about.

Osprey’s Campaign 330 covers all the Russo-Japanese War naval campaigns, including the famous Tsushima battle. Like other Osprey Campaign books, this issue is 96 pages (not counting the front/back covers) –enough for a comprehensive discussion on the war and its naval side.

This book provides ten color maps of the theatre, individual battles and subsets of battles. These alone are effective at understanding blow-by-blow details. There are three 2-page, full color illustrations of key events sprinkled throughout the book, showing interesting vignettes of the campaign. Many photographs and period paintings also compliment the text, which is efficient at explaining the history of this campaign.

Sections are devoted to:

1. Origins of the campaign
2. Opposing commanders
3. Opposing forces
4. Opposing plans
5. The Campaign (the battles)
6. Aftermath
7. Battlesites Today
8. Further Reading
9. Index.

I found the coverage of the two sides even-handed, casting blame where it belonged or was merited, as well as credit for superior performances. This is a book that you do not want to put down but absorb all at once.

Summary

I look at this volume as bringing to life an overlooked and even hackneyed subject, and in my opinion is the best single resource for the naval aspects of the Russo-Japanese War. I look forward to more naval books by Mark Lardas.

Figures

1. Front cover of Tsushima 1905. Death of a Russian Fleet.
2. Rear cover of Tsushima 1905. Death of a Russian Fleet.

Thanks to Osprey Publishing for providing the review sample.