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  • Blackett's War

  • The Men Who Defeated the Nazi U-boats and Brought Science to the Art of Warfare
  • By: Stephen Budiansky
  • Narrated by: John Lee
  • Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (21 ratings)
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Blackett's War

By: Stephen Budiansky
Narrated by: John Lee
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Summary

In March 1941, after a year of unbroken and devastating U-boat onslaughts, the British War Cabinet decided to try a new strategy in the foundering naval campaign. To do so, they hired an intensely private, bohemian physicist who was also an ardent socialist. Patrick Blackett was a former navy officer and future winner of the Nobel Prize; he is little remembered today, but he and his fellow scientists did as much to win the war against Nazi Germany as almost anyone else. As director of the World War II antisubmarine effort, Blackett used little more than simple mathematics and probability theory - and a steadfast belief in the utility of science - to save the campaign against the U-boat. Employing these insights in unconventional ways, from the washing of mess hall dishes to the color of bomber wings, the Allies went on to win essential victories against Hitler's Germany.

Here is the story of these civilian intellectuals who helped to change the nature of 20th-century warfare. Throughout, Stephen Budiansky describes how scientists became intimately involved with what had once been the distinct province of military commanders - convincing disbelieving military brass to trust the solutions suggested by their analysis. Budiansky shows that these men above all retained the belief that operational research and a scientific mentality could change the world. It's a belief that has come to fruition with the spread of their tenets to the business and military worlds, and it started in the Battle of the Atlantic, in an attempt to outfight the Germans, but most of all to outwit them.

©2013 Stephen Budiansky (P)2013 Tantor
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Wrong title of fair bk but w/ 2 many fact errors

Pat Blackett was a friend of my parents so I began the book expecting a biography of an eminent scientist. However, Blackett doesn't appear in it for longish stretches. The title might better have been sth like 'The Contribution of Operational Research to the UK & US War effort'.
In my opinion the faults in the books are very likely caused by the author having had a contract to produce <x number of books in y years> & turned this one out without making much effort either
a) to look at original sources;
b) to check facts.

Some examples of (b):
Bremen is not a city a city in the Ruhr-Gebiet; it is a coastal city 142 miles / 230 kilometres from e.g. Duisburg.
The Labour Government came into office in 1964 not the early 1960's.
There is no mention of Solly Zuckerman's <Transportation Plan>, a key output of Operational Research which was accepted by 'Bomber' Harris.
On the one hand, the book presents itself as a semi-serious scientific book but on the other hand the author finds it important to give details of the sex lives of some participants. Less attention to anecdotes and more focus on science would have improved it.
And wasn't Nobel prize-winner Prof. Blackett quite correct in his critique of the UK's "independent" nuclear weapons, a topic about which the author has no position? Nor does he have any criticisms of the USA's post-WW2 foreign policy whereas Blackett is criticised for his naivete in daring to have some. Finally Wikipedia states, 'His views saw an outlet in Third World development ' but on that Budiansky loses not a word having decided that Blackett was completely ignored post WW2.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent background into many areas of WW2

This is an exceptional book.

Meticulously researched and beautifully written, it weaves an intricate narrative about the brains trust that helped the Allies win WW2.

It is hard to understate the importance of this book, particularly as a primer for any works on The Battle of The Atlantic. It also serves as a fascinating introduction into the shortcomings of the bomber war and R V Jones’ radio beam offensive.

Also interesting to learn how Germany failed to go down this route, as well as noting how Operational Research became a part of everyday life after the war.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Three and a half

There were some genuinely interesting insights into operational research and pre war decision making. I particularly enjoyed attack analysis.

The book is only nominally about Blackett, especially between WW1 and WW2 the narrative focuses on the left wing intelligentsia who thought they could think their way to world peace through hot air and washing in cold water, it becomes tiresome.
Parts of the book tread very familiar territory, especially around strategic air-warfare. The author heavily leans on hindsight to draw conclusions at times.
As for the narrator, hmmm. American grammar with an English voice is always going to jar. As for the accents, why do they bother? The German accents are like something from Allo Allo and just like every other wartime book they give a half hearted Churchill, just don’t.

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    5 out of 5 stars

Very good book - engaging and interesting

This is a really enjoyable book - for me there was enough human story to keep me engaged, but this was interspersed with some very interesting detail (but not too much technical detail...) about how exactly scientists contributed to WWII in very significant ways. It wasn't just the coves at Bletchley Park who applied science and maths to the War Effort, don't ya know!
The narrator was also very competent - actually paying attention to punctuation, and reading at a moderate pace etc... My only criticism here would be that, whilst the narrator sounded very obviously British, there seemed to have been some weird Americanisation of the grammar in places, and also, I fear, Americanisation of some vowels as well . It really began to grate on me after a while. Are Americans unable to listen to, and understand, an English narrator using UK British? I am very happy to listen to American narrators using their native American English, but apparently it doesn't go both ways.

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