Foreword by Chief of Navy - RNZN - Royal New Zealand … whakatauākī: ‘Kia mau koe ki nga kupu...

Foreword by Chief of Navy

We are all te Taua Moana O Aotearoa; Warriors of the Sea from New Zealand. We are united by the Naval profession of arms.

As we progress through the year of empowerment I want you all to know that the future and the strength of our Navy lies in you, our people.

As Chief of Navy I will provide you with as many opportunities for your own professional development as I can. I want to make sure that each and every civilian, sailor and officer amongst us reaches their potential and fully enjoys and exploits the Navy experience. If we each individually achieve our full potential, collectively we will ensure our Navy remains strong and effective and we will increase our mana and standing with all of our partners.

Whaia e koe te iti kahurangi, kia tapapa koe, he maunga tiketike – Follow your treasured aspirations, if you falter, let it be because of insurmountable difficulties.

The RNZN Reading List attached has been compiled to increase our awareness of the environment in which we operate and to improve our critical thinking ability.

It has been developed by Navy personnel for Navy personnel and others with an interest in the Naval profession of arms. It has been developed to provide us with a means to better understand and appreciate our profession and our ability to function as mariners going down to the sea in ships.

To succeed in a military profession, you need to be able to understand manuals, policies, directives and procedures. You need a high level of reading ability. Reading is a skill that takes time to develop, and time to master but it is the easiest skill to start, you just need to pick up a book and start.

This list is not exhaustive and by no means is it complete. It is a point from which to commence or continue your journey to improve your reading fitness and literacy ability.

The importance of professional and general reading cannot be overstated. The words of the whakatauākī: ‘Kia mau koe ki nga kupu ou tupuna’ - Hold fast to the words of your ancestors, reminds us that knowledge of the stories of our forebears, fellow mariners and strategic partners is an important element in the journey towards our Vision.

I commend this list to you. Involve your shipmates and oppos, discuss your books, and share your thoughts and points of view, whether they are critical or supportive. Good luck with it.

Introduction

Reading is a pastime that is rapidly being relegated in our ever busy lives, many of us have lost the art (and the joy) of simply curling up on a comfortable chair with a really good book. The introduction of MP3 players, portable DVD’s, video games and the ‘on-tap’ hours of entertainment they seem to offer have further eroded reading to be seen as an old fashioned activity that no longer serves a purpose.

Research has highlighted that 1 in 4 adults do not at all. Those that do read, on average barely manage just 4 books in any given year.

Without a doubt, reading is being forsaken in its importance as we find new ways and means to occupy our time. We are forgetting the importance of reading. Trends indicate that people don't take the time to read books, magazines, or even newspapers anymore. They are increasingly relying on the internet and television to satisfy their entertainment needs. Reading however provides us with a gateway to the past, an imagination of the future, an insight to a time impossible to visit. Reading provides us with the ability to learn a new skill and understand the thought processes of historical figures. If you want to contemplate how you would have reacted in a given situation try an alternative history book and consider how events in history may have resulted in a different outcome with just a slight and

plausible change in circumstances.

Reading has many benefits, from building your vocabulary, to enhancing your thinking capacity to relaxation and de-stressing. If you need a few moments to relax after a hard day, reading is a wonderful way to do so. It really doesn’t matter what book you read, but if you can lose yourself in a book you can escape from worry and stress much easier and quicker than you think.

We are all taught the benefits of physical exercise for fitness, agility and strength. As it is with your body, your mind also needs a exercise. You can’t get physically fit by watching TV, neither can you get reading fit.

Regular reading (exercise) enables your mind to bend and flex mentally, and provides a stronger ability to remain focused throughout the day. There is no greater avenue to enhanced learning then through reading.

The RNZN Reading list has been compiled to provide a reference to assist with selecting books to read. The list may seem quite large but it is separated across several key themes and contains both non-fiction and fiction titles. Non-fiction titles provide factual detail on a given theme or person but often are difficult to read if the joy of reading has been lost.

Fictional titles, especially when framed

around a realistic plot, add an element of enjoyment not too dissimilar from watching the latest blockbuster at the cinema.

Fiction reading is an excellent warm-up routine to ease into the habit of reading before tackling your first non-fiction title.

It doesn’t matter whether you consider yourself a strong reader or not, the best way to develop your reading fitness is to read – you only have to read more than 4 books in a year to be better than average!

It doesn’t matter how long it takes to read a book, it is the process of reading and increasing your level of understanding that really matters. You will see ship silhouettes alongside each title; the symbol is an indicator of the ‘reading fitness’ that you will need in order to gain maximum enjoyment out of reading the title.

The RNZN Reading List is a guide, it is not a target and it is not exclusive. There is no prize for reading all of the books. Equally the list should not be restrictive to your reading; there are thousands of books out there waiting to be discovered and read.

Reading beyond this list is recommended, but where possible I have included additional titles by the same author.

The majority of the books on this list are currently available through the Defence

Library Scheme or your local council library.

The titles are also available for purchase through any bookshop in New Zealand or the range of online sites. Purchasing a book lets you highlight certain passages, annotate with your own notes for ease of future reference – this may be useful for you – particularly with many of the books in the Leadership and Critical thinking section of the list.

Some titles have also been translated to the cinema or television.

If you have read a book on the list and consider that it should be removed for any reason, I invite your feedback. If you have read a book that is not on this list but you consider that it has useful insights for your shipmates then you are encouraged to send in a review so your book can be incorporated into future editions of the RNZN Reading list. You do not need to recommend an entire book, a single chapter alone may be appropriate.

All feedback is welcome and can be sent to: [email protected]

Note: This is likely to be the last edition of the Navy List that I will produce. If anyone would like to take the list forward, please let me know. Thank you.

mailto:[email protected]

The IPV silhouette indicates that the book is a good easy read for readers of all fitness levels.

The OPV silhouette indicates that the book requires a slightly higher than average ‘Reading Fitness’ level. If you are not used to reading you may not want to start with an ‘OPV’. After a couple of ‘IPV’s though you should be in ‘good shape’ to tackle an OPV.

The Frigate silhouette indicates that the book, whilst not an effort to read, does require a higher than average ‘Reading Fitness’ level. This symbol should not put you off reading this title but provides an indication that if you are not used to reading, there may be other titles in this list that you should try reading first.

Indicates that the title has been translated into a Television Series. It may be available on DVD.

Indicates that the title has been translated into a Major Motion Picture and may be available on DVD.

Indicates that the title is a new addition to this version of the Reading List – the new titles are also listed in Blue in the table of contents.

Table of Contents Foreword by Chief of Navy Introduction

Maritime Warfare No Easy Day………………………………………………………………………... Pirate Alley: Commanding Task Force 151 Off Somalia ………………………….. A Captain’s Duty………………………………………………………………………... 1812: The Navy’s War ………………………………………………………………… D-Day June 6, 1944: The Climatic Battle of World War II …………………………. The US Navy and the War in Europe ………………………………………………... The Great Naval Race ………………………………………………………………… Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War ……………… Flyboys: The Final Secret of the Air War in the Pacific ……………………………. Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan …………………………… The Battle of the River Plate: The Hunt for the German Pocket Battleship ……... Beyond the Battlefield: New Zealand and it’s Allies 1939 – 1945 ……………….. Four Weeks in May: The loss of HMS Coventry ……………………………………. One Hundred Days: Memoirs of the Falklands Battle Group Commander ……… Flags of our Fathers …………………………………………………………………… Sea of Thunder: Four Great Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign. A Mission of Honour: The Royal Navy in the Pacific 1769 – 1997 ……………….. Flying Navy: New Zealanders who flew in the Fleet Air Arm ………………………

Application of Core Values Into the Fire….………………………………………………………………………….. Brothers Forever……………………………………………………………………….. Fearless…………………………………………………………………………………. Unbroken………………………………………………………………………………… One Common Enemy………………………………………………………………….. Outlaw Platoon…………………………………………………………………………. American Sniper……………………………………………………………………… Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing………………….. Shackleton’s Captain: A Biography of Frank Worsley ……………………………... Endurance ………………………………………………………………………………. ANZAC Girls………………………………………… …………………………………. A Bit Mental: One Man’s Mission to Lilo the Waikato……………………………….

7 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 11 11 12 12 13 13 14 14 15 16 17 17 18 18 19 19 20 20 21 21 22 22

Hell of High Water: New Zealand Merchant Seafarers Remember the War ..…… Apiata VC: The Reluctant Hero………………………………………………………... Gunner Billy Willy ……………………………………………………………………….. Faith of my Fathers ……………………………………………………………………... Sole Survivor – One Man’s Journey…………………………………………………… North Sea Warrior / A War By Stealth …………………………………………………

Leadership / Critical Thinking It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership…………………………………………….. War Diaries: 1939 – 1945………………………………………………………………. The Introverted Leader: Building on your Quiet Strength…..………………….…… Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead…………………………………..…….. Leaders Eat Last………………………………………………………………………… The Trident: Forging and Reforging of a Navy SEAL Leader…..………………….. Vital Voices: The Power of Women Leading Change Around the World……….… American Spartan…………………………………………………………………..…… High Command: British Military Leadership in Iraq and Afghanistan………………. Leadership Blindspots………………………………………………………………..…. Developing Women Leaders………………………………………………………...…. Blake: Leader – Leadership Lessons from a Great New Zealander ………………. Black Hearts: One Platoon’s Descent Into Madness in Iraq’s Triangle of Death … Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders …………. Non-commissioned Officer and Petty Officer: Backbone of the Armed Forces….. Bleeding Talent: How the US Military Mismanages Great Leaders ……………….. Its Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy … Destroyer Captain – Lessons of a First Command………………………………….. Navy Strategic Culture: Why the Navy Thinks Differently ………………………….. The Guinness Book of Naval Blunders ……………………………………………….. Joker One: A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage, Leadership and Brotherhood…

Regional and Cultural Awareness The Penguin History of New Zealand ………………………………………………… Mister Pip ………………………………………………………………………………… The Kite Runner …………………………………………………………………………. The Great Wall at Sea: China’s Navy Enters the Twenty First Century …………... The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China ……………………….

23 23 24 24 25 26 28 28 29 29 30 30 31 31 32 32 33 33 34 34 35 35 36 37 37 38 38 40 41 41 42 42

Not Enough Room to Swing a Cat: Naval Slang and its everyday usage ……... Blue Ocean Strategy ………………………………………………………………….

Strategy Management / Organisational Change Whatcha Gonna do with that Duck?...................................................................... The Moment you can’t Ignore……………………………………………………..….. Winning the Story Wars………………………………………………………..……… What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There.………………………………………... The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us.………………. Maverick ………………………………………………………………………………… Leading Change ……………………………………………………………………...... Good to Great ………………………………………………………………………….. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People …………………………………………….. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation ………… The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable ……………………………

Naval Fiction Rogue Avenger…………………………………………………………………………. Cruiser……………………………………………………………………………………. Diamond Head……………………………………………………………….…………. The Hornblower Series ……………………………………………………………….. Sharpes Trafalgar ……………………………………………………………………… HMS Ulysses …………………………………………………………………………… Choosers of the Slain ………………………………………………………………….. Tiger Cruise …………………………………………………………………………….. Nimitz Class ……………………………………………………………………………. Phoenix Sub Zero ……………………………………………………………………… The Hunt For Red October ……………………………………………………………. Master and Commander ………………………………………………………………. The Cruel Sea ………………………………………………………………………...... The Caine Mutiny ……………………………………………………………………….

43 43 45 45 46 46 47 47 48 48 49 49 50 52 52 53 53 54 55 55 56 56 57 57 58 59 59

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Maritime Warfare RNZN Reading List Edition 3 (2015)

No Easy Day

Author: Mark Owen

Pirate Alley: Commanding Task Force 151 Off Somalia

Author: RADM Terry McKnight USN (Ret.) and, Michael Hirsh

Examines the mission that killed Osama Bin Laden, details the selection and training process for one of the most elite units in the military, and describes previously unreported missions that illustrate the life and work of a SEAL and the evolution of the team after the events of September 11

With piracy on the rise and fast becoming a serious global security issue, Admiral Terry McKnight took command of a new multi-national task force in 2009 to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden. As task force commander, he directed operations that disrupted several hijackings and resulted in the capture of sixteen Somali pirates. After running head-on into a U.S. policy of catch-and-release, he realized that there was more to fighting piracy than just catching youngsters armed with AK-47s and RPGs. McKnight retired from the Navy and began researching the problem. This book, co-written with journalist Michael Hirsh, is a very readable yet authoritative introduction to the subject. The authors explore every aspect of Somali piracy, from how the pirates operate to how their actions have impacted the world economy. They examine various attempts to solve the problem, including placing armed guards aboard merchant ships, and highlight the best ways to outfit ships for travel through high risk areas

But they warn that a consequence of successfully protecting such targets as container ships and crude oil carriers may be that pirates turn to crime on land, such as the kidnapping of foreigners In addressing the worldwide economic impact of piracy, they note that piracy costs as much as $13 billion a year, and in 2011 took 1000 seafarers into captivity. One shipping company argues, however, that over-reaching shipping regulations have a greater negative effect on the economy. The book concludes that in the interest of justice and to protect the free flow of commerce throughout the world, the United States government needs to take additional measures to stop the flow of U.S. dollars for ransoms payments that serves as the only reason for piracy in the region

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A Captain’s Duty.

Author: Richard Phillips

1812: The Navy’s War

Author: George C. Daughan

8th April 2009 was just an ordinary day for 53 -year-old Richard Phillips, captain of the United States-registered cargo vessel, the Maersk Alabama, as it headed towards the port of Mombasa. Ordinary that is until, two hundred or so miles off the east coast of Africa, armed Somali pirates attacked and boarded the freighter. It was the first time an American cargo ship had been hijacked in over 200 years. What the pirates didn’t expect was that the crew would fight back, nor did they expect Captain Phillips to offer himself as a hostage in exchange for the safety of his crew - a courageous gesture that resulted in his being held captive on a tiny life-boat off the anarchic, gun-plagued coast of Somalia. And so began a tense five-day stand-off, which ended in a daring high-seas rescue by U.S. Navy SEALs. In A Captain's Duty, Richard Phillips tells his own extraordinary story - that of an ordinary man who did what he saw as his

duty and in so doing became a hero. It is a thrilling true tale of adventure and courage in the face of deprivation, death threats and mock executions and also a compulsively readable first-hand account of the terrors of high-seas hostage-taking.

An easy yet fast paced read, this book provides an engaging account of the War of 1812. Whilst Napoleon was testing the patience of the European Powers and whilst England was still reliving the glory that was Trafalgar, a Naval War was being fought across the Atlantic.

At the outbreak of the War of 1812, America’s prospects looked dismal. It was clear that the primary battlefield would be the open ocean America’s fleet was only twenty ships strong and it had to size up against the worked up Royal Navy numbering over a thousand ships. Despite the overwhelming odds against them, the American navy managed to take the fight to the British on the Great Lakes, in the Atlantic, and even in the eastern Pacific, and turn the tide of the war.

George C. Daughan tells the thrilling story of how a handful of heroic captains and their stalwart crews overcame spectacular odds to lead the country to victory against the world’s greatest imperial power.

A stunning contribution to military and American history, 1812: The Navy’s War is the first complete account of how the U.S. Navy rescued the fledgling nation and secured America’s future.

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D-Day June 6, 1944: The Climatic Battle of World War II,

Author: Stephen Ambrose.

The US Navy and the War in Europe.

Author: Robert C Stern

Stephen E. Ambrose draws from more than 1,400 interviews with American, British, Canadian, French, and German veterans to create the preeminent chronicle of the most important day in the twentieth century.

Ambrose reveals how the original plans for the invasion were abandoned, and how ordinary soldiers and officers acted on their own initiative. D-Day is above all the epic story of men at the most demanding moment of their existence, when the horrors, complexities, and triumphs of life are laid bare. Ambrose portrays the faces of courage and heroism, fear and determination -- what Eisenhower called "the fury of an aroused democracy" -- that shaped the victory of the citizen soldiers whom Hitler had disparaged.

The US Navy and Marine Corps Pacific campaign during the Second World War has rightly received a lion’s share of attention from naval historians; it’s difficult to comprehend how the defeat of Japan could have been achieved without the dominance of Sea Power. For many the Pacific Campaign is considered the US Navy’s greatest contribution to the war, but US Navy operations in the Atlantic against Hitler’s Kriegsmarine before and after the attack on Pearl Harbor was as vital to the war effort of the Allies as any other campaign that leads to victory. Stern sums up the differences of the Pacific and European theatres as: “The war in the Pacific was primarily naval. The premise was simple: control the sea and Japan would lose. In contrast, the war in Europe could be lost at sea but not won there. To win the war in Europe, the lands won by the German Army would have to be taken back by carrying Allied armies across open water and landing on hostile shores, all on a scale never attempted before.”

The US Navy and the War in Europe is a detailed but thoroughly enjoyable read full of vignettes highlighting the US Navy’s

contribution to the victory in Europe through operations in the Atlantic, Arctic and Mediterranean. Stern describes so many actions in such wonderful detail you just can’t help begin to consider the implications of each and every engagement on the final outcome of the war such as Convoy escort duties that saw USN ships engaging with and by U-Boats before war had been declared; through the search for and sinking of the Bismarck.

When you see the picture of Churchill, whilst waiting for the brow to be secured so he can receive Roosevelt on HMS PRINCE OF WALES, amusing himself by playing with the battleship’s cat, you just know you are reading an account of war not often told. Even if you consider yourself a expert of Second World War Maritime knowledge, this book is guaranteed to tell you something you didn’t know, and for that reason alone is worthy of a read

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The Great Naval Race: Anglo-German Naval Rivalry 1900 - 1914.

Author: Peter Padfield

Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War.

Author: Robert K Massie

This is the story of the naval race between Germany and the UK in the years leading up to WWI. Generally it is an easy read but does become quite dry in some places with detailed descriptions of, for example, the various laws that Tirpitz drafted. Unlike other books about this period, which describe the arms build up as a race between two competing empires, Padfield argues that the overwhelming factor leading to the naval arms race was simply the influence of the main personalities involved. On the German side there were the obsessive ambitions of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the megalomaniacal Admiral Tirpitz, both seemingly wanted to create a Navy simply to emulate Britain's, but of course setting the two navies on a collision course. On the British side were Admiral Fisher, Edward Grey and Winston Churchill. These three alone argued constantly against the political inertia to get the British Government to realise the threat of the growing German Fleet. The book also examines internal pressures within the German and British fleets. For example, the thread of submarine building is mentioned

throughout and the struggle that submariners had in getting more of their craft built versus more battleships. This of course is somewhat ironic noting the effect that submarines had on the conduct of WWI compared to battleships.

The book draws heavily from original documents and personnel archives. Even so long after the event the lessons of the book still resonates today with potential rivalries between waning western powers and waxing eastern powers.

It would be of keen interest to political scientists who wish to examine relationships between senior officers, civil servants and political masters under an essentially democratic monarchy as in Great Britain, and the German monarchy that still wielded considerable if not dictatorial powers.

Overall this is an excellent reference book for the historian or academic rather than the general reader.

Whereas The Great Naval Race- Anglo-German Naval Rivalry 1900 - 1914 starts in 1900 with a few references to earlier history, this book starts with the European status quo after the Battle of Trafalgar. It reads easier than the Great Naval Race, paints on a broader canvas and is less academic in its style. It tells the story of the naval race emphasising the forces that shaped the thinking and attitudes of the main characters involved and in so doing goes some way to explain the reasons behind their actions. The book also describes in more detail the influence of other forces during the latter years of the imperial period. An example of this was the unintended consequences of an action such as the Jameson Raid in South Africa, which exposed racial jealously between the English and German races nations at all levels of society, the impact of the Boer War generally and Germany's actions in Samoa. In this manner the book tells a more entire story around the naval race and nicely draws historical fact with the personalities involved.

Robert Massie is an American who studied American History at Yale and Modern European History at Oxford University. He is a Pulitzer prize winner.

Other recommended reads by Robert Massie:

Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany and the Winning of the Great War at Sea

The sequel to Dreadnought, taking the British and German battle fleets through WWI. The fluent narrative begins amid the diplomatic crisis of July 1914 and ends with the scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow in 1919. The focus is on the two fleets that confronted each other across the North Sea, their weapons and tactics and their complex and controversial leaders, both military and political.

Peter the Great Nicholas and Alexandra

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Flyboys: The Final Secret of the Air War in the Pacific, (aka Flyboys: A True Story of Courage)

Author: James Bradley

Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan

Author: Ronald Spector

Flyboys is the true story of young American Navy airmen who were shot down over Chichi Jima. Eight of these young men were captured by Japanese troops and taken prisoner. Another was rescued by an American submarine and went on to become president.

The reality of what happened to the eight prisoners has remained a secret for almost 60 years. After the war, the American and Japanese governments conspired to cover up the shocking truth. Not even the families of the airmen were informed what had happened to their sons. It has remained a mystery--until now. Critics called James Bradley's last book "the best book on battle ever written." Flyboys is even better: more ambitious, more powerful, and more moving.

On the island of Chichi Jima those young men would face the ultimate test. Their story--a tale of courage and daring, of war and of death, of men and of hope--will make you proud, and it will break your heart.

Until the declassification of intelligence files decades after the fact, the full scope of the Pacific Theatre of World War II could not be appreciated. Ronald Spector, a historian at the Army Centre for Military History, drew on these newly declassified files as well as an abundance of British and American archival material, Japanese scholarship and documents, and research and memoirs of scholarly and military men. The culmination of his efforts was instantly hailed as a masterpiece of World War II history, a work of “dazzling brilliance.” It is widely consid-ered to be the best single-volume account of the war in the Pacific available to read today. Inter-service rivalries were rampant, and the road to jointness was a rocky one at best. Publishers Weekly praised Spector for his ability to “show how even the most efficiently run campaigns unfold against a background of violent dispute.”

For a solid grounding in the Pacific War, Eagle Against the Sun is an ideal place to start. By studying the complexities and dif-ficulties of command and cooperation, it is also an important look at how the obstacles inherent in joint warfare can be overcome and the ultimate goal of victory fulfilled

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The Battle of the River Plate: The Hunt for the German Pocket Battleship Graf Spee.

Author: Dudley Pope

Beyond The Battlefield: New Zealand and its Allies 1939 - 1945

Author: Gerald Hensley

Naval historian and master storyteller Dudley Pope combines meticulous research with hard-won understanding of naval warfare in a blow-by-blow account of the events surrounding this WWII naval action. The Battle of the River Plate follows the machinations of the German War Machine as Captain Hans Lansdorff commands the pocket battleship Graf Spee on a mission to cripple British shipping in the early days of the war. Through clever subterfuge and daring, the Graf Spee takes ship after ship, ultimately forcing the British Navy to send twenty ships in search of the elusive Spee. In the estuary of the River Plate along the Southeast coast of South America, the final battle is joined: three lightly armoured British cruisers take on one of the mightiest warships in the Atlantic. Through a combination of incredible luck and sheer bravery, the British defeat the Graf Spee in the final days of 1939. Little do they know theirs is to be the last naval engagement fought with tactics Nelson might have used

without modern aircraft or radar, and it is to go down in history as one of the great naval

battles of WWII.

Dudley Pope was well known both as a distinguished naval historian and as a novelist. He served in the British Merchant Navy during World War II and later became the naval and defence correspondent for the London Daily News. Along with ten non-fiction works, Pope also was the author of the 18 novels in the Lord Ramage series. His Nicholas Ramage, an officer in the British Navy during the Napoleonic wars, is widely regarded as the successor to C.S. Forester's Hornblower. Pope died in 1997.

This book examines a key part of New Zealand's history during which, under the immense pressure of fighting a war on both sides of the world, the country moved from being a quiet and faraway outpost in the Commonwealth to a strong independent nation playing an influential role in the shaping of the United Nations. It describes New Zealand's sometimes rocky relationships with its wartime allies: Great Britain, Australia, and the United States. This should be obligatory reading for any officer in the NZDF. It describes the origins of New Zealand's political parties’ attitudes to defence which still resonate and should be understood today, it describes New Zealand's relationship with Australia during WWII, which again should be understood today and it describes New Zealand's dawning realisation of its position in the South Pacific and its relationship with our Pacific neighbours, which again is the foundation of our defence roles and tasks today. Above all it is a very readable account of the politics in New Zealand during WWII and the story of its relationships with its allies.

It is not a military history per se but is a. recommended read for all military officers

Before retirement Gerald Hensley was a career diplomat in the NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In his latter years he was permanent Head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPM&C) to Prime Ministers Muldoon and Lange. He was also Coordinator of ODESC and Secretary of Defence.

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Four Weeks in May: The Loss of “HMS Coventry”.

Author: David Hark Dyke

One Hundred Days: Memoirs of the Falklands Battle Group Commander.

Author: ADM Sandy Woodward and Patrick Robinson

In March 1982, the guided-missile destroyer HMS Coventry was one of a small squadron of ships on exercise off Gibraltar. By the end of April that year, she was sailing south in the vanguard of the Task Force towards the Falklands. As diplomacy failed, crisis became conflict. By the time the ship left Ascension Island, its company knew war was inevitable - a war in which they would be in the front line. For Coventry, the war began in earnest on 1 May. Her job was to be 'on picket' to the north west of the islands. She was to provide early warning of approaching enemy aircraft from the west, and fend off any incoming threat to the highly valuable ships and aircraft behind her.

On 25 May, Coventry was attacked by two Argentine Skyhawks, and hit by three bombs. The explosions tore out most of her port side and killed 19 of the crew, leaving many others injured - mostly by burns. Within twenty minutes Coventry capsized, and was to sink early the next day. In her

final moments, when all those not killed by the explosions had been evacuated from the ship, her Captain, David Hart Dyke, himself badly burned, climbed down her starboard side and into a life-raft. Four Weeks in May is his compelling and moving story.

David Hart Dyke began his naval career as Midshipman (RNVR) in 1959. He then went to Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth as a regular officer before serving as Commander of the Royal Yacht Britannia, Captain of HMS Coventry in the Falklands conflict, and Chief of Staff to the Commander British Naval Staff in Washington, DC. After he retired in 2003, he transcribed the voice-recordings that he had made on his return from the Falklands over 20 years earlier. These recordings, along with the reminiscences of his ship’s company, became the gripping story of Four Weeks in May.

This bestselling, highly-acclaimed and most famous account of the Falklands War, was written by the commander of the British Task Force. On 5 April 1982, three days after the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands, British armed forces were ordered to sail 8,000 miles to the South Atlantic unaware of what lay ahead of them or whether they would be committed to actual war. In these engrossing memoirs, Admiral Woodward, Task Force commander from the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes, takes us from day one to day one hundred of the conflict; from sailing through the waters of the Atlantic with hopes of a political settlement fading, and war becoming increasingly likely, to the repulse of the Argentinian navy and the daring amphibious landing at San Carlos Water. The war, which cost the lives of over 1,000 men, has left a legacy of many historical debates and controversies, from the sinking of ships such as HMS Coventry, HMS Sheffield and Sir Galahad, and the Argentinian cruiser, General Belgrano, to wider issues such as

what was it like to command and fight a modern air and naval war, the biggest naval action since World War II?

'One Hundred Days' is unique as a dramatic portrayal of the world of modern naval warfare, where despite the use of sophisticated equipment and communications, the margins for human error and courage were as wide as they were in the days of Nelson.

Admiral Sir John Woodward entered the Royal Navy at age 13 in 1946; he became a submarine specialist. As Rear Admiral in 1981 he assumed the duties of Flag Officer First Flotilla. In 1982, flying his Flag in the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes, he commanded the South Atlantic Task Groups in the Falklands War, after which he was awarded the KCB. He retired from active service in 1989.

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Flags of Our Fathers

Author: James Bradley with Ron Powers

Sea of Thunder: Four Great Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign.

Author: Evan Thomas

In February 1945 U.S. Marines plunged into the surf at Iwo Jima; and into history. Through a hail of machine-gun and mortar fire that left the beaches strewn with fallen comrades, they battled to the island’s highest peak, and after climbing through a landscape of hell itself, they raised a flag. In this best-selling account, also a major 2006 motion-picture release, the son of one of the Iwo flag-raisers presents a powerful account of six very different men who came together in a moment that will live forever. To his family, John Bradley never spoke of the photograph or the war. But after his death at age 70, his family discovered closed boxes of letters and photos. Author James Bradley draws on those documents to retrace the lives of his father and the men of his Company. Following these men’s paths to Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers is a classic story of the heroic battle for the Pacific’s most crucial island; an island riddled with Japanese tunnels and 22,000 fanatic defenders willing to fight to the last man. But perhaps the most interesting story is what happened after the victory.

The men in the photo (three were killed during the battle) were proclaimed heroes and flown home, to become reluctant symbols. For two of them, the adulation was shattering. Only James Bradley’s father truly survived, displaying no copy of the famous photograph in his home, telling his son only, “The real heroes of Iwo Jima were the guys who didn’t come back.” This is an unforgettable chronicle of one of the most famous moments of the Pacific War, and the story behind the iconic photograph that became an enduring symbol.

A peculiar characteristic of Maritime warfare since 1945 is that whilst navies have become more powerful and expensive, combat between fleets of ships at sea has all but become extinct. The battle for Leyte Gulf in October of 1944, the last great naval confrontation, was immense. Four separate engagements over hundreds of miles, 35 Aircraft Carriers, 21 Battleships, 34 Cruisers and Hundreds of Destroyers and more than 1700 aircraft.

The story takes the perspective of 4 of the Commanders involved in the Battle – Japanese Vice Admirals Kurita and Ugaki, US Admiral Halsey, and a commander of a USN Destroyer – Ernest E Evans.

The book covers the contextual framing of the behaviours of Kurita and Halsey and the shaping of their thoughts, Halsey in particular in his relentless pursuit of the Japanese carrier force, a pursuit that began in the hours following Pearl Harbor. Sea of Thunder spectacularly covers the action

of the battles but what makes the book particularly readable is the confirmation that whilst technology and tactics are important, victory ultimately depends upon human judgment and will.

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A Mission of Honour: The Royal Navy in the Pacific 1769-1997

Author: John McLean

Flying Navy: New Zealanders who flew in the Fleet Air Arm

Author: Fleet Air Arm Museum of NZ, MOTAT, Auckland. 2009 John McLean has compiled the story of the

Royal Navy in the Pacific, from the great explorations of Cook and Vancouver, to the era of empires and colonial wars, until the final departure from Hong Kong in 1997. A substantial book of 500 pages, the author highlights the RN’s great influence in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when it was the instrument of the world’s then super

power.

During WWII, some 800 young New Zealand men trained as pilots, observers, or telegraphist-air gunners in the Fleet Air Arm. All told, 179 young Kiwis died in FAA service; some in action, some in deck crashes, while at least two were executed by their captors.

Flying Navy: New Zealanders who flew in the Fleet Air Arm is superbly researched; a detailed career summary of each of the New Zealanders on the Fleet Air Arm Roll of Honour. David Allison and his publisher, Ray Richards, were Corsair pilots in the Fleet Air Arm; they have compiled a fascinating account of the sacrifice made by a little-known group of New Zealanders. David Allison was chairman and curator of the FAA Museum at MOTAT in Auckland; sadly, he passed away in March 2010.

Other recommended reads about Naval Aviation:

Aircraft carriers at war : a personal retrospective of Korea, Vietnam and the Soviet confrontation

by Admiral James L. Holloway III

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Application of Core Values RNZN Reading List Edition 3 (2015)

Into the Fire Author: Dakota Meyer and Bing West

Brothers Forever Author: Tom Sileo and Col Tom Manion USMC (Ret)

In the fall of 2009, Taliban insurgents ambushed a patrol of Afghan soldiers and Marine advisors in a mountain village called Ganjigal. Firing from entrenched positions, the enemy was positioned to wipe out one hundred men who were pinned down and were repeatedly refused artillery support. Ordered to remain behind with the vehicles, twenty-one year-old Marine corporal Dakota Meyer disobeyed orders and attacked to rescue his comrades.

With a brave driver at the wheel, Meyer stood in the gun turret exposed to withering fire, rallying Afghan troops to follow. Over the course of the five hours, he charged into the valley time and again. Employing a variety of machine guns, rifles, grenade launchers, and even a rock, Meyer repeatedly repulsed enemy attackers, carried wounded Afghan soldiers to safety, and provided cover for dozens of others to escape

In the end, Meyer and four stalwart comrades, an Army captain, an Afghan sergeant major, and two Marines cleared the battlefield and came to grips with a tragedy they knew could have been avoided. For his actions on that day, Meyer became the first living Marine in three decades to be awarded the Medal of Honor. Into the Fire tells the full story of the chaotic battle of Ganjigal for the first time, in a compelling, human way that reveals it as a microcosm of our recent wars. Meyer takes us from his upbringing on a farm in Kentucky, through his Marine and sniper training, onto the battlefield, and into the vexed aftermath of his harrowing exploits in a battle that has become the stuff of legend.

Four weeks after Navy SEALs had killed Osama bin Laden, the President of the United States stood in Arlington National Cemetery. In his Memorial Day address, he extolled the courage and sacrifice of the two young men buried side-by-side in the graves before him: Travis Manion, a fallen US Marine, and Brendan Looney, a fallen US Navy SEAL. Although they were killed three years apart, one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, these two best friends and former roommates were now buried together—“brothers forever.”

Award-winning journalist Tom Sileo and Travis’s father, former Marine colonel Tom Manion, tell the intimate and personal story of how these Naval Academy roommates defined a generation’s sacrifice after 9/11, and how Travis and Brendan’s loved ones overcame heartbreak to carry on in their memory. From Travis’s incredible heroism on the streets of Fallujah to Brendan’s anguished Navy SEAL training in the wake of his friend’s death and his own heroism in the mountains of Afghanistan.

The co-writer of this book, Tom Manion, tells the heartfelt and devastating story of his son Travis Manion and one of his son's best friends, Brendan Looney, and how they both gave their lives for what they believed in. The two met in 2001 at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland where they both graduated before being commissioned. They became instant and lifelong friends. The book goes into detail about the training both men went through and the difficult decisions each made about their commissions. One of the most compelling factors that makes this book such a powerful read is that the authors include the details of many of the battles that Travis was involved with and what his thoughts are throughout the battle. It's difficult for someone who has never been in wartime battles and conflicts to imagine what the thought processes are that go through a soldier's mind.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?ie=UTF8&field-author=John+Thomson&search-alias=books&text=John+Thomson&sort=relevancerank

http://www.amazon.com/Frank-Arthur-Worsley/e/B000AQ79WG/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

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Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate

Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team SIX Operator Adam Brown

Author: Eric Blehm

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival,

Resilience, and Redemption

Author: Laura Hillenbrand

Fearless takes you deep into SEAL Team SIX, straight to the heart of one of its most legendary operators. When Navy SEAL Adam Brown woke up on March 17, 2010, he didn’t know he would die that night in the Hind Kush Mountains of Afghanistan—but he was ready. In a letter to his children, not meant to be seen unless the worst happened, he wrote, “I’m not afraid of anything that might happen to me on this earth, because I know no matter what, nothing can take my spirit from me.” Fearless is the story of a man of extremes, whose courage and determination were fuelled by faith, family, and the love of a woman. It’s about a man who waged a war against his own worst impulses, including drug addiction, and persevered to reach the top tier of the U.S. military.

In a deeply personal and absorbing chronicle, Fearless reveals a glimpse inside the SEAL Team SIX brotherhood, and presents an indelible portrait of a highly trained warrior whose final act of bravery led to the ultimate sacrifice. Adam Brown was a devoted man who was an unlikely hero but a true warrior, described by all who knew him as…fearless.

“As a rule, we don’t endorse books or movies or anything regarding the command where I work—and Adam Brown worked—but as the author writes in Fearless, ‘you have to know the rules, so you know when to bend or break them.’ This is one of those times. Read this book. Period. It succeeds where all the others have failed.” Anonymous SEAL Team SIX Operator

In boyhood, Louis Zamperini was an incorrigible delinquent. As a teenager, he channelled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics.

When World War II began, the athlete became an airman, embarking on a journey that led to a doomed flight on a May afternoon in 1943.

When his Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean, against all odds, Zamperini survived, adrift on a foundering life raft.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater.

Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humour; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.



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One Common Enemy: The Laconia Incident:

A Survivor's Memoir

Author: Jim McLoughlin and David Gibb

Outlaw Platoon Author: Sean Parnell and John Bruning

“I'll see the world”' Jim McLoughlin told his parents as he set off to join the Royal Navy in 1939. 'It'll be fun.'

Months later, this Liverpool lad was sailing to war aboard the massive battleship HMS "Valiant." He saw some of the world, but it wasn't fun.

In One Common Enemy, Jim recounts how the chaos and carnage of war at sea in the Norwegian and Mediterranean campaigns led him to a fateful rendezvous with a much loved ship from his boyhood, the passenger liner Laconia.

Nostalgia turned to disaster when "Laconia" was torpedoed by a German U - boat in the South Atlantic. Despite a remarkable rescue attempt by a courageous, compassionate foe, Jim was condemned to a drifting lifeboat and a harrowing voyage of death and madness

One Common Enemy is a story of courage, story about a desperate personal battle for survival, but also a moving narrative of innocence lost and a lifelong battle with confronting memories.

In combat, men measure up. Or don't. There are no second chances.

In this vivid account of the U.S. Army's legendary 10th Mountain Division's heroic stand in the mountains of Afghanistan, Captain Sean Parnell shares an action-packed and highly emotional true story of triumph, tragedy, and the extraordinary bonds forged in battle.

At twenty-four years of age, U.S. Army Ranger Sean Parnell was named commander of a forty-man elite infantry platoon (a unit that came to be known as the Outlaws), and was tasked with rooting out insurgents from a mountain valley along Afghanistan's eastern frontier. Parnell and his men assumed they would be facing a ragtag bunch of civilians, but in May 2006 what started out as a routine patrol through the lower mountains of the Hindu Kush became a brutal ambush. Barely surviving the attack, Parnell's men now realized that they faced the most professional and seasoned force of light infantry the U.S. Army had encountered since the end of World War II.

What followed was sixteen months of close combat, over the course of which the platoon became Parnell's family.

The cost of battle was high: Over 80% were wounded in action, putting their casualty rate among the highest since Gettysburg, and not all of them made it home.

A searing and unforgettable story of comradeship in battle, Outlaw Platoon brings to life the intensity and raw emotion of those sixteen months, showing how the fight reshaped the lives of Parnell and his men and how the love and faith they found in one another ultimately kept them alive.



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American Sniper: A World War II Story of

Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Author: Chris Kyle

Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 Author: Marcus Luttrell (and Patrick Robinson)

He is the deadliest American sniper ever, called “the devil” by the enemies he hunted and “the legend” by his Navy SEAL brothers . . .

From 1999 to 2009, U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle recorded the most career sniper kills in United States military history. The Pentagon has officially confirmed more than 150 of Kyles kills (the previous American record was 109), but it has declined to verify the astonishing total number for this book.

Iraqi insurgents feared Kyle so much they named him al-Shaitan ("the devil") and placed a bounty on his head. Kyle earned legendary status among his fellow SEALs, Marines, and U.S. Army soldiers, whom he protected with deadly accuracy from rooftops and stealth positions. Gripping and unforgettable, Kyle's masterful account of his extraordinary battlefield experiences ranks as one of the great war memoirs of all time.

A native Texan who learned to shoot on childhood hunting trips with his father, Kyle was a champion saddle-bronc rider prior to joining the Navy. After 9/11, he was thrust onto the front lines of the War on Terror, and soon found his calling as a world-class sniper who performed best under fire. He recorded a personal-record 2,100-yard kill shot outside Baghdad; in Fallujah, Kyle braved heavy fire to rescue a group of Marines trapped on a street; in Ramadi, he stared down insurgents with his pistol in close combat. Kyle talks honestly about the pain of war—of twice being shot and experiencing the tragic deaths of two close friends.

Adrenaline-charged and deeply personal, American Sniper is a thrilling eyewitness account of war that only one man could tell.

On a clear night in late June 2005, four U.S. Navy SEALs left their base in northern Afghanistan for the mountainous Pakistani border. Their mission was to capture or kill a notorious al Qaeda leader known to be ensconced in a Taliban stronghold surrounded by a small but heavily armed force. Less then twenty-four hours later, only one of those Navy SEALs remained alive.

This is the story of fire team leader Marcus Luttrell, the sole survivor of Operation Redwing, and the desperate battle in the mountains that led, ultimately, to the largest loss of life in Navy SEAL history. But more than a story of survival it is a story of commitment, courage and comradeship as Luttrell’s teammates, fought ferociously beside him until he was the last one left. He was knocked unconscious by a rocket grenade, blown over a cliff, but still armed and still breathing.

Over the next four days, badly injured and presumed dead, Luttrell fought off six al Qaeda assassins who were sent to finish him, then crawled for seven miles through the mountains before he was taken in by a Pashtun tribe, who risked everything to protect him from the encircling Taliban killers.

This is a rich and moving story, possible one of the most powerful narratives ever written about modern warfare-and a tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

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Shackleton's Captain: A Biography of Frank

Worsley

Author: John Thomson

Endurance Author: Frank Arthur Worsley

Frank Worsley shared with Sir Ernest Shackleton one of the greatest adventures of the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration.

After their ship Endurance was crushed in the ice in 1915, they made what is perhaps the most famous small-boat journey in history, across 800 miles of the world's roughest seas to get help. Worsley's diaries and notes still provide the main records of that journey, yet the fame of Shackleton rather overshadowed the modest New Zealander.

This first ever biography of Worsley sets out to restore the balance. It tells the full story of his extraordinary life, from childhood as a larrikin in Akaroa, New Zealand, to his apprenticeship at sea, and the devolpment of his remarkable skills as navigator and sailing master

The book also backgrounds the particular friendship that flourished between Worsley and Shackleton. In an age of mass communications, Frank Worsley would have been a public figure as famous as Sir Edmund Hillary. This biography gives an unhallowed yet eminent New Zealander his proper place in history

The legendary tale of Ernest Shackleton's gruelling Antarctic expedition, recounted in riveting first-person detail by the captain of HMS Endurance.

You seriously mean to tell me that the ship is doomed?" asked Frank Worsley, commander of the Endurance, stuck impassably in Antarctic ice packs. "What the ice gets," replied Sir Ernest Shackleton, the expedition's unflappable leader, "the ice keeps." It did not, however, get the ship's twenty-five crew members, all of whom survived an eight-hundred-mile voyage across sea, land, and ice to South Georgia, the nearest inhabited island.

First published in 1931, Endurance tells the full story of that doomed 1914-16 expedition and incredible rescue, as well as relating Worsley's further adventures fighting U-boats in the Great War, sailing the equally treacherous waters of the Arctic, and making one final (and successful) assault on the South Pole with Shackleton.

It is a tale of unrelenting high adventure and a tribute to one of the most inspiring and courageous leaders of men in the history of exploration. 20 illustrations



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ANZAC Girls: The extraordinary story of our

World War I nurses Author: Peter Rees

A Bit Mental: One Man's Mission to Lilo the Waikato

Author: Jimi Hunt

By the end of The Great War, 45 Australian and New Zealand nurses had died in overseas service and more than 200 had been decorated. These were women who left for war on an adventure, but were soon confronted with remarkable challenges for which their civilian lives could never have prepared them. They were there for the horrors of Gallipoli and they were there for the savagery the Western Front. Within 12 hours of the slaughter at Anzac Cove they had more than 500 horrifically injured patients to tend on one crammed hospital ship, and scores of deaths on each of the harrowing days that followed. Every night was a nightmare. Their strength and humanity were remarkable.

Using diaries and letters, Peter Rees takes us into the hospital camps, wards, and tent surgeries on the edge of some of the most horrific battlefronts of human history. But he also allows the friendships and loves of these courageous and compassionate women to enrich their experiences, and ours

This is a very human story from a different era, when women had not long begun their quest for equality and won the vote. They were on the frontline of social change as well as war, and the hurdles they had to overcome and the price they paid, personally and professionally, make them a unique group in Anzac history. Profoundly moving, The Other Anzacs is story of extraordinary compassion and courage shown by a group of Australian and New Zealand women whose contribution to the Anzac legend has barely been recognized in history. Peter Rees has changed our understanding of that history forever

Jimi Hunt is a man who has spent most of his life doing ridiculous things for his own amusement. Things like building the country's biggest Slip 'n' Slide, playing golf through the streets of downtown Auckland, and holding an alternative Summer Olympics including events such as sandcastle building and rhythmic gymnastics.

But what none of his friends knew was that Jimi had been silently battling with depression. It was eating him alive from the inside, affecting his business, losing him friends and slowly, painfully destroying his marriage. Disillusioned with the help and advice he received, he read that having a goal could help with depression. Five minutes later Jimi set his goal and announced it to the world – he would travel the entire length of the Waikato River on an inflatable mattress. Loneliness, 21,000 people following the journey on Facebook, chancing upon a dead body in the river, unbridled kindness from strangers, physical pain, and crazy psychic predictions are just a few of the strange experiences that Jimi gained along the way

Jimi Hunt spoke at the RNZN Well Being Seminar in 2013.

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Hell or High Water: New Zealand Merchant Seafarers Remember the War Edited by: Neill Atkinson

Willie Apiata VC: The Reluctant Hero.

Author: Paul Little & John Lockyer

Drawn from interviews with the men who were there in the darkest days of World War II, Hell or High Water includes stirring accounts of war at sea: the seamen who survived air and submarine attacks, an 18-year-old awarded the George Cross during the 1942 Pedestal convoy to relieve Malta; and others who spent years in Japanese prisons

During WW2 thousands of New Zealanders served in New Zealand, British and other Allied merchant marines. Many braved the deadly German U-Boat threat during the Battle of the Atlantic - the longest campaign of the war - and sailed in perilous convoys to Arctic Russia, Malta and other high risk routes. Others manned transport and hospital ships and took part in the Allied landings in North Africa, Italy and Normandy, with 105 100 Kiwi merchant seafarers killed, 28 taken prisoner, five of whom died in Japanese captivity, but these figures are artificially low, with many others listed as general British losses. While these figures are small compared to other

services, no other civilian group faced such constant risk and the vital contribution of this 'fourth' service has never received the recognition it deserves. The book includes firsthand accounts from men who survived air and submarine attacks, sometimes enduring days adrift in open lifeboats, a seaman awarded the George Cross during the 1942 pedestal convoy to relieve Malta and another who spent three years in Changi prison, amongst many other stirring and poignant accounts of life at war.

Corporal Willie Apiata became the first New Zealander since the Second World War to be awarded a Victoria Cross. Written by Paul Little, one of New Zealand’s most experienced writers, this is Willie’s story in his own words. From his early life in small town East Coast to his actions in Afghanistan, the book not only establishes Cpl Apiata’s place in New Zealand’s history but provides an insight into the nature of a soldier who is truly a reluctant hero.

There is also humour in the book especially after the drama when he was psychologically assessed, something he did not like but was necessary to find out if he was “some sort of psycho”.

This is a must read for all current serving members of the NZDF because it highlights and brings to realism at the highest levels, our ethos and values. This is an “authorised version” of a living legend who is a soldier’s soldier who sees himself as an ordinary kiwi just “doing his job”.

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Gunner Billy

Author: Grant Howard

Faith of my Fathers

Author: John McCain and Mark Salter

"Gunner Billy" is a book about Lieutenant Commander William Sanders, VC, DSO, RN. William Sanders is the only New Zealander to have won the Victoria Cross while serving in the Navy. William Sanders was in Command of the British 'Q Ship' Prize, an armed ship disguised as an 'innocent merchant vessel' to trap German U-boats during World War One.

On 30 April 1917, Lieutenant William Edward Sanders, a New Zealander serving in the Royal Naval Reserve, and in command of a sailing ship, Prize, fought a German submarine , U-93, in an action since described as one of the greatest minor naval actions of the First World War. For his almost unbelievable bravery that day Sanders was awarded the Victoria Cross, "in recognition of his conspicuous gallantry, consummate coolness, and skill

in command of HM Ships in action"

Grant Howard gives a concise account of the life of such a fine New Zealand Seaman.

The portrayal of the incident that resulted in the award of the Victoria Cross to Lieutenant Sanders is excellently conveyed. The book provides a fulsome account of Sanders' childhood on the North Shore of Auckland; how he gained his seaman’s eye, first mucking about in boats, and then further afield in coastal waters of New Zealand in both steam and sail including being wrecked on the Hokianga.

Not a political book, but the story of how your beliefs and adherence to your core values can get you through the harshest environments and the toughest of times. Part autobiography; part family memoir; the book tells the story of the time that John McCain spent in a Vietnam prisoner of war camp, the men around him and the endurance of their beliefs. “Glory belongs to the act of being constant to something greater than yourself, to a cause, to your principles. No misfortune, no injury, no humiliation can destroy it. This is the faith that my commanders affirmed, that my brothers-in-arms encouraged my allegiance too… It was my father and grandfather’s faith. A filthy, broken man, all I had left of my dignity was the faith of my fathers. It was enough”.

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Sole Survivor – One Man’s Journey

Author: Norma Hudson

Many books had previously been published describing Norma Hudson's father's story of survival but it was only in 2005 when Norma's parents passed away and their family home was finally sold that she found a wealth of material in her father's wooden naval 'ditty' box that provided the documentary evidence of his remarkable life. It is from these diaries, notes and letters and the stories from other seaman, family, friends and colleagues that Norma wrote this book.

When 20-year-old Able Seaman Norman Walton found himself consigned to the burning, oily sea for the third time in the winter of 1941, he must have felt that intense burst of panic that comes with the shocking realisation that against the vast indifference of nature, one man’s hopes and dreams count for nothing – unless he survives.

In a short space of time the young man, who was a submarine-detecting Asdic operator, had had two small vessels sunk from under his feet by German dive-bombers.

“Twice within a few months in 1941 I was sunk, each time our ship being hit by those damned Stuka bombers which seemed to be everywhere in those days. Each time I was in the water for only a few hours before being picked up,” he later recollected.

During the evacuation of British and Commonwealth troops from Crete, his ship HMS Orion had been attacked with hundreds of casualties and fatalities. He had survived these experiences, as he had survived naval engagements in Norwegian waters between April and May, 1940.

And then on December 19, 1941, his ship, the cruiser HMS Neptune, got caught in an Italian minefield. The mines were laid at a depth of 70 fathoms. Just after midnight the first mine exploded. In all, four of them blew the ship apart. The order to abandon ship was given at about 2am. Other mines exploded under the cruiser Aurora and the destroyer Kandahar, eventually sinking the latter.

Three Royal Navy attack ships, based in Malta to disrupt convoys of tanks, fuel and supplies to Rommel’s Afrika Corps, had been removed from active operations. Hundreds of men were killed or wounded; but the most grievous loss of all belonged to the 6,700-ton HMS Neptune.

The circumstances surrounding the loss of all but one of Neptune’s 766 multi-national crew (more than 200 of whom were from New Zealand, South Africa, the Irish Republic and Australia) were kept secret. Next-of-kin merely received a telegram stating that their husband or son was “missing on active service”. There was no publicity.

Norman Walton’s will to survive stayed with him through the remainder of the war. He was a prisoner-of-war until 1943 when he was released. Back in England he married his sweetheart, Irene, and returned to active service. He was transferred to convoy duty on the terrible runs to Murmansk, and later went back to the Mediterranean.

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North Sea Warrior / War by Stealth

Author: Gerry Wright

“North Sea Warrior” tells the story of Lieutenant Commander Jim Macdonald who was New Zealand’s most highly decorated naval officer of World War II. “A War by Stealth” profiles Lieutenant Wally Drake who may have sunk more enemy ships than any other New Zealander in World War II, and did so without firing a shot in anger.

Jim Macdonald commanded Motor Torpedo Boats, and soon earned a reputation as a daring and innovative officer. As a Sub-Lieutenant and Second-in-Command of MTB31 he was awarded his first Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) in March 1942. He was also the youngest man to command one of the King’s fighting ships.

Later, in Command of MTB241 he fought nine actions in four months and was awarded a Bar to his DSC. In September 1943 he was promoted to Lieutenant, and at the age of 22 became the youngest officer to command a flotilla of MTBs.

Jim Macdonald was awarded a second Bar to his DSC in July 1944 for his performance in two actions, and in seven successful mine-laying operations. In July 1944 he attempted to sink a heavily armed German transport with three MTBs until it made safety of the harbour. While returning to his base, he discovered a second convoy and pressed home a successful attack, despite the risk of enemy air attack during broad daylight. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for this action. He was twice mentioned in despatches and as one of the most highly decorated New Zealanders of the war Jim Macdonald was regarded as an “Ace” of coastal forces.

Another notable New Zealander operating in coastal waters during the War was Walter Drake. As First Lieutenant, and later Commanding Officer of Motor Launch 106 and finally senior officer of the 51st ML Flotilla, Lieutenant Walter Charles Drake, DSC, RNZNVR took part in thirty four successful mine-laying operations in enemy waters off the Dutch coast in the North Sea.

He was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) in July 1944.

New Zealand is a small and young nation with a well researched and documented naval history. These two new books – A War by Stealth and North Sea Warrior will go a long way towards providing long overdue recognition for the stories of two of our most famous naval heroes.

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Leadership / Critical Thinking RNZN Reading List Edition 3 (2015)

It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership

Author: Colin Powell

War Diaries: 1939-1945 Author: Field Marshal Lord Alonbrooke

It Worked for Me is filled with vivid experiences and lessons learned that have shaped the legendary public service career of the four-star general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

At its heart are Powell's Thirteen Rules; notes that he gathered over the years and that now form the basis of his leadership presentations given throughout the world.

Powell's short but sweet rules, among them, "Get mad, then get over it" and "Share credit", are illustrated by revealing personal stories that introduce and expand upon his principles for effective leadership: conviction, hard work, and, above all, respect for others. In work and in life, Powell writes, "it's about how we touch and are touched by the people we meet. It's all about the people."

A natural storyteller, Powell offers warm and engaging parables with wise advice on succeeding in the workplace and beyond. "Trust your people," he counsels as he delegates presidential briefing responsibilities to two junior State Department desk officers. "Do your best, someone is watching," he advises those just starting out, recalling his own teenage summer job mopping floors in a soft drink bottling factory.

Powell combines the insights he has gained serving in the top ranks of the military and in four presidential administrations with the lessons he's learned from his immigrant-family upbringing in the Bronx, his training in the ROTC, and his growth as an Army officer. The result is a powerful portrait of a leader who is reflective, self-effacing, and grateful for the contributions of everyone he works with.

Colin Powell's It Worked for Me is bound to inspire, move, and surprise readers. Thoughtful and revealing, it is a brilliant and original blueprint for leadership.

For most of the Second World War, General Sir Alan Brooke (1883–1963), later Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, was Britain's Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) and Winston Churchill's principal military adviser, and antagonist, in the inner councils of war.

He is commonly considered the greatest CIGS in the history of the British Army. His diaries are one of the most important and the most controversial military diaries of the modern era. Beginning in September 1939, the diaries were written up each night in the strictest secrecy and against all regulations

The last great chronicle of the Second World War, they provide a riveting blow-by-blow account of how the war was waged and eventually won.

The Diaries pull no punches. Through razor-sharp assessments of politicians, commanders, strategy and battlefield performance, Alanbrooke presents the muscle, sinew, and nervous system of war.

Alanbrooke's mask of command was legendary but these diaries tell us what he really saw and felt: moments of triumph and exhilaration, but also frustration, depression, betrayal, and doubt. They expose the gulf between the military and the politicians of the War Cabinet, and how often military strategy was misguided and nearly derailed by political prejudices.

They also reveal the incredible strain on Alanbrooke of the Allied conferences in Washington, Moscow, Casablanca, Quebec, and Tehran, as he tried after intense and exhausting argument to match Allied strategy with the reality of British military power and the fragility of the British Empire.

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The Introverted Leader: Building on your Quiet Strength

Author: Colin Powell

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead Author: Sheryl Sandberg

In our extroverted culture, introverts can feel excluded, overlooked, or misunderstood. But being an introvert doesn't mean you can't be a great leader. Citing examples of highly successful leaders like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, Kahnweiler shows that introverts can build on their quiet strength and make it a source of great power.

After highlighting the common challenges introverts face at work, such as stress, invisibility, and perception gaps, the book details a straightforward four-step process to handle work situations such as managing up, leading projects, public speaking, and many more. Kahnweiler provides numerous examples and leadership tips as well as a revealing Introverted Leader Quiz that pinpoints where focused attention will produce maximum results, "The Introverted Leader" will teach you to embrace your natural work style in order to advance your career, get the most out of the people around you, and add value to your organization.

The book provides numerous examples and leadership tips as well as a revealing Quiz that pinpoints where focused attention will produce maximum results, The Introverted Leader will teach you to embrace your natural work style in order to advance your career, get the most out of the people around you, and add value to your organization.

The Introverted Leader offers a practical approach to and leadership that allows introverts to have their invaluable voices heard.

Ask most women whether they have the right to equality at work and the answer will be a resounding yes, but ask the same women whether they'd feel confident asking for a raise, a promotion, or equal pay, and some reticence creeps in.

The statistics, although an improvement on previous decades, are certainly not in women's favour – of 197 heads of state, only twenty-two are women. Women hold just 20 percent of seats in parliaments globally, and in the world of big business, a meagre eighteen of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women.

In Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg – Facebook COO and one of Fortune magazine's Most Powerful Women in Business – draws on her own experience of working in some of the world's most successful businesses and looks at what women can do to help themselves, and make the small changes in their life that can effect change on a more universal scale.

Learning to 'lean in' is about tackling the anxieties and preconceptions that stop women reaching the top – taking a place at the table, and making yourself a part of the discussion.

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Leaders Eat Last.

Author: Simon Sinek

The Trident: The Forging and Reforging of a

Navy SEAL Leader

Author: Jason Redman

Leaders Eat Last is the highly anticipated follow up to Simon Sinek's global bestseller Start With Why Imagine a world where almost everyone wakes up inspired to go to work.

This is not a crazy, idealised notion. In many successful organisations, great leaders are creating environments in which teams trust each other so deeply that they would put their lives on the line for each other. Yet other teams, no matter what incentives were offered, are doomed to infighting, fragmentation and failure. Why? Today's workplaces tend to be full of cynicism, paranoia and self-interest. But the best organisations foster trust and cooperation because their leaders build what Sinek calls a Circle of Safety. It separates the security inside the team from the challenges outside. Everyone feels they belong and all energies are devoted to facing the common enemy and seizing big opportunities

As in Start with Why, Sinek illustrates his ideas with fascinating true stories, from the military to manufacturing, from government to investment banking.

He shows that leaders who are willing to eat last are rewarded with deeply loyal colleagues who will stop at nothing to advance their vision. It's amazing how well it works.

Decorated US Navy SEAL lieutenant Jason Redman served his country courageously and with distinction in Colombia, Peru, Afghanistan, and Iraq, where he commanded mobility and assault forces. He conducted over forty capture/kill missions with his men in Iraq, locating more than 120 al-Qaida insurgents. But his journey was not without supreme challenges, both emotional and physical. Redman is brutally honest about his struggles to learn how to be an effective leader, yet that effort pales beside the story of his critical wounding in 2007 while leading a mission against a key al-Qaida commander. On that mission his team was ambushed and he was struck by machine-gun fire at point-blank range.

During the intense recovery period that followed, Redman gained national attention when he posted a sign on his door at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, warning all who entered not to "feel sorry for [his] wounds." His sign became both a statement and a symbol for wounded warriors everywhere.

From his gruelling SEAL training to his search for a balance between arrogance and humility, Redman shares it all in this inspiring and unforgettable account. He speaks candidly of the grit that sustained him despite grievous wounds, and of the extraordinary love and devotion of his wife, Erica, and his family.

Vivid and powerful, emotionally resonant and illuminating.

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Vital Voices: The Power of Women Leading

Change Around the World

Author: Alyse Nelson

American Spartan Author: Ann Scott Tyson

Women's progress is global progress. Where there is an increase in women's university enrolment rates, women's earnings, and maternal health, and a reduction in violence against women, we see more prosperous communities, better educated, healthier families, and the preservation of equal human rights. Yet globally, women remain the most consistently under-utilized resource. "Vital Voices" calls for and makes possible transformative leadership around the world.

In Vital Voices, CEO Alyse Nelson shares the stories of remarkable, world-changing women, as well as the story of how Vital Voices was founded, crossing lines that typically divide. For 15 years, Vital Voices has brought together women who want to enable others to become change agents in their governments, advocates for social justice, and supporters of democracy. They equip women with management and business development skills to expand their enterprises and create jobs in their communities.

Their voices, stories, and hard-earned lessons--shared here for the first time--are deeply authentic and truly vital. The book features interviews and first-person accounts of global leaders, such as Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia, and Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Prize-winning Burmese pro-democracy leader, as well as business leaders.

The book also draws on the work of the Vital Voices, the organization founded by Hillary Clinton in 1997 as a government initiative that transformed into a leading non-profit, which enables a network of 10,000 emerging women leaders in politics, human rights, and economic development in 127 countries. These women have gone on to mentor and train more than 500,000Focuses on the key elements of the Vital Voices five-step model of transformational leadership, including how to find a voice, lead with purpose, cross lines that divide, and more. Through the first hand accounts of trail-blazing leaders, "Vital Voices" introduces unforgettable, inspiring women who are shaping our world.

Lawrence of Arabia meets Sebastian Junger's War in this unique, incendiary, and dramatic true story of heroism and heartbreak in Afghanistan written by a Pulitzer Prize–nominated war correspondent.

Some have called him "Lawrence of Afghanistan." To the Pashtun tribesmen he is "Commander Jim," leader of the "bearded ones." He is Army Special Forces Major Jim Gant, one of the most charismatic and controversial U.S. commanders of modern memory, a man who changed the face of America's war in Afghanistan when his critical white paper, "One Tribe at a Time," went viral at the Pentagon, the White House, and on Capitol Hill in 2009.

A decorated Green Beret who had spent years training indigenous fighters, Jim argued for embedding autonomous units with tribes across Afghanistan: these American soldiers would live among Afghans for extended periods, not only to train and equip tribal militias, but to fight and even die alongside them in battle.

He argued that we could earn the trust of the Afghans and transform them into a reliable ally with whom we could defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda networks. The military's top brass approved the plan and gave Jim the go-ahead to embark on the mission.

A war story like no other, an unprecedented account of a warrior who took up the cause of villagers as if it were his own, and of a woman on the front lines of a distant war, American Spartan is an unforgettable tale—and one of the most remarkable and emotionally resonant narratives of war ever published.

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High Command: British Military Leadership

in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Author: Christopher Elliot

Leadership Blindspots Author: Robert Bruce Shaw

From 2001, Britain supported the United States in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 'Victory' in such conflicts is always hard to gauge and domestic political backing for them was never robust.

Critics have noted that the armed services were riven by internal rivalry and their leadership was dysfunctional, but the truth is more complicated. In his book, General Elliott explores the circumstances that led to these wars and how the Ministry of Defence coped with the challenges presented.

He reveals how the Service Chiefs were set at odds by the system, almost as rivals in the making, with responsibility diffuse and authority ambiguous. The MoD concentrated on making things work, rather than questioning whether what they were being asked to do was practicable. Often the opinion of a junior tactical commander led the entire strategy of the MoD, not the other way around, as it should have been

While Britain's senior officers, defence ministers and civil servants were undeniably competent and well intentioned, the conundrum remains why success on the battlefield proved so elusive.

Knowledge is built from personal experience and coloured by our needs and values. It follows that all knowledge is personal and incomplete. We all suffer from 'blind spots'. But when leaders have them, it matters. To guide people on a journey of continuous learning, understanding and adapting to events as they occur, leaders must overcome their own blind spots and those of their organization.

Any leader who implements the practices outlined in this book will immediately improve their ability to perform in today's competitive global environment. Karen Blakeley provides in-depth analysis of how leaders learn on the job - and what gets in the way. Most importantly she offers a systematic approach for accelerating leaders' learning capacity - and maximising their performance potential

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Developing Women Leaders Author: Anne Marie Valerio

Blake: Leader: Leadership Lessons From a Great New Zealander

Author: Mark Orams

Developing Women Leaders answers the question "How do we best develop women leaders?" with practical solutions drawn from current literature and the author's personal interviews with high-achievers in major US companies and universities.

The book presents research-based, practical solutions to help people in organizations develop talented women and describes what organizations and individuals need to know about leadership competencies, personality, and leadership styles.

Explains gender-related issues that affect the behaviours of both women and men at work. Integrates first-hand accounts by high-achieving women and men from major companies and universities about their leadership experiences.

Separate chapters addressed to CEOs and HR executives, managers, and women offer practical suggestions to implement in their organizations, using examples from some 'best practice' companies.

An excellent resource for women, and men.

The author has synthesized decades of research and theory into this well written, and very practical book. The book considers the complex challenges and opportunities that women have in organizations, and that organizations have as they endeavour to recruit, retain and develop talented leaders at all levels. Women, and men, at any stages of their careers and in any role in any kind of organization, will benefit from the hard work the author has done in creating this invaluable guide to women leaders, which combines clear descriptions with applicable and relevant prescriptions

New Zealand lost one of its favourite sons when Sir Peter Blake was shot and killed in the Amazon in late 2001. Sir Peter Blake (Blakey) became a icon after leading New Zealand to victory in the 1995 and 2000 America's Cups, following earlier successes in the Whitbread Round the World Race and Jules Verne Challenge. His accomplishments demonstrate his skill at assembling, managing and leading winning teams.

For many reasons other than just sailing, Sir Peter was an outstanding New Zealander. His sailing skills go without question but few would truly understand the impact that he had on many people’s lives because of the way he approached and applied Leadership.

Blake: Leader is written by sailor and marine scientist Dr Mark Orams, who sailed around the world with Blake and worked with him at Team New Zealand and Blakexpeditions. In this book he looks at Blake's successful style of leadership from a personal viewpoint. It mixes

reminiscences and anecdotes from Orams and other sporting and business figures who worked closely with Blake with practical observations of how he chose and led teams

Break-out boxes and chapter summaries highlight key points and techniques that can be used by leaders and team members in a wide range of sports and business situations. Chapters include building a great team, being a great leader, encouraging a great work ethic and having a winning attitude. It also examines the unique New Zealand style of leadership demonstrated by other great Kiwi leaders and how Blake's legacy can be taken into the future

There are many similarities with Sailing Teams and the Navy that jump out at you with each chapter in this book. The Mantra of “will it make the boat go faster?” can easily be altered to read ‘will this make the Navy better?” without any loss of message. This is one of the best books you can read to fully understand what Sir Peter Blake provided to New Zealand

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Black Hearts: One Platoon's Descent Into Madness in Iraq's Triangle of Death

Author byJim Frederick

Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders Hardcover

Author: David Marquet

John J Pershing: “A competent leader can get efficient service from poor troops, while on the contrary, an incaple leader can demoralise the best of troops”

This book is not in the list because it provides examples of excellent leadership, it is in the list because it provides graphic and stark evidence of what can happen in the absence of leadership.

This is the story of a small group of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division’s fabled 502nd Infantry Regiment—a unit known as “the Black Heart Brigade.” Deployed in late 2005 to Iraq’s so-called Triangle of Death, a veritable meat grinder just south of Baghdad, the Black Hearts found themselves in arguably the country’s most dangerous location at its most dangerous time. Hit by near-daily mortars, gunfire, and roadside bomb attacks, suffering from a particularly heavy death toll, and enduring a chronic breakdown in leadership, members of one Black Heart platoon—1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion—descended, over their year-long tour of duty, into a

tailspin of poor discipline, substance abuse, and brutality. Four 1st Platoon soldiers would perpetrate one of the most heinous war crimes U.S. forces have committed during the Iraq War.

Black Hearts is an unflinching account of the epic, tragic deployment of 1st Platoon. Drawing on hundreds of hours of in-depth interviews with Black Heart soldiers and first-hand reporting from the Triangle of Death, Black Hearts is a timeless story about men in combat and the fragility of character in the savage crucible of warfare. But it is also a timely warning of new dangers emerging in the way American soldiers are led on the battlefields of the twenty-first century

“Leadership should mean giving control rather than taking control and creating leaders rather than forging followers.”

David Marquet, an experienced Navy officer, was used to giving orders. As newly appointed captain of the USS Santa Fe, a nuclear-powered submarine, he was responsible for more than a hundred sailors, deep in the sea. In this high-stress environment, where there is no margin for error, it was crucial his men did their job and did it well. But the ship was dogged by poor morale, poor performance, and the worst retention in the fleet. Marquet acted like any other captain until, one day, he unknowingly gave an impossible order, and his crew tried to follow it anyway. When he asked why the order wasn’t challenged, the answer was “Because you told me to.” Marquet realized he was leading in a culture of followers, and they were all in danger unless they fundamentally changed the way they did things That’s when Marquet took matters into his own hands and pushed for leadership at every level.

Turn the Ship Around! is the true story of how the Santa Fe skyrocketed from worst to first in the fleet by challenging the U.S. Navy’s traditional leader-follower approach. Struggling against his own instincts to take control, he instead achieved the vastly more powerful model of giving control. Before long, each member of Marquet’s crew became a leader and assumed responsibility for everything he did, from clerical tasks to crucial combat decisions. The crew became fully engaged, contributing their full intellectual capacity every day, and the Santa Fe started winning awards and promoting a highly disproportionate number of officers to submarine command. No matter your business or position, you can turn your own ship around. The payoff: a workplace where everyone around you is taking responsibility for their actions, where people are healthier and happier, where everyone is a leader.

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/988855.Jim_Frederick

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The Non-commissioned Officer and Petty Officer: Backbone of the Armed Forces

Author: Various (National Defence University Press)

Bleeding Talent: How the US Military Mismanages Great Leaders and Why It's Time for a Revolution

Author: Tim Kane

Whilst this is a book developed by and for the Senior Non Commissioned ranks of the US Defence Department it provides similarities galore to those that wear the cloth of our Nation.

The Non-commissioned Officer and Petty Officer: Backbone of the Armed Forces. book is touted as a developmental and educational tool and although focusing on non-commissioned officer and petty officer force, it provides messaging for a much wider audience. In the promo material SMAJ Battaglia (The Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) is quoted:

“The NCO and petty officer corps would not have become what it is today without the trust and confidence of commissioned officers, and that's what's inside the covers of this book.”

The opening paragraph of this book provides the foundation of the remainder of this well written resource:

All of us who have served in uniform—from the newest recruits to four-star generals and admirals—have respected and learned from the outstanding men and women who wear the chevrons, anchors

and stripes of our non-commissioned officer and petty officer corps. We know them to have exceptional competence, professional character, and soldierly grit—they are exemplars of our Profession of Arms.

The Joint war fighting section has plenty of useful and quotable gems:

"The Navy culture is a deployment culture—deployments form the rhythm of Navy life for the Sailors and for their families. If “home is where the heart is,” then many, perhaps most, Sailors have two homes, one with family and friends ashore, and the other with shipmates on deployment. The often harsh nature of the operating environment at sea forces the Navy to a culture of self-reliance."

This is an enjoyable read and available from the NDU website.

This book will shape the debate on how to save the military from itself. The first part recognizes, indeed celebrates, what the military has done well in attracting and developing leadership talent. The book then examines the causes and consequences of the modern military's stifling personnel system, with a close look at strategic failures in Iraq and Afghanistan. The book also reports a new survey of active duty officers (done by the author) that reports what is driving the best and brightest to leave the service in frustration. Solutions round out the book, grounded in an economic emphasis on market forces

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It’s Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy

Author: Captain D. Michael Abrashoff

"The most important thing a captain can do is to see the ship from the eyes of the crew." This belief has successfully guided D. Michael Abrashoff, the captain of one of the U.S. Navy's most modern and lethal warships.

Abrashoff has revolutionized how to handle such challenging problems as excessive costs, low morale, sexual harassment, and constant turn-over. Business managers will benefit from Abrashoff's guiding belief that focus should be on empowering your people rather than on chain of command. By shifting organizing principles from obedience to performance, managers will be rewarded with remarkable productivity. As Abrashoff explains, the more people enjoy the process, the better the results. Good leaders listen to the people under their command-and use their ideas to improve operating procedures.

Other than the sobering fact that real lives are regularly at stake, running a navy ship is a lot like running a business: leaders of both must get the most out of their crews to operate at peak efficiency and complete the tasks at hand.

As commander of the highly acclaimed USS Benfold, Captain D. Michael Abrashoff irrefutably demonstrated how progressive management can succeed at sea; in It's Your Ship, he translates his methods into an approach that can also be applied by land-bound captains of commerce and industry. Describing "the ideas and techniques that I used to win my sailors' trust and, eventually, their enthusiastic commitment to our joint goal of making our ship the best in the fleet," Abrashoff cites embarrassing failures along with subsequent triumphs to illuminate the keys to his accomplished 20-month tenure aboard the guided missile destroyer. His suggestions: lead by example; listen aggressively; communicate purpose and meaning; create a climate of trust; look for results, not salutes; take calculated risks; go beyond standard procedure; build up your people; generate unity; and improve your people's quality of life.

While hardly original on the surface, Abrashoff's course should provide practical direction and inspiration for any leader hoping for similarly positive results in similarly rigid organizations Abrashoff’s reflections provide a fresh outlook and guide for leaders everywhere. It is full of common sense tips and refreshing stories. Other recommended reads by D. Michael Abrashoff:

It’s Our Ship: The No-Nonsense Guide to Leadership

Get Your Ship Together: How Great Leaders Inspire Ownership From The Keel Up.

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Destroyer Captain - Lessons of a First Command

Author: Admiral James Stavridis

Navy Strategic Culture: Why the Navy Thinks Differently

Author: Roger W Barnett

“Destroyer Captain – Lessons of a First Command" is a day-by-day account of the activities of a ship and its crew written by a current 4 Star Admiral of the United States Navy. The memoir was written during Admiral Stavridis’ two years in Command of USS Barry (DDG 52), 1993 – 1995.

When you first see the title, you think this book is just for PWO’s and those that aspire to Command at sea. It is for them but it is also for anyone that goes down to sea in ships or has an interest in raw ‘coal face’ leadership. The book provides tremendous detail about the inner workings of a modern Destroyer but it’s the underlying messages of leadership and empowerment throughout the book that will grasp your my attention from the outset. The importance of needing the whole crew involved in the team building that is necessary to run a Navy combatant. Even arguably one of the most successful and capable officers in the US Navy today has doubts and insecurities from time to time, and his methods of dealing with those insecurities are well documented and written with honesty, humility, and humour.

A book that attempts to provide an explanation behind the reasons why Naval personnel think differently from their Air and Army counterparts is sure to be an interesting read for those of us that go down to the sea in ships.

Whilst written from a USN perspective (Roger W Barnett retired from the USN as a Captain), the book does offer several useful insights in what shapes our thinking. The book provides sound context to our environment and its ability to influence our actions. The book is a useful read up to Chapter 8, unfortunately and for reasons unknown though, the author reverts to almost archaic views on the employment of women and persons of alternative preferences. It would be a sad and tragic Navy if this book from Chapter 9 onwards was a true reflection of how we think.

If you can resist the temptation, skip the final chapter skim the conclusion and then enjoy the myriad of Naval Quotations that complete the book.

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The Guinness Book of Naval Blunders

Author: John McLean

Joker One: A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage Leadership, And Brotherhood

Author: Donovan Campbell

The obvious statement that “Naval Blunders generally have a finality that is not achieved on land” opens this entertaining yet informative book about the impact of incompetence of Naval Strategy. The book documents the series of self imposed disasters that the Russian Fleet overcame during it’s 18,000 mile journey to destruction at the hands of the Japanese; explores the concept of ineffective ship designs such as the Admiral Popov, a revolutionary circular battleship that couldn't steer straight and investigates just how a British cruiser managed to torpedo itself in the Arctic.

From Roman times to the Falklands War, bestselling author Geoffrey Regan sets out to prove that there is truth in the old adage "Worse things happen at sea". Crammed with intriguing and often bizarre anecdotes and over fifty illuminating illustrations, Naval Blunders takes a serious, but often entertaining look at the misjudgements and oversights of captains, fleet commanders, strategic planners and ship designers over the ages.

Peppered with quotes from those who did their utmost (albeit unwittingly) to hinder naval progress, such as Admiral Lord Sir Charles Beresford who stated, "The submarine can only operate by day and in clear weather, and it is practically useless in misty weather", this entertaining and instructive book will appeal to the naval enthusiast and general reader alike.

Campbell's compelling story begins in the middle of a firefight, just after a rocket attack on an abandoned hotel that Campbell and his men were using as an observation position. Surrounded by rubble, choking dust, and pieces of exploded rockets, with a friendly machine gun firing full-bore a few feet away, Lieutenant Campbell calls in his position, burns his fingers on the still-searing-hot hockey puck of a warhead, and eventually discovered that the enemy had failed to kill or wound a single Marine. That's just the first six pages

As commander of a forty-man infantry platoon called Joker One, Campbell had just months to train and transform a ragtag group of brand-new Marines into a first-rate cohesive fighting unit, men who would become his family

Campbell and his men were assigned to Ramadi, that capital of the Sunni-dominated Anbar province that was an explosion just waiting to happen. And when it did happen

with the chilling cries of “Jihad, Jihad, Jihad!” echoing from minaret to minaret–Campbell and company were there to protect the innocent, battle the insurgents, and pick up the pieces. After seven months of day-to-day, house-to-house combat, nearly half of Campbell’s platoon had been wounded, a casualty rate that went beyond that of any Marine or Army unit since Vietnam. Yet unlike Fallujah, Ramadi never fell to the enemy. Told by the man who led the unit of hard-pressed Marines, Joker One is a gripping tale of a leadership, loyalty, faith, and camaraderie throughout the best and worst of times

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Regional and Cultural Awareness RNZN Reading List Edition 3 (2015)

History of NZ

Author: Michael King

The Penguin History of New Zealand is a well written, concise and impartial overview of New Zealand's History. It's easy to read, full of interesting facts and anecdotes.

This book is almost a must read for all New Zealanders, it focuses on our society, how our style of government developed as well as our unique blend of culture.

New Zealand was the last country in the world to be discovered and settled by humankind. It was also the first to introduce a full democracy. Between those events, and in the century that followed the franchise, the movements and the conflicts of human history have been played out more intensively and more rapidly in New Zealand than anywhere else on Earth

The latter part of the book reveals how an insulated and dependent British colony transformed itself into an independent nation, open to and competing with technological and cultural influences sweeping the globe

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Mister Pip

Author: Lloyd Jones

The Kite Runner

Author: Khaled Hosseini

Mister Pip is widely recognized for its literary worth, having won both the 2006 Commonwealth Writer's Prize for best book and the 2008 Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize. It was also a finalist for the 2007 Man Booker Prize. The quality of the story and the quality of its telling are excellent. Jones presents himself as a master storyteller, using the tale and voice of a young girl named Matilda. Matilda lives on Bougainville in the early 1990’s. There are connections to the outside world; goods arrive by boat, white men from Australia run the mines, until civil war comes to her island. Then the boats stop coming and the white men all leave. Matilda’s village is left to survive on its own.

When the schoolteacher departs as well, the only white man left on the island; a strange man named Mr. Watts, but behind his back known as Popeye, takes charge of teaching Matilda and the other children. He is not a teacher, and his only certainty is that these children need the routine of school in their lives, even in the midst of war.

Mr. Watts decides that their education will consist simply of reading the children his favourite story; Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. And thus begins a voyage of imagination and translation, as Mr. Watts explains words like emigrant, metropolis and immensity, and the children travel in their minds to 17th century England.

Amidst all of this the war continues, coming closer and closer to their little village. No one can predict the dangers that will be created by Mr. Watt’s reading, by the children’s flights of imaginations and by their new friend, Mr. Pip. Matilda finds every aspect of her world turned upside down. Not only must she survive the war, but she must decide where her loyalties lie: to her mother and family traditions, or to the newfound trinity of Mr. Watts, Mr. Dickens and Mr. Pip.

Mister Pip is a fascinating story, flawlessly told, of a young girl trying to live in the world of a book, where things make sense and fate is predetermined, and in the world around her, where lives are being destroyed and nothing is certain.

This first Afghan novel to be written in Eng-lish is an eye-opening stunner. It manages to tell a very human and immediate emotional tale while at the same time opening up whole vistas of national experience that are both distant to the average American reader yet strikingly relevant in light of current events. An epic of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal, The Kite Runner begins in the 1970s, during the final days of Afghanistan’s monarchy, then proceeds through years of Soviet invasion, to the atrocities of the Taliban, to the turmoil of the present. An unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a child of wealth and a child of the underclass, this is an exquisitely crafted work of fiction set in a land in the process of being destroyed. It is about friendship, betrayal, and redemption, set against the turbulent backdrop of Afghanistan during the past 30 years. The author, Khaled Hosseini, was born in Kabul, the son of a diplomat who received political asylum in the United States in 1980.

This, his debut book, garnered uniformly enthusiastic reviews, including that of the New York Times: “In Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini gives us a vivid and engaging story that reminds us how long his people have been struggling to triumph over the forces of violence, forces that continue to threaten them even today.”

Here is a book that manages to be both rewarding modern fiction and a valuable crash-course in the mindset and challenges of a troubled country—a country whose destiny is now intertwined with our own. As an insight into the Afghan experience, this is an invaluable read.

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The Great Wall at Sea: China’s Navy Enters the Twenty-first Century

Author: Bernard D. Cole

The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us

Author: Robyn Meredith

With the world’s largest population, largest army, and fastest growing economy, China is now in the process of building a large modern navy to assure its status as Asia’s predominant power. Yet, to date, the West has had sorely limited knowledge of what could become its greatest naval opponent. This major study, the first in more than fifteen years, provides timely, authoritative information about China’s developing navy and its quest for power. The author, a professional at the National War College and a retired captain in the U.S. Navy, first helps the reader understand China’s 2,000 year-old maritime tradition. He then examines China’s extensive territorial claims at sea and follows up with a path-breaking description of the nation’s increasing dependence on energy sources mined from the ocean floor. At the book’s core is an examination of China’s navy in detail, its organization as well as the submarines, ships, and airplanes that make up its seagoing force.

The book also discusses the personnel who man the growing fleet and Beijing’s efforts to shape them into professionally capable and politically reliable officers and sailors. Of key interest are China’s future plans for its navy, including doctrine and operations. China’s naval developments are explained within the context of national goals and the international arena.

An urgent exploration of the earth-tilting emergence of India and China on the world stage, The Elephant and the Dragon is the essential guide to understanding how India and China are reshaping our world. In a compelling mix of history and on-the-ground reporting, a veteran journalist cuts through the alarmist hype surrounding globalization, off-shoring, and layoffs, untangling the complex web of business, politics, and culture that entwines India, China, and the West. In lively prose, the author, who writes on India and China for Forbes, examines the looming shadows of Gandhi and Mao that help explain not just the past, but also how the future is unfolding for India and China. It is one of hyper-connected world trade that, whether carried by container ships or fibre-optic cables, promises to reshape the world. Her book contends that China’s development will continue to outpace India’s and that wealth transferred overseas will benefit the U.S. in the long run.

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Not Enough Room to Swing a Cat: Naval Slang and it’s everyday usage

Author: Martin Robson

Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant

Author: W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne

Those of us that go down to the sea in ships have heard and regularly use the phrases: cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey; the Oggin, three sheets to the wind and scuttlebutt. We may use them in casual conversation but do we really know what the phrase originally referred to?

We have traditions, culture and sayings that are almost alien to non-naval types; in fact it was not so long ago that the naval community had its own language, incomprehensible to anyone who was not a sailor.

This book explains most of the common saying and introduces a few that you probably have never heard of, there are even some illustrations in case the explanation is not clear…..it also provides a rather handy explanation of the origin of our favourite Nicknames for our shipmates.

This book provides a compilation of naval slang from across the globe and through the ages, accordingly a number of the phrases explained are clearly no longer acceptable in the modern Navy. Use common sense in their usage. Whilst the phrases presented are a part of our history you do not need to be a dab hand in their usage, lest they be an albatross round your neck for the future and there’ll be the devil to pay.

Other recommended reads about Naval Jargon:

Jackspeak: The Pusser's Rum Guide to Royal Navy Language

by Rick Jolly & Tugg.

First and foremost this is a business book, first written in 2005. The blue ocean metaphor elegantly summarizes a vision of competitor free markets that innovative organisations can navigate. Unlike the well explored ‘red oceans’, ‘blue oceans’ offer an opportunity for growth. The book suggests that the only reason more organisations target blue oceans is that the focus of strategy work over recent times has been on finding new ways to cut costs and grow revenue by taking away market share from the competition - operating red ocean strategies.

Based on 15 years of research, the authors used 150 successful strategic moves spanning 120 years of business history and across 30 industries to bring the Blue Ocean Strategy theory to life. Using dozens of examples; from Southwest Airlines and the Cirque du Soleil to Curves and Starbucks, they present the tools and frameworks they've developed specifically for the task of analyzing blue oceans.

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Strategy Management / Organisational Change RNZN Reading List Edition 3 (2015)

Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck

Author: Seth Godin

The Moment You Cant Ignore: When Big

Trouble Leads to a Great Future.

Author:Malachi O’Connor and Barry Dornfeld

'Getting your ducks in a row is a fine thing to do. But deciding what you are going to do with that duck is a far more important issue'

Seth Godin is famous for bestselling books such as Purple Cow and cool entrepreneurial ventures such as Squidoo and the Domino Project. But to millions of loyal readers, he's best known for the daily burst of insight he provides every morning, rain or shine, via Seth's Blog.

Since he started blogging in the early 1990s, he has written more than two million words and shaped the way we think about marketing, leadership, careers, innovation, creativity, and more. Much of his writing is inspirational and some is incendiary.

Collected here are six years of his best, most entertaining, and most poignant blog posts, plus a few bonus ebooks. From thoughts on how to treat your customers to telling stories and spreading ideas, Godin pushes us to think smarter, dream bigger, write better, and speak more honestly.

Godin writes to get under our skin. He wants us to stand up and do something remarkable, outside the standards of the industrial system that raised us.

Seth Godin is the author of thirteen international bestsellers that have changed the way people think about marketing, the ways ideas spread, leadership and change including Permission Marketing, Purple Cow, All Marketers are Liars, The Dip and Tribes. He is the CEO of Squidoo.com and a very popular lecturer. His blog, www.sethgodin.typepad.com, is the most influential business blog in the world, and consistently one of the 100 most popular blogs on any subject.

The surgical technician ducks as a stapler flies past his head during the concluding moments of a lengthy and difficult operation.

The high-powered, internationally known finance guru seeks to turn fortunes around at the university of which he is now president, and finds himself a leader without followers.

The powerful satraps silently sabotage the CEO’s desperately needed growth initiative.

These are “moments that cannot be ignored”, events that stop people in their tracks and make it blindingly clear that an organization is stuck and unable to move forward. They have become regular occurrences in today’s world as new forms of work, communication, and technology expose the ways in which an organization’s culture, or “the way we do things around here”, conflicts with new competitive demands. The result: telling incidents, all too visible elephants in the room that reveal underlying conflicts as well as hidden assets.

In The Moment You Can’t Ignore, Malachi O’Connor and Barry Dornfeld tell fascinating “you are there” stories of people and organizations as they encounter and then navigate through and beyond these un-ignorable moments, and show what we can learn from them. They outline the big questions organizations need to ask themselves about identity, leadership, and the capacity to innovate that an understanding of culture can help answer, and deliver powerful insights into recognizing and harnessing hidden assets that point in the direction of a new future.

In our age of porous organizations and constant change, The Moment You Can’t Ignore demonstrates that the adage, “culture eats strategy for lunch,” is more relevant now than ever.

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Winning the Story Wars

Author: Jonah Sachs

What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful,

Author:Marshall Goldsmith

Trying to get your message heard? Build an iconic brand?

Welcome to the battlefield.

The story wars are all around us. They are the struggle to be heard in a world of media noise and clamour. Today, most brand messages and mass appeals for causes are drowned out before they even reach us. But a few consistently break through the din, using the only tool that has ever moved minds and changed behavior—great stories.

With insights from mythology, advertising history, evolutionary biology, and psychology, viral storyteller and advertising expert Jonah Sachs takes readers into a fascinating world of seemingly insurmountable challenges and enormous opportunity. Winning the Story Wars is a call to arms for business communicators to cast aside broken traditions and join a revolution to build the iconic brands of the future. It puts marketers in the role of heroes with a chance to transform not just their craft but the enterprises they represent.

Through this book, you’ll discover how:

• Social media tools are driving a return to the oral tradition, in which stories that matter rise above the fray • Marketers have become today’s mythmakers, providing society with explanation, meaning, and ritual • Memorable stories based on timeless themes build legions of eager evangelists • Marketers and audiences can work together to create deeper meaning and stronger partnerships in building a better world • Brands like Old Spice, The Story of Stuff, Nike, the Tea Party, and Occupy Wall Street created and sustained massive viral buzz Success in the story wars doesn’t come just from telling great stories, but from learning to live them.

America’s most sought-after executive coach shows how to climb the last few rungs of the ladder. The corporate world is filled with executives, men and women who have worked hard for years to reach the upper levels of management. They’re intelligent, skilled, and even charismatic. But only a handful of them will ever reach the pinnacle -- and as executive coach Marshall Goldsmith shows in this book, subtle nuances make all the difference. These are small "transactional flaws" performed by one person against another (as simple as not saying thank you enough), which lead to negative perceptions that can hold any executive back. Using Goldsmith’s straightforward, jargon-free advice, it’s amazingly easy behaviour to change

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The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us

Author: Christopher Chabris, Daniel Simons

Maverick

Author: Ricardo Semler

Reading this book will make you less sure of yourself—and that’s a good thing. In The Invisible Gorilla, Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, creators of one of psychology’s most famous experiments, use remarkable stories and counterintuitive scientific findings to demonstrate an important truth: Our minds don’t work the way we think they do. We think we see ourselves and the world as they really are, but we’re actually missing a whole lot

Again and again, we think we experience and understand the world as it is, but our thoughts are beset by everyday illusions. We write traffic laws and build criminal cases on the assumption that people will notice when something unusual happens right in front of them. We’re sure we know where we were on 9/11, falsely believing that vivid memories are seared into our minds with perfect fidelity. And as a society, we spend billions on devices to train our brains because we’re continually tempted by the lure of quick fixes and effortless self-improvement.

The Invisible Gorilla reveals the myriad ways that our intuitions can deceive us, but it’s much more than a catalogue of human failings. Chabris and Simons explain why we succumb to these everyday illusions and what we can do to inoculate ourselves against their effects. Ultimately, the book provides a kind of x-ray vision into our own minds, making it possible to pierce the veil of illusions that clouds our thoughts and to think clearly for perhaps the first time.

Chabris and Simons combine the work of other researchers with their own findings on attention, perception, memory, and reasoning to reveal how faulty intuitions often get us into trouble.

First published in Brazil in 1988 as Turning the Tables, this book was the all-time best-selling non-fiction book in Brazil's history. Semler, the 34-year-old CEO, or "counselor," of Semco, a Brazilian manufacturing firm, describes how he turned his successful company into a "natural business" in which employees hire and evaluate their bosses, dress however they want, participate in major decisions, and share in 22 percent of the profits. Semler believes that Semco is different from most companies that have participatory management because employees are given the power to make decisions--even ones, with which the CEO wouldn't normally agree. Semler claims, "This is not a business book. It is a book about work, and how it can be changed for the better."

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Leading Change

Author: John P. Kotter

Author: John P. Kotter

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap, and Others Don't

Author: Jim Collins


Leading Change is a truly accessible, clear and visionary guide to the business world's buzzword for the late '90s change. This is excellent business manual, introducing a comprehensive eight-step framework that can be followed by executives at all levels.

Kotter advises those who would implement change to foster a sense of urgency within the organisation. "A higher rate of urgency does not imply ever-present panic, anxiety, or fear. It means a state in which complacency is virtually absent." Twenty-first century business change must overcome over managed and under led cultures. "Because management deals mostly with the status quo and leadership deals mostly with change, in the next century we are going to have to try to become much more skilled at creating leaders." Kotter also identifies pitfalls to be avoided, like "big egos and snakes" or personalities that can undermine a successful change effort. Kotter convincingly argues for the promotion and recognition of teams rather than individuals.

He aptly concludes with an emphasis on lifelong learning. "In an ever changing world, you never learn it all, even if you keep growing into your '90s."

Leading Change is a useful tool for everyone from business students preparing to enter the work force to middle and senior executives faced with the widespread transformation in the corporate world.

Other recommended read by John Kotter:

Our Iceberg is Melting The Heart of Change A Sense of Urgency

Five years ago, Jim Collins asked the question, "Can a good company become a great company and if so, how?"

In Good to Great Collins, the author of Built to Last, concludes that it is possible, but finds there are no silver bullets. Collins and his team of researchers began their quest by sorting through a list of 1,435 companies, looking for those that made substantial improvements in their performance over time. They finally settled on 11 and discovered common traits that challenged many of the conventional notions of corporate success.

Making the transition from good to great doesn't require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner.

Other recommended read by Jim Collins:

Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

Peppered with dozens of stories and examples from the great and not so great, the book offers a well-reasoned road map to excellence that any organization would do well to consider. Like Built to Last, Good to Great is one of those books that managers and CEOs will be reading and rereading for years to come.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0887307396/$%7B0%7D

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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Author: Stephen R. Covey

The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation

Author: Peter M, Senge

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, first published in 1989, is a self-help book written by Stephen R. Covey. It has sold over 15 million copies in 38 languages since first publication, which was marked by the release of a 15th anniversary edition in 2004. Covey presents an approach to being effective in attaining goals by aligning oneself to what he calls "true north" principles of a character ethic that he presents as universal and timeless.

This best-seller continues to attract new followers with its useful pointers to living the successful life. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is an integrated, holistic approach to solving personal and professional problems by becoming “principle-centred.” This is a revolutionary guidebook to achieving peace of mind within and building trust without by seeking the roots of human behaviour in character and by learning principles rather than merely practices. With pointed anecdotes and penetrating insights, Stephen Covey reveals how our actions follow from who we are.

Self-defeating behaviour, at home or at work, can be eradicated by following the “habits” of the title. Covey shows how these habits are not a “quick fix” but rather a step-by-step pathway to the principles of fairness, integrity, honesty, and human dignity that give us the security to adapt to change in our family and business lives—as well as the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities such change creates.

What elevates Covey’s work above the crowded field of personal-development books, and what makes it a standout selection from said field for the military professional, is the importance the author places on character; “character” as opposed to “personality.” And, while the seven habits are universally applicable, they include, among others, “Be proactive,” “Begin with the end in mind,” “Think win/win,” and “Seek first to understand, then to be understood”, they also provide a useful roadmap for a successful military career.

The Fifth Discipline focuses on group problem solving using the systems thinking method in order to convert companies into learning organizations. The five disciplines represent approaches (theories and methods) for developing three core learning capabilities: fostering aspiration, developing reflective conversation, and understanding complexity.

The five disciplines of the learning organization discussed in the book are:

"Personal mastery is a discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing patience, and of seeing reality objectively."

“Mental models are deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or even pictures of images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action."

"Building shared vision a practice of unearthing shared pictures of the future that foster genuine commitment and enrolment rather than compliance."

"Team learning starts with dialogue, the capacity of members of a team to suspend assumptions and enter into genuine thinking together."

Systems thinking - The Fifth Discipline that integrates the other 4: "Systems thinking also needs the disciplines of building shared vision, mental models, team learning, and personal mastery to realize its potential. Building shared vision fosters a commitment to the long term. Mental models focus on the openness needed to unearth shortcomings in our present ways of seeing the world. Team learning develops the skills of groups of people to look for the larger picture beyond individual perspectives. And personal mastery fosters the personal motivation to continually learn how our actions affect our world."

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Self-help

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Stephen_Covey

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Systems_thinking


https://mail.google.com/wiki/Learning_organization

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Complexity

https://mail.google.com/w/index.php?title=Personal_mastery&action=edit&redlink=1

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Mental_models

https://mail.google.com/w/index.php?title=Building_shared_vision&action=edit&redlink=1

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Team_learning


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The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

Author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb


Our brains are wired for narrative, not statistical uncertainty. And so we tell ourselves simple stories to explain complex thing we don't (and, most importantly, can't) know. The truth is that we have no idea why stock markets go up or down on any given day, and whatever reason we give is sure to be grossly simplified, if not flat out wrong.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb first made this argument in Fooled by Randomness, an engaging look at the history and reasons for our predilection for self-deception when it comes to statistics. Now, in The Black Swan: the Impact of the Highly Improbable, he focuses on that most dismal of sciences, predicting the future. Forecasting is not just at the heart of Wall Street, but it’s something each of us does every time we make an insurance payment or strap on a seat belt.

The problem, Nassim explains, is that we place too much weight on the odds that past events will repeat

(diligently trying to follow the path of the "millionaire next door,” when unrepeatable chance is a better explanation). Instead, the really important events are rare and unpredictable. He calls them Black Swans, which is a reference to a 17th century philosophical thought experiment. In Europe all anyone had ever seen were white swans; indeed, "all swans are white" had long been used as the standard example of a scientific truth. So what was the chance of seeing a black one? Impossible to calculate or at least they were until 1697, when explorers found Cygnus atratus in Australia.

Nassim argues that most of the really big events in our world are rare and unpredictable, and thus trying to extract generalised stories to explain them may be emotionally satisfying, but it's practically useless. September 11th is one such example, and stock market crashes are another. Or, as he puts it, "History does not crawl, it jumps." Our assumptions grow out of the bell-curve predictability of what he calls "Mediocristan," while our world is really

shaped by the wild power law swings of Extremistan."

But Taleb takes this to a new level with a delightful romp through history, economics, and the frailties of human nature.

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Naval Fiction RNZN Reading List Edition 3 (2015)

Rogue Avenger

Author: John. R. Monteith

The Cruiser

Author: David Poyer

Book 1 of the Rogue Submarine Series.

The accident changed everything... One moment, Lieutenant Jake Slate was going about his duties aboard the ballistic missile submarine, USS "Colorado." The next second, he was sprawled on the deck plates in a spreading puddle of blood and hydraulic fluid. But it wasn't the injury that ruined his life and doomed his military career. It was the rescue effort.

Now he's being thrown to the wolves to cover up the misdeeds of a superior officer, and Jake doesn't care for the role of sacrificial lamb.

Blinded by rage and unsure of his future, he finds himself at the centre of a treacherous plot to hijack the "Colorado" and sell her nuclear warheads to a foreign power. Jake no longer knows who he can trust. He doesn't know what the future holds. He really only knows one thing. He "will" have his revenge

For fans of Tom Clancy, Joe Buff, and Michael DiMercurio

Newly-promoted to Captain, Dan Lenson's first glimpse of his command is of a ship literally high and dry. The USS Savo Island, which carries a classified, never-before-deployed missile defence system, has run aground on an exposed sandbar off Naples. Captain Lenson has to relieve the ship's disgraced skipper and deploy on a secret mission—Operation Stellar Shield—which will take his ship and crew into the dangerous waters bordering the Middle East. As a climate of war builds between Israel and Iraq, with threats of nuclear and chemical weapons, Dan has to rally Savo Island’s demoralized crew, confront a mysterious death on board ship, while learning to operate a complex missile system that has not been battle tested. But when the conflict reaches a climax, Dan is forced to make a decision that may cost hundreds of thousands of innocent lives—or may save them, but at the cost of his ship and his career.

Filled with dramatic sea adventure, authentic weapons and technology.

The Cruiser is the fourteenth novel to feature Dan Lenson in military service that carries him throughout the world.

Other Titles in the Dan Lenson Series::

The Gulf The Med The Circle The Passage Tomahawk China Sea Black Storm The Command Korea Strait The Threat The Weapon The Crisis The Towers

Poyer began writing in 1976 and up until 2011 has published almost 33 novels, some of which are required reading at Annapolis, and he is called "the most popular living author of American sea fiction"

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Diamondhead

Author: Patrick Robinson

The Hornblower Series

Author: C. S. Forester

When Navy SEAL Mack Bedford’s fellow officers are brutally killed by Iraqi insurgents using a cruel, new, anti-tank Diamondhead missile, Mack avenges their murders by gunning down the then-unarmed attackers, ultimately getting himself court-martialed and kicked out of the Navy in the process. To make matters worse, Mack then learns that the Diamondhead missiles were sold illegally by French industrialist and infamous politician Henri Foche. Mack suspects that Foche will succeed in his campaign to become the next French president and fears that his election will promote the spread of international terrorism. In addition, Mack has a gravely ill son whose life can only be saved with an experimental and unaffordable foreign medical procedure. So when Mack is asked to help assassinate Henri Foche, he finds himself agreeing. His reward: a chance at survival for both his son and the country.

But before Mack can reach Foche, a jilted mercenary group warns the Frenchman of the threat, greatly increasing the difficulty of Mack’s solo assassination attempt. Can Mack track down and murder the French tyrant as he has been commissioned to do? Does he have the power to restore his reputation as a Navy SEAL? And will he be able to save his son before it’s too late?

Also in the Navy Seal Lt. Commander Mack Bedford series:

Intercept The Delta Solution Power Play

Titles in Chronological order: Mr Midshipman Hornblower, Lieutenant Hornblower, Hornblower and the Atropos, Hornblower and the Hotspur, The Happy Return, A Ship of the Line, Flying Colours, The Commodore, Lord Hornblower, and Hornblower in the West Indies.

Forester wrote this highly popular series of novels about Horatio Hornblower and his rise through the ranks of the British Navy during the Napoleonic era. For readers who have not met Hornblower before, Mr Midshipman Hornblower is the best of introductions to a classic character in English fiction who has endeared himself to millions. Hornblower rises to the challenges that confront him whether they are partaking in a duel; commanding a prize ship full of rice which slowly forces open the ship’s seams; attempting to overthrow the French Republic; attacking the infamous

Spanish Galleys used in the becalmed, flat waters of the Mediterranean; or being caught in a thick fog bank with the terrifying realisation that he had sailed forward into the middle of the enemy fleet. The 1951 movie ‘Captain Horatio Hornblower’ stars Gregory Peck as the valiant Napoleonic era naval hero, adapted for the screen by Hornblower’s creator C.S. Forester. The movie has all the hallmarks of the novels. More recently, the BBC TV series provide a better coverage of young Hornblower’s progress, including a warts and all view of life at sea in the 19th century.

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Sharpes Trafalgar

Author: Bernard Cornwell

Nobody describes bloody battle scenes better than Cornwell, and even he outdoes himself with this riveting novel about the epic naval battle off Spain's Cape Trafalgar in 1805. This is but one story in his popular Napoleonic War series about Richard Sharpe, a brutish yet admirable soldier in the British army. Sharpe's Trafalgar is a historical novel by Bernard Cornwell, a Sharpe adventure in a different setting. Cornwell blends Sharpe's history into this greatest of Britain's sea triumphs. Sharpe meets a new set of characters, rogues, rascals and heroes, including a personal meeting with Lord Nelson. He also has a love affair and plays a major role in the battle. Even though it is highly unlikely that a character such as Sharpe could have been at the Battle of Trafalgar, Cornwell makes his presence there plausible.

For military-history buffs, Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe novels are the literary equivalent of potato chips: you can't read just one. And in this case, why would you want to? Blending meticulous research and old-fashioned entertainment, the series follows the roguish adventurer Richard

Sharpe as he swashbuckles his way through the Napoleonic Wars. In Sharpe's Trafalgar, the author ventures into Patrick O'Brian's maritime territory. Anchors aweigh, lads, and bring on the detailed descriptions of the ship's guns and their firing mechanisms!

The absence of technology in these stories gives them an air of elegance that is often missing in the youth of today. The common causes that led to men going down to the sea in ships 200 years ago are prevalent today but the seduction of technology occasionally overlooks the fact.

Other recommended reads by Bernard Cornwell:

The following is the correct 'historical' order of the Sharpe series, although they are all stand alone stories:

Sharpe's Tiger: The Siege of Seringapatam, 1799 Sharpe's Triumph: The Battle of Assaye, September 1803 Sharpe's Fortress: The Siege of Gawilghur, December 1803

Sharpe's Trafalgar: The Battle of Trafalgar, October 1805 Sharpe's Prey: The Expedition to Copenhagen, 1807 Sharpe's Rifles: The French Invasion of Galicia, January 1809 Sharpe's Havoc: The Campaign in Northern Portugal, Spring 1809 Sharpe's Eagle: The Talavera Campaign, July 1809 Sharpe's Gold: The Destruction of Almeida, August 1810 Sharpe's Escape: The Bussaco Campaign, 1810 Sharpe's Fury: The Battle of Barrosa, March 1811 Sharpe's Battle: The Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro, May 1811 Sharpe's Company: The Siege of Badajoz, January to April 1812 Sharpe's Sword: The Salamanca Campaign, June and July 1812 Sharpe's Enemy: The Defense of Portugal, Christmas 1812

Sharpe's Honour: The Vitoria Campaign, February to June 1813 Sharpe's Regiment: The Invasion of France, June to November 1813 Sharpe's Siege: The Winter Campaign, 1814 Sharpe's Revenge: The Peace of 1814 Sharpe's Waterloo: The Waterloo Campaign, 15 to 18 June 1815Sharpe's Devil: The Emperor, 1820–21

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Historical_novel

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Bernard_Cornwell

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Richard_Sharpe_(fictional_character)

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Horatio_Nelson,_1st_Viscount_Nelson

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Battle_of_Trafalgar

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/series/-/90/paperback/$%7B0%7D

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/series/-/90/paperback/$%7B0%7D

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Tiger

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Triumph

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Fortress

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Trafalgar

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Prey

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Rifles

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Havoc

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Eagle

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Gold

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Escape

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Fury

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Battle

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Company

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Sword

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Enemy

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Honour

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Regiment

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Siege

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Revenge

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Waterloo

https://mail.google.com/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Devil

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HMS Ulysses

Author: Alistair MacLean

Choosers of the Slain

Author: James H. Cobb

This is one of the best novels of its type and is a brilliant piece of descriptive writing. It is an account of the trials and tribulations of the crew of the fictional HMS Ulysses. This light cruiser is the flagship of an escort carrier group protecting convoys to Russia during WWII. The story is bleak but fascinating, and the dark and terrible side of naval combat is brought to the fore. MacLean’s use of powerful imagery illuminates a compelling book.

It's 2006, and Commander Amanda Lee Garrett has just taken charge of a top-secret Stealth-type U.S. Navy warship. She's never been in action, but her learning curve--and our own level of reading excitement--rapidly accelerates when Argentina decides to take back some territory it used to own in Antarctica. Commander Garrett is a wonderfully rich character dropped into a totally plausible dilemma, and James H. Cobb is good at making the intricate details of high-tech weaponry both fascinating and accessible.

Cobb brings feminism and environmentalism to the naval thriller and does it remarkably well in this lightning-paced and well-informed tale of a lone U.S. destroyer holding off an Argentine incursion into Antarctica. Amanda Garrett captains the USS Cunningham, a stealthy, well-armed vessel with the best technology available in the year 2006. The ship is on patrol off Antarctica when a surprise invasion by Argentina(seeking mineral wealth and prepared to abrogate existing international treaties) leaves her as the

only defence for treaty partners and for the ecologically fragile continent itself. As captain, Amanda uses her seamanship and her knowledge of the talents of her staff in a breathtaking sea battle fought in one of the most challenging environments on earth. Cobb not only demonstrates his control of action and plot but also incorporates intriguing military and political topics that couldn't be timelier. Best of all, he allows Amanda to command her ship as a woman not as a manly soul in a woman's body. Her strengths are a willingness to listen to all points of view, respect for each participant, even-handed consideration of proposals and, finally, firm and objective decision-making. This is the rare military thriller whose message is gender-blind and leading-edge.

Other recommended reads by James H Cobb: Sea Strike Sea Fighter Target Lock

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Tiger Cruise

Author: Douglas Morgan

Nimitz Class

Author: Patrick Robinson

The Strait of Malacca is the busiest shipping lane in the world . . . and it's a nest of pirates. These days, they're using modern methods. The USS Cushing is coming home from the Persian Gulf on a course through the Straits. It's a good ship, a Spruance-class destroyer: lean, fast, and armed to the teeth, with a few Special Weapons in her hold. But there's a major typhoon coming her way. Worse, the Cushing's been assigned to carry a batch of Tigers (civilians: family members), from Diego Garcia to Yokosuka.

When, under cover of the storm, the Cushing is boarded and cut off from her battle group, only the bravery of a few Americans aboard stands between those ruthless pirates and her Special Weapons. Making matters worse, the Australian navy has an idea what's up, and they have their own nation's security to worry about. All of which adds up to a deadly three-cornered game in which the men and women of the Cushing will have to contend with both their enemies and their allies-and with the sea itself-if they ever want to see home again.

Three seemingly unrelated happenings set the stage for drama. First, in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, a young fisherman discovers the body of a drowned sailor. Second, underneath the surface of the Bosporus, a Russian diesel submarine secretly makes its way toward the Middle East to carry out a plan masterminded by Benjamin Adnam, an Israeli citizen. Third, the USS Thomas Jefferson, a powerful aircraft carrier manned by a complement of 6000 crew members, patrols the waters of the Indian Ocean.

Suddenly, her blip vanishes from the radar screens of the other warships in her battle group. The ensuing investigation of her disappearance uncovers a sinister plot of brilliance and intrepid execution. The characters are lifelike and convincing, especially Lt. Commander Bill Baldridge, the Pentagon's primary sleuth looking into the mystery. He works closely with Admiral Sir Iain MacLean, a retired submarine flag officer of the Royal Navy.

A few errors of naval rank and military history pop up at the start of this book about a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier suddenly vaporized by a nuclear weapon fired from a terrorist controlled submarine. Don’t be put off, keep reading and enjoy this Tom Clancy-like explosion of technical trivia and plot twists.

This book is the first in a series of Maritime Thrillers.

Other recommended reads by Patrick Robinson:

Kilo Class HMS Unseen Seawolf The Shark Mutiny Barracuda 945 Scimitar SL-2 Hunter Killer Ghost Force To the Death

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Phoenix Sub Zero

Author: Michael DiMercurio

The Hunt for Red October

Author: Tom Clancy

In the near-future imagined in this brisk, hardware-packed techno-thriller, the United Islamic Front of God, comprised of 30 Islamic nations, is losing its world war with the Western Coalition, comprised of European countries and the U.S. To turn the tide, the Front resorts to its ultimate weapon: a plutonium bomb to be launched at Washington, D.C., from the Hegira, a Japanese-designed sub seemingly superior to any other under the high seas. As the Hegira breaks into the Atlantic in order to close in on its target, one American sub is sunk and another is crippled, leaving the fate of the West in the hands of Mike Pacino, captain of the American sub Seawolf , and the badly damaged USS Phoenix , whose commander, David "Sugar" Kane, refuses to abandon the hunt. Former submariner DiMercurio (Attack of the Seawolf) conveys without melodrama the horror of undersea warfare, with death in a hundred forms always a hand's-breadth away. He is also a master of submarine technology, rivalling Tom Clancy in his ability to make technical details comprehensible to general readers.

Here, in true techno-thriller fashion, the computers, torpedoes and propulsion systems carry the exciting story from first pages to last, where Seawolf and Hegira engage to decide the future of the world.

Somewhere under the Atlantic, a Soviet sub commander has just made a fateful decision: the Red October is heading west. The Americans want her. The Russians want her back. And the most incredible chase in history is on....

The Hunt for Red October is the runaway bestseller that launched Tom Clancy's phenomenal career, it is a military thriller so accurate and convincing that the author was rumoured to have been debriefed by the White House. Its theme: the greatest espionage coup in history. Its story: the chase for a runaway top secret Russian missile sub.

This is the story of Soviet submarine Captain Marko Ramius who seeks to defect to the US with a billion dollar present, and of Dr Jack Ryan the US Intelligence analyst who is trying to understand what is going on. The Hunt for Red October is the first in a series of novels to popularise the real-to-life genre, and is also the first fiction that the US Naval Institute has knowingly or admittedly published.

You’ve seen the movie, now read the book and find out how the story really went before Hollywood got their hands on it.

Other recommended reads by Tom Clancy:

Red Storm Rising Patriot Games Clear and Present Danger Cardinal of the Kremlin The Sum of All Fears Debt of Honor Executive Orders Without Remorse Rainbow Six The Bear and the Dragon Red Rabbit The Teeth of the Tiger

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Master and Commander

Author: Patrick O’Brian

This, the first in the splendid series of historical novels depicting the Age of Fighting Sail, establishes the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey, RN, and Stephen Maturin, ship’s surgeon and intelligence agent, against a thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. Details of a life aboard a man-of-war are faultlessly rendered: the conversational idiom of the officers in the ward room and the men on the lower deck, the food, and the floggings, the mysteries of the wind and the rigging, and the roar of broadsides as the great ships close in battle. It is the dawn of the 19th century; Britain is at war with Napoleon’s France. When Jack Aubrey, a young lieutenant in Nelson’s navy, is promoted to captain, he inherits command of HMS Sophie, an old, slow brig unlikely to make his fortune. But Captain Aubrey is a brave and gifted seaman, his thirst for adventure and victory immense. With the aid of his intrepid friend Maturin, Aubrey and his crew engage in one thrilling battle after another, their journey culminating in a stunning clash with a mighty Spanish frigate against whose guns and manpower

the tiny Sophie is hopelessly outmatched.

Jack Aubrey is a literary icon, and this book, which serves as the launch for all the other (also recommended) adventures in this well-loved series, establishes what is at the core of the character’s appeal: He has all the qualities of naval leadership to which any officer in any navy would aspire.

Other recommended reads by Patrick O’Brian:

Master and Commander (1970) Post Captain (1972) H.M.S. Surprise (1973) The Mauritius Command (1977) Desolation Island (1978) The Fortune Of War (1979) The Surgeon's Mate (1980) The Ionian Mission (1981) Treason's Harbour (1983) The Far Side Of The World (1984) The Reverse Of The Medal (1986) The Letter Of Marque (1988) The Thirteen Gun Salute (1989) The Nutmeg Of Consolation (1991) The Truelove (1992) The Wine-Dark Sea (1993) The Commodore (1995) The Yellow Admiral (1996) The Hundred Days (1998) Blue At The Mizzen (1999) The Final, Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/patrick-obrian/master-and-commander.htm

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/years/1970.htm

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/patrick-obrian/post-captain.htm


http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/patrick-obrian/hms-surprise.htm


http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/patrick-obrian/mauritius-command.htm


http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/patrick-obrian/desolation-island.htm


http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/patrick-obrian/fortune-of-war.htm


http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/patrick-obrian/surgeons-mate.htm


http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/patrick-obrian/ionian-mission.htm


http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/patrick-obrian/treasons-harbour.htm


http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/patrick-obrian/far-side-of-world.htm


http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/patrick-obrian/reverse-of-medal.htm


http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/patrick-obrian/letter-of-marque.htm


http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/patrick-obrian/thirteen-gun-salute.htm


http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/patrick-obrian/nutmeg-of-consolation.htm


http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/patrick-obrian/truelove.htm


http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/patrick-obrian/winedark-sea.htm


http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/patrick-obrian/commodore.htm


http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/patrick-obrian/yellow-admiral.htm


http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/patrick-obrian/hundred-days.htm


http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/patrick-obrian/blue-at-mizzen.htm


http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/patrick-obrian/final-unfinished-voyage-of-jack-aubrey.htm

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The Cruel Sea

Author: Nicholas Monsarrat

The Caine Mutiny

Author: Herman Wouk

A powerful novel of the North Atlantic in World War II, The Cruel Sea is the story of the British ships Compass Rose and Saltash and of their desperate cat-and-mouse game with Nazi U-boats. First published to great acclaim in 1951 (the New York Times called it “fascinating and compelling”), The Cruel Sea remains a classic novel of endurance and daring. Author Nicholas Monsarrat drew upon his own wartime experiences to bring a gritty realism to the story, capturing all the dread and danger of convoy-escort duty in the Battle of the Atlantic. Following first one vessel, then the other, through the years 1939 to 1945, events are viewed mainly through the eyes of Lockhart, an idealistic young recruit at the outset, a hardened veteran by the end. Another main character is Lockhart’s commanding officer, Ericson, a bona fide naval professional largely sur-rounded by civilians-turned-sailors in the exigencies of wartime.

The stoic endurance and professionalism of these crews as they battle the largely unseen enemy, and confront the implacable, often deadly sea, make for gripping, timeless fiction. And it can make the modern reader ponder, how would they stack up, in their situation?

The Caine Mutiny, for which Herman Wouk was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1952, is a contemporary classic, a novel of World War II that seized the imagination of a country recovering from the ravagements of a devastating war in a manner unlike any work of American fiction before or since. Its characters have become a vital part of our literary history; its story has taken root in the memory of a nation. A towering achievement, and perhaps the world’s best-loved drama of the sea and its sailors, The Caine Mutiny was a New York Times bestseller for more than two and a half years. It has sold millions upon millions of copies in the 50-plus years since it was first published. Each new generation of naval readers needs to rediscover this timeless masterpiece: the legendary tale of Captain Queeg and the unforgettable mutiny aboard the USS Caine.

While it’s a classic of the literature of the sea, The Caine Mutiny is also a classic study aid in critical thinking.

It has been used in classrooms where it has sparked intense arguments over questions of loyalty and integrity, the responsibility of a crew to its captain, and of loyalty up and down the chain of command.

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Foreword by Chief of Navy - RNZN - Royal New Zealand … whakatauākī: ‘Kia mau koe ki nga kupu...

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