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Conflict over Convoys: Anglo-American Logistics Diplomacy in the Second World War. By Kevin Smith. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. xvi, 318 pp. $54.95, ISBN 0-521-49725-6.)
As his title suggests, Kevin Smith is interested in this book in the naval aspects of the AngloAmerican alliance during World War II. He pays particular attention to logistics diplomacy, "the Anglo-American battle for control of allocations of American-built merchant ships," arguing that the logistics of providing supplies for civilians in Britain and in the British Empire must be included in any discussion of Allied military strategy during the war. Although historians have generally ignored Allied logistics discussions, a study of them can, he contends, shed light on other aspects of the alliance, including the decision over a second front, the gradual transfer of strategic decision making from London to Washington, and Franklin D. Roosevelt's leadership.