Naval Strategy East of Suez: The Role of Djibouti

by Charles Koburger

Overview

This is the only current book on maritime Djibouti, and the only one available in English since 1968. It describes the geography, naval history, and present strategic role of this small country, and indicates its possible future. Naval Strategy East of Suez includes previously little-known facts of French covert action in Italian East Africa, 1938-1941; and of Operation Toreador (1956), which served to aid Operation Musketeer. It also turbans a spotlight on the Allied blockade of Djibouti in 1940-1942. In a sense, this book is a more readable, and less technical, treatment of what sailors call sailing directions.

Djibouti's naval base, 600 miles closer to the Strait of Hormuz than Diego Garcia, is the nearest base to Middle East oil centers likely to be available to France and its allies in the future—facts often ignored or unknown to all but the most specialized of specialists. Koburger believes that the troubles in the Middle East are only beginning. His book offers a background and strategy about an area little known to Anglophones that is of considerable potential usefulness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275941161
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/19/1992
Pages:	150
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	1070L (what's this?)

About the Author

CHARLES W. KOBURGER, JR., was a Captain in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve when he retired in 1978 after twenty years of active duty. He is now an independent consultant in the operational aspects of maritime affairs, specializing in navigation systems. He has published numerous books on naval strategies and history, including: The Cyrano Fleet: France and Its Navy, 1940-42 (Praeger, 1989), Narrow Seas, Small Navies, and Fat Merchantmen: Naval Strategies for the 1990s (Praeger, 1990) and The French Navy in Indochina: Riverine and Coastal Forces, 1945-54 (Praeger, 1991).

Table of Contents

Introduction
Military Abbreviations and Special Terms
Early Days
The First World War and After
War Comes to the CFS
The Blockade
Interregnum
The Base
Conclusion
Appendixes: Characteristics of French Naval Vessels: A Representative List
Tonnage Received by the CFS by Sea, 1940-1941
The Port of Djibouti
Sea Distances from Djibouti
Djibouti-Based Gulf Crisis Units
Winds, Tides, and Currents
Bibliography
Index