Hood and Bismarck

Customer Reviews:

An Epic Battle, An Epic Search.......2004-07-25

On May 24, 1941, HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Hood, pride of the British navy, intercepted the German battleship Bismarck and her escort in the Denmark Strait near Greenland. In just a few moments, Hood was blown up by shell fire from the Bismarck and the Prince of Wales was heavily damaged. Despite the wrenching loss of its flagship, the Royal Navy maintained its dogged pursuit of the Bismarck, fatally damaging and finally sinking her a few days later.

The chapters in Hood and Bismarck alternate between an historical description of the two ships and their battle and the assembly of a modern expedition to search for both of them. Bismarck had been located by Dr. Robert Ballard's team in 1989, but the location was kept secret; Hood remained lost in the cold waters of the North Atlantic.

The expedition lead by David Mearns successfully relocated the wreck of the Bismarck and then went on to find the shattered remains of the Hood. The description of how the wrecks were found makes very interesting reading, and the evidence gathered by the expedition offers some interesting perspectives on some old questions: why did the Hood explode and sink so quickly, and was the Bismarck scuttled by her crew or sunk by her opponents?

The book lacks the remarkable artist's conceptions of the "shipwreck as a whole" that are customary in Dr. Ballard's books (in particular, his "The Discovery of the Bismarck", published in 1990). On the whole, however, Hood and Bismarck is very well-researched and written and the analysis and crisp photographs make up for the missing "big picture" paintings. Moreover, the book successfully captures the very human dimension of the struggle between the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine--the very few survivors of the Hood and the Bismarck play a moving role in the search for these sunken ships and in the laying of memorial plaques on their remains. Highly recommended!

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Its not all that bad
A mess
Hoodwinked
HMS Hood, invincible flagship of the British Royal Navy
Perhaps it wasn't the Bismarck after all.

Hms Hood: Pride of the Royal Navy
Andrew Norman
Manufacturer: Stackpole Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Customer Reviews:

Its not all that bad.......2006-01-29

Some of the criticism leveled against this book are fair, but in the same breath it is unfair to dismiss the book entirely based upon the authors assertion that the Prince Eugen was responsible for the sinking of the HMS Hood. There is much more to this book, it contains a snapshot of shipboard life that no longer exists in this day and age. For a less insulting, highly professional discussion of the sinking of the HMS Hood read the article at http://www.warship.org/no21987.htm

A mess.......2004-08-02

Spotty history, technical speculation, second rate naratives.

Don't waste your time with this mess of a book. I knew I was in trouble when the author had already refered to the Bismarck as a "pocket" battleship in the prologue.

It covers little to nothing on the design of the Hood. It spends an entire chapter covering some obscure world cruise but has zero account of the Hoods pre-Bismarck battles (as part of Force H), zips straight through the Denmark straight fight, then dives into poorly thought out conjecture and speculation as to why the ship was lost.

His grand conclusion is that an 8" plunging shell (HE by the way, not AP) from the Prinz Eugen somehow passed straight down one of the stacks, penetrated the steel bar supports and armor, and exploded in the boiler room. Here superheated steam (itself a massive fire supressant) and pre-heated oil were released and flashed into a major fire that broke the ship in two and sank it. All this theory is based on the fact that something similar happend to a cargo ship bombed by a brit naval aircraft at some other point in the war. You gotta be kidding me.

I picked this title up for $5 at a remainder sale, and it was overpriced at even that price. Spend your money on something educational like a comic book. This title has no place in the library of any serious naval historian.

Hoodwinked.......2004-01-08

The author's potential contribution to the study of HMS Hood lay in recording the memories of her crewmen. Surprisingly though, the "recollections" section takes up a mere 40 pages--published separately as a booklet, this might have been worth a modest price. Here I will discuss the remaining 100+ pages with their focus on technical/historical material: warship design, naval combat, and battle history, none of which Norman understands. From a vast list of errors, I have selected a few representative examples.
NORMAN on warship design: Regarding deck protection, "Hood's armor was not plate, but of the cemented type...." This is pure gibberish. Hood did have British C armor ("C" for "cemented") in thicknesses up to 15-inch, but not on her decks, which instead had lesser steel with no individual plate more than about 2-inch. No mere detail, this bears directly on the cause of Hood's loss, and the author cannot even correctly parrot the fundamentals.
NORMAN on battle history: "Most, if not all [of Bismarck's shells], failed to explode or did so only partially." In reality, German shells indeed underachieved, but it was Prinz Eugen's ammunition that gave a demonstrably poor performance, not Bismarck's. Norman says that, if Bismarck hit Hood with a shell, "chances were that it had not exploded"--opening the door for his theory that Eugen fired the fatal shell. Norman's theory depends on ignorance of the basic facts.
NORMAN on naval combat: When sunk, Hood was "well within" her immune zone, "defined as a range no closer than 12,000 yards, and the outer limit beyond 25,000 to 30,000 yards." The concept of an immune zone--the area where both the belt armor and the deck armor are likely to resist the armor-piercing shells--did not apply in this instance for the simple reason that Hood had no immune zone. Quite the contrary, through much of Norman's specified zone, neither Hood's belt nor her deck would suffice to keep out Bismarck's shells. She was doubly vulnerable! But Norman again is steering us toward his Eugen theory, puzzling though it is--if Hood was immune to Bismarck's 800kg armor-piercing shells, what could Eugen achieve with shells that were 122kg and not armor-piercing? Norman claims Eugen's shells could by-pass Hood's armor, plummeting straight down Hood's funnel, though he offers no explanation how the shells could achieve the great heights necessary for this trajectory. In fact, Eugen's shells were descending from an angle only about 20 degrees above the horizontal; so unless the Germans managed a bank shot off a low-flying billiards table, this theorized hit was physically impossible.
Given the availability of many fine books on Hood and Denmark Strait, this one earns little regard. The final word on Norman's research appears on page 82 with a photo captioned "Hood at speed"--a dramatic photo which, unfortunately, depicts the battleship Royal Oak, a ship four years older than Hood and from an entirely different class.

HMS Hood, invincible flagship of the British Royal Navy.......2002-04-09

This book will obviously attract most attention from the reader with a keen interest in historical and military subjects, particularly naval disasters, ancient and modern. HMS Hood, flagship and pride of the British Royal Navy, had been considered an unsinkable battle cruiser until her encounter with the German battleship Bismarck and her consort, Prinz Eugen on May 24, 1941. Only 3 crew members from the Hood survived; 1,418 went to their graves that day, a hideous waste of human life, as all such war casualties are. The author covers the death of the ship, the postmortem (Boards of Enquiry), the doubts over the official verdict, and some of the theories as to what went wrong, including one of his own. As a civilian from a later generation, I couldn't begin to offer an opinion on the theories. But the author's description of the battle (in which the battleship HMS Prince of Wales also took part) is vivid and shocking.

The first section of the book is easier reading for the non-military or non-history reader, covering as it does recollections of everyday life aboard the Hood before she was drafted into service for World War II. The Hood visited many ports on her world cruise (crossing the equator six times) and the crew had collected quite a menagerie on board, including a kangaroo. The anecdotes are often funny and eye-opening.

Some of the technical details (that is, military specs) can be a bit tedious for the lay reader, but naval buffs will certainly appreciate them. The book is well-written, well-researched, and full of original photographs from some of the men who served on HMS Hood, along with other unique and original source material. It is definitely a keeper! ...

Perhaps it wasn't the Bismarck after all........2002-02-13

Having found the last resting place of the Titanic and Bismarck, it was only a matter of time before someone would find the "Hood." This ship was indeed the pride of the Royal Navy and fondly regarded as the most beautiful ship wherever she went. With her recent discovery, there were bound to be a plethora of books on the subject giving rise to the age-old debate of how and why this magnificent Battle Cruiser sank so quickly.

Andrew Norman favours one particular theory for the sinking of the Hood - and I must say, it really is as plausible as any I have read (except for the "Built from the same faulty batch of steel as the Titanic" theory.). His description of the "Concept of the Immune Zone" is easily understandable - and something of which I was previously unaware. His conclusions that an 8 inch shell from the Prinz Eugen sank the Hood is, therefore, as sound as any. That said, it is the job of any good author to write his book in such a way as to lead the reader to that same conclusion.

HMS Hood - Pride of the Royal Navy is hardback, measuring 9¼ in x 6 in and contains over 150 pages of information and dialogue presented in an easy-to-read style. There is also a liberal sprinkling of very relevant b & w photographs throughout. Altogether, a very competent piece of work, where the author sets the scene by telling us all about the ship through the recollections of a variety of very different people who served on board at different times. This gives the reader a good "feel" for the ship before arriving at the events of May 1941 - which are described in even closer detail. As the jacket states "In these pages you will meet" and then lists 5 of those individuals - two of whom had the great fortune to be amongst the three survivors on that fateful day.

Doubtless, those who subscribe to a different "reason" as to why the Hood sank so quickly, will knock this book in order to place their own favoured theory at the top of the pile. Personally, I don't know because I wasn't there - but I do believe this book should be read alongside all other theories in order to provide a balanced view. Unlike many, it is a very good read.

NM

Bismarck Chase: New Light on a Famous Engagement

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The Bismarck Chase
No "new light" for me & questionable photo interpretations.
An easy to read description of the battle(s) of the Bismarck
Essential new analysis of the loss of HMS Hood

Bismarck Chase: New Light on a Famous Engagement
Robert J. Winklareth
Manufacturer: US Naval Institute Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 1557501831

Book Description

One of the most famous naval engagements of World War II--the sinking of the British battlecruiser HMS Hood by the German battleship Bismarck--took place in the Denmark Strait in 1941 and people have been arguing about it ever since. In this book a professional defense analyst uses computer modeling to support his original and highly credible explanation of what happened.

Customer Reviews:

The Bismarck Chase.......2003-09-04

New Light on a Famous Engagement, bills itself as an updated and accurate analysis of the epic Atlantic sea chase of May 1941. The primary emphasis falls upon the Battle of the Denmark Strait where HMS Hood fell to gunfire from the mighty German battleship, leaving but three survivors, and HMS Prince of Wales was forced to turn away under fire. Unfortunately, the basis for this 'comprehensive analysis,' as Mr. Winklareth calls it, consists primarily of the author's reinterpretation of photography and an insistence that Prinz Eugen always remained to starboard of Bismarck during the battle.

Disposing of this latter point first, after action Kriegsmarine reports specifically evaluated the role of Prinz Eugen during the battle and discussed the dire consequences the heavy cruiser faced as she steamed ahead of and to port of Bismarck, exposed as she was to heavy British gunfire. The action reports of Prinz Eugen and subsequent staff commentary do not support the authors' assertions in the least. Equally damaging to the author's case is the corollary that Prinz Eugen would therefore be able to photograph the portside of Bismarck during the battle.

Moving to the assertion that various pictures taken aboard Prinz Eugen have been reversed, possibly as the result of his mistaken belief noted above, the author advances this as further evidence to support his contention that Bismarck and Prinz Eugen followed parallel courses during the Battle of the Denmark Strait, with the heavy cruiser always to starboard of Bismarck. Aside from the mortal contradiction presented by the primary materials noted above, this assertion requires a great deal of imagination to accept.

In reviewing Mr. Winklareth's interpretation of these photographs there are numerous discrepancies overlooked either for sake of convenience or out of miscalculation. Additionally, the first thing confronting the reader is the poor quality of the photography reproduced within the book. With the author considering these photographs as the basis for uprooting the historical record, he should have provided the best prints possible for his readers. One may legitimately question that if these were the best prints the author could manage for his own research, it may answer quite a number of questions.

Fortunately, there are available for study fine copies of these same prints in various texts which the reader can use for comparison. And by carefully comparing the photographs it appears that the author has managed to rearrange the photography out of sequence, as opposed to actually presenting a proper sequence himself.

One may notice that photograph 10-2 (in the authors' book) shows the flash and shock wave of Bismarck firing her guns at the British. Having reversed the photograph to show Bismarck her moving from left to right in the picture, if the author is to be believed and considering that she was traveling south down the strait, then Bismarck must be firing to starboard. This is not possible at all. To be perfectly blunt, this means that the author himself has mistakenly reversed the picture and that Prinz Eugen, in order to take the picture, was indeed traveling off Bismarck's port side, something we were assured never happened.

Likewise, clearer prints of the authors' photograph 10-6 show the forward armored plates of Bismarck's main turrets and her after fire control radar aerial facing the camera. Since the author has again printed the photograph to show Bismarck traveling south from left to right, it follows that she must be firing to starboard. At the risk of sounding redundant, with the British capital ships to portside of Bismarck throughout the engagement, this interpretation cannot possibly be correct.

Finally, the nature of the weather can be gauged by reference to the background in each photograph. It is quite obvious that the same cloud formations do not appear in the photography showing Hood and Prince of Wales to the east compared with those of Bismarck to the west. If the reader accepts these observations, then all of the photographs have been reversed by the author during his research and analysis. This constitutes a stunning error of incredible magnitude because it completely undermines the premise of his book.

The remainder of the book is devoted to a repetitive and sometimes monotonous description of the development of the modern battleship, followed by a brief description of the rise of the Kriegsmarine under Hitler. Bismarck is then introduced and the reader is provided a rather pedestrian account of her sortie and loss. Of particular disappointment are the brief and lackluster accounts both of Victorious' Swordfish torpedo attack and Bismarck's subsequent manuever which allowed her to briefly escape the tightening British noose.

As perhaps further indication of the author's poor research concerning the movements of Bismarck and Prinz Eugen during the Battle of Denmark Strait, the depiction of events surrounding Bismarck's dramatic torpedoing by Swordfish from Ark Royal is equally flawed. And given the sources listed in the bibliography as available to his efforts this is a startling error for the author to commit.

The photography contained within the book is well printed with the exception of, as amazing as it sounds, the critical pictures supposedly providing the evidence for recasting events in the Denmark Strait. And quite aside from being based on demonstrably incorrect facts, various charts throughout the book are generally oversimplified and without geographical reference, thus rendering them wholly inadequate.

There are many fine books concerning Bismarck, among them Russell Grenfell's "The Bismarck Episode," Ludovic Kennedy's "Pursuit" and, of course, Baron von Mullenheim-Rechberg's "Battleship Bismarck." Robert Winklareth's "The Bismarck Chase" cannot begin to compare with these superb volumes. As a poorly researched and deeply flawed work, Mr. Winklareth's book is definitely not worthy of recommendation under any circumstances.

No "new light" for me & questionable photo interpretations........1999-11-18

I ordered this book because it reportedly shed 'new light' on the tactics of the combatant vessels in the Denmark Strait action. Readers with a knowledge of WWII naval history will find some errors in the text, such as HMS Sheffield being described as a "heavy" cruiser and Yamato's overall length being reported as 840' instead of 863'. I found the author's interpretation of the photos of the Bismarck/Hood action to be unconvincing. It was claimed that these were being presented in the correct sequence "for the first time". Photos 10-2 to 10-6 appear to me to be in the wrong sequence, and were printed with a mirror image left-right transposition when compared to the same or very similar photos in other sources. The sequence indicated by examination of the distinct cloud patterns appears to be 10-6, 10-4, 10-5, with 10-2&3 taken almost simultaneously. Most of these action photos have appeared elsewhere in smaller and less grainy format and indicated the Bismarck's guns were trained to port (i.e. on the SAME side as the Prinz Eugen, from where the photos were taken) and on an AFT bearing. According to the text and charts in 'The Bismarck Case' the photos should show the guns trained abeam (if not slightly ahead of the beam) toward the Prince of Wales and AWAY from the photographer aboard the Prinz Eugen (which was supposedly on the opposite side of Bismarck from the Prince of Wales when these photos were taken). I have never read that Bismarck and Prinz Eugen pursued a straight course throughout the battle and all books in my collection show a turn to starboard, followed by one to port as 'revealed' in this book. However these turns were charted as occurring later in the action in my other source books. There is evidence for a later turn to starboard than postulated by the author when the photos are reviewed in the different right-left orientation given in other published sources. Baron Von Mullenheim-Rechberg's 'Battleship Bismarck: A Survivor's Story' and Paul Schmalenbach's 'Kriegsmarine Bismarck' in 'Warships in Profile Vol.2' contain 'The Bismarck Chase' photos 9-1, 9-3, and 10-2 to 10-6 or very similar shots and both authors (who were there!) indicated Bismarck had turned to starboard (westward) of the Prinz Eugen and away from the British ships during the period which encompasses 10-2 to 10-6. The bow of Bismarck is shown to the left of the photos in those sources instead of to the right as in 'The Bismarck Chase'. The photos in Mr. Winklareth's book are purported to have been taken after a second major course alteration, toward the British ships on a course of about 200 degrees. Although the book gives a fairly good account of the battle and the Bismarck's brief career, I did not feel any 'new light' had been shed, and did not agree with the author's conclusions.

An easy to read description of the battle(s) of the Bismarck.......1999-11-17

Being a lover of mysteries, I was hoping that this book addressed the almost daily bad orders of Admiral Lutjens. But it only addresses a few of them and even then finds excuses for them. However, for a nutshell account of the Bismarck's last days, it is an excellent book and should be in any naval historian's library. But I am a purist and take more credence Baron Burkard von Mullenheim-Rechberg's account of the battles since he was there and was one of the fortunate few survivors to be plucked out of the water. I was also disappointed that another crucial encounter of the Bismarck was never mentioned that actually aided in "his" screening from British RADAR. Overall, the book is a good summary of fact for fact without going into a lot of conjecture and second guessing. I was able to read it in one afternoon and found it enjoyable regardless of any misgivings I had.

Essential new analysis of the loss of HMS Hood.......1999-09-22

There are so many books about the short and dramatic life of the battleship Bismarck, but none has really tried to answer the question of the tactics of Admiral Holland and Captain Kerr when they apparently chose to attack on a disadvantageous course. Why did they put the lightly-armoured HMS Hood in the van and at an angle of approach which increased her vulnerability to plunging fire whilst halving the effectiveness of her main armnament?

Robert Winklareth has analysed photographs of the engagement and naval records to posit a new hypothesis, suggesting that the German ships took a different course from that which has previously been assumed. This may well be the explanation for the British tactics, as they strove to gain advantage over their opponents

Of course there are many other unanswered questions about Bismarck, both in the days before Hood was sunk and in the three days following until she met her demise. Hopefully succeeding authors will now be encouraged to apply the same attitude of enquiry as Winklareth has here

Customer Reviews:

A PAGE TURNING TRIBUTE TO A PROUD TRADITION THAT ENDED AN ERA.......2006-04-16

IN A NUTSHELL: THE LIFE - TIME - MISSIONS & MEN OF THE H.M.S. HOOD

This reads like a sort of requiem for a legendary ship, its men and the swan song for the era of invincibility that they represented. The ship lived, like the story about it for 199 pages out of the first 200, before it was struck by trouble. The trouble, so to speak was but a nano-second in the life of the ship, but it delivered instant doom to the ship, the crew [all but 3 died] and the feelings of security that the western world had held for a century.

OF COURSE IT WAS MADE OF EVENTS AND PEOPLE -- BUT MOSTLY THE SHIP:

Yes, and this book is filled with these events, such as the debacle over the surrender or sinking of the French fleet after France fell in 1940. There was also much made about the overdependence, and resulting overuse that the Royal Navy had to subject the ship and its men to.

What started out as a wonder of the world, somehow became something that was due for scrapping prior to its eternal meeting with the Bismarck, just 20 years later. Bismarck too, only a few days later suffered the same fate as the Hood, as did the men on both ships. On a larger scale, many of these same vessels that survived the war were "expended" in atomic bomb testing at places like Bikini atoll only a few years later. Friendly or enemy vessel -- it made no difference as they were all made completely obsolete by another man-made wonder. A rather horrible image I have of the Bikini atoll atomic test is the American Battleship Arkansas in a vertical position, above the water, about a mile from ground zero. That's right - vertical!

BACK TO THE SHIP: MANY LESSONS ARE HERE TO BE LEARNED

In the end, this is a real page turning piece of non-fiction that answers most of the questions and fills most of its pages with interesting and useful stuff -- if this is the stuff that interests you -- as it does me.

If you always wanted to know more than just how the Bismarck sunk the Hood, this book is for you. Sure, the short exchange and the survivors accounts are included, short but not so sweet as they are. However, this book does get into the decisions that were made involving the design of the great Hood. How the lessons of Jutland, which exposed the obvious shortcomings of other earlier English Battlecrusiers was addressed in the design and redesign of the Hood. Also, of equal importance was the effect of the Washington Naval Treaty and the later London treaty which was thought to compell other nations to reduce the size, and number of their capital ships, and the armor and armaments that were available within the treaty limits. The rsult was that England and the United States had smaller and less well armed and protected capital ships than they could have. The author implies [and he may be correct] that the Bismarck was not built within the limits of the treaty, unlike the Prince of Wales, that accompanied the Hood to meet the Bismarck. In theory, Bismarck and Prince of Wales were subjected to the same limits, yet the German ship appears to have displaced around 48,000 tons compared to 35,000 for the Prince of Wales. Would the Hood still have been leading the Prince of Wales to meet the Bismarck, or would it have been the other way around if both the Prince of Wales, and Bismarck were both built to either the Bismarck's interpretation of the treaty of the English interpretation. The book delves into this matter in a number of interesting ways.

BOTTOM LINE: WARSHIP DESIGN IS A SERIES OF COMPROMISES

Building a Battleship is a lot like building a house, except it has to float even under fire, carry armorments that effectively sink its rival warships and be a good home to several thousand men. It also has to meet treaty requirements which always warps the designs of armaments. This book examines that idea in the form of a sort of biography of a ship - its life - times - men!

The large print is a godsend which made it possible for me to completely read through it in 5 hours.

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HOOD & BISMARCK
David Mearns
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N6ME7S

The "Hood" and the "Bismarck": The sinking of the "Hood"

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The "Hood" and the "Bismarck": The sinking of the "Hood"
Russell Grenfell
Manufacturer: Atlantic Monthly Co.]
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Book Description

Reinforcement learning, one of the most active research areas in artificial intelligence, is a computational approach to learning whereby an agent tries to maximize the total amount of reward it receives when interacting with a complex, uncertain environment. In Reinforcement Learning, Richard Sutton and Andrew Barto provide a clear and simple account of the key ideas and algorithms of reinforcement learning. Their discussion ranges from the history of the field's intellectual foundations to the most recent developments and applications. The only necessary mathematical background is familiarity with elementary concepts of probability.

The book is divided into three parts. Part I defines the reinforcement learning problem in terms of Markov decision processes. Part II provides basic solution methods: dynamic programming, Monte Carlo methods, and temporal-difference learning. Part III presents a unified view of the solution methods and incorporates artificial neural networks, eligibility traces, and planning; the two final chapters present case studies and consider the future of reinforcement learning.

Customer Reviews:

Q-learner.......2007-02-19

I agree with reviewer Frank "Good introduction but not well structured, May 8, 2005" the authors are over-anxious to establish the credentials of RL in older research traditions. Much of the talk about optimal control for instance is confusing because this is a vast field and its assumed you know it. I found myself looking up some of the technical terms from other fields. In the end learning about these concepts didnt help my understanding. This is a pity because the concepts behind RL are relatively simple/

However in general I really enjoyed this book and this is the most accessible (while still being comprehensive) RL introduction out there.

Good introduction but not well structured.......2005-05-09

This book provides an easy to read introduction in reinforcement learning. It covers several approaches (dynamic programming, monte carlo, temproal differnce) and gives a lot of examples.

However, in my opinion it is neither well structured nor written. The book has no clear separation between theory and examples given to demonstrate the applications of the theory. Due to this, the theoretical ideas are blured instead of clearified. After going through the examples it is always possible to find out how it work, but this should not be necessary.

After reading this book you will definetely know the basics (even more) about reinforcement learning. However, I somehow expected more because of the names of the authors. Perhaps this is not only a problem of this book but of the field of reinforcement learning itself.

An excellent introduction.......2004-11-06

As a subfield of artificial intelligence, reinforcement learning has shown great success from both a theoretical and practical viewpoint. Taking the form of numerous applications in finance, network engineering, robot toys, and games, it is clear that his learning paradigm shows even greater promise for future developments. The authors summarize the foundations of reinforcement learning, some of this coming from their own work over the last decade.

The authors define reinforcement learning as learning how to map situations to actions so as to maximize a numerical reward. The machine that is indulging in reinforcement learning discovers on its own which actions will optimize the reward by trying out these actions. It is the ability of such a machine to learn from experience that distinguishes it from one that is indulging in supervised learning, for in the latter examples are needed to guide the machine to the proper concept or knowledge. The authors emphasize the "exploration-exploitation" tradeoffs that reinforcement-learning machines have to deal with as they interact with the environment.

For the authors, a reinforcement learning system consists of a `policy', a `reward function', a `value function', and a `model' of the environment. A policy is a mapping from the states of the environment that are perceived by the machine to the actions that are to be taken by the machine when in those states. The reward function maps each perceived state of the environment to a number (the reward). A value function specifies what is the good for the machine over the long run. A model, as the name implies, is a representation of the behavior of the environment. The authors emphasize that all of the reinforcement learning methods that are discussed in the book are concerned with the estimation of value functions, but they point out that other techniques are available for solving reinforcement learning problems, such as genetic algorithms and simulated annealing.

The authors use dynamic programming, Monte Carlo simulation, and temporal-difference learning to solve the reinforcement learning problem, but they emphasize that each of these methods will not give a free-lunch. An entire chapter is devoted to each of these methods however, giving the reader a good overview of the weaknesses and strengths of each of these approaches. The differences between them usual boil down to issues of performance rather than accuracy in the generated solutions. Temporal difference learning in fact is viewed in the book as a combination of Monte Carlo and dynamic programming techniques, and in the opinion of this reviewer, has resulted in some of the most impressive successes for applications based on reinforcement learning. One of these is TD-Gammon, developed to play backgammon, and which is also discussed in the book.

The authors emphasize that these three main strategies for solving reinforcement learning problems are not mutually exclusive. Instead each of them could be used simultaneously with the others, and they devote a few chapters in the book illustrating how this "unified" approach can be advantageous for reinforcement learning problems. They do this by using explicit algorithms and not just philosophical discussion. These discussions are very interesting and illustrate beautifully the idea that there is no "free lunch" in any of the different algorithms involved in reinforcement learning.

In the last chapter of the book the authors overview some of the more successful applications of reinforcement learning, one of them already mentioned. Another one discussed is the `acrobot', which is a two-link, underactuated robot, which models to some extent the motion of a gymnast on a high bar. The motion of the acrobot is to be controlled by swinging its tip above the first joint, with appropriate rewards given until this goal is reached. The authors use the `Sarsa' learning algorithm, developed earlier in the book, for solving this reinforcement learning problem. The acrobot is an example of the current intense interest in machine learning of physical motion and intelligent control theory.

Another example discussed in this chapter deals with the problem of elevator dispatching, which the authors include as an example of a problem that cannot be dealt with efficiently by dynamic programming. This problem is studied with Q-learning and via the use of a neural network trained by back propagation.

The authors also treat a problem of great importance in the cellular phone industry, namely that of dynamic channel allocation. This problem is formulated as a semi-Markov decision problem, and reinforcement learning techniques were used to minimize the probability of blocking a call. Reinforcement learning has become very important in the communications industry of late, as well as in queuing networks.

A Standard, Excellent Introductory Book.......2003-11-30

This book is undoubtedly the standard book on the topic of reinforcement learning by the two leading researchers in this field. Different from many other AI or maching learning books, this book presents not only the technical details of algorithms and methods, but also a uniquely unified view of how intelligent agents can improve by interacting with the environment. Besides, it is very readable, without much math or theory. The exercises are challenging and interesting, and will force you to understand the stuffs in the book!

Excellent introduction to reinforcement learning.......2003-08-03

I have this book more than a year now and I am going through it for the second time, so I think I have a pretty good picture about it.

The book consists of three parts. In the first part, "The Problem", the authors define the scope of issues reinfocement learning is dealing with and they give some interesting introductory examples. Then, they move on to the concept of evaluative feedback and, eventually, define the reinforcement learning problem formally.

The second part, "Elementary Solution Methods" consists of three more-less independent subparts: Dynamic Programming, Monte Carlo Methods and Temporal Difference Learning. All three fundamental reinforcement learning methods are presented in an interesting way and using good examples. Personally, I liked the TD-Learning part best and I agree that this method is indeed the central method and an original contribution of reinforecement learning to the field of machine learning.

The third part, "A Unified View" present more advanced techniques. The last chapter gives the most important case studies in reinforcement learning including Samuel's Checkers Player and Thesauro's TD-Gammon.

The book is very readable and every chapter ends with illustrative exercises (many of them actually are real programming projects!), always useful summary and very valuable bibliographical and historical remarks. Some subchapters are more advanced and therefore marked with '*'. I really recommend first two parts to any student ofd computer science or anyone interested in machine learning and fuzzy computing. The third part is much more advanced but it would be definitely interesting for advanced computer scientists and graduate students.

Book Description

This well-written, easy-to-comprehend text provides thorough coverage of major research findings and ideas. Lutz presents potentially daunting concepts and principles in a non-threatening, lucid manner and explains even the most technical theories in terms of ordinary, everyday experiences. Important topics discussed include implicit memory, eyewitness testimony, incidental learning, contrast effects, simultaneous discrimination, and priming. Lutz demonstrates how memory research findings can help students remember what they learned in classes and provides practical strategies for studying. The exercises at the end of each chapter give readers practice in thinking about and using the concepts discussed in the text. Individuals of varying backgrounds who wish to gain a better understanding of their own world will find that this stimulating text effectively meets their needs.

Reinforcement Learning : An Introduction

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Reinforcement Learning : An Introduction
Richard S./ Barto, Andrew G. Sutton
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQJE7K

Average customer rating:

Reinforcement Learning An Introduction
Richard S. Sutton
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N7IDB8

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Reinforcement Learning an Introduction
Richard S Sutton
Manufacturer: MIT PRESS @
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N7DFA2

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