| ID | Description | Categories | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 82 | BENNETT, Geoffrey. Naval Battles of World War Two. [xviii], 253p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Batsford; New York: McKay, 1976. ISBN: 0713429976.
A good account of the main Allied naval actions. |
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| 83 | BERTKE, Donald A., KINDELL, Don & SMITH, Gordon. World War II Sea War. Volume 1: The Nazis Strike First. Day-to-Day Naval Actions August 1939 Through March 1940. ISBN: 9780578029412. This reference work lists information on all sorts of naval activity from station transfers to actions for all the combatants. Much of it comes from Kindell's unpublished typescript which was widely circulated The Royal Navy at War 1939-40. This print on demand volume encapsulates a proportion of the huge range of data which may be found at the amazing website Naval-History.net. |
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| 84 | BRIDGLAND, Tony. Waves of Hate: Naval Atrocities of the Second World War. xii, 243p.,bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Cooper; Annapolis: NIP, 2002. ISBN: 0850528224.
Case studies showing that atrocities were at times committed by all sides and were not the exclusive preserve of "the enemy". |
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| 85 | BROU, Willy. The War Beneath the Sea. 239p., illus. New York: Crowell, 1957; London: Muller, 1958.
Frogmen, divers, and midget submarines were used by all the major belligerents. This records their more important operations. US title: Combat beneath the Sea. |
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| 86 | BROWN, David. Carrier Operations in World War II. 2 vols., bibliog., illus., index. London: Ian Allan, 1968-74. ISBN: 0711005125 (V.1); 0711002762 (V.2).
Volume 1 covers the RN, while volume 2 covers the US and Japanese Navies from 1941 to 1943. A revised edition of volume 2 appeared in 1974. The work is intended as a definitive brief history of the wartime carrier forces. Reprinted as a single volume by Pen & Sword in 2009, including material from an unpublished third volume. |
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| 87 | BRUCE, Colin John. Invaders: British and American Experience of Seaborne Landings 1939-1945. 286p., illus. London: Chatham, 1999. ISBN: 1840675330.
A book of oral history which examines all of the major and many minor landings, by the Map Curator of the Imperial War Museum. |
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| 88 | CALVOCORESSI, Peter, & WINT, Guy. Total War: Causes and Courses of the Second World War. xiii, 959p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Allen Lane, 1972. ISBN: 0713902361. A much cited general history of the war which looks at trends more than personalities. |
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| 89 | CANT, Gilbert. The War at Sea. xii, 340p., illus., index. New York: John Day, 1942.
A report of "the story so far." Concentrates on the Allied view. |
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| 90 | CHURCHILL, Winston Spencer. The Second World War. 6 vols., index. London: Cassell; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1948-53.
A major primary source written by one of the main protagonists. Contains a great deal of information, some biased, on the Royal Navy. Published in various editions. |
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| 91 | COMPTON-HALL, Richard. The Underwater War 1939-1945. 160p., illus., index. Poole: Blandford, 1982. ISBN: 0713711310.
The Director of the Royal Navy's Submarine Museum gives an excellent account of how the submarines lived and fought and describes their impact in each of the theaters of war. Reprinted in 2004 by Periscope as Submarines at War 1939-1945. ISBN: 1904381227 |
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| 92 | COOPER, Bryan. The Buccaneers (Purnell's History of the Second World War. Weapons Book, 13). 160p., bibliog., illus. London: Macdonald; New York: Ballantine, 1970. ISBN: 0356031381.
A good general history of the coastal forces of all the main belligerents. US title: PT Boats. |
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| 93 | CRESWELL, John. Sea Warfare 1939-1945: A Short History. xv, 344p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Longmans Green, 1950.
A general account of the war at sea, by an officer who worked at the Plans Division of the Admiralty throughout the war. A new edition, with some revisions and more corrections, was published by the University of California Press in 1967. |
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| 94 | DEAR, I. C. B. The Oxford Companion to the Second World War. xxii, 1,343p., bibliog., illus. Oxford: OUP, 1995. ISBN: 0192141686.
An alphabetically arranged set of essays or definitions of the people, battles, and concepts of the war. A distinguished list of contributors makes this an important work, although there is the odd, if inevitable, howler such as the suggestion that Ark Royal was sunk by air attack. |
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| 95 | EDWARDS, Bernard. Salvo! Classic Naval Gun Actions. 192p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Arms & Armour, 1995. ISBN: 1854092413.
Retelling well-known but stirring tales: the sinking of Rawalpindi; the abortive action between Renown and Gneisenau off Norway; the battle of Matapan; the sinking of HMAS Sydney; the battles of the Java Sea and Savo Island; the clash between the raider Stier and the Liberty ship Stephen Hopkins; the battles of Guadalcanal, the Barents Sea, and the Surigao Strait. |
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| 96 | FAULKNER, Marcus. War at Sea: A Naval Atlas 1939-1945. 288p., illus., index. Barnsley: Seaforth, 2012. ISBN: 978184320475.
A clear set of some 200 maps, with basic details of campaigns and battles. Riddled with typographical errors. |
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| 97 | GILBERT, Martin. Winston S. Churchill. 8 vols. plus volumes of documents, bibliog., illus., index. London: Heinemann, 1965-90.
A monumental and magisterial history of which the first two volumes were written by Randolph Churchill. Volumes 5-7 cover the arrival of war and the war years. Volume 7 is titled The Road to Victory. Essential and exhaustive. |
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| 98 | GREGORY, Mackenzie J. Under Water Warfare: The Struggle Against the Submarine Menace 1939-1945. 75p., bibliog., illus. Sydney: Naval Historical Society of Australia, 2000. ISBN: 095366904X.
A partial and idiosyncratic ramble through the area by a former RAN officer. |
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| 99 | GROVE, Eric. Sea Battles in Close-Up World War 2: Volume Two. 224p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Ian Allan, 1993. ISBN: 071102118X.
The Battles of Narvik and Crete, Force K, the Battle of the Java Sea, Sirte, attacks on the Tirpitz, Operation Neptune, the Battles of the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf. Based largely on the single topic Ian Allan volumes of the 1970s the brief accounts of the battles are crisply retold and are excellent introductions. Includes a good bibliography. |
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| 100 | GROVE, Philip D., GROVE, Mark J., & FINLAN, Alastair. The Second World War (3): The War at Sea. 96p., bibliog., illus., index. Wellingborough: Osprey, 2002. ISBN: 1841763977.
A basic guide to the sea war in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Indian Ocean. Republished by Routledge in hardback in 2003 (ISBN: 041596847X). |
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| 101 | GUTTMAN, Jon. Defiance at Sea: Stories of Dramatic Naval Warfare. 192p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Arms & Armour, 1995. ISBN: 1854092405.
The tales begin with Grenville and the Revenge and end with an Argentinean submarine in the Falklands war. WWII stories described are the Scheer's 1940/41 cruise; pugnacious Japanese destroyers in the Badoeng Strait; s.s. Stephen Hopkins sinking the raider Stier; HMIS Bengal against Japanese raiders; the battles of Tassafaronga and Leyte. |
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