Category: The War at Sea

ROBERTS, Andrew. The Storm of War: a New History of the Second World War. lvi, 712p., bibliog., illus., index. London, Allen Lane, 2009. ISBN: 9780713999709.

A modern sweeping overview by a major historian with some limited naval material.

CARRADICE, Phil. The Second World War at Sea in Photographs 1942. 128p., illus. Stroud: Amberley, 2015. ISBN: 9781445622491.

The fourth in a series looking at each year of war. A competent photographic history but the pictures are not attributed and are alleged to be unpublished or rare.

CARRADICE, Phil. The Second World War at Sea in Photographs 1941. 128p., illus. Stroud: Amberley, 2014. ISBN: 9781445622453.

The third in a series looking at each year of war. A competent photographic history but the pictures are not attributed and are alleged to be unpublished or rare.

CARRADICE, Phil. The Second World War at Sea in Photographs 1940. 128p., illus. Stroud: Amberley, 2014. ISBN: 9781445622408.

The second in a series looking at each year of war. A competent photographic history but the pictures are not attributed and are alleged to be unpublished or rare.

CARRADICE, Phil. The Second World War at Sea in Photographs 1939. 128p., illus. Stroud: Amberley, 2014. ISBN: 9781445622354.

The first in a series looking at each year of war. A competent photographic history but the pictures are not attributed and are alleged to be unpublished or rare.

ROBERTS, Andrew. The Storm of War: a New History of the Second World War. lvi, 712p., bibliog., illus., index. London, Allen Lane, 2009. ISBN: 9780713999709.

A modern sweeping overview by a major historian with some limited naval material.

BERTKE, Donald A., KINDELL, Don & SMITH, Gordon. World War II Sea War. Volume 4: Germany Sends Russia to the Allies. 452p. Dayton, OH: Bertke Publications, 2012. ISBN: 9781937470036.

Describes day-to-day naval actions from June through November 1941 and includes civilian and military vessels from Allied, Axis, and neutral nations. Data is organized by month, then by geographical area, then by date.

REDFORD, Duncan. A History of the Royal Navy: World War II. 256p., bibliog., illus., index. London: I. B. Tauris, 2014. ISBN: 1780765460.

A well received general history.

STERN, Robert C. The Hunter Hunted: Submarine Versus Submarine Encounters From World War I to the Present. viii, 248p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Chatham, 2007. ISBN; 9781861762658.

Most of the encounters took place in WW2 and range from blue-on-blue sinkings to underwater encounters.

STERN, Robert C. The Hunter Hunted: Submarine Versus Submarine Encounters From World War I to the Present. viii, 248p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Chatham, 2007. ISBN; 9781861762658.

Most of the encounters took place in WW2 ad range from blue-on-blue sinkings to underwater encounters.

MACINTYRE, Donald. Aircraft Carrier: The Majestic Weapon (Purnell’s History of the Second World War, Weapons Book 3). 160p., bibliog., illus. London: Macdonald; New York: Ballantine, 1968. ISBN: 0345018435.

A good general account of the origin and development of the carrier and its role in WWII.  

WRAGG, David. The Escort Carrier in World War II: Combustible, Vulnerable, Expendable!   vii, 232p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2005. ISBN: 1844152200.

A good competent history, covering the British, US and Japanese experience.

TURNER, John Frayn. Fight for the Sea: Naval Adventures From World War II. 245p., illus. Annapolis: NIP, 2001; Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2013. ISBN: 9781781592687.

A mixture of accounts of such operations as the Battle of the River Plate, Pearl Harbor, and the Battle of the Coral Sea, as well as lesser-known actions such as the submarine attack on Corfu harbour, the loss of the USS Leedstown, and the saga of the USS Rich. Also includes memories of John F. Kennedy's heroic actions with PT 109 and George H. W. Bush's near-death experience with an aircraft known as the "flying casket."

STEWART, Adrian. Carriers At War 1939-1945. 228p., bibliog., illus., index.  Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2013. ISBN: 1781591563.

A well written and useful primer which covers all theatres and all belligerents.

CARRADICE, Phil. The Second World War at Sea in Photographs 1943. 128p., illus. Stroud: Amberley, 2015. ISBN: 9781445622521.

The fifth in a series looking at each year of war. A competent photographic history but the pictures are not attributed and are alleged to be unpublished or rare.

REDFORD, Duncan. A History of the Royal Navy: World War II. 256p., bibliog., illus., index. London: I. B. Tauris, 2014. ISBN: 1780765460.

A well received general history.

HASTINGS, Max. All Hell Let Loose: The World At War 1939-1945.   748p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Harpercollins, 2012. ISBN: 9780007450725

One of the best single volume histories of the war. He cleverly interweaves an overview of the war with innumerable eyewitness accounts. There is limited but positive mention of the role of the RN.

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.

In practice a general chronology, with an emphasis on merchant shipping losses.

A review of novelties from Thucydides to Mountbatten and from fireships to X-craft. Very general, but an interesting miscellany.

An American naval officer who liaised with the RN on Harbour Defence tells the story of small craft surprise attack in WWII.

Traces the carrier’s development through a series of colourful episodes. Much concentration is put on World War II with its great and decisive carrier battles at sea.

A heavily illustrated and potted account of the war at sea, concentrating on the major units and giving short two to three page "biographies" of ships of the major combatant nations. Those of the RN are Warspite, Ark Royal, Ajax, Belfast, Saumarez, Thunderbolt and Jervis Bay. Inevitably in so short a space, nothing new is said - but the pictures are excellent.

A chronological abstract of newspaper reports, weak on naval affairs but giving a useful contemporary impression.

This contemporary quarterly record consists essentially of a commentary and speculation on the official communiqués. As such, while covering the whole war, it reflects the state of the war at sea as reported by the British government.

The Battle of the River Plate, the attack on Taranto, the Battle of Matapan, the sinking of Hood and Bismarck, the sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse, the Channel Dash, the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway, the Battle of the Barents Sea, and the sinking of the Scharnhorst. Based on the excellent individual volumes published by Ian Allan in the 1970s, this is a rather disappointing update and expansion. A second and better volume was later produced by Grove alone. Still a useful and concise set of accounts.

A sweeping overview from a professional historian, with fresh eyewitness tales and an absorbing preoccupation with the impact of the individual.

STEWART, Adrian. The War with Hitler’s Navy. 212p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2018. ISBN: 9781526710574.

A good general history based on secondary sources which retells the story of how the Kriegsmarine faced the Royal Navy. It has a particular focus on how political thinking guided developments.

RODGER, N. A. M. The Price of Victory: A Naval History of Britain 1815-1945. xxxix, 914p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Allen Lane, 2024. ISBN: 978071399412.

This magisterial volume is the final one of a trilogy providing a naval history of Britain. Authoritative, comprehernsive and definitive this is an essential source.

WALTER, Brian E. Forgotten War: The British Empire and Commonwealth’s Epic Struggle Against Imperial Japan, 1941–1945. 336p., bibliog., illus., index. Oxford: Casemate, 2023. ISBN: 9781636243573.

A balanced and detailed account of the role of British and Imperial Forces from the Indian Ocean to the shores of Japan.

This is a new line

BOWMAN, Martin W. The Air War at Sea in the Second World War. 256p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Aviation, 2023. ISBN: 9781526746351.

A prolific author focuses on the role of the Fleet Air Arm, Coastal Command and US Naval flyers from Norway to the end of the war in the Pacific. Cleverly combines a broad overview of events with a great deal of personal accounts of the many actions.

KENNEDY, Paul. Victory at Sea:  Naval Power and the Transformation of the Global Order in World War II. xxii, 521p., bibliog., illus., index. New Haven; London: Yale U.P., 2022. ISBN: 9780300219173.

A sweeping, well written but somewhat rehashed coverage of how the navies of the major powers conducted themselves at war. Illustrated with over fifty original paintings.

PATERSON, Lawrence. The U-Boat War: A Global History 1939-45. 336p., bibliog., illus., index. Oxford: Osprey, 2022. ISBN: 9781472848253.    

A comprehensive review by a well-known author on the topic.

BERTKE, Donald A., KINDELL, Don & SMITH, Gordon. World War II Sea War, Volume 17: Götterdämmerung and Sayonara – Germany and Japan Surrender. 392p. Dayton, OH: Bertke Publications, 2021. ISBN: 9781937470333.

Covers the final naval events of the war.

DOWNING, Taylor. 1942: Britain at the Brink. [vii], 423p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Little, Brown, 2022. ISBN: 9781408713709.

A well judged and balanced account of Britain’s and Churchill’s darkest hour. It was the year that saw the fall of Singapore and Hong Kong, huge losses in the Atlantic, losses in North Africa and the siege of Malta as well as the Channel Dash. The author uses a wide range of records from official records to personal recollections to paint an excellent picture of the path from disaster to victory.

SIMPSON, Michael. Anglo-American-Canadian Naval Relations, 1943-1945 (Publications of the Navy Records Society, Volume 168). xxvii, 491p., bibliog., frontis., index. London: Routledge for the Navy Records Society, 2021. ISBN: 9781032009353.

A comprehensive set of documents with a series of perceptive background commentaries.

FAULKNER, Marcus & PATALANO, Alessio. The Sea and the Second World War: Maritime Aspects of a Global Conflict (New Perspectives on the Second World War). 317p., bibliog., index. Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 2019. ISBN: 9781949668049.

A series of ten essays on neglected topics such as the sometimes fraught relationships between the countries of the Empire, Australian amphibious landings and German Schnellboote operations. A good work.

CHASSEAUD, Peter. Mapping the Second World War. 304p., bibliog., illus., index. Glasgow: Collins; London: Imperial War Museum, 2015. ISBN: 9780007950027.

A profusely illustrated history of the war, based on the map collection of the Imperial War Museum. These contemporary maps cover both the war at sea and a variety of landings and assaults as well as the land campaigns.

DOHERTY, Richard. Irish Volunteers in the Second World War. 378p., bibliog., illus., index. Dublin: Four Courts, 2002. ISBN: 1851825231.

A history of the war looking at the contribution of individuals. Has some limited naval and merchant interest.

DOHERTY, Richard. Irish Men and Women in the Second World War. 319p., bibliog., illus., index. Dublin: Four Courts, 1999. ISBN: 1851824413.

A history of the war looking at the contribution of individuals. Has some limited naval and merchant interest.

A substantial history of the war at sea describing all actions where battleships were involved. The author advances the thesis that the battleship played an important and significant role throughout that war and that the aircraft carrier merely modified that role rather than replaced it - and in fact, the carrier was to some extent dependent on the battleship.

WALTER, Brian E. The Longest Campaign: Britain’s Maritime Struggle in the Atlantic and Northwest Europe, 1939-1945. xiv, [iii], 324p., bibliog., illus., index. Oxford: Casemate, 2020. ISBN: 9781612008561.

A comprehensive chronological account which is driven by statistical analysis. Much interesting data, but a difficult read.

LEPAGE, Jean-Denis. Torpedo Bombers 1900-1950. vi, 394p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Aviation, 2020. ISBN: 9781526763471.

A very basic guide with rather poor illustrations.

MAWDSLEY, Evan. The War for the Seas: A Maritime History of World War II. xlii, 557p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Yale U.P., 2019. ISBN: 9780300190199.

 A professional historian offers a sweeping. magisterial view of the war at sea covering all theatres and participants.

SYMONDS, Craig L.  World War II at Sea: A Global History. xxii, 770p., bibliog., illus., index. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. ISBN: 9780190243678.

The award winning historian presents a well written sweeping overview of the major actions in all theatres.

DEIGHTON, Len. Blood, tears and folly: in the darkest hour of the Second World War. xvii, 653p., bibliog., illus., index. London, Cape, 1993. ISBN: 022403135X.

A fascinating and perceptive revisionist history, with substantial naval content. Reprinted many times.

ELLIS, John. One Day in a Very Long War: Wednesday 25th October 1944. xiv, 593p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Jonathon Cape, 1998. ISBN: 0224042440.

A sweeping overview of one day of war, covering actions from the North Sea to the China Sea. Mostly describes the war on land, but there is a good range of material of naval interest.

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.

WRIGHT, Michael (ed.) The World at Arms: The Reader’s Digest Illustrated History of World War II. 480p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Reader’s Digest, 1989.

A good general account, well illustrated and with due notice of the major naval events.

REDFORD, Duncan & GROVE, Philip D. The Royal Navy: A History Since 1900. xvi, 363p., bibliog., illus., index. London: I.B. Taurus in association with the National Museum of the Royal Navy, 2014. ISBN: 9781780767826.

This is one volume of a well-researched, well written and well received six volume history of the Royal Navy. The inter-war years, the background to war and the main actions of the sea war are well covered.

KEMP, P. K. Victory at Sea 1939-1945. 383p., illus., index. London: Muller; Boston: Little Brown, 1957.

A short, single-volume official history of the war at sea. US title: Key to Victory, the Triumph of British Seapower in World War Two. A new edition was published by White Lion in 1976, ISBN: 727400274.

MANN, Chris & JÖRGENSEN, Christer. Hitler’s Arctic War: The German Campaigns in Norway, Finland and the USSR 1940-1945. 224p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2016. ISBN; 147388456X.

A well-illustrated general history which includes coverage both of the Norwegian campaign and the Arctic convoys, as well as the land campaigns in Finland and Russia.

SMITH, Peter C. Impact! The Dive Bomber Pilots Speak. 253p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Kimber, 1981. ISBN: 0718300785.

Norway, Dunkirk, Malta convoys, Pacific carrier battles, and attacks on the Tirpitz are all represented in this account of dive-bomber development and use in WWII. Reprinted in 2007 by Pen & Sword Aviation as The History of Dive Bombing: A comprehensive History from 1911 Onward. ISBN: 1844155927.  

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.

Looks at the various underwater craft and submarines country by country. A predominantly operational account.

Contains over 450 photographs arranged thematically. A good selection with informative captions.

A sympathetic account which is descriptive rather than judgmental. Covers all the participants and all types of incidents.

A brief general account of the war at sea.

Full of pictures, maps, and diagrams, this is a general history which concentrates on a few major areas.

An excellent introduction covering the major actions of British and American naval forces.

There was a 750-copy limited edition as well as the standard one. The book has 176 paintings and 43 maps of various actions in the war at sea. A visual delight.

Some 20 key WWII battles are examined in detail and the lessons which were learned - or should have been learned - are set out with great clarity.

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.

A basic guide to the sea war in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Indian Ocean. Republished by Routledge in hardback in 2003 (ISBN: 041596847X).

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.

A partial and idiosyncratic ramble through the area by a former RAN officer.

A well-illustrated but rather limp account of the major sea battles.

A clear set of some 200 maps, with basic details of campaigns and battles. Riddled with typographical errors.

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.

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.

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.

A good general history of the coastal forces of all the main belligerents. US title: PT Boats.

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

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.

A report of "the story so far." Concentrates on the Allied view.

A book of oral history which examines all of the major and many minor landings, by the Map Curator of the Imperial War Museum.

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.

Frogmen, divers, and midget submarines were used by all the major belligerents. This records their more important operations. US title: Combat beneath the Sea.

Case studies showing that atrocities were at times committed by all sides and were not the exclusive preserve of "the enemy".

A well-illustrated and scholarly account which concentrates on the Pacific battles.

A useful chronology of the war at sea, with fuller background information than in Rohwer's chronology. The layout is rather too confusing for easy reference.

A straightforward compilation culled from official sources forms the second volume of the trilogy.

A history of the first two years of the war at sea. The main events are described in an inevitably partisan fashion.

The final volume of the author’s coverage of the war at sea begins with the invasion of Italy and continues to the end of the war, although the British contribution in the Far East is largely ignored.

A pictorial history of the war from the excellent NBC television series of the same name.

A collection of short essays which reconsiders the role of all the major combatants in turn.

Translated from the German, this diary-style chronology is probably the most detailed account of the war at sea in all theaters. It is heavily compressed and shows some German bias. A revised one-volume second edition was published by Greenhill and the Naval Institute Press in 1992 (ISBN: 1853671177) and a revised third edition in 2005 (ISBN: 1861760027).

First published in Germany in 1992, this is a brief photographic introduction to the major events of the naval war.

Some tales of the war at sea, all more or less well-known.

A beautifully illustrated general account with a mixture of well known and new images, well reproduced.

An American work aimed at that market and adapted from their earlier work called Sea Power. Later republished by Bramhall House.

Recounts some of the better-known tales.

A good account of the main Allied naval actions.

Pitt edited this general history, published as a part-work, but containing many original articles of naval interest, now much cited.

First published in Germany in 1980, this translated work is an unusual mixture of contemporary official and news reports and current comment on what really happened. A chronological format is used and aims at being comprehensive.

A run-of-the-mill account of mainly British actions, mainly from the first half of the war. Some good new source material is used.

An excellent and authoritative account of the experiences and problems of all the combatants in this area of the war at sea.

Covers midget submarines, explosive motorboats, banzai charges, kamikazes, and human torpedoes.

A series of essays which attempts a comparative study.

A good popular general history with an excellent bibliography to lead the general reader into the subject.

An American work which aims to move the emphasis from the Pacific War and to show the equally important developments in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

In large part the story of the major naval air actions of WWII.

A broad view of the sea war in the west by a leading naval writer.

In large part a potted history of submarine actions in WWII.

Something of a potboiler from this leading historian, it describes a miscellanea of WWII actions from the sinking of Royal Oak to the Walcheren landings.