Naval Battles of the Second World War: The Atlantic and the Mediterranean/Pacific and the Far East

By Leo Marriott

     

Accompanied and enhanced by a well-chosen series of contemporary photographs, the battle descriptions and historical contexts contained in these two volumes provide an respectable introduction to the tactical naval fighting that took place during the Second World War. The introduction to both volumes set out the premise: they are “intended as a basic guide to the main naval engagements in each theatre of operations covered”. Volume One describes naval actions in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, with Volume Two delving into the main maritime fighting events in the Pacific and Far East. Both volumes essentially succeed in fulfilling the introduction’s promise.

Written as a series of bite-sized battle reports, the author’s easy-to-read style means both volumes provide an enjoyable and interlinked journey. The author’s use of a few naval colloquialisms further reinforces the premise that these two books are written for the inquisitive generalist rather than the historical purist. This occasional lack of precise language led this reviewer to cross-check a few apparently sweeping statements, such as the claim that during the Battle of the Atlantic, Allied merchant shipping losses for June, July, and August 1943 “sank to zero”; some (non-combat) tonnage does appear in Allied merchant loss tables for those months due to ships being lost to collisions, however North Atlantic losses to German U-boat torpedo attack (the theme of the narrative) were indeed nil during that period.

The descriptions of the fighting set within their broader context by approproiate background material that sets the scene for what is consistently introduced as ‘The Action’. Small but useful track chart of the main protagonists during the various engagements aid visualization of events. Each engagement’s description is a useful summary of events which in many cases were highly complex games of cat, mouse, manoeuvre, risk, or innovative brilliance.

The author highlights the breadth of contributions to fighting success in his analysis of the longest maritime fight of the war: “The eventual outcome of the Battle of the Atlantic depended as much on scientific innovation and industrial resources as it did on tactics and individual heroism”. The descriptions themselves then allude to some of these tactical or scientific leaps but stop short of the analysis which is often found in more specialist volumes on maritime warfare, or in books focusing on one battle or genre of fighting. A few such books are mentioned in the succinct bibliography at the end of each volume.

The inclusion for each engagement of tables of the main protagonists, including ships and maritime commanders for both Allied and Axis forces, further adds to the books’ value. These tables thus give the more intrigued reader an opportunity to investigate further the described actions.

The main attribute of both volumes is the author’s choice of images that accompany the text. In all, nineteen actions merit description in Volume One and twenty in Volume Two. Both the volumes are best recommended as useful primers for many of the key naval battles of the Second World War.

• Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime 2022
• 6-1/2” x 9-1/2”, hardcover, 150 and 158 pages respectively
• Photographs, maps, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. $34.95 and $32.95 respectively
• ISBN: 9781399098939 and 9781399098984 respectively

Reviewed by: Michael O'Brien, San Francisco, California