Good Books for Naval Warfare in WWII.

Hi,

It occurred to me that if---IF---HBO is making a third WWII series, it's based on a pretty thorough and (I'm guessing) reputable book about the air war in Europe, called MASTERS OF THE AIR. I'm very excited to hear about this and hope the rumors are true.

This will be the third series dedicated to a branch's service in the war (BAND OF BROTHERS having to do with the Army, THE PACIFIC about the Marines, and MASTERS OF THE AIR kinda/sorta about the Air Force), and all written from good books.

So I was wondering if one about the Navy would naturally be next. And I would love know what are some good and respected books that deal primarily with the Navy's efforts in the war?

 

Correlli Barnett's 'Engage The Enemy More Closely' is very good for a broad picture - and one of the best WWII Naval memoirs is Roger Hill's 'Destroyer Captain - Memoirs Of The War At Sea 1942-45'.

 

I liked Shattered Sword a lot. Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors and Neptune's Inferno were also good. It's been a while since I read Japanese Destroyer Captain and Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy but I recall liking them as well. I've heard very good things about the First Team books and have started reading them but a long way from finished. There's a good on line account of the PT boats in the Pacific as well.

 

Well if it's US navy you want, I'd recommend Samuel Eliot Morison's 15 volume series History of United States Naval Operations in World War II and Two Ocean War which is just a cumulative summation of the 15 volume series. It still nears almost 1000 pages. If you want a book about US destroyers: United States Destroyer Operations in World War II by Theodore Roscoe.

 

such a 'big' topic.....it covers so many battles....as MBugs states, Morison has a series of books on it......where Band of Brothers just covered 1 specific unit ??
LWD, -Battle History of the IJN.....that sounds good....does it cover the entire war?? not detailed though?

 

It's been a while since I read it but yes it covers the entire war. It doesn't cover many of the minor actions from what I recall. (A good source for a bunch of those is an on line article that's linked somewhere on this board detailing the history of US PT boats.) Nor does it cover the early (pre PH) actions against the Chinese. There's a very good series of articles on that hanging off of combined flee though. Amazon has it for a bit over $25 new and cheaper used along with some reviews.

*** edit for ***
The PT boat article may by on hyperwar. Even if it's not there's a lot of interesting material there relevant to the topic.