"WWII naval warfare reading suggestions" Topic

I just got the itch to get into naval wargaming and after narrowing my period of interest to WWII, I found out that I still have a lot to learn about how naval warfare was conducted.

In order to get the most out of my limited reading time, I thought I might ask you fine folks for reading sugggestions. Do you know of any good primer on how naval warfare was conducted. I'm talking about the different fleet manoeuvers, the use of the different types of ships, the tactics of the different weapons; I mean the know how of the business more than the historical context. Of course I know the two are related but I'd be interested in any theater of the war. Thank you.

Anything by Vince O'Hara

An absolutely beautiful starter read has to be:

"Sink the Bismarck!"
by C.S. Forester

And I recently really enjoyed:

"The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour"
by James D. Hornfischer

"War at Sea" by Nathan Miller is great place to start. Covers the entire war.

Once you get the big picture there are many good books on just about any particular aspect of it.

Both the The History of US Naval Operations in World War II, by S. E. Morison and the RN official history, "The War at Sea" by S. Roskill are very good reads.

Bob

Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway
by Jonathan Parshall(Author), Anthony Tully(Author)

Many consider the Battle of Midway to have turned the tide of the Pacific War. It is without question one of the most famous battles in history. Now, for the first time since Gordon W. Prange's bestselling Miracle at Midway, Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully offer a new interpretation of this great naval engagement.

Unlike previous accounts, Shattered Sword makes extensive use of Japanese primary sources. It also corrects the many errors of Mitsuo Fuchida's Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan, an uncritical reliance upon which has tainted every previous Western account. It thus forces a major, potentially controversial reevaluation of the great battle. The authors examine the battle in detail and effortlessly place it within the context of the Imperial Navy's doctrine and technology. With a foreword by leading WWII naval historian John Lundstrom, Shattered Sword will become an indispensable part of any military buff's library. Winner of the 2005 John Lyman Book Award for the "Best Book in U.S. Naval History" and cited by Proceedings as one of its "Notable Naval Books" for 2005.

I copied the above part but I did read the book. It is enjoyable to read and it does have good information on the doctrine of the Japanese Navy and how the technology worked.

Also look at this web site for a lot of information on the Japanese Navy

combinedfleet.com/kaigun.htm

Since the OP is seems to be looking for lower-level accounts (with hints on tactics), he could try:

Struggle for the Middle Sea, by O'Hara. This focuses on specific Mediterranean naval actions (British, Italian, French mostly), and does a good job in avoiding the traditional pro-British slant seen in many of the older English-language accounts. link

Sea Battles in Close-Up, Volume 1. This is also fairly low-level, and contains accounts of selected actions including River Plate, loss of the Scharnhorst, etc. link

Mark H.

"Japanese Destroyer Captain" by Tamaichi Hara. Superb descriptions of fighting with the Tokyo Express in Iron Bottom Sound.

The Imperial Japanese Navy by Dunn (I believe)
Any of the books by Samuel Eliot Morison

Morison's massive "History of Naval Operations on World War 2."
Almost every battle has extensive diagrams.

Another vote for "The Imperial Japanese Navy." The author is Paul Dull. It gives the naval war from the IJN perspective, using their records.

And "Japanese Destroyer Captain" by Tamaichi Hara is superb.

"The Naval Night Battles in the Solomons", by Kilpatrick. It will raise your eyebrows.

B

'South Pacific Destroyer' by Crenshaw. And a second (third?) for all of O'Hara's books.

"Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal"
also by James D. Hornfischer

Walker's memoirs on the Battle of the Atlantic is very good in terms of what you're looking for – development of tactics and technology. From the opposite perspective, Iron Coffins and Night Raider of the Atlantic are excellent. I can't think of a single tome that captures the surface action in the European Theater (Norway, Battle of North Cape, Battle of the Barents Sea, the destroyer actions in the Channel), but it can all be found. Can't think of the author now, but there is a series of books on the German ship classes – German Destroyers of WWII, German Cruisers of WWII, German Capital Ships of WWII, that is very good and documents the German side of the actions pretty well, but you'd have to dig into other resources to get the British view.

Whitley. M.J. Whitley is the author of the series on the German navy.

I second the "Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors," even if I do give skimmers a hard time as a matter of branch pride. I was a submariner in the US Navy, 2000-2006.

If you decide you want to go play in the submarine fleet, well, most of the writing is from the US fleet in the Pacific. But you should definitely read "Iron Coffins" for the German perspective, and a pretty heavy dose of derring-do by the captain of the sub at the end of the war.

Any of Gene Fluckey's books are good, quite readable. When someone earned their Dolphins on the Georgia, one of the Chiefs would read a passage from "Thunder Below." Even a successful attack will send chills down your spine.

Ned Beach is another excellent writer. "Submarine!" is probably the book you should start with, if you want to get into the period.

I was less impressed with the writing of "Wahoo!" but it's not bad. It's just not as good as Ned Beach's or Gene Fluckey's writing. But Fluckey is a tough act to follow.

A book that is hard to come by, but ABSOLUTELY worth reading is Shinano! Unique among the submarine stories, it includes sections taking place on the Shinano, basded on interviews with the survivors from the Yamato-class supercarrier. It's been out of print for a while, though it seems Amazon has quite a few lurking in the 'other sellers' list. link

Fortunately, Amazon's search and buying-habit-recognition engine cross-relates all those books if you start with one of them.