"Good books on WWII Naval operations and engagements..." Topic

Hey guys,

I am looking for good books on WWII naval operations and engagements for all theaters. Not looking for just one book, different books on different theaters would be great.

I am new to naval gaming and want to start developing my own scenarios and get some good campaign ideas…

Thanks,

Pat

Try Morison's 15 volume history, _ History of United
States Naval Operations in World War II_.

You'll get detailed OB's, 'reasons why', a reasonable
account of engagements (including the Aleutians), and
some detail you probably won't find most other places.

Ludovic Kennedy's book about the pursuit & sinking of the German battleship Bismarck is a great read.
link

Paul S. Dull's History of the Imperial Japanese Navy is great. Gives WW2 from the Japanese side.

For a good read on the destroyer skirmishes in the Pacific, read "Japanese Destroyer Captain" by Hara. Its not always 100% accurate, but I found it fascinating.

I'll second all of the above. It's interesting to read Japanese Destroyer Captain with the relevant volumes of Morrison at hand.

Also, the sections of Richard Frank's Guadalcanal that deal with the naval actions are very good.

There are some great books about British Motor Gun Boats vs German S-Boats and other coastal craft.
I remember "MGB 658" by L.C. Reynolds

joep

The "Sea Battles in close-up" series from the 70s covered about 20 different WWII naval battles (and varied in historical quality). Although out of print, many of them are available at Amazon.com used for reasonable prices. One example is "Night Action off Cape Matapan", which when I last checked had a "very good" condition used copy for less than $20. USD

If you can find them, the best way to get these was in the 2 "Sea Battles in close-up" anthologies, which contained historically updated groups of the original books, in updated form, and combined in 2 volumes.

The anthologies were/are entitled:

Sea Battles in close-up, World War 2,
Martin Stephen, edited by Eric Grove (Naval Institute Press)
(This one contains 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 Escape of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, The Battle of the Coral Sea, The Battle of Midway, The Battle of the Barents Sea, The Sinking of the Scharnhorst).

Sea Battles in Close-Up, World War 2, Volume 2,
Eric Grove (Naval Institute Press)
(This one contains Narvik, Crete, Malta Striking Forces, Java Sea, Sirte, Attack at Source – Tirpitz, Operation 'Neptune', The Phillipine Sea, Leyte Gulf).

They are both available used from Amazon.com, as of today (March 25, 2006).

Hmmm; in comparing the original Ian Allen individual books with the anthologies, I see the originals had more content, so I guess the originals are worth buying too.

Of the individual books, I think the best were Narvik, Matapan, and Loss of the Scharnhorst (all had more than their share of interesting bits of info useful for naval gaming).

Any sie or type of ship in particular?

"North of Sixty", RCN corvette and frigate captain.

"Japanese Destroyer Captain", IJN Captain that answers just how many glasses of sakai it takes to bring a good man down.

"On the Triangle Run", RCN corvette.

"Escort", RN corvette and destroyer.

"Destroyer Leader", RN Hunt class and more especially in Med.

"HM Frigate" by autobiography by Montserrat. Late war Colony class frigate.

My recommendation would be the two-volume CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR AT SEA 1939-1945 by Rohwer & Hummelchen. The original 1972 Arco edition has been reprinted and is available on Amazon and several other places.

Not much background for each entry but IMO if you're looking for day-to-day movements of ships and naval forces to provide you with ideas for scenarios, this is the best single source for WW2.

Welcome to this fascinating segment of the hobby!

Another good one is "The German Fleet at War, 1939-1945" by Vincent O'Hara.
Lots of good scenario information.
Here's a link to a review on Stone&Stone link

Thanks guys!

I picked up a complete set of Morison's books on the US Navy in WWII on eBay and I picked up The German Fleet at War as well.

I am also going to look into the other suggestions as well.

Thanks again!