Alistair MacLean's War: How the Royal Navy Shaped his Bestsellers 

By Mark Simmons

“Alistair MacLean was a giant figure when I was growing up,” writes thriller writer, Lee Child, in his foreword to this book. Many adults and children growing up in the 1950s to 1970s would agree. For many of these readers, Alistair MacLean’s HMS Ulysses was probably the definitive Second World War naval novel, and he went on to write two more books—The Guns of Navarone and South by Java Head—that were directly linked to his wartime service in HMS Royalist, while many of his later books had obvious ties to his World War II experiences. Mark Simmons sets out to explore these links.

This is not a biography but does cover MacLean’s whole life from growing up in the manse in a Gaelic-speaking area of the Highlands to dying as an alcoholic in Switzerland. He joined the Royal Navy at the age of nineteen in 1941. After promotion to Able Seaman in August 1943, he joined the brand-new cruiser HMS Royalist in Scott’s Yard in Greenock. MacLean was to spend the rest of the war in Royalist. This covered the Arctic Convoys (March to May 1944), the Mediterranean and Aegean (July-October 1944) and the Far East (March-November 1945). Royalist returned to Portsmouth to pay-off in January 1946 and MacLean was discharged on 26 March 1946. 

After discharge, MacLean went to university in Glasgow for a degree in English Language & Literature, married a German girl (to some family dismay) and became a schoolmaster. While teaching he was persuaded to enter a short story competition in the Glasgow Herald, winning the £100 prize, which brought him to the attention of staff of the publishers, Collins.  They persuaded him to try writing a novel, which Maclean completed in ten weeks: HMS Ulysses. The book sold over a quarter-million copies in hardback within six months, a  record at the time, and within ten years, MacLean was earning the present-day equivalent of three million dollars annually.

The first half of this book is a detailed comparison of Maclean’s first three books with Royalist’s wartime operations. The mutiny that opens HMS Ulysses has resonance with the Invergordon Mutiny of 1931, which took place only thirty miles from MacLean’s father’s parish, so he must have been well aware of events at the time. The cruiser’s end while attempting to ram the German heavy cruiser Hipper is clearly based upon HMSGlowworm’s ramming of the same ship in 1940.

There are many other interesting parallels the author draws between MacLean’s experiences and the first three books. The actual island of Navarone is fictitious but the style and  tempo of operations in the Aegean in 1944 is very true to life. Although Maclean was not in the Far East when Singapore fell, he well knew the geography of the area, used in South by Java Head, and would have met many people who were directly involved since Royalist was in Singapore for the Japanese surrender and involved in repatriating some of the prisoners of war.

The final third of the book covers his writing years, the subsequent films, a brief interlude as a hotelier when he owned the Jamaica Inn on Bodmin Moor in the early 1960s, his move to Switzerland for tax reasons, and his subsequent decline into alcoholism. MacLean, it is clear, was actually a very private person, which may have partly led to his drinking.

Sadly, this book could have done with better editing; there are spelling errors and occasional infelicitous writing.  Nevertheless, this book is recommended to all those who remember MacLean’s books, especially the first three, for its examination of the historical background to HMS Ulysses, The Guns of Navarone, and South by Java Head.

• Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2022
• 6-1/2” x 9-1/2”, hardcover, xiv + 193 pages
• Photographs, maps, glossary, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. $39.95
• ISBN: 9781399019385

Reviewed by: Jennifer Nelson, University of Iowa

Naval Eyewitnesses: The Experience of War 1939 - 1945

By James Goulty

Having already published books on the experiences of airmen and soldiers in the Second World War and Korean War, James Goulty continues to have a special interest in the training and combat experience of ordinary airmen, soldiers, and sailors. In his first chapter, sailors describe how life differed in battleships, cruisers, destroyers, minesweepers, coastal forces, all the way down to motor torpedo boats and even to landing craft. It really shows that sailors could find a style of life that fitted their personalities—from rigid top­down authority to being part of a team.

Next, the author chronicles the history of British naval aviation and aircraft carriers and the sailors' impressions of their aircraft. He explains why British aircraft were not as good as American planes. Training of pilots involved not only learning to fly, but also practicing take-offs from and landing onto a moving ship. Some operational experiences,  such as torpedoing Bismarck, attacking the Italian navy at Taranto, and surviving kamikaze attacks, are told by those involved. Life on board submarines, whether large or small, including the even smaller four-crew X-craft and chariots, and their exploits are described in Chapter 3 along with anti-submarine warfare. The latter subject area continues into the next chapter which describes convoy experiences,  whether they were in North Atlantic, to Malta, or into the Arctic. Particular mention is made of the disastrous ConvoyPQ-17.

All of Chapter 5 is devoted to amphibious landings, from the learning experiences in 1940 at Dakar, to the small-scale raids by Combined Operations, including HMS Campbeltown’s intentional destruction at St. Nazaire in March 1942,, landings in North Africa in November 1942, on Sicily in July 1943, on mainland Italy in September 1943, at Normandy in June 1944, and even the raids along the coast of Burma during 1945. How landing craft landed at beaches and then extracted themselves after unloading is well described.

To answer the question why choose the Navy, a veteran of the First World War trenches advised his son about the various branches of the armed forces: "Air Force: what goes up must come down; Army: you're cannon fodder; Navy: three-square meals and a dry bed until the ship goes down"

In Chapter 6, the author relates sailors' lives at sea, as well as the experiences of sailors and Wrens (Women’s Royal Naval Service) at shore establishments in terms of welfare, entertainment, rations, food, drink, love, romance, and sex. The author ends the chapter with a short section on the experiences of survivors of sinkings and of prisoners of war. The German name for prisoner of war camps for naval sailors was Marlags and for merchant mariner sailors was Milags.

Chapter 7 concludes the book with descriptions of the  demobilization process and sailors' personal reflections on their wartime service.

What is most attractive about the book is the author's comprehensive appreciation of what it was to be a sailor in wartime. Plenty of books describe naval actions, usually in terms of ships doing this or that, possibly featuring the captain or, sometime, a heroic act. Goulty tells the story from the perspective of the ordinary sailor or officer who was there. There is a comprehensive, six-page Timeline covering events from the 1921 Washington Naval Treaty to VJ Day which serves as a useful reference source for future reading.

The book is full of direct quotations from written material, but also from transcripts of oral recordings. The latter can be somewhat disjointed and could have been lightly edited. Thoughtfully, Goulty makes good use of explanations to define what is meant by words or phrases.

• Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2022
• 6-1/2” x 9-1/2”, hardcover, xxii + 244 pages
• Photographs, timeline, glossary, notes, bibliography, index. $49.95
• ISBN: 9781399000710

Reviewed by: Helen Jamieson, University of Alabama

Shipwrecks in 100 Objects

By Simon Wills

A concise book of one hundred  chapters, each one to two pages long, including pictures and/or images referencing each event. This book covers shipwrecks from across several hundred years and some of the objects and people associated with them, from the Mary Rose in 1545 to the much more recent Herald of Free Enterprise in 1994 and the Marchioness on the River Thames in 1989.

Also included are chapters on how safety was improved over time due to ships being badly equipped and crews and staff inadequately trained. It explains how life preservers were invented and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution was formed to help those in peril on the sea. There are also chapters about sea serpents, pirate ships, U-boats and people surviving for incredible lengths of time in lifeboats or clinging to pieces of floating wreckage.

Naturally, all the big stories are included, such as Titanic, Lusitania, and London. But the book also covers smaller shipwrecks that devastated small fishing villages. It does also incorporate the scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa flow. There are also chapters on some of the famous people who were involved in some of these events.

The author has kept each chapter short and has laid each chapter out like a newspaper article but still manages to pack in large amounts of information about each shipwreck, the reason it happened, what if any conclusions were reached at any inquiries, the death toll if known, and the survivors if there were any.

All in all, a very enjoyable book to read, not weighed down with too much information on each subject but enough to pique the reader’s interest and keep them reading.

It is revelatory to learn how safety equipment was invented and brought into use, how the lifesaving services were started and developed., and just how common shipwrecks were back in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, almost always accompanied by an incredible loss of life that sometimes can only be guessed at because records were not always well kept at that time. The memorials to lives lost and also to those who risked or indeed gave their lives to help others are also interesting.

Highly recommended if you are interested in anything nautical, especially shipwrecks of any kind.

• Barnsley: Frontline Books 2022
• 7” x 10”, hardcover, 221 pages
• Illustrations, index. $49.95
• ISBN: 9781528792211

Reviewed by: Margaret Evans, University of Southern Carolina

Hitler's Navy: The Kriegsmarine in World War II

By Gordon Williamson

Broad in scope and rich in detail, Hitler’s Navy is a comprehensive overview of the ships, organization, and sailors of the Kriegsmarine. As befits Osprey’s core competency in producing monographs of famous ships and classes, the work is lavishly illustrated and full of technical detail. For those seeking focused accounts of famous campaigns or battles, such as the River Plate, Denmark Strait or the Norwegian Campaign, this is not the work. These engagements have been the focus of many previous works, and the author chooses to give them a minimalist summary in his first chapter. But Hitler’s Navy makes up for the lack of fighting narrative in its ambitious breadth.

Not only does Williamson cover the usual suspects—Bismarck, Tirpitz, the pocket battleships, and the U-boats—he gives a full accounting of the lesser-known but often harder-fought light vessels. Significant coverage is given to the light and coastal forces: S-boats, minesweepers and minelayers, torpedoboote, sperrbrechers, and human torpedoes, as well as to the auxiliary cruisers, raiders, and their global network of replenishment ships. His coverage of the U-boat arm—the navy-within-the-navy which came to dominate the Kriegsmarine as the larger ships were checked by Allied sea power—is a brisk but comprehensive look at the progression from small coastal types to the seagoing boats of the Battle of the Atlantic, and finally to the highly advanced elektroboote of the war’s waning days. Regardless of size or category, each ship type and class is shown in evolving fashion to reflect the changes in warfare from 1939 to 1945 as radar and anti-aircraft capability become increasingly vital.

Hitler’s Navy also takes time to paint a picture of service in the Kriegsmarine for the average officer and rating. Training, schools, technical specialty groupings, rank, pay, and uniform are touched on. It is in this section, however, that Williamson treads on dangerous ground. His frank admiration for the Kriegsmarine shows through clearly. It is both true and important to understand that the Kriegsmarine was the most traditional and least Nazi-fied of the various branches of service, it might have been better fir the author to temper his admiration somewhat.

Unfortunately, Williamson’s sweeping scope is also compromised by slipshod editing. One gets the feeling that there were many more pages of material provided than fit within its pages, leaving it to editors to determine best fit. There are several incorrect or reversed illustrations and captions throughout the book which add a bit of momentary confusion until the reader sorts them out.

More surprisingly, there are a few technical inconsistencies, which are not in keeping with Osprey’s typical attention to detail. These factual differences serve more to highlight a compromised editing process rather than any lack of knowledge on the author’s part. These niggling issues prevent a very good reference from becoming a great work, but the book is nevertheless both solid and worthwhile for any avid naval historian who wants a single solid source for a review of the Kriegsmarine from its origins in the interwar years to the wreckage that marked its end.

• Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2022
• 7-3/4” x 9-3/4”, hardcover, 256 pages
• Illustrations, maps, tables, index. $40.00
• ISBN: 97814728247928

Reviewed by: Jeremy Costlow, Little Rock, Arkansas

Task Force 58: The US Navy's Fast Carrier Strike Force that Won the War in the Pacific

By Rod Macdonald

In this rather large volume, Rod Macdonald tells the entire story of the fast carrier forces of the United States and Japan from December 7, 1941 to September 2, 1945. The book actually begins with the Washington Naval Treaty and the subsequent international treaties intended to restrict both the number of specific classes of ships allowed, and the size of those ships - with a focus on aircraft carriers. While the Washington Naval Treaty restricted the number of new battleships and battle cruisers, but also permitted the United States, Britain and Japan to convert battleships and battlecruisers under construction into aircraft carriers. This occurred at a time when the first purpose-built carrier, Japan's miniscule 7,000-ton Hosho, was just coming into service. No navy had carriers anywhere near the size of those created by conversion of the battleships and battlecruisers that would have had to have been scrapped under the terms of the Washington Treaty but could have a size cap above 33,000 tons. This led to Japan's Akagi and Kaga, and the American carriers Lexingtonand Saratoga.

The author then looks at the 1930s carriers built under treaty limitations, the ships that led the fight early in the war, such as the American Yorktown and Enterprise and the Japanese Soryu and Hiryu. The first post-treaty American fast carrier was USS Essex, commissioned on December 31, 1942. Not much more than a year later, more than a dozen Essex-class carriers were in combat. By the time of the Japanese surrender in 19'45, fourteen Essex-class had seen combat, and another twenty-four were completed and saw naval service after the war. Also included with the light fast carriers, based on the hull of the Cleveland-class light cruisers - nine of them were built and all saw action. The book also looks at the Japanese treaty and post-treaty carriers, several of which were superb warships.

Going point by point through the history of the introduction and use of the American fast carriers and their Japanese counterparts, this book provides a tight, well-written and clearly well-researched history of fast-carrier warfare in the Pacific. There are other books covering the carrier war, by some prominent naval historians, and this new book should be included among the best one-volume studies of this history. What it successfully presents is a concise, authoritative history of the carrier war, with that added twist of having been written by someone who has personally dived on sunken relics of that incredible war.

Highly recommended for those who want to read comprehensive histories of this war that cemented America's role as a world superpower and global policeman; a role that lasted through the end of the century and beyond.

• Barnsley: Frontline Books, 2021
• Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2021
• 6-1/2” x 9-1/2”, hardcover, xvi + 504 pages
• Photographs, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. $54.95
• ISBN: 9781399007573

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

Rear Admiral Schley: An Extraordinary Life at Sea and on Shore

By Robert A. Jones

During the nineteenth century, the United States Navy develop from its nascent stage into an effective fighting force cable of matching established European powers. Civil War naval operations pioneered steam propulsion and steel hulled vessels in combat, and, later, oil supplanted coal as fuel. Commonplace through all of it, was Rear Admiral Winfield Scott Schley. From 1860-1901, Rear Admiral Schley served with distinction in combat on the Mississippi River, in Korea, and the Caribbean, as well as in various administrative positions.  Robert Jones Rear Admiral Schley: An Extraordinary Life at Sea and On Shore follows his illustrious career and highlights his efforts in modernizing the U.S. Navy. 

The Frederick, Maryland born Schley was imbued with a sense of patriotism and duty as a child. His ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War, occupied civic offices, and were vital members of their communities. As such, Schley performed his duties in whatever theater the Navy required. After the Greely Expedition floundered in their mission to establish a research station in the Arctic, Secretary of the Navy William Chandler called upon Schley to command the expedition. Even with little to no experience operating in these conditions, the duty-bound Schley could not refuse. Three years after Greely departed, Schley brought him and six of his crew home safe to New York.

Jones also highlights Schley’s commitment to his men and fellow officers. The author recounts the Baltimore diplomatic crisis in 1891 where two American sailors were killed and dozens injured by angry locals. Negotiating with Chilean officials to secure the release his sailors from jail tried Schley’s patience, but he maintained his composure throughout as he managed to prevent further hostilities. When relieved of command of Baltimore, the crew presented Schley with an ebony walking cane as a token of their appreciation, which touched the captain deeply. At the end of his career, attacks against his character in the Sampson-Schley Controversy wounded him as he always strove to put his service before any personal accolades. 

Jones’ biography aims to preserve the memory of Schley’s career and his place in the Navy’s transition to the modern fleet. The author equally lauds his roles outside of combat, including a half decade as chief of the Navy’s Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting, serving in the Treasury Department’s Lighthouse Board, and as an instructor at the Naval Academy. Yet, Jones does not shy away from criticisms of Schley, in one instance commenting on the admiral’s opinions on several South American political leaders. Yet, he does so fairly and within context, often using Schley’s own opinions from his autobiography. 

Rear Admiral Schley: An Extraordinary Life at Sea and On Shore is a thoroughly researched account of Winfield Scott Schley’s life. Robert Jones gives the reader an intimate account of his service to his country, incorporating the admiral’s own perspectives and writings with solid primary research into contemporary newspapers and other firsthand accounts. The author succeeds in showcasing Schley’s illustrious career and the impact he had on the U.S. Navy. This work is an excellent biography of interest to all naval enthusiasts.  

• College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2023
• 6-1/2” x 9-1/2”, hardcover, xii + 316 pages
• Illustrations, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. $80.00
• ISBN: 9781648431234

Reviewed by: Will Nassif, University of South Carolina

Tribals, Battles, and Darings: The Genesis of the Modern Destroyer

By Alexander Clarke

In Tribals, Battles and Darings, Alexander Clarke follows the transition of the destroyer from a small ship suited to a single mission during the First and Second World Wars, into the modern incarnation of a larger ship, suited to multiple missions. He examines the Royal Navy's push to acquire larger, more versatile destroyers in the years leading up to the Second World War, and the continued need for them during the conflict. Not only does he focus on the political and financial considerations that affected naval procurement during the final years of the interwar period, he also describes how larger destroyers helped fill in the gaps within the Royal Navy during the interwar period due to political and financial considerations. He then looks at the personalities who commanded and fought these ships and their role in both peace and wartime. What emerges is not a history of any of the three classes discussed, rather it is an illustration of how destroyers evolved from smaller ships suited to single missions, and operating as part of a larger force, to warships that could perform multiple duties proficiently, and operate independently without the need for a larger fleet to provide support. The transition from specialist vessels to jacks of multiple, if not all, trades is clearly explained.

Starting with the Tribal class destroyer, Clarke explores why the Royal Navy needed such large, powerful escort ships with heavy guns and how they were used as fast destroyers suited to the conduct of war, as well as maintaining peace. He then explores the circumstances and technological advances, such as radar, that required something suited to a different set of criteria; namely, losses due to aerial bombardment. This was the Battle-class of destroyers. Finally, he transitions into the post-war period and the D or Daring class of destroyers built for the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy, the largest and most heavily armed of the three classes.

Through a series of anecdotes he explores the missions performed by various ships in the classes discussed, and the colorful personnel who advocated for, and commanded these ships. The result is a highly readable account of the role Royal Navy destroyers played during and after the war that is accessible to both students of naval history and those new to the subject. This book is not a history of any one of the classes, although Clarke does provide sources for those who want to learn more about the topic. What this is, is an exploration of how one type of warship transitioned from plan to construction to implementation to something similar yet different.

Impeccably researched, this book provides a wealth of both primary and secondary references for readers at all levels, especially those who want to conduct further research. Written in a very informal style, it is accessible to both the layman and the serious academic. While light on the technical specifications for the ships discussed, Clarke's work is packed with blueprints and pictures that describe how the ships were constructed, and the role that appearances play in both the design and perception of warships, both in times of war and peace. He does point out in several places the construction considerations that were taken into account for all of these ships, considerations that allowed them to conduct missions and survive damage that would have sunk lesser ships fulfilling similar roles. Without being overcome by minutia, Clarke explores a group of ships from conception to introduction, through application while offering enough depth to provide something useful to students looking for something new.

As good as it is, the book is not without shortcomings, the most obvious one being what Clarke does not discuss. While determining why these ships were constructed and what they did during the Second World War, there is less attention paid to the post-war period, particularly the Battle and Daring classes, which had long post-war careers, well into the Cold War. They were present in various conflicts, with various navies, well into the later half of the twentieth century. The lack of exploration of this territory, whether limited by considerations of length, or because it would detract from the author's central thesis, leaves plenty of room for further research.

Tribals, Battles and Darings opens a window into a period of transition for warships while offering an accessible starting place for looking at the people, events, and ships that influenced this unique period in history. It also provides a clear and straightforward examination of the final stages of the transition of the destroyer from ships suited to a single mission to ships that needed to perform a variety of functions in a changing world.

• Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing, 2022
• Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2022
• 8” x 10-1/2”, hardcover, 176 pages
• Photographs, drawings, tables, notes, bibliography, index. $52.95
• ISBN: 9781526772909

Reviewed by: Kenneth Markle, New Orleans, Louisiana 

Warships in the Spanish Civil War

By Angus Konstam

Angus Konstam sets out to cover 58 warships and their activities prior to and during the Spanish Civil War from April 1936 to July 1939. He condenses highly complex alliances and covers Spanish navies from centuries ago to their defeat in Cuba and Philippines in the 1898 Spanish-American War, from which the fleet never recovered.

The early civil war played out from North Africa to Iberia, the Balearic Islands, even involving the North Sea and Adriatic. The final year of Spain's naval war against itself was narrowed down to the Western Mediterranean, at which point Franco and his allies in Italy and Germany overwhelmed the Republicans, backed by the USSR and volunteers.

The strength of this book lies in being dispassionate, fully-illustrated and well-captioned. Konstam's conclusion informs his thesis: "The naval war ended with a whimper rather than a bang. It had always been…secondary to the land campaign, but…without it, and the supplies it helped escort into the country, the Republic would have been hard-pressed to resist the Nationalists for so long"

It is a great relief that Konstam immediately steers readers through the minefields of politics and jargon and designates communists, anarchists and trade unionists as Republicans. Although they won an election, the Republicans managed to alienate the Church, landowners, and monarchists, who along with the fascist-nationalist Falangists became Nationalists, firmly under General Franco. The Republicans started out with vastly more naval ships yet suffered from fewer officers, a diffuse command structure, and shipyard delays.

The timeline centers on Franco entering Peninsular Spain, breaking the coup's stalemate with the Nationalist Army of Africa. The Republican failure to stop him, despite their having capital ships and he merely a few gunboats, was probably the most critical error of the war, a war won by avoiding each other's fleets rather than provoking pitched battles. The fleets included battleships, heavy cruisers, dreadnoughts, destroyers, submarines, and torpedo, hydrographic, sail-training, patrol, river, fishery protection, patrol, river, custom boats, as well as tugs and seaplane tenders.

The ships were crewed from a pool of around 19,000 men, including 1,166 officers. Another 1,000 served in the Navy Air Arm, which was impressively modem and complex, even if they trained on biplanes. A cadre of Marines protected naval bases and ships and were self-administered.

Many of the pivotal moments for both sides were self-inflicted failures: on Day One, the overall naval chief was killed and his chief of staff arrested. In part due to the class nature of the conflict, Republicans suffered acute crewing difficulties. Sailors revolted against officers, and officers who remained loyal had to consult with and abide by a Comite de Buque, or Ship's Committee. They had insufficiently experienced officers, and many of those ships under construction; one reads often about ships obsolete when delivered.

The focus of the naval civil war often feels more about blockades and smuggling arms. The Balearic ships were critical to the Nationalists, who held them against attack and used them to convoy Italian supplies to various fronts. One ship began the war in Equatorial Guinea, another off Morocco, one was built in Mexico, but almost all were built to British designs in Spain. The Italians were proxy warriors for Franco, committing 58 submarines that sank and terrorized a number of Republicans ships. Mussolini also sold four destroyers to the Nationalists, who later intercepted and sank the Soviet Union ship Komsomol. This provoked an outrage, and hardened French and British patrols in the Straits of Gibraltar. Stalin sent at least four motor torpedo boats.

Seven of the fleet were coal-fired, two were hybrid, and the balance of 49 ships used fuel oil or diesel oil; one was capable of 36 knots. Several lacked turret guns, some of which swept their own decks. Indeed, a battleship stuck fake wooden barrels on deck, while another, the heavy cruiser Baleares, borrowed turrets. Coal was a logistical supply problem, particularly for the Republicans.

Republican destroyers sank Baleares, killing790 sailors;469 survivors were rescued by the British when Baleares accidently fired a star shell above themselves. The Nationalist battleship Espana sank in April 1937 by hitting its compadres' mine off Santander. The Republican battleship Jaime I ran aground, then blew up at anchor. When the battle turned against them on the Biscay coast, Republican ships sailed to England and France. When, in 1939, their Mediterranean ports also fell, they were interned at Tunisia and Algeria, which were then controlled by France. Franco effectively forced the Republican fleet to flee to French North Africa in April 1939. When the war ended that July, there was no Republican fleet to evacuate its loyalists, forcing them to remain and suffer.

Konstam's work is clear, well-researched, and easy to follow. Of his 17 primary resources, seven are Spanish and one focused on the Italian side. The reader is left curious about how the German U-34 sank the Republican submarine C-3, or which Republican vessels were sunk by Italians or Germans.

The most striking omission is the lack of a single map or chart, offset by Konstam 's description of cities. In the case of Bilbao the publishers erroneously place it in the northwest. Konstam delineates a fascinating and compelling battleground about which, due to the lack of a single, cataclysmic event, most readers may be completely unaware.

• Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2021
• 7-1/4” x 9-3/4”, softcover, 48 pages and 96 pages
• Illustrations, maps, bibliography, index. $19.00
• ISBN: 9781472848666

Reviewed by: Jeremy Costlow, Little Rock, Arkansa

Mediterranean Naval Battles that Changed the World

By Quentin Russell

Given that several different civilizations throughout history have flourished around the Mediterranean Sea, it is not difficult to imagine that region at the center of a number of naval conflicts between nations; from the ancient Greeks against the Persians to the terrors of the Second World War, the Mediterranean has been the stage of the most interesting clashes at sea. The struggle for sea power and dominance is, in fact, deeply connected to the development of nations in human history, yet very few books present this struggle, especially in the case of the Mediterranean. One of the few studies is the classic A History of Sea Power written by William Stevens and Allan Wescott published in the 1940s. It was a pleasant surprise to read Mediterranean Naval Battles That Changed the World, Russell's perspective on six naval battles set in the Mediterranean Sea that affected not only the balance of power between the nations involved, but also the world (or what was known as world at the time of the narratives).

The author presents an extremely detailed analysis of naval strategy of the period, the ships, contemporary naval technological advancements, and also the events surrounding the battles, that makes their stories even more interesting. Six different conflicts are examined: the Battle of Salamis (480 BC), the defeat of the Persians by the Greeks that ushered in the Golden Age of Athens; the Battle of Actium (31 BC), which pitted the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra against the Roman naval forces on the coast of Greece; the Battle of Lepanto (1571) where an obstinate Ottoman fleet fought a Catholic Alliance for dominance of the Mediterranean; the Battle of Aboukir Bay (1798) between the British and the French naval forces in Egypt; the Battle of Navarino (1827) where again the Ottoman forces fought for control in the Mediterranean against a coalition of British, French, and Russian naval forces defending the independence of Greece; and the last, Cape Matapan and the Battle for Malta (1940-1942) during the Second World War; a narrative featuring the ambition and movements of Italian naval forces in the region during the war.

Those who are anxious to know more about ancient warfare will enjoy reading this book as much as Horatio Nelson and Second World War enthusiasts. Whether naval historians or not, I believe readers will highly appreciate the quality of Russell's writing.

The strongest aspect of the book is Russell's ability to humanize his narrative, bringing out the human aspects behind the major naval battles and technological advancements of very different eras. This is particularly important today, as science struggles with negationist and other retrograde and negative concepts of society. Readers can expect a humanistic, but also deeply researched analysis of naval battles. For example, the study of the Battle of Actium (31 BC) recounts the relationships and dramas between Mark Antony, Cleopatra, Cesar Augustus, and Rome that surrounded the battle. This was the story that captured the attention of another author named Shakespeare in another time, prompting him to dramatize the history for the theater.

Russell also depicts the struggles of a young Commodore Nelson, a rising naval star, who, at 41 years of age, had already sacrificed an eye and an arm fighting for the Royal Navy. He draws brilliantly from the life of Nelson and his mission of search and destroy, revealing the intrinsic anxiety of the endless search while emphasizing his genius, his insecurities, his bravery and his little note to Lady Hamilton. The reader can find these subtle, peculiar and delicate details on every page.

The weaker aspects of the book are, firstly, the maps that are located in the initial pages and not among the narratives, which forces the reader to flip back and forth. Secondly, this is not an introductory book: beginners in the naval strategy/history field may find some difficultly with the prolonged details of battles and historical contexts. This, however, makes the book perfect for researchers, especially those in search of more material about ancient naval battles.

• Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2022
• 6-1/2” x 9-1/2”, hardcover, 150 pages
• Illustrations, maps, bibliography, index. $42.95
• ISBN: 9781526715999

Reviewed by: Martin Cassidy, Germantown, Maryland

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