Sea Battles in Close-Up, World War II

by Eric J. Grove and Martin Stephen

This book presents a series of detailed narrations of some of the most significant sea battles of World War II, including Narvik, Crete, Malta, Java Sea, Sirte, Philippine Sea, and Leyte Gulf. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1557507589
• ISBN13: 9781557507587
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: US Naval Institute Press
• Length: 2 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.1" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

I learned something just as soon as I started reading this book.

In recent years I have been researching anything and everything connected with the X-Craft attack on the Tirpitz. It has been a long and winding road which eventually led me to Eric Grove - author of this book. Just as soon as the book arrived, I went straight to p. 116 and started reading his account of that famous attack. Like most people with an interest in this subject, I was aware that the mission was called "Operation Source" but had never given that name any thought - other than it was a name which had probably been picked at random. In this book, however, the relevant chapter commences with the words; `Attack at source' is a term in maritime strategy describing the use of striking forces to attack the enemy in his bases. It may be a small detail but I mention it for two very good reasons. Firstly, I now know where the name came from - although it must have been considered risky at the time. After all, Nelson tracked Napoleon's Army of the Orient and sank all those ships at Aboukir Bay in 1798 after learning that the enemy flagship was called L'Orient which he regarded as something of a giveaway! Anyway, I digress. My second point is that my having learned that small detail from the very first paragraph of the chapter I was reading became indicative of the detail found throughout the entire work. With other chapters on; Narvik, Crete, Malta, Java Sea, Sirte, Operation Neptune, The Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf, the reader will soon get an appreciation of the major naval operations of WW2 and quickly learn to trust what has been written by an established author who understands what detailed research is all about. An excellent work and one which is also very readable. NM