Sea Battles in Close Up: World War 2

by Martin Stephen, Eric J. Grove (Editor)

Ten major naval engagements of the Second World War are thoroughly described and analyzed in this authoritative book by two respected British naval historians. This is a substantially revised compendium edition of a series with the same title published in the early 1970s and long out-of-print.

Genres: History, Military Fiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1988

About the author

George Martin Stephen is High Master of St Paul's School,London, and ex-High Master of The Manchester Grammar School. He is the author of 16 academic titles on English literature, modern naval history and war poetry, as well as the highly-acclaimed Henry Gresham historical crime novels, set in the London and Cambridge of Elizabeth I and James I.

Reviews

[Mark Phinney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a gift from a close friend because it includes a description of the Battle of the Coral Sea, in which action the U.S. Navy lost the USS Lexington (CV-2). My father was an Electrician's Mate assigned to the fighter squadron on "the Lex."

Printed by a British publisher and offered in the U.S. by the Naval Institute Press, in this volume, seven of the ten battles described in detail are British actions against German or Italian forces; only three of the battles are located in the Pacific and one of those was a British versus Japanese action. The author offers interesting analysis of the constraints on and the decisions made by each side in each battle.

The photos included single images of the important warships involve in each battle. The maps are simplest possible illustrations of maneuvering of the various groups of warships. There are no maps that show the area of action nor do the maps provided use color to show when changes in course were made by each side.