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US Naval Institute Top publisher of
naval related titles, Naval History Magazine, Proceedings and
outstanding photographic collection all available here |
Some naval history sites.
Repositories of primary source material.
Warship
has published hundreds of great articles since 1977. An index of the
quarterly published up through 1988 is here. An index of
the annuals 1989-2006 is here. Thank you to The Dreadnought Project for
this information.
Naval
History magazine is published by the Naval Institute. Check out
their home page here
The
Weider History Group publishes World War II magazine and MHQ.
Their website is here.
The
International Naval Research Organization publishes Warship
International. Their web site is here.
The
Pacific War Study Group publishes World War II Quarterly. They
may be reached at
WorldWarIIQuarterly@gmail.com
WWII
History Magazine is here
STORIA
Militare is the premier Italian language military history publication.
Its web site is here.
Books
I read a lot of books that I
like or find particularly useful for one reason or another. Here are
some:
Brown, David. Warship
Loses of WWII. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1995. (Some
errors, but a handy reference.)
Buell, Thomas B. Master
of Sea Power: A Biography of Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King. Boston:
Little Brown and Company, 1980.
Crenshaw,
Russell Sydnor, Jr. South Pacific Destroyer: The Battle for the
Solomons from Savo Island to Vella Gulf. Annapolis: Naval Institute
Press, 1998. (The style is good, the perspective is authoritative and
the information reliable.)
Cutler,
Thomas J. The Battle of Leyte Gulf. New York: Pocket Books,
1994. (The best overview of history's most complicated series of naval
battles.)
Darlington,
Robert and Fraser McKee. The Canadian Naval Chronicle 1939-1945.
St. Catharines ON: Vanwell, 1998. (This is an unusual book; a
collection of short articles about episodes in Canada's naval war
against Germany. I liked the content, the format and its a good place
to start to learn about Canada's contributions to the struggle on the
sea.)
de Belot, Raymond. The Struggle for the Mediterranean.
Princeton, NJ. Princeton University Press, 1951. (This is written by a
French Admiral who offers a different and refreshing perspective on the
Mediterranean War.)
Evans, David
C. ed. The Japanese Navy in World War II. Annapolis: Naval
Institute Press, 1986. (Mostly articles written by Japanese naval
officers in the 1950s reprinted from Proceedings.)
Evans, David
C. and Mark R. Peattie. Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology
in the Imperial Japanese Navy 1887-1941. Annapolis: Naval Institute
Press, 1997. (The most complete reference about the Japanese navy
heading into the war. Unfortunately, it ends too soon.)
Frank,
Richard B. Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark
Battle. New York: Penguin, 1990. (Twenty years after it was
written, Frank’s work remains the standard and the best example
of how good a narrative campaign history can be.)
Greene,
Jack and Alessandro Massignani. The Naval War in the Mediterranean
1940-1943. London: Chatham, 1998. (Good, detail and largely
impartial coverage.)
Haarr,
Geirr, H. The German Invasion of
Norway April 1940. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2009.
(Filled with detail from the Norwegian and German points-of-view. Lots
of wonderful photographs.)
Hood,
Jean, ed. Submarine: An anthology of
first-hand accounts of the war under the Sea, 1939-1945. London:
Conways, 2008. (See my review on Amazon. This book covers a lot of
ground and gives an excellent taste of submarine operations and life.)
Hoyt,
Edwin P. How They Won the War in the Pacific: Nimitz and his
Admirals. New York, Lyons Press, 2000. (The cover lists
thirty-seven other titles Mr. Hoyt has written. People dismiss
him because he is so prolific. However, I found this book useful. It's
almost like a digest of the Grey Book and CINCPAC War Diary.)
Langtree,
Christopher. The Kellys: British J, K & N Class Destroyers of
World War II. Annapolis: Naval
Institute Press, 2002. (Langtree covers his subject matter in
depth and detail.)
Morison,
Samuel Eliot. The Rising Sun in the Pacific, 1931-1942. Boston:
Little, Brown and Company, 1984. (I pick this volume because it is the
most battered. It has become fashionable to discount Morison's
contributions and in his fifteen volumes there is much that is
outdated, wrong, or biased, but he is the author who inspired my love
for the subject. His work will never be duplicated.)
Prados, John. Combined
Fleet Decoded. New York: Random House, 1995.
Rohwer J. and G.
Hummelchen. Chronology of the War at Sea 1939-1945. Annapolis:
Naval Institute Press, 1992. (The most comprehensive single reference
on the war at sea. USNIP recently published a new edition.
Ruge,
Friedrich. The Soviets as Naval Opponents 1941-1945. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1979. (All
of Ruge's works and article are worth reading. I mention this book in
particular because it presents an overview of a subject that
receives little attention.)
Simpson,
Michael, ed. The Cunningham Papers. Aldershot, England: The
Navy Records Society, 1999. Two volumes. (This is filled with
worthwhile extracts from the papers and reports of Britain's favorite
admiral and a worthwhile commentary from the editor. Also, The
Somerville Papers. Great references.)
Stephen, Martin. The Fighting Admirals:
British Admirals of the Second
World War. Annapolis: Naval
Institute Press, 1991. (Stephen serves up some surprises.)
Tomblin, Barbard Brooks. With Utmost Spirit: Allied Naval
Operations in the Mediterranean, 1942-1945. Lexington, KY:
University of Kentucky Press, 2004. (See my review on Amazon. This book
is covers its topic better than any other work I'm aware of.)
Wilmott H. P.
Empires in the Balance. Annapolis: Naval
Institute Press, 1982. (Also his 2005 book on Leyte)
Worth, Richard. Fleets
of World War II. Cambridge: Da Capo, 2001. (A useful one volume
reference laced with opinion and good detail.)
Fiction
I like
the Judge Dee
novels by Robert Van Gulik, the novels of Robertson Davies and the works of
Patrick
O'Brian
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