War at Sea: A Naval Atlas, 1939–1945 Hardcover – May 15, 2012

As someone long frustrated by the poor quality of, or complete absence of maps in most naval history books, I found this book worth it's weight in gold. It is first and foremost an atlas, the only photograph being the one on the cover, the only text being a couple paragraphs accompanying each map. The majority of the book's 225 maps are absolutely superb, crisply rendered, and easy to follow. They aren't flashy or dynamic, but rather each of the depicted battles, operations, and ship movements are presented in a logical, efficient manner. Pertinent information such as force dispositions, unit commanders, flagships, orders of battle, and important events and times, are all presented in a manner that doesn't clutter up the maps. Besides the war's famous battles, this atlas also covers a slew of lesser-known events, including British carrier operations in the Indian Ocean during the last year of the war, operations in the Black Sea, Baltic, and Aegean, German auxiliary cruiser raids, and a number of smaller amphibious landings.Like most Seaforth books, this one occasionally suffers from some odd editing goofs and typos, resulting in General Patton being in "overall command of WTF landforces" and the Fubuki sinking twice at the Battle of Cape Esperence. Some of the battle maps get a little cluttered, which I think is more the fault of history than of the mapmakers. That aside, this is a fascinating, invaluable reference work, and one of the best naval history titles I've purchased in years. Although many popular histories of the war downplay the significance of Allied seapower in winning the war, this atlas graphically depicts it's crucial nature in an easy to grasp fashion. I did the odd thing of reading it cover to cover, and look forward to spending many more hours getting lost in these maps. I can only hope the companion book on World War I coming out later this year is just as good.

This naval atlas provides a sustancial information along the different fronts. Give valuable information of german corsair ships, and a clearly exposion of complex actions like that Leyte Gulf or the different battles of Salomon Islands.Excellent complement and companion to understand the naval scenario of WW II.

Learned about a lot of battles not covered elsewhere

Great book

Absolutely amazingTells you everything and no other book helps you visualize the war at sea so well.EVERYONE interested in ww2 or naval war needs to have this as their base of study

Easy to use, the book puts all the major naval actions of the war in one volume. A number of the maps such as those covering the German Invasion of Norway make the actions that took place much clearer. The order of battle of the different fleets is a valuable aspect in following the actions. This volume serves as an excellent visual source in reading in-depth studies of the war at sea in WW II, which never have enough maps and diagrams of the maneuvers. The brief descriptions of the actions portrayed on the maps are helpful in presenting an overview of each event. Highly recommended.

This book is astounding -- both in content and in presentation. The detail presented in the book is second-to-none. The 150 full-color maps are simply breath-taking. This is really the best way to fully understand the details and intricacies of a naval battle. For instance, trying to understand a battle such as the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands would be very difficult without a visual aid. But this book shows the courses of the ships/task forces involved -- even down to hourly time plots of their movements. I highly recommend this book to both the novice and expert. This is a great addition to any naval historian's book collection.

If you are looking for an item that graphically represents almost every major (and several minor) naval action in World War II, this is the book you are looking for. For those familiar with Morrison's volumes, this work presents superior charts in rich color and great clarity. Well worth the money and, much like Garzke's Battleship series will probably only become more expensive once it goes out of its initial print run.

Note: I have yet to tackle it in detail and have only skimmed through the pages and concentrated on only a score or so particular entries but I am so far very pleased with this purchase.This book covers most if not all aspects of naval conflict in both parts of WW2 (vs Germany and Italy, and vs Japan), Included are traditional actions such as River Plate and Midway, campaigns such as the convoy war from 1939 on, inc some individual convoy battles, and the USMC Pacific islands assaults, and some more obscure matters like Op Pamphlet (escorted transportation of Australian Divisions from Egypt to their homeland) and the RN bombardment of German invasion barges in French ports.The charts are clear and well presented and full of little details.I consider this an essential item for anyone interested in any aspect of the naval wars from 1939 to 1945

Naval warfare is complicated. Understanding the effect that naval operations have on any specific war is not easy, although many wars were won at sea. And this is where this book comes in and helps one understand the overall picture of naval warfare during ww2,by the use of excellent maps.The axis largely lost the war due to naval inferiority. It never had the command of the oceans which meant that it couldn't choke Britain to submission,or supply Rommel's forces drive towards oil rich areas,or stop the help of the west to Russia,or the building up of american forces in Europe and Africa,or be victorious in the Pacific. Supply routes were controlled by naval superiority as well as distant lands.Personally I believe that Britain was mainly kept safe by the Royal Navy rather than the RAF,during the rough years,including the battle of Britain.I found this book very informative and well illustrated,which made me buy the first world war atlas as well. I also hope that an atlas on 18th-mid 19th age of sail centuries, will be published.

I read about World War II as a method of relaxation and because of an interest in history. I am not a professional in that sense, however, my library is extensive and classical.This is not your typical World War II read, rather a linear historical compendium of the naval campaigns, routes and ships involved in all of the major naval campaigns of World War II. Unlike most books on the subject that are told from the perspective of a single country, all of the world's major navies and their movements and battles are chronicled. The amount of detail alone is worth several times the price of the book. The individual ships, their countries, types and names are detailed in each campaign, along with their movements and activities such as when the firing started and which ships were hit or sunk and where. Interstingly, this is all done in a charted format with a very limited text offering; a true example of how a picture (or chart in this case) can be worth a thousand words.In addition to the chronilogically ordered individual battles and campaigns, there are charts depicting the geographical locations of battles for each year, of the fleet configurations by country at the beginning of the war, of the task group configurrations by battle and of the commanding officers of the task forces or task sub-group.This model of book allows a differnt perspective on viewing the war; an interesting layout of how contemporary in time the battles of the Pacific, Atlantic and Mediterranean ranged. As an American, I knew that Britain was a major naval power but the extensive coverage of this large fleet can only be properly conveyed by this layout over several major bodies of water during a specific period of time.Whether a professional historian or just a informal observer this is must read of an exhaustively researched subject laid out in a beautiful format.

If you have any interest in WW2 naval action, then this book is an essential aid to truely understanding how the action unfolded and the true scale and timelines of all the main sea battles. The maps are clear and detailed, I guarantee you`ll be enthralled.It may at first sight, seem expesive but you`ll refer to it again and again. Buy, use, enjoy!

A great book for those with an interest in the war at sea during WW2. The maps, which are in colour and to a large format, take you through all the major sea battles and campaigns in a chronological order. Could another volume look at WW1?