The Longest Campaign: Britain's Maritime Struggle in the Atlantic and Northwest Europe, 1939–1945 by Brian Walter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


As a single volume work covering six years of unremitting combat we can't expect this book to delve into minute detail, and it doesn't. Events that have attracted multi-volume studies in their own right are covered in a few paragraphs. What this does very well is draw together the different threads - blockade, U-boat, airborne - of the northern battle and relate them to the wider conflict.
Some surprising insights emerge. Despite the absence of the large set-piece battles found in the Pacific and South-East Asia theatres the sheer, continuous grind of warfare in the Atlantic and northern waters let to eye-watering losses on both sides. The other side of the coin is the staggering volume of materiel delivered to Russia, Britain and Western Europe, especially in the last eleven months of the war.
The point is made with tables, lists and extensive references. The first two of these may slow the reader down a bit but are worth pausing over for a moment.



View all my reviews