At War at Sea: Sailors and Naval Combat in the Twentieth Century

by Ronald H. Spector

Beginning with a gripping account of one of the most decisive naval battles in history-the 1905 battle of Tsushima between the Japanese and Russians-and ending with the sophisticated missile engagements of the Falklands and in the Persian Gulf, naval historian Ronald Spector explores every facet of the past one hundred years of naval warfare. Drawing from more than one hundred diaries, memoirs, letters, and interviews, this is, above all, a masterful narrative of the human side of combat at sea-real stories told from the point of view of the sailors who experienced it. Exhaustively researched and fascinating in detail, At War at Sea is a monumental history of the men, the ships, and the battles fought on the high seas.

"Superb . . . Spector's account provides evocative and fresh perspectives on cultures, technologies and innovations that influenced sailors' lives and shaped naval warfare." ( The San Diego Union-Tribune )

"Monumental . . . Many books have recorded the history of the United States Navy, but few have meshed that history with that of all other major navies-an unusual comparative technique that brings into often startling relief the virtues and flaws of our own navy." ( The Washington Post )"

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Military History, Military Fiction, War, Naval History, Nautical

463 pages, Paperback

First published May 7, 2001

About the author

Professor Spector received his B.A. from Johns Hopkins and his MA and Ph.D. from Yale.
He has served in various government positions and on active duty in the Marine Corps from 1967-1969 and 1983-1984, and was the first civilian to become Director of Naval History and the head of the Naval Historical Center. He has served on the faculties of LSU, Alabama and Princeton and has been a senior Fulbright lecturer in India and Israel. In 1995-1996 he was Distinguished Visiting Professor of Strategy at the National War College and was the Distinguished Guest Professor at Keio University, Tokyo in 2000.

Reviews

[Joseph Stieb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spector's history of navies in the 20th century is an outstanding and thoroughly readable work. He includes just enough of the technical details (evolution of weaponry, tactics, etc) to . He mainly focuses on the great powers and superpowers and their naval activity, which is only natural given that the sea is the domain of the Great Powers. He is absolutely excellent at covering and explaining major campaigns and battles (half the book is about WWII), and he balances anecdote and analysis very well. He also covers some very interesting naval campaigns that don't get a lot of coverage usually

What's really special about this book is Spector's coverage of the lives, backgrounds, experiences, and abilities of ordinary sailors. This kind of social history of warfare is always interesting, and I particularly liked his portrayals of Japanese imperial officers, U-Boat commanders and crewmen, the Soviet fleet in the 1970's and 1980's, and American naval aviators. Unlike much social history of warfare, however, Spector actually makes an argument about military history with these accounts of sailors.

If this book has a thesis (it's not thesis driven), it's that the human element in naval warfare has been just as important in determining success as advances in technology. He offers many examples of this. At Tsushima, the Russians and Japanese had virtually identical ships, but the superior Japanese training and discipline allowed them to fire more rapidly and accurately. American defenses against aircraft carrier strikes dealt largely with the same technology from the Coral Sea in 1942 to the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf in 1944, but advances in the quality and training of the crews made them far more effective. The US also had far more effective combat rotation policies in the Second World War, whereas the Japanese kept their experienced pilots on the line and got them mostly killed off by the end of the war, putting the Americans at a great advantage despite the excellence of the Zero fighter plane.

Spector does not deny the importance of technology, but he shows how insufficient it is to create an effective navy. He criticizes 20th century navies for being too technologically focused and not always developing their human resources to the same degree. He shows that each navy had an ideal of who their sailors and officers should be, and that these cultural preferences often led to less effective navies, especially when class or racial biases prevented able people from rising to leadership positions. Spector doesn't overdo the social and cultural history, but he synthesizes it smoothly with a more traditional naval combat history. Highly recommended for military history students and general military buffs.

[John Bohnert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting account of navies during the twentieth century. As a Navy veteran, I especially enjoyed learning about life of sailors in various navies throughout the century.

[Alexnd05 · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book set out to provide an explanation of 20th Century naval warfare from the average sailor’s perspective and argue the thesis that training and competence is more important to the outcome of battles than is typically acknowledged my most military historians—who focus on technological advances held by one side or the other. The book succeeded in some respects, but the narrative was incomplete and sometimes dull. The first couple chapters basically drone on and on about basically how life was hard in the Royal Navy around the turn of the century. However, the book improves dramatically when it gets away from the social history of sailors’ lives and begins its treatment of the Anglo-German naval arms race prior to World War I. I learned a lot from its section on WWI and the book peaked, in my view, in its discussions of the evolution of naval tactics and thinking during the interwar period. However, the momentum At War At Sea takes into the Second World War quickly dissipates as Spector gets bogged down in a series of exhaustive discussions of a half-dozen major naval engagements of the war. Admittedly, WWII was far and away the largest naval conflict in the history of the world, but in a study of naval warfare throughout the 20th Century, other time periods need to be discussed as well of the 17 chapters in the book, only three discuss the period after 1945. Naval battles in Six Day War, the Falklands War, and Operation Praying Mantis are only given a few pages. Granted, these conflicts did not determine the balance of power between great powers, but they were the most important naval battles of the last 65 years and should be discussed as such. Furthermore, while portions of the book devoted to the first half of the century pay considerable attention to the British, Japanese, Russia, German, and American navies, the last three chapters are very US-centric. It’s as if the author got through WWI, realized his book was longer than he wanted, and quickly ended it with three short, uninspired chapters—The US in Korea, the US in Vietnam, and other naval conflicts. This could have been a great book, if it has limited its scope to naval warfare 1900-45. As it stands it’s a mediocre history book which I found disappointing.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book. Ronald Spector alternated illustrative sea battles with short periods of analysis. I appreciated that he didn't give in to the temptation to over-analyze, but instead, briefly, drew some fairly straightforward lessons from each episode. If I was a commander of men on a ship I'd have liked a more in-depth discussion, but, because I'm not, this was just the right amount for a popular history.

Among these episodes were some of the most lucid and concise tellings of the Battles of Tsushima and the Coral Sea that I've read. I was only hampered a bit due to the density of detail, as I listened to this book at 150% speed on the treadmill and whilst commuting, and so I couldn't always give full attention--the lapses here were mine. I'm sure on the page, without distractions this economical style would have been perfect.

Highly recommended for armchair students of naval warfare in the 20th century (and beyond).

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great overview of naval developments during the twentieth century in Imperial Japan, Imperial Russia, the U.S., Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union. Spector describes both the major naval battles and their participants' experiences with equal clarity. He has some thematic threads about man's relationship to changing technology, psychological trauma, and the social basis of officer and enlisted corps in the different navies.

Great read. Covers the Russo-Japanese War through Vietnam, with some limited commentary on wars and conflicts through the 1990s.

[Rodney Harvill · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Mr. Spector focuses on the human element in naval combat: culture, personnel issues, training, tactics, decision quality and human-technology interaction. This is important because on numerous occasions, the human element has been more important in battle than has technological and/or numerical superiority.

The book considers the U.S. Navy as well as other nations' navies and their performance in time of war. It is very interesting and would be a good read for a military history buff.

[Historyjohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gave me much insight into the experiences my father had in the US Navy 1939-1945, just months before he died.

[Michael Driscoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this at the recommendation of Brett Devereaux (of acoup.blog fame) and quite enjoyed it. Overall the book takes on a bit more of a focus on the evolution of the social, human side of the world navies (with a particular focus on American, then British, German, and Japanese navies) since 1900. It does this well, though when covering such a vast amount of history, it does feel it never gets very deep in one area. Since the book is a bit more focused on the social side of navies, the exact military details of the navies are talked about, but not quite as detailed. So I would not recommend this as a "first" book for anyone learning naval history, it really helps if you have a good understanding of the major naval conflicts of the 20th century first.

[Charles Dingman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Military history with a social systems focus rather than a technological or great leaders one, and very well done, it puts me in mind of the discussions I attended of the military history book club at Fr. Myer Officers' Club. Many members were part of the different services' historical research staffs. It was all at a challenging level for a Johnnie come lately amateur, but the openness and interest of those experts was welcoming.

[Mark Myers · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is well written, but lacks some of the excitement that could have been introduced. The character of the men in the various wars of the 1900's are discussed, but the origins of that thought process is left unanalyzed. The thought that brings nations into war is an important oversite - there is no moral ground explored, and no causation of moral stands are inspected. Perhaps that is too large of a scope for a book about naval power.

Mark M

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book on the whole. The author spend an inordinate amount of time on some topics, such as life as a British sailor, and then rush through other topics such as navy warfare in the last 30 years. One of the author's main objectives is to convince the reader than good personnel (sailors) is more important or just as important as having the latest technology.

[Paul Duggan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Besides describing the principal sea battles of the twentieth century, this fine book relates better than any I've found the human side of naval warfare. Along with the major technical innovations in naval warfare, Spector shows us how these changes affected naval manpower and how social change caused other impact on naval staffing.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this book because my husband is a huge navy history buff and I wanted to know a little more. I found it to be engaging and informative. I especially liked the descriptions of life aboard ship and the addition of words from the people who actually served. It was an enjoyable learning experience.

[Leif Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

The accounts of life in the Royal Navy circa 1900 were the best part of the book. The "beatings will continue until moral improves" was not uttered in ironic humor. The actual warfare parts were dry.

[Alex Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very In-Depth book by Spector. Listened to it twice, understand it more every time.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful history of twentieth century navies, with particular emphasis on technology and personnel matters.

[Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spector's book is an interesting look at success in naval combat in the 20th century, though it's not as analytical as Spector thinks it is.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much covered in such an organized and thoughtful manner.