War at Sea: 1914-45

Cassell History of Warfare

by Bernard Ireland

The greatest naval campaigns in history, illustrated with state-of-the-art computer graphics, maps, and this new entry in the widely acclaimed History of Warfare series takes to the high seas in the period between our two largest and most destructive wars. In 1914, international naval power was measured in dreadnought battleships, but within a generation these mighty vessels were rendered redundant. Instead, submarines and aircraft carriers dominated the waters. Battles began to take place at extreme ranges; sometimes rival fleets couldn't even see each other. Amphibious warfare became crucial, both for the liberation of German occupied-Europe and to drive back the Japanese. Through incredible images and insightful analysis by a leading expert in 20th century naval warfare, you'll witness the technological changes that transformed battle; understand the difficulties of progressing from old to new; explore all the key battles; and cover the more rapid period of change in the history of war at sea.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2002

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

In his contribution to Cassell’s “History of Warfare” series, Bernard Ireland was faced with a formidable task: to compress the naval history of the First and Second World Wars, as well as the developments which led to them, into a concise format. To accomplish this, Ireland focuses on “the key aspects that decided the outcome of both major wars at sea.” Instead of a chronological narrative, he presents the naval wars in a series of campaigns – cruiser warfare, the confrontation between the major fleets in the North Sea, and the blockades for the First World War, the German U-boat campaign against Britain and the British battle against the U-boat, the U.S. submarine war against Japan, amphibious warfare, and the use of aircraft carriers for World War II. Secondary campaigns involving naval warfare that do not fit into these categories are also addressed, as are the pre-First World War naval arms race between Germany and Japan and the inter-war naval limitation treaties.

Ireland’s effort to condense a formidable amount of material is admirable and his approach is an interesting one that could lend itself well to a deeper analysis of the naval warfare of the era. Yet his approach fails to offer up anything new in the way of conclusions about the changing strategies or technologies of the era. Instead, the reader is served up little more than cursory narratives of battles and campaigns that have been covered so often before. His account of the Anglo-German naval rivalry, while providing a useful summary of its development, ignores broader trends of the naval arms races of the time and gives too much credence to trivialities such as the ill-will between the monarchs of Germany and Great Britain. Though colorfully illustrated and supplemented with useful maps, the book itself is excessively convoluted for readers seeking an introduction to the naval combat of the era while offering little of interest to more experienced students of the conflict, making for a disappointing entry to a useful series.