WW2 Naval in the Pacific

[T13A]

Hi

Any recommendations for books (or series of books) covering the naval side of the war in the Pacific in WW2? Looking for the period from Pearl harbour onwards that goes into reasonable detail about the individual battles and being a good read at the same time. Many thanks.

Cheers Paul

[slugbalancer]

I enjoyed The Royal Navy in the Downfall of Japan.  Detailing the role of the British Pacific fleet.  Somewhat over looked in history.

[pierre the shy]

A good book on the Guadacanal naval campaign is Neptune's lnferno by James Hornfischer.

[pierre the shy]

It's about the USN experience mainly but goes into detail about each individual battle of the campaign so should give you the level of detail that you are after.

[Ithoriel]

It may be more in depth than you are looking for but I heartily recommend "How Carriers Fought" by Lars Celander and published by Casemate.

It looks at all aspects of carrier warfare as practised by the British, Americans and Japanese during the Pacific War. What they did, why the did it, how they did it. If you want the pros and cons of armoured flight decks over wooden ones; tactical doctrines on how ships were arranged; how aircraft were armed, fuelled and launched and much more besides this is the book to get.

I found it readable and informative.

[hammurabi70]

Depends on what you are looking for.  My choices:-

One volume, by John Costello:
1⃣ The Pacific War: 1941 -1945

Three volumes, by Ian Toll:
❶ Pacific Crucible
❷ The Conquering Tide
❸ Twilight of the Gods

The books of Jefferey R Cox, a useful fresh view of events:
1️⃣ Rising Sun, Falling Skies
2️⃣ Morning Star, Midnight Sun
3️⃣ Blazing Star, Setting Sun
4️⃣ Dark Waters, Starry Skies

[T13A]

Many thanks all, just the kind of books I was after.

Cheers Paul

[fulcrum]

Consider looking at some youtube videos by "Drachinfel" covering all aspects of naval warfare up to about 1950

He does short videos on individual ship/ship classes but also 60+ mins on campaigns and strategy (e.g. Operation C, which took place in the Indian Ocean).

His 3 hour upload about the Zero (Zero or Hero) just , ahem, flew by.

An upload on 1st April even covered a little known battle after the war, The Last Stand of IJN Takao - Guns vs Godzilla

Regards

Lee

[Ithoriel]

I'll second Drachinifel as a YouTube channel worth visiting.

For an equivalent covering the aircraft of the period you could do much worse than Rex's Hangar.

[dylan]

"Shattered Sword" in one of the more important books about the Midway campaign.  It also goes into great detail about carrier operations, including from the Japanese perspective.

[kustenjaeger]

On Guadalcanal, as well as Neptune's Inferno, I have a copy of vol.V of the History of US Naval Operations in WWII 'The struggle for Guadalcanal', August 1942-February 1943.

It's a 1948 book so will lack modern (or much in the way of Japanese) sources but I found it a good (drier) complement to Neptune's Inferno with useful maps, diagrams and force compositions etc. 

Edward

[steve_holmes_11]

I found this an excellent starting point. http://combinedfleet.com/battles/

A map of the pacific showing all the IJN's major battles, with clickable links.


The parent site has lots of handy information about the Imperial Japanese Navy.

[pierre the shy]

The Combined Fleet website and Shattered Sword are both very good resources for some of the naval aspects of the Pacific War.

I think you will find that Antony Tully, one of the authors of Shattered Sword is also one of the owners of the Combined Fleet website.

[T13A]

Hi

Thanks again for all the suggestions, started looking at the "Drachinfel" videos, they are rather good.

Cheers Paul