Abstract
A world war is, by definition, a conflict in which the sea plays a central role in the day-to-day conduct and in determining the outcome. While the past decade has seen the emergence of a wealth of broad histories or thematic treatments of the Second World War, breaking down traditional boundaries in terms of subject or national approach, the sea as an overarching theme or theatre has yet to receive much attention. Individual theatres, campaigns or technologies for example have from the outset been subject to and continue to receive much attention, but attempts to integrate all these facets into a single coherent narrative are rare. Indeed, given the complexity of the subject, the geographic extent of the conflict and its duration from the first to the last day of the war make it a challenging proposition for any historian to tackle. Equally though it represents an opportunity both from the perspective of integrating the sea into the wider contemporary history of the conflict and opening its contribution to newer audiences.
World War II At Sea by Craig Symonds is a single volume account of the war at sea between September 1939 and September 1945 from an international perspective. It is first and foremost a naval history of the war, and one in which campaigns, ships and men take centre stage. At 650 pages this is both a sizeable volume, but also a modest one for the topic at hand. Symonds takes a largely chronological approach, as far as this is possible when dealing with intense concurrent campaigns occurring in most theatres for the duration of the war, which brings with it advantages and disadvantages. It is divided into five roughly equal parts comprising a total of 27 chapters alongside a brief prologue, essentially covering the most important naval-political developments of the interwar period, and the briefest of epilogues. While this is not the most original structure it is effective and accurately conveys the distinct phases in the naval war. The individual chapters are generally themed around a specific event as an entry point to a wider discussion. This is a good technique that allows a lot of ground to be covered concisely; it though has its pitfalls when a campaign does not break down into key moments. For example, while aspects of Arctic operations are covered across numerous chapters there is little to bind them together in order to understand the context of the theatre. Overall though this is a clearly organised and neatly written book.
A volume of this size and nature cannot, and need not, provide a comprehensive treatment of everything. Symonds has struck a good balance and there is no focus on the American conduct and experience at the expense of others. Equally key campaigns or engagements do not receive disproportionate coverage leading to unnecessary narrative padding. There are however some noticeable omissions. While perhaps the very limited coverage of the maritime aspects of the Eastern Front is understandable, the lack of substantive discussion of British offensive operations in the Mediterranean during 1941–42 and their impact on Axis operations in North Africa is unfortunate. The lack of mention of the allied operations against Vichy-French controlled Madagascar in May 1942 is also unusual. Although plenty of details are covered, putting together the wartime development of aspects like carrier operations, amphibious techniques or operational intelligence is left up to the reader rather than addressed specifically. The importance of intelligence is often mentioned yet only explored through the standard examples of the U-boat war in the Atlantic, Pearl Harbor and Midway. Here a more comprehensive conclusion providing the reader with an overview of the transformation of naval warfare would have rounded off the narrative better. Does the book in total convey a sense of the war at sea? It certainly does. The narrative structure of Part III excels at encapsulating the watershed moment of the war and the strategic choices the allies had to make between theatres.
The overall presentation of the book is very respectable. Ample maps are provided where they are most needed, images are interspersed throughout to enliven the narrative further. The value of such additions should not be underestimated. There are though a few consistency issues. For example the German battlecruiser Gneisenau is referred to on occasion as a light cruiser while her virtually identical sister Scharnhorst is once described as an ‘oversized battlecruiser’ with no further qualification. Presumably to emphasis their fragility, British Swordfish torpedo-bombers are referred to by their ‘Stringbag’ nickname – unlike every other aircraft type in the book – only to revert back to Swordfish from the middle onwards. There is no consistency in when the prefix HMS is used for British warships and given that no other nations’ warships are given prefixes it seems odd to do so in the first place. The persistent use of the wrong German plural declination of German warship types stands out as the single greatest editorial oversight. While naval history does all too easily lend itself to getting hung up on details at the expense of the bigger picture, at its core this is a well-researched book and Symonds conveys a great sense of authority. As a result, the few more questionable assertions stand out all the more. The characterisation of the monitor Roberts as ‘essentially a light cruiser’ (436) is misleading, but perhaps done to help newcomers better understand a more specialised platform. These were different vessel types with different roles. It is pleasing that effort has been put into making the inevitably large bibliography more user-friendly by breaking down entries in sections covering major navies and theatres, thus reinforcing the usefulness of the book as an introductory text.
To whom will this book appeal? Those familiar with the subject will find little new here, but there is always merit in thinking about how the naval war is tied into the wider narrative of the conflict and plenty of detail to expand one’s knowledge. The book draws exclusively on English language sources and, while a lot of material is available in English in 2018, this is nonetheless a limitation. This book is clearly aimed at the newcomer and for such a reader this is an invaluable starting point as well as being an enjoyable read. This book does not claim to reinterpret every facet, but what it does do is provide a clear structure through which to better understand the most complex of wartime theatres. By any measure this is an impressive piece of work and represents the best contemporary, single-volume digestible account of the Second World War at sea.