The Second World War (3) The war at sea

by Finlan, Alastair; Grove, Mark J; Grove, Philip D

• ISBN13: 9781841763972
• ISBN10: 1841763977
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-08-25
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing

Summary

This volume provides a comprehensive guide to three major theatres of combat; the battles for the Atlantic, the war in the Mediterranean and the contest in the Indian Ocean. The war at sea was a vital contest, which if lost would have irreversibly altered the balance of the military forces on land. The sea lanes were the logistical arteries of British and subsequent Allied armies fighting on the three continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. The Second World War was ultimately won by land forces but it could always have been lost at sea.

Author Biography

Dr Alastair Finlan teaches in the History Department at the American University in Cairo. Prior to this, he was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Strategic Studies and International Affairs, Britannia Royal Naval College, of which he is still an Associate Senior Lecturer. He has also lectured at the Universities of Keele and Plymouth. Mark J Grove teaches naval and international history in the Department of Strategic Studies and International Affairs, Britannia Royal Naval College, and lectures part time in the Department of Politics, University of Plymouth. He has a particular interest in amphibious warfare. Philip D Grove joined the Department of Strategic Studies and International Affairs, Britannia Royal Naval College in 1993 following the completion of two degrees from Aberystwyth in the area of Strategic Studies. He is presently Senior Lecturer in the department and working on a series of articles and a MPhil thesis concerning naval aviation in the twentieth century.

Table of Contents

Introduction	7	(2)
Chronology	9	(4)
Background to war
The Second World War	13	(7)
Warring sides
Reluctant adversaries	20	(5)
Outbreak
Opening moves	25	(7)
The fighting
Across the world's seas	32	(37)
Portrait of a sailor
Royal Navy midshipman	69	(6)
Peter Herbert Owen
The world around war
The impact of war	75	(11)
Portrait of a civilian
merchant mariner	86	(3)
John Delaney-Nash
How the war ended
The German fleet is scuttled	89	(1)
Conclusion and consequences
The price of admiralty	90	(3)
Further reading	93	(1)
Index	94