The Navy at War, 1939-1945

Captain Roskill has long been recognised as the leading authority on the Royal Navy's part in the Second World War. His official history for HMSO, the three volume The War at Sea presents a detailed history that is unlikely to be superseded, and this book sets out the broad outline of the policies, successes and failures of the British and Dominion navies in the worldwide struggle. The author writes with the same simplicity and ease whether he is describing the movement of ships in a single action or the relation of a whole campaign to the strategy of total war. The narrative is thrilling and the analysis clear: Roskill describes the major sea battles such as the River Plate and Matapan as well as the characteristic convoy actions of the Battle of the Atlantic, Murmansk and Malta. He covers the contribution made by British technology in the shape of Asdic and Radar but the story is, above all, about the courage and skill of the officers and men who made the victory possible.