Chronology of the War at Sea, 1939-1945: The Naval History of World War Two [Hardcover]

Jurgen Rohwer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2005

This complete, indispensable, single-volume reference covers all theaters of the war, the course of events in each, climactic battles, and all the less-well-known actions and skirmishes.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English
Original Language: German --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 530 pages
• Publisher: Naval Inst Pr; Revised edition (October 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591141192
• ISBN-13: 978-1591141198
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.1 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,350,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent chronology of WW2, December 4, 2001

By 

Pierluigi Malvezzi (MILANO Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chronology of the War at Sea 1939 -1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Naval history of WWII) (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book, dealing with all the naval events happened in the 1939/1945 period. The book is arranged in chronological order, in the sense that you can find an entry dealing with a single day or with a given period (i.e. June, 4th-6th 1942, Battle of Midway), in order to keep together facts logically related, but spanned over a period of more than one day. Moreover there is a subdivision dealing with operational theatres (Mediterranean, Northern Atlantic, Western Pacific and so on) so one can easily find all the relevant facts regarding a given theatre in a given day or period. The only drawback is that if you are looking for a specific day, you have to search for in every period containing that given day to be sure to find everything.
Anyway, this is an excellent book, a very useful one containing information regarding not only the major events or ships, but also the minor ones (you can find that in a given day a minesweeper hit a mine and sank). I think this is a high value adding to every naval enthusiast's library.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sixth Edition, Reporting on 50 Years of Research, November 19, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chronology of the War at Sea, 1939-1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Hardcover)

This is an amazing book, the culmination of 50 years of research.

It begins on 19 August 1939 when U45, U46, U47, U48 and U50 set out from Kiel and U28, U29, U33, U34, U37, U38, U39, U40, and U41 from Wilhelmshaven into the North Atlantic to take up waiting positions.

It ends on 30 November 1945 when the RCN corvette 'Merittonia' is wrecked off the coast of Nova Scotia.

That gives you some idea of the level of detail that the book goes into on what happened on each day inbetween these two dates.

In addition, there the indexes. Interested in the 'Killoran?' Look in the 'Index of Merchant Ships,' she's mentioned on page 35. On page 35 she was a Finnish sailing ship of 1,817 tons in British service and sunk by the German auxillary cruiser 'Schiff 21/Widder.' There's also an 'Index of Warships,' an 'Index of Personnel,' an 'Index of Convoys,' an 'Index of Operations,' an 'Index of U-Boat Packs and Patrol Lines,' and an 'Index of Minefields and Mine Barrages.'

This is not, perhaps, the ultimate reference book on World War II, there not much in it on strategy for instance, it's a chronology. But as a report of what went on, it's about the most complete you'll ever find.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Lifetime of Research Produces Awesome Reference, April 28, 2009

By 

Dave Schranck "Dave" (Anaheim Ca) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Chronology of the War at Sea, 1939-1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Hardcover)

This book is not a narrative but an accumulation of sea events that occurred during the war years in all the oceans of the world. The amount of information in this volume is incredible. The format is chronological by date then sea location. Its not your typical day by day book. The timeframe can be a day but most of the time its a range of days that a group of events that have some commonality with each other are grouped.
With so much data, it can be a little confusing or hard to find the info you need. The index is comprehensive and greatly eases your search. In this new edition, it has 7 index formats from which you can look up your data: warships, merchant ships, personnel, convoys, operations, u-boats or minefields. One of these categories should be able to get you on the page you need.

Even though I had the second edition, I still bought this latest edition because it had almost 100 more pages. There are a few new entries in this new book than the previous book but the biggest reason for the extra pages is the expanded index and the new page format. The old book has a 3 column format that the data was packed on the page and I found it a little difficult to read. This new book has a 2 column format and is nicely spaced. Its a lot easier to read.
Rather you're looking for a u-boat that sunk a certain destroyer or a captain of a certain vessel you'll find it here. If a certain convoy has your interest and want to know if it made its journey you'll find here.
There is a wealth of information here and would be a great reference for any serious student of the war. I highly recommend it if you're doing research or just interested in reading about the sea battles of WWII.