Customer Reviews

Clash Of Titans: World War II At Sea

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Clash of Titans is an excellent narrative covering naval warfare in all major theatres of World War II. The contributions of all major naval powers are well documented. In this book, Boyne organizes the story according to the various fields of activity.

This book does an excellent job in breaking down each aspect of the naval war. Within each topic Boyne describes the strategies pursued, the importance of the operations under consideration to the overall course of the war as well as the tactics employed by the combatants.

The various aspects of the naval war are presented from the perspectives of the participating navies. North Atlantic convey warfare is presented from the perspectives of both the attacking German and defending Allied forces. Similar treatment is given to other maritime aspects, such as the U-boat threat, support of both amphibious landings and ground campaigns, naval evacuations of land forces, the naval war in the Pacific, and the contribution of naval aviation to the final air attack on Japan.

The War in the Pacific is approached from many angles. The underlining objectives and means of achieving them of both the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Allied Navies are explained in detail. The Japanese objective of creating enough havoc with its initial strikes so as to obtain the time in which to establish an unassailable Japanese position throughout the Western Pacific is analyzed, both in terms of its vision as well as the reasons for its failure. The Allied executions of their strategies after the Pearl Harbor disaster are equally examined.

The role of various naval units are analyzed. Sections include those devoted to the roles of aircraft carriers, battleships, PT boats, naval aviation and other services.

Attention is directed to the details of significant naval engagements of the war. The details included are sufficient to convey a sense developments without boring the reader.

Clash of Titans provides the reader with a good introduction into the leading naval personalities of the war. In so doing, Boyne spotlights those individuals whose contributions were important to the conduct of the wars. Little attention is paid to sailors who later became celebrities. The section on PT warfare contains one brief mention of John F. Kennedy. The section on submarine rescue of downed pilots omits any mention George Bush.

If there is one defect in this book, I find it in the claims of the potential significance of Axis naval warfare efforts. Prominent among these claims is the suggestion that the German navy submarine and surface raiders, if properly employed in sufficient numbers, could have altered the ultimate outcome of the war. Given the extent of the land and air aspects of war I doubt that the German Navy could have held the key to victory.

Overall, Clash of Titans is an excellent introduction to the overall role of naval warfare in World War II.

This book is as bad as Col. Boyne's Clash of Wings is good. It is accurate only on the grossest level. In detail and analysis it is an abject failure. Col. Boyne is a retired USAF officer and displays no understanding of naval technology or warfare, and gleefully indulges in any opportunity for real or imagined criticisms of navies and naval leaders. These are "favors" he failed to do for Air Force leaders in Clash of Wings. Many of his criticisms of Admiral King, for example, are nothing more than repetitions of popular hearsay recently debunked by the inimitable Clay Blair. As an aviator, Col. Boyne is overly fascinated with individual achievements in naval warfare, a field of endeavor dominated by teamwork. He spends inordinate time salivating over the feats of U-boat "aces" (a word sure to get his attention) and various frogmen. In technical details he can't get ships' armaments or protective systems' capabilities correct or even place admirals aboard the correct ship. In analysis he fails miserably and frequently. I'll describe only his most falacious attempt to discredit navies and tout air forces. Boyne sites a study claiming that the B-29 mining campaign was far more life- and cost-effective than the submarine campaign against shipping. Boyne claims the B-29 campaign cost 103 lives and $6 per ton sunk versus 3,560 lives and $55 per ton sunk for submarines. But Boyne completely ignores the "hidden" costs of the B-29 effort: the invasion of the Marianas at a cost of over 8,000 lives and untold treasure to secure bases for the B-29. He also ignores the eventually futile effort to support B-29 bases in China, also at a great cost in lives and treasure. If you want to learn about naval warfare in World War II, consult the experts' work: Morrison's "The Two Ocean War," Miller's "War At Sea" and "The Naval Air War," Blair's "Silent Victory" and "Hitler's U-Boat War," Padfield's "War Beneath the Sea," Hezlet's "Aircraft and Sea Power," and Reynold's "The Fast Carriers." Miss Boyne's disappointing, if readable effort in this book. After Clash of Wings, I'd hoped he'd do better.

Some folks think I am pretty well read. But Boyne's book provided some surprising (to me) insights...changes to my "strategic thinking". I've read all kinds of histories of WWII. But, for example, I was aware of the Lend Lease shipments and convoys to Murmansk and the bitter cold ocean temperatures that caused survivors of ship sinkings to perish rapidly from hypothermia and all that. But right off, Boyne's book contains some maps overprinted with convoy routes and famous battles. Maybe it's me, but I gained an appreciation of how much naval activity (the sinking of the Tirpitz, for example) took place NORTH of the Arctic Circle!!! Boyne makes a lot of the German invasion of Norway to protect German supply lines for shipment of iron ore. And the huge losses of German surface combat ships [which other reading informs me hurt the Germans later on when they had nothing to fight with on June 6, 1944.] These are just a couple of issues that Boyne helps with. [Did you know that the Germans had successfully broken the British naval codes?]

World War II was a very complicated "event". I have been reading about it for almost 50 years. And I am constantly learning new things. I consider Boyne's book (Clash of Titans) to be a valuable addition to my library and knowledge base.

The author titled his book wrong. He should have called it, "WWII in the Atlantic" or "U-Boat War". 2/3 of this book is spent in the atlantic theater. The author gives the pacific theater about as much attention as you would find in a high school history book. Disappointing how the author can spend chapters on u-boat attacks on convoys and only gives a few small pages to battles like coral, midway...etc. The biggest Naval battle to date, the Battle of Leyte Gulf, gets next to no attention in this book. Save your money, pass on this book.

Author Walter Boyne is a retired Air Force Colonel. He was also director at the Air and Space Museum - this book is outside of his area of expertise, which he admits in the forward. Having said that, he does a good job reviewing the war at sea in WW2. I did not find anything particularly ground breaking, but Boyne has an easy, accessible writing style that I found enjoyable. He provides critiques of all of the navies, mistakes strategic, tactical and with weapons.

There are just a few maps, the b&w photos are small, but both help the reader to better understand the narrative. The naval war from 1939-45 really is tough to compress into one book, but I think Boyne does a pretty good job of it, covering the electronic war, surface ships, submarines, merchant shipping, aviation and tying it all together. While each theater was separate, they did have overall commanders and impacted each other. Boyne shows how and what the impact of those decisions were. The one thing that stands out is that Boyne is willing to go out on a limb and express his opinion on the decision makers.

This is a very good book for those just getting started in naval history, those who may have interest in other branches of the military but want an understanding of the ebb and flow of the war at sea during WW2. I borrowed this from the library and enjoyed reading it.

Clash of Titans covers all of the major naval actions in World War II at a basic level, but none deeply. If you've read any of the innumerable detailed volumes on some of the more notable battles, you'll want to skip right over Boyne's description of that battle. However, if you're looking for areas to discover more deeply, Clash of Titans can be a good first step. Unfortunately, there's little discussion of doctrine or design philosophy, so one gets more of an idea of what people do rather than why they do it.

Too many minute details (a certain ship had only 53.5% of its hull armored for instance) and not enough of an overall sense of the war, or discussion of strategies. There are a few topics covered apart from the narrative, such as the strategy of mines, which are the best part of the book. Adequate but unexciting.

I don't care what the others say: Col. Boyne's book about the ocean war during World War II is THE BEST! His accounts of Pearl Harbor, The Prince of Wales/Repulse sinking, Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, Philippine Sea, Leyte Gulf, and the sinking of the Yamato are the best parts of the book, not to mention the Bismarck chase.