The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness Naval Battles: Graphic Eyewitness Accounts of History's Key Naval Conflicts, from Salamis to the Gulf War [Paperback]

Richard Russell Lawrence (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 27, 2003 | Series: Mammoth Book of

From the Battle of Salamis in 378 B.C. to crucial operations in the 1991 Gulf War, this mammoth volume offers first-hand accounts by the officers and crew who manned the galleys, sailing ships, ironclads, dreadnoughts, submarines, and flat tops in the world’s most famous battles at sea. With illustrations, diagrams, maps, and drama, these pieces record the tactics, setbacks, perils, defeats, and victories that have etched in our memory the names of naval heroes like John Paul Jones, who fathered the American navy; the gloriously celebrated Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson who proved that Britannia ruled the waves; “the sea wolf” Thomas Cochrane ; Captain Isaac Hull, the commander of “Old Ironsides”; David Farragut, who famously took the Union navy to victory in Mobile Bay during the American Civil War; and Commodore George Dewey, who effectively defeated the Spanish fleet in the 1898 Battle of Manila Bay. Eyewitness testimony records unforgettable moments in some of the most crucial encounters at sea during the twentieth century, most epically in the Pacific theater of World War II—at Guadalcanal, in the Battle of Midway, and momentously in the D-day landings at Normandy. Throughout, this exciting volume brings three millennia of naval history to life.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This stout Mammoth series entry presents eyewitness accounts of great naval battles and campaigns, clear context-setting narrative passages, illustrations of ships typical of those engaged in each battle or campaign, and maps of the battles' and campaigns' areas and maneuvers. Here are reports of the close-quarters galley actions of the ancient encounters at Salamis, Actium, and Lepanto, as well as the almost equally close-quarters climaxes of clashes during the early modern days of sail, including the great Napoleonic fleet engagements through Trafalgar. Moving to postsail battles, the World War I fighting and retrieval of the dead at Jutland, the deadly submarine warfare of both world wars, and, via the experiences of a British sailor trapped below decks in a damaged destroyer, the Falklands conflict are covered. The ships, the shipmates, the sea, and the enemy are always vividly presented, making this a grand book to soak up before diving into Master and Commander, the big-deal movie based on one of the late Patrick O'Brien's best-selling salt operas, at the cineplex. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf (October 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786712384
• ISBN-13: 978-0786712380
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 4.9 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,505,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars EYEWITNESS TEXT & NARRATIVE IS OF VARIABLE QUALITY, August 14, 2006

By 

Heather L. Parisi "Robert and Heather Parisi" (St. Augustine, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness Naval Battles: Graphic Eyewitness Accounts of History's Key Naval Conflicts, from Salamis to the Gulf War (Paperback)

FIRST OFF: IT HELPS IF YOU KNOW ABOUT THE BATTLES BEFOREHAND

IN A NUTSHELL: MORE INPUT FROM THE EDITOR IS SORELY NEEDED

World War I and World War II battles are the most known in history and are the best represented here in this book. Many of the accounts are from excellent sources like Admiral Beatty at Jutland, but some are from rather obscure sources. As long as one has a good idea of what the official historical accounts have reported, the eyewitness accounts can be read and given whatever weight they deserve. One must bear in mind, however, that an eyewitness may be very close to some aspects of a battle and still be oblivious to others. For example, the account given of the sinking of the Hood was from an officer stationed on the aft 14-inch-gun director of the Prince Of Wales. He did not see the Hood sink and was rather surprised by the news, despite being right there on the scene. He states that he was very focused on his task at the time (reporting the fall of shot).

Others discuss some of the night actions at the numerous naval battles at Guadalcanal and tend to lump the events together. For instance, the eyewitness account of the action which involved the Battleships South Dakota and Washington on the night of November 13 (going into 14) seems very blurry when compared to the officially-documented facts. It was dark and the witness was on just one ship, so this is understandable. Nevertheless, there is a certain lack of detail as to which Battleship was which and what exactly happened to them. In this case, the South Dakota was actually severely damaged and had a loss of power while the Washington lurked out of the Imperial Navy's view until it could distinguish which ship was whose. Before this maneuver, something of a free-for-all was taking place which has often been described as a "bar fight with the lights turned off." Simply stated, ships on both sides made errors and fired on some of their own ships in the close-quarter confusion.

Once Admiral Lee, who was on the Washington [not the South Dakota], sorted out whose ships were on which side, he promptly permitted the Battleship Washington to destroy and ultimately sink the Battlecruiser Kirashima [NOT Battleship]. The accounts here don't even mention the Battleship Washington and refer to the South Dakota as Admiral Lee's flagship. As stated above, he was actually aboard the Washington, which was his flagship and which fired the 16-inch projectiles. The South Dakota was severely damaged early in the battle and could not fire anything but its secondary 5-inch guns because of a power failure; however, the armored citadel was unbreeched and the ship was never in danger of sinking.

WHAT DOES ALL THAT MEAN?

The aforementioned are the types of error that require narration by the editor, but this is universally lacking. In effect, the reader must be the editor. This means that the reader must have enough prior knowledge to correctly evaluate the first-hand accounts here as s/he is reading and taking it all in. For instance, there are many accounts where the eyewitness may refer to the enemy ships by the wrong name or the wrong type of armament or in the wrong place or at the wrong time or any combination of those errors. This is where careful and precise editing via footnotes, parentheses, or small breaks with an explanation could have raised the value of this work overall.

THE BOTTOM LINE: INTERESTING BUT FLAWED - NEEDS MORE EDITING/NARRATION

For the above reasons, I found it very difficult to read any accounts in this text that I did not already know much about because I found myself looking up the actual historic accounts for verification. This made reading a chore and entertainment an impossibility. In the end, this lack of editorial narration greatly diminished the value of this otherwise comprehensive work to me and limited my reading to battles that either I knew enough about beforehand or was willing to research my own questions as I read.