Naval Battles of the Second World War

by Leo Marriott

If you have obtained copies of your ancestor’s Royal Navy service record for WW2, it will provide you with a list of ships served upon. But that should be only the beginning of your research. You will want to know whether these ships took part in any of the naval battles of the war while your ancestor was on board, and this is where Leo Marriott’s book will help you.

Every chapter describes a named naval battle and opens with a box detailing the identities of the Allied ships involved as well as the date and location. The book also contains maps of engagements, and over one hundred wartime photos mainly of ships at sea, in action and in distress. The chapters are necessarily brief given the large task which the author has set for himself, but each one begins with a background to the engagement to set the scene. As a whole, the book is a helpful summary of wartime naval actions.

This book is the first of two volumes focusing on the battles in the Atlantic and north west Europe, and on the Mediterranean. The second volume, due for publication in June, will cover the Pacific and Far East.

• Published by Pen & Sword at £20 (hardback) ISBN: ISBN: 978-1399098939. SW