Recomended Military Books: Navy & Ships

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Deck of USS Enterprise (CVN 65) at Naval Station Norfolk, during exercise Summer Pulse 04
Deck of USS Enterprise (CVN 65) at Naval Station Norfolk, during exercise Summer Pulse ’04.

Today in WW II: 15 May 1940 Dutch armies surrender to Germany.  More ↓
15 May 1942 Gas rationing begins for the Eastern United States.
15 May 1942 US Congress authorizes Women's Auxiliary Army Corps [WAAC].
15 May 1944 Germans begin withdrawal from the Gustav Line to new positions south of Rome, Italy.
Visit the Olive-Drab.com World War II Timeline for day-by-day events 1939-1945! See also WW2 Books.

Books About the Navy, Naval Aviation and Ships

US Naval Special Warfare / US Navy SEALs by Greg E. Mathieson Sr. (Editor) and others. 409 pages (2013) NSW Publications, LLC; 2nd edition. Photo documentary of Naval Special Warfare units from their origins to today's actions against terrorism. An outstanding work, both in the quality and uniqueness of the photography to the unprecedented access to secretive operations. From their website: "This, a first of its kind book on all of U.S. Naval Special Warfare; the home of the US. Navy SEALs and Special Boat Units. From the CIA forefathers, the OSS Maritime Units, through to the Raiders and Underwater Demolition Units and into the development and birth of the SEALs to the present day. With an opening tribute by United States President George W. Bush (43), who utilized their skills to track down terrorists after the attack on 9-11."

Left to Die: The Tragedy of the USS Juneau by Dan Kurzman. 352 pages (May 1, 1995) Pocket Books. The sinking of the cruiser USS Juneau (CL-52) on 13 November 1942, during the naval battle of Guadalcanal, is best known because the Five Sullivan Brothers were amnong the dead. But there is a larger story. While most of the 700-man crew were killed immediately by the Japanese submarine attack, about 150 survivors were left in the water. Poor decisions, the fog of war, and SNAFUs delayed rescue for eight days as the men bobbed without supplies in shark-infested waters. Ultimately, only ten were found alive. Kurzman, who is also the author of Fatal Voyage about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) in 1945, provides the harrowing details of life and hope ebbing away in the water as days went on.

Author John Scanlan is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a fighter pilot, now retired from the USMC as a Lt. Colonel. He has integrated his experiences into two novels of life in the modern U.S. military, full of detailed descriptions of training, operations, personal interactions and dialog. The first novel is Dink Gadink, a depiction of a week in the life of seven Plebes at the Naval Academy. The second, Speed Is Life, More Is Better, covers a week of the daily life of Marine Aviators, forward deployed for combat patrols in a war setting. Although both books are fiction, they shine in their ability to convey the reality of the vividly portrayed situations, written by a man who lived the life and has the ability to convey that to the reader.

Unknown Waters: A First-Hand Account of the Historic Under-ice Survey of the Siberian Continental Shelf by USS Queenfish (SSN-651) by Alfred S McLaren. 242 pages (January 25, 2008) University Alabama Press. Captain McLaren's first person account of the vital patrols of American nuclear submaries under the arctic ice during the 1960s and 1970s. The vital Cold War role of these patrols at the top of the world is presented along with some ligher moments like surfacing at the North Pole.
Two-Ocean War: A Short History of the United States Navy in the Second World War by Samuel Eliot Morison. US Naval Institute Press (April 6, 2007), paperback, 642 pages. Morison was an historian, a full professor at Harvard who was commissioned into the WW II Navy specifically to write the history of the conflict. This book, originally published in 1963, is a single-volume abridgement of the official history, Morison's monumental fifteen volume History of United States Naval Operations in World War II , recipient of multiple honors. This book reviews all the important aspects of the subject and follows the action in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and the Pacific from the preparations before Pearl Harbor, through the battle of the Atlantic, to the struggles for the Pacific island bases and the final Japanese surrender.
American Battleships : A Pictorial History of BB-1 to BB-71, With Prototypes Maine & Texas by Max R. Newhart
Jane's Battleships of the 20th Century by Bernard Ireland, Tony Gibbons (Illustrator)
U.S. Navy Ships and Coast Guard Cutters by M. D. Rear Admiral Van Orden. 87 pages (October 1990). This book is an excellent beginner's look into ships, life aboard them, and the men and women who serve on them. It details the major types of Naval and Coast Guard vessels from Aircraft Carriers, to Auxillary Ships, and High Endurance Cutters. The author draws on 34 years in the Navy to present often puzzling nautical and technical information into an easy-to-understand format. This book is written primarily for teenagers, but everyone who reads this book will enjoy it and learn from it.
In Harms Way by Doug Stanton. 320 pages 1st edition (April 2001) Henry Holt & Company, Inc. At the end of July 1945 the USS Indianapolis had just completed the top-secret mission delivering the atomic bomb to the B-29 group on Tinian. As she crossed the South Pacific to her next duty station, she was torpedoed and sunk with the immediate loss of hundreds of men. Through an incredible series of mistakes, the Navy didn't notice her loss and no rescue was sent for days during which the surviving crew suffered unbelievable trials in the shark-infested seas. This book captures the bravery and anguish of those days in the water followed by the heartbreaking attempt by the Navy to blame the captain for the disaster. This is an incredible human drama of valor and sacrifice under the worst circumstances. The publisher has created a web site with much more information about the history of this event.
PC Patrol Craft of World War II by Wm. J. Veigele. 400 pages. (May 2003). This book is a history of all the PC Patrol Craft of WWII ("subchasers") and their crews. It describes the need for, construction of, crew training, exploits and action, losses, and disposition of the ships. The book has more than 150 photographs and drawings and a plan for a PC.