"The Two-Ocean War: A Short History of the United States Navy in the Scond World War" (used book)

The Two-Ocean War: A Short History of the United States Navy in the Second World War

by Samuel Eliot Morison

About the Book

Used Book. Hardcover. Dust jacket included. Fair condition. Library copy. tape on front and back of dust jacket.

-- From the dust jacket

Here is a book that at last deserves the adjective “unique” – a one-volume history of the United States Navy in World War II by the only man competent to write it: Samuel Eliot Morison, author of the monumental and definitive fifteen-volume History of United States Naval Operations in World War II.

While this single volume is, of course, based on his official history, Admiral Morison has undertaken no mere condensation. This book has been wholly rewritten from its longer counterpart; it clears away the underbrush of detail but retains in all their eloquence the great action pieces of the longer work: the preparation for the war, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, the long war of attrition between submarines and convoys in the Atlantic, the battles of the coral Sea and Midway, the long grind of Guadalcanal the leapfrogging campaigns among the Pacific island, the invasion of continental Europe, the penultimate blazes of glory at Leyte and Okinawa, and the final grudging surrender of the Japanese.

In its sweep and grandeur, this big volume is a blazing record of American hardihood, resourcefulness and courage. It is ample enough to dramatize all of the strategic arguments, which went on between Churchill and King, between MacArthur and Nimitz; it is rich enough to reveal the glory of individual feats of arms, particularly in the fierce independence of submarine warfare; it airs the major errors, on our own side as well as on the enemy’s. In this volume, Admiral Morison has been able to take into account many of the works which have been written about the great war since his multi-volume project was begun; and this book contains certain changes of attitude and modification of the author’s previous views.

This is a superb volume in appearance as well as in the reading; it contains 52 charts and 25 pages of photographs.