Naval warfare

Naval warfare considers the miltary history of the organized navies of the world from 300 BC to the present.

18th century

Rodger goes beyond battle history and fleet operations to examine the organizational superiority of the Royal Navy, especially in contrast with the Frenc navy. He argues the British were better at ship architecture (gaining speed via bronze plating), maintanence, practical officer training, and crew care. British repair docks could handle ships of the line better than the French, who concentrated on construction rather than maintenance. Much credit goes to the Admiralty, under the direction of civilian Samuel Pepys as secretary and chief administrative officer.

19th century

Rodger (2005) examines the implications of victory at sea during the Napoleonic wars and the impact that British naval success had on the ultimate defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815. Naval warfare in the early 19th century was almost never decisive; military engagements on land remained the most crucial determinant of success under arms. However, success at sea could contribute to wasting an enemy's resources via the destruction of technology (complex and costly warships) and skilled manpower. Naval engagements, because they were far removed from the presence of civilians, also had the advantage of arousing little, if any, resentment from civilian populations, resentment that could be transformed into popular uprisings and insurgency. Ultimately, Britain's Royal Navy, despite a string of naval victories, was unable to counter Napoleon's hegemony on the European continent. For that, a coalition of land powers was needed. Naval contributions remained but a sideshow throughout the conflict.

See also

• Naval guns
• American Revolution, naval history
• Military history
• Land warfare
• Marine Corps
• Alfred Thayer Mahan
• Sea Power
• United States Navy
• World War II, Pacific

Battles and campaigns

• Battle of Pearl Harbor, 1941
• Battle of Jutland. 1916
• Battle of Trafalgar, 1805
• Union Blockade, U.S. Civil War 1861-65

Bibliography

Surveys

• Dupuy, R. Ernest and Trevor N. Dupuy. Encyclopedia of Military History: From 3500 BC to the Present (1977) 1465pp; complete summary of a;l; major battles, campaigns and wars
• Padfield, Peter. Maritime Supremacy and the Opening of the Western Mind: Naval Campaigns that Shaped the Modern World (2002) excerpt and text search
• Padfield, Peter. Maritime Power and the Struggle for Freedom: Naval Campaigns That Shaped the Modern World, 1788-1851. (2005). 480 pp.
• Potter, E. B. Sea Power: A Naval History (1982), covers all major battled in world history
• Rose, Susan. Medieval Naval Warfare, 1000-1500 (2002) online edition
• Sondhaus, Lawrence. Naval Warfare, 1815-1914 (2001) online edition

Major nations

Britain and Royal Navy

• Rodger, N. A. M. The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain 660-1649 vol 1 (1999) 691pp; excerpt and text search
• Rodger, N. A. M. The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815 (2006), 976pp excerpt and text search

United States

• Howarth, Stephen. To Shining Sea -- A History of the United States Navy, 1775-1991 (1991).
• Love, Robert W. History of the US Navy: 1942-1991 (1992) excerpt and text search
• Love, Robert W. History of the US Navy: 1775-1941 (1992) excerpt and text search

Sea Power

• Koburger Jr. Charles W. Sea Power in the Twenty-First Century: Projecting a Naval Revolution (1997) online edition
• Mahan, Alfred Thayer. The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 (1890) 557 pages; perhaps the most influential history book ever written Google version

Technology

See also [[Naval guns > Bibliography|Naval guns]]

• Brown, David K. Eclipse of the Big Gun: The Warship 1906-45 (1992)
• Friedman, Norman. U.S. Naval Weapons: Every Gun, Missile, Mine and Torpedo Used by the U.S. Navy from 1883 to the Present (1983), highly detailed guide
• Greene, Jack, and Alessandro Massignani. Ironclads at War: The Origin and Development of the Armored Warship, 1854-1891 (1998) online edition
• Guilmartin, John F., Jr. Gunpowder and Galleys: Changing Technology and Mediterranean Warfare at Sea in the Sixteenth Century (2003)
• Lambert, Nicholas A. Sir John Fisher's Naval Revolution (2002) excerpt and text search
• McBride, William M. Technological Change and the United States Navy, 1865-1945 (2000) excerpt and text search
• Morison, Elting E. Men Machines and Modern Times (1968) excerpt and text search
• Sumida, Jon Tetsuro. "A Matter of Timing: The Royal Navy and the Tactics of Decisive Battle, 1912–1916," Journal of Military History 67 (January 2003): 85–136 in JSTOR

Wars

Early Modern: 1500-1700

• Corbett, Julian S. Drake and the Tudor Navy: With a History of the Rise of England as a Maritime Power (1898) online edition vol 1; also online edition vol 2

18th century

• Allen, Gardner W. A Naval History of the American Revolution (1913) online at Google
• Fowler, William M. Rebels Under Sail (1976), the standard scholarly history of the naval warfare during the American Revolution
• Morison, Samuel Eliot. John Paul Jones (1959), Pulitzer Prize excerpt and text search
• Thomas, Evan. John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy (2003) excerpt and text search

Napoleonic

• Mahan, Alfred Thayer. The influence of sea power upon the War of 1812 2 vols (1905) online edition
• Pope, Dudley. Decision at Trafalgar. (1960) online edition
• Roosevelt, Theodore. The Naval War of 1812 (1882). eText at Project Gutenberg

20th century

World War I

See also [[World War I > Bibliography]]

• Gray, Edwyn A. The U-Boat War, 1914-1918 (1994)
• Halpern, Paul G. A Naval History of World War I(1995)

World War II

See also [[World War II, Pacific > Bibliography|World War II, Pacific]]

• Blair, Clay Jr. Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan (1975).

Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941

• Buell, Thomas. Master of Seapower: A Biography of Admiral Ernest J. King (1976).
• Gailey, Harry A. The War in the Pacific: From Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay (1995) online edition
• King, Ernest J. U.S. Navy at War, 1941-1945: Official Reports to the Secretary of the Navy (1946) online edition
• Kirby, S. Woodburn. The War Against Japan. 4 vols. (1957-1965). Highly detailed official Royal Navy history.
• Morison, Samuel Eliot. The Two-Ocean War: A Short History of the United States Navy in the Second World War (1963), one-volume version of his massive 15 vol history (1947-62) of combat operations
• Potter, John D. Yamamoto 1967.
• Prange, Gordon W. At Dawn We Slept. 1982. Pearl Harbor
• Prange, Gordon W. Miracle at Midway (1982).
• Reynolds, Clark G. The Fast Carriers: Forging of an Air Navy (1968).
• Spector, Ronald. Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan Free Press, 1985.
• Turnbull, Archibald D. and Clifford Lord. History of United States Naval Aviation (1949).
• Willmott, H. P. The Barrier and the Javelin: Japanese and Allied Pacific Strategies, February to June, 1942 (1983).

Cold war and after

• Brasher, Bart. Implosion: Downsizing the U.S. Military, 1987-2015 (2000) online edition
• Duncan, Francis. Rickover and the Nuclear Navy (1990).
• Hartmann, Frederick H. Naval Renaissance -- The U.S. Navy in the 1980s (1990).
• Lehman, John F., Jr. Command of the Seas: Building the 600 Ship Navy (1989).
• Love, Robert W. History of the US Navy: 1942-1991 (1992) excerpt and text search
• Polmar, Norman. The American Submarine (1981). well-illustrated popular history
• Ryan, Paul B. First Line of Defense -- The U.S. Navy Since 1945 (1981)