The Journal

Tag Search: WW2

Strategy, Language, and the Culture of Defeat: Changing Interpretations of Japan’s Pacific War Naval Demise

By Hal M. Friedman Henry Ford Community College Military historians say that military history is written from the perspective of the victor. Japan’s naval defeat in the Pacific War, however, provides a highly arguable case. Much of the translated postwar literature on the Pacific War has been written from an Allied perspective which overemphasizes Japanese … CONTINUE READING ❯
Article

Churchill Goes to War: Winston’s Wartime Journeys

Brian Lavery’s name and works are well known to naval and maritime enthusiasts and historians.  Lavery is the author of more than thirty books, covering marine architecture, ship construction, and naval warfare from its infancy to the present day.  He is perhaps best known as a leading expert on the career of Lord Nelson and … CONTINUE READING ❯
Article

Forgotten Weapon: U. S. Navy Airships and the U-boat War

Long recognised as the expert on United States Navy lighter than air (LTA) operations William Althoff has once again mined his seminal 1990 text Sky Ships: A History of the Airship in the United States Navy for a theme that required further development. This study shifts the focus from the broad focus to the wartime … CONTINUE READING ❯
Article

The Battle of Midway

The series editors of Oxford’s “Pivotal Moments in American History” collection certainly hit a home run when they asked Craig Symonds to write about the battle of Midway. Symonds needs no introduction to IJNH’s readership, having published widely in naval and American history and having taught countless midshipmen at Annapolis for thirty years. Building on … CONTINUE READING ❯
Article

The Silent Service in World War II: The Story of the U.S. Navy Submarine Force in the Words of the Men Who Lived It

Edward Monroe-Jones, director of the Submarine Research Center, has previously written two other books while his co-editor Michael Green, a freelance writer, has credits for over ninety titles. To say the least, this is a pair of experienced writers who have put together another compelling book. For The Silent Service in World War II, they … CONTINUE READING ❯
Article

The Battle for Norway, April – June 1940

When in April 1940 forces of the German Wehrmacht commenced Operation Weserübung, the invasion and occupation of neutral Norway in order to protect Scandinavian ore resources and also deny them to Britain, Norwegian and Allied forces were taken by surprise.  While the invasion and subsequent occupation by the German military included many “firsts” of the … CONTINUE READING ❯
Article