The USS Pennsylvania leads 4 more U.S. Navy ships into Lingayen Gulf, Philippines, January 1945 (National Archives)
The Second World War was the single greatest cataclysm of violence in human history, one in which some 60 million people—about three percent of the world’s population—lost their lives. A central element of that conflict was the war conducted by a dozen navies on six oceans and a number of seas, including the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. Craig L. Symonds, the Ernest J. King distinguished professor of maritime history at the U.S. Naval War College and professor emeritus at the U.S. Naval Academy, offers a summary and analysis of how that naval conflict determined both the trajectory and the outcome of the war.
From the convoy battles in the North Atlantic to carrier duels in the Pacific and amphibious landings from Guadalcanal to D-Day, the war at sea was a single giant global struggle. Symonds examines how despite an Anglo-American commitment to a “Germany First” strategy, the ubiquitous pressures in all these theaters put a tremendous strain on both nations’ shipping and forced a painful reconsideration of Allied priorities. By contrasting simultaneous battles in the South Pacific and the Mediterranean, he illustrates how the war was not only global, it was also simultaneous.
Symonds’ book, World War II at Sea: A Global History (Oxford University Press) is available for signing after the program.
