A good general read of naval war in WWII, from the man who brought us Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. In fact how I came across this Audible version of this book (Victory at Sea), was because I was looking for an Audible version of "that" book (Rise and Fall). I was intrigued at his (Kennedy's) obvious obsession with WW2 naval power and the world wide implications of naval conflict. I listened to the sample and was hooked (see below, it gives a good all ocean coverage of WWII and I have to say "I learned a few new things" - although the editors should have picked up some silly errors [Hipper was not in the Channel Dash, but the Prince Eugen a Hipper class cruiser heavy, while accounting for RN CVs they had tallied the Furious sunk despite it surviving the war, getting confused with the loss of the Hermes I think], in the main it was wholesomely good and accurate [so I forgive the previous small errors], but I would double check specifics of ships to see if they are correct):
As per what is now a recurring theme of my Audible purchases, if (as I usually do) I like the audio recording of the book I also end up getting a print copy too. It is a knowledge at your fingertips thing for me. Here, despite it being newly in print (so a relatively "expensive" treat) and despite it being in hardback, I really wanted it for the glorious watercolour artwork which beautifully accompanies it. If but only for that reason alone, the watercolour illustrations make it a beautiful book for the library shelf and thus I can whole heartedly recommend it.
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