Fighting Admirals of World War II

Fighting Admirals of World War II by David Wragg. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2009. ISBN: 978-1-84415-860-7. 198p. £19.99

David Wragg has developed a reputation as a prolific naval writer on the Second World War. Sadly this book will add nothing to that reputation. Indeed it is difficult to see the point of the book or any appeal to its intended audience of “naval enthusiasts”. In a thin 190 pages it provides a potted history of the war at sea, potted accounts of the various navies and some 23 biographies. Attempting to cover 23 admirals in 190 pages while also devoting the first three dozen pages to summaries of the European and Far East theatres demonstrates the underlying weakness of the book. The biographical essays range from two to twelve pages in length and are typically cursory to the point of being unhelpful. For example, Spruance is covered in barely 500 words. The chapters typically are shorter (and more poorly referenced) then the comparable Wikipedia entry. In such a short space there is little room for more than the basic facts of each career and certainly almost no analysis of the individual and their contribution. The book begins with a 35 page potted history of the war at sea and has small sections on each navy before looking at the individual admirals. For example there is a desultory two page section on the Royal Navy listing its principal commands and wartime personnel strength and number of ships plus a paragraph on the limitations of the Washington Naval Treaty, but no attempt to define its capacity as a naval force.

There are numerous errors which speak of haste and poor editing rather than ignorance. This begins with the dustjacket which claims that the book provides biographies of five British admirals, five American, three German, three Japanese, and two French. In fact, the text covers seven British admirals, five American, two German, six Japanese, one French, plus one Dutch, and one Italian. The dustjacket even records the names of some of the missing such as Lutjens. The text is then strewn with irritating errors. The attack on Pearl Harbor is given as 1940 not 1941; Ozawa is given two different dates of death; Fraser is referred to as Fletcher; Fletcher is described as Jack Frank not Frank Jack; a signal from Cunningham to Somerville is ascribed as from Somerville to Cunningham; Devonshire not Dorsetshire is claimed to rescue the Bismarck survivors and so on.

The book concludes with some trite musings on leadership qualities and a barbed statement that Kimmel (commander at Pearl Harbor) is excluded for his incompetence in failing to undertake reconnaisance. To reduce a complicated situation to an assertion perhaps best sums up why the book fails to justify a place on most bookshelves.