Operations in North African Waters: October 1942 - June 1943 - Volume 2 [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

Morison's 15-volume set is epic in scope, impressive in detail, and literary in execution. Written shortly after the war, and covering the every significant naval activity during the conflict, it is an impressive achievement of both history and writing.

No history so expansive, and written so shortly after the war, can have all the details or rely on all the sources which come to light later, but Morison's history more than compensates for this by its immediacy. In many instances, Morison was there, or spoke with the participants shortly after the events and got their immediate impressions. Accurate or not, those perceptions are history too, and Morison did an impressive job filtering his first-hand material through after-acquired evidence to make a history which is personal, compelling and truthful.

The volume on North African operations covers an important, although less dramatic chapter in World War II, and suffers a little because of it -- the landings in Morocco and Algiers, important as they were to the successful conclusion of the war, simply do not provide the dramatic moments of Midway, Pearl Harbor, or the naval battles surrounding Guadalcanal. Still, it covers a fascinating and little-known chapter in the war, and is well worth the read. Morison successfully conveys the uncertain and unprecedented nature of a trans-Atlantic invasion, along with the sense of unknown risks present at the time in the minds of the participants. And Morison's prose, as in the other volumes of his history, is a joy to read in itself.

This second volume of the classical work by S.E. Morison is one of the best things about naval military history I ever read. Most of this book is devoted to the operation "Torch" in October 1942 and it is a most excellent description. It made me realize better how perilous an enterprise was Allied landing in North Africa - in fact it was much more difficult I ever suspected.

Americans, who were targeting French Morocco, faced a particularly hard target, as they had to cross the whole Atlantic Ocean, seize bridgeheads and then as fast as possible at least one port, in order to disembark heavy equipment before hostile submarines and aviation could sink vulnerable transports. All this with ultimately quite limited assets, as they had only one modern battleship (USS "Massachusetts") and only one real modern aircraft carrier (USS "Ranger"), accompanied by two very old battleships, four escort carriers (commercial ships hastily converted into little carriers) and a screen of cruisers and destroyers. It would be enough that a lucky U-Boat puts one torpedo in the USS "Massachusetts" or in the USS "Ranger" just before the landings, and the whole operation would be in a very serious trouble.

Even once the bridgeheads seized a couple of torpedoes in the transports carrying the tanks would be enough to put in jeopardy the whole Patton infantry already on the shore.

Last but not least, the possible sortie of French ultramodern "Richelieu" battleship with cruisers "Gloire" and "Montcalm" and four destroyers from Dakar and their joining with the French Casablanca squadron (cruiser "Primauguet" and 9 destroyers) would give the French a parity with Americans, with 1 modern battleship, 4 cruisers and 14 destroyers for Americans and 1 modern battleship, 3 cruisers and 13 destroyers for the French (with American cruisers packing more punch in their guns but with French destroyers having much more torpedoes launchers). Which is more, French Navy had also 11 submarines and a whole lot of fighters and bombers readily available at Casablanca and that without even counting German and Italian submarines which were all the time patrolling in the Atlantic and the possible support of German and Italian bombers from Sicily and Libya.

And if the French choose to fight close to the Casablanca port, they could be supported by coastal batteries and the powerful battleship "Jean Bart", sister ship to "Richelieu", immobilized but still having its artillery fully operational. That would make American's task almost impossible.

For all those reasons Americans maintained a total secrecy about their plans in order to achieve surprise. They couldn't even risk informing French general and admirals who were sympathetic to Allied cause, which prevented the latter from efficiently acting - and ultimately Americans had to fight the French in Morocco. Even general de Gaulle was kept in the dark and once informed about the landings in North Africa he famously growled: "J'espere que ces gens de Vichy les fouttront à la mer - on n'entre pas en France par effraction" (I hope that those Vichy people will throw them back to the sea - you do not break into France like a burglar!).

The writing is really charming, there is no other word. Morison's style is - obviously - somehow aged, but it gives this book a unique flavor, totally unknown to the modern writers. Little anecdotes (all real) generously distributed throughout the book are a real treasure.

Maps are exceptionally good in this book. They are all reprints of hand made originals from the 1940's and they are SO MUCH BETTER than the modern computer generated ones! They give this book even more of this old times charm you will never find in more recent works. Illustrations are quite good too.

All in all this is a very precious book for anybody interested in naval military history, a book to buy, read and keep. Enjoy!

Covers an area of the Atlantic theater of WW II not often reviewed- worth reading if interested in WW II.