Blue Water War
The Maritime Struggle in the Mediterranean and Middle East, 1940–1945
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Blue Water War
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Narrated by:
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Julian Elfer
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By:
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Brian E. Walter
About this listen
For three millennia, the Mediterranean Sea served as the center of western civilization and the scene of many colossal wars and naval battles. In the early summer of 1940, this ancient body of water again played host to a new and extensive conflict as the Kingdom of Italy challenged Britain for dominance within the region. With France on the verge of collapse and Britain facing the prospect of imminent invasion, the Italians hoped to re-establish control over the Mediterranean. The only thing standing in their way was the heavily outnumbered British Mediterranean Fleet and the equally outnumbered British ground and air forces present in the region.
Blue Water War tells the story of this epic struggle. This was a prolonged and colossal conflict waged at differing times against the combined forces of Italy, Germany, and Vichy France in the Mediterranean and Middle East. Utilizing a variety of weapons, including surface warships, submarines, and aircraft along with sizable merchant fleets, the British and their subsequent American partners maintained vital seaborne lines of communication, conducted numerous amphibious landings, interdicted Axis supply activities, and eventually eliminated all semblances of Axis maritime power within the theater. In turn, these actions facilitated multiple Allied victories that helped secure the defeat of the European Axis.
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-
Story4 out of 5 stars 140
Paul Kennedy, award-winning author of The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers and one of today’s most renowned historians, now provides a new and unique look at how World War II was won. Engineers of Victory is a fascinating nuts-and-bolts account of the strategic factors that led to Allied victory. Kennedy reveals how the leaders’ grand strategy was carried out by the ordinary soldiers, scientists, engineers, and businessmen responsible for realizing their commanders’ visions of success.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Misleading title
- By Thomas on 04-10-14
By: Paul Kennedy
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Hell to Pay
- Operation Downfall and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-1947
- By: D. M. Giangreco
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 86
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 69
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Story4 out of 5 stars 71
U.S. planning for the invasion and military occupation of Imperial Japan began two years before the dropping of atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hell to Pay brings to light the political and military ramifications of the enormous casualties and loss of material projected by both sides in the climatic struggle to bring the Pacific War to a conclusion through a brutal series of battles on Japanese soil.
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4 out of 5 stars
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This is a good piece of history.
- By David on 08-09-14
By: D. M. Giangreco
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The War for the Seas
- A Maritime History of World War II
- By: Evan Mawdsley
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 28 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 145
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 131
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 131
Command of the oceans was crucial to winning World War II. By the start of 1942 Nazi Germany had conquered mainland Europe, and Imperial Japan had overrun Southeast Asia and much of the Pacific. How could Britain and distant America prevail in what had become a "war of continents"? In this definitive account, Evan Mawdsley traces events at sea from the first U-boat operations in 1939 to the surrender of Japan. He argues that the Allied counterattack involved not just decisive sea battles, but a long struggle to control shipping arteries and move armies across the sea.
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2 out of 5 stars
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An Unengaging Survey that Disappoints
- By Scott Eckert on 08-06-20
By: Evan Mawdsley
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South Pacific Cauldron
- World War II's Great Forgotten Battlegrounds
- By: Alan Rems
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 45
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 45
Unlike most other World War II accounts, this work covers the South Pacific operations in detail. The audiobook includes many now-forgotten operations that deserve to be well remembered. Significantly, the official Australian history of World War II correctly observed that Australia's part in the Pacific war is barely mentioned in American histories. This volume finally brings the major Australian contribution to the fore.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A little dry but informative
- By Damien on 02-20-15
By: Alan Rems
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World War II at Sea
- A Global History
- By: Craig L. Symonds
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 25 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,386
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,235
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1,228
World War II at Sea offers a global perspective, focusing on the major engagements and personalities and revealing both their scale and their interconnection: the U-boat attack on Scapa Flow and the Battle of the Atlantic; the "miracle" evacuation from Dunkirk and the pitched battles for control of Norway fjords; Mussolini's Regia Marina - at the start of the war the fourth-largest navy in the world - and the dominance of the Kidö Butai and Japanese naval power in the Pacific; Pearl Harbor then Midway; and much more.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding
- By Patrick on 02-14-19
By: Craig L. Symonds
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Intelligence in War
- Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda
- By: John Keegan
- Narrated by: Richard Matthews
- Length: 15 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 294
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 172
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Story4 out of 5 stars 170
In fiction, the spy is a glamorous figure whose secrets make or break peace, but, historically, has intelligence really been a vital step to military victories? In this breakthrough study, the preeminent war historian John Keegan goes to the heart of a series of important conflicts to develop a powerful argument about military intelligence. In his characteristically wry and perceptive prose, Keegan offers us nothing short of a new history of war through the prism of intelligence.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Military history more than history of intelligence
- By D. Littman on 01-10-04
By: John Keegan
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Third Reich Victorious
- Alternate Histories of World War II
- By: Peter G. Tsouras
- Narrated by: David Baker
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 98
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 88
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Story4 out of 5 stars 88
This book is a stimulating and entirely plausible insight into how Hitler and his generals might have defeated the Allies, and a convincing sideways look at the Third Reich's bid at world domination in World War II. What would have happened if, for example, the Germans captured the whole of the BEF at Dunkirk? Or if the RAF had been defeated in the Battle of Britain?
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3 out of 5 stars
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A fresh look at WW2 - false but makes one wonder.
- By Eggert Eggertsson on 09-05-15
By: Peter G. Tsouras
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Eagle Against the Sun
- The American War With Japan
- By: Ronald H. Spector
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 23 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 246
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 211
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 210
Spector reassesses US and Japanese strategy and offers some provocative interpretations. He shows that the dual advance across the Pacific by MacArthur and Nimitz was less a product of strategic calculation and more a pragmatic solution to bureaucratic, doctrinal, and public relations problems facing the Army and Navy. He also argues that Japan made its fatal error not in the Midway campaign but in abandoning its offensive strategy after that defeat and allowing itself to be drawn into a war of attrition.
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3 out of 5 stars
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OK as an overview, but too little detail
- By Mike From Mesa on 03-21-22
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America at War
- Concise Histories of U.S. Military Conflicts from Lexington to Afghanistan
- By: Terence T. Finn
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
War-organized violence against an enemy of the state-seems part and parcel of the American journey. Indeed, the United States was established by means of violence as ordinary citizens from New Hampshire to Georgia answered George Washington's call to arms. Since then, war has become a staple of American history. Counting the War for Independence, the United States has fought the armed forces of other nations at least twelve times, averaging a major conflict every twenty years.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Remember the past
- By Mary on 12-13-23
By: Terence T. Finn
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When Britain Saved the West
- The Story of 1940
- By: Robin Prior
- Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 61
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 58
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
From the comfortable distance of seven decades, it is quite easy to view the victory of the Allies over Hitler's Germany as inevitable. But in 1940 Great Britain's defeat loomed perilously close, and no other nation stepped up to confront the Nazi threat. In this cogently argued book, Robin Prior delves into the documents of the time - war diaries, combat reports, Home Security's daily files, and much more - to uncover how Britain endured a year of menacing crises.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Very detailed; a bit dry in spots
- By No on 09-07-15
By: Robin Prior
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Islands of Destiny
- By: John Prados
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 75
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 62
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 63
Acclaimed WWII historian and military intelligence expert John Prados offers a provocative reassessment of the Allies’ battle for the Solomon Islands - a turbulent, dramatic campaign that, he argues, was the true turning point of the Pacific conflict.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Way too much detail
- By Eric on 01-15-17
By: John Prados
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Case Red
- The Collapse of France
- By: Robert Forczyk
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 172
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 154
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 153
Even after the legendary evacuation from Dunkirk in June 1940 there were still large British formations fighting the Germans alongside their French allies. After mounting a vigorous counterattack at Abbeville and then engaging a tough defense along the Somme, the British were forced to conduct a second evacuation from the ports of Le Havre, Cherbourg, Brest, and St. Nazaire. Case Red captures the drama of the final three weeks of military operations in France in June 1940.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Not Forczyk's best offering
- By S.C. James on 01-30-18
By: Robert Forczyk
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The Second World Wars
- How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won
- By: Victor Davis Hanson
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 23 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,413
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,249
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1,247
The Second World Wars examines how combat unfolded in the air, at sea, and on land to show how distinct conflicts among disparate combatants coalesced into one interconnected global war. Drawing on 3,000 years of military history, Victor Davis Hanson argues that despite its novel industrial barbarity, neither the war's origins nor its geography were unusual. Nor was its ultimate outcome surprising. The Axis powers were well prepared to win limited border conflicts, but once they blundered into global war, they had no hope of victory.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The story behind the story of WW 2
- By LARRY DINKIN on 02-07-19
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Where the Iron Crosses Grow
- The Crimea 1941-44
- By: Robert Forczyk
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 170
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 158
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Story4 out of 5 stars 157
The Crimea was one of the crucibles of the war on the Eastern Front, where first a Soviet and then a German army were surrounded, fought desperate battles, and were eventually destroyed. The fighting in the region was unusual for the Eastern Front in many ways, in that naval supply, amphibious landings, and naval evacuation played major roles, while both sides were also conducting ethnic cleansing as part of their strategy - the Germans eliminating the Jews and the Soviets purging the region of Tartars.
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2 out of 5 stars
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names, places,troop strength and commanders
- By richard on 02-19-15
By: Robert Forczyk
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The Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific War
- By: Mark E. Stille
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 89
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 82
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Story4 out of 5 stars 81
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) was the third most powerful navy in the world at the start of World War II and came to dominate the Pacific in the early months of the war. This was a remarkable turnaround for a navy that only began to modernize in 1868. The Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific War details the Japanese ships which fought in the Pacific and examines the principles on which they were designed, how they were armed, when and where they were deployed, and how effective they were in battle.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Technical Reference
- By Dale H. Reeck on 06-09-18
By: Mark E. Stille
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War at the End of the World
- Douglas MacArthur and the Forgotten Fight for New Guinea 1942-1945
- By: James P. Duffy
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 105
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 96
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 97
One American soldier called it "a green hell on Earth". Monsoon-soaked wilderness, debilitating heat, impassable mountains, torrential rivers, and disease-infested swamps - New Guinea was a battleground far more deadly than the most fanatical of enemy troops. Japanese forces numbering some 600,000 men began landing in January 1942, determined to seize the island as a cornerstone of the empire's strategy to knock Australia out of the war.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The WW2 New Guinea Campaign
- By William R. Todd-Mancillas (Name includes hyphen and capitalized M). on 09-26-18
By: James P. Duffy
What listeners say about Blue Water War
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Jeff G
- 07-13-22
Disappointing
I was disappointed in this book. It really wasn't necessary to discuss the role of the Mediterranean's importance in history and the naval battles thereon before WW2 as much as he did. Also, I had expected/hoped for more information about the navies and strategy/battles than was given. Narrator did a good job.
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