Great Naval Battles of the Twentieth Century: Tsushima, Jutland, Midway

In the history of civilizations, sea power has always played a preponderant role. This symbol of a nation’s scientific and military genius has very often been the deciding factor during major conflicts, putting the names of several clashes down into legend. With this collection, Jean-Yves Delitte and Giuseppe Baiguera plunge you into the heart of three of the twentieth century’s greatest naval battles.

TSUSHIMA. Japan’s long history of isolationism came to an end in 1853 under the threat of naval gunfire. Newly opened to the world, Japan found itself to be weak and subject to the whims of larger nations. What followed was decades of industrialization and modernization as Japan sought to catch up to advanced nations and control its own destiny. In 1905, when Japan’s expansionist policies clashed with the Russian Empire’s over Korea, Japan was poised to flex its muscle and stun the world using the same naval supremacy that opened its borders half a century earlier.

JUTLAND. May 31, 1916. After waiting more than two years and with several missed opportunities, the British Royal Navy and the German Kaiserliche Marine are preparing to confront one another in the North Sea, off the Danish coast of Jutland. This will be the final great confrontation of World War I by sea and, probably, one of the greatest epic battles in the history of seafaring. Despite their heavy losses, which are greater than the Germans’, the English reaffirm their naval supremacy over the seas of the world, and Germany, all too conscious of having escaped disaster, will opt to confine the majority of its ships to its ports.

MIDWAY. War has been raging since September 1, 1939. It has spread like the black plague in the Middle Ages, contaminating every person and every land. A wretched epidemic that nothing seems to be able to counter. Even the United States of America is engulfed by the winds of war setting the world afire. Ill-prepared and with undermanned military forces, the world’s leading industrial power is on the edge of a precipice when, in June 1942, in the middle of the Pacific, on the minuscule, isolated atoll of Midway, the most extraordinary carrier battle will unfold.