Books about WWII Battles and Campaigns Wrtiiten Prior to 1974

[T13A]

Hi

For some reason that even I am not quite sure about I seem to be on a WWII Naval 'kick' at the moment (shame Pendraken do not do small scale ships......). This has led me to digging out any books I have on the naval side of the war. The trouble is most of them were written in the 1960's well before the use of 'ULTRA' became public knowledge (1974 I think). This has rather left me wondering if books written about WWII battles/campaigns, written before 1974 are really worth reading. I'm not thinking about personal experiences here. Just musing really but would be interested to hear what others think.

Cheers Paul

[kipt]

I would say yes.  For example, Morison's "History of United States Naval Operations in World War II" is great.  Once into combat, ship to ship, air to ship, etc. actions are beyond ULTRA.

[Gwydion]

I think so. You may have to think about some of the commentary on the more prescient strategic manoeuvring in a different light but the descriptions of what went on against that background will remain generally valid.
Of course the Ultra product was not always available in real time depending at what stage of the war you are talking about and whether encryption set up changes had been worked out yet. The Atlantic submarine war suffered some gaps in coverage for example. In the East the Americans didn't really get into JN-25 until part way through 1942 although they started getting some product in the early part of that year.

John Winton's two books may be useful - Ultra at Sea and Ultra in the Pacific. £12.99 each paperback, £4.99 and £0.99 respectively on Kindle (free on 'unlimited')