Coral Sea, Midway and submarine actions - Samuel Eliot Morison

The Naval Institute Press has published Samuel Eliot Morison's monumental History of United States Naval Operations in World War II in updated paperback editions with new introductions by noted military historians. Morison, an eminent Harvard professor, was appointed by his close friend, Franklin D. Roosevelt, to write the history of US naval operations after convincing the president that too many wartime histories were written after the fact or from a distance. Morison called his classic work a ""shooting history"" of World War II, because it was documented by historical observation during each specific naval operation in the Atlantic and Pacific. Critically hailed for its accuracy, narrative pace, and detail, the series presents a complete record of the U.S. Navy's war at sea.

Coral Sea, Midway and Submarine Actions, May 1942-August 1942, Volume 4 in the series, is a detailed look at two of the pivotal naval engagements of the Pacific war that marked the turning point from defeat to victory. In addition to covering these great carrier actions, where for the first time aircraft played a defining role in determining the outcome of a sea battle, this volume also fully examines the little-known exploits of the fledgling American submarine corps in the Pacific and its courageous attacks on Japanese shipping during the first year of the war.