Scratch One Flattop:The First Carrier Air Campaign and the Battle of the Coral Sea
Robert C. Stern. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2019. 328 pp. Maps. Photos. Illus. Index. $45.
Reviewed by Alan Rems
Often treated as no more than a minor prelude to Midway, the Battle of the Coral Sea has attracted remarkably little attention from historians. Opinions about the battle have rested largely on the writings many decades ago of Samuel E. Morison and John B. Lundstrom, supplemented by Lundstrom’s later writings encouraging a more positive evaluation of Vice Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher.
With a fresh study of the battle long overdue, that task was finally undertaken by Robert C. Stern in Scratch One Flattop. The comprehensive listing of his sources and their citation in the footnotes indicate the thoroughness of Stern’s research, involving full consideration of the primary records and modern scholarship.
In dealing with a Japanese plan that the author calls “of truly Byzantine complexity,” Stern’s narrative nevertheless succeeds in imposing order. Particularly useful is the division of his chapters into short sections. This allows Stern to easily toggle between the contending carrier forces as they engage in a deadly game of blindman’s bluff, each desperate to be the first to locate their foe and deliver a knockout blow.
Stern takes great pains to resolve discrepancies between the records, which were often substantial in the victory claims of the rival airmen. He also includes much information that enlarges the reader’s knowledge of carrier warfare, such as the limitations of fighter homing signals and differences between Japanese and U.S. carrier tactics in defending against air attack.
Along with its scholarly analysis of the battle, the narrative contains many poignant examples of suffering and courage. These include the lengthy ordeal of the men on board the derelict and sinking oiler USS Neosho (AO-23), the crew of an Australian Catalina that was rescued from the sea by the Japanese only to be decapitated later, and a Japanese aviator who reversed course to shepherd a flight of planes to the U.S. fleet while aware it would leave him without sufficient fuel to return to his carrier.
In his history of U.S. naval operations, Morison rendered a split decision on Coral Sea, considering the battle a tactical Japanese victory but a strategic U.S. victory. Stern disagrees. He considers the battle “a minor American victory” and “a massive strategic defeat for the Japanese.”
Considering Admiral Isokoru Yamamoto as “perhaps the most overrated Japanese naval commander of the Second World War,” Stern accuses him of lacking strategic vision in missing the opportunity to concentrate his full carrier strength in the Coral Sea. Had he done so, Stern argues, Yamamoto might have brought the inferior U.S. carrier force to battle and destroyed it; or forced a U.S. retreat and proceeded to seize Port Moresby and directly threaten Australia and the United States’ lifeline there. In Stern’s opinion, “the Japanese could have and should have won, but chose not to; the opportunity would not come again.”
Stern also identifies several serious errors committed by Fletcher, including undertaking a dangerous raid on Tulagi without notifying his cooperating task force, accepting attack with highly vulnerable fueled and armed aircraft on a carrier flight deck, detaching for little purpose a cruiser force whose guns could have helped to defend his carriers, and relying entirely on unreliable shore-based aircraft searches for critical reconnaissance. Yet Stern is restrained in his overall assessment of Fletcher, observing: “He was sufficiently cautious most of the time and sufficiently lucky when he was not. Hardly a glamorous way to win a battle.”
Scratch One Flattop deserves to become the new standard history of the Battle of the Coral Sea, a worthy successor to Lundstrom’s fine pioneering work.
Mr. Rems is the author of South Pacific Cauldron: World War II’s Great Forgotten Battlegrounds (Naval Institute Press, 2014). He has been a regular contributor to Naval History since his article “‘Halsey Knows the Straight Story’” appeared in the August 2008 issue and earned him selection as the magazine’s Author of the Year.
Ghost Fleet Awakened: Lake George’s Sunken Bateaux of 1758
Joseph W. Zarzynski. Albany, NY: Excelsior Editions, State University of New York Press, 2019. 262 pp. Glossary. Notes. Biblio. Index. Illus. $24.95.
Reviewed by Robert S. Neyland
Ghost Fleet Awakened: Lake George’s Sunken Bateaux of 1758 chronicles the discovery and management of the sunken fleet of colonial-era bateaux built by British and American forces during the French and Indian War. Most of the surviving vessels date back to the events of 1758 to 1759, but certain wrecks might date to the American Revolution and War of 1812. Joseph Zarzynski chronicles the Lake George bateaux story and reveals how these fragile wrecks were affected by the development of recreational scuba diving, infancy of underwater archaeology, and initiation of national and state historic preservation laws that were in some instances retrofitted to protect shipwrecks.
Bateaux are a vessel type whose concept undoubtedly originated from northern European traditions of building flat-bottomed boats. Bateaux had many advantages for commercial and military use: They could be built easily in large numbers, and did not require specialized boat-building skills. Warfare in the Lake George and Lake Champlain region required large numbers of bateaux for the transport of troops and supplies. Zarzynski emphasizes the importance of bateaux to the military during the French and Indian War by quoting naval architect John Gardner, who stated the “war was won in boats, and for the greater part, in a particular kind of boat, the bateaux.” The British intentionally sunk their bateaux and other vessels in 1758 to keep them safe from the French.
The British raised some in 1759, but many were not recovered and remained in situ to be discovered by a future generation.
The author does an excellent job putting the bateaux story into a historical and cultural perspective. Zarzynski has devoted much of his life to the interpretation and preservation of these vessels as underwater cultural resources, and his is an encouraging story of developments in technology, preservation ethics, and public outreach. From the discovery of the bateaux in the 1950s, research and recovery in the 1960s, later nondestructive research through remote sensing, and state management, the author chronicles the advances of technology for underwater exploration and techniques in underwater archaeology. This technology includes the early use of underwater cameras, sonar, remotely operated vehicles, and photogrammetry.
Zarzynski and the Lake George Bateaux Research Team and Bateaux Below carried out extensive public outreach. These efforts ran the full gamut possible for shipwrecks, including dive preserves, public educational events, shoreline signage, walking and boating tours, documentaries, internet outreach, brochures, experimental archaeology building and testing replicas, and even an underwater art exhibit. This outreach is a grassroots effort by the author, organizations, and museums that have worked diligently to interpret and preserve the Lake George bateaux. Their work also included other Lake George vessels such as the floating battery, or radeau, called “Land Tortoise,” a submarine called “Baby Whale,” and other shipwrecks. The author and Bateaux Below were able to get many of these shipwrecks onto the National Register of Historic Places.
Ghost Fleet Awakened is amply illustrated with photographs and drawings; many of the former are from the 1950s and 1960s, and the latter include maps, artistic and archaeological bateaux reconstructions, and archaeological site plans. The historian and archaeologist may be somewhat disappointed in the lack of depth regarding the early historical context in which the boats were constructed and the succinct review of the archaeological evidence.
This book is an achievement in documenting the story of what happened to the Lake George bateaux from their sinking to their rediscovery and exploitation in the 1950s and 1960s and the extensive efforts to preserve and interpret them. It is exceedingly important for the management of these fragile cultural resources. It is also a very thorough report on the Lake George bateaux as an unparalleled collection of underwater archaeological wrecks from North America.
Dr. Neyland has led numerous underwater archaeological expeditions and oversaw the raising of the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley. He has written for numerous publications on naval archaeology and shipwrecks.
The War for the Seas: A Maritime History of World War II
Evan Mawdsley. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2018. 557 pp. Plates. Maps. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $32.50.
Reviewed by Andrew G. Wilson
Evan Mawdsley’s magisterial work The War for the Seas brings clarity and a well-written sense of the full scale and ferocity that was the epic struggle of World War II at sea. Mawdsley quickly draws the reader into the full drama of the Atlantic convoys, the sea/air campaign in the Mediterranean, Japan’s quick strikes south toward Australia and into the Indian Ocean, and much more.
Broken into five broad sections and drawing on both primary and secondary research material, the book outlines the overriding importance of controlling the seas in dictating the larger military strategy against Axis forces throughout the conflict. The work begins with a quote from President Franklin D. Roosevelt: “All freedom . . . depends on freedom of the seas.” It is from this perspective that Mawdsley, a former professor of international history at the University of Glasgow, weaves the story of the conflict’s many campaigns, personalities, tragedies and victories from page to page with verve and linguistic grace.
Opening with the sinking of the SS Athenia in September 1939 by the German submarine U-30, Mawdsley immediately introduces the reader to the horrors of the Atlantic U-boat war that would play such a dramatic part in the first half of the conflict. This story is followed by a summary of the German Navy’s initial planning for the war at sea, as well as its preparations for the conflict in terms of vessels, strategic thinking, and leadership. Juxtaposed against this, Mawdsley sketches a picture of Britain’s Royal Navy and its preparations to meet the German onslaught, including a review of the costly (to both sides) Norway campaign.
Two sections of War for the Seas stand out. First is Mawdsley’s clear and comprehensive coverage of the various phases of the naval campaign in the Mediterranean, including excellent discussions of the Italian Navy—the Regia Marina. Second is his discussion of Britain’s controversial decision to attack and neutralize the French fleet at Mers el-Kébir rather than risk it falling into German hands. While not a complete tactical success, this ruthless decision made clear to all that Britain was in this war to the hilt, would not be cowed by Germany, and was a worthy partner for the United States should it enter the conflict.
While leading the reader across the global span of watery engagements and convoy escort duties, Mawdsley draws some thoughtful conclusions worthy of reflection. Noting the capture of approximately 70,000 British and Commonwealth forces with the fall of Singapore, he refers to this event as “the beginning of the end of the British Empire.” And referring to the campaign in the Pacific, he makes perhaps his most important judgment when noting that the “Verdun of the Pacific war” (referring to Guadalcanal) had cost the United States more naval losses than it had Japan, but that unlike Japan, the United States could replace its losses relatively quickly. In short, while control of the seas is critical to a war-winning strategy in Mawdsley’s view, arguably the ability to outproduce one’s naval opponent(s) is equally important, as demonstrated in World War II—both in terms of warship construction and in merchant tonnage.
Supplemented with photos and excellent theater-scale maps, War for the Seas likely will remain an authoritative source on the conflict for years to come, for both professional and amateur historians alike. Should the book turn out to be Mawdsley’s sunset project, his scholarly reputation will remain on firm ground, anchored by the grand sweep of his subject and the thoroughly absorbing way in which he has shared and preserved the story of this tempestuous struggle for freedom of the seas.
Mr. Wilson is an operational representative/liaison officer for the Department of the Navy. He has written for the Naval War College Review, the Journal of Military History, and On Point: The Journal of Army History, as well as the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings and Naval History.
