Vincent OHara

Vincent P. O’Hara is an independent naval historian and the author of thirteen works, including Six Victories: North Africa, Malta, and the Mediterranean Convoy War, November 1941–March 1942, and Clash of Fleets: Naval Battles of the Great War, 1914–18, with Leonard R. Heinz. He holds a history degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and lives in Chula Vista, California.

Articles by Vincent OHara

Tough Race to Tunisia

By Vincent P. O’Hara

December 2022

After Operation Torch’s landings at Morocco and Algeria, Tunisia became the target–for both the Allies and the Axis alike.

Forgotten Victor

By Vincent P. O’Hara and Stephen McLaughlin

June 2021

The Red Navy entered World War II as an underdog, yet it proved vital to the Soviet Union’s triumph.

With ships out to the horizon as far as the eye can see, landing craft of the massive U.S. invasion armada pour out supplies and military equipment onto the beach at Okinawa in April 1945. From late 1944 into 1945, U.S. naval forces unleashed a “dazzling display of maritime power” while advancing toward Japan “with hardly a pause and without an important defeat.”

The Greatest Naval War Ever Fought

By Vincent P. O’Hara

October 2020

From Midway to Leyte, from Torch to Normandy, the fate of World War II hinged on the decisive factor of sea power writ large.

A kamikaze slams into the USS Enterprise off Okinawa.

Operation Iceberg's Mixed Legacy

Vincent P. O'Hara

April 2020

On 1 April 1945, an armada of 1,321 ships gathered in the far western Pacific off Okinawa. Most had come from Leyte and Ulithi, others from Pearl Harbor, the Solomons ...

During Operation Neptune, GIs wade ashore on Normandy’s Omaha Beach.

A Tale of Two Invasions

By Vincent P. O’Hara

June 2019

In the two-ocean war, June ’44 was witness to two epic amphibious operations: Normandy in the Atlantic and Saipan in the Pacific.

The Sea Wall At the Eastern American Beach (Utah Beach) by Navy combat artist Mitchell Jamieson

D-Day, A Year Too Late?

By Vincent P. O’Hara

June 2019

It was dubbed Operation Roundup and was supposed to take place in April 1943, but after determined British resistance, it morphed into Operation Overlord and didn’t happen until June 1944.

A Sailor's Letters Home

By Vincent P. O’Hara

August 2017

The World War I correspondence between Engineman Second Class Robert Orville Carver and his family poignantly underscores how, even in a time of destruction on a grand scale, every life—and ...

Landing the Troops . . . Across the Rhine

By Vincent P. O'Hara

April 2015

These craft were 36-foot LCVPs (landing craft, vehicle, personnel) or 50-foot LCMs (landing craft, mechanized)—boats that had brought U.S. troops ashore at Normandy. Now, far from the ocean or English ...