The Second World War (3) Format: Book

This volume provides a comprehensive guide to three major theatres of combat; the battles for the Atlantic, the war in the Mediterranean and the contest in the Indian Ocean. The war at sea was a vital contest, which if lost would have irreversibly altered the balance of the military forces on land. The sea lanes were the logistical arteries of British and subsequent Allied armies fighting on the three continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. The Second World War was ultimately won by land forces but it could always have been lost at sea.

Alastair Finlan is a Professor of War Studies at the Swedish Defence University. He is the author of numerous books on military culture, Special Forces and modern warfare, including Contemporary Military Strategy and the Global War on Terror: US and UK Armed Forces in Afghanistan and Iraq 2001-2012 (Bloomsbury, 2014).

Mark J Grove has degrees in history from the universities of Cardiff and Aberystwyth, and is now Senior Lecturer in the Department of Strategic Studies and International Affairs, Britannia Royal Naval College, and lectures part time in the Department of Politics, University of Plymouth. He has a particular interest in amphibious warfare and contributed a chapter to Till, Farrell and Grove (eds.) Amphibious Operation (Strategic and Combat Studies Institute, Camberley, 11997). He is currently completing an article on amphibious operations during the Russo-Japanese War, and has started work on a PhD project concerned with Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay.

Philip D. Grove BSc(Econ), MSc(Econ), FHEA has taught Strategic Studies at Britannia Royal Naval College since January 1993, becoming Head of Department in March 2004. Upon the academic faculty's transfer to the University of Plymouth in 2008 he became Subject Matter Expert in Strategic Studies. In 2014 he was appointed Head of Maritime Aviation Studies in the new Dartmouth Security & Seapower Centre.

Alongside teaching at BRNC he has taught at various Royal Navy establishments, ships and Fleet Air Arm squadrons. From 1996–2013 he also taught at Plymouth University on modules including Contemporary History, International Relations, Foreign Policy and Maritime Power.

Besides delivering numerous conference and seminar papers he has also published widely on naval matters including the forthcoming From Actium to the Falklands: How Navies Win Wars (Amberley Publishing, 2018); the chapters 'Post Cold War Naval Operations' and 'Naval Manning in the Post Cold War World' in Navies in the 21st Century (Seaforth Publishing, 2016); The Royal Navy: A History Since 1900 with Duncan Redford (I B Tauris, 2014); Turning the Tide: The Battles of Coral Sea and Midway (University of Plymouth,2013); 'The Lofoton and Vaagso Raids', inTristan Lovering ed., A Collected History of Amphibious Operations (Seaforth 2007); 'Falklands Conflict 1982 – The AirWar a New Appraisal', in Stephen Badsey et al., The Falklands Conflict Twenty Years On: Lessons for the Future (Frank Cass, 2005); and The Battle of Midway (Brassey's, 2004).

Professor Robert O'Neill is the consultant editor of The Road to Victory and the editor of I am Soldier, both from Osprey.