This is a great book for the naval history of World War II. Miller covers the significant sea battles of all the participants, unlike some books which focus on a single battle/campaign/nation. Highly recommended and I wish there was a companion volume for armies in WWII.
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This book is a well-paced and easy-to-follow narrative of the major naval battles and operations of World War II. Miller does a great job of showing the ubiquity of naval support in many of the most well-known operations of World War II (e.g., the D-Day invasion), as well as tracing the fascinating way in which World War II forever shifted the nature of naval warfare. In fact, the Allies were victors partly because of their willingness to adapt to the new realities of naval warfare presented by the advent of the submarine and the aircraft carrier. Though there are heroes aplenty (as in all stories of war), Miller's history really is focused on descriptions of the specific naval engagements and their significance for the war's final outcomes. That's not to say that Miller doesn't relate personal stories of individual sailors (he does), but that it's always quite clear that those stories are secondary to his objective.

Miller, though he weaves together the narratives of the Atlantic and Pacific theaters, does a good job of demonstrating the unique challenges faced in each arena. This is also a story that proves once again how uncertain the Allied victory really was, especially in the early years (1941-1943). In Admiral Dönitz, the commander of the Nazi submarine force, had been given the force he initially requested, it is quite likely that world history would be very different. Other than Hitler himself, most of the German military leaders were brilliant tacticians and consistently overmatched and outmaneuvered their Allied counterparts. It was interesting to me that the Japanese appear NOT to have been so wily, with the important exception of the Pearl Harbor attack. The challenge of the Pacific theater was the Japanese sense of honor that did not allow surrender (epitomized in the kamikaze). Their determination to fight to the last man against technically overwhelming odds made me realize again how fraught America's decision to utilize the nuclear bomb was. If I were honest, I would have thought twice about invading Japan as well after the bloodbaths of Iwo Jima and Okinawa ("total casualties for those operations exceeded those suffered during the previous three years of the Pacific war," p. 528-29) and probably would have elected to utilize the bomb.

Reading at the level of a hobbyist, I would highly recommend Miller's history. It is very engaging and understandable. There are a variety of helpful maps and a chart of comparable naval ranks/titles for the German, British, and American naval services. The only other chart I could have wished for was a chart of naval vessel types arrayed in order of size and/or function (I still don't know the difference between a "pocket battleship" and "battleship," and I can't recall that Miller ever explained it). With a military operation the size of World War II, it is very, very difficult to find the one-volume, high-level overviews that cover all the important elements; Miller has handily accomplished this challenging feat and contributed much to my own understanding of the nature of World War II. ( )

An entertaining and brief survey of the war at sea in World War Two that is a well-written rehash of a well-known story. A complete absence of maps prevent a higher rating of this book. ( )

A very useful single-volume history. Combines a scholarly approach with a lively, readable style. The book does have one or two annoying quirks, in particular the way it religiously starts every single chapter with a "close-up" vignette of someone involved in one of the battles, then zooms out to describe the strategic situation, before coming back to the close-up halfway through the chapter. Most of the chapters end by trailing the battle to be described in the next chapter.

It's a bit like seeing a TV documentary series on the printed page -- I'm always complaining about non-fiction books where the publisher's editor hasn't made sufficient use of the red pencil, but this reads like the product of an unimaginative editor who has imposed a rigid chapter-structure on the author. On the bonus side, there's a very good set of maps, conveniently bound together at the end of the book.

Although the book is written from a US perspective, and is at its best describing US navy actions, the author has made an effort to show something of other perspectives by quoting from British, German and Japanese sources. ( )

This is an excellent introduction to naval warfare during World War II. The author writes extremely well and concentrates on the men and the ships involved in the various actions beginning in the late 1930s through 1945 instead of broad strategic planning. Each of the battles he describes is put in context with the overall war and what the allies and the axis were planning to achieve. Full books have been written about all of the actions covered in "War at Sea" and this makes it an extremely valuable introduction to battles which a reader may want to look into in more detail. ( )