Craig L. Symonds is Professor Emeritus at the United States Naval Academy, where he taught naval history for thirty years. He also served as the Ernest J. King Distinguished Professor of Maritime History at the U.S. Naval War College. His books include Decision at Sea, Lincoln and his Admirals, The Battle of Midway, Neptune: The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings, World War II at Sea, and, most recently, Nimitz at War. He has won the Lincoln Prize, the Roosevelt Prize, and the Dudley Knox Medal for Lifetime Achievement. In 2023 he was awarded the Pritzker Military Museum & Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.

One of the most authoritative historians of our time weaves an epic of adventure and sacrifice around selected midshipmen of the Naval Academy Class of 1940. Craig Symonds puts readers into the lives of these young men--what they learned, endured, and achieved in this unique educational crucible, then their experiences with the horrors and triumphs of mortal combat in submarines, destroyers, Hellcats, and Marine landings in the battles of the Pacific and Atlantic wars. This is a hugely entertaining work of biography and history yet drawn from original research and exhaustive scholarship. A future classic.

• Prologue: Reef Points PART I: MIDSHIPMENChapter 1. AppointmentChapter 2. Plebe YearChapter 3. Youngster CruiseChapter 4. YoungstersChapter 5. Beat ArmyChapter 6. Firsties PART II: JUNIOR OFFICERSChapter 7. The Real NavyChapter 8. The Cusp of WarChapter 9: Infamy Chapter 10. Retribution Chapter 11. U-Boats, Convoys, and MatrimonyChapter 12: The Turning Point: The Coral Sea and Midway PART III: ON THE OFFENSIVEChapter 13. Savo Island Chapter 14. Ironbottom SoundChapter 15. Flight Training Chapter 16. The MedChapter 17. Submarine WarfareChapter 18: "Moored as Before" PART IV: VALEDICTIONChapter 19. Semper Fidelis Chapter 19. CommandChapter 20. Decisive Battles Chapter 21. Iwo Jima & OkinawaChapter 22. Victory Epilogue AcknowledgementsNotesBibliography

Craig L. Symonds is Professor Emeritus at the United States Naval Academy, where he taught naval history for thirty years. He also served as the Ernest J. King Distinguished Professor of Maritime History at the U.S. Naval War College. His books include Decision at Sea, Lincoln and his Admirals, The Battle of Midway, Neptune: The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings, World War II at Sea, and, most recently, Nimitz at War. He has won the Lincoln Prize, the Roosevelt Prize, and the Dudley Knox Medal for Lifetime Achievement. In 2023 he was awarded the Pritzker Military Museum & Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.

One of the most authoritative historians of our time weaves an epic of adventure and sacrifice around selected midshipmen of the Naval Academy Class of 1940. Craig Symonds puts readers into the lives of these young men--what they learned, endured, and achieved in this unique educational crucible, then their experiences with the horrors and triumphs of mortal combat in submarines, destroyers, Hellcats, and Marine landings in the battles of the Pacific and Atlantic wars. This is a hugely entertaining work of biography and history yet drawn from original research and exhaustive scholarship. A future classic.

• Prologue: Reef Points PART I: MIDSHIPMENChapter 1. AppointmentChapter 2. Plebe YearChapter 3. Youngster CruiseChapter 4. YoungstersChapter 5. Beat ArmyChapter 6. Firsties PART II: JUNIOR OFFICERSChapter 7. The Real NavyChapter 8. The Cusp of WarChapter 9: Infamy Chapter 10. Retribution Chapter 11. U-Boats, Convoys, and MatrimonyChapter 12: The Turning Point: The Coral Sea and Midway PART III: ON THE OFFENSIVEChapter 13. Savo Island Chapter 14. Ironbottom SoundChapter 15. Flight Training Chapter 16. The MedChapter 17. Submarine WarfareChapter 18: "Moored as Before" PART IV: VALEDICTIONChapter 19. Semper Fidelis Chapter 19. CommandChapter 20. Decisive Battles Chapter 21. Iwo Jima & OkinawaChapter 22. Victory Epilogue AcknowledgementsNotesBibliography

Craig L. Symonds is Professor Emeritus at the United States Naval Academy, where he taught naval history for thirty years. He also served as the Ernest J. King Distinguished Professor of Maritime History at the U.S. Naval War College. His books include Decision at Sea, Lincoln and his Admirals, The Battle of Midway, Neptune: The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings, World War II at Sea, and, most recently, Nimitz at War. He has won the Lincoln Prize, the Roosevelt Prize, and the Dudley Knox Medal for Lifetime Achievement. In 2023 he was awarded the Pritzker Military Museum & Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.

One of the most authoritative historians of our time weaves an epic of adventure and sacrifice around selected midshipmen of the Naval Academy Class of 1940. Craig Symonds puts readers into the lives of these young men--what they learned, endured, and achieved in this unique educational crucible, then their experiences with the horrors and triumphs of mortal combat in submarines, destroyers, Hellcats, and Marine landings in the battles of the Pacific and Atlantic wars. This is a hugely entertaining work of biography and history yet drawn from original research and exhaustive scholarship. A future classic.

• Prologue: Reef Points PART I: MIDSHIPMENChapter 1. AppointmentChapter 2. Plebe YearChapter 3. Youngster CruiseChapter 4. YoungstersChapter 5. Beat ArmyChapter 6. Firsties PART II: JUNIOR OFFICERSChapter 7. The Real NavyChapter 8. The Cusp of WarChapter 9: Infamy Chapter 10. Retribution Chapter 11. U-Boats, Convoys, and MatrimonyChapter 12: The Turning Point: The Coral Sea and Midway PART III: ON THE OFFENSIVEChapter 13. Savo Island Chapter 14. Ironbottom SoundChapter 15. Flight Training Chapter 16. The MedChapter 17. Submarine WarfareChapter 18: "Moored as Before" PART IV: VALEDICTIONChapter 19. Semper Fidelis Chapter 19. CommandChapter 20. Decisive Battles Chapter 21. Iwo Jima & OkinawaChapter 22. Victory Epilogue AcknowledgementsNotesBibliography