This is a very dense book. It took me a while to read and digest what I was reading but I really loved it. I learned a lot about the air raids and sea battles involving the German navy. It was fascinating.

I love history, and especially WWII. I couldn't put this book down. I especially enjoyed the account of Operation Chariot. Highly recommended for history buffs!

Review of The Iron Sea: How the Allies Hunted and Destroyed Hitler’s Warships.

Simon Read. New York: Hatchette Books, 2020. The Iron Sea: How the Allies Hunted and Destroyed Hitler’s Warships. 336 Pages. $30.00


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“The Greatest Generation” is the description used for World War II veterans, however, we often use it without consideration of our allies. Fighting for several years before the United States entry into the War, the United Kingdom faced what appeared to be an insurmountable enemy in Nazi Germany’s Army, Air Force, and Navy.

The Iron Sea explores Winston Churchill’s attempt to destroy Adolf Hitler’s battleship fleet to protect not only the Royal Navy but also the convoys traveling from the United States to both Britain and later the Soviet Union. Britain used all-source intelligence including photo, communications, and human intelligence, to track the Nazi fleet as it moved from the safe waters of Germany to captured ports in France and Norway.

As much as Hitler considered the Nazi battleships to be the jewels of the German fleet, they were seen by First Lord of the Admiralty, and later Prime Minister, Winston Churchill as “targets of supreme consequences.” Read argues a point made by Cajus Bekkar in the 1974 book Hitler’s Naval War that the loss of the German battleships “would be a blow to German prestige.”

The Royal Air Force developed aerial reconnaissance capabilities within its fighter and bomber force and, most importantly, trained photo interpreters who could identify and analyze the significance of the photos collected. The photo reconnaissance planes often flew alone and unarmed, and one pilot said “Perhaps the most important survival requirement …was the ability to keep a really effective lookout for enemy aircraft.” The photo intelligence reports described the ships in great detail as they sat in French ports, easily within reach of the Royal Navy.

The author recounts numerous Royal Air Force and Navy missions to bomb and torpedo the German fleet, but one of the most notable and exciting operations was the combined navy and commando raid of the Normandie dry dock located in Saint-Nazaire, France. Built in 1932, the dock serviced the SS Normandie, the largest sailing luxury liner at 80,000 tons. It was speculated that the German battleship Bismarck was heading for Saint-Nazaire when she was sunk by the Royal Navy. Her sister ship the Tirpitz would use the Saint-Nazaire as a safe harbor. In addition to the dry dock, the German Navy had also built “nine massive U-Boat pens and had plans to build five more.”

In 1942, the Combined Operations Headquarters developed Operation Chariot. A daring raid by a destroyer loaded with time-delayed explosives would navigate the approaches to Saint-Nazaire and ram the outer gates of the dry dock while eighty commandos would land and destroy key port facilities which had been identified by British photo interpreters at the RAF Medmenham Photo Intelligence Center.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff approved the plan. The destroyer HMS Campbelton, accompanied by twelve motor launches, a motor gunboat, and four motor torpedo boats, would enter one of the most heavily defended German Navy bases on the French coast. However, the armada would not only have to face the German Navy patrols and shore batteries, it would also have to contend with the icy seas and winter weather of the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean.

Read describes in great detail the commanders’ and sailors' actions as the mission sailed flying German Navy ensigns to disguise their identity. A few miles from the target, they passed a German patrol boat so close the British sailors could “see the Germain sailors staring at them.” Luckily, the boat lacked a radio to report the British. However, as the ships neared their target, the British boats were taken under fire by the shore batteries and the German ensigns were replaced with the ensigns of the Royal Navy.



Aerial view of Normandie Dock, Saint Nazaire, France, mid-1942. Photo courtesy of World War II Database
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One of the most colorful tales is that of Lance Corporal John “Jock” Donaldson who, carrying a Tommy gun and wearing his kilt, was killed as the commandos left the ship to attack the port facilities. The commandos carried out their mission, often stepping over the dead bodies of their comrades and knowing they were on a mission that would end with the commandos killed or captured. HMS Campbelton crashed into the gates of the dry dock with its crew either dead or captured, and the Germans stood by thinking they had repelled the attack. However, the mission with a large loss of life was successful when the timed explosives detonated.

HMS Campbelton wedged in the dock gates of Saint-Nazaire, France, 28 Mar 1942 Photo courtesy German Federal Archives Photographer Kramer. World War II Database

After Operation Chariot, the German battleship fleet would remain in safe havens in the fjords of Norway and would not play a significant role in the remainder of the war. The British would continue efforts to sink the remaining battleships using mini-submarines and RAF bombers.

Iron Sea is well written with extensive notes and bibliography. It is highly recommended for readers interested in World War II naval intelligence and special operations history. The book will be released in November 2020.

As a side note, recently I have taken to reading history books with the Google Earth geospatial application open so that I can visualize the location and geography about which the author is writing. Using Google Earth to see the Loire River as it leads from the Atlantic Ocean to the town and port of Saint-Nazaire made me appreciate the danger involved in Operation Chariot. Read notes in Iron Sea that the German battlecruiser the Prinz Eugen was taken by the United States as a war prize. The United States used the Prinz Eugen during the 1946 nuclear test in the Bikini Atoll. She was not extensively damaged in the test and was latter towed to Kwajalein where she capsized after fittings began leaking. She can still be spotted on Google Earth imagery lying in shallow water off Enubuj Island.



ISCM David Mattingly retired from the Navy in 2006. He is a former board member of NIPS. He has reviewed books for USNI Proceedings, Modern War Institute, War on the Rocks, The Strategy Bridge, and the International Social Science Review.

An excellent account of the naval battles in the European theatre. The stories and personal accounts by those who participated in these actions were great. A riveting account of the fate of each of the major German surface forces during the war. A must read for those who enjoy a good non-fictional account of the war.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. Highly readable and entertaining. The action described here is nothing new to World War II historians and it is especially disappointing that the lesser actions were not covered. It was, however, fun to read and factually correct.

It is extremely rare that I can say of a non-fiction book that I could not put it down. This is at the top of the list of those rare books. While all the facts and details are there, this talented author brought the history to life and it truly felt like I was reading an exciting piece of military fiction at it’s best. I received an advanced digital copy of The Iron Sea: How the Allies Hunted and Destroyed Hitler’s Warships by Simon Read from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. The focus of the book is on Britain’s hunt to destroy Hitler’s four capital warships: Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Tirpitz, and Bismarck, the largest warship on the ocean. Unlike most books of the Battle of the Atlantic, it does not discuss the U-Boat menace other than as a side note. And it is not purely about the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Corps and the Commandos all get their due. Using official war diaries, combat reports, eyewitness accounts and personal letters, the author presents the human side of war at it’s most horrific and places the reader on the bridge or in the cockpit at the center of the action. I am well read on the subject of World War II history, but I admit that almost all of the material in this book was new to me. While I’ve heard of all of the above mentioned warships, I did not know their stories. And I had never heard of Chariot, the code name for the commando raid to destroy German held French dry docks to prevent their use to repair Hitler’s battleships. What an amazing story of courage. If I had read about it in a novel I would have called it completely over the top and impossible, but it actually happened! I heartily recommend this book to not only those interested in World War II naval history, but to anyone who loves an exciting adventure story on the high seas.

I love reading things about WWII, I'm always amazed by the bravery of our troops who truly earned the title of "The greatest generation" The Iron Sea adds to my respect for those soldiers, it is the first book that I have read that was solely dedicated to the battles of the sea. Other books I had read have touched on it, or covered specific battles, but that is it.

This is an amazing look at the intensity, complexity, and challenges of battle at sea. I have even more respect for the navy after reading this, it is incredible. The men lost in the sea for days after their ship sunk. So many incredible stories.

5 Stars!

I recently received an advanced galley of Simon Read's forthcoming book entitled "The Iron Sea: How the Allies Hunted and Destroyed Hitler's Warships" from Hatchette Books. I am pleased to report that the book was truly a pleasure to read. The focus of the book, unlike most of the scholarship on the Battle of the Atlantic, is focused tightly on the battle to destroy the Kriegsmarine's surface fleet rather than the fight against Doenitz's U-Boats. I grew up in the fifties and thanks to the movies and a well known song, I have long been exposed to the famous tale of the sinking of the Bismarck. Since then I have read many books on the subject, but I have never found any of them as useful in providing context to the struggle to "sink the Bismarck" as this text. While the struggle to strangle Hitler's surface fleet is primarily couched as one between the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine, as one might expect, the author is careful to include the not insignificant role played by the other branches of the British military and the Luftwaffe. The author's skills particularly shine when he is describing, in vivid detail, the battles which surrounded the surface ships of the Kriegsmarine. Far from being a dull recounting of what forces were where and who did what to who, this is a supremely human text which takes pains to humanize the participants in the various actions it describes. Those actions look at the fate of every major surface combatant of the Kriegsmarine in significant detail, whether Read is describing the clash between the Hood and the Bismarck, the infamous Channel dash (which saw the Royal Navy's failure to stop major German surface units from escaping their anchorage at Brest in broad daylight) or the arctic clashes that occurred on the embattled supply line to the Soviet Union at Murmansk. His presentation is balanced and sympathetic to the men of both sides who fought and died, whatever the merits of their respective cause. I have read no book which does a better job of bringing the fight to destroy the German surface fleet to life in all of its operational complexity but without losing the human touch which ultimately provides the most important context to this titanic (no pun intended) struggle.