The major naval powers -- America, Britain, Russia, and Japan -- have all played a part in the theater of war at sea over the last 100 years. This book is a detailed account of the bloody and tragic naval battles that took place in the 20th century and of the shifting pattern in the hierarchy of naval powers. In 1905, when this book begins, the first major engagement between ironclad fleets -- the Battle of Tsu-Shima -- took place in the Far East and decided the outcome of the Russo-Japanese war in Japan's favor. This and the other mighty sea battles of the 20th cent. are graphically reconstructed for the reader. Victories, defeats, and mutinies at sea, from the sinking of the "Bismarck" to the battles of Midway and Guadalcanal, are all recorded in detail. Illus. and maps.
