Morrison's History of United States Naval Operations in World War II

[pinehilljoe]

I was fortunate in High School, my parents subscribed to a of book of the month, where I got a volume of Morrison's works every month. I keep those on a shelf, at this point afraid of binding coming apart after 50 years. But I have been keeping an eye on Abe Books, when a volume I want to read comes up, I can usually pick it up for less than 6 or 10 dollars.

They are dated, but the Orders of Battle are great. He has many first hand accounts. He did not have access to Magic or any Hypo data. He's not kind to ADM Fletcher. But they are good nostalgic reading. I'm in the middle of re-reading the volume on Neptune and Overlord. The first hand accounts from the Germans, they said they had no idea how effective Naval Gun Fire Support would be in their planning for the invasion.

 

[SaparotRob]

My stepdad was an administrator at a local community college. We bonded over the Battle of Midway after I recommended Incredible Victory to him. He signed out Morrison's history from the college's library for me.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I was fortunate in High School, my parents subscribed to a of book of the month, where I got a volume of Morrison's works every month. I keep those on a shelf, at this point afraid of binding coming apart after 50 years. But I have been keeping an eye on Abe Books, when a volume I want to read comes up, I can usually pick it up for less than 6 or 10 dollars.

They are dated, but the Orders of Battle are great. He has many first hand accounts. He did not have access to Magic or any Hypo data. He's not kind to ADM Fletcher. But they are good nostalgic reading. I'm in the middle of re-reading the volume on Neptune and Overlord. The first hand accounts from the Germans, they said they had no idea how effective Naval Gun Fire Support would be in their planning for the invasion.

I had the good fortune to find a complete set at the county library for very cheap about twenty years ago, and binge-read it. Even then with less knowledge I could see errors and omissions, understandable given that he didn't have resources available even at that time. Still useful, and in some cases pertinent even in modern historiography, but use it cautiously.

And yes, pretty uncharitable to Fletcher. It seems to me the difference between a naval historian and a working admiral was pretty broad. He belittles issues with destroyer fueling states and it's not a good look, unless you don't mind sending out a carrier without ASW.

I've also read his retelling of Columbus's voyage to the New World. Obviously harder to cross-check his claims about things, but interesting all the same.

Differences about accuracy aside, he's a good writer with a nice turn of pen and anyone wanting to study USN ops owes it to themselves to read his volumes.

 

[pinehilljoe]

History has been kind to Fletcher, in my opinion for good reason. He was one of the Admirals learning tactics during the early War carrier raids. He fought three carrier battles. Coral Sea was a strategic win, tactical draw (though you can argue even a tactical win with the IJN's Car Div 5 disabled and not available for Midway). Midway tactical and strategic win. Eastern Solomons, tactical and strategic win. All fought as USN Carrier doctrine was being formed. Fletcher's fault was loosing two carriers and FADM King never forgave him. I think Fletcher seemed to understand the big picture in all his engagements.

 

[R Leonard]

I had four first edition volumes (I, IV, V, & XIV); evidently my father bought these when they first came out, the ones that directly focused on where he was during the period in question. About 30 years ago my wife presented me with the remaining volumes for Christmas . . . what a glorious haul!

As noted, since Morrison was not in on the secret there are curious little gaps in the story, but if you know the secret, you know why.

Not just a few contemporaries of Fletcher were happy to give Morrison their takes on events, especially Turner, but Fletcher effectively ignored Morrison's requests saying most of his records went down on Yorktown or were misplaced at CinCPac after he left Saratoga. Morrison, in my opinion, never forgave Fletcher's lack of cooperation, thus, the poison pen. The other two problems with Morrison was that he (1) accepted the word of folks with a axe to grind (or own faults to gloss over or shift blame), like Turner, at face value, and (2) with a careful reading you can see he really did not know much about carrier operations or at least could not convey what knowledge he had.

Great for background information and not a few valuable tidbits but, like all sweeping histories, things are lost in the shuffle that mean one has to "scroll down" for the actual story. Re Fletcher, John Lundstrom's Black Shoe Carrier Admiral goes a long way at setting the story straight. And as an aside, none, absolutely none, of the naval officers I knew from that period, all aviators from the Yorktown days, (remember those four volumes?) had anything unkind to say about Fletcher and, indeed, were unkind to his detractors.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

History has been kind to Fletcher, in my opinion for good reason. He was one of the Admirals learning tactics during the early War carrier raids. He fought three carrier battles. Coral Sea was a strategic win, tactical draw (though you can argue even a tactical win with the IJN's Car Div 5 disabled and not available for Midway). Midway tactical and strategic win. Eastern Solomons, tactical and strategic win. All fought as USN Carrier doctrine was being formed. Fletcher's fault was loosing two carriers and FADM King never forgave him. I think Fletcher seemed to understand the big picture in all his engagements.

Lundstrom did FJF a solid with Black Shoe Admiral and The First Team both. My view of Fletcher is this: working under crappy doctrine, with operational procedures that were still in the process of being hammered out, forces under his command sank three CVs and two CVLs while losing two CVs. That's a pretty good exchange rate when you consider the difficulties under which he labored.

I think King's animus was also stoked by Saratoga's bad habit of hoovering up torpedoes. The second time it happened, he quite unfairly pinned it on Fletcher.

 

[Skywalker Jin]

A friend of mine recommended Morrison some years ago, I downloaded the whole series and kept them as a part of fundamental facts( just like Battle narrative from NHHC）

 

[pinehilljoe]

A friend of mine recommended Morrison some years ago, I downloaded the whole series and kept them as a part of fundamental facts( just like Battle narrative from NHHC）

What site has the books for download?

 

[Skywalker Jin]

What site has the books for download?

LOL I didn't remember but if you want those ebooks I can upload them.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

They're still under copyright. By joining the Internet Archive, I gather, one can log in and borrow them.

 

[pinehilljoe]

I guess as more books age out of their copywrite more and more will be available.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I guess as more books age out of their copywrite more and more will be available.

Don't hold your breath. Copyright is the lifetime of the author plus 75 years in most cases.

 

[Hunter111]

Unless I am missing something, the author you gents are referencing is named "Samuel Eliot Morison".

Only one "r" in his last name. Kinda funny to see complaints about the author's accuracy.

The Naval Institute Press sells paperback reprints of his series on WW2 Naval Operations.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Unless I am missing something, the author you gents are referencing is named "Samuel Eliot Morison".

Only one "r" in his last name. Kinda funny to see complaints about the author's accuracy.

The Naval Institute Press sells paperback reprints of his series on WW2 Naval Operations.

Given that I am the one who brought up his accuracy issues, you should note that I did not once actually spell out his name. I haven't said anything to anyone else because I consider the message more important than the spelling error ... but that's me.

 

[pinehilljoe]

Don't hold your breath. Copyright is the lifetime of the author plus 75 years in most cases.

maybe I'm mixing Copyrights and trademarks. There was a story on Bloomberg that the trademark on the original Mickey Mouse from Steamboat Willey had expired, and is now in the public domain.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

maybe I'm mixing Copyrights and trademarks. There was a story on Bloomberg that the trademark on the original Mickey Mouse from Steamboat Willey had expired, and is now in the public domain.

It's all good. I'm a copyrighted songwriter and have dug through the law a little, and I can see how it is confusing. The law is different about writings and songs, though. Trademarks don't expire in American law, but can be considered lapsed by not defending them when broached. Copyright -- to my understanding, IANAL -- is a fixed timeline as laid out above.

I don't think Mickey Mouse is a trademark; that's more things like the General Electric logo or Chevy giving a car a certain name -- you can't design a new car and call it a Camaro unless you're Chevrolet. But books, songs, poetry, that sort of thing, the copyright starts when the author/composer copyrights the piece. That copyright exists for the extent of the author's life, and if before said author dies is renewed [no renewal is needed] lasts 75 [edit -- 70] years afterwards.

I was wrong above -- it's the life of the author plus 70 years:

(a) In General.—Copyright in a work created on or after January 1, 1978, subsists from its creation and, except as provided by the following subsections, endures for a term consisting of the life of the author and 70 years after the author's death.

Chapter 3 - Circular 92 | U.S. Copyright Office

Duration of Copyright

www.copyright.gov