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The ships he is interested in are the so-called "Big 5" of the Tennessee and Colorado classes, as well as the Pennsylvania and Nevada.

The best single book for this would probably be Norman Friedman's US Battleships: An Illustrated Design History. Includes those classes as well as others before and after. That Amazon pricing is really good - looks like the 2016 paperback reprint did wonders for making it affordable (though, if the reviews are to be believed, less complementary to some of the images). It's 480 pages long, so that $37 gets you a lot of book!

Whilst waiting for the book, there are plenty of images and drawings on Navsource.org for those ships. He might also be interested in the weapons themselves, which can be found on Navweaps.com.

Six Frigates by Ian Toll is Phenomenal: https://www.amazon.com/Six-Frigates-Epic-History-Founding/dp/0393058476/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1BYGY83FZD1CE&keywords=six+frigates&qid=1556727829&s=gateway&sprefix=Six+Fri%2Caps%2C169&sr=8-1


The Line Upon the wind covers the Napoleonic war at sea: https://www.amazon.com/Line-Upon-Wind-Great-1793-1815/dp/0393066533/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1556728015&refinements=p_27%3ANoel+Mostert&s=books&sr=1-1&text=Noel+Mostert


Nelson's Trafalgar is also fantastic: https://www.amazon.com/Nelsons-Trafalgar-Battle-Changed-World/dp/0670034487/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Trafalgar&qid=1556728094&s=books&sr=1-2


If by Sea is a good companion piece to Six Frigates: https://www.amazon.com/If-Sea-Forging-American-Revolution/dp/0465016073/ref=pd_sim_14_92?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0465016073&pd_rd_r=84676f5d-6c2d-11e9-94d4-49728df24266&pd_rd_w=pA1k7&pd_rd_wg=XsBKn&pf_rd_p=90485860-83e9-4fd9-b838-b28a9b7fda30&pf_rd_r=W77XXV91PDQA2J0S6EE9&psc=1&refRID=W77XXV91PDQA2J0S6EE9



The best of the bunch is definitely Six Frigates.

Ian Tolls books are a fantastic overall look at naval warfare and the pacific theatre on both sides. Toll goes in depth on describing the ships of the time, how they got there, how there were used, tactics, leaders, as well as the ground and air campaigns. They are outstanding books, I have included the link to his first one Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 He includes pictures as well but as an author he does a fantastic job of painting a picture of aspects you would never have even thought of.

I also have an a very strong interest in the treaty. I just finished reading a book about the follow up London Treaty of 1931 At the Crossroads Between Peace and War: The London Naval Conference of 1930 its meh IMO

FYI, "auxiliaries" are naval ships that have non-combat functions. Scrolling through the 'stuff other people bought' list mentioned U.S. Amphibious Ships and Craft: An Illustrated Design History. Amphibious ships are an important type of auxiliary, used for landing troops on a hostile shore a la D-Day. So that might be a title of interest to him. Downside is it's pretty expensive.

http://www.amazon.com/Victory-Sea-The-Complete-Series/dp/B008XJM7T2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408663814&sr=8-1&keywords=victory+at+sea

I got this set from Amazon. I have been pretty happy with it. Of course, the footage is unrestored and the editors tended to use the same shots over and over throughout the series. I didn't find it overly grainy and for 5 bucks, I cannot complain. It would be nice if someone did a restoration pass on the film but I am not holding out on that.

The others are correct. The IJN was still convinced of the inevitability of the Decisive Battle that Mahan had espoused at the turn of the century. The entirety of their doctrine, excluding the Decisive Battle, was built around battles being at night and at close range.

They would launch their torpedos while still undetected at long range and then close with the enemy. It’s the same logic behind a Z 52 torping smoke and then charging that smoke, behind a wall of skill, to catch the DD off guard. The IJN hoped for two things. First, that the torpedoes would damage or sink enough ships to make a difference in numerical superiority. Second, that the other ships in the USN formation would turn and break formation making their gunfire much more ineffective and make single ships easier to pick off.

The USN doctrine put all of their eggs in the radar fire control basket. Unfortunately, many of the commanders didn’t trust the new technology, instead trusting their own, flawed, pre-war doctrine. For instance, Norman Scott had a cruiser with search radar but didn’t pick it because he thought a Heavy Cruiser was more befitting an Admiral. So, there was a huge delay in communication between ships and commanders at the Battle of Cape Esperance.

If you’re seriously interested in learning more I strongly suggest reading:

Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal https://www.amazon.com/dp/0553385127/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_LjBOAbQ8CTBFT

Very sorry about your injury, I hope you're on the road to recovery!

Not a novel, but I just listened to Iron Dawn by Richard Snow on my commute and really enjoyed it. It's a great history of the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimack during the Civil War.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Battle-Midway-Craig-Symonds/dp/1480528390

Anyone who mentions The Battle of Midway without mentioning Shattered Sword is doing a disservice to their audience. I think this would be a perfect carrier combat book for OP.

Ship of Ghosts is another good one about the dark and ugly early days of the Pacific War.

Ok. Here you go!

Clash of Titans: World War II At Sea Walter J. Boyne (the author) was an Air Force colonel and gives an interesting perspective on WW2 at sea. He also wrote Clash of Wings about the war in the air.

Great Warship From the Age of Steam by David Ross. Fun coffee table book that has just about every large big gun warship from 1860 to 1945 listed.

Struggle for the Middle Sea and The German Fleet at War, 1939-1945 are books by Vincent P. O'Hara who does an excellent job of covering just about every single engagement by the Germans, Italians and Allies during WW2. You come away with the impression that the Italians gave just as good as they got most of the time. And wonder why you haven't heard of 90% of the battles in his books.

'And I Was There' by Rear Admiral Edwin T. Layton. You won't read a better book about the intelligence (and failure of intelligence) behind the attack on Pearl Harbor. Adm Layton was Admiral Kimmel's Combat Intelligence Officer and had intimate knowledge of just about everything relating to code breaking in WW2.

Japanese Destroyer Captain by Captain Tameichi Hara. This guy was everywhere in the Pacific. Pearl. Fighting it out point blank at Guadalcanal. Midway. He commanded the light cruiser escorting Yamato when she was sunk on her kamikaze mission. And, somehow, he lived.


*More to come tomorrrow, if I get a chance.

Most recent one I read was Rising Sun, Falling Skies, which covers what went on in the ill-fated ABDA (American-British-Dutch-Australian) command in and around the Java Sea in the early months of the Pacific war. I thought it was interesting because that period of the war was just so different to how things were post-Midway, when the USN had begun its journey towards total domination. In the Java Sea campaign the Allied forces were usually totally outmatched, operating without adequate air cover or intelligence, flailing around trying to keep up with the rapid and audacious Japanese advances and lumbered with various obsolete and/or badly designed ships. Was also quite tense reading some of the parts towards the end as various warships attempt to escape from the Java Sea and head south to Australia, even if you already know which ones will never make it.