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Great Naval Battles That Changed History
A survey of the sea battles with the largest lasting political consequences, from Salamis in 480 BC to Midway in 1942, and a look at what made each one matter.
Naval Power and Warfare
Great Naval Battles
Sea fights that decided wars and empires.
Jutland and the Clash of the Battle Fleets
The largest battleship engagement of the First World War, fought in 1916 between the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet, and why it settled little.
Midway and the Age of Carrier Warfare
The June 1942 battle in which American carrier aircraft sank four Japanese carriers, and what it showed about the aircraft carrier replacing the battleship at sea.
The Battle of Actium and the Rise of Augustus
The sea battle of 31 BC off western Greece in which Octavian's fleet beat Antony and Cleopatra, closing the Roman civil wars and opening the way to empire.
The Battle of Lepanto and the Last Galley Fleets
The 1571 clash between the Holy League and the Ottoman navy in the Gulf of Patras, the largest galley battle of its age, and what it did and did not change.
The Battle of Salamis and the Greek Triremes
How a Greek fleet of triremes used the narrow strait off Athens in 480 BC to blunt a larger Persian navy, and why the battle shaped the war that followed.
The Battle of the Atlantic and the Convoy System
The long Second World War struggle to keep merchant ships crossing the Atlantic despite U-boats, and how convoys, escorts, aircraft and codebreaking helped.
The Battle of Tsushima
The 1905 battle in which Admiral Togo's Japanese fleet destroyed Russia's Baltic Fleet, and why it was the decisive naval engagement of the Russo-Japanese War.
The Spanish Armada Campaign of 1588
The ships, plans and weather behind Spain's attempted invasion of England in 1588, from the Lisbon fleet to the fireships at Calais and the long voyage home.
Trafalgar and the Tactics of Nelson
How Nelson planned the battle of 21 October 1805, why his two-column attack worked, and how Trafalgar ended French and Spanish challenges to British sea power.
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