I recently blew through Killing the Bismarck and HMS Rodney by Iain Ballantyne based on some comments I saw on this sub. I thought they were fantastic (hopefully they're good historically, let me know if not), and I'm hoping I can get some recommendations for similar books. I'm interested to know if there are any parallel books for the US and Japanese battleships of WW1 and/or 2. Beyond that, submarine warfare also interests me. I checked to AskHistorians book list and I'll be adding Shattered Sword to my list, but I didn't really see anything else in the naval category specifically.
Thanks!
Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James Hornfischer is about Taffy 3 and the Battle of Samar and is an excellent read
One book to add to your list should be Ronald Spector's At War at Sea: Sailors and Naval Combat in the Twentieth Century which is a comparative social history of the modern navy showing how sailors of many different nations acclimated themselves to the changing dynamics of naval warfare. This focus on the human factor makes for quite a fascinating read.
For the Japanese Navy, in addition to Shattered Sword Evans and Peattie's Kaigun is one of the bibles for IJN historiography and will do much to illuminate interwar design principles as the authors contextualize Japanese developments with their contemporaries.
Check out literally anything by Robert Massie. His work Dreadnought is splendid.
Right now I'm reading Sea Wolves: The Extraordinary Story of Britain's WW2 Submarines By Timothy Clayton. It's covering both the creation of the submarine service and the careers of major and minor players. So far so good and I would recommend it.
If the Japanese and American navies are of interest two books I would recommend are:
Pacific Crucible: The war in the Pacific 1941-1942 by Ian W. Toll, he is the author of 6 Frigates(a superb history of the founding of the USN) it is a grand read of the origins of the war and the plans and personalities which shaped both fleets in the lead up to the war and to Midway, with the second book of his trilogy due out this fall!
Neptunes Inferno: The USN at Guadalcanal by James Hornfischer, the same author of Last Stand of the Tin Can sailors about Laffey 3 and Leyte Gulf. An excellent read on the campaign and theater which was one of the hottest for surface action in the war along with the Mediterranean.
While not quite in your question for the carrier war i wuld recomend the combination of the two books.
The First Team by John Lundstrum from 1984 is a wonderful look at the evolution of the surprisingly small cadre that made up the air-wings of the 5 carriers the US had in the Pacific (Lexington, Saratoga, Yorktown, Enterprise and Hornet).
Then Shattered Sword by Jon Parshall (with a forward by Lundstrum) is a much more recent book which focuses heavily on the updated scholarship on the Japanese side and the abilities, flaws, struggles, and story of the Kido Butai and the air crews of Japan's carriers.
As far as submarines go, I would recommend Thunder Below by admiral Eugene Fluckey. It's about the USS Barb's 8-11th patrols in the Pacific during WW2.