The slighted ships belatedly credited here are the two large fleets which England fielded against the Japanese in the last year of World War II. Though greatly inferior in numbers of men, ships, and materiel to the U.S. Navy, and thus forced to adjust for the first time to the role of ""poor relation,"" the Royal Navy proved ""equal in spirit,"" playing an ancillary but admirable role in winning the Pacific war-at-sea. Winton provides minimal political and strategic trappings but fairly frequent eyewitness accounts to salt up his incorrigibly thorough log. The pertinent illustrative paraphernalia includes pictures, maps, charts, chains of command, a chronological summary of events, and appendices listing every last ship and skipper.