Naval historian Craig L. Symonds talks about his new book, Annapolis Goes to War: The Naval Academy Class of 1940 and Its Trial by Fire in World War II. Symonds follows one cohort from plebe year to the fleet, using the Class of ’40 to tell a larger story about America’s rapid transition from peace to global war. These midshipmen arrived at the Academy the year Hitler reoccupied the Rhineland and graduated the week of Dunkirk; more than a hundred were on duty at Pearl Harbor, where ten were killed—seven still entombed in USS Arizona. It’s a tight, human-scale history that shows how the Academy shaped young officers who would face combat within months.

Annapolis Goes to War gives a fresh view of training, leadership, and loss in WWII. Early reviews call the book “often-moving” and recommend it to anyone interested in military history; another notes how vividly Symonds shows young officers thrown into war scarcely 18 months after graduation.

Craig L. Symonds is Professor Emeritus at the U.S. Naval Academy and a former Ernest J. King Distinguished Visiting Professor at the U.S. Naval War College. A leading naval historian, he’s written widely read works including World War II at Sea (2018), The Battle of Midway (2011), and Nimitz at War (2022). His honors include the Lincoln Prize, the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Neptune, and the Pritzker Military Museum & Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement (2023).

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