Iran-Iraq Naval War

Volume 2: Convoy Battles, 1981–1984

What the book really is

Iran-Iraq Naval War, Volume 2 is a short but dense operational history of a very specific military problem: how Iran protected the shipping lifeline to its northern Persian Gulf ports during 1981–1984, and how Iraq tried to break that lifeline through air power, missiles, and maritime pressure. It is not a general history of the entire Iran-Iraq War, and it is not a strategic overview written for beginners. It is a campaign study built around convoy operations, escort doctrine, air cover, intelligence support, and the day-to-day friction of keeping merchant traffic moving in a war zone.

That makes the book narrower than its title may first suggest, but also more useful in its own lane. The authors are very clear that they want to correct the common impression that little meaningful naval warfare took place between Iran and Iraq after the first clashes of 1980. Their answer is that a great deal happened: dozens of air-sea engagements, repeated convoy battles, attacks on ports and terminals, and a continuing Iranian struggle to keep Bandar-e Khomeini and Mahshahr supplied. The book’s argument is therefore revisionist in a focused way. It does not claim to rewrite the entire war. It claims to restore one neglected dimension of it.

Target audience & context

The best audience is military-history readers who enjoy operational detail. This includes readers interested in the Iran-Iraq War, naval warfare, Persian Gulf security, missile warfare, and the interplay between air and naval forces. It will also appeal to readers who value documentary reconstruction, because the book leans heavily on Iranian naval records and supplements them with Iranian air-force material, Iraqi testimony, and Western sources.

It is less ideal for someone looking for a broad introduction to the whole conflict or for readers who prefer a more thematic, interpretive, or political narrative. The book is very concrete. It cares about which convoy sailed when, which air base launched what, which ship was hit, and how escort arrangements changed over time. For the right reader, that is exactly the attraction. For the wrong reader, it may feel too specialized.

Writing style & readability

The writing is brisk, factual, and operational. This is not literary military history. It is closer to a well-illustrated campaign reconstruction. The prose moves quickly through sequences of events, often tying together Iranian port activity, convoy organization, Iraqi preparations, air interceptions, missile launches, and damage outcomes in a compact span. Because the book is short, it does not have much space for long reflection or theoretical discussion. That actually helps it here. The narrative stays concentrated and purposeful.

Readability is strongest when the book explains systems: how caravans were organized, how dangerous the Khowr al-Moussa approach was, how Sea Kings and AB.212 helicopters supported the routes, how F-14s and F-4s were used for top cover, and how FASHA and P-3 Orions fed intelligence into the convoy-defense system. Those sections make the book feel larger than a series of incidents, because they explain why the battles unfolded the way they did.

Structure & learning logic

The structure is straightforward and well suited to the book’s length. The contents page shows four chapters after the introduction: “The Silence Before the Storm,” “The End of the Idyll,” “The Year of the Caravans,” and “The Search for New Solutions.” That chapter sequence works very well. First the reader is grounded in the geography, oil infrastructure, and convoy system. Then the book shows Iraqi adaptation, the end of the early relatively quieter phase, the heavier battles of 1982, and finally the search for new methods on both sides as the war becomes more technologically dangerous.

This progression is one of the book’s best qualities. Even in limited space, it gives a sense of escalation. Early convoy defense depends on escorts, top cover, reconnaissance, and port throughput. Later, the struggle includes Exocets, Silkworms, radar sites, missile decoys, armed helicopters, and eventually the Iraqi acquisition of Super Etendards for intensified anti-shipping attacks. The reader therefore comes away with a clear sense that the convoy war did not stand still; it evolved.

Visual style of the book

For a relatively short military-history title, the visual support is strong. The book includes maps, diagrams, photographs, and color artwork that genuinely help explain the subject. The map of convoy routes early in the book is especially useful because it lets the reader see the sequence from Bandar Abbas to Bushehr and then onward to Bandar-e Khomeini and Mahshahr, while also showing the ship classes and helicopters involved in escort operations. That single visual immediately clarifies the book’s logistical core.

The photographs are also well chosen. They are not decorative. Images of Bandar-e Khomeini, Sea Kings, P-3 Orions, missile decoys, damaged ships, and crews involved in the operations reinforce the practical and documentary nature of the book. In a short book, that matters. The visuals help compress explanation and make the campaign more concrete.

Strengths

The first major strength is documentary specificity. The authors repeatedly anchor the narrative in Iranian naval and air-force records, which gives the convoy operations a level of detail that general histories usually miss. This is the book’s central scholarly value.

The second strength is systems thinking. The book does not reduce convoy warfare to ships at sea. It connects ports, unloading bottlenecks, merchant piloting, helicopter reconnaissance, air cover, radar integration, COMINT/SIGINT, and even intelligence advantages such as Iranian access to decrypted Iraqi communications. That makes the campaign feel operationally real.

The third strength is escalation and adaptation. The reader sees Iraqi use of Super Frelons and Exocets, later Silkworm deployment, and eventually Super Etendards, while Iran responds with revised convoy tactics, missile decoys, armed helicopters, and tighter coordination. That contest of adaptation is one of the book’s most interesting features.

Weaknesses

The clearest limitation is perspective. The authors openly state that the available documentation is much stronger on the Iranian side than the Iraqi side, which means the account is better substantiated than earlier works but still not fully balanced. That honesty helps, but it remains a real limitation.

A second limitation is density. Even though the book is short, it packs in many unit names, ship names, aircraft types, and incident sequences. Readers without prior familiarity with the conflict may need to slow down or reread sections.

A third limitation is that it is a campaign slice, not a full standalone history. Readers wanting the whole naval war or broader geopolitical context may need Volume 1 and likely later volumes as well.

What the reader actually gains

A reader who finishes this book gains a much clearer understanding of why convoy warfare mattered in the Iran-Iraq War. They will see that maritime logistics, port throughput, oil exports, air cover, and anti-ship missile warfare were deeply interconnected. They also gain a more grounded picture of how short-range naval battles, aviation support, and strategic oil infrastructure interacted in the northern Persian Gulf.

My judgment

This is a strong short military-history book. It is best for readers who like operational reconstruction, convoy warfare, and Persian Gulf air-sea combat. It is not broad, but within its chosen frame it is informative, vivid, and more revealing than many larger books that treat this theater only in passing.

Command Palette