The Central Pennsylvania World War II Roundtable will meet via Zoom on Thursday, Feb. 4, at 7 p.m. The guest speaker will be author and naval historian Craig Symonds.

Symonds' topic will be the Battle of the Atlantic during World War II. Symonds was a teacher of naval history and Civil War history at the United States Naval Academy for 30 years. He served as chairman of the history department from 1988 to 1992, and upon his retirement in 2005 was appointed professor emeritus. From 2017 to 2020, he was the Ernest J. King Distinguished Professor of Maritime History at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I.

Symonds is the author of 12 books, his most recent being "World War II at Sea: A Global History." This book is a comprehensive study of naval activities on all the world's oceans and seas between 1939 and 1945.

In addition, Symonds has edited nine other books and has written over 100 scholarly articles in professional journals and publications. Symonds was a winner of the Lincoln Prize for his book "Lincoln and His Admirals" as well as the Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature for "Operation Neptune: The D-Day Landings and the Allied Invasion of Europe."

Symonds and his wife, Marylou, live in Annapolis, Md.

The Zoom meeting is open to the public, and no registration is required. For details on how to attend, readers may visit http://www.centralpaww2roundtable.org and click on "Upcoming Speakers."

The Central Pennsylvania World War II Roundtable is a nonprofit organization that provides a forum for World War II veterans, authors, historians, and citizens to share their knowledge and experiences related to the war.