Admiral Schofields accounts of the Taranto and Bismarck battles make for unforgettable reading.The author traces the development of British naval aviation from its early beginnings in 1912, through the First World War and the frustrations of the inter-war years. The November 1940 attack on the Italian fleet in its strongly defended base at Taranto demonstrated for the first time the battle-winning capability of carrier-borne aircraft from HMS Illustrious. The lesson was quickly learnt by t...

A Royal Navy Vice Admiral describes the strategy and logistics in deploying ships and crafts for the D-Day amphibious landings in World War II.Operation NEPTUNE was the codeword for the naval side of the OVERLORD plan for the historic June 1944 landings in Normandy. Massive in its scale, its tasks were wide-ranging and varied, from beach reconnaissance, minesweeping, shore bombardment as well as the organization of loading, assembly and disembarkation; it was also r...

"I recommend The Rescue Ships and the Convoys to any person desiring an account of the Battle of the Atlantic told from a little known and unique perspective." -Nautical Research Journal The Rescue Ships and the Convoys tells the history of one of the least known aspects of Second World War maritime history. Despite the threat of heavy losses of ships and lives, no hospital ships, which had to be lit, could accompany the convoys as they would betray a convoy's position. The solution was to...

This detailed military history of the Spanish Civil War dispels long-held misconceptions and sheds significant new light on the conflict.Spain in Arms chronicles the development of the Spanish Civil War on the battlefield, examining eight campaigns waged between 1937 and 1939. Through detailed analysis, it demonstrates how many accounts of military operations during this conflict are based upon half-truths and propaganda.From the Madrid Front to th...

An account of the various units of the British special forces used during the Second World War, perfect for military enthusiasts and WWII history buffs.War Behind Enemy Lines tells the unvarnished story of British Special Forces in the Second World War. While the SAS and SBS remain household names today, there were a plethora of lesser known units, large and small, that played their part before departing the scene. Of special note was the Long Range Desert ...

The epic of Dunkirk has been told many times, but the numerous accounts from surviving soldiers and sailors were often a blur of fear and fighting with the days mingling into each other, leaving what is, at times, a confusing picture. In this book, adopting a day by day approach, the author provides a clear portrayal of the unfolding drama on the perimeter around Dunkirk, in the port itself and along the beaches to La Panne and the Belgian border.Reports from many of the captains of the ve...

Epic tale of giant-robot battles, built around a personal story of redemption and healing.Fly Hard.Rook is a jockey, a soldier trained and modified to fly `shells,' huge robots that fight for the outer regions of settled space. When her shell is destroyed and her squad killed, Rook is imprisoned, left stranded, scarred and broken. Hollow and helpless without her steel frame, she's ready to call it quits. When her cohort of prisoners are sold ...

This " unnerving exposé" of a lost American nuclear bomb "is a valuable contribution to the history of the navy, the cold war, and nuclear weapons" ( Booklist ).On December 5th, 1965, the USS Ticonderoga was on its way from Vietnam to Japan, practicing nuclear combat procedures along the way. A young pilot from Ohio strapped into an A-4 Skyhawk bomber for a routine simulated mission. But after mishandling ...

They came to fight for freedom and their country, they came to fight Germans. Men of the Polish Air Force, who had escaped first to France and then to Britain, to fly alongside the Royal Air Force just as Fighter Command faced its greatest challenge the Battle of Britain.Many of the Polish airmen joined existing RAF squadrons. The Poles also formed their own squadrons, but only four became operational during the Battle of Britain: Nos. 300 and 301, were bomber squadrons, with another two, ...

This is the story the British Expeditionary Forces part in the final days of the Advance to Victory. It starts with the massive offensive against the Hindenburg Line at the end of September 1918. Second Army launched the first of the British attacks in Flanders on the 28th, followed by Fourth Army the next day along the St Quentin Canal.Both First and Third Armies joined in, breaking the Hindenburg Line across the Lys plain and the Artois region, taking Cambrai by 10 October. The narrative...

**"A compelling, dramatic account of the Royal Navy's last great sea battle." —Robert K. Massie, Pulitzer Prize–winning and New York Times–bestselling author of DreadnoughtMore than a century later, historians still argue about this controversial and misunderstood World War I naval battle off the coast of Denmark. It was the twentieth century's first engagement of dreadnoughts—and while it left Britain in control of the North Sea, both sides claimed victo...

What was the soldiers experience of the Battle of the Somme? How did the men who were there record their part in the fighting or remember it afterwards? How can we, 100 years later, gain an insight into one of the most famous and contentious - episodes of the Great War? Matthew Richardsons graphic account, which is based on the vivid personal testimony of those who took part, offers us a direct impression of the reality of the battle from the perspective of the ordinary soldiers and junior...