The renowned naval historian chronicles three WWII convoy missions to Russia through dangerous Arctic waters and relentless Luftwaffe attacks.During the Summer of 1942 Britain and America jointly agreed to supply desperately needed arms to Soviet Russia. Determined to stop this potentially decisive operation, the Germans relentlessly hounded the Allied convoys from the sky. And the Arctic sea battleground could not have been more inhospitable.The British and ...

A British naval historian recounts the victories and defeats of two of the most infamous German Navy vessels during World War II.Bernard Edwards's Beware Raiders! tells the fascinating story of two German ships and the havoc they caused amongst Allied shipping in World War II. One was the eight-inch gun cruiser Admiral Hipper—named for World War I's German fleet Admiral Franz von Hipper—fast, powerful, and Navy-manned. The other was a converted me...

The acclaimed naval historian sheds significant light on the Royal Navy's role in fighting the African slave trade through years of bitter battle at sea.On March 16th, 1807, the British Parliament passed The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. The following year, the Royal Navy's West African Squadron was formed for the purpose of stopping and searching ships at sea suspected of carrying enslaved people. But with typical thoroughness, the Royal Navy took the fight to ...

The British Merchant Navy dominated the world trade routes in the years leading up to the Second World War. The star players of the fleet were the cargo liners, faster and larger than the tramps and offering limited passenger accommodation. On the outbreak of war these cargo liners became crucial to the nation's survival using their speed and expertise to evade Nazi warships, raiders and U-boats. Initially operating alone, but increasingly relying on Royal Navy protected convoys, these key...

A naval historian reveals the full story of the HMS Jervis Bay and the merchant ships that valiantly saved lives during the WWII Battle of the Atlantic.On November 5th, 1940, the thirty-eight merchant ships of Convoy HX84 were making their way across the North Atlantic, escorted by the armed cruiser HMS Jervis Bay. In mid-ocean, they were attacked by the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer. Though the Jervis Bay charged at the...

T he author of Churchill's Thin Grey Line shares case histories from World War II's Battle of the Atlantic featuring the German U-boat.In the early stages of World War II, Donitz's U-boats generally adhered to Prize rules, surfacing before attacking and making every effort to preserve the lives of their victims' crews. But, with the arming of merchantmen and greater risk of damage or worse, they increasingly attacked without warning.So successful w...

"A gripping narrative" of the German submarines that nearly changed the outcome of World War II from the author of Dönitz and the Wolf Packs ( Naval Review).In essence, this is the story of U-223, commanded by Karl-Jurgen Wächter from the time of her commissioning in Kiel in January 1943 through a murderous career to her eventual but dramatic demise in the Mediterranean in March 1944. At the same time, the book covers the declining fortunes of the ...

The war years 1939 – 1945 were the most perilous in the long history of the British Merchant Navy. The figures speak for themselves. With 2,535 ships sunk and 36,749 merchant seamen lost, the proportional casualty rate was higher than any branch of the Armed Forces except for Bomber Command. The danger to the lightly armed merchant ships came from enemy air attacks, surface warships, raiders and, of course submarines. Prisoners were seldom taken so the crews of stricken vessels had to fend...

In November 1942, Britain and America launched Operation TORCH, the ambitious invasion of French North Africa.To convey 70,000 troops and their equipment required 600 merchant ships crossing the U-boat infested North Atlantic. The need for their protection meant withdrawing escorts from the routine convoys. Amongst those left without adequate defence were RB 1 and SC 107, both eastbound from America, and SL 125, northbound from Freetown. All three were at sea at the same time as the TORCH ...

Early on the morning of 7 December 1941, 360 Japanese carrier-borne aircraft made a surprise attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, and laid waste to the American Far East Fleet. They sank four battleships, crippled three cruisers and three destroyers, and seriously damaged two other battleships. One hundred and sixty-four planes were destroyed and 2,403 servicemen and civilians were killed. All for the loss of twenty-nine Japanese aircraft and fifty-five men. Two days later, the Bri...

From the earliest days of the Second World War, Hitlers U-Boats were unleashed with the mission of sinking as much Allied merchant tonnage as possible. From the sinking of the Glasgow-based ship Olivegrove by U-23, to the end of hostilities six years later officers and seamen of the Merchant Marine played a key role in winning the war by their blatant disregard of the risks from Axis forces. The most dangerous were the U-Boats working unseen but there were also surface raiders and aircraft...

With their very long range, the giant Type IX U-Cruisers gave Admiral Dnitz's U-boat fleet global reach. Initially these boats operated with considerable success off the East coast of America and in the Caribbean but their main impact was in the Gulf of Guinea 1942-43 which, due to the closure of the Suez Canal, was a vital Allied supply route. Two submarines in particular (U-68 and U-505) had a profound effect causing major panic by their hugely successful operations.