A history of the small, mass-produced warships that defended the Atlantic convoys from U-boats and secured Britain's lifeline to the United States.As the Battle of the Atlantic grew fiercer, Britain and the Commonwealth needed large quantities of new warships to defend their shipping which could be produced cheaply. The two largest type of ship produced were the escort destroyer and the frigate. Escort destroyers were essentially small destroyers optimized for anti...

A definitive technical guide to the early Allison-engined P-51 Mustang variants.While the introduction of the Merlin engine did improve the Mustang's performance and produce the bubble-canopied fighters with which we associate the name, credit must be given to the Allison-engined variants that preceded it. From its inception in early 1940, the Mustang's development was extraordinarily rapid – such was the need for a fighter at the time, and the confidence in its de...

Dramatically illustrated, this is an expert account of America's biggest surface battle since World War II, when the US Navy took on Iran's navy and air force in open combat.Operation Praying Mantis was the culmination of the 1980s Tanker Wars in the Persian Gulf between the US and Iran. This one-day naval battle was a rare full-scale clash between modern warships, and until 2026 was the only occasion since World War II in which the US Navy sank a major su...

In this illustrated study, an acknowledged expert charts the development of close air support and battlefield air interdiction in theory and practice during World War II.In World War I the use of aircraft to support ground operations was in its infancy, and it was only after the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 that close air support (CAS) and battlefield air interdiction (BAI) began to evolve towards a recognizably mo...

This fully illustrated study explores the history of the Lexington class, the US Navy's first fleet carriers, from their battlecruiser origins to their service in World War II.The Lexington class began life as two of the six battlecruisers ordered for the US Navy in 1916. Laid down in 1920–21, they would have been the most powerful battlecruisers ever, if the Washington Naval Treaty had not scrapped the world's newest capital ships. However, as a handful of hulls w...

A detailed analysis of the Allied failure in Dakar against Vichy France in September 1940.Amidst the onslaught of the Blitz, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was desperate to take the fight to the enemy and so he set his eyes on the French West African port of Dakar. Emboldened by the recent defection of some of the Vichy colonies to the Free French movement, Churchill asked Charles de Gaulle if he could rally Dakar, and its potent naval force, to their cau...

This is the first book to study the air campaign over the Kuban, the little-known turning point of the Eastern Front air war.In April and May 1943, the Luftwaffe and Soviet Air Force (VVS) engaged in an intense battle for air superiority over the Kuban Peninsula. Both sides launched maximum efforts to support offensives by their ground forces as the Germans battled to destroy the small beachhead held by the Red Army, while the Soviets tried to drive them into the K...

A freshly researched, superbly illustrated assessment of Operation Bodenplatte, the Luftwaffe's desperate bid to support the Battle of the Bulge, and its last attempt at a major offensive.With the Allies on Germany's borders, Hitler's Ardennes offensive – the Battle of the Bulge – was intended to split the advancing British and American armies. The Luftwaffe was to commit much of its remaining fighter strength to support t...

The savage naval battles of Guadalcanal, New Guinea and the Solomons were transformative for the US Navy. Fully illustrated, this analyses the fleet's capabilities and combat in this period.The naval battles of 1942–43 around Guadalcanal and in the Solomons were some of the fiercest and most closely contested of the Pacific War. The campaigns included most of the surface actions of the war, as well as two carrier battles, three major amphibious landings, and a subm...

Fully illustrated throughout, this is the first book to focus on the Kriegsmarine's role in the invasion of Norway, Germany's only major amphibious landing of the war.The invasion of Denmark and Norway saw the Kriegsmarine's most extensive deployment of focused naval power of the entire war. Although truly a combined services invasion, the Kriegsmarine was the only means by which to make multiple coordinated landings on a hostile and frequently inhospitable coastli...

A definitive technical guide to one of the most underrated medium bombers of the Second World War.The Martin B-26 Marauder never fully managed to shake off an undeserved early reputation as a dangerous aircraft to fly. Deemed superior to all other designs on the table at the time, almost a 1,000 had been ordered before the aircraft first took to the air November 1940. From late 1941 the first B-26s became operational in the Pacific, followed by the Mediterranean, b...

A definitive technical guide to the early Allison-engined P-51 Mustang variants.While the introduction of the Merlin engine did improve the Mustang's performance and produce the bubble-canopied fighters with which we associate the name, credit must be given to the Allison-engined variants that preceded it. From its inception in early 1940, the Mustang's development was extraordinarily rapid – such was the need for a fighter at the time, and the confidence in its de...