During the Second World War daring and highly unusual missions were mounted by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) – formed on Churchill's orders 'to set Europe ablaze' – and its American counterpart, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). In sixteen separate chapters the author describes how the fearless individuals in these clandestine organisations were recruited, trained and armed, and examines some of their guerrilla operations in Europe, Africa and the Far East, ...

Sabotage and subversion have always been a part of warfare. But the global nature of World War II brought a new group of special operations agents, with their own sophisticated means of causing chaos and slowing down the enemy. From de-railing and even blowing up trains to undermining the German government through a campaign of propaganda and underground resistance networks; the SOE and its American counterpart, the OSS, operated far and wide across Europe and in the Far East in their miss...

A history of the foreign commando unit formed by the British army during WWII from volunteer troops from Germany and Nazi-occupied countries.It is indeed remarkable, since the archives of the Second World War must have been pillaged, ransacked, burrowed into, and turned over almost as thoroughly as Monte Cassino itself, that no book has been written about one of the strangest units created during that or any other conflict. The unit was called Ten Commando - and th...

Enduring great danger and often terrible conditions in heavy seas, the Rescue Tug Services worked tirelessly to bring to port damaged vessels and keep up the supply of food and essential items during two world wars.They were first deployed towards the end of the First World War to support and if necessary to salvage merchant shipping that had been damaged by U-boat attacks. During the Second World War they were needed even more urgently when ships bringing food and other essential supplies...

The struggle for naval supremacy and the naval arms race inspired by HMS Dreadnought may have captured the headlines, but the opening stages of the naval war were dominated by the threat from German cruisers stationed outside European waters, until they were hunted down and sunk by the Royal Navy, notably at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in 1914.Germany switched its focus to the U-boat, seeing it as a weapon capable of winning the war by starving Britain into surrender. Unrestr...

A gripping account of the epic hunt for Hitler’s most terrifying battleship – the legendary Tirpitz – and the brave men who risked their lives to attack and destroy this most potent symbol of the Nazi’s fearsome war machine.Tirpitz was the pride of Hitler’s navy. To Churchill, she was ‘the Beast’, a menace to Britain’s supply lines and a threat to the convoys sustaining Stalin’s armies. Tirpitz was said to be unsinkable, impregnable –no other target attracted so much attention....

"The dramatic career of the Queen Elizabeth class super-dreadnought, which fought with such distinction throughout two World Wars . . . a great story." —White Ensign AssociationNo warship name in British naval history has more battle honors than HMS Warspite. While this book looks at the lives of all eight vessels to bear the name (between 1596 and the 1990s), it concentrates on the truly epic story of the seventh vessel, a super-dreadnought battleship, con...

The WWII historian's bracingly accurate analysis of what might have happened if Hitler ordered Operation Sea Lion to breech the shores of England.In June 1940, German troops gathered just across the English Channel, poised for the invasion of Britain. With France defeated and Britain cowed, Hitler seemed ready for his greatest gamble. In this compelling alternative history, the Germans launch the invasion that, in reality, was never more than a plan.Landing b...

The biography of a British battleship, from an author with " a facility for rendering nonfiction into a narrative as brisk and readable as a novel" ( HistoryNet).The Second World War battleship HMS Rodney achieved lasting fame for her role in destroying the pride of Hitler's navy, the mighty Bismarck, in a thrilling duel. The Rodney, carrying the largest guns ever mounted in a British warship, finally succeeded i...

**The definitive biography of the Australian cruiser HMAS Perth, and the brave men who sailed with her.**Of all the Australians who fought in the Second World War, none saw more action nor endured so much of its hardship and horror as the crew of the cruiser HMAS Perth. Most were young - many were still teenagers - from cities and towns, villages and farms across the nation. In three tumultuous years they did battle with the forces of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the Vich...

This is the wartime history of the battleship HMS Royal Sovereign, along with the story of her four sister ships HMS Revenge, HMS Resolution, HMS Royal Oak and HMS Ramillies. These ships were built and launched during World War I and although old and slow, and bitterly criticised by Churchill and others as being "Coffin Ships", the Royal Sovereign class battleships in fact played a valiant and doughty role in World War II. The Royal Oak was an early loss, thanks mainly to pre-war Governmen...

A fascinating and lively account of the lives of British warships named London, looking at history from the perspective of the men who were there.There is no current warship in the Royal Navy called HMS London, but vessels carrying the name have featured in some of the most controversial episodes of British naval history.For example, the wooden wall battleship HMS London of the late 18th century could be called "the ship that lost A...