An officer in the US Merchant Marine from World War II to the Korean War, Jack Beritzhoff sailed from the South Pacific to Casablanca to Kuwait to Liverpool to Pusan... and back. Sail Away follows him from port to port, around the globe to five continents, discovering friendship and heroism (as well as occasional cowardice and deceit), and of course the beautiful girl in every port.In the tradition of James Michner's Tales of the South Pacific, this memoir brings ...

HMS Tally Ho, captained by Commander L.W.A. Bennington was a T-class submarine which achieved spectacular success in the Second World War. Her name was chosen for her by Winston Churchill and it proved a very suitable one for a hunting submarine. In a single commission, lasting from 15th March 1943 to 26th February 1945, she operated in the Malacca Strait. Here, surrounded by enemy air bases and in badly charted shallow waters - so shallow that many experts considered them unsuitable for s...

Second lieutenant Dick Curtis arrived in Italy in May 1944–twenty years old and part of a shipment of P-51 Mustang fighter pilots so desperately needed that they were rushed into combat with less than thirty hours of flight time in their new high-performance aircraft.Six of the twelve pilots assigned to the 52nd Fighter Group were shot down in the first two weeks. By his ninth mission, Curtis was the only one still flying. A maverick, he barely escaped court-martial with his high-f...

SURVIVORThrough six grueling years of warfare, USS Russell and her gallant crew pitted their prowess against a determined enemy.From the pre-Pearl Harbor Battle of the Atlantic to the campaigns in the Pacific, She was home to warriors who fought off attacks by submarines, planes and ships. She saw them through sixteen major engagements of World War Two including the Battles of Coral Sea, Java, Midway, Savo Island, Santa Cruz, and Guadalcanal She supported the land forces thro...

During World War II fighter pilots were, at times, detailed to perform out-of-the-ordinary operations. "Duck Hunting in a Hurricane" was an event that resulted in just such an operation in order to recover the Hurricane and bring back the ducks.

In 1939 a 21 year old joined the N.Z.R.A.F. as a reservist. When World War II was declared he was called up and sent to Woodburn training camp in Blenheim and taught to fly. In August 1940 he sailed from New Zealand for England and went to war. As the sea voyage progressed from holiday cruise to deadly dangerous, he kept a diary and then gave it to a steward to post home from LA.He was a foundation member of 485 NZ Spitfire Squadron. He watched his best friends die before his eyes,...

At dawn, they saw her masts on the horizon and immediately prepared for battle. They were up against a formidable foe; the Admiral Graf Spee had already sunk nine British merchant ships in the South Atlantic. Now, her modern prototype diesel engines were set at maximum power and she was heading straight for them at full speed...Read about the Royal Navy’s determined hunt for the enemy battleship Graf Spee in the South Atlantic; Germany`s lethal U Boats and the Battle of the Atlanti...

The inside story of life aboard the deadly Nazi U-Boat that sank forty-nine ships.The history of one of World War II's most successful submarines, U-124, is chronicled in Grey Wolf, Grey Sea, from its few defeats to a legion of victories. Kapitanleutnant Jochen Mohr commanded his German submarine and navigated it through the treacherous waters of one of the most destructive, savage wars the world has known.

Our Lancaster raced over the perimeter track and then tore down the slope through the dispersal area... with its wheels thumping on the grass but still firmly on the ground. It now seemed that nothing could save us and that, in the next couple of moments, we would disappear in a great explosion. I could hear Bob saying "Get off the ground, you bastard, get off," while Harry just said nothing..."Into the Darkness" is the true story of a young Australian thown into the crucible of th...

DESCRIPTION“An excellent book to read at this time during the anniversary of the bombing of the German dams by what seemed impossible odds.” Review.**Guy Gibson: Legend of the Dam Busters tells the dramatic story of a renowned British flying legend and his leadership of the infamous raid on the Ruhr dams in May 1943, providing a fitting and timely tribute to a truly courageous aviator.This short i...

At a crucial moment, Ed Whitcomb, a B-17 navigator, made a split-second decision and thereby set off a hair-raising, spine-tingling sequence of narrow escapes, captures, unexpected breaks and bitter betrayals that culminated in his final extrication from enemy territory.Whitcomb reached Clark Field just before its demolition by the Japanese. He then evaded capture at the fall of Bataan by fleeing in a row boat to the bastion of Corregidor, where he was caught. Escaping under cover ...

Just after 2100 hours, the mission’s leader Wing Commander Guy Gibson gave the signal. The red light went on and the Merlin engines of the thirteen Lancaster bombers roared into life. They had been in intensive training for eight weeks for the most famous bombing raid of World War II. RAF 617 squadron, the Dambusters, were finally ready to go...Read about the RAF’s daring Dambusters mission, along with the bombing and defence of London in the Battle of Britain and the merciless Bom...