War broke out in 1899 between the British and South African settlers of Dutch descent, the Boers, or Afrikaners as they are usually called today. Despite previous clashes, the British seriously underestimated their opponents. Although dressed in battered civilian clothes and made up entirely of volunteers, Boer troops were all mounted on horses and had very up-to-date German rifles.An even more unpleasant surprise than the mounted riflemen were the Boer artillery units. They were the only ...

Built of plywood and measuring 115 feet long, powered by four supercharged petrol engines and armed to the teeth with heavy weapons, the 'D' Class Motor Gun Boats (MGBs) and Motor Torpedo Boats (MTBs) were better known as Dog Boats and played havoc with enemy shipping in home and foreign waters. During three years of war they engaged the enemy on more than 350 occasions, sinking and damaging many ships. Dog Boats at War is the authoritative account of operations b...

A first-hand account of World War I by a nineteen-year-old Englishman who led a platoon into the carnage of the Battle of the Somme.While researching his excellent earlier book: Veterans of World War I, author Richard Van Emden encountered a fascinating personality of that long-ago conflict. After witnessing German naval attacks on British civilians, Norman Collins enlisted in the Seaforth Highlanders of the 51st Highland Division, even though he was under ...

"The hunting down and sinking of the magnificent German battle cruiser Scharnhorst was one of the epic actions of World War II . . . stirring" ( Work Boat).On December 25, 1943, the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst slipped out of Altenfjord in Norway to attack Arctic convoy JW55B which was carrying vital war supplies to the Soviet Union. But British naval intelligence knew of the Scharnhorst's mission before she sailed, and the ...

History of the Boer War, by the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, first published in 1902. According to Wikipedia: "Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger. He was a prolific writer whose other works include science fiction stories, plays, romances, poet...

"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...

As part of the Light Division created to act as the advance guard of Wellington's army, the 95th Rifles are the first into battle and the last out. Fighting and thieving their way across Europe, they are clearly no ordinary troops. The 95th are in fact the first British soldiers to take aim at their targets, to take cover when being shot at, to move tactically by fire and manoeuvre. And by the end of the six-year campaign they have not only proved themselves the toughest fighters in the ar...

Full-length accounts of three decisive WWII events—Pearl Harbor, Midway, and the evacuation of Dunkirk—from a #1 New York Times –bestselling author.In May 1940, the remnants of the French and British armies, broken by Hitler's blitzkrieg, retreated to the beach at Dunkirk. Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered an evacuation on May 26, expecting to save no more than a handful of his men. But Britain would not let its so...

On 22 January 1879 a 20,000-strong Zulu army decimated the British camp at Isandlwana. On the back of this victory 3,000–4,000 Zulu warriors swept towards the garrison of Rorke's Drift, expecting to devastate the c.500-strong British and colonial force there. However, this small, but stalwart group of brave British soldiers withstood this overwhelming force over the next forty-eight hours and ultimately repelled them in a British victory that has been immortalised in books...

In February 1942, three of the major ships of the German surface fleet – the battle-cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen – stormed out of the harbour at Brest on a dramatic voyage back to Germany. Passing through the straights of Dover, the ships faced everything the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy could throw at them. In a dramatic running fight, the ships managed to sail right under the nose of history's greatest maritime nation to reach the safety of ...

DESCRIPTIONJohn Moffat: Legend of the Bismarck tells the remarkable story of a Fleet Air Arm pilot and flying legend who, with a single torpedo strike, delivered from an obsolete biplane, in a force nine gale, in the middle of the Atlantic, brought about the sinking of Nazi Germany’s most powerful battleship, the Bismarck.This short book gives the reader a concise and straightforward insight into the achievements of John Moffat and one of ...

On 22 January 1879 a 20,000-strong Zulu army attacked 1,700 British and colonial forces. The engagement saw primitive weapons of spears and shields clashing with the latest military technology. However, despite being poorly equipped, the numerically superior Zulu force crushed the British troops, killing 1,300 men, whilst only losing 1,000 of their own warriors. It was a humiliating defeat for the British Army, who had been poorly trained and who had underestimated their e...