The British Pacific Fleet was formed in October 1944 and dispatched to fight alongside the USN in the Central Pacific under Admiral Nimitz. Deploying previously unpublished documents, this book reveals how relations between the UK and US forces developed from a starting point of barely repressed suspicion, to one where both navies came to understand each other and eventually find a remarkable bond. Born out of a shared experience of Kamikaze attacks, extended operations against bitterly ho...

'A lively and readable account' Spectator'A fine book ... well-written and well-researched' Washington TimesIn less than six hours in August 1942, nearly 1,000 British, Canadian and American commandos died in the French port of Dieppe in an operation that for decades seemed to have no real purpose. Was it a dry-run for D-Day, or perhaps a gesture by the Allies to placate Stalin's impatience for a second front in th...

Co-winner of the 2014-2015 Charles P. Stacey AwardTim Cook, Canada’s leading war historian, ventures deep into World War Two in this epic two-volume story of heroism and horror, of loss and longing, sacrifice and endurance.Written in Cook’s compelling narrative style, this book shows in impressive detail how soldiers, airmen, and sailors fought—the evolving tactics, weapons of war, logistics, and technology. It gauges Canadian effectiveness against the skil...

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 ...

World War II was only a few hours old when the Battle of the Atlantic, the longest campaign of the Second World War and the most complex submarine war in history, began with the sinking of the unarmed passenger liner Athenia by the German submarine U30. Based on the mastery of the latest research and written from a mid-Atlantic – rather than the traditional Anglo-centric – perspective, Marc Milner focuses on the confrontation between opposing forces and the attack...

On 7 December 1941, the Japanese navy attacked Pearl Harbour. Simultaneously, they launched all-out assaults on Malaya, Hong Kong and the Philippines. Japan's sphere of influence spread at a phenomenal rates and it seemed the their dream of empire was about to be realized.Featuring remarkable photographs and useful maps*, Victory in the Pacific* examines how the tide of Japanese victory was turned. Following pivotal battles such as the Battle of Guadalcanal, the Battle of Leyte Gul...

An eyewitness account of the fight for supremacy at sea during World War II, as told by a man who was in the thick of combat against Nazi Germany.The Battle of the Atlantic was an unremitting assault by enemy boats and aircraft against Allied merchant ships that were the lifeline of Great Britain—and the vigilant defense against them made by the Royal Navy and other allied forces.Captain Donald Macintyre—a winner of the Distinguished Service Cross who parti...

The Pacific War brings together the perspectives and insights of world-renowned military historians.From the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor through the release of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the conflict in the Pacific was marked by amazing tactical innovations, such as those in amphibious warfare, and horrific battles that raged in the unforgiving climate of the island jungles.Each chapter in this book focuses on a different aspec...

A gripping account of one of the Royal Navy's most significant modern warships.The HMS Invincible is a ship whose eventful life story, it is argued, embodies that of the Royal Navy itself during the second half of the 20th century and into the 21st. From her conception and design, through her various deployments (including the Falklands) and her evolving role and technical adaptation to meet changing strategic requirements, her fluctuating fortunes have bee...

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...

1942 was the year of Australia's greatest peril - as Darwin was destroyed by bombing, Australian ships were torpedoed within sight of our coast, midget Japanese submarines attacked shipping in Sydney Harbour, and the Japanese army invaded New Guinea on its inexorable march south. This is the real story of the genuine and imminent threat to Australia in that fateful year.On the beautiful Inland Sea of Japan - the heartland of the Imperial Japanese Navy - and in frenetic wartime Toky...