Naval

'Kershaw's book is a welcome rebalancing; a thoughtful, well-researched and well-written contribution to a narrative that has long been too one-sided and too mired in national mythology.' The Times The British evacuation from the beaches of the...

'Fascinating . . . Shot through with fresh insights . . . No previous biography has attempted anything so comprehensive.' ObserverNelson is a thrilling new appraisal of Horatio Nelson, the greatest practitioner of naval command the world has ever seen...

Without Henry V's Navy, the Battle of Agincourt would never have happened. Henry's fleet played a major - if often unrecognised - part in enabling the king to come within reach of final victory in the Hundred Years War against France. Henry's navy was...

Now a major television documentary (Channel 4, 2021)The epic mission to destroy Hitler's flagship.'Bismarck was now loose in the Atlantic ... we had to find and sink her.'May, 1941. The most powerful battleship the world has ever seen, the German Navy's...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZEA Financial Times Book of the YearA Sunday Times Book of the Year ________________________________________'Entertaining and well-paced... Platt's compelling book is a sobering read that should focus the minds...

For centuries, ships' commanders kept journals that recorded their missions. These included voyages of discovery to unknown lands, engagements in war and sea and general trade. Many of their logs, diaries and letters were lodged at The National Archives...

This fully illustrated study examines and compares the roles of the US Navy submarines and the Imperial Japanese Navy's anti-submarine warfare capabilities during World War II. In 1941 and 1942, US Navy submarine operations in the Pacific were largely...

Between 1550-1600, Europe witnessed a rapid evolution in the art of ship design which enabled safer and more efficient transatlantic travel. This was the pinnacle of the Age of Discovery and Exploration for the European powers, in which the galleon...

As the crow flies'', ''chunder'', ''cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey'', ''three sheets to the wind'' - many terms like these are used in everyday English language conversation and writing. But how many landlubbers know that they derive...

The official document Amphibious Warfare Handbook No. 10a: The Organisation, Employment and Training of Commandos is a unique piece of post-war Royal Marines Commando doctrine, never before published, or quoted at length.Prepared in 1951 at the height of...

Hans Rose was one of Germany's most successful WWI U-boat aces, and her most successful ace during the convoy period when attacks by U-boats were most difficult and dangerous. Acknowledging his chivalry, Admiral Sims USN declared 'Allied naval officers...

ALAN GALLOP is an author, journalist and public relations consultant. His books include Buffalo Bill's British Wild West (2001), Children of the Dark (2002), Mr Stanley I Presume (2004), Time Flies: Heathrow at 60 (2005), Subsmash (2007), The Martians...

HMS Conqueror is Britain's most famous submarine. It is the only sub since World War Two to have sunk an enemy ship. Conqueror's sinking of the Argentine cruiser Belgrano made inevitable an all-out war over the future of the Falkland Islands, and...

With war against Germany looming, Britain pushed forward its carrier program in the late 1930s. In 1938, the Royal Navy launched the HMS Ark Royal, its first-ever purpose-built aircraft carrier. This was quickly followed by others, including the...

Weuner Furbringer (Fips) became one of the most successful U-Boat commanders in WW1 through a blend of skill, daring and, by his own typically modest admission, sheer luck. This vivid memoir, never before published in English, makes compelling reading...

The ninth HMS _Vanguard_, bearing one of the most illustrious names in the Royal Navy with honours from the Armada to Jutland, was the last and largest of Britain's battleships and was commissioned in 1946/. Her design evolved from of the King George V...

Following the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Germany was not permitted to build or operate submarines. However, clandestine training took place on Finnish and Spanish submarines and U-boats were still built to German designs in Dutch yards...

A uniquely detailed visual representation of the legendary Japanese warships. Equipped with the largest guns and heaviest armour and with the greatest displacement of any ship ever built, the Yamato proved to be a formidable opponent to the US...

Shortlisted for the Duff Cooper PrizeAs the Napoleonic wars raged, what was life really like for those left at home? Award-winning social historian Jenny Uglow reveals the colourful and turbulent everyday life of Georgian Britain through the diaries,...

It is January 1819, and Captain Adam Bolitho ships out from Falmouth bound for Freetown, on the old the slave coast of Africa. H.M.S. Onward carries sealed orders in the strongbox below deck. But why all the secrecy and apparent urgency? And why Onward,...

J.M.W. Turner's The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to her Last Berth to be Broken Up (1838) was his masterpiece. Sam Willis tells the real-life story behind this remarkable painting. The 98-gun Temeraire warship broke through the French and Spanish line...

This updated new edition of Understanding Naval Warfare offers the reader an accessible introduction to the study of modern naval warfare, providing a thorough grounding in the vocabulary, concepts, issues and debates, set within the context of relevant...

Although many books have been written about naval actions during the Second World War - histories and memoirs in particular - few books have attempted to encompass the extraordinary variety of the experience of the war at sea. That is why James Goulty's...

During five years of research for the four volumes of the Fleet Air Arm Boys book series covering the post-war FAA, former personnel not only contributed a huge quantity of stories but also sent many thousands of photographs, largely taken by themselves,...

A new framework contextualizes crucial international security issues at sea in the Indo-Pacific Competition at sea is once again a central issue of international security. Nowhere is the urgency to address state-on-state competition at sea more...

On the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers...

The history of the Royal Navy flagships that led the fleet through the Cold War, ensured victory in the Falklands War, and saw action in Iraq and the Balkans. In 1945, at the end of World War II, the Royal Navy's carrier fleet proved essential to the...

This detailed study of the naval Spanish Civil War describes how the Spanish Navy, torn in two and comprising a Republican and Nationalist part, fought a civil war at sea involving both Hitler's and Mussolini's navies. In July 1936, a pro-fascist coup...

Since the end of World War 2 the primary role of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm has been airborne power projection; the ability rapidly to respond to any trouble spot across the globe and to protect the interests of the United Kingdom and its partner...

Innovating Victory: Naval Technology in Three Wars, studies how the world's navies incorporated new technologies into their ships, their practices, and their doctrine. It does this by examining six core technologies fundamental to twentieth-century naval...

Drawing upon Soviet sources, this book assesses the evolving organization, uniforms, insignia, weaponry and personal equipment of Soviet naval infantry units from 1917 to 1991. Featuring eight plates of specially commissioned artwork alongside...

For over twenty years the battlecruiser HMS 'Hood' toured the world as the most iconic warship in the Royal Navy. Unmatched in her beauty and charisma, 'Hood' is one of history's greatest warships. During the twilight years of the British Empire the...

The Great Lighthouses of Ireland is a collection of striking images and fascinating stories about the lighthouses around Ireland's coast and the extraordinary men and women who lived and worked in them. The book, published to accompany the TV series...

Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books, Richard Holmes's dazzling portrait of the age of great scientific discovery is a groundbreaking achievement. The book opens with Joseph Banks,...

Preserved today as a museum in its namesake state, the battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62) saw combat during WWII and the Korean War and was the only battleship of any nation to see service during the Vietnam War. Following service in Vietnam, New Jersey...

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...

From the end of the 19th century through the first half of the 20th, most Western powers maintained a naval presence in China. These gunboats protected traders and missionaries, safeguarded national interests, and patrolled Chinese rivers in search of...

In 1779 the fledgling U.S. naval fleet suffered a catastrophic defeat against the British in the waters of the Penobscot Bay, losing forty ships in a battle that was expected to be a sure victory for the Americans. Commodore Dudley Saltonstall was blamed...

Examines how the Channel Islands have been crucial to Britain's successful maritime superiority in the English Channel. The Channel Islands have played a key role in both naval warfare and Anglo-French diplomacy, but this has not always been...

In 1845, British explorer Sir John Franklin set out on a voyage to find the North-West Passage - the sea route linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. The expedition was expected to complete its mission within three years and return home in triumph...