Entries

MORTIMER, Gavin. Kill Rommel! Operation Flipper 1941. 80p., bibliog., illus., index. Oxford: Osprey, 2014. ISBN: 9781472801098.

In November 1941 a mixed party of Commandos and SBS men were landed by submarine to assassinate Erwin Rommel on the eve of Operation Crusader intended to drive the Germans and Italians back across the Western Desert. The operation proved a fiasco, but lessons were learned.

• Battle of the Mediterranean: German Involvement
• Special Service Units
• The Commandos

STEWART, Andrew. Operation Dragoon: The Invasion of the South of France, 15 August 1944 (Naval Staff Histories of the Second World War Volume 2). 125, (iv)p., bibliog., illus, index. Solihull: Helion, 2015. ISBN: 9781909982987.

This Naval Staff History was first printed in 1950, then reprinted with two other histories on the European invasions edited by David Brown in 2000.

STEWART, Andrew. Operation Dragoon: The Invasion of the South of France, 15 August 1944 (Naval Staff Histories of the Second World War Volume 2). 125, (iv)p., bibliog., illus, index. Solihull: Helion, 2015. ISBN: 9781909982987.

This Naval Staff History was first printed in 1950, then reprinted with two other histories on the European invasions edited by David Brown in 2000.

STEWART, Andrew. Operation Dragoon

First published in 1950. Reprinted and edited with a preface by David Brown in 2000 as part of a set including nos. 39 and 49. Then reprinted in 2015 by Helion Press as Operation Dragoon (Naval Staff Histories of the Second World War Volume 2) with a new introduction by Andrew Stewart (ISBN: 9781909982987).

STEWART, Andrew. Operation Dragoon. The Invasion of the South of France, 15 August 1944 (Naval Staff Histories of the Second World War Volume 2). 125, (4)p., bibliog., illus., index. Solihull: Helion, 2015. ISBN 9781909982987.

First published in 1950 as Staff History No. 43 The Invasion of the South of France Operation Dragoon (B.R.1736 (36)). by the Admiralty. Reprinted and edited with a preface by David Brown in 2000 as part of a set on the 1944 invasions.

• Reference Works

FORD, Ken & ZALOGA, Steven J. Overlord: The D-Day Landings.368p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Osprey, 2009. ISBN: 9781846034244.

A compilation of brief publications published by Osprey from the 1990’s now issued as a single volume. These are: Badsey, Stephen: Campaign 1: Normandy 1944; Zaloga, Steven J. Campaign 100: D-Day 1944 (1) and Campaign 104: D-Day 1944 (2); Ford, Ken Campaign 105: D-Day 1944 (3) and Campaign 112: D-Day 1944 (4). Gives a detailed account of the action, sector by sector.

FORD, Ken & ZALOGA, Steven J. Overlord: The D-Day Landings.368p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Osprey, 2009. ISBN: 9781846034244.

A compilation of brief publications published by Osprey from the 1990’s now issued as a single volume. These are: Badsey, Stephen: Campaign 1: Normandy 1944; Zaloga, Steven J. Campaign 100: D-Day 1944 (1) and Campaign 104: D-Day 1944 (2); Ford, Ken Campaign 105: D-Day 1944 (3) and Campaign 112: D-Day 1944 (4). Gives a detailed account of the action, sector by sector.

• D-Day

BENBOW, Tim. Operation Neptune: The D-Day Landings, 6 June 1944 (Naval Staff Histories of the Second World War Volume 1). 423p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Helion, 2015. ISBN: 9781909982970.

First published by the Admiralty in 1948 in two volumes as Staff History No. 39 Operation “Neptune” The Landings in Normandy 6th June, 1944 (B.R.1736 (42) (1 & 2)). Reprinted and edited with a preface by David Brown in 2000 as part of a set including two other staff histories on the European landings. Then reprinted in 2015 by Helion Press with a new introduction by Tim Benbow. (ISBN: 9781909982970).

• Reference Works

McCART, Neil. Nelson & Rodney 1927-1949: The Big Battleships. 144p., illus. Liskeard: Maritime Books, 2005. ISBN: 1904459161.

Gives good basic detailed operational histories.

• Battleships

JACKSON, Ashley. Churchill. vi, 424p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Quercus, 2011. ISBN: 9781849165471.

A substantial biography which tries to paint a picture of him in the round. Good wartime coverage.

• Biography

RUSSELL, James. Ravilious: Submarine. 70p., illus. Norwich: Mainstone, 2013. ISBN: 0955277795.

A slim volume with some beautiful reproductions of his submarine art.

• Art and Poetry

UNWIN, Vicky. Love and War in the WRNS: Letters Home 1940-46. 351p., illus. Stroud: History Press. 2013. ISBN:9780750963046.

The story of her mother, Sheila Mills. The letters show the growth of an innocent 18-year old girl into a mature woman. The letters describe a busy social life, but also a more sombre role working with Admiral Ramsay on HUSKY and in post-war Germany.

• Biography
• WRNS

RIDING, Christine. (ed.). Art and the War at Sea 1914-1945. 208p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Lund Humphries, 2015. ISBN: 9781848221680.

Based on the collections of the National Maritime Museum, this collection of essays focuses more on the First World War than the Second. But it provides excellent essays on the role of art in war.

• D-Day: Launching the Attack
• Art and Poetry

MCKAY, Sinclair. The Lost World of Bletchley Park: An Illustrated History of the Wartime Codebreaking Centre.192p., illus. London: Aurum, 2013. ISBN: 9781781311912.

A well-illustrated general history with some limited material of naval interest.

• Intelligence

PATERSON, Lawrence. Donitz’s Last Gamble: the Inshore U-Boat Campaign 1944-45. 208p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Seaforth, 2008. ISBN: 9781844157143.

After the D-Day landings Donitz withdrew his U-boats from the Atlantic and sent them into coastal waters, where they could harass the shipping supplying the Allied armies. Caught unawares by this change, the Allied anti-submarine forces were ill-prepared for the challenges of inshore warfare.

PATERSON, Lawrence. Donitz’s Last Gamble: the Inshore U-Boat Campaign 1944-45. 208p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Seaforth, 2008. ISBN: 9781844157143.

After the D-Day landings Donitz withdrew his U-boats from the Atlantic and sent them into coastal waters, where they could harass the shipping supplying the Allied armies. Caught unawares by this change, the Allied anti-submarine forces were ill-prepared for the challenges of inshore warfare.

• Kriegsmarine: U-Boats

GAVED, A. E. School Days to Navy Days 1925-1946. 208p., illus. Wellington: Ryelands, 2009. ISBN: 9781906551223.

An autobiography. Aged seventeen he enlisted in 1943. He was an Asdic operator and served on Venus on Russian convoys and in the Far East.

• Autobiography
• Destroyers

JACKSON, Ashley. War and Empire in Mauritius and the Indian Ocean (Studies in Military and Strategic History). xiv, 241p., bibliog., index. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001. ISBN: 0333968409.  

Reveals the depths of colonial involvement in the Second World War and the role of colonies in British strategic planning from the eighteenth century. In WW2 the Mauritian home front became regimented, troops were recruited for service overseas, the Eastern fleet guarded the Indian Ocean, and Mauritius became a base for SOE operations and intelligence-gathering for Bletchley.

• The Dominion Forces

DEAR, Ian. The Tattie Lads: the untold story of the Rescue Tug Service in both world wars and its battle to save ships, lives and cargoes. 304p., illus. London: Conway, 2016. ISBN: 1844864014.

        Although part of the Royal Navy, the contribution of the Rescue Tug Service remained curiously absent from the naval history of the Second World War. Yet the Service had developed what a wartime American newspaper called 'a new type of naval vessel--the British fighting escort tug' and had saved millions of tons of shipping, both warships and merchant ships, not to mention the crews and the precious cargoes. The official history of the Merchant Navy did not mention the Service either, nor do other books on the war at sea.

• Rescue and Medical Services

GILBERT, Martin. D-Day. 220p., bibliog., illus., index. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2004. ISBN: 0471423408.

A short overview with a strong account of the deception planning and the preparation for the invasion, as well as the landings themselves, by a noted historian.

• Force H
• D-Day