| ID | Description | Categories | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5060 | CLEMENTS, Bill. The Fatal Fortress: The Guns and Fortifications of Singapore 1819-1956. vii, 199p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2016. ISBN: 9781473829565. A good detailed account of the defences at Singapore from the Victorian period onwards. Argues that the fall of Singapore in 1942 was a failure of command rather than bad design. |
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| 5061 | MACE, Martin & GREHAN, John. The War in Italy 1943-1944. xii, 292p. illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2015. ISBN: 9781783462131. Reprints four despatches from the London Gazette with a brief introduction, namely 38205, the Conquest of Sicily by Viscount Alexander; 38895, the Invasion of Sicily by Sir Andrew Cunningham; 38899, the Landings in the Gulf of Salerno by Sir Andrew Cunningham; and 38937, and the Campaign in Italy by Lord Alexander, which occupies two-thirds of the book. |
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| 5062 | CARRUTHERS, Bob. Hitler’s Forgotten Armies: Combat in Norway and Finland. 382p., illus., index. Slough: Archive Media Publishing, 2012. ISBN: 9781781580998. An official study of German operations in Norway and Finland, seeking lessons from their experience of an amphibious attack and of Arctic warfare. Based in large part on captured German military and naval records it covers firstly the campaign in Denmark and Norway in 1940 and secondly the campaign in Finland against the Russians in 1941-45. Originally published by the US Department of the Army in 1960 and entitled The German Northern Theater of Operations 1940-1945, with Earl F. Ziemke as author, q.v. |
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| 5063 | IZZARD, Brian. Mastermind of Dunkirk and D-Day: The Vision of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay. 288p., bibliog., illus., index. Oxford: Casemate, 2020. ISBN: 9781612008387. The first major biography of Ramsay for over sixty years. During World War II he was a pivotal figure from his planning of the Dunkirk evacuation through to his role in planning Operation Neptune as well as operations TORCH and HUSKY. His mysterious death in a plane crash in 1945 has led to his seminal role being overlooked. A good account. |
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| 5064 | BURT, Walter. Rosyth Dockyard and Naval Base Through Time. 96p., illus. Stroud: Amberley, 2016. ISBN: 978-1445648965. Completed in 1916, the yard closed in 1925, reopening in 1938 when relations with Germany began to deteriorate again and serving throughout the Second World War where it was a major base. A well illustrated brief account. |
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| 5065 | O’KEEFE, David. One Day in August: The Untold Story Behind Canada’s Tragedy at Dieppe. 512p., bibliog., illus., index. Toronto: Knopf Canada, 2013, ISBN: 9780345807694. A well written and researched account, which links the raid to the attempt to capture Enigma machines to assist in codebreaking. Republished by Icon Books in 2020 with the new subtitle Ian Fleming, Enigma, and the Deadly Raid on Dieppe, ISBN: 9781785786303. |
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| 5066 | BRITTS, Angus. A Ceaseless Watch: Australia's Third-Party Naval Defense 1919-1942 (Studies in Naval History and Sea Power). 336p., bibliog., illus., index. Annapolis, Md: Naval Institute Press, 2021. ISBN: 9781682475331. Studies Japanese, British, American and Australian naval planning in the years leading up to the outbreak war with Japan. Explores how a small navy interacted with major powers and how Australia shifted its reliance on the Royal Navy to forge a new relationship with the United States. |
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| 5067 | HAWKINS, Desmond. War Report: A Record of Dispatches Broadcast by the BBC's War Correspondents with the Allied Expeditionary Force 6 June 1944 - 5 May 1945. 452p., illus. London: Oxford University Press, 1946. The reports were broadcast live from the front by a group of now legendary reporters. Transcripts of some two dozen reports are included with much background information and some relevant naval material. Reprinted in paperback by Ariel Books in 1985 (ISBN: 0563204214). A revised edition was published by BBC Books in 1994 (ISBN: 0563370998) with the new sub-title Radio Reports from the Western Front 1944-45. A revised and expanded edition was then published in 2014 by BBC Books (ISBN: 9781849907767), with an introduction by John Simpson and the new sub-title BBC Dispatches From the Front Line, 1944-45. |
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| 5068 | HEMINGWAY-DOUGLASS, Reanne & DOUGLASS, Don. The Shelburne Escape Line: Secret Rescues of Allied Aviators by the French Underground, the British Royal Navy & London’s MI-9. xxiv, 197p., bibliog., illus. Anacortes, WA., Cave Art Press, 2014. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Aviation, 2015. ISBN: 9781473837782. The story of the escape route from Brittany set up in late 1943 by MI-9 agents. Full of personal stories including those of the French who hid the escapees and with some small naval relevance. Researched and written as a labour of love over some eight years. |
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| 5069 | STAFFORD, David. Ten Days to D-Day: Countdown to the Liberation of Europe. xv, [2], 366p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Little, Brown, 2003. ISBN: 0316724777. Looks at the days before the invasion through the eyes of generals, Wrens, resistance fighters and others. Some limited naval relevance. |
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| 5070 | BLIZARD, Derek. The Normandy Landings: D-Day, the Invasion of Europe 6 June 1944. 160p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Hamlyn, 1993. ISBN: 0600579050. This book is a largely photographic record of the D-Day landings and their background, as well as being a tribute to the men and women who took part in the campaign. It includes highly personal accounts by Allied veterans, and is published with the co-operation and assistance of the Normandy Veterans Association. A reprinted edition was published by Bounty Books in 2004 (ISBN: 075370904X). |
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| 5071 | ENNIS, Garth. The Stringbags. Annapolis, Naval Institute Press, 2020. ISBN: 9781682475034. |
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| 5072 | BUCHNER, Alex. Narvik: The Struggle of Battle Group Dietl in the Spring of 1940. 240p., bibliog., illus., index. Oxford: Casemate, 2021. ISBN: 9781612009179. Originally published in Germany in 1977 and now published for the first time in English, this is a German account of the invasion of Norway which focuses on the efforts of Group “1” led by Eduard Dietl. Landed at Narvik in early April by ten destroyers soon sunk by the Royal Navy, his men were outnumbered by Allied troops but he defended the town using ammunition, food and sailors from the sunken ships. He withdrew to the mountains but retook Narvik once the Allies withdrew. |
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| 5073 | JOURDAN, David W. Operation Rising Sun: The Sinking of Japan’s Secret Submarine I-52. xviii, 288p., bibliog., illus., index. Lincoln, NE: Potomac Books, 2020. ISBN: 9781640121690. An account of the journey of the submarine on a Yanagi mission carrying goods – including gold - and technicians from Japan to Germany in mid-1944. She was sunk in the Atlantic by a US Task Force. The second half of the book describes the discovery of the wreck by salvors in the mid-1990s. But the gold remains unrecovered. |
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| 5074 | WEIR, Philip. Dunkirk and the Little Ships. 112p., bibliog., illus., index. Oxford: Shire Publications, 2020. ISBN: 9781784423759. Gives a good account of the Fall of France and the evacuation. It then offers brief histories of the ships involved in the evacuation then focusses on the story of the Little Ships , exploring their general role and individual histories, including their preservation and participation in return runs every five years. |
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| 5075 | CARRUTHERS, Bob. Wolf Pack: The U-Boats at War (Hitler’s War Machine). 125p., illus. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2013. ISBN: 1781591571. A profusely illustrated account of the U-Boat war. Based in large part on the accounts of the last remaining survivors and using many contemporary photographs. |
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| 5076 | LEWIS, Damien. SAS Shadow Raiders: The Special Forces Mission that Changed the Course of WWII. xxiv, 389p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Quercus, 2019. ISBN: 9781787475199. Describes the less than successful Operation Colossus, a raid on an aqueduct in Italy, but has a main focus on Operation Biting – the Bruneval Raid which was aimed at capturing German radar technology. |
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| 5077 | KEMP, Ross. Warriors: British Fighting Heroes. viii, 328p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Century, 2010. ISBN: 9781846057991. A personal tribute which provides eleven brief biographies of men of courage and their sacrifices. It covers all of the armed services. This includes “Blondie” Haslar from the Royal Marines who led the Cockleshell Heroes, Captain Edward Fegen of the completely outgunned Jervis Bay who saved his convoy when it was attacked by the Admiral Scheer, and Malcolm Wanklyn, the submariner captain of Upholder who was lost in action in the Mediterranean. |
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| 5078 | BAGNASCO, Erminio & TORO, Augusto de. Italian Battleships: Conte di Cavour and Diulio Classes 1911-1956. 272p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Seaforth; Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2021. ISBN: 9781526799876. Covers all the technical details of the ships as well as giving detailed operational histories and a wide range of illustrations. |
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| 5079 | BUXTON, Ian & JOHNSTON, Ian. Battleship Duke of York: An Anatomy from Building to Breaking. 256p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Seaforth 2021. ISBN: 9781526777294. The core of the book is a complete set of as-fitted plans of the ship, including many details and close-ups. There is also a set of plans of the major refit in March 1945, showing all the modifications undertaken to prepare the ship for service alongside the US Navy in the Pacific. There are many photographs of her during building. The book concludes with an illustrated chronology of the breaking up. |
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