Entries

OLSON, Lynne. Last Hope Island: Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn The Tide of War. xviii, 553p., bibliog., illus., index. New York: Random House, 2017. ISBN: 9780812997354.

Little naval material but an excellent background account of how the rulers and military personnel of Norway, Poland, Belgium, Holland and France fled to exile in Britain as the Germans occupied most of Europe. Also tells of resistance, raids and the return home as the war in Europe ended.

• The Background

JONES, Geraint. D-Day: The Unheard Tapes. vii, 389p., illus. London: Macmillan, 2024. ISBN: 9781035049639.

Based on material used for a television documentary, this includes a wide range of interview materials from the collections of the Imperial War Museum and the National World War II Museum. Some good naval perspectives.

• D-Day

CERNUSCHI, Enrico. Italian Battle Fleet 1940–43: 'La Squadra', the pride of the Regia Marina: (Fleet, 6). 80p., illus. Oxford: Osprey, 2024. ISBN: 9781472860590.

A fresh assessment by an established historian offering a comprehensive. illustrated account of the wartime Italian battle fleet, from its ships and technology to command structure, logistics, codebreaking etc.

• Italian Armed Forces

PRIVRATSKY, K. I. The Norwegian Merchant Fleet in the Second World War. 209p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2023. ISBN: 9781399043861.

Over one thousand Norwegian merchantmen served with the Allies and this scrupulously researched book describes in great detail their contribution to the war effort.

• Norwegian Armed Forces

GRAFF, Garrett M.    D-Day the Oral History: The Turning Point of World War II By the People Who Were There. xxv, 576p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Monoray, 2024. ISBN: 9781800962170.

First published in the USA as When the Sea Came Alive (New York: Avid Reader, 2024. ISBN: 166802781X). An award winning together has compiled this book of memories to mark the eightieth anniversary of D-Day. The book consists of a huge number of one or two paragraph contemporary memories covering the background to and the actual landings organised into some fifty chapters.

• D-Day

KORDA, Michael. Alone. Britain, Churchill, and Dunkirk: Defeat into Victory. xiv, [2], 525p. bibliog., illus., index. New York: Liveright, 2017. ISBN: 9781631491320.

A prolific author mixes the story of his childhood as a child in London in 1939-40 with a competent professional history of the Fall of France and Dunkirk culminating in his evacuation to North America in the summer of 1940.

• The Fall of France

HALL, Keith. X3 to X54: The History of the British Midget Submarine. 192p., bibliog., illus., index. Cheltenham: History Press, 2023. ISBN: 9781803991993.

Although they did not enter active service until 1942, it was very active service and crewmen were awarded an astonishing 167 honours between them, including four Victoria Crosses. Written by a former submariner the book explores the entire life and development of the British midget submarine.

• X-Craft and Frogmen

KONSTAM. Angus. British Lend-Lease Warships 1940–45: The Royal Navy's American-built Destroyers and Frigates (New Vanguard 330). 48p., illus., index. Oxford: Osprey, 2024. ISBN: 9781472861283.

Covers the fifty four-stack Town Class Destroyers which were in turn followed by a further hundred ships including many frigates specially built in American shipyards. There are detailed ship profiles of the major classes, a cutaway of HMS Campbeltown (of Saint-Nazaire raid fame) as it appeared in 1941, and excellent battle scene artwork.

• Destroyers
• Frigates, Cutters and Sloops

LOWNIE, Andrew. The Mountbattens.  [4], 490p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Blink, 2019.  ISBN:9781788702580.

An excellent biography of Lord Louis Mountbatten and his wife Edwina Ashley – the richest girl in the world in 1922 when they married. There is a clear focus on their exotic lives and many lovers but there is a good competent account of his significant naval career.

• Biography

KAY-BUJAK, Philip. Empire Javelin, D-Day Assault Ship: The Royal Navy Vessel that Landed the US 116th Infantry on Omaha Beach. 240p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2024. ISBN: 9781399035811.

She was an American built LSI serving in the Royal Navy. The book focuses on her role at D-Day, landing A Company of the 116th Infantry Regiment as part of the initial assault. It also explores her career from design and construction to launch and work-up. After 6th June she continued to ferry troops across the Channel until her sinking in December 1944, either by U-boat or a mine, while carrying troops.

• D-Day: Launching the Attack
• Landing Craft

SAXTON, Peter. Destroyers, Greyhounds of the Fleet: Memoirs of a Destroyer Gunner in the Second World War. 272p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2024. ISBN: 9781036112295.

From the North Sea to the Mediterranean and D-Day a modest but perceptive memoir.

• Autobiography
• Destroyers

STOCKER, Jeremy. The Postwar Fleet. Volume 1, 1944-1950 (Navy Records Society, Vol. 171). xx, 600p., bibliog., index. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer for the Navy Records Society, 2024. ISBN: 9781739296414.

A classic Navy Records Society volume full of official documents and records. Although it covers the post-war fleet, it opens with the so-called Blue List which summarises the huge 1942 and 1943 new construction programmes and then examines planning in 1944 and beyond.

• The Royal Navy

KONSTAM, Angus. British Battlecruisers 1939-45 (New Vanguard, 88). 48p., illus., index. Oxford: Osprey, 2003. ISBN: 184176633X.

A heavily illustrated guide to the ships and their service with many tables and diagrams.

• Battle Cruisers

WEBB, Adrian James. Churchill’s Secret Chart Makers: The Road to D-Day and Beyond in Somerset 1939-45. xii, 252p., bibliog., illus., index. Taunton: Harry Galloway Publishing, 2024. ISBN: 9781862410527.

The untold story of the RN Hydrographic Department based in Taunton, Bath, Exeter and Froome.  During the war they produced over thirty million charts and navigational products distributed to almost 5000 allied vessels. A fascinatingly detailed account.

• The Royal Navy
• Intelligence
• Royal Navy: Miscellaneous Works

LANCE, Rachel. Chamber Divers: The Untold Story of the D-Day Scientists Who Changed Special Operations Forever. 484p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Bedford Square Publishers, 2024. ISBN: 9781835010686.

Tells the story of a small group of researchers, experimenting on themselves from inside pressure tanks in the middle of London, who explored the complicated science needed to design the reconnaissance vessels and underwater breathing apparatuses that would underpin the reconnaissance of the landing beaches which preceded D-Day. Also covers the pre-war sinking of the submarine Thetis which demonstrated the issues and the absence of reconnaissance of the Dieppe beaches in 1942.

• D-Day
• Special Service Units
• Science at War

SCHOFIELD, B. B., & MARTYN, L. F. The Rescue Ships and the Convoys: Saving Lives During the Second World War [edited and expanded by Victoria Schofield]. 208p., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2024. ISBN: 1036102661.

An expanded edition of the title first published in 1968. Describes the careers of some 29 ships specially converted to accompany convoys and to rescue the crews of torpedoed merchantmen.

• Rescue and Medical Services
• Shipwrecks & Sinkings

COOPER, Malcolm. The Ocean Class of the Second World War. vi, 210p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Seaforth, 2022. ISBN: 9781399015530.

The sixty Ocean Class ships were a British designed wartime class which preceded the more famous Liberty ships. An excellent account of their design and service.

• The Merchant Navy
• Shipbuilding

TAIT, Derek. Devon at War 1939-45. 205p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2017. ISBN: 9781473855755.

Recovers many contemporary news stories and has good accounts of the role of the county in the war, from Plymouth and its air raids to the disaster at Slapton Sands.

• Ports and Bases - UK

RODGER, N. A. M. The Price of Victory: A Naval History of Britain 1815-1945. xxxix, 914p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Allen Lane, 2024. ISBN: 978071399412.

This magisterial volume is the final one of a trilogy providing a naval history of Britain. Authoritative, comprehernsive and definitive this is an essential source.

• The Background
• Strategy
• The War at Sea

EVANS, Glyn L. Operation Title: Sink the Tirpitz. 224p., bibliog., illus., index Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2024. ISBN: 9781399050197.

An account of the unsuccessful attempt to attack the Tirpitz with chariot torpedoes in October 1942. Both chariots were lost to bad weather and the attack had to be abandoned. A full account of the background, the planning and the actual launching of the attack.

• Combined Operations: The Early Years