Entries

KONSTAM, Angus. Royal Navy Home Fleet 1939-1941: The Last Line of Defence at Scapa Flow. 80p., bibliog., illus., index. Oxford: Osprey, 2024. ISBN: 9781472861481.

Profusely illustrated with new artwork, 3D diagrams and maps, Konstam provides a detailed description of the Home Fleet during the first years of the war, covering many topics from the capabilities of the warships to logistics and intelligence-gathering, to how fleet organization and command.

• Royal Navy: General Works
• Ports and Bases - UK

LEWIS, Damian. SAS Great Escapes: Seven Incredible Escapes Made by Second World War Heroes. xii, 332p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Quercus, 2021. ISBN: 9781787475281.

A good read telling the story of seven remarkable men and their escapes while being held as POWs. Has some marginal detail about the involvement – or lack of it – of the RN in their escapes.

• Biography
• Prisoners of War
• Special Service Units

ROBINSON, George W. A Slice of Life at Sea. [6],111p., illus. Broughty Ferry: Moira Brown, 2017. ISBN: 9781521471654.

He joined the Merchant Navy in 1924 and this autobiography covers his early years at sea up to 1931. There is then a final section on his survival in the North Atlantic when the s.s. Carlton was sunk in the North Atlantic by an Italian submarine in the North Atlantic in 1941.

• Autobiography
• The Battle of the Atlantic
• The Merchant Navy
• Shipwrecks & Sinkings

DOE, Helen. One Crew: The RNLI’s Official 200-Year History. 288p., bibliog., illus., index. Stroud: Amberley, 2024. ISBN: 9781398122352.

An excellent history of a magnificent organisation with appropriate information from WW2.

• Rescue and Medical Services
• Shipwrecks & Sinkings

AUSTRALIA. Parliament. Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade. (Defence Subcommittee) Reference: Circumstances of the Sinking of HMAS Sydney. Official Hansard Report. [4], [pp.317-398]. Canberra: The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, 1998.

A transcript of the evidence given to the committee by ten experts and relatives of the deceased on Friday 1st May 1998.

• Shipwrecks & Sinkings
• Royal Australian Navy: Cruisers

LYNCH, Tim. Dunkirk: The Real Story in Photographs. 96p., bibliog., illus. Stroud: History Press, 2017. ISBN: 9780750982733.

A good solid account with numerous pictures showing the various rescue craft.

• Photographs
• Dunkirk

ORR, Andrew. The Flight of the Vikings: Daring Escapes in Small Boats from Nazi-Occupied Norway 1940-45. 304p;, bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2025. ISBN: 9781036103682

Although the tales of the Shetland Bus are well documented in fact some 4000 fugitives escaped from Norway in some 360 boats during the war. Broad coverage not only of the escapes but of how many of the escapees served during the war after gaining their freedom.

• Special Service Units
• Norwegian Armed Forces

RICHARDSON, Matthew. Isle of Man Steam Packet in the Second World War. 216p., bibliog., illus, index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2024. ISBN: 9781399051576.

As well as maintaining links to the mainland in the face of U-boats and mines, the company’s ships served from Dunkirk to D-Day.

• D-Day
• Merchant Shipping Company Histories

HUGHES-HALLETT, John ‘Jock’. From Dieppe to D-Day: The Memoirs of Vice-Admiral John ‘Jock’ Hughes-Hallett, CB, DSO. 256p., illus. Barnsley, Frontline, 2023. ISBN: 9781399045575.

Hughes-Hallett was Deputy Director of the Local Defence Division at the Admiralty in 1940 and 1941, before becoming Naval Adviser at Combined Operations HQ. Along with the head of Combined Operations, Lord Louis Mountbatten, he orchestrated Commando raids from Norway to Normandy. He became Commodore commanding the Channel Assault Force (known as ‘J’ Force) and Naval Chief of Staff (X) from 1942 to 1943 but is perhaps best known for being the Naval Commander of the Dieppe Raid. The concept of Mulberry Harbours was his. It was in the planning for D-Day that his experience came to the fore. Hughes-Hallett retired from the Royal Navy with the rank of Vice Admiral, taking up a new career as MP for Croydon East and then Croydon North East. A long overdue record published for the first time.

• Autobiography
• Combined Operations: The Early Years
• The Dieppe Raid
• D-Day: The Planning

BLUNDELL, W. D. G. Royal Navy Battleships 1895-1945. 96p., illus., index. London: Almark, 1973. ISBN: 085524092X.

A small but important book with line drawings, excellent photographs and a brief account of each class.

• Battleships

BUDZBON, Przemyslaw. The Polish Navy 1918-45: from the Polish-Soviet War to World War II (New Vanguard, 307).  48p., bibliog., illus., index. Oxford: Osprey, 2022. ISBN: 9781472847003.

Three destroyers and two submarines escaped to Great Britain in 1939. They commissioned more ships in the UK and were at the heart of combat in the Arctic, Atlantic and at Normandy. A good brief account.

• Polish Armed Forces

COLLINS, L. J. Cadets: The Impact of War on the Cadet Movement. xii,216p., bibliog., illus., in-dex. Oldham: Jade Publishing, 2001. ISBN: 19007340306.
A comprehensive and original account of the movement during both world wars with excellent detail on the role and impact of the Sea Cadets.
 

• Training

RICHARDS, Anthony. Words of War. 320p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Headline Publishing Group, 2021. ISBN: 9781472288110.
        A history of the war shown through eye-witness letters, speeches and diaries held by the Imperial War Museum. Covers many of the major naval actions from the Battle of the River Plate to the Battle of the North Cape. Full of fascinating material and with a wealth of good illustrations.
 

• Anthologies

2435.     BEAVER, Paul. Winkle: The Extraordinary Life of Britain’s Greatest Pilot. xxviii, 516p., bibliog., illus. index. London: Michael Joseph, 2023. ISBN: 9780718186708.
        The author was a long-standing friend of Eric "Winkle" Brown and has based this "warts and allbiography on his personal archive as well as public records. There is full coverage of his active wartime service in the Battle of the Atlantic and his later career as a test pilot. He made more deck landings on carriers than any pilot before or since. Also covers his difficult personality.

• The Battle of the Atlantic

BROWN, Buster. Penniless Millionaire: Tales of a Shoestring Yachtsman. 112p., illus. Mill-field, NSW: Panda Books, 1989. ISBN: 0958820813.
The all too brief autobiography of a true and colourful character whose life was dominated by yachting. There are some two dozen pages of photographs and twenty pages on his war service. He enlisted in 1939 and served first on Kanimbla with a good account of the attack on Bandar e Shapur in the Persian Gulf in 1941. He subsequently served on small craft undertaking secret missions from Townsville to New Guinea in 1942. A burst appendix and malaria meant that he spent the rest of the war on shore service.
 

• Autobiography
• Royal Australian Navy

STEARNS, Edmund Elliott. Catapult: 1940 Gauntlet of Love and Fire. Raleigh, N.C.: Ivy House Publishing Group, 1998. ISBN: 9781571970923.

• Fiction

HOUGHTON, Mark. Through Fire and Water: The Life and Faith of a Naval Surgeon in War and Peace. 384p., references, illus. Milton Keynes: Malcolm Down Publishing, 2025. ISBN: 9781917455190.
A biography of his father. He was a major figure who lived through two world wars. Roughly half the book covers his service in WW2, notably aboard Nelson in the Mediterranean and where he saved the lives of Vian and Syfret before becoming the first ever Fleet Surgeon of the Royal Navy. A well told tale of a colourful character.
 

• Biography
• Rescue and Medical Services

GOULTY, James. Naval Eyewitnesses: The Experience of War at Sea 1939-1945. 264p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2022. ISBN: 9781399000710.
        Seven thematically arranged chapters cover everything from capital ships to discipline and morale. An excellent work using a large number of both published and unpublished sources. 
 

• Anthologies

BATKIN, Raymond J. All Parts Bearing an Even Strain. An Engine Room Artificer in the Royal Navy (1928-1945): remembering 'D/MX.47428' (aka John Hornabrook Smith DSM, RN). 170p., illus. Plymouth: Christiebooks, 2015. ISBN: 9781873976715.
The biography of an unsung hero who served as a boiler room technician.
 

• Biography

WALLER, Derek. The Surrender of the U-Boat Fleet 1945. 328p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Seaforth, 2025. ISBN: 9781036135492.
Offers a comprehensive record of the surrender of the 156 vessels which surrendered, and also includes the story of the 200 or so U-boats which were scuttled, rather than surrendered, in the final days of the war. Also includes details of others which have been raised since and then either been used or scrapped. An excellent work of scholarship.    
 

• Kriegsmarine: U-Boats