Derek Law's Bibliography

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5285

HASHIM, John. Journal of a Young Midshipman: The Royal Navy and the Crisis in the Mediterranean 1940–41. 352p., bibliog., illus. Barnsley: Seaforth, 2025. 9781036135546.
Aged 17 he left Dartmouth and was thrust straight into the very active Mediterranean war. His midshipman’s diary records his service in cruisers and destroyers and offers a vivid portrait of naval life at the heart of the war.
 

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5286

HUGHES-HALLETT, John ‘Jock’. From Dieppe to D-Day: The Memoirs of Vice Admiral Jock Hughes-Hallett. 256p., illus., index. 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 Opera-tions, 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 con-cept 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.
 

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5287

JOHNSON-ALLEN, John. They Were Just Skulls: The Naval Career of Fred Henley, Last Survivor of HM Submarine Truculent. 128p., illus. Dunbeath: Whittles, 2018. ISBN: 9781849954044.
A biography based on hours of recorded interviews. Henley had a busy war from Arctic convoys and hunting German raiders to working with Special Forces in the Greek Islands. After the war he continued in service and was a survivor of the submarine Truculent when she sank in the Thames in 1950. A well deliv-ered account of a rich and interesting life.
 

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5288

COPE, Ron. Doomed Destroyer. xviii, 540p., bibliog., illus. London: Clink Street Publishing, 2018. ISBN: 9781912262069.
The well researched story of the crew of the destroyer Hunter. Sunk in the first Battle of Narvik, some 48 of her 159 man crew survived and were taken prisoner. Much of the book then recounts their plotting and attempts at escape over the next five years.
 

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5289

MORISI, Paolo. Damned Hunchbacks: Italy's Forgotten Torpedo Bomber Units of the Second World War (1940-1943). 312p., bibliog., illus., index. Warwick: Helion, 2023. ISBN: 9781804512371.
Explores the heroic and often overlooked feats of Italy's most successful wartime bomber, the Savoia Marchetti S.79 Sparrowhawk that fought the convoy war against the Royal Navy and the Mediterranean convoys. 
 

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5290

CROWDY, Terry. Formidable: Arthur Flint's War Against Tirpitz and the Kamikazes. 256p., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2023. ISBN: 9781399087667.
The wartime story of the author’s grandfather, Arthur Flint, from the Battle of Matapan to the landings in North Africa, Sicily and Salerno, to the Arctic hunt for Tirpitz, then Formidable steamed east to Sydney in 1945 and joined the British Pacific Fleet, fighting alongside the Americans at Okinawa and the final assault against Japan. Profusely illustrated with contemporary images.
 

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5291

SMITH, William. Churchill’s Atlantic Convoys: Tenacity and Sacrifice. 272p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2023. ISBN: ‎ 9781399050975.
A data rich description of the convoy war with  a particular focus on the 1942-43 period.
 

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5292

JUNG, Michael. German Combat Divers in World War II. 256p., bibliog., illus., index. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2008. ISBN: 9780764330926.
Discusses military diving, the development of technical equipment, the establishment and organization of the German combat diver units, and their use in sabotage operations.
 

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5293

BEAVER, Paul. Winkle: The Extraordinary Life of Britain's Greatest Pilot. xxviii, 515p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Penguin, 2024. ISBN: 9781405930338,
The author was a long-standing friend of Eric “Winkle” Brown and has based this biography on Brown’s private papers as well as the public record. This full account of his life is a “warts and all” study with full coverage of his wartime service at sea and his career as a test pilot which saw him make more deck landings on carriers then anyone before or since as well as his difficult personality.
 

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