Pen: 3888 books

Over sixty years ago a battle took place that, if it had succeeded, could have shortened the Second World war by six months. The operation to take the bridges at Arnhem was given the code name 'Operation Market Garden', Market being the air side of the operation and Garden the subsequent ground operation....

Iain BallantyneÕs fascinating and lively account of the lives of British warships named London is illustrated throughout with photographs and paintings, many of them never published before. H.M.S. London looks at history from the perspective of the men who were there, and among the people Iain has...

So great is the weight of reading on the subject of the Waterloo campaign that it might be thought there is nothing left to say about it, and from the military viewpoint, this is very much the case. But one critical aspect of the story has gone all but untold – the French home front. Little has...

Between Drake's Revenge and the Polaris submarine, the most recent Revenge, are the glory years of the Royal Navy. Revenge was at the Armada, the Azores, Trafalgar and Jutland and with weapons capable of terrible destruction.The first Revenge commanded by Queen Elizabeth's favourite, Francis Drake,...

Of all the acts of gallantry in World War II few were as audacious as the attack by midget submarines on the pride of the German fleet, the battleship Tirpitz, lying in her fortified mooring in a Norwegian fjord. Lieutenant Godfrey Place was in command of submarine X7 in September 1943 and traveled...

Revered naval theorist, Alfred Thayer Mahan, thought the Battle of Quiberon Bay (20 Nov 1759) was as significant as Nelson's victory in 1805, calling it 'the Trafalgar of this war [the Seven Years War]'. Arguably it was even more vital. Britain in 1759 was much less well-defended, with virtually no...

This biography of John Jervis, who became Admiral Lord Vincent, makes compelling reading. It throws an oblique light on Nelson’s personality. St Vincent, who was born twenty-three years before Nelson, and survived for eighteen years after Trafalgar, fundamentally influenced the younger man’s career...

Illustrated with 200 official admiralty photographs, many of them previously unpublished, this book traces the development of Royal Naval ship design in a period of immense change. Opening with the Crimean War, this period saw the gradual transition from sail to steam and screw propulsion; from wood...

Sieges determined the course of the English Civil Wars, yet they receive scant attention. In contrast, the major set-piece battles are repeatedly analyzed and reassessed. As a result our understanding of the conflict, and of its outcome, is incomplete. John Barratt, in this lucid and perceptive...

The official volume marking the centenary of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, known as the 'Wavy Navy' because of the distinctive wavy gold stripes on the reservists' uniforms, from its formation in 1903 through its unification with the mercantile Royal Reserve in 1958, and on to its present complete...

It is often said “The first casualty of war is the truth” and there is no better example of this than the furore caused by the claims and counterclaims of the British and German Governments at the height of the First World War. Wounded allied personnel were invariably repatriated by hospital ships,...

Born the son of George Byng, a favorite of the king and himself an admiral and member of the admiralty board (and later First Lord of the Admiralty), John Byng seemed destined for a shining career in the Royal Navy. He saw his first fleet action at Cape Passaro, the elder Byng's finest hour, as a...

This is a biographical dictionary of the two flag officers and captains of 27 battleships, four frigates and two minor combatant vessels that were present under Nelson's command at the historic battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805. Each officer's family background and naval career will be covered...

General George Monck is famous for the key role he played in the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. His actions changed the course of British history, but his statesmanship in the dangerous time between the death of Cromwell and the bloodless return of Charles II distracts attention from his extraordinary...