Entering service between 1937 and 1939, the ten British “Town” class cruisers were the most modern vessels of their type in the Royal Navy when World War II began. Built in response to large 6-inch gunned cruisers in the U.S. and Japanese navies and primarily designed for the defense of trade, they saw arduous service in a wide range of ...
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British Town Class Cruisers
"Southampton and Belfast Classes: Design, Development and Performance"
Available Formats: Hardcover
Eleven Months to Freedom
A German POW's Unlikely Escape from Siberia in 1915
Eleven Months to Freedom recounts the daring World War I escape of German midshipman Erich Killinger. Falsely accused of bombing a railway station after crashing his plane at sea, he was sentenced to life in the Sakhalin coal mines.
Shipped by rail with several other POWs across Russia, Killinger was determined to return home. In order to do this, though ...
Available Formats: Hardcover
Otto Kretschmer
The Life of Germany's Highest Scoring U-boat Commander
Otto Kretschmer was only in combat from September 1939 until March 1941 but was Germany's highest-scoring U-boat commander, sinking 47 ships totaling 274,333 tons. This definitive work details his personal story and the political backdrop from his earliest days.
After completing his officer training and time on the training ship Niobe he served aboard the light cruiser Emden. In December ...
Available Formats: Hardcover
Schnellboote
A Complete Operational History
The Kriegsmarine’s Schnellboote—fast attack boats or E-boats to the Allies—were the primary German naval attack units in coastal waters throughout the Second World War. Operating close to their various bases they became a devastatingly effective weapon in nearly all the Kriegsmarine’s theaters of war, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It was in the English Channel ...
Available Formats: Hardcover
Submarine!
Welcomed as the first book about American submarines in World War II to be written by a man who actually fought them, this compelling personal account of the war beneath the sea firmly established Edward L. Beach's reputation as a writer in the early 1950s. Given the survival rate of those in the silent service, it is a story many ...
Available Formats: Softcover
Dust on the Sea
A Novel
In 1972, following the huge success of Run Silent, Run Deep, Edward L. Beach's second novel of submarine warfare was published to great acclaim. Like its predecessor, Dust on the Sea was lauded for its authentic portrayal of what it meant to be a submariner during the desperate years of World War II. Tense, dramatic and rich in technical ...
Available Formats: Softcover
Hitler's Forgotten Flotillas
Kriegsmarine Security Forces
This study of the Kriegsmarine’s Sicherungsstreitkräfte, their security forces, fills a gap in the study of the German navy in World War II. This book describes the wide array of vessels including patrol boats, minesweepers, submarine hunters, barrage breakers, landing craft, minelayers, and even the riverine flotilla that patrolled the Danube as it snaked towards the Black Sea. These vessels ...
Available Formats: Hardcover
Cruiser Birmingham
Detailed in the Original Builders' Plans
The technical details of British warships were recorded in a set of plans produced by the builders on completion of every ship. Known as the “as fitted” general arrangements, these drawings documented the exact appearance and fitting of the ship as it entered service.
Today these plans form part of the incomparable collection of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich ...
Available Formats: Hardcover
Run Silent, Run Deep
Universally praised for its powerfully authentic depiction of submarine warfare, Run Silent, Run Deep was an immediate success when published in 1955 and shot to the top of best-seller lists nationwide. In 1958, Hollywood adapted the novel for the big screen starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster. The New York Timessaid of the novel, “If ever a book had ...
Available Formats: Hardcover
British Fiji Class Cruisers and their Derivatives
The Fiji-class, often called the “Colony” class, cruisers were a class of eleven light cruisers of the Royal Navy that saw extensive service throughout World War II. They were an attempt to incorporate the characteristics of the preceding “Town” class within the reduced 8,000-ton limit agreed under the 1936 London Treaty. In general layout, Colony class resembled the earlier ...
Available Formats: Hardcover