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
The Decoys
A Tale of Three Atlantic Convoys 1942
In November 1942, Britain and America launched Operation TORCH, the ambitious invasion of French North African colonies of Morocco and Algeria. To convey 70,000 troops and their equipment required 350 merchant ships crossing the U-boat infested North Atlantic from the USA and 250 more sailing south from British ports. The need for a high level of protection for these meant ...
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
Beware Raiders!
German Surface Raiders in the Second World War
This is the improbable story of two very different German cruisers. The sleek and powerful Admiral Hipper was the much-heralded prototype of one of the most formidable ship classes of World War II. In contrast, the Pinguin, a converted merchantman, was armed with only 5.9 inch guns and operated by a predominately reservist crew. Contrary to all expectations, the ...
Available Formats: Hardcover
Shot from the Sky
American POWs in Switzerland
Now available in paperback, Shot from the Sky uncovers one of the great, dark secrets of World War II: neutral Switzerland shot and forced down U.S. aircraft entering Swiss airspace and imprisoned the survivors in internment camps, detaining more than a thousand American flyers between 1943 and the war’s end. While conditions at the camps were adequate and humane for ...
Available Formats: Softcover
Midway
"The Battle that Doomed Japan, the Japanese Navy's Story"
This landmark study was first published in English by the Naval Institute in 1955 and was added to the Classics of Naval Literature series in 1992. Widely acknowledged for its valuable Japanese insights into the battle that turned that tide of war in the Pacific, the book has made a great impact on American readers over the years. Two Japanese ...
Available Formats: Softcover
Andrew Foote
Civil War Admiral on Western Waters
This biography traces the life and career of one of the U.S. Navy’s first admirals, Andrew Hull Foote. As flag officer of the Union’s western naval forces, Foote was a key figure in the February 1862 Union victories at Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee and helped open the Confederate heartland to the Union.
Available Formats: Softcover
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