Naval War

WILL THE IRON CHEST BE WORTH THE BLOODSHED?The Count Felix von Luckner, Master of the German raider Seeadler, the last privateer, lowers a sealed iron chest into the waters of a small unnamed bay off Wakaya Island, Fiji, under cover of darkness in the year 1917. A chance remark over fifty years later sends four young Australians to search for that chest and the wealth it is said to contain, booty taken from Allied ships the Count had captured and scuttled during the Great War. But will the iron chest, if they find it, be worth the bloodshed demanded by their search?Another thriller from the...

In November 1944, the U.S. Navy fleet lay at anchor in Ulithi Harbor, deep in the Pacific Ocean, when the oiler USS Mississinewa erupted in a ball of flames. Japan's secret weapon, the Kaiten - a manned suicide submarine - had succeeded in its first mission. The Kaiten was so secret that even Japanese naval commanders didn't know of its existence. And the Americans kept it secret as well. Embarrassed by the shocking surprise attack, the U.S. Navy refused to salvage or inspect the sunken Mighty Miss.

Nick Hewitt draws on fascinating new material to describe the violent sea battle which mirrored the fighting on land, and the complex campaign at sea which enabled the Allied assault. Aboard ships ranging from frail plywood landing craft to sleek destroyers, sailors were active combatants in the operation of June 1944, and had worked tirelessly to secure the Seine Bay in the months preceding it. They fought battles against German submarines, aircraft, and warships, and maintained careful watch to keep control of the English Channel.

FNH Audio presents an unabridged reading of this WWI naval history by an author who actually took part in the battle(s) described. This plain, unvarnished account, so far as is known, is the first attempt that has been made to link with the description of the Battle of the Falkland Islands, fought on December 8th 1914, to the events leading up to that engagement. Each phase presented has been read and approved by officers who participated.

It’s been slow for Madison, the Italians have been on their best behavior. But the German’s are another matter.The murder of a known German agent pits Madison against one of the deadliest agents in Europe and forces her in a race to save England’s new wonder weapon from falling into Hitler’s hands. Buy Your Copy Today!

Of all the threats that faced his country in World War II, Winston Churchill said, just one really scared him—what he called the "measureless peril" of the German U-boat campaign.

On 7th December 1941, naval aircraft from six Japanese aircraft carriers destroyed the US battlefleet at Pearl Harbor, forcing the US Navy to rely on its own aircraft carriers to counter Japanese advances across the Pacific. Very fortunately, no US carriers were in port during the attack and the USN rapidly evolved a revised naval war strategy based on air strikes from aircraft carriers, the fleet’s new capital ship, placed at the centre of self-sufficient task groups. Unmatched US industrial capacity enabled the design and construction of large numbers of highly capable carriers, their ...

For nearly 200 years huge wooden warships called “ships of the line” dominated war at sea and were thus instrumental in the European struggle for power and the spread of imperialism. Foremost among the great naval powers were Great Britain and France, whose advanced economies could support large numbers of these expensive ships. This book, the first joint history of these great navies, offers a uniquely impartial and comprehensive picture of the two forces - their shipbuilding programs, naval campaigns, and battles, and their wartime strategies and diplomacy.

George Sessions Perry was a journalist and novelist who served as a war correspondent through the course of the Second World War. The author Isabel Leighton co-wrote Where Away: A Modern Odyssey with Perry, a book which was first published in 1944. On February 4, 1942, the light cruiser, USS Marblehead, was part of a combined American, Australian, British and Dutch fleet patrolling the seas around the Dutch East Indies when 36 Japanese bombers attacked.

Winston Churchill had a longer and closer relationship with the Royal Navy than any British statesman in modern times, but his record as a naval strategist and custodian of the nation's sea power has been mired in controversy since the ill-fated Dardanelles campaign in 1915. Today, Churchill is regarded by many as an inept strategist who interfered in naval operations and often overrode his professional advisers - with inevitably disastrous results.

It took just a glimpse of a red hat to turn Madison's boring recovering filled existence into a nightmare.Everything that Madison Dix believed true is lost or changed as she races to save the life of an old enemy. But what if the old enemy is nothing but a new enemy?

"Hazardous Duty" is volume three of the Jonathan Kinkaid Series where Kinkaid takes command of the 18-gun sloop of war, Ranger, tasked with scouting duties for the Continental Fleet. Braving not only the foul and frigid weather of northern waters, Kinkaid must contend with an inexperienced crew, a badly leaking ship, and personality clashes among senior officers; one of them being the bold and aggressive John Paul Jones, in command of the Frigate Alfred.After taking some valuable prizes off the shores of Long Island and Nova Scotia, the American Fleet is dogged by a large and powerful ...

A long-overdue history of America's "forgotten flattop". On November 24, 1943, a Japanese torpedo plunged into the starboard side of the American escort carrier USS Liscome Bay. The torpedo struck the thin-skinned carrier in the worst possible place the bomb storage area. The resulting explosion could be seen 16 miles away, literally ripping the Liscome Bay in half and killing 644 of the crew. In terms of lives lost, it was the costliest carrier sinking in United States naval history. Liscome Bay's loss came on its first combat operation.

On January 25, 1917, HMS Laurentic struck two German mines off the coast of Ireland and sank. The ship was carrying 44 tons of gold bullion to the still-neutral United States via Canada in order to finance the war effort for Britain and its allies. Britain desperately needed that sunken treasure, but any salvage had to be secret, since the British government dared not alert the Germans to the presence of the gold. Lieutenant Commander Guybon Damant was the most qualified officer to head the risky mission.

During World War II, Port Chicago was a segregated naval munitions base on the outer shores of San Francisco Bay. On July 17, 1944, an explosion rocked the base, killing 320 men — 202 of whom were Black ammunition loaders. In the ensuing weeks, White officers were given leave time and commended for heroic efforts, whereas 328 of the surviving Black enlistees were sent to load ammunition on another ship. When they refused, 50 men were singled out and charged — and convicted — of mutiny. It was the largest mutiny trial in US naval history.

A few months after the outbreak of the War of 1812, Captain David Porter set out in the USS Essex on an epic, seventeen-month cruise to the South Seas. Porter was pursuing fame and riches, and by most accounts his odyssey was a stunning success: it brought glory to the fledgling American navy, cemented Porter's reputation as a daring and talented commander, and has long been celebrated as one of the greatest maritime adventures in U.S. history. Less well known, however, is the terrible price that the crew of the Essex paid for their captain's outsized ambitions.

Submariners are a special breed. Not for them a life on the ocean wave, the fresh air and sunshine of other naval sailors. With stealth and daring they go deep and dark, alone and unseen, in often dangerous waters. They sometimes call themselves the Silent Service, with good reason. Submarines and the sailors who serve in them have been and remain the tip of the spear of Australia's defences. For the first time, this is their unique story.

In October 1941, the British Admiralty based a surface strike force in Malta to attack Axis sea lanes between Italy and Africa. Aided by Ultra intelligence, submarines, and bombers based in Malta, this force dominated the Central Mediterranean. From the end of October through the middle of December 1941, less than a third of the supplies shipped from Italian ports arrived in Libya. Shortages of ammunition and fuel finally compelled the Afrika Korps to retreat 400 miles. Then, in the space of 30 hours, this all changed.

When the Second World War broke out in September 1939, the British asked Australia for help. With some misgivings, the Australian government sent five destroyers to beef up the British Royal Navy in the Mediterranean. HMAS Vendetta, Vampire, Voyager, Stuart and Waterhen were old ships, small with worn-out engines. Their crews used to joke they were held together by string and chewing gum; when the Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels heard of them, he sneered that they were a load of scrap iron.

U.S.S. Tenacity: A Haunting Tale of Tragedy and the Supernatural Five-Star Review from Readers' Favorite In the shadow of World War II, the U.S.S. Tenacity emerges from the Baltimore shipyards. Soon, however, it appears to be a cursed vessel, plagued by inexplicable accidents, faulty welds, and a sinister aura that defies explanation. For young Irish immigrant Robert "Robbie" Larkin Jr., serving aboard this ill-fated ship becomes a descent into a nightmare where the line between reality and the supernatural blurs. As crew members meet gruesome fates and the ship resists every effort to tame...