Naval War

An epic account of how the Royal Navy tracked down, cornered, and sank one of the most fearsome German warships of the Second World War.

USS Nevada (BB-36) was America's first modern battleship. When its keel was laid in 1912, kings and emperors still ruled much of the world. When it finally slipped beneath the waves in 1948, America was the undisputed global superpower.

On Easter morning, 1972, Marine captain John Ripley braved intense enemy fire to blow up a bridge during the North Vietnamese "Easter Offensive." Ripley became a legend within the Marine Corps for his daring act of heroism. His story is described here by fellow Marine John Grider Miller. Miller lays bare Ripley's innermost thoughts during the 3 hours it took to place and set the fuses while some 30,000 enemy troops and 200 tanks prepared to cross just yards away. Such a compelling act of raw courage and personal resolve is rarely encountered.

The sinking of the submarine S-51 was one of the greatest tragedies in American naval history. Due to a miscommunication and subsequent collision between the sub and a passing steamship on a September night, the S-51, including 33 of its crew of 36, sank to the ocean depths. The tragedy of the S-51 captivated the nation, and was a fixture in the pages of American newspapers. The story took on a whole new dimension when the navy decided to take over the salvage of the 1,000-ton behemoth from a civilian company.

A lesser-known event during World War II, the sinking of the Blücher is key part of naval history that marked the beginning of the Norwegian Campaign. The Sinking of the Blücher is a comprehensive investigation into why the German cruiser, named for Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (Prussian victor of the Battle of Waterloo), was approaching Oslo on the night of 9th April 1940, why and how she was sunk, and the ramifications and significance of the event.

The Chamberlain Mandate... By the spring of 1941 Britain’s strategic situation was considerably improved, in no small part due to what sympathetic historians would call the ‘Chamberlain Mandate’. The Italians were heading for defeat in Africa, with their German allies distracted by their own preparations for Operation Barbarossa. The focus on Hitler’s dreams for a grand crusade in the east to sweep away Bolshevism and secure new lands for the Reich removed the threat of invasion from the British mainland for now, but threatened to magnify the power of Nazi Germany if the USSR proved...

In Russia, the military is anxious to assert its military strength and regain its role as a superpower. The Russian president refuses to greenlight a bold plan to disable American strategic nuclear capability and retake Ukraine and the Baltic States, fearing the potential consequences of involving nuclear weapons. But the generals won't have it and at the first opportunity, they overthrow the president in a military coup. Then they use a narrow window to initiate their bold plan - the Zolotov option - which will render all of America's B2 bombers and ballistic missiles useless.

Vrokan legions reach the Gates of Moskva and the homeworld of the Communist Confederation. The great battle of our time has come. As Leningrad reels from the ongoing siege the Vrokans throw everything they have in a desperate assault towards the capital of Centralis, the mighty mega city that covers much of the planet Moskva. The broken fragments of the Confederacy’s fleet can do little to stop them breaking through and landing millions of soldiers on the surface. Generals Zhukov and Yeremenko mass their armies of Red Army soldiers and tanks all around Centralis to defend the megalopolis ...

Condition Red, Destroyer Action in the South Pacific (1943) by Frederick J. Bell (1903-1994) is one of the greatest accounts of the war in the South Pacific. It recounts the adventures of US Navy destroyer USS Grayson during the early days of the South Pacific campaign of World War Two. The book provides a comprehensive picture of life on a destroyer, with descriptions of daily routines as well as encounters with the enemy on land, sea, and air.

Some of the greatest names in naval history, Admiral Horatio Nelson, commodore Stephen Decatur, Admiral Erich Raeder, and many others fill War at Sea in a way that not only educates but entertains any listener interested in the story of naval warfare. From the Chesapeake Bay to Jutland, from the River Plate to Guadalcanal, from Hampton Roads to Leyte Gulf, here are the most compelling and memorable accounts of the days of sail and steam, of wood and iron, and of duels to the death on the waters.

It is 1915 and the world is at war. Jake Johnson, a down-and-out sea captain is returning to Europe as a passenger on the old British steamer STAR OF DUBLIN, when German operatives suddenly take over the ship by force. They are after the secret cargo in the forward holds. They plan on meeting up with an armed commerce raider to transfer that cargo. Once they have the cargo, the STAR OF DUBLIN will simply vanish will all hands. In rounding up the passengers and crew, the Germans missed one, Jake Johnson. Unarmed and alone, Jake must figure out a way to retake the ship. If he can do that, he ...

The ability of the US Navy to fight and win a protracted war in the Pacific was not solely the result of technology, tactics, or leadership. Naval aviation maintenance played a major role in the US victory over Japan in WWII. The naval war against Japan did not achieve sustained success until enough aircraft technicians were available to support the high tempo of aviation operations that fast carrier task force doctrine demanded.

Told from the point of view of the men who waged this steel-shattering battle, The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors captures Navy pilots attacking enemy battleships with makeshift weapons and sacrificial valor, a veteran commander improvising tactics never taught in Annapolis, and young crews from across America rising to an impossible challenge.

Before becoming an instructor in the Navy's Topgun program, Dave "Bio" Baranek was just another kid with a dream. Upon graduating from college, he joined the Navy with the goal of becoming a fighter pilot. But, his eyesight waning, he knew that he would never be able to reach that goal. Undaunted, he plowed ahead and found his niche as a radar intercept operator in the backseat of the sleek, new Grumman F-14 Tomcat.

When MI5 agent Dragan Kelly gets word of a ‘priceless treasure’ heard spoken of by Eva Braun in Hitler’s bunker, he’s certain of one thing. He must be the one to find it. Reunited with his team - the enigmatic and unpredictable Sybilla Thorstaadt, and the ‘mad’ priest Wolfgang Rahn - Kelly enlists the help of a tough ex-German paratrooper, Horst Manteufel, the last guard commander in Hitler’s bunker. As Kelly expects, nothing is straightforward. Every step they take is dogged by the sinister and mysterious Thule secret society. If that wasn’t enough, Gestapo chief Heinrich...

Russell Crenshaw's riveting account of the savage night battle for the Solomon Islands in early 1943 offers listeners a unique insider's perspective from the decks of one of the destroyers that bore the brunt of the struggle.

Responsible for protecting British convoys in the Channel in a small Chaser, young Peter Sinclair, RN, is thrown head-first into the horrors of war. Sent to serve in HM submarine Rugged, defending convoys delivering food and supplies to the besieged island of Malta, Sub-Lieutenant Sinclair finds himself 120 feet beneath the sea, surrounded by deadly mines and just three miles from the enemy's doorstep.

Autumn 1941 and a fierce war rages amid the treacherous waters of the Dover Strait. It is fought by the gun and torpedo boats of Britain’s Coastal Forces: fast, frail vessels that do battle against the best of Germany’s Kriegsmarine. The crews are mainly volunteers; men plucked from civilian life and new to the maelstrom of brutal combat. Each take a different route to meet such a personal challenge and prove every bit as powerful, and vulnerable, as the craft in which they serve. The gripping naval action in Hellfire Corner is set against a backdrop of war-ravaged Dover, a town reeling...

When a highly sophisticated missile guidance device, developed in US, finds itself in the hands of an unscrupulous group of rebels in Afghanistan and were planning to escalate the tension in the region by targeting cities throughout the middle east. The US President was demanding every resource to be used to find these missiles but without success. Back in the middle of the Indian Ocean, a couple of young sailors find themselves caught up in these world events by just being anchored in the wrong place at the wrong time. There world is turned into a living nightmare as they unwittingly ...

Laura, an impoverished Cornish girl, meets her husband when they are both in service in Teignmouth in 1916. They have a baby, Charles, but Laura's husband returns home from the trenches a damaged man, already ill with the tuberculosis that will soon leave her a widow. In a small, class-obsessed town she raises her boy alone, working as a laundress and gradually becomes aware that he is some kind of genius.