Catch a rare glimpse into the training of the nation's defence personnel, as pilot turned flying instructor Mike Brooke shares with us some of his amusing firsthand flying stories. After his success as a Cold War Canberra pilot, Mike was dispatched to become a flying instructor at the Central Flying School in the 1970s. 'Follow him through' - as he would instruct his trainees - as he experiences the quite literal ups and downs of teaching the Glasgow and Strathclyde Air Squadron. Discover how he battled the diminutive de Havilland Chipmunk in order to teach others how to fly the aircraft, before finally moving to instruct on the Canberra in its many marks. Here Mike will take you on a quite often bumpy journey as an instructor of pilots old and new, recounting tales of flying, near accidents and less serious incidents that flying these old but still demanding aircraft bring. Following on from his debut book, A Bucket of Sunshine, Mike continues to use his personal experience to bring aviation to life, proving indispensable for any aviation enthusiast.

The true story of loss of His Majesty's Submarine Thetis is still shrouded in mystery, even now, some seventy-five years after her sinking. On 1st June 1939, HMS Thetis sank in Liverpool Bay on her maiden dive, with the loss of ninety-nine lives; the worst peacetime submarine tragedy ever to be suffered by the Royal Navy. As soon as the impending disaster was reported, a massive rescue operation was mounted by the Royal Navy, but, following a catalogue of mis-understandings, political posturing, 'red tape' and sheer incompetence, the operation ended in abysmal failure, with only four of the crew being rescued. There were many on-going recriminations and a number of legal battles, following the Royal Navy's private inquiry, and the subsequent public inquiry. Even after such forensic examination, nobody was held to be culpable for the disaster. As a result of media coverage at the time, a number of conspiracy theories were spawned, some gaining more credence than others, in light of the inconclusive findings of the official reports.In Thetis: Submarine Disaster, David Paul, having studied the events surrounding the tragedy of HMS Thetis for many years, examines the issues which led to the disaster, and draws some conclusions.

HMS Royal Oak was a Revenge-class battleship of the British Royal Navy, infamously torpedoed at anchor by the German submarine U-47 on 14 October 1939. Royal Oak was anchored at Scapa Flow in Orkney, Scotland when she became the first of the five Royal Navy battleships and battle cruisers sunk in the Second World War. The loss of life was heavy: of Royal Oak's complement of 1,234 men and boys, 833 were killed that night or died later of their wounds. The raid made an immediate celebrity and war hero out of the German U-boat commander, Gunther Prien, who became the first submarine officer to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. To the British, the raid demonstrated that the Germans were capable of bringing the naval war to their home waters, and the shock resulted in rapidly arranged changes to dockland security. Now lying upside-down in 30 m of water with her hull 5 m beneath the surface, Royal Oak is a designated war grave. Includes 103 Photographs

Despite imperial politics, a modern Austro-Hungarian battleship fleet was built and contested Italian dominance of the Adriatic and the Mediterranean through a series of daring naval raids that netted greater success than anything the German High Seas Fleet accomplished in the North Sea.
The nineteenth century saw the assertion of Habsburg sea power over the Adriatic from the Austrian inheritance of the Venetian fleet in 1797 to Rear Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff's stunning victory over a superior Italian force at the Battle of Lissa in 1866 to the gradual creation of a modern battle fleet beginning in the 1890s. Austria-Hungary did not have an overseas empire; its empire lay within its own boundaries and the primary purpose of its navy until the beginning of the twentieth century was the defense of its coastline. As its merchant marine dramatically grew in the late nineteenth century, Austro-Hungarian admirals believed that the navy should take a more proactive policy of defense, defending not only the coastline but the greater Adriatic and even the Mediterranean waters which the empire's merchant ships plied. The 1890s saw the beginning of a series of naval building programs that would create a well-balanced modern fleet. Cruisers were constructed for the protection of overseas trade and for "showing the flag" but the decisive projection of Austria-Hungary's commitment to control the Adriatic was the construction of a force of modern battleships. Compared to the British, French, Germans, and even Italians, the Austro-Hungarians were relative latecomers to the design and construction of battleships. Austro-Hungarian naval policy tended to be reactionary rather than proactive; its admirals closely followed Italian naval developments and sought appropriate countermeasures even though the two nations were tenuously bound together by the Triple Alliance pact of 1882. Despite the naval arms race throughout Europe at the time, the navy had difficulty obtaining funds for new ships as the Hungarian government was reluctant to fund a fleet that principally served the maritime interests of the ethnically German portion of the empire. The difficulties experienced in battleship funding and construction mirrored the political difficulties and ethnic rivalries within the empire. Nevertheless by August of 1914, the Austro-Hungarian fleet had a force of nine battleships, three pre-dreadnoughts, and one dreadnought (three more in the final stages of construction). This book will survey the five classes of Austro-Hungarian battleships in service during the First World War.

A professional soldier, Hans von Luck joined the Panzerwaffe in its earliest days, serving under Erwin Rommel. Skilled in the art of armoured warfare, von Luck fought in the invasion of Poland in 1939 and was present as the Blitzkrieg swept across the Low Countries and France the following year. In 1941 Hitler's forces turned their attention to the East, launching their invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa, on 22 June. Hans von Luck's unit was one of the many deployed in that offensive. Von Luck then served with the Afrika Korps in the Western Desert. In describing his service in this theatre, he tells of the occasionally chivalrous relationship with the men of the Eighth Army. After the Axis collapse in Africa, he returned to Europe and fought throughout the Normandy Campaign. Captured by the Soviets at the end of the war, he was held for five years in a prisoner of war camp. After the war, he formed friendships with those who had been his opponents during the war, including Major John Howard, who had led the capture of Pegasus Bridge on D-Day. As the renowned historian M.R.D. Foot once wrote, _Panzer Commander_ is a book that shows the finest face of the old officer class, the Kaderfamilie of central Europe, who were brought up to fight, but to fight clean - even when they came under the orders of satanic leaders'. That this unique and insightful account of one man's war and its aftermath is one of the classic memoirs of the Second World War is beyond doubt.

This is the first book ever written about Wales' part in naval history. Based on extensive research, it tells a compelling story that spans nearly two thousand years, from the Romans to the present. Many Welshmen - and women - have served in both the Royal Navy and the navies of other countries. Welshmen played major parts in voyages of exploration, in the navy's suppression of the slave trade, and in naval warfare from the Viking era to the Spanish Armada, in the American Civil War, both World Wars and the Falklands War. Britannia's Dragon tells their stories in vivid detail. The navy also did much to shape Wales itself. The town of Pembroke Dock was created by the country's only Royal Dockyard, while the expansion of the coal and copper industries was largely driven by the navy. Comprehensive, enlightening and provocative, Britannia's Dragon also explodes many myths about Welsh history, arguing that most Welshmen in the sailing navy were volunteers not pressed men, and that relative to the size of national populations, proportionally more Welsh seaman than English fought at Trafalgar.

In late 1942, Britain was desperate to win the ongoing Battle of the Atlantic. German U-boats had sunk hundreds of Allied ships containing millions of tons of cargo that was needed to continue the war effort. Prime Minister Churchill had to find a solution to the carnage or the Nazis would be victorious. With the support of Churchill and Lord Louis Mountbatten, eccentric inventor and amateur spy Geoffrey Pyke proposed a dramatic project to build invincible ships of ice - massive, unsinkable aircraft carriers that would roam the mid-Atlantic servicing fighter planes and bombers on missions to protect shipping from predatory U-boat wolf packs. This is the fascinating story of the rise and fall of Project Habbakuk and how an outlandish inventor, the British Navy, the National Research Council of Canada and a workforce of conscientious objectors tested the bizarre concept in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, far from the theatre of war.

The Royal Navy's dramatic race to save the crew of a trapped Russian submarine. 5 August 2005. On a secret mission to an underwater military installation 30 miles off the coast of Kamchatka, Russian Navy submersible AS-28 ran into a web of cables and stuck fast. With 600 feet of freezing water above them, there was no escape for the seven crew. Trapped in a titanium tomb, all they could do was wait as their air supply slowly dwindled. For more than 24 hours the Russian Navy tried to reach them. Finally - still haunted by the loss of the nuclear submarine Kursk five years before - they requested international assistance. On the other side of the world Commander Ian Riches, leader of the Royal Navy's Submarine Rescue Service, got the call: there was a sub down. With the expertise and specialist equipment available to him Riches knew his team had a chance to save the men, but Kamchatka was at the very limit of their range and time was running out. As the Royal Navy prepared to deploy to Russia's Pacific coast aboard a giant Royal Air Force C-17 airlifter, rescue teams from the United States and Japan also scrambled to reach the area. On board AS-28 the Russian crew shut down all non-essential systems, climbed into thick thermal suits to keep the bone-chilling damp at bay and waited, desperate to eke out the stale, thin air inside the pressure hull of their craft. But as the first of them began to drift in and out of consciousness, they knew the end was close. They started writing their farewells. 72 HOURS tells the extraordinary, edge-of-the-seat and real-life story of one of the most dramatic rescue missions of recent years.

The Eighteenth Century was an era when brave mariners took their ships beyond the horizon in search of an unknown world. Those chosen to lead these expeditions were exceptional navigators, men who had shown brilliance as they ascended the ranks in the Royal Navy. They were also bloody good sailors. From ships boy to vice-admiral, discover how much more there was to Captain Blight than his infamous bad temper. Meet a 24-year-old Master Bligh as he witnesses the demise of his captain and mentor, Cook; a 34-year-old Lieutenant Bligh at the helm of the famous Bounty then cast adrift by Fletcher Christian on an epic 47-day open-boat voyage from Tonga to Timor; and a 36-year-old Captain Bligh as he takes HMS Providence, the the company of a young Matthew Flinders, on a grand voyage to Tahiti and back. And all this before he was forty.

This book presents the evolution of one of the most famous French-made fighter aircraft of WWI-the fast, rugged Spad. From humble beginnings this airplane became the mount for such famous WWI aces as Frenchmen Georges Guynemer and Rene Fonck, American Eddie Rickenbacker, Italian Francesco Baracca, and many others. Illustrated with rare WWI-era photographs, this book examines how the Spad was conceived, built, and flown. Examples of surviving Spad aircraft are highlighted, as well as where they may be seen today all over the world. The book also profiles several still-existing aerodromes in the US where visitors can see a Spad being built, such as the Golden Age Air Museum in Pennsylvania. Or pay a visit to the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York and see the only flying Spad VII replica in the world! Part of the Legends of Warfare series.

The M3A1 Scout Car, produced by White Motor Company of Cleveland, Ohio, served as the US Cavalry's primary scouting and reconnaissance vehicle during the early days of the US entry into WWII. A powerful Hercules engine, four-wheel drive, and relatively light weight gave the vehicle both impressive on-road speed and reasonable off-road maneuverability. Typically armed with a trio of heavy and light machine guns, the vehicle was not intended to "slug it out" with the enemy, but rather to locate the enemy and, through its impressive array of radio equipment, report the positions to more heavily armed forces. Through dozens of archival photos, including previously unpublished images, as well as details of some of the finest existing examples, this iconic vehicle is explored and its history is explained. Part of the Legends of Warfare series.

The Battle of Tsushima, the epic battle between the Japanese and Russian navies on May 27-28 1905, is examined in far greater detail than ever before. Making extensive use of official records, personal accounts and a wealth of untouched information on the Russian Navy's activities, this battle, little known about by a general readership, is brought vividly to life. Also the immense coaling operation, with the names of all the colliers, is described in very informative and sometimes amusing detail. The later stages of the battle, its details often described as lost in the 'fog of battle', are clearly portrayed, as is the chaotic, high-speed night action when numerous Japanese destroyer and torpedo-boat flotillas terrorised the Russian seamen. Exhaustive examination of Japanese flotilla records has made it possible to reproduce an exciting and very informative account, placing the reader on board the attacking vessels, suffering collisions and gunfire as they career in and around the Russian battle line, while the human side of both participants brings into sharp focus the horrors of war. Tsushima was not only the culmination and climax of the pre-Dreadnought era; it was the most decisive naval battle ever fought. Other battles are more well known, but they did not achieve such a result, neither in their decisiveness nor in bringing the war in which they were fought to a conclusion.

While a large number of books have dealt with the navies and war at sea during the World Wars, the immediate aftermaths have generally received only minimal coverage. However, the fates of defeated navies are of enormous interest from a number of perspectives. These include the relative priorities of the victorious powers, acquisition and testing of ex-enemy materiel and the intended future capabilities of those ex-enemy navies that were to be allowed to continue to exist. This new book traces the histories of navies and ships of the defeated powers from the months leading up to the relevant armistices or surrenders through to the final execution of the appropriate post-war settlements. In doing so, it discusses the way in which the victorious powers reached their final demands, how these were implemented, and to what effect. The later histories of ships that saw subsequent service, either in their original navies or in those navies which acquired them, are also described. In doing this, much use is made of material drawn from archival, and in some cases archaeological, sources, some of which has never previously been used. Through these, a wide range of long-standing myths are busted, and some badly distorted modern views and assessments of events in the wake of the conflicts put right. The fascinating narrative will be accompanied by tabulated lists of all major navy-built (and certain significant ex-mercantile) enemy ships in commission at the relevant date of the armistice or surrender, or whose hulks were specifically listed for attention in post-Second World War allied agreements. These will include key dates in their careers and their ultimate fates. This highly original book, drawing on archaeological evidence as well as archival sources, and including numerous photographs will become an essential reference tool for all those interested in the naval history of the two World Wars.

At its dawn in the early twentieth century, the new technology of aviation posed a crucial question to American and British cavalry: what do we do with the airplane? Lacking the hindsight of historical perspective, cavalry planners based their decisions on incomplete information. Harnessing the Airplane compares how the American and British armies dealt with this unique challenge. A multilayered look at a critical aspect of modern industrial warfare, this book examines the ramifications of technological innovation and its role in the fraught relationship that developed between traditional ground units and emerging air forces. Cavalry officers pondered the potential military uses of airplanes and other new technologies early on, but preferred to test them before embracing and incorporating them in their operations. Cavalrymen cautiously examined airplane capabilities, developed applications and doctrine for joint operations, and in the United States, even tried to develop their own, specially designed craft. Throughout the interwar period, instead of replacing the cavalry, airplanes were used cooperatively with cavalry forces in reconnaissance, security, communication, protection, and pursuit-a collaboration tested in maneuvers and officially blessed in both British and American doctrine. This interdependent relationship changed drastically, however, during the 1930s as aviation priorities and doctrine shifted from tactical support of ground troops toward independent strategic bombardment. Henning shows that the American and British experiences with military aviation differed. The nascent British aviation service made quicker inroads into reconnaissance and scouting, even though the British cavalry was the older institution with more-established traditions. The American cavalry, despite its youth, contested the control of reconnaissance as late as the 1930s, years after similar arguments ended in Britain. Drawing on contemporary government reports, memoirs and journals of service personnel, books, and professional and trade journals and magazines, Harnessing the Airplane is a nuanced account of the cavalry's response to aviation over time and presents a new perspective on a significant chapter of twentieth-century military history.

'I thought Tank Men was a triumph ... it is a really fine piece of work' - Richard Holmes 'Some of the eye witness accounts Kershaw has collected for this comprehensive review of tank warfare have the power to chill the reader to the bone. This is warfare at the sharp end' -NOTTINGHAM EVENING POST The First World War saw the birth of an extraordinary fighting machine that has fascinated three generations: the tank. In Tank Men, ex-soldier and military historian Robert Kershaw brings to life the grime, the grease and the fury of a tank battle through the voices of ordinary men and women who lived and fought in those fearsome machines. Drawing on vivid, newly researched personal testimony from the crucial battles of the First and Second World Wars, this is military history at its very best.

M3 General Lee - an American medium tank from World War II era, also used by the British army. In the US, known as Lee, in the United Kingdom as Grant. M3 tank was created as a result of the need to replace the obsolete M2 tank, which did not match the WWII battlefield. The serial production began in August 1941. The M3 tank had many components from the M2 light tank, including chassis, Wright R975 EC2 star engine and the shape of the combat compartment.

Tomcat Alley contains over seven-hundred images depicting the venerable F-14 Tomcat, bureau number by bureau number. Each U.S. Navy Tomcat is traced from date of delivery through February 1998. After a brief introduction, informative captions provide details concerning every Tomcat model, modification, and the fate of each aircraft including those stricken due to operational accidents, retired to the bone-yard, or resting as gate guards at military installations around the country. The majority of Tomcats are shown in full-color with images displaying every paint scheme worn by the F-14, including many water-based schemes applied during various tactical exercises and deployments. Images also include every squadron commander's aircraft, nose art, tail colors, over 150 patches and insignia, bicentennial schemes, and Tomcats which participated in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Additionally, the Su-22, MiG-23, and Hi-8 killers are depicted along with movie star Tomcats from Final Countdown, Topgun, and Executive Decision.

Fighting over the beaches of Dunkirk and in the Battle of Britain, guarding the night skies during the perilous months of the Blitz, pioneering electronic countermeasures, and serving air-sea rescue roles all around our coasts, the Boulton Paul Defiant played a vital part through most of the Second World War, finishing it in the important target-tug role. The Defiant is rightly considered Wolverhampton's highest profile contribution to the war, and the most important product of Boulton Paul Aircraft. This book celebrates the contribution of the Defiant to the war in over 200 illustrations, most from Boulton Paul's own archives, and many never published before. It exposes some of the false myths attached to an aircraft held in great affection by many of its crews.