Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson KB (1758 - 1805) was a British flag officer in the Royal Navy. Admired for his leadership, strategy and tactics, he led many decisive British naval victories, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. Known for his bold actions, and sometimes disobeying his seniors, Nelson was taken into the hearts of the British people. This slightly built, battle-scarred, often vain man, of dubious private life and few known accomplishments beyond his profession, became a legendary figure in British history. When Admiral Horatio Nelson died, people who had never seen him wept because they felt they had lost someone special and irreplaceable. How that came about, this book describes. Nelson helped to capture Corsica and saw the battle of Calvi (where he lost the sight in his right eye). He later lost his right arm at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1797. Nelson destroyed Napoleon's fleet at the Battle of the Nile in 1798, and thus gained a direct trade route to India. Over the period 1794 to 1805, under Nelson's leadership, the Royal Navy proved its supremacy over the French. Nelson's most famous engagement, at Cape Trafalgar, saved Britain from threat of invasion by Napoleon, but it would be his last. Before the battle on 21 October 1805, Nelson sent out the famous signal to his fleet 'England expects that every man will do his duty'. Killed by a French sniper just a few hours later, while leading the attack on the combined French and Spanish fleet, Nelson's body was preserved in brandy and transported back to England where he was given a state funeral. He is buried in St Paul's Cathedral, London.

Victory Without Peace concentrates on the U.S. Navy in European and NearEastern waters during the post-World War I era. As participants in theVersailles peace negotiations, the Navy was charged with executing the navalterms of the Armistice as well as preserving stability and peace. U.S. warshipswere deploying into the Near East, Baltic, Adriatic, and Northern Europe, whilesimultaneously withdrawing its demobilized forces from European waters. Thissignifies the first time the U.S. Navy contributed to peacetime efforts, setting aprecedent continues today. Conversely, Congressional appropriations handicapped this deployment bydemobilization, general naval policy and postwar personnel, and operatingfunds reductions. Though reluctant to allocate postwar assets into seeminglyunimportant European and Near Eastern waters, the Navy was pressured by theState Department and the American Relief Administration's leader, HerbertHoover, to deploy necessary forces. Most of these were withdrawn by 1924 andthe European Station assumed the traditional policy of showing the flag.

This book is an enthralling account of the role played by the destroyer ARA Bouchard in the Falklands/Malvinas War. Over forty years after its construction, with obsolete technology, scarce maintenance and many out-of-service machineries, it was still present during the whole campaign with a prominent role that, for several reasons, remained hidden until today. During the Falklands/Malvinas conflict, it patrolled the north of the archipelago to allow the recapture of the islands. It was noteworthy together with the Cruiser and another destroyer in the attack on the British fleet, without being able to find it. On its return, it was hit by the third torpedo launched by the submarine Conqueror aimed at the cruiser ARA General Belgrano. It suffered damage and, although it could still sail, was forced to dry dock to change a part of its hull. For two consecutive nights, it stopped British commandos from making an incursion into the Rio Grande airport, in order to destroy the Navies Super Etendard attack aircraft and assassinate its pilots. With its main gun battery, it fired with combat ammunition on enemy targets and was the only main battery to have the opportunity to do so. It was irradiated and used for missile target practice; they were unable to sink it during the firing practice. Later, it was decommissioned and scrapped.

An attack by a British destroyer on a German U-boat in the Eastern Mediterranean in October 1942 altered the course of the entire war. The capture of secret coding material from U-559, at the cost of two of HMS Petard's crew, enabled Bletchley Park's codebreakers to successfully crack the U-boat cypher. It was the crucial factor in defeating Hitler's Atlantic U-boat wolf packs before they succeeded in starving Britain into defeat in the winter of 1942-1943. Here is the true story of how HMS Petard attacked and captured U-559 in the darkness of a Mediterranean night. It describes how members of her crew swam across to the slowly sinking U-boat and captured vital German Enigma codebooks. But the damage sustained by U-559 in the earlier attack proved fatal and without warning she sank before Petard could take her in tow. Two of the destroyer's crew were trapped in the conning tower and went to the bottom with her. Both men were later recommended for posthumous awards of the Victoria Cross but the Admiralty, concerned this might draw unwanted attention from German Intelligence, instead ordered posthumous awards of the George Cross, the highest civilian award for bravery.

This is a major new study of Italian naval camouflage schemes developed and used during World War Two. When Italy entered the War in June 1942, the Regia Marina (Italian navy) was a force still under development and both Italian warships and merchant ships faced the War in their peace colours; and nor had any had prewar plans been made for camouflaging ships. At that time all the principal warships were painted in a light matt grey ('grigio cenerino chiaro'), which had been adopted in the 1920s and early '30s. With the advent of War, and the start of convoy traffic to Libya, the need to camouflage ships for purposes of deception, rather than outright concealment, became apparent and the first initiatives were undertaken. In the first part of the book, employing contemporary schematic drawings, photographs and his own CAD profiles, the author describes the development of the varied schemes that were adopted for the capital ships, such as _Caio Duilia_ and _Littorio_, cruisers, destroyers and torpedo boats, landing craft and merchant ships; even the royal yacht and small tugs were given camouflage schemes. In the second, and longest, part he depicts all the ships and their schemes, at different dates, with both sides of a ship shown where possible, in his own beautifully rendered schematic profiles, all in full colour, and it is this section with more than 700 drawings that gives the reader a complete and detailed picture of the whole development of Italian naval camouflage. He also looks in detail at the Greek theatre where there were many exceptions, influenced by the German presence and by the camouflage schemes of captured vessels. This major new reference book will prove invaluable to historians, collectors, modelmakers and wargamers and follows in the wake of the hugely successful Seaforth editions covering German and British camouflage schemes of the Second World War.

The complete and authoritative account of the sinking of the HMAS Sydney, and the finding of her wreck in 2008. On 19 November 1941, the pride of the Australian Navy, the light cruiser Sydney, fought a close-quarters battle with the German armed raider HSK Kormoran off Carnarvon on the West Australian coast. Both ships sank - and not one of the 645 men on board the Sydney survived. Was Sydney's captain guilty of negligence by allowing his ship to manoeuvre within range of Kormoran's guns? Did the Germans feign surrender before firing a torpedo at the Sydney as she prepared to despatch a boarding party? This updated edition covers the discovery of the wreck - with the light this sheds on the events of that day in 1941, and the closure it has brought to so many grieving families. 'Tom Frame has produced the most comprehensive and compelling account of the loss of HMAS Sydney to date. His judgements are fair and his conclusions reasoned. If you only read one book on this tragic event in Australian naval history, and want all the facts and theories presented in a balanced way, Tom Frame's book is for you.' - Vice Admiral Russ Shalders AO CSC RANR Chief of Navy, 2005-08.