On November 30, 1916, an apparently ordinary freighter left harbor in Kiel, Germany, and would not touch land again for another fifteen months. It was the beginning of an astounding 64,000-mile voyage that was to take the ship around the world, leaving a trail of destruction and devastation in her wake. For this was no ordinary freighter--this was the "Wolf, "a disguised German warship.
In this gripping account of an audacious and lethal World War I expedition, Richard Guilliatt and Peter Hohnen depict the "Wolf "'s assignment: to terrorize distant ports of the British Empire by laying minefields and sinking freighters, thus hastening Germany's goal of starving her enemy into submission. Yet to maintain secrecy, she could never pull into port or use her radio, and to comply with the rules of sea warfare, her captain fastidiously tried to avoid killing civilians aboard the merchant ships he attacked, taking their crews and passengers prisoner before sinking the vessels.
The "Wolf "thus became a huge floating prison, with more than 400 captives, including a number of women and children, from twenty-five different nations. Sexual affairs were kindled between the German crew and some female prisoners. A six-year-old American girl, captured while sailing across the Pacific with her parents, was adopted as a mascot by the Germans.
Forced to survive on food and fuel plundered from other ships, facing death from scurvy, and hunted by the combined navies of five Allied nations, the Germans and their prisoners came to share a common bond. The will to survive transcended enmities of race, class, and nationality.
It was to be one of the most daring clandestine naval missions of modern times. Under the command of Captain Karl Nerger, who conducted his deadly business with an admirable sense of chivalry, the "Wolf "traversed three of the world's major oceans and destroyed more than thirty Allied vessels.
We learn of the world through which the "Wolf "moved, with all its social divisions and xenophobia, its bravery and stoicism, its combination of old-world social mores and rapid technological change. The story of this epic voyage is a vivid real-life narrative and simultaneously a richly detailed picture of a world being profoundly transformed by war.

This volume brings together a set of scholarly, readable and up-to-date essays covering the most significant naval mutinies of the 20th century, including Russia (1905), Brazil (1910), Austria (1918), Germany (1918), France (1918-19), Great Britain (1931), Chile (1931), the United States (1944), India (1946), China (1949), Australia, and Canada (1949).
Each chapter addresses the causes of the mutiny in question, its long- and short-term repercussions, and the course of the mutiny itself. More generally, authors consider the state of the literature on their mutiny and examine significant historiographical issues connected with it, taking advantage of new research and new methodologies to provide something of value to both the specialist and non-specialist reader. The book provides fresh insights into issues such as what a mutiny is, what factors cause them, what navies are most susceptible to them, what responses lead to satisfactory or unsatisfactory conclusions, and how far-reaching their consequences tend to be.

This volume deals with the first 15 months of the Mediterranean Campaign including the preparations for war and the entry of Italy into the war on 10th June 1940. The Royal Navy's attack on Oran on 3rd July resulted in the sinking of one French battleship and two others damaged with heavy loss of life while another one escaped to France. The attack, three days later on Mers-el-Kebir by carrier aircraft, damaged another French battleship in port. Also covered are the first battles against the Italian fleet at Calabria and Cape Spada which left one Italian battleship damaged and a heavy cruiser sunk. The account ends in August with the first Mediterranean convoy battle to run supplies from Gibraltar to Alexandria - Operation Hat.

This Naval Staff History, prepared by the Naval Historical Branch of the Naval Staff, covers the period immediately after World War II and the Royal Navy operations to prevent illegal Jewish immigration into Palestine, at that time under British Mandate from the United Nations. The Palestine Patrol, as it became known, illustrates clearly the problems facing navies conducting operations other than war, in particular those involving maritime embargo measures.

This is a compendium of seven Naval Staff Histories which deals with operations by major German surface units as follows: the destruction of the pocket battleship Graf Spee, by three Royal Navy light cruisers off the River Plate; the hunt for the Bismark; the Battle of the North Cape when Scharnhorst was sunk by HMS Duke of York in a snowy, night action; the escape of the Gneisenau and the Scharnhorst up the English Channel through British defences in the Channel Dash; the series of attacks on Tirpitz by aircraft carriers; long-range bombers and midget submarines in her Norwegian lair; and the predations of disguised merchant raiders such as the notorious Pinguin.

From the stunning victory at Pearl Harbor to its dramatic reversal at Midway, the Imperial Japanese Navy swept all before it in its numerous victories in the Pacific and Far Eastern waters. "The Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific War "pulls from many of Osprey's bestselling books on the subject in addition to the most recent research on the subject, including many sources from Japan, and is the most recent and accurate book on this fascinating force.
Even after its setback at midway, the IJN remained a powerful force and inflicted sever setbacks on the US Navy at Guadalcanal and elsewhere. "The Imperial Japanese Navy "focuses on the Japanese ships which fought the battles in the Pacific including design details, where and when they were engaged and their ultimate effectiveness. In addition,
the construction, design and service history of each ship from destroyer size on up is included. A comprehensive survey of the submarine force is also included. Modifications of each ship are covered making this a valuable reference source for Pacific War enthusiasts and historians, as well as ship modelers.
A short history of the IJN during the Pacific War places all warship design and history in proper context. Finally, a chapter discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the IJN is included ultimately asking the question of whether the IJN really was a modern Navy which was fully prepared for the rigors of combat in the Pacific.

One of the greatest and most terrible years in world history.'This war has now assumed the character', wrote Benito Mussolini, before 1941 was six months old, 'of a war between two worlds', and the Italian dictator had rarely predicted more truly. Before the year had ended, following Hitler's surprise assault on Russia and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, thirty-seven nations were engaged in an all-out war reminiscent of Armageddon, 'the battle of that great day of God Almighty'. Richard Collier's latest narrative spans both this entire, devastating year, as well as the events that led up to it. From the hunting of the Bismarck through the North Atlantic to the triumphs of Rommel's Afrika Korps, from the horror and heroism of besieged Leningrad to the debacles of Hong Kong, Malaya and the Far East, this is a panorama of truly world-wide proportions. An unputdownable narrative of the most extraordinary year in world history, perfect for readers of Max Hastings, James Holland and Antony Beevor.

This is the official Naval Staff history of the Norway campaign, originally published internally in 1951. It covers the period from early April 1940 to the completion of operations in June. The operation involved most of the Royal Navy's ships in the Home theatre at the time.

This new book reveals the part played by the eight Bustler Class Rescue Tugs built at the Henry Robb Shipyard during the Second World War and will shed more light on the almost-forgotten part played by this country's mariners. The men and women who were rescued under the most trying of times and dreadful weather conditions would no doubt have felt immense gratitude to the brave souls who formed part of the huge maritime effort, both in war and peacetime. This is the story of the small force of much-needed rescue tugs that were built during the dark forbidding days of the Second World War, when Great Britain had only the ships and men to bring in the raw materials that were required to fight against the might of Nazi Germany and its Allies. This compelling story shines a spotlight on the small, but very significant work done over many years by His and Her Majesty's Rescue Tugs in defence of the realm, and which benefited seafarers all over the world. The author's very detailed account of the contribution made by HMRT in general, and the Bustler Class in particular, is an excellent read, and has brought to life the immense impact that these rescue tugs have had over many years, usually in dire circumstances, and especially during the Second World War. Many of these ships also served with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) and this story recognises the part played by these heroic rescue tugs in accounts of many convoys that crossed the seas and were attacked by hostile forces. This fine volume will help to raise the profile of these magnificent small and immensely powerful vessels, and of course their highly-skilled crews without whom these heroic achievements would not have been possible.

The fundamental issues of maritime strategy and naval power in the Mediterranean, when considered over the broad spectrum of past, present and future, clearly touch on the clash of civilizations. In terms of the millennial political situation, this includes issues of migration, the environment, geography, technology, economic power and rivalries in those fields. It also touches on the structure and interplay of international politics and international law, as well as the traditional calculation of naval strength and diplomatic manoeuvre. It is such broad and fundamental themes that are explored in this volume, the product of the third Naval War College-Yale conference on maritime and naval history.
The very name "Mediterranean," stresses context: the sea among lands. In terms of international security policy and strategy in this maritime region, this volume demonstrates that sea power has a variety of contexts. These contexts have changed over time, although many of the contemporary issues that observers emphasize today are themes that have a long history of their own. Many of these same present and future issues have supplied the context for past events in the Mediterranean, but their importance has sometimes gone unnoticed in maritime history, as the maritime side of affairs has sometimes gone unnoticed within the common discussion of other specialized themes. As several contributors to this volume have suggested, it may be our understanding and our interpretations that must be stretched to include both sides of these issues, if we are to understand fully the varied contexts and impacts of events at sea.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat comes the gripping untold story of one of the most heroic units that fought in World War II On December 7th 1941, the Japanese Navy bombed Pearl Harbor. For many Americans, the surprise attack was a call to arms - but for the soldier sons of Japanese-American immigrant parents, it brought prejudice and scrutiny over where their loyalties lay. In Facing the Mountain, Daniel James Brown tells the unforgettable story of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the Japanese-American heroes who displayed incredible courage on the brutal battlefields of Europe. Achieving the impossible in often near-suicidal missions, including rescuing a 'lost battalion' surrounded by Nazis in the French mountains, the 442nd went on to become one of the most decorated units in history. Yet at the same time, their parents were put in camps and stripped of their livelihoods, and an equally brave battle was being fought in the courtroom back home. A cinematic tour de force, Facing the Mountain puts a real-life band of brothers in the history books where they belong and reminds us that victory is rarely as simple as we think.

Challenging the views of Benito Mussolini's Italian biographer, Renzo De Felice, this book argues that the Duce's aggressive war against the predominant Mediterranean powers, Britain and France, was the only means whereby Italy might secure access to the world's oceans. Following Hitler's rise to power in 1933, Mussolini actively pursued the Italo-German alliance which he believed would enable him to conquer a Fascist empire stretching from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. By the eve of Italy's entry in the world war II, the Fascist administration had commissioned substantial new capital-ship programmes, and created a major surface and underwater fleet that seemed to post a serious challenge to the strategic position of Great Britain in the Mediterranean and Red Sea.
The study covers: the effects of Mussolini's pro-German policy on the policy-making and strategic planning of the Regia Marina; the major political, strategic and economic factors that shaped Italy's naval policy under Mussolini; the effectiveness of naval operational planning in the light of the various international crises that dominated the period before the war; and the part played by the Italian naval high command in Mussolini's quest for empire.

This work contends that nations embroiled in Continental wars have historically had poor maritime strategies. After an analysis of existing literature on this subject and a discussion of case studies, Rear Admiral Menon develops the argument that those navies that have been involved in such wars have made poor contributions to the overall political objectives. Government neglect, inadequate funding and structures that are more appropriate to purely maritime wars are symptomatic of a universal strategic dilemma that arises from inadequate strategic theory.

Menon argues that current technological trends are likely to lead to fleets re-exerting their lost superiority against land-based means of conducting warfare, so long as the navies involved rebuild their structures to speed up the battle, since faster battle is the current strategic trend. Littoral superiority then becomes a naval objective on which to construct joint warfare.

This unique and comprehensive account describes the interplay of internal and external factors in the emergence of the Austro-Hungarian Navy from a coastal defence force in 1904 to a respectable battle force capable of the joint operations with other Triple Alliance fleets in the Mediterranean by the eve of World War I. By 1914 the Austro-Hungarian Navy was the sixth largest navy in the world and the quality of its officers and men was widely recognised by most European naval observers at the time. The book describes the relationships between naval leaders, the heir to the throne Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and the Parliament in shaping the dual Monarchy's naval policy. It also shows how the changes in foreign policy in Italy and underlying animosities between Rome and Vienna led to a naval race in the Adriatic that eventually bolstered Germany's naval position in respect to Great Britain in the North Sea.

Far Flung Lines shows how the British Empire used its maritime supremacy to construct and maintain a worldwide defence system that would protect its vital imperial interests. By combining a number of different historical threads - particularly imperial history, naval history and military history - Neilson and Kennedy rebut the idea that British defence policy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was primarily concerned with maintaining the balance of power in Europe.

This exciting book was listed as #1 on The Advocate's (ital) bestseller list for December 1996! In The Masculine Marine, author Steven Zeeland records, for the first time ever, what active-duty Marines have to say about what it means to be a man, to be a Marine, and to desire other men. As the foremost surviving icon of traditional masculinity, Marines are often considered the opposite of "gay." Yet in contemporary gay culture, Marines are stereotyped as likely to play the passive role in sexual encounters with other men. By vividly illustrating some of the startling ways in which gay and Marine attributes can coincide, The Masculine Marine uncovers the wild sexual contradictions built into military hypermasculinity. From ordinary grunts to a major who flies a combat jet, Zeeland's Marine interviewees provide thoughtful and articulate insight into aspects of this rarely documented culture, including: homoerotic bonding among Marines how gay Marines reconcile their sexual identity with the ethos of "hard" Marine supermasculinity how some Marines eroticize the pain and humiliation of Marine Corps boot camp Marines in all-male pornography male attitudes toward women in the Marine Corps hazing and institutional violence These Marines talk candidly about what motivated them to join the United States'most elite fighting force, and they reveal how becoming Marines has shaped their sexual and gender identities. For the student of gay or military studies or anyone sexually intrigued by men in uniform, The Masculine Marine must reading. Visit Steven Zeeland at his home page: http://www.stevenzeeland.com

Focusing on the so-called 'Phoney War' at the start of World War II, this well-researched account concentrates on incidents when Britain stood alone during those tense and dark early days of hostilities. The book contains graphic accounts of enemy action including two major attacks on elements of the Home Fleet, the downing of the first German aircraft on British soil, the sinking of the liner Athenia and the pursuit of the raider Graf Spee. The controversial attack on the aircraft carrier Ark Royal is vividly described when Goering's flyers harassed fishing boats along the coastal waters. The fates of captured Luftwaffe crews are also presented with the aid of authentic eye-witness descriptions. There are also accounts of the time spent by enemy crews in prisoner-of-war camps in Britain and Canada tracking the conduct of would-be escapees. Descriptions of the north Atlantic convoys are vividly related and in particular the dramatic and harrowing account of two Merchant Navy seamen who rowed their way to freedom after their ship had been ruthlessly attacked by a notorious Nazi captain. With painstaking research the author has provided fascinating stories complemented with previously unpublished photographs and documents - an unmissable read for the modern historian.

In Sailors and Sexual Identity, author Steven Zeeland talks with young male sailors--both gay- and straight-identified--about ways in which their social and sexual lives have been shaped by their Navy careers.Despite massive media attention to the issue, there remains a gross disparity between the public perception of "gays in the military" and the sexual realities of military life. The conversations in this book reveal how known "gay" and "straight" men can and do get along in the sexually tense confines of barracks and shipboard life once they discover that the imagined boundary between them is not, in fact, a hard line.The stories recounted here in vivid detail call into question the imagined boundaries between gay and straight, homosexual and homosocial, and suggest a secret Pentagon motivation for the gay ban: to protect homoerotic military rituals, buddy love, and covert military homosexuality from the taint of sexual suspicion.Zeeland's interviews explore many aspects of contemporary life in the Navy including: gay/straight friendship networks the sexual charge to the Navy/Marine Corps rivalry the reality behind sailors'reputations as sexual adventurers in port and at sea men's differing interpretations of homoerotic military rituals and initiations sex and gender stereotypes associated with military job specialities how sailors view being seen as sex objectsEveryone interested in the issue of gays in the military, along with a general gay readership, gay veterans, and gay men for whom sailors represent a sexual ideal, will find Sailors and Sexual Identity an informative and entertaining read.Visit Steven Zeeland at his home page: http://www.stevenzeeland.com

Sheila Mills's story is a unique perspective of the Second World War. She is a clever, middle-class Norfolk girl with a yen for adventure and joins the WRNS in 1940 to escape the shackles of secretarial work in London, her unhappy childhood and her social-climbing mother. From a first posting in Scotland in 1940, she progresses through the ranks, first to Egypt and later to a vanquished Germany. Extraordinary and fascinating encounters and personalities are seen through the eyes of a young Wren officer: Admiral Ramsay, the Invasion of Sicily and Operation Mincemeat that triggered it, The Flap, the sinking of the Medway, the surrender of the Italian fleet and the Belsen Trials. These observations are peppered with humorous insights into the humdrum preoccupations of a typical Wren - boys, appearance and having fun, while worrying about home and family. This treasure trove of hundreds of letters, along with scrapbooks and memorabilia, some of which are reproduced here, was discovered in bin liners shortly after Sheila died. Her daughter, Vicky, has pieced together a fascinating and unusual record of the Second World War from a woman's perspective.

This is a country-by-country guide to 130 landing ships and landing craft, with over 210 wartime and modern photographs. It features a complete guide to landing ships, detailing conventional personnel and cargo carriers, welldeck dock ships and modern multi-function ships accommodating helicopters, landing craft, military personnel, their vehicles and equipment. It also features a country-by-country directory of landing craft, from ramped beaching craft to present-day high-speed air-cushion craft, including amphibious tracked landing vehicles and peripheral activities such as minesweeping and obstacle clearance. Specification boxes provide at-a-glance information about each vessel's country of origin, displacement, dimensions, armament, machinery, power and endurance. It includes a technical glossary explaining naval acronyms, abbreviations and key terminology. Amphibious warfare vessels are ships that travel from shore to shore, and craft moving from ship to shore. This authoritative book consists of two illustrated directories, the first covering landing ships - the ocean-going vessels that transport personnel, cargo or vehicles - and then landing craft, the majority of which are transported aboard specialist ships. From float-on, float-off welldeck ships to high-speed air-cushion landing craft, 130 types from around the world are included. With over 210 photographs from museums, libraries and other historical sources, this instructive volume provides enthusiasts with a lively and engaging guide to a fascinating subject.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'A terrific book ... It really is one of the most enjoyable histories I've read in many a year' JAMES HOLLAND 'Riveting ... A brilliant account' DAILY MAIL THE FIRST AUTHORISED HISTORY OF THE SBS. Britain's SBS - or Special Boat Service - was the world's first maritime special operations unit. Founded in the dark days of 1940, it started as a small and inexperienced outfit that leaned heavily on volunteers' raw courage and boyish enthusiasm. It went on to change the course of the Second World War - and has served as a model for special forces ever since. The fledgling unit's first mission was a daring beach reconnaissance of Rhodes in the spring of 1941. Over the next four years, the SBS and its affiliates would carry out many more spectacular operations in the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, the Channel and the Far East. These missions - including Operation Frankton, the daredevil attempt by the 'Cockleshell Heroes' to paddle up the Garonne river and sink Axis ships in Bordeaux harbour - were some of the most audacious and legendary of the war. Paddling flimsy canoes, and armed only with knives, pistols and a few sub-machine guns, this handful of brave and determined men operated deep behind enemy lines in the full knowledge that if caught they might be executed. Many were. Yet their many improbable achievements - destroying enemy ships and infrastructure, landing secret agents, tying up enemy forces, spreading fear and uncertainty, and, most importantly, preparing the ground for D-Day - helped to make an Allied victory possible. Written with the full cooperation of the modern SBS - the first time this ultra-secretive unit has given its seal of approval to any book - and exclusive access to its archives, SBS: Silent Warriors allows Britain's original special forces to emerge from the shadows and take their proper and deserved place in our island story.

A fascinating exploration of how between February 1 and March 10, 1942, three small US task forces launched several unexpected raids across the Japanese defensive perimeter in the Central and South Pacific. After the devastating Japanese blows of December 1941, the Allies found themselves reeling with defeat everywhere in the Pacific. Although stripped of his battleships and outnumbered 10:3 in carriers, the US Navy commander-in-chief Admiral Ernest J. King decided to hit back at Japan's rapidly expanding Pacific empire immediately, in an effort to keep the Japanese off-balance. On February 1, 1942, Vice Admiral Bill Halsey led the US Pacific Fleet carriers on their first raid, using high-speed hit-and-run tactics to strike at the Japanese, at a time when most of the Japanese carrier fleet was in the Indian Ocean. Halsey's aggressive commitment inspired its American participants to invent the mythical "Haul Ass With Halsey" club. The last of the 1942 US carrier raids in March 1942 would form a defining moment in the Pacific War, prior to a new phase of high-seas battles between the opposing fleets. This superbly illustrated book documents for the first time in a single volume this little-known but important World War II naval campaign. The fabulous illustrations, including maps and colour artworks, bring to life the US air and naval raids on the Japanese bases in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands, Rabaul, Wake Island, Marcus Island, and Lae and Salamaua in northern New Guinea.

The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) revolutionized warfare at sea, on land, and in the air. This little-known naval aviation organization introduced and operationalized aircraft carrier strike, aerial anti-submarine warfare, strategic bombing, and the air defence of the British Isles more than 20 years before the outbreak of the Second World War. Traditionally marginalized in a literature dominated by the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force, the RNAS and its innovative practitioners, nevertheless, shaped the fundamentals of air power and contributed significantly to the Allied victory in the First World War. The Development of British Naval Aviation utilizes archival documents and newly published research to resurrect the legacy of the RNAS and demonstrate its central role in Britain's war effort.

Ruthless Warfare (1998) demonstrates how close the First World War came to Australia. It has been argued that Australia was manipulated against its interests into action in WW1 by London - this unpublished collection of documents from the military division of the German Archives shows that this was not the case. The German Navy expected a major confrontation with the British Empire, both in the North Sea and further afield. German cruisers were expected to make a significant contribution in the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific, pinning down British naval forces and thus undermining the British fleet's supremacy in the Atlantic. The damage and disruption to imperial trade would have had serious consequences for Australia, and these German plans also meant that a significant military intelligence system was active in the Antipodes.