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The Second World War was a truly global conflict and maritime power
played a major role in every theatre of operations. Land campaigns
depended on supplies transported by sea, and victory or defeat
depended on the outcome of naval battles. So Leo Marriott's highly
illustrated two-volume account of the struggle sets naval actions
in the wider strategic context as well as giving graphic accounts
of what happened in each engagement. This second volume
concentrates on the epic struggle between the Americans and the
Japanese in the vast expanses of the Pacific where for almost four
years a great maritime campaign ebbed and flowed and some of the
most famous naval battles of the conflict took place. The first
part of the book covers the period from Pearl Harbor to Midway
while the second covers the long and bloody campaign in the
south-west Pacific where the US Navy honed its skills and turned a
bloody defeat into a hard-won victory. The final section focuses on
naval operations during the American advance across the central
Pacific up to the Battle of Leyte Gulf - the greatest naval battle
ever fought. Included are other actions involving the Royal Navy
which, after early setbacks, would go on to play a major supporting
role alongside the US Navy in the Pacific This concise but
wide-ranging introduction to the naval war emphasizes the sheer
scale of the conflict in every sea and shows the direct impact of
each naval battle on the course of the war.
The Second World War was a truly global conflict and maritime power
played a major role in every theatre of operations. Land campaigns
depended on supplies transported by sea, and victory or defeat
depended on the outcome of naval battles. So Leo Marriott's highly
illustrated two-volume account of the struggle sets naval actions
in the wider strategic context as well as giving graphic accounts
of what happened in each engagement. This first volume concentrates
on the Royal Navy's confrontation with the ships and submarines of
the German Kriegsmarine during the Battle of the Atlantic, the
Arctic convoys and the struggle across the Mediterranean against
the Italian navy to supply the opposing armies in North Africa. The
Battle of the River Plate, the pursuit of the Bismarck, the PQ17
convoy to the Soviet Union and Operation Pedestal, the most famous
convoy sent to relieve Malta, are among the episodes described in
vivid detail and illustrated with a selection of striking
photographs. This concise but wide-ranging introduction to the
naval war emphasizes the sheer scale of the conflict in every sea
and shows the direct impact of each naval battle on the course of
the war .
In this the highly illustrated second volume of his history of US
naval aviation, Leo Marriott takes the reader through the
extraordinary developments in design and capability that
transformed American aircraft and aircraft carriers after the
Second World War, and he describes the succession of conflicts in
which they were deployed. Increasingly, advanced jets replaced
propeller-driven aircraft and nuclearpowered carriers allowed the
US Navy to project American military power across the world. As the
many remarkable photographs in this book show, wherever naval
aviation was involved, it played a crucial role, especially in the
wars in Korea and Vietnam. The vessels built in the 1940s to fight
in the war against Japan gave way to a new generation of super
carriers. Supersonic fighters and strike aircraft entered service -
the F-8 Crusaders and F-4 Phantoms of the Vietnam era, then the
F-14 Tomcat, F/A-18 Hornet and S-3 Viking of more recent times.
Carrier-based helicopters became more important, first for
search-and-rescue missions, then for anti-submarine warfare and for
landing assault forces. Throughout this period of the Cold War the
US Navy's carriers and aviation served to demonstrate American
power worldwide and to counter the threat represented by the Soviet
Union's challenge to US mastery of the seas.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 sank or
crippled almost all of the battleships belonging to the US Navy's
Pacific Fleet, but the fleet's aircraft carriers survived to
demonstrate that naval aviation was now the dominant factor in the
struggle at sea, turning the tide of the Pacific War. That the US
Navy had the necessary ships, aircraft and crews was the result of
pioneering, far-sighted decisions made in the pre-war years. Before
the First World War the navy had recognised the potential of
aircraft at sea, and it went on to develop the techniques and
equipment that contributed so much to the defeat of the Japanese.
This is the fascinating story Leo Marriott tells in this
photographic history. In a selection of over 200 rare photographs
he traces the growth of US naval aviation from the flimsy seaplanes
of the first years of the twentieth century to the mighty armadas
that challenged those of the Japanese and, after the carrier
battles at Coral Sea and Midway, led the advance across the
Pacific. Key aspects of the history are the navy's first aircraft
carriers of the 1920s and the tremendous progress made in the
decades between the wars in tactics and strategy as well as in the
design of ships and aircraft.
Just after its seventieth anniversary, the Battle of the Bulge has
lost none of its impact. The largest battle fought by US troops on
the continent of Europe started in a surprise attack on December
16, 1944, by four German armies, spearheaded by the cream of the
German Panzer forces. Under the cover of bad weather and heavy
snow, Hitler's last roll of the dice was intended to retake
Antwerp, split the Allies, divide their political leadership, and
force peace in the West, thus allowing the German forces to
concentrate on defeating the Red Army. Strategic pipedream or not,
the attack was furious and drained the Eastern Front of
reinforcements: 12 armored and 29 infantry divisions, some 2,000
tanks and assault guns-mainly PzKpfw IVs (800), Panthers (750) and
Tigers (250 including some of the new King Tigers)- spearheaded the
assault, which smashed into the American First and Ninth Armies.
Near-complete surprise was achieved thanks to a combination of
Allied overconfidence, preoccupation with offensive plans, and poor
reconnaissance. The Germans attacked where least expected-the
forested Ardennes-a weakly defended section of the Allied line,
taking advantage of the weather conditions, which grounded the
Allies' overwhelmingly superior air forces. The Allied response was
magnificent. Initial reverses brought out the best of Eisenhower's
armies, which fought with determination and grit against the enemy
and the elements. The harsh battles are best summed up by the
defense of the northern shoulder around the Elsenborn Ridge, the
battle for St. Vith, and in the south the siege of Bastogne, where
the town's commander, Gen. McAuliffe, rejected German calls for
surrender with the pithy reply: "Nuts." Within ten days the German
attack had been nullified. Patton, at the time planning an attack
further south, wheeled his Third Army round in a brilliant maneuver
that relieved Bastogne and set up a counterattack which would drive
the Germans back behind the Rhine. The Ardennes Battlefields
includes details of what can be seen on the ground today-hardware,
memorials, museums, and cemeteries-using a mixture of media to
provide an overview of the campaign: maps old and new highlight
what has survived and what hasn't; then and now photography allows
fascinating comparisons with the images taken at the time; aerial
photos give another angle to the story. The fifth book by Leo
Marriott and Simon Forty provides a different perspective to this
crucial battlefield.
Essex-class aircraft carriers played an essential role in the
victory of the United States over Japan in the Second World War,
and Leo Marriott's photographic history is a fascinating
introduction to them. Without these remarkable ships, the
island-hopping campaign of American forces across the Pacific
towards Japan would not have been possible. They also took part in
the Korean and Vietnam wars that followed. During the Second World
War they were at the centre of the powerful task groups that could
put up hundreds of aircraft to support forces on the ground. They
were also prime targets for Japanese air attacks, in particular the
kamikaze suicide missions. A total of twenty-four were eventually
commissioned including several after the end of the war. The
selection of rare photographs and the expert text cover the
evolution of US aircraft carrier design prior to the Second World
War and look at the factors which shaped the design and
construction of the Essex class. Included are dramatic action shots
of the new breed of naval aircraft that were launched from their
flight decks, including Hellcat and Corsair fighters that took on
the Japanese and the carrier-borne jets that flew over Korea and
Vietnam.
Of the five beaches attacked on 6 June, Omaha saw the sternest
fighting. Well-placed defenders on the high ground and extensive
beach defenses did their job. On top of this, so much had gone
wrong with the first wave: many of the amphibious DD Sherman tanks
didn't reach the beach. They were released from their landing craft
too far away where the greater swell swamped them and the troops
landing on Omaha missed their firepower. Another problem was that
many units landed in the wrong place. Strong tides and winds
carried the landing craft off line and led to confusion. Finally,
the German emplacements and defenses were well-placed on high
ground and the only cover on the beach - the seawal - was over a
killing ground. There were 32 fortified areas located between the
Vire River and Port-en-Bessin: in all, 12 of these strongpoints
were able to direct fire on Omaha Beach. The attacking forces-units
of the US 29th and 1st Inf Divs - suffered over 2,000 casualties,
many of them drowned during the approach, but led by US Rangers,
themselves misplaced (they were the follow-up troops to Rudder's
Rangers who had scaled the Pointe du Hoc) the American troops
pushed forward and by nightfall, they had gained hold of the beach
and its immediate hinterland. Despite the casualties, 34,000 troops
had been landed by the end of the day.
Operation Tonga began at 22:56 on the night of 5 June, when six
Halifax heavy bombers took off from Tarrant Rushton towing six
Horsas carrying a coup-de-main force consisting of D Coy, Ox and
Bucks LI reinforced with two extra platoons from B Coy and a party
of sappers, who were tasked with capturing the bridges over the
Caen Canal and the River Orne. 6th Airborne Division-which included
1st Canadian Para Bn-had been allotted three specific tasks to
achieve, apart from protecting the eastern flank of the Allied
seaborne landings. First, it was to capture intact the two bridges
over the Caen Canal and the Orne River at Benouville and Ranville.
Second, the division was to destroy the heavily fortified Merville
coastal artillery battery located at Franceville Plage, to ensure
that it could not shell the British forces landing on Sword Beach.
A third task was to destroy several bridges spanning the River
Dives-at Varaville, Robehomme, Bures, and Troarn. The division
would then hold the territory that it had seized until it could be
relieved by advancing Allied ground forces.
While the 6th Airborne Division had landed in France on D-Day and
covered itself in glory, its counterpart, the 1st Airborne
Division, had last seen action during an amphibious assault at
Taranto on September 9, 1943, as part of the invasion of Italy.
Returned to the UK in December 1943, it was held in reserve during
the battle of Normandy and spent three months waiting for action,
as plan after plan was proposed and then discarded, such was the
speed of the Allied pursuit of the Germans. In September 1944,
however, 1st Airborne played a leading role in Operation Market-the
air component of Operation Market Garden, an audacious attempt by
the Allies to bypass the Siegfried Line and advance into the Ruhr.
It was to be 1st Airborne's last action of the war. Encountering
more resistance than expected, including II SS Panzer Corps, the
division landed too far from Arnhem bridge, and fought bravely but
in vain. Held up en route, particularly at Nijmegen, XXX Corps'
advance to Arnhem stuttered and ran late. After nine days of
fighting, 1st Airborne had lost 8,000 men around Arnhem when the
survivors retreated across the Lower Rhine to safety. During those
nine days, however, they had created a legend: first as the small
unit under Lt-Col John Frost held the "bridge too far" and then as
the Oosterbeek perimeter came under sustained attack waiting for
XXX Corps to arrive. The Past& Present Series reconstructs
historical battles by using photography, juxtaposing modern views
with those of the past together with concise explanatory text. It
shows how much infrastructure has remained and how much such as
outfits, uniforms, and ephemera has changed, providing a coherent
link between now and then.
The denouement of the battle of Normandy, the fighting around
Falaise and Chambois in August 1944 and the pursuit of the
retreating German armies to the Seine provided the Allies with an
immense victory. After ten weeks of hard attritional fighting, the
Allies had broken loose from the bocage and the Germans' deep
defenses around Caen: by the end of September they would be close
to the German border. As US First Army and British Second Army
squeezed the western and northern edges of the German salient, so
Third Army rushed headlong eastwards and then north to create the
lower of two pincers-the other formed as the Canadian First Army
and the Polish 1st Armoured Division pushed south of Caen. As could
be expected, the Germans did not simply give up: they fought
furiously to keep the pincers from closing. When they did, attacks
from inside the pocket to break out and outside the pocket to break
in led to fierce fighting between Chambois and Argentan. When the
dust settled, between 80,000 and 100,000 troops had been trapped by
the Allied encirclement. Estimates vary considerably, but it seems
safe to say that at least 10,000 of the German forces were killed
and around 50,000 became PoWs. The rest, however, escaped, but
without most of their equipment, destroyed in the battle or
abandoned in the retreat over the Seine. Those that did were
subsequently to reform, rearm and conduct an effective defense into
late 1944. The Past& Present Series reconstructs historical
battles by using photography, juxtaposing modern views with those
of the past together with concise explanatory text. It shows how
much infrastructure has remained and how much such as outfits,
uniforms, and ephemera has changed, providing a coherent link
between now and then.
In a companion volume to his Early Jet Fighters: British and
American 1944-1954, Leo Marriott describes, using over 200 archive
photographs, the first decade in the development of the jet bomber.
This was a time of intense technical innovation which transformed
the design and capabilities of the bomber and gave birth to a range
of classic military aircraft in the USA, Great Britain, France and
the Soviet Union. The photographs take the story from the earliest
jet bombers constructed in Germany towards the end of the Second
World War to the successful designs both sides depended on through
the first phase of the Cold War. The pace of development was rapid
and remarkable, from initial prototypes built in Germany - the
Arado 234 and the Junkers Ju. 287 - to the fleets of advanced jet
bombers like the British Canberra and V-bombers, the American B-47
and B-52 and the Soviet Il-28 Beagle and Tu-16 Badger. The images
of the prototypes give a fascinating insight into the extraordinary
technical challenges and the ambition and inventiveness of the
designers and manufacturers who overcame them. Leo Marriott's vivid
selection of photographs and his lucid historical narrative offer
the reader an overview of a dynamic stage in the evolution of the
design of military aircraft.
“It’s rare for a book to capture your attention from the very
first sentence, but kudos to the authors of First Canadian Army for
doing just that... I, too, feel that Canada’s contributions to
victory in both world wars have unfortunately been downplayed or
ignored over the decades by the country’s allies.” —
Canada’s History Magazine. A pictorial history of the decisive
role played by Canada in the final year of World War II. After
Dunkirk, as the tattered remnants of Britain’s best troops
returned home without their heavy weapons, Canadian troops moved in
to defend northwest Europe, sending in virtually all of its
disposable weapon resources and 368,000 soldiers. The majority of
these were to be part of the First Canadian Army, which would play
a key role leading to the unconditional surrender by Nazi Germany
on May 9, 1945. This book is a pictorial history of the First
Canadian Army in northwest Europe during the final year of the war.
It concentrates not just on the events of 75 years ago but also
what can be seen on the ground today. The illustrations, over 350
of them, include battle, landing and assault maps; photographs of
soldiers in action and resting, aerial photographs of key sites of
action then and now; battlefield survivors such as Sherman tanks;
memorials to individuals and units; and, of course, the cemeteries
of Canadian, Polish and British soldiers. In ten parts and 60
chapters featuring 350 illustrations and maps, the book covers: The
Bridgehead; The Battles Around Caen; Clearing the Coast; Clearing
The Scheldt; Winter on the Maas; The Rhineland; Advance to the Sea;
I Corps in The West Netherlands; The German Surrender. Military
history buffs will enjoy this book for its focus on a specific
battalion and its actions at a decisive moment in the war. The
archival photographs are important records and reminders of this
watershed moment in World War II’s European theater.
This book includes the principal ships engaged in the war at sea
between 1939 and 1945. The mighty battleships and cruisers that
roamed the oceans, great aircraft carriers deployed in the
Mediterranean and Pacific campaigns and the hard-pressed destroyers
and U boats engaged in the Battle of the Atlantic are described and
illustrated. The proudest ships of the British, American, German,
Italian, French and Japanese navies evoke memories of the momentous
sea battles that changed the course of the war. Bismark,
Scharnhorst, Hood, Ark Royal, Independence and Yamato are
well-known large capital ships, but most smaller ships were better
known by their class and names like Tribal, Fletcher and Buckly
represent many of the more numerous work-horses of naval might.
In almost 200 archive photographs Leo Marriott traces the course of
the development of British and American jet fighters during the
first pioneering decade of their production. In many ways the
period from 1944 to 1954 was one of the most exciting and
innovative in the history of military aviation. Rare images show
the first jet fighters flown by the RAF towards the end of the
Second World War and takes the story forward to the most advanced
designs that played a key role in the war in Korea. The range of
experimental and operational warplanes that were conceived and
built during this short time was remarkable. The initial
straight-wing jets began with the Gloster Meteor and Lockheed P-80
Shooting Star which were later superseded by the first operational
swept-wing fighters such as the Hawker Hunter, North American F-86
Sabre and Grumman F9F-6 Cougar. Development of all these benefited
greatly from German Second World War advances in aerodynamics that
were exploited by the British and Americans when the war ended.
Progress was so swift that, by the mid-1950s, the prototypes of the
next generation of truly supersonic fighters were starting to
appear, and these are featured in Leo Marriott's fascinating
selection of images. He even includes a variety of prototypes which
for various reasons did not result in production orders, as well as
several unusual concepts such as flying boat fighters and
mixed-power designs. Early Jet Fighters: British and American
1944-1954 is a graphic and informative introduction to an
extraordinary stage in the evolution of the modern warplane.
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R398
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