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.

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 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 work covers a difficult period of the war for the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet. It covers the destruction of the Italian Fleet at Taranto by naval aircraft from the carrier Illustrious, and the entry of the German Luftwaffe into the theatre with their attack on Illustrious in 1941.

This is a comnpendium volume of three Battle Summaries or Naval Staff Histories produced soon after the war by the Naval Historical Branch of the Admiralty. Originally classified and designed for internal use only, these histories are published here for the first time. The documents in this book cover the actions during the period 1939-1941 that resulted in the sinking or immobilising of the German Warships Birsmark and Graf Spee, and record the struggle to rid the seas of the menace of the armed merchants raiders.

This work covers a difficult period of the war for the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet. It covers the destruction of the Italian Fleet at Taranto by naval aircraft from the carrier Illustrious, and the entry of the German Luftwaffe into the theatre with their attack on Illustrious in January 1941, hitting her with eight 1,000lb bombs - the heaviest damage suffered by an aircraft carrier in World War II. In May 1941 the story continues with the rescue of the British Army from Greece and Crete in the face of unrelenting air attack by both the Germans and the Italians. This volume ends with the Royal Navy's time of trial in November and December 1941, with Japan launching an attack against Singapore while the Royal Navy suffered grievous losses, with the battleship Barham and the carrier Ark Royal sunk by U-Boats and the battleships Queen Elizabeth and Valiant damaged by Italian frogmen in Alexandria harbour. The Fleet that had been planned to sail to the relief of Singapore was sunk before the start of the war.

This is the Naval Staff History of "Operation Dynamo," originally published internally in 1949. British ships evacuated nearly 100,000 men of the BEF from the beaches, and over 200,000 from harbours. Other nations' vessels carried more than 30,000. Scores of ships were lost during the operation, and many more were seriously damaged, but a very large proportion of the British Army had been rescued in the teeth of continual air attack, from an every-shrinking perimeter. The troops then had to be transported across the Channel in the face of enemy aircraft, mines, torpedoes, and fire from the shore, through waters unlit and strewn with wrecks.
Although the campaign was, in Churchill's words, "an unmitigated defeat," there is much to take pride in, and many lessons to be learned from this operation. The appedices include a list of ships which took part in "Operation Dynamo," and numbers of troops transported.

This volume is a compendium of four Battle Summaries or Naval Staff Histories produced soon after the war by the Naval Historical Branch of the Admiralty. Originally classified and designed for internal use only, these histories are published here for the first time. The documents in this book cover the actions that resulted in the sinking or immobilising of the German warships "Bismarck" and "Graf Spee", and records the struggle to rid the seas of the meance of the armed merchant raiders.

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 volume is a compendium of four Battle Summaries or Naval Staff Histories produced soon after the war by the Naval Historical Branch of the Admiralty. Originally classified and designed for internal use only, these histories are published here for the first time. The documents in this book cover the actions that resulted in the sinking or immobilising of the German warships "Bismarck" and "Graf Spee," and records the struggle to rid the seas of the meance of the armed merchant raiders.