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Author: Bernard Edwards
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 420
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Book Description
This book follows the changing pattern of man's fortunes at sea, from the golden age of sail, through the proud years when steam reigned supreme, to the present day, when the flag of convenience rules the waves. It tells of triumphs and disasters, some recent, some long-forgotten, and illustrates how, contrary to all expectations, the fine art of seamanship has withered and died with the advent of advanced technology.
Author: Bernard Edwards
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 420
Get Book Here
Book Description
This book follows the changing pattern of man's fortunes at sea, from the golden age of sail, through the proud years when steam reigned supreme, to the present day, when the flag of convenience rules the waves. It tells of triumphs and disasters, some recent, some long-forgotten, and illustrates how, contrary to all expectations, the fine art of seamanship has withered and died with the advent of advanced technology.
Author: Bernard Edwards
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780751516067
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
Author: Bernard Edwards
Publisher: Grub Street Publishers
ISBN: 1526711680
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 283
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Book Description
The naval historian and retired merchant navy captain recounts the contributions of Britain’s civilian ships during WWII in this “cracking read” (The Bridgend & Porthcawl Gem). The first British casualties of the Second World War were not members of the Royal Navy, the army, or the Royal Air Force. They were British merchant seamen on the transatlantic passenger liner SS Athenia, torpedoed by a German U-30 submarine on September 3, 1939. For the duration of the war, Britain’s merchant fleet performed a vital role, carrying the essential supplies that kept the country running during the darkest days and made victory possible. Their achievements came at a terrible cost with 2,535 British oceangoing merchant ships being sunk and, of the 185,000 men and women serving in the British Merchant Navy at the time, 36,749 sacrificed their lives. Another 4,707 were wounded and 5,720 ended up as prisoners of war. Their casualty rate of twenty-five percent was second only to RAF Bomber Command’s. Thoroughly researched and full of fascinating true accounts, Bernard Edwards’s Churchill’s Thin Grey Line tells the inspiring story of those brave civilian volunteers who fought so gallantly to defend their ships, cargo, and country. “A cracking read which brings home to the reader how much we in [England] owe to the Merchant Navy . . . Bernard Edwards has done them proud.” —The Bridgend & Porthcawl Gem
Author: Bernard Edwards
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473887089
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 207
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Book Description
In November 1942, Britain and America launched Operation TORCH, the ambitious invasion of French North Africa. ÊÊÊÊÊ To convey 70,000 troops and their equipment required 600 merchant ships crossing the U-boat infested North Atlantic. The need for their protection meant withdrawing escorts from the routine convoys.Ê Amongst those left without adequate defence were RB 1 and SC 107, both eastbound from America, and SL 125, northbound from Freetown.Ê All three were at sea at the same time as the TORCH convoys.
Author: Bernard Edwards
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1844154424
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 213
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Book Description
Early on the morning of 7 December 1941, 360 Japanese carrier-borne aircraft made a surprise attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, and laid waste to the American Far East Fleet. They sank four battleships, crippled three cruisers and three destroyers, and seriously damaged two other battleships. One hundred and sixty-four planes were destroyed and 2,403 servicemen and civilians were killed. All for the loss of twenty-nine Japanese aircraft and fifty-five men. Two days later, the British battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse, were sunk by Japanese torpedo bombers as they raced north to intercept an enemy invasion force heading for Malaya. In these two bold forays, the Japanese had successfully emasculated Allied naval power in the East. There now remained no big guns afloat anywhere in the Pacific and Indian oceans capable of opposing Admiral Yamamoto's ships. So began Japan's blitzkrieg. The Malay peninsular was rapidly overwhelmed, Hong Kong surrendered on Christmas Day, Manila went the same way on the 31st, and on 15 February 1942, in one of the most ignominious defeats in modern warfare, 85,000 British troops laid down their arms, and the vital base of Singapore was in Japanese hands. Thereafter, the rays of the Rising Sun spread ever outwards, overrunning island after island, until even Australia was threatened. The book tells how the Dutch Spice Islands, Java and Sumatra, became a last refuge for those fleeing before the Japanese whirlwind advance, and it was from here that the remaining Allied merchant ships in the area made their bid for freedom carrying hundreds of refugees. For many of these ships it was to be their last voyage
Author: Bernard Edwards
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1781593760
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 200
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Book Description
On 5 November, 1940 the eastbound convoy HX 84 of thirty-seven merchant ships, escorted by the armed merchant cruiser HMS Jervis Bay, was attacked in mid-Atlantic by the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer. The Jervis Bay, commanded by Captain Edward Fegen, charged at the enemy. Hopelessly out-gunned, she was blown out of the water by the Scheer's 11-inch guns.??Meanwhile, led by HX 84's commodore ship, the Cardiff tramp Cornish City, the merchantmen scattered under the cover of a smoke screen, were picked off one by one by the radar-equipped Admiral Scheer.??Captain Hugh Pettigrew, commanding the highly armed Canadian Pacific cargo liner Beaverford, began a desperate game of hide and seek with the Scheer, which continued until Beaverford was sunk with no survivors. Thanks to this sacrifice, incredibly only four other merchantmen were sunk.??Later the neutral flag Swedish freighter Stureholm, commanded by Captain Olander, picked up survivors from the Jervis Bay. Without this brave and dangerous gesture no one would have lived to tell the tale of the death throes of the Jervis Bay, whose Captain was awarded the VC.??Sadly, the history books only mention the Beaverford and the Stureholm in passing. This thrilling book puts the record straight.
Author: Bernard Edwards
Publisher: Pen and Sword Maritime
ISBN: 139904222X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 215
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Book Description
The war years 1939 – 1945 were the most perilous in the long history of the British Merchant Navy. The figures speak for themselves. With 2,535 ships sunk and 36,749 merchant seamen lost, the proportional casualty rate was higher than any branch of the Armed Forces except for Bomber Command. The danger to the lightly armed merchant ships came from enemy air attacks, surface warships, raiders and, of course submarines. Prisoners were seldom taken so the crews of stricken vessels had to fend for themselves. Those who survived enemy action faced death by drowning, exposure and lack of food and water. Compiled mainly from experiences related direct to the author, this inspiring book draws on first-hand accounts of the lucky few who survived. With extraordinary honesty and modesty their stories describe the events leading up to the enemy attack, the actions and the aftermath. Readers will be struck by the courage and fortitude of these men who often suffered extreme hardship and privation. Too many died before reaching land or being rescued. These men are without doubt the unsung heroes of the Second World War and this fine book is an overdue recognition of their sacrifices and courage.
Author: Bernard Edwards
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1783379278
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260
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Book Description
A British naval historian recounts the victories and defeats of two of the most infamous German Navy vessels during World War II. Bernard Edwards’s Beware Raiders! tells the fascinating story of two German ships and the havoc they caused amongst Allied shipping in World War II. One was the eight-inch gun cruiser Admiral Hipper—named for World War I’s German fleet Admiral Franz von Hipper—fast, powerful, and Navy-manned. The other was a converted merchant man, Hansa Line’s Kandelfels armed with a few old scavenged guns manned largely by reservists, and sailing under the nom de guerre Pinguin. The difference between the pride of the Third Reich’s Kriegsmarine’s fleet and the converted cruiser was even more evident in their commanders. Edwards emphasizes the striking contrast between the conduct of Ernst Kruder, captain of the Pinguin, who attempted to cause as little loss of life as possible, and the callous Iron Cross–decorated Wilhelm Meisel of the Admiral Hipper, who had scant regard for the lives of the men whose ships he had sunk. Contrary to all expectations, as Edwards reveals in his thrilling accounts of the missions performed by each ship, the amateur man-of-war reaped a rich harvest and went out in a blaze of glory. The purpose-built battlecruiser, on the other hand, was hard-pressed even to make her mark on the war and ended her days in ignominy.
Author: Bernard Edwards
Publisher: Pen and Sword Maritime
ISBN: 1399097873
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 232
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Book Description
The British Merchant Navy dominated the world trade routes in the years leading up to the Second World War. The star players of the fleet were the cargo liners, faster and larger than the tramps and offering limited passenger accommodation. On the outbreak of war these cargo liners became crucial to the nation’s survival using their speed and expertise to evade Nazi warships, raiders and U-boats. Initially operating alone, but increasingly relying on Royal Navy protected convoys, these key elements of the Merchant Navy plied the oceans and seas despite mounting losses, throughout the war years. This superbly researched book describes numerous dramatic incidents. Some ended in disaster such as the New Zealand Shipping Company’s Turakina which was sunk after a running battle with the German raider Orion. Others were triumphs for example Operation Substance when six fast cargo liners succeeded against all the odds in reaching besieged Malta with vital supplies. The common denominations in all these historic voyages were the courage and skilled seamanship of the Merchant Navy crews. As Running The Gauntlet vividly illustrates, their contribution to victory, too long overlooked, cannot be overstated.
Author: Bernard Edwards
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1781596190
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 242
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Book Description
With their very long range, the giant Type IX U-Cruisers gave Admiral Dnitz's U-boat fleet global reach. Initially these boats operated with considerable success off the East coast of America and in the Caribbean but their main impact was in the Gulf of Guinea 1942-43 which, due to the closure of the Suez Canal, was a vital Allied supply route. Two submarines in particular (U-68 and U-505) had a profound effect causing major panic by their hugely successful operations.
