Sea Killers in Disguise

Sea Killers in Disguise PDF Author: Tony Bridgland
Publisher: US Naval Institute Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Disguised as harmless merchant ships, Q-ships could be transformed in moments into powerful warships and the lengths taken to insure their secrecy make an intriguing story.

Sea Killers in Disguise

Sea Killers in Disguise PDF Author: Tony Bridgland
Publisher: US Naval Institute Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Disguised as harmless merchant ships, Q-ships could be transformed in moments into powerful warships and the lengths taken to insure their secrecy make an intriguing story.

Pirate Hunting

Pirate Hunting PDF Author: Benerson Little
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1597972916
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
For thousands of years pirates, privateers, and seafaring raiders have terrorized the ocean voyager and coastal inhabitant, plundering ship and shore with impunity. From the victim's point of view, these attackers were not the rebellious, romantic rulers of Neptune's realm, but savage beasts to be eradicated, and those who went to sea to stop them were heroes. Engaging and meticulously detailed, Pirate Hunting chronicles the fight against these plunderers from ancient times to the present and illustrates the array of tactics and strategies that individuals and governments have employed to secure the seas. Benerson Little lends further dimension to this unending battle by including the history of piracy and privateering, ranging from the Mycenaean rovers to the modern pirates of Somalia. He also introduces associated naval warfare; maritime commerce and transportation; the development of speed under oar, sail, and steam; and the evolution of weaponry. More than just a vivid account of the war that seafarers and pirates have waged, Pirate Hunting is invaluable reading in a world where acts of piracy are once more a significant threat to maritime commerce and voyagers. It will appeal to readers interested in the history of piracy, anti-piracy operations, and maritime, naval, and military history worldwide.

Conrad's Secrets

Conrad's Secrets PDF Author: R. Hampson
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137264675
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Conrad's Secrets explores a range of knowledges which would have been familiar to Conrad and his original readers. Drawing on research into trade, policing, sexual and financial scandals, changing theories of trauma and contemporary war-crimes, the book provides contexts for Conrad's fictions and produces original readings of his work.

Anti-Submarine Warfare

Anti-Submarine Warfare PDF Author: David Owen
Publisher: Seaforth Publishing
ISBN: 1844157032
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
The submarine was undoubtedly the most potent purely naval weapon of the twentieth century. In two world wars, enemy underwater campaigns were very nearly successful in thwarting Allied hopes of victory - indeed, annihilation of Japanese shipping by US Navy submarines is an indicator of what might have been. That the submarine was usually defeated is a hugely important story in naval history, yet this is the first book to treat the subject as a whole in a readable and accessible manner. It concerns individual heroism and devotion to duty, but also ingenuity, technical advances and originality of tactical thought. What developed was an endless battle between forces above and below the surface, where a successful innovation by one side eventually produces a counter-measure by the other in a lethal struggle for supremacy. Development was not a straight line: wrong ideas and assumptions led to defeat and disaster.

Tunnel-master & Arsonist of the Great War

Tunnel-master & Arsonist of the Great War PDF Author: Tony Bridgland
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1783034319
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 407

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Book Description
"Sir John Norton-Griffiths was one of a breed of adventurer, pioneer, entrepreneur and soldier whose like is very seldom seen. Having learnt his trade and made his fortune mining the rich seams of south Africa, he turned his expertise to more deadly use in the Great war. He led the gallant miners who burrowed deep under enemy lines with devastating effect.He went on to wreak havoc on the Danube. Always a controversial figure, he died (or was he murdered?) in mysterious circumstances. This is the story of a true maverick who was a formidable force and legend wherever he went."

The Phantom Army of Alamein

The Phantom Army of Alamein PDF Author: Rick Stroud
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408834286
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
In 1940 a group of artists, sculptors, film makers, theatre designers and set painters came together to form the Camouflage Unit. Led by Major Geoffrey Barkas and including among their number the internationally renowned stage magician Jasper Maskelyne, the unit's projects became a crucial battlefield weapon. At the siege of Tobruk the unit made a vital desalination plant appear to have been destroyed by enemy bombers; from then on they used their storytelling skills to weave intricate webs of deception, making things appear that weren't actually there, and things that were, disappear, to deceive the enemy. Their stage was the enormous, flat and almost featureless Western Desert. The unit's schemes were so successful that in August 1942 the Unit was ordered by General Montgomery to come up with a way to hide the preparations for the Battle of Alamein, the biggest battle the 8th Army had ever fought. 'Operation Bertram' was born. In six short weeks two divisions, with armour, field guns and supporting vehicles, were conjured from the sand, while real tanks and lethal twenty-five pound field guns vanished from sight. Then, on the eve of the battle, the unit performed the biggest conjuring trick in military history. Right in front of the German's eyes they made 600 tanks disappear and reappear fifty miles away disguised as lorries. Rommel had been bamboozled by an army made of nothing but string and straw and bits of wood. The Phantom Army of Alamein tells for the first time the full story of how some of Britain's most creative men put down their brushes, pencils and cameras to join the rest of the world in the fight against the Nazis and played a vital role in the winning of the war.

How to Win on the Battlefield: The 25 Key Tactics of All Time

How to Win on the Battlefield: The 25 Key Tactics of All Time PDF Author: Rob Johnson
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
ISBN: 0500775702
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
The essential military tactics that have enabled commanders from Alexander the Great to General Giap to achieve victory on the battlefield. This groundbreaking book examines battle tactics that have achieved victory through the ages. Drawing on examples of battles on land, at sea, and in the air, the authors reveal the enduring value of each tactic in clear and compelling descriptions and analysis. How can you draw your enemy off-balance? When is the best moment to deliver a counterattack? What is the effect of shock action or defense in depth? This book shows how certain tactical concepts have stood the test of time. It illustrates how General Robert E. Lee, although heavily outnumbered, achieved a remarkable victory through an audacious flanking maneuver at Chancellorsville in 1863, and how the same bold move had been used effectively in Europe more than 600 years before by the king of France at Bouvines. It examines how Allied armies seized and retained the initiative through the airborne landings in Normandy in 1944, and how Soviet General Zhukov pierced enemy lines using Blitzkrieg tactics in Mongolia in 1939. The book features evocative photographs, illustrations, and paintings, and 28 specially commissioned battle plans.

Animal Weapons

Animal Weapons PDF Author: Douglas J. Emlen
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0805094504
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Emlen takes us outside the lab and deep into the forests and jungles where he's been studying animal weapons in nature for years, to explain the processes behind the most intriguing and curious examples of extreme animal weapons. As singular and strange as some of the weapons we encounter on these pages are, we learn that similar factors set their evolution in motion. Emlen uses these patterns to draw parallels to the way we humans develop and employ our own weapons, and have since battle began.

Digging Up the Family

Digging Up the Family PDF Author: Gill Garrett
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1788038991
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
A novice family historian, the author sets out to gain a personal perspective on her background. She rapidly realises that to understand her forebears she must gain a greater insight into their world. As she begins to dig more deeply, the dry, academic past of the history books morphs into a fascinating kaleidoscope of conflict and romance, crime and retribution, economic hardship and joyful celebration. Long held family secrets emerge to surprise and intrigue. The resulting stories are unique but universal, ordinary yet extraordinary. For the Carters and the Garretts are people of their time and place, their lives woven into the fabric of the society and the surroundings into which they are born and in which they make their living. They are the people behind the statistics, the individuals who make up the common history. Join the quest to unearth the reality of their everyday lives. From the farms of Dorset and Pembrokeshire to the coal mines, foundries and dockyards of Monmouthshire, from the days of George III to the aftermath of the Second World War, accompany them through the Industrial Revolution, sweeping social change, personal tragedy and triumph to the brink of the modern age.

Atlantic Convoys and Nazi Raiders

Atlantic Convoys and Nazi Raiders PDF Author: Bruce A. Watson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313055645
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
In November of 1940, the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer attacked British Convoy HX-84. The merchant cruiser HMS Jervis Bay, a converted passenger liner that was the convoy's only escort—armed only with antique 6-inch guns—charged the Nazi raider. While the Jervis Bay did not stand a chance of surviving the battle, her crew's fatalistic bravery inspired awe in all who witnessed the fight. Watson recounts how the Scheer's 11-inch guns turned the ship into a burning hulk in twenty-two minutes, but most of the convoy escaped. In November of 1940, the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer attacked British Convoy HX-84. The Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Jervis Bay, the only escort and mounting antique 6-inch guns, charged the Nazi raider. While the Jervis Bay did not stand a chance of surviving the battle, her crew's fatalistic bravery inspired awe in all who witnessed the fight. Watson describes how the Scheer's 11-inch guns turned the converted passenger liner into a burning hulk in twenty-two minutes, but most of the convoy escaped. How did this confrontation come to pass? Both the necessity of arming a passenger liner and pretending it was a warship, and the building of the Admiral Scheer and her sister ships for the express purpose of commerce raiding, find their roots in the events, political decisions, re-armament polices, war plans, naval traditions, and blunders that arose in pre-war Britain and Germany. But this event holds a significance beyond the battle itself. The sinking of the Jervis Bay symbolizes the end of an era in naval warfare. The Armed Merchant Cruisers of the Second World War inherited a long, sometimes noble and sometimes ignoble history. Long employed in blockade or patrol duty, armed merchant cruisers ventured out for the first time to escort convoys, a defensive duty for which they were eminently unsuited, and for which the Jervis Bay paid a fearful price.