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Reginald Bacon was no Drake, Hawke or Nelson, yet in a naval career that spanned four decades of critical change for the Royal Navy, he was a pivotal figure among Admiral ‘Jacky’ Fisher’s ‘five best brains in the navy’ who revolutionised Britain’s naval warfighting capability between 1900 and the end of the First World War. This new biography traces Bacon’s remarkable career from his service as a fifteen-year-old Midshipman aboard Sir Geoffrey Hornby’s Mediterranean flagship to his three years in command of the Dover Patrol. A mine and torpedo specialist, he was by turns the father of the Submarine Service, the first captain of HMS Dreadnought and Director of Naval Ordnance at the Admiralty before leaving the Royal Navy for five years to run Coventry Ordnance Works whose fortunes he transformed. Having ended the war as Controller of Munition Inventions with the rank of Admiral, over the next twenty-five years he re-invented himself as a writer, dividing his time between homes in Hampshire and Italy. No stranger to controversy, having been unwittingly caught in the bitter Beresford/Fisher feud of 1909, he robustly defended Sir John Jellicoe as C-in-C Grand Fleet against accusations of weak and defensive tactics that deprived the nation of a resounding victory at Jutland. He went on to write acclaimed biographies of both Jacky Fisher and Earl Jellicoe besides two novels and two layman’s guides to new technologies, the motor car and the wireless, the latter in his A Simple Guide to Wireless for All Whose Knowledge of Electricity is Childlike. His account of his service in Command of the Dover Patrol is considered a classic of naval reminiscence and reveals undercurrants of contested naval doctrine that resonate today. As war threatened again in the 1930s, he wrote two more books championing the role of the Royal Navy in wartime. This highly readable biography does justice to both the man – ‘the ablest and cleverest officer I have ever known,’ wrote Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry Oliver – and his remarkable input into so many aspects of the development of the Navy at a time of exponential change.

In 1941, the battlecruiser HMS Hood – at 860 feet long, with a beam of 105 feet, a displacement of 48,360 tons (fully loaded), and a maximum speed of 32 knots – was Britain’s largest and fastest warship. And yet on 24 May, HMS Hood, the epitome of British naval power, with an armament which included eight 15-inch guns, was blown up a mere eight minutes after engaging the German battleship KMS Bismarck and her consort, the heavy cruiser KMS Prinz Eugen. As HMS Hood sank into the icy depths of the Atlantic Ocean on 24 May 1941, she took with her the lives of 1,415 brave men – there were only 3 survivors - and a secret that has haunted the maritime world ever since. How could this possibly have happened? HMS Hood had seemed invincible, and the hopes of the British Navy in wartime had rested upon her great reputation. Her tragic demise was greeted with disbelief by the nation, and the shock waves reverberated all around the world. Various theories have been put forward to account for her sinking, none of them entirely satisfactory. Here, these theories are reappraised in the light of the discovery of the wreckage of HMS Hood in 2001. Furthermore, a new and intriguing theory is proposed.

Discover the Rome that has inspired writers for centuries, from the Classical era to the present day. Walk in the footsteps of Virgil’s Aeneid, trace the path of Renaissance laureates or writers on the Grand Tour. The Book Lover’s Guide to Rome takes you to the favourite haunts of the Romantic poets, the places that stirred the Victorian imagination or formed the backdrop to the dolce vita. It also showcases the literature from a different Rome, one that struggled through the war and aired its scars in neo-realism and detective fiction. Whether at the scene of Ovid’s amorous adventures whilst watching the chariot races in the Circus Maximus or at a caffe that attracted the literati, each location is accompanied by sumptuous full colour photographs and helpful information on the best mode of travel.

On an August evening in 2002, two little girls named Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman set out to buy sweets, but they never returned home… The last person to see them was Ian Huntley, a man who had seamlessly integrated himself into the fabric of a new community under false pretences. With an alibi from his girlfriend, Maxine Carr, the truth of their disappearance remained a mystery - until a large-scale investigation unfolded over the following weeks which would reveal horror after horror. This narrative dives into one of the most extensive police searches in British history, capturing the heart-gripping grief and trauma that ripped through families and communities for decades to come. Explore the psyche of Huntley and Carr through expert analyses, as this chilling account unravels the complexities of human behaviour and sordid pasts. Discover the haunting true story behind the sensationalised headlines, where innocence met depravity and lives remain irrevocably changed.

The ShipCraft series provides in-depth information about building and modifying model kits of famous warship types. Lavishly illustrated, each book takes the modeller through a brief history of the subject class, highlighting differences between sisterships and changes in their appearance over their careers. This includes paint schemes and camouflage, featuring colour profiles and highly-detailed line drawings and scale plans. The modelling section reviews the strengths and weaknesses of available kits, lists commercial accessory sets for super-detailing of the ships, and provides hints on modifying and improving the basic kit. This is followed by an extensive photographic survey of selected high-quality models in a variety of scales, and the book concludes with a section on research references - books, monographs, large-scale plans and relevant websites. Number 7 in this series, first published nearly 20 years ago, covers the three ships of this First World War type, Hood, Repulse and Renown, which survived to fight in the Second. Still the fastest capital ships in the world in 1939, their protection was not up to contemporary standards and two were famously lost in action. Hood in an old-fashioned gunnery duel, but Repulse succumbed to the more modern threat of aerial attack. The one modernised ship, Renown, survived an adventurous wartime career. This completely updated and revised new addition introduces new kits and models and lays before today's modeller's everything they need to build a kit of one of these famous Royal Navy ships.

The village of Givenchy-ls-la-Basse sits on a small rise in the Pas de Calais Department in northern France. One hundred years ago it was overtaken by the First World War. The fighting there was intense eleven Victoria Crosses were won in this tiny locality between 1914 and 1918. Phil Tomasellis in-depth account shows what happened at Givenchy when it became a battlefield, and the story here was repeated in the other villages and towns on the Western Front. Givenchys key position made it the target for crushing bombardments, infantry assaults and subterranean warfare. The landscape was pulverized by shellfire, the ground beneath was honeycombed with tunnels. Mining operations, shelling, sniping and trench raids took place around the remains of the village even when this stretch of the front line was relatively quiet. The gruelling struggle of attrition that characterized the fighting on the Western Front continued here throughout the war. Phil Tomasellis gripping narrative makes extensive use of war diary extracts, personal stories, official and unofficial histories.

The Wives of Henry VIII: Rethinking the Stories Behind the Symbols examines some of the small details about the six wives of Henry VIII that are often overlooked. This book is a revisionist close study that moves beyond the traditional narratives to present fresh, more nuanced perspectives. Focusing on significant moments and aspects that inform and showcase who these women were. Throughout these chapters, new research, fresh analysis, and remarkable discoveries come together to offer a deeper understanding of the women we know as the Six Wives of Henry VIII. We begin with a re-evaluation of Catherine of Aragon’s name through the lens of her family history and how it shaped her life, followed by an analysis of Catherine’s financial situation after the annulment. Anne Boleyn is considered in relation to her role in the Chateau Vert pageant, followed by an analysis of her use of French and English gable hoods, which includes a discussion of an incredible, newly discovered contemporary image of Anne. Jane Seymour’s religion and unpopularity are each examined in turn to uncover fresh perspectives on Henry’s third queen. Anna of Cleves’s adaption to life in England is discussed, followed by her life and status under Edward VI and Mary I. Katherine Howard’s performance of queenship is re-evaluated, as well as the connections between herself and and her cousin, Anne Boleyn. Finally, apocryphal tales of Kateryn Parr’s rise to the throne are reassessed, followed by an examination of how close she came to arrest and execution.

‘He who holds Hill 112 holds Normandy’ seemed an unlikely maxim when the hill is viewed from a distance, but on reaching its plateau, the vistas unfold in every direction across a huge swath of Normandy. For the Germans it was their vital defensive ground, but for the British it was an essential steppingstone en route to the River Orne and access to the open country south to Falaise. The Hitlerjugend SS Panzer Division lost Hill 112 to 4th Armoured Brigade when the Scots captured the Tourmauville Bridge intact, but the essence of Hill 112’s tactical problem soon became clear. It was impossible for armour to survive on its broad plateau, while the infantry could only hold the skeletal orchards and woods at the cost of crushing casualties. With II SS Panzer Corps preparing to attack the British, the toe hold was given up and 11th Armoured Division was left holding a bridgehead across the River Odon. Ten days later, 43rd Wessex Division was ordered to resume the advance to the Orne with Hill 112 its first objective. As the west countrymen and tanks rose to advance, they met withering fire from the stronghold that Hill 112 had become. The scene was set for one of the grimmest battles of the campaign. For six weeks from the end of June into August, when the Allied advances finally gained momentum, Hill 112 was far too important to let the opposition hold and exploit it. Consequently, it was regularly shelled and mortared, and shrouded with smoke and dust, while soldiers of both sides clung to their respective rims of the plateau. By the end, Hill 112 had developed a reputation as evil as that of any spot on the First World War’s Western Front.

No Exit from Vietnam is a subversive, issue-driven memoir of the US-Vietnam war and its aftermath. In 2021, the Department of Veterans Affairs discontinued a prescription for Vicodin that Bob Armstrong had been taking for a back injury he sustained in 1976, ten years after he left the US Marine Corps. What began as an appeal to the VA to reverse this decision became this memoir, weaving together meditations on war and its social ills with a searing portrait of America in these perilous times. Drawing on his personal experience, the author recounts his time serving as a photographer in the 3rd Marine Division. Told with thrilling tension, his words and his photos, a selection of which are featured in the book, paint a vivid picture of combat in Vietnam's jungles. Alongside gripping tales of action, the book offers a larger social commentary on the treatment of veterans and their healthcare. The VA reduced opioid pain medicine prescriptions from 679,000 vets in 2012 to 247,000 in 2020. Armstrong recognizes the dimension of the drug crisis, yet also believes an untold number of responsible veterans have been deprived of pain medicine they need. With humor and cynicism, the author shares his insights into living with pain and his frustration with the bureaucratic system that controls access to medication. He admits his opinions at times seem perverse and twisted, but only because he is "off his med."

How did a petite dancer from a Welsh mining town become a killer in wartime London? Set against the chaos of the Second World War, Wartime London's 'Bonnie and Clyde' unravels the gripping true crime story of Betty Jones and Karl Hulten, whose crime spree led to tragedy and infamy. Betty’s life, shaped by poverty, upheaval, and trauma, took a dark turn when war erupted. After surviving assault, rejection, and a violent marriage, she fled to London from Wales, seeking glamour but found herself ensnared in a shadowy world of striptease dancing, black-market dealings, and fleeting romances. In 1944, she crossed paths with Karl Hulten, a charming yet volatile American deserter, and together they embarked on a reckless spree culminating in the fatal shooting of a taxi driver, a case that would be dubbed the 'Cleft Chin Murder.'Drawing from newly uncovered evidence, police records, court transcripts, and first-hand accounts, this narrative delves into Betty’s transformation and the media frenzy that followed. Was she a cold-blooded killer or a pawn in a destructive partnership? And what became of her after she narrowly escaped executio? artime London's 'Bonnie and Clyde' is a haunting tale of crime, justice, and redemption, exploring gender roles, societal attitudes, and the profound impact of war on those living in its shadow. It challenges readers to question how far circumstances and choices shape those who kill, and whether justice was truly served in a case where all were victims.

People have always imagined that human history has an end point. The way this has been imagined has varied according to time, place, and culture. In medieval England people lived in expectation of the Biblical Day of Judgment, when the world would end and people would be judged by God according to their sins. In art and literature from the early modern period onwards, the most frightening scenes from the Bible were depicted to warn people of the dangers of sin. As the power of the church waned and society became more secular, “new” threats emerged such as pandemics and otherworldly beings which threatened to destroy humanity, and whose tales were told time and again in popular culture. This book examines stories of the apocalypse in popular culture from the medieval period to the twenty-first century; it is a history of the end of the world.

The Avro Vulcan, arguably the best known of the British ?V-Bombers?, was an integral part of Britain?s nuclear deterrent. During the Cold War, several RAF squadrons were equipped with Vulcans, including some assigned to Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) sorties to counter immediately any threat launched by the Soviet Union. The Vulcan was also suited to conventional bombing missions. In 1982, in Operation Black Buck during the Falklands War, Vulcan B.2s carried out the longest-ranged bombing raids in history up to that time, targeting the Argentine occupation of Port Stanley airport.

Bob Davy and Keith Wilson have been combining their respective talents for more than twenty years, flying and photographing a variety of aircraft for flight test features, and having their work published around the world. This lavishly illustrated book represents the first opportunity to prepare a wide selection of their combined work in hardback form.Warbirds featured include the venerable North American P-51 Mustang (on which Bob gained a Type Rating), the UK’s last remaining airworthy and historically significant de Havilland Vampire T.11, and Bob’s own Yak-3 UTI. Also featured is the Stinson AT-19 Reliant I, often referred to as the ‘Gull Wing’.At the Workhorse end of the scale is the Helio Courier, an aircraft possessing amazing STOL performance, that later became infamous during its clandestine operations in Laos with Air America, often referred to as the CIA’s ‘Most Secret Airline’. Also featured is the Cessna Citation Mustang business jet, and the eight-seat Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain.For the floatplane enthusiasts, there is an article on flying a Maule M-7-235B Rocket Amphibian on and off a lake in Essex. Aerobatics fans can enjoy the articles on the Pitts S-2A Special and Slingsby T.67M-260. For the airline enthusiasts, Bob takes you on a commercial flight in a BAe 146 from Paris to Dublin (he was a captain on CityJet). And much, much more. Then there are features on the ‘Flying Egg’ – the Questair Venture, the Aviat Husky Pup, and the capable and occasionally aerobatic Vans RV-4. Finally, and for something completely different, join Bob inside Spitfires.com’s Spitfire simulator at Goodwood.Each of Bob Davy’s carefully crafted and occasionally, hard-hitting features is superbly illustrated with a range of dynamic air-to-air photographs, almost exclusively from the lens of Keith Wilson, a practitioner of air-to-air photography, with almost forty-five years’ experience. Whatever your specific taste in aviation, there is something for everyone to enjoy within the lavishly illustrated pages of this book.

The greatest naval conflict in history was unquestionably that which took place during the Second World War. The geographical spread was global and involved dozens of nations, and it was a conflict that involved more than 15,000 ships and 43.7 million tons of shipping, while some 570,000 lives were lost at sea. Vince O’Hara captures every aspect of that vast naval conflict and provides a complete and panoramic single-volume history. The naval action begins in the Baltic Sea before dawn on 1 September 1939, when a German battleship opened fire on Polish troops barricaded in a fortress in the port city of Danzig, Poland. Over the ensuing nine months, the conflict spread into Great Britain’s home waters of the North Sea, the English Channel, and the eastern Atlantic; and in that theatre the battle against the U-boat grew into one of the most epic aspects of the whole war. One of the most remarkable naval achievements of the war occurred in 1940 during the German invasion of Norway when the Kriegsmarine’s successful attack in the face of immensely superior Allied naval forces signalled the advent of large-scale amphibious operations. As naval activities in Europe expanded into the Mediterranean, the war in the Pacific ignited with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, an assault that led to a series of critical naval battles between Japan and the United States, including Wake Island, Coral Sea, Midway, and Guadalcanal. O’Hara not only deftly examines all the major naval contests in the European and Pacific theatres but also offers detailed analysis of secondary navies such as France, Italy, and the Soviet Union. He explores little-known, smaller engagements such as the campaigns between Thailand and France or Perú and Ecuador. He also connects this broad range of naval action by focussing on recurring themes such as technological innovation, command and control, logistics, and intelligence. And he shows that the most significant naval platforms to emerge from the war, and which gave the Allies victory, were the oiler, the Landing Ship Tank (LST), and the Liberty ship—not the aircraft carrier, the submarine, or the battleship. And, finally, he demonstrates to readers how the impact of the naval battles won by the Allies still reverberates today.

Wyndham Ward grew up with a determination to fly whatever the odds. Starting out as boy mechanic in the RAF, he progressed to being a ‘Junior Joe’ fighter pilot in the iconic Hawker Hunter, despite making almost every mistake possible during air combat training. The Cold War threat loomed large, and Ward was transferred to operating high-speed low-level Buccaneers—a dangerous job—flying with the RAF and Fleet Air Arm on board HMS Ark Royal, where he eventually mastered hair-raising catapult launches and the art of shaky recoveries. Following active duty, Ward received an unexpected posting to the Red Arrows aerobatic team in a significant year—1979—when the Gnat was replaced by the Hawk. This is the story of a lifetime in aviation, from eager youngster to strike formation leader, with an insider’s view into squadron life, the camaraderie of the mess, the howlers committed during training and the tensions of frontline duty during the Cold War. It reveals the inner workings of the Red Arrows during a year of exceptional pressure when, with new jets and a redesigned display, the nation expected something truly groundbreaking. Through it all, and onwards into an extraordinary career in civil aviation, Ward’s boyish enthusiasm never faded; this book is, above all, a testament to the joys of flying.

It is often forgotten that Britains struggle against Napoleon ranged across the continents, and the extensive operations of the Royal Navy and the British Army in the Mediterranean was a key battleground in this prolonged war of attrition. Even when Napoleon considered himself the master of Europe, he was unable to control the Mediterranean. Lieutenant John Hildebrand arrived in the Mediterranean as part of the garrison of Malta in 1810. He was then involved in the defence of the island of Sicily; the campaign to capture the Ionian Islands; the siege of Ragusa, and the Occupation of Corfu. With the war ending in 1814, John and his regiment returned home, only to be sent to Belgium when Napoleon escaped from Elba in 1815. The regiment was not involved at Waterloo, but was at Hal which guarded Wellingtons flank during the battle. He then marched to Paris with the army. These lively and entertaining memoirs, edited and annotated by renowned historian Gareth Glover, are certain to find a wide readership amongst Napoleonic enthusiasts, providing an intriguing counterpoint to Wellingtons operations in the Iberian Peninsula. In a few minutes we perceived two fully armed boats with stout rowers dart from it, with all the energy and alacrity of making a certain capture. I was dismayed at the scrape I had got into, and could not see a possibility of escape.' Lieutenant Hildebrand at the Capture of the Ionian Islands