May 1940: 500,000 British and French troops are trapped in northern France by the Nazis. Their only escape is the sea, and an incredible armada of 800 craft known as the little ships. This is the story of a young girl and her father, who sail from Deal to Normandy to lend their help.

During 1940 the German army swept with devastating speed across the Low Countries and into northern France and drove Allied forces back into a small pocket around Dunkirk. Without a swift withdrawal across the English Channel, the latter faced certain death or capture. The evacuation plan – Operation Dynamo – initially calculated that 45,000 men might be rescued, but between 26 May and 4 June 338,226 men were in fact brought back to England. Naval historian Philip Weir shows how this was made possible by a vast armada of disparate vessels including destroyers, minesweepers, fishing vessels and, most famously of all, the privately owned 'Little Ships'. He explores the vessels' various roles within the evacuation, and their subsequent fates, including preservation and participation in commemorative return runs to the port, which now take place every five years.

From bestselling author Margaret Mayhew, an emotional and gripping wartime saga, full of the tension and adventure of World War Two. Perfect for fans of Katie Flynn, Donna Douglas and Rosie Clarke. READERS ARE LOVING THE LITTLE SHIP! "Brilliant. Very moving, funny and sad all at the same time" - 5 STARS "[The] characterisation is wonderful. The reader is able to put themselves right there as the book unfolds." - 5 STARS "Absolutely fantastic" - 5 STARS "A fantastic storyteller" - 5 STARS "I found it fascinating historical fiction at its best" - 5 STARS *************************************************************** CAN FRIENDSHIPS FORGED IN CHILDHOOD SURVIVE THE HORRORS OF WAR? In the summers leading up to the war, Matt, Guy, and their young cousin Lizzie meet up on the Essex coast and bum around in an old boat. Guy is the eldest, handsome, skilled at everything, a tad selfish. Matt is quieter and has a crippled right arm. Lizzie adores them both. These are idyllic days of sun, and sea, the golden era of the thirties. As the thirties progress, things take a darker turn. Lizzie's family take the daughter of a Viennese colleague of Lizzie's father into their home, a Jewish girl called Anna, who is miserable and homesick. Soon Otto joins the band of children - the son of a German diplomat, reared in the best traditions of the Hitler doctrine and destined for the army. As they grow up, their relationships become tense and highly involved. Resentment, love, confusion, hate all intermingle... Then the world explodes into war and they go their separate ways until they all meet again at Dunkirk...with very different aims and ambitions....

Emerging like a butterfly from its chrysalis, a remarkable little ship, the Sheemaun, springs from her designer's drawing-board to sail through eight decades of history, gathering in her wake a unique collection of admirers, including former owners, former crews, and those who served courageously on her during WW2. Their stories are revealed here; tales of bravery and daring, accounts of bombs, mines, depth-charging and death; stories of espionage and smuggling; and memorable chronicles of Royal occasions, cruising, maritime festivals and much else.This fascinating, deeply engrossing true story takes the reader into the heart and soul of the Sheemaun and of all those who have loved her.

The story of how 700 small privately–owned vessels helped to save 338,226 British and French soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk in 1940.

Lilian Harry's engrossing wartime saga about the heroes and heroines of Dunkirk. During just nine days in the early summer of 1940, nearly eight hundred 'little ships', from lifeboats and passenger steamers to small private yachts and dinghies, set off across the English Channel to rescue almost half a million men trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk. Among them were three very different craft - a London fireboat from the docklands of the East End, manned by skipper Olly Mears and his crew; a small pleasure steamer from the River Dart in Devon, commanded by twenty-one-year-old Robby Endacott, an Able Seaman in the Royal Navy who grew up on the banks of the Dart; and a small motor yacht owned by Portsmouth solicitor Hubert Stainbank and crewed by his sons, Charles and Toby. As each boat ferries exhausted men from the beaches to the waiting ships, under incessant fire from enemy aircraft and in a sea awash with debris and bodies, the men are unknowingly united by a powerful driving force - the urgent need to find one man, brother or son, who matters more to them than anyone else. Each of these missing men has a family, a wife or a sweetheart at home who is anxiously waiting for news...One sweetheart in particular is determined to play her own part in the rescue.

“One of the 12 best business books of all time…. Timeless principles of empowering leadership.” – USA Today "The best how-to manual anywhere for managers on delegating, training, and driving flawless execution.” —FORTUNE Since Turn the Ship Around! was published in 2013, hundreds of thousands of readers have been inspired by former Navy captain David Marquet’s true story. Many have applied his insights to their own organizations, creating workplaces where everyone takes responsibility for his or her actions, where followers grow to become leaders, and where happier teams drive dramatically better results. Marquet was a Naval Academy graduate and an experienced officer when selected for submarine command. Trained to give orders in the traditional model of “know all–tell all” leadership, he faced a new wrinkle when he was shifted to the Santa Fe, a nuclear-powered submarine. Facing the high-stress environment of a sub where there’s little margin for error, he was determined to reverse the trends he found on the Santa Fe: poor morale, poor performance, and the worst retention rate in the fleet. Almost immediately, Marquet ran into trouble when he unknowingly gave an impossible order, and his crew tried to follow it anyway. When he asked why, the answer was: “Because you told me to.” Marquet realized that while he had been trained for a different submarine, his crew had been trained to do what they were told—a deadly combination. That’s when Marquet flipped the leadership model on its head and pushed for leadership at every level. Turn the Ship Around! reveals how the Santa Fe skyrocketed from worst to first in the fleet by challenging the U.S. Navy’s traditional leader-follower approach. Struggling against his own instincts to take control, he instead achieved the vastly more powerful model of giving control to his subordinates, and creating leaders. Before long, each member of Marquet’s crew became a leader and assumed responsibility for everything he did, from clerical tasks to crucial combat decisions. The crew became completely engaged, contributing their full intellectual capacity every day. The Santa Fe set records for performance, morale, and retention. And over the next decade, a highly disproportionate number of the officers of the Santa Fe were selected to become submarine commanders. Whether you need a major change of course or just a tweak of the rudder, you can apply Marquet’s methods to turn your own ship around.