Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The Baltic Project was never carried out, but many of the ships for it were built, including three light cruisers named Furious, Courageous, and Glorious. Their names were reversed commas. #2 The ships had eighteen 4-inch BLIX guns in six Mark I triple mountings, twelve on each broadside, two 3-inch high-angle guns, four 3-pounder Hotchkiss saluting guns, five Maxim guns, and two submerged torpedo tubes. #3 In October, 1917, the British fleet searched for the German ships that carried out the raid on the Mary Rose Convoy. The minesweepers had been forced to sweep further and further until they were operating 150 miles from their bases. #4 The British Admiralty had accurate and timely intelligence on much of this activity. On 17 November, an ambitious sortie was planned involving a large force: the 1st Cruiser Squadron, of Courageous and Glorious, with four escorting destroyers.

In June 1940, after a disastrous campaign in Norway, HMS Glorious was sent to the Norwegian coast to assist in the evacuation of British, Polish and French troops. After several tense days, the ship was on her way home when she encountered the two German battle-cruisers, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. In a ferocious gun battle lasting over an hour Glorious and the two destroyers escorting her were all sunk. Drawing on Admiralty records and the testimony of those who served on Glorious, John Winton reveals the incredible human folly that led almost inexorably to this tragic end, against a background of one of the most disastrous campaigns of World War II for Britain and her allies.

This is the first book to explore information management at sea as practiced by the U.S. Navy from the Civil War to World War II. The brain of a modern warship is its combat information center (CIC). Data about friendly and enemy forces pour into this nerve center, contributing to command decisions about firing, maneuvering, and coordinating. Timothy S. Wolters has written the first book to investigate the history of the CIC and the many other command and control systems adopted by the U.S. Navy from the Civil War to World War II. What institutional ethos spurred such innovation? Information at Sea tells the fascinating stories of the naval and civilian personnel who developed an array of technologies for managing information at sea, from signal flares and radio to encryption machines and radar. Wolters uses previously untapped archival sources to explore how one of America's most technologically oriented institutions addressed information management before the advent of the digital computer. He argues that the human-machine systems used to coordinate forces were as critical to naval successes in World War II as the ships and commanders more familiar to historians.

For many years my knowledge of my grandfather, John Thomas Merrikin, was very limited. All I knew of him was that he came from Amber Hill, Lincolnshire, and was for many years a police officer in Leicester. At the beginning of WW2, my grandfather was called up into the Naval Reserve first of all on HMS Devonshire, and then Stoker First Class on HMS Acasta. 8th June 1940, grandad John Thomas Merrikin died in the Norwegian fjords after the Scharnhorst, and Gneisenau blew up HMS Acasta, and as they sank into the cruel freezing cold sea Nick Carter launched a torpedo at the Scharnhorst and damaged her quite badly. It wasn’t until I joined the GLARAC (Glorious, Ardent, Acasta) Association in 2008 that I realised that HMS Ardent, and HMS Aircraft Carrier Glorious, were also bombed by the two German battleships – both the pride of Nazi Germany. The two British destroyers were accompanying HMS Glorious on convoy. I also became aware of a huge conspiracy as to why 1531 servicemen were killed, and only 43 servicemen survived without Admiralty intervention. During the lockdown of 2020-2021, I decided to do some of my own research on the worst British naval catastrophe of WW2, and I began to write The Mystery Of Operation Alphabet to bring to life 8th June 1940. I did this by putting photographs on as many names of the war dead and survivors as possible to bring them to life too. I also wrote down stories from books and articles of what happened to the war dead and survivors in their own words, and also of their loved ones, rather than writing using my own words, as I wanted the servicemen to have their own voice. The Mystery of Operation Alphabet has endless photos of the different ships, lists of the war dead, and also I have written down as many explanations and conspiracy theories as possible as to why the three ships were blown up and 1531 men were killed. I did this by bringing to light the opinions and theories of Admiralty, naval historians, government officials, and members of the GLARAC Association so you can make up your own minds as to what happened. One of my main aims is to bring to light the bravery of commanders Barker and Glasfurd of HMS Ardent, and HMS Acasta, plus Nick Carter, leading seaman of HMS Acasta, the man who shot the Scharnhorst, to hopefully get the government to give these men military honour and recognition for what they did on 8th June 1940. Amazingly, even the commanders of the German battleships saluted the British ships HMS Glorious, HMS Ardent and especially HMS Acasta as they sunk in the Norwegian fjords to honour their bravery. Last but not least, I would like to uncover why the government has kept the ships’ records under lock and key since 1940, and why they aren’t going to be made public until 2040/41. So why not read this interesting and intriguing book to find out more? Elaine Merrikin Trimlett Glover.

This is the second book in a series of two, covering the events at sea during the German invasion of Norway in 1940, the first modern campaign in which sea, air and ground forces interacted decisively. Part one covers the events at sea off southern and western Norway where Norwegian and British forces attempted to halt the German advance out of the invasion ports as well as the stream of supplies and reinforcements across the Skagerrak. The second part focuses on the British landings in Central Norway where the Royal Navy for the first time had its mastery challenged by air superiority from land-based aircraft. Part three covers the events in and around Narvik where Norwegian, British, French and Polish naval, air and land forces were engaged in the first combined amphibious landings of WW II. Part four sums up the events during the evacuation in June, in which the first carrier task force operations of the war, including the loss of the carrier Glorious, figure prominently. As in the first volume, the narration shifts continuously between the strategic and operational issues, and the experiences of the officers and ratings living through the events. Extensive research and use of primary sources reveals the many sides of this war, some of which remain controversial to this day.