A classic in every sense of the word, the re-issuing of this book is sure to provoke an enthusiastic response. First published in 1986 by Airlife, its publishing history has seen a great number of glowing reviews generated, coming from both historians and participants in the proceedings that the author so eloquently relays.??The book charts Crosley's service career in the Fleet Air Arm during the entire period of the Second World War. Part of his service saw him in action aboard HMS Eagle, flying Sea Hurricanes on the Harpoon and Pedestal Malta convoys of June and August 1942. It was during this time that he shot down his first enemy aircraft and survived the dramatic sinking of HMS Eagle. From there he graduated on to Seafires, (the Naval equivalent of the Spitfire), and flew this type in Combat Air Patrols over Norway and ramrod strikes from Operation Torch (the invasion of French North Africa in November 1942), through to D-Day in June 1944 in the European Theatre of Operations, and then in the Pacific abroad HMS Implacable as part of the British Pacific Fleet in 1945 until the end of the Pacific War, by which time he had command of his own combined squadron, 801 and 880.??The narrative is well written in a frank and often scathingly critical way of Fleet Air Arm operations during the Second World War and beyond. The book looks set to bring the endeavours of Crosley to a whole new generation of enthusiasts, and it should appeal across the board to fans of aviation, naval history and families and friends of Armed Forces, past and present.

“Magnificent and important . . . should be on the shelves of anyone with a genuine interest in the history of the Royal Navy in the Second World War.” —Military History Monthly In August 1944 the British Pacific Fleet did not exist. Six months later it was strong enough to launch air attacks on Japanese territory, and by the end of the war it constituted the most powerful force in the history of the Royal Navy, fighting as professional equals alongside the US Navy in the thick of the action. How this was achieved by a nation nearing exhaustion after five years of conflict is a story of epic proportions in which ingenuity, diplomacy and dogged persistence all played a part. As much a political as a technical triumph, the BPF was uniquely complex in its make-up: its C-in-C was responsible to the Admiralty for the general direction of his Fleet; took operational orders from the American Admiral Nimitz; answered to the Government of Australia for the construction and maintenance of a vast base infrastructure, and to other Commonwealth Governments for the ships and men that formed his fully-integrated multi-national fleet. This ground-breaking new work by David Hobbs describes the background, creation and expansion of the BPF from its first tentative strikes, through operations off the coast of Japan to its impact on the immediate post-war period, including the opinions of USN liaison officers attached to the British flagships. The book is the first to demonstrate the real scope and scale of the BPF’s impressive achievement. “Perhaps the greatest Royal Navy story of, at least, the twentieth century.” —Aircrew Book Review

My song is magic. Too bad someone else controls it. I escaped topside from my downtrodden past under the waves. Out of the shark's mouth, into the squid's grip, as my people say. Now I'm indebted to a seedy dealer, who uses my siren song to squeeze his clients for secrets. A new job at a vacation lodge for land-loving sirens will pay enough to free me of my debts. My sexy new boss is tempting, but I don’t like his secrets. I have enough of my own to fill a mermaid’s purse. A fire threatens the lodge and my livelihood, and it isn’t an accident. I need to find the culprit before my promised payout vanishes in a puff of smoke. It’s a tall order—the visiting sirens can’t recognize me while I’m investigating. If they do, they’ll drag me screaming to the depths for my former crimes.

"Goulty tells the story from the perspective of the ordinary sailor or officer who was there."—The Northern Mariner Although many books have been written about naval actions during the Second World War – histories and memoirs in particular – few books have attempted to encompass the extraordinary variety of the experience of the war at sea. That is why James Goulty’s vivid survey is of such value. Sailors in the Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy experienced a war fought on a massive scale, on every ocean of the world, in a diverse range of vessels, from battleships, aircraft carriers and submarines to merchant ships and fishing boats. Their recollections are as varied as the ships they served in, and they take the reader through the entire maritime war, as it was perceived at the time by those who had direct, personal knowledge of it. Throughout the book the emphasis is on the experience of individuals – their recruitment and training, their expectations and the reality they encountered on active service in many different offensive and defensive roles including convoy duty and coastal de-fence, amphibious operations, hunting U-boats and surface raiders, mine sweeping and manning landing and rescue craft. A particularly graphic section describes, in the words of the sailors themselves, what action against the enemy felt like and the impact of casualties – seamen who were wounded or killed on board or were lost when their ships sank. A fascinating inside view of the maritime warfare emerges which may be less heroic than the image created by some post-war accounts, but it gives readers today a much more realistic impression of the whole gamut of wartime life at sea.

Bestselling, award-winning author Karen Robards once again brings us dazzling adventure and unforgettable characters in a searing saga of passion, seduction, and dangerous love. The tempestuous saga of Lady Catherine Aldley and the pirate Jonathan Hale that began in Island Flame now continues in Sea Fire… What can a beautiful captive say to a handsome, ruthless pirate? Anything but “no.” He was her husband, her lover, the pirate who seized her body, then stole her heart. Lady Catherine Aldley fled England to make a home with the infamous Jonathan Hale in Carolina. But their perfect life was shattered when Cathy was summoned to England to her ailing father, and discovered that her marriage to Jonathan was a sham. He was a wanted man, one step from the gallows. The only way she could save him was to wed her despised cousin, to let Jonathan think she had betrayed their love. With a price on his head and vengeance in his soul, Jon Hale led a mutiny aboard the prison ship Cristobel and recaptured his faithless wife. Cathy could rile his blood as no other. The fire in her eyes infuriated and beguiled him. Cathy said she hated him yet melted at his touch even as Jon tried to despise what he most desired. Then fate threatened to part them forever and Jon risked his life to rescue the woman he could not live without.

This is the true story of Commander R. Mike Crosley, a Seafire pilot during World War II. He was thrown into a war which would first bring him together with his sweetheart and then separate them, and which would bring comradeship, exhilaration and tragedy in almost equal amounts.

This volume updates the information in the first volume and adds some new names. Information has been added on the pilots who gained success against the V-1 flying bombs during 1944-45. Detail is also provided on those units in which virtually all the fighter pilots served at some time or another - the fighter Operational Training Units - and of specialist units such as the Central Gunnery School, Fighter Leader's School and Fighter Experimental Units. There is also coverage of the only other conflicts in which British pilots have been able to claim victories since 1945 - Korea and the Falklands Conflict.