The War At Sea: 1939-45: v. 1 (Freedom's Battle) - Softcover

To the creators of this inviting and exciting book, to its editor and to his publishers must go unstinted praise. (Naval Review)

It is a gem. It is the almost perfect bedside book... He has mastered one of the most difficult of literary techniques, the selection and presentation as a single work of art of a long series of excerpts from other people's work. In short, he is the ideal editor. (Irish Press)

Far more than the First, the Second World War produced hundreds of actions and incidents at sea which were packed with drama and suspense and which evoked the highest heroism. Here is a generous selection of personal experience written by the men and women who were there: in the British and Commonwealth Navies, the Fleet Air Arm, the Merchant Navy, or ashore. Names which have passed into history - Narvik, Dunkirk, the River Plate, Taranto, the Bismarck, Crete, the Battle of the Atlantic, the Russian convoys - all these and many others are reflected in eyewitness accounts (some classics of their kind; others little known or previously unpublished). Few books contain so much that is exciting and so much that is heroic. The sea is a way of life: all those who lived it are represented, from the great Admirals and Captains right through the scale to the humblest sailor or Wren. (1994-02-17)