Daniel Knowles

As a young buck, Hemp Firestone, a former owner of a tire warehouse, would put up metal weather vanes consisting of various types of animals that would spin around and draw lightning. Hemp put the animals on homeowners' roofs, doghouses, telephone poles, and even in some cases, cars.

As a young buck, Hemp Firestone, a former owner of a tire warehouse, would put up metal weather vanes consisting of various types of animals that would spin around and draw lightning. Hemp put the animals on homeowners' roofs, doghouses, telephone poles, and even in some cases, cars.

For over twenty years the battlecruiser HMS 'Hood' toured the world as the most iconic warship in the Royal Navy. Unmatched in her beauty and charisma, 'Hood' is one of history's greatest warships. During the twilight years of the British Empire the 'Hood 'toured the world showing the flag as a symbol of British power. As the Royal Navy's show-ship, 'Hood' came to command a special place in the hearts and minds of the British public. Such was the regard for HMS 'Hood' that her destruction in the Denmark Strait on the morning of 24 May 1941 by the German battleship 'Bismarck' created dismay across the world. Within minutes of entering battle 'the Mighty Hood' as she was affectionately known, was destroyed by a catastrophic explosion which had echoes of Jutland a quarter of a century earlier. Out of a crew of a crew of 1,418, only 3 survived. The sinking of HMS 'Hood' was the single largest disaster ever sustained by the Royal Navy. This book charts the life and death of this legendary battlecruiser in both peace and war from her early origins, through the interwar years, to her destruction.

Referred to by Winston Churchill as `the Beast’, `Tirpitz’ was Germany’s last great battleship and was one of the largest and heaviest battleships ever constructed by a European navy. Sister ship to the infamous `Bismarck’, `Tirpitz’ may be referred to as `the Lonely Queen of the North’. Laid down in 1936 and commissioned in 1941, `Tirpitz’ spent most of her operational life lurking as a `fleet in being’ amongst the fjords of Norway. Such was the threat posed to the sea lanes, and with that the Allied war effort, and so obsessed was Churchill and the Admiralty with her destruction that twenty-four operations, ranging from the foolhardy to the ridiculous were undertaken against her. It was in November 1944 that the `Tirpitz’ was finally sunk, not by the Royal Navy, but by the aircraft of RAF Bomber Command. Using a variety of sources this book begins by looking at the military and political situation in Germany that led to the decision to build the `Tirpitz’ before going on to analyse the life and death of Germany’s last great battleship.