Diane Canwell

The Royal Naval Patrol Service, or Harry Tates Navy as it was commonly known, was a unique service with its own rules and regulations. The officers and seamen were mainly ex-fishermen who had manned trawlers in Icelandic waters. The service was armed mostly with obsolete weaponry and suffered heavy casualties in the early stages of the war. The service was not confined to the seas around Britain and their small trawlers, drifters, paddle steamers, yachts and tugs saw service as far away as the Mediterranean and Newfoundland coast. Their main tasks included convoy escort duties, mine sweeping and anti-submarine work. Many awards for bravery were won including a VC. This book looks at the Service personnel, the boats, equipment and includes many first-hand accounts from crew. Lengthy Appendices include vessels names, numbers and fate.

The photos in this book are taken from an unpublished album belonged to a member of the crew of famous German Battleship Tirpitz. It is a little known fact that before the start of World War Two the ship went on a shakedown voyage into the Atlantic, travelling north into Arctic waters and south into the more tropical climbs of the Caribbean. There are superb photos of the officers and crew both above and below decks, including some unique shots of the crew during their stint on a magnificent sail training vessel. Other stunning shots show the vessels mighty weapons during gunnery practice during her sea trials. This unique collection gives a close up view of one of the most powerful ships of World War Two, a ship that proved to be a persistent thorn in the side of the Royal Navy until sunk in Norway towards the end of the war.

These photographs are taken from three unpublished albums featuring the German invasion of Poland in 1939. One set was taken by an SS officer, another by a regular officer and a third by a soldier attached to a medical unit. Included are German units on the move, tanks, artillery and aircraft. There are several shots of recently knocked out Polish vehicles, captured Polish troops and civilians. The shots reflect the rapid pace of the German advance through Poland, some of the cities, towns and villages show signs of heavy fighting, whilst others appear to be untouched. One of the sets show a German unit mounted in fast open cars, heavily armed, speeding through the Polish countryside, another features armoured vehicles and engineers and a third the ambulance teams moving up to the front through devastation and chaos. Throughout there are numerous opportunities to see uniforms in their various guises and how they were actually worn in practice. There are shots of earlier German armour, "antique" Polish armour and photographs of German troops at rest and preparing to move forward again.

The Royal Naval Patrol Service, or Harry Tate s Navy as it was commonly known, was a unique service with its own rules and regulations. The officers and seamen were mainly ex-fishermen who had manned trawlers in Icelandic waters. The service was armed mostly with obsolete weaponry and suffered heavy casualties in the early stages of the war. The service was not confined to the seas around Britain and their small trawlers, drifters, paddle steamers, yachts and tugs saw service as far away as the Mediterranean and Newfoundland coast. Their main tasks included convoy escort duties, mine sweeping and anti-submarine work. Many awards for bravery were won including a VC. This book looks at the Service personnel, the boats, equipment and includes many first-hand accounts from crew. Lengthy Appendices include vessel s names, numbers and fate.

Between 1918 and 1986 the marine branch of the Royal Air Force provided rescue facilities, support and other services to this armed service. In its pre-1941 guise as the Air Sea Rescue service, the RAF had an inventory of over 200 motorboats, supported by float aircraft engaged in rescue, towing, refueling and servicing RAF aircraft. Amongst the many characters of this early period was none other than Lawrence of Arabia. The Marine Craft Section itself came into existence in February 1941 as a direct result of the compelling need to retrieve downed pilots from the sea. Initially the craft were lightly armed, but as the chivalry between the British and the German rescue services deteriorated, the launches became heavily armed craft, not only capable of defence but also attack. They were supported by a wide variety of aircraft, including Lysanders and Walruses. The ASR was involved in Dieppe and D-Day and operated in the Mediterranean and the Far East. During the war years alone over 13,000 aircraft crew were saved by the ASR service, in addition to the many hundreds of other servicemen whose vessels had been hit by mines or had fallen prey to submarinesJon Sutherland has written extensively on military history and warfare. Much of his previous work has concerned the American involvement in the European in World War I and the European theatre of World War II. Diane Canwell has written works on Crete and the Viking era and is much involved in the research for this book. Using an extensive network of former members of the service, the authors propose to intersperse the descriptive chapters with short first-person accounts of particular episodes throughout the service's history.

Up-to-date, tailored support to help candidates through their NVQ as quickly and easily as possible! Delivers the knowledge for the mandatory units and a range of popular option units for the NVQ and the new Technical Certificate, plus lots of help with preparation for assessment. Consistent style and layout builds candidates' confidence as they work through the text. Simple, accessible language helps to deliver the underpinning knowledge to candidates with basic skills needs, or English as a second language. Includes spaces for learners to write in order to aid evidence generation and portfolio building.

This little known campaign against the Italian invasion of British Somalia was bravely fought by a small force of elderly RAF and Commonwealth aircraft against almost overwhelming odds. This, against a backdrop of Britain's meager assets being in demand in the much more prominent and important theatres such as Egypt and, of course, at home during the height of the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. The history starts with the Italian's use of airpower and gas against the spear-armed Abbysinnians in 1936. In August 1940 the Italians attacked and overwhelmed British Somalia and under air cover the British evacuated to Aden. The Allies fought many air battles with the better equipped invaders and flew dangerous reconnaissance missions in preparation for the major offensives in 1941. On the Northern Front, the first phases see aggressive air patrols and Allied reinforcements arriving from Egypt. They attacked towards Agordat pushing deep into Eritrea from the Sudan. Meanwhile to the south the South African Air Force and ground forces attacked into Italian Somalia during January and February 1941. In March the allies attacked Keren and the Italians finally surrendered. The final allied air strikes against Asmara and Massawa led to the final collapse of Italian resistance in May 1941. The campaign in Ethiopia saw General Cunningham's force advances 1,725 miles from Kenya in 53 days to reach the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and liberating it on April 6 1941. However, the conflict was still not over - there was continued resistance from 7,000 Italian troops and air operations continued against them until their surrender in September 1943. The book includes the experiences of the men who flew the outdated aircraft of the RAF and the SAAF in the campaign and includes many quotes and incidents from both Allied and Italian pilots.