Naval War

The incredible true story of nine Hellcat submarines assigned to penetrate the dense minefields protecting the sea of Japan. In 1945-with no knowledge of the development of the atomic bomb- American submarine commanders, desperate to avoid an invasion of the home islands, believed that if the Japanese merchant fleet was sunk, the enemy would be forced to surrender.

Sprawling across the Pacific, this untold story follows the crew of the newly-built "vengeance ship" USS Astoria, named for her sunken predecessor lost earlier in the war. At its center lies US Navy Captain George Dyer, who vowed to return to action after suffering a horrific wound. He accepted the ship's command in 1944, knowing it would be his last chance to avenge his injuries and salvage his career. Yet with the nation's resources and personnel stretched thin by the war, he found that just getting the ship into action would prove to be a battle.

As the Confederacy felt itself slipping beneath the Union juggernaut in late 1864, the South launched a desperate counteroffensive to force a standoff. Its secret weapon? A state-of-the-art raiding ship whose mission was to sink the U.S. merchant fleet. The raider's name was Shenandoah, and her executive officer was Conway Whittle, a 24-year-old warrior.

Coral Amherst is the middle child of a wealthy family, with fingers throughout the politics and laws of the magical Dalebloods and the Republic they lead. Skill and connections alike have propelled her to the highest ranks of the Republic’s Navy. Now, duty inexorably drags her into a mission to learn the fate of a long-lost magical city, once home to many of the people the Dalebloods rule. Storms of dark magic drove the Seablood from their ancient city and to the shores of the Republic—and those same storms now assail the Republic itself!

In 1864 the Union was at last prepared to implement a unified land strategy designed to achieve victory in the Civil War. The plan called for William Tecumseh Sherman to drive hard to Atlanta, while farther East, Ulysses S. Grant would engage Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Sherman reasoned that an assault on Mobile would force the Confederates to send reinforcements, thus weakening their defense of Atlanta. Patrolling the blockade in the Gulf of Mexico, Admiral Farragut got word that he would finally receive the monitors necessary to capture the last major Southern port. To ...

In Tin Cans and Greyhounds, author Clint Johnson brings listeners inside the quarter-inch hulls of destroyers to meet the men who manned the ships' five-inch guns and fought America's wars from inside a "tin can" - risking death by cannon shell, shrapnel, bomb, fire, drowning, exposure, and sharks.

Seventy years ago, more than 6000 Allied ships carried more than a million soldiers across the English Channel to a 50-mile-wide strip of the Normandy coast in German-occupied France. It was the greatest sea-borne assault in human history. The code names given to the beaches where the ships landed the soldiers have become immortal: Gold, Juno, Sword, Utah, and especially Omaha, the scene of almost unimaginable human tragedy.

In March 1941, after a year of unbroken and devastating U-boat onslaughts, the British War Cabinet decided to try a new strategy in the foundering naval campaign. To do so, they hired an intensely private, bohemian physicist who was also an ardent socialist. Patrick Blackett was a former navy officer and future winner of the Nobel Prize; he is little remembered today, but he and his fellow scientists did as much to win the war against Nazi Germany as almost anyone else.

The Archerfish, a diesel powered Balao-class submarine crafted in the 1940s, won a unique, heroic place in military history and the memories of her crew members. Here is her story: from her assembly in New England and her dedication by Eleanor Roosevelt's personal secretary, to her service in World War II, where she broke the back of the Japanese Navy, and her critical role in the Cold War.

Captain Kidd has gone down in history as America's most ruthless buccaneer. However, Captain William Kidd was no career cut-throat; he was a tough, successful New York sea captain who was hired to chase pirates. Across the oceans of the world, the pirate hunter, Kidd, pursued the pirate, Culliford. One man would hang in the harbor; the other would walk away with the treasure. The Pirate Hunter is both a masterpiece of historical detective work and a page-turner.

In Washington, DC, in late November 1941, admirals compose the most ominous message in navy history to warn Hawaii of possible danger, but they write it too vaguely. They think precautions are being taken but never check to see if they are. A key intelligence officer wants more warnings sent, but he is on the losing end of a bureaucratic battle and can't get the message out. American sleuths have pierced Japan's most vital diplomatic code, and Washington believes it has a window on the enemy's soul - but it does not.

It’s 1809,the super frigate HMS Relentless is supporting the British Army fighting in the Iberian Peninsula. It has been four years since the by now famous, battle of Trafalgar. At the time, popular opinion had it that it was the end of Napoleon, they failed to take into account the fact that he was still undefeated on land, indeed was still adding laurel leafs to his usurped crown. The French and Spanish Fleets were in a state of recovery, licking their wounds after the Royal Navy had taught them a lesson in seamanship and naval warfare that had amazed the World, and it had taught them ...

It is 1915 and the world is at war. Jake Johnson, a down-and-out sea captain is returning to Europe as a passenger on the old British steamer STAR OF DUBLIN, when German operatives suddenly take over the ship by force. They are after the secret cargo in the forward holds. They plan on meeting up with an armed commerce raider to transfer that cargo. Once they have the cargo, the STAR OF DUBLIN will simply vanish will all hands. In rounding up the passengers and crew, the Germans missed one, Jake Johnson. Unarmed and alone, Jake must figure out a way to retake the ship. If he can do that, he ...

Madison may be the best Admiral Cutter has but what are the limits of trust?Madison finds out when Cutter is arrested for treason! Now she must fight for the more than the man’s good name, she must save his life. Or, does she? Buy Your Copy Today!

When MI5 agent Dragan Kelly gets word of a ‘priceless treasure’ heard spoken of by Eva Braun in Hitler’s bunker, he’s certain of one thing. He must be the one to find it. Reunited with his team - the enigmatic and unpredictable Sybilla Thorstaadt, and the ‘mad’ priest Wolfgang Rahn - Kelly enlists the help of a tough ex-German paratrooper, Horst Manteufel, the last guard commander in Hitler’s bunker. As Kelly expects, nothing is straightforward. Every step they take is dogged by the sinister and mysterious Thule secret society. If that wasn’t enough, Gestapo chief Heinrich...

In this book, historian Robert C. Stern analyzes the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first major fleet engagement where the warships were never in sight of each other. Unlike the Battle of Midway, the Battle of the Coral Sea has received remarkably little study. Stern covers not only the action of the ships and their air groups but also describes the impact of this pivotal engagement.

Sailing across the Pacific, the battle-scarred heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis had just delivered a secret cargo that would trigger the end of World War II. Heading westward, she was sunk by a Japanese submarine. In 12 minutes, some 300 men went down with her. More than 900 other spent four horrific days and five nights in the ocean with no water to drink, savaged by a pitiless sun and swarms of sharks. Incredibly, no one knew they were there until a navy patrol plane accidentally discovered them. In the end, only 316 crewmen survived. How could this have happened - and why?

The worst place for a sailor is to be on the beach. Lord Howe’s words, “You will not be forgotten,” seem nothing more than an empty promise. Now married and with a baby on the way, his finances are steadily dwindling, and he is left no choice but to seek employment with The Honorable East India Company. Hope of a naval career is fading. When all seems hopeless, Donland has his dream fulfilled; he is given command of Wessex, a frigate. His orders send him to patrol the Coasts of Florida in the year 1790. He is to uncover a plot to undermine English negotiations to purchase Florida from...

Joe Owen tells it like it was in this evocative story of a marine rifle company in the uncertain, early days of the Korean War. His powerful description of close combat in the snow-covered mountains of the Chosin Reservoir and of the survival spirit of his Marines provide a gritty real-life view of frontline warfare.As a lieutenant who was with them from first muster in California, Owen was in a unique position to see the hastily assembled mix of some 200 regulars and raw reservists harden into a superb Marine rifle company. The action and narrative move fast as the company learns to fight under enemy fire, eat frozen rations, and keep pushing forward when its wounded and dead go down.

In February 1917, German U-boats launched a savage unrestricted campaign against both Allied and neutral shipping. At its peak in April, 860,000 tons of Allied merchant shipping was sunk. Britain's supremacy at sea was being severely challenged and with it the chances of victory in the wider war. Taking up the challenge was Britain's new First Sea Lord, Sir John Jellicoe, until the previous December C-in-C of the Britain's Grand Fleet—famously described by Churchill as the only man who could have lost the war in an afternoon.