The thrilling and true story of the development and operational deployment of human torpedoes—Chariots—and "X-craft" midget submarines in British naval service during WWII, and of the extraordinary men who crewed these dangerous vessels. The commando frogmen who rode the Chariots and operated as divers from the X-craft were the forerunners of today's Special Boat Service, the SBS. Their aim was to attach an explosive charge underneath an enemy ship to destroy the vessel. Their hope was to return to their submarine unscathed. X-Men tells the story of the sacrifice and heroism of the individual men, many of them little more than teenagers, who volunteered for this dangerous duty and who crewed both the Chariots and the X-craft without knowing the full extent of the risks entailed, nor indeed the very small chances they had of coming back alive.

Product Description: Ten years after the close of World War II, the U.S. Navy published a chronology of its operations in the war. Long out of print, the work focused on what were then defined as critical and decisive events. It ignored a multitude of combat actions as well as the loss or damage of many types of U...read more

Product Description: Combining practical and theoretical approaches, this book addresses the political, legal and economic implications of maritime disputes in East Asia. The maritime disputes in East Asia have multiplied over the past few years, in parallel with the economic growth of the countries in the region, the rise of nationalist movements, fears and sometimes fantasies regarding the emergence of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as a global power, increasing military expenses, as well as speculations regarding the potential resources in various disputed islands...read more

Product Description: In November of 1942, the five Sullivan brothers from Waterloo, Iowa, were killed when a Japanese torpedo sank their ship during the most ferocious naval engagement fought in the South Pacific. The family's loss, the most extraordinary for the United States in its military history, was immortalized—and valorized—in the 1944 film The Fighting Sullivans...read more

Product Description: In the inter-war years Richard Perkins, an amateur photographer and avid collector, amassed one of the world’s largest personal collections of warship negatives. He eventually donated the collection to the National Maritime Museum, where it still forms the core of the historic photos naval section...read more

Product Description: Designed in the 1950s to operate on long-distance routes, the four-jet Vickers VC10 saw service with BOAC and a number of other airlines from the 1960s to 1981. It enjoyed a further career with the RAF as a strategic transport and later as an aerial refuelling aircraft...read more

Product Description: While it is a constant throughout history that conflict has inspired and engendered great art, it is a much rarer event for art to impact directly upon the vicissitudes of war. Yet, in the course of the First World War, a collision of naval strategy and the nascent modern art movement, led to some two thousand British ships going to sea as the largest painted modernist "canvases" in the world covered in abstract, clashing, decorative, and geometric designs in a myriad of colors...read more

Examines nineteen important battles fought by American naval forces, including battles from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and World War II