Library Results | Royal Museums Greenwich

In action with destroyers 1939-1945 : the wartime memoirs of Commander JAJ Dennis, DSC RN /Anthony Cumming. "In Action with Destroyers 1939 - 1945 is a superbly written and exciting eyewitness account of the war at sea from 1939 to 1945. There can have been few, if any, naval officers who saw so much action as Alec Dennis, who served in four destroyers; HMS Griffin and Savage initially before commanding Valorous and Tetcott. While too modest to admit to it, he was mentioned in Despatches three times (Norway, sinking the Scharnhorst and in the North Sea) and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (Greece 1942). His war service also included the important but little known Madagascar operation, the Malta and Arctic convoys and D-Day. For all the danger and action, Dennis recorded his remarkable experiences with a light even irreverent touch and, as a result, his memoir is not just a brilliant account of one man's war at sea but a rattling good read."--Provided by the publisher. 2017. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 92DENNIS

Striking the hornets' nest : naval aviation and the origins of strategic bombing in World War I /Geoffrey L. Rossano, Thomas Wildenberg. "This book is much more than just a history of the Navy's struggle during World War I to develop methods to destroy the German U-boat bases in Belgium. Underlying the story is the struggle among competing interests, both within and among the Allies and within the American Expeditionary Forces, for scarce resources. The authors have written a book that will become the definite study of the Northern Bombing Group. This unit's history needs to be read, for the men of the group laid the foundation for how U. S. Striking the Hornets' Nest provides the first extensive analysis of the Northern Bombing Group (NBG), the Navy's most innovative aviation initiative of World War I and one of the world?s first dedicated strategic bombing programs. Very little has been written about the Navy's aviation activities in World War I and even less on the NBG. Standard studies of strategic bombing tend to focus on developments in the Royal Air Force or the U.S. Army Air Service. This work concentrates on the origins of strategic bombing in World War I, and the influence this phenomenon had on the Navy's future use of the airplane. The NBG program faced enormous logistical and personnel challenges. Demands for aircraft, facilities, and personnel were daunting, and shipping shortages added to the seemingly endless delays in implementing the program. Despite the impediments, the Navy (and Marine Corps) triumphed over organizational hurdles and established a series of bases and depots in northern France and southern England in the late summer and early fall of 1918. Ironically, by the time the Navy was ready to commence bombing missions, the German retreat had caused abandonment of the submarine bases the NBG had been created to attack. The men involved in this program were pioneers, overcoming major obstacles only to find they were no longer needed. Though the Navy rapidly abandoned its use of strategic bombing after World War I, their brief experimentation directed the future use of aircraft in other branches of the armed forces. It is no coincidence that Robert Lovett, the young Navy reserve officer who developed much of the NBG program in 1918, spent the entire period of World War II as Assistant Secretary of War for Air where he played a crucial role organizing and equipping the strategic bombing campaign unleashed against Germany and Japan. Rossano and Wildenberg have provided a definitive study of the NBG, a subject that has been overlooked for too long."--Provided by the publisher. 2015 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 359.38(42:73)"1914/1918"

The Rupert and Monck letter book 1666 : together with supporting documents Rupert, Prince 1969 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 92Monck

Piracy in the Levant 1827-8 : selected from the papers of Admiral Sir Edward Codrington ... Codrington, Edward, Sir 1934 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 341.362.1(5-011)"182"

Letters and papers relating to the first Dutch war 1652-1654 / Gardiner, Samuel Rawson. 1912-1930. 1912-1930 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.49"1652/1654"(42:492)

Chatham Historic Dockyard. ca. 1960]. • PAMPHLET • 1 copy available. 623.81(422.3)

Seven at Santa Cruz : the life of fighter ace Stanley "Swede" Vejtasa /Ted Edwards. "This riveting biography details how Stanley 'Swede' Vejtasa became a World War II naval hero. During the Battle of the Coral Sea, Swede flew an SBD Dauntless dive-bomber and helped sink Shoho, the first aircraft carrier lost by Japan in World War II. The next day, in that same Dauntless, he took off from USS Yorktown and out-flew and out-gunned three Japanese Zeros, making him the only dive bomber pilot to be awarded Navy Crosses for both bombing and aerial combat. Months later, the day before the Battle of Santa Cruz, Swede was flying an F4F Wildcat fighter off USS Enterprise and had no recourse but to follow orders he knew to be insane. He and his squadron mates flew their predictably empty search legs and beyond, only to discover upon their return to Point Option in the dark, that Enterprise was nowhere to be found. Incredibly, Swede located the oil slick he had noticed seeping from Enterprise during a morning combat air patrol and was able to track it back to the carrier. After their harrowing return, during the Battle of Santa Cruz, the fate of Enterprise, and by extension Guadalcanal, lay in the hands of that same Swede Vejtasa. He responded by single-handedly downing an unprecedented two Japanese dive bombers and five torpedo bombers attacking the carrier. Skipper Jimmy Flatley recognized that in all likelihood, Swede had saved Enterprise from destruction, and he recommended Swede for the Medal of Honor."--Provided by publisher. 2018 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 92VEJTASA

United States naval history, naval biography, naval strategy and tactics : a selected and annotated bibliography United States. Navy Department. Library 1959 • PAMPHLET • 2 copies available. 355.353(73)

'C' Class Destroyers / by David Hobbs "The C class destroyers were among the Royal Navy's most important warships after 1945. Built in significant numbers, they participated in many of the post-war RN operations from Indonesian Confrontation to Beira; Cod Wars to Suez; Palestine to the Cold War. The list of their activities is an illustration of the RN's achievements in the period. This volume details the individual histories of each of the 32 destroyers."--Provided by the publisher. 2012 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 623.823.1(42)

My dearest Gennie : the story of Staff Commander John Thomas Ewing Gowlland R.N. 1838-1874 based on his journals (1853-1874) and letters (1863-1874) to his wife Genevieve (nee Lord) /edited by Joanna Vink. Vink, Joanna. 2012. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 359.100942

Introduction to the registers of the naval memorials erected at Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth / Compiled and published by order of the Imperial War Graves Commission, London. Great Britain.-Commonwealth War Graves Commission 1924. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 725.945

British warships and auxiliaries, 1987/88 /[Mike Critchley]. Critchley, Mike 1986. • BOOK • 2 copies available. 623.82(42)"1987/1988"

The Admiralty Diary of Commander Michael G. Goodenough RN, 1939-1941 "This is the personal diary of Commander Michael Goodenough RN between October 1939 and June 1941 when he was in the Admiralty Plans Division close to senior figures including Winston Churchill. Eighty years later the diary is made public for the first time."--Provided by the publisher. 2023 • BOOK • 1 copy available.

British warships & auxiliaries / [Steve Bush]. "The fully revised and updated well respected guide to the ships, aircraft and weapons of the fleet. Over 80 colour photos. Complete with pennant numbers and silhouettes. Now expanded to include royal Marine Craft and Border Agency vessels."--Provided by the publisher. 2013. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 623.82(42)"2014/2015"

British battleships of World War One / R A Burt. "This superb reference book achieved the status of 'classic' soon after its first publication in 1986; it was soon out of print and is now one of the most sought-after naval reference books on the secondhand market. It presents, in one superb volume, the complete technical history of British capital ship design and construction during the dreadnought era. One hundred years ago at Jutland, Dogger Bank, Heligoland Bight and the first battle for the Falklands, might squadrons of these great armoured ships fought their German counterparts for command of the seas. Beginning with Dreadnought, the book continues to the end of the First World War, and all of the fifty dreadnoughts, 'super-dreadnoughts' and battlecruisers that served the Royal Navy during this era are described and superbly illustrated with photographs and line drawings. Each class of ship is described in detail so that design origins, and technical and operational factors, are discussed alongside characteristics, with special emphasis on armament, armour and machinery. Fully detailed data tables are included for every class, and more than 500 photographs and line drawings illustrate the text. A delight for the historian, enthusiast and ship modeller, it is a volume that is already regarded as an essential reference work for this most significant era in naval history and ship design."--Provided by the publisher. 2012. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 623.821.2(42)"1905/1918"

The Fleet Air Arm : and the war in Europe 1939-1945 /David Hobbs. "An integral part of the Royal Navy, the Fleet Air Arm was not a large organisation, with only 406 pilots and 232 front-line aircraft available for operations in September 1939. Nevertheless, its impact far outweighed its numbers - it was an RN fighter that shot down the first enemy aircraft of the war, and an RN pilot was the first British fighter 'ace' with 5 or more kills. The Fleet Air Arm's rollcall of achievements in northern waters went on to include the Norway Campaign, the crippling of Bismarck, the gallant sortie against Scharnhorst and Gneisenau as they passed through the Channel, air attacks on enemy E-boats in the narrow seas, air cover for the Russian convoys, air attacks that disabled Tirpitz, and strikes and minelaying operations against German shipping in the Norwegian littoral that ocnitnued until May 1945. By the end of the war in Europe the FAA had grown to 3243 pilots and 1336 aircraft. This book sets all these varied actions within their proper naval context and both technical and tactical aspects are explained with 'thumb-nail' descriptions of aircraft, their weapons and avionics. Cross reference with the Fleet Air Arm Roll of Honour has been made for the first time to put names to those aircrew killed in action wherever possible as a mark of respect for their determination against enemy forces on, above and below the sea surface which more often than not outnumbered them."---Provided by the publisher. 2022. • BOOK • 1 copy available.

The Black Joke : the true story of one British ship's battle against the slave trade /A. E. Rooks. "Sailing after the spectacular fall of Napoleon in France, yet before the rise of Queen Victoria's England, the Black Joke was first used as a slaving vessel, and one with a lightning-fast reputation; only a lucky capture in 1827 allowed itto be repurposed by the Royal Navy to catch its former compatriots. Over the next five years, the Black Joke liberated more enslaved people than any other in Britain's West Africa Squadron. As Britain slowly attempted to snuff out the transatlantic slave trade by way of treaty and negotiation, enforcing these policies fell ships such as the Black Joke as they battled slavers, weather disasters, and interpersonal drama among captains and crew that reverberated across oceans. The Black Joke is a crucial and deeply compelling work of history, both as a reckoning with slavery and abolition and a lesson about the power of political will - or the lack thereof."--Provided by the publisher. 2022. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 326.8094109034

From Ushant to Gibraltar : the Channel Fleet, 1778 -1783 /Quintin Barry. "In 1778, when the expected war finally broke with France, Lord Sandwich, the long serving First Lord of the Admiralty, had to find the resources to match the French fleet not only in the Channel but in other theaters of war such as the West Indies, the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. In addition, the Royal Navy had to protect Britain's extensive maritime commerce, covering the large inbound and outbound convoys on which the country's economy depended. This book is a study of the men who led and the men who managed, both afloat and ashore, the Channel Fleet."-- 2022. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 359.009

The naval miscellany ; volume 4 ;edited by Christopher Lloyd, M.A., F.R.Hist.S. 1952. • BOOK • 1 copy available.

The mariner's handbook / Great Britain. Hydrographic Department. 1989. Great Britain. Hydrographic Department 1989 • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 527.6/.7

Japan pilot : vol 1 Great Britain. Hydrographic Department 1982 • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 527.83(52)

German naval staff war diary, 15 August 1939 - March 1945 Germany. Navy 1939-1945 • MICROFILM • 1 copy available. 940.545.9(43)

Africa pilot : volume 1 Great Britain. Hydrographic Department 1982 • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 527.83

Newfoundland and Labrador pilot Great Britain. Hydrographic Department 1978 • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 527.83

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