During World War II, the U.S. Navy's submarine service suffered the highest casualty percentage of all the American armed forces, losing one in five submariners. But despite the odds, these underwater warriors accounted for almost 60 percent of Japanese shipping losses, and were a major factor in winning the war. 16 U.S. submarines - and one German U-Boat - that saw action during WWII are now open to the public. Most have been restored and authentically equipped. Final Patrol takes a fascinating look at these subs and the personal stories of the brave sailors who lived, fought, and often died in them. Now, visitors can climb into these cramped steel cylinders, peer through their torpedo tubes, and imagine diving under the sea - perhaps for the last time - to stalk a fanatical enemy who threatened our nation's freedom.

In a PBM-5 seaplane bomber riddled by Japanese shells, Del Croze and his U.S. Navy air crew of thirteen men limp into a sparsely-occupied Pacific Island. Struggling with exhaustion and injuries, they await a rescue plane with fading hope. Will it arrive before the Japanese find them? In Fatal Error, author Gary Cooper tells the nearly forgotten story of their valor in the face of overwhelming odds. Inspired by letters and newspaper clippings found in a discarded suitcase, Cooper spent years researching navy archives, Japanese war crime records, and the recollections of family members to discover who the crewmen were and what they endured. Their story begins with months of routine training and culminates in the horrors of imprisonment by the dreaded Japanese Kempei Tai. It is a story of ordinary young Americans who fight with courage and endurance against unbeatable odds.

A definitive account of the three-month air battle in 1940 between the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe. The victory of the Battle of Britain ranks with Marathon and the Marne as a decisive point in history. At the end of June 1940, having overrun much of Western Europe, the Nazi war leaders knew that they had to defeat the Royal Air Force Fighter Command before they could invade the British mainland. With a finely-struck balance of historical background and dramatic renderings of RAF and Luftwaffe engagements over the English countryside, Hough and Richards offer a history that is at once deep and wide-ranging. They offer insight into how the British laid the groundwork for victory through aircraft research and production, the development and implementation of command and control structures, and research into new technologies, the most important of which was radar. Hough and Richards also utilize first-person accounts of the battle whenever possible, rendering the battle scenes with cinematic intensity. A compelling introduction to one of the most important battles of World War II, The Battle of Britain pays tribute to the men about whom Winston Churchill would remark, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

High above the warm, summer fields Churchill's 'few' fought with courage & skill against overwhelming odds - and won. A vivid account of the air battles as well as an explanation of how the campaign developed. Fresh insights into the controversies with the aid of original material as well as recollections of many of the surviving air crew & ground staff. Vividly illustrated with many photographs. Denis Richards, co-author of the official history of RAF operations in World War Two, and Richard Hough, the historian and biographer, have collaborated to write this magnificent new account for the general reader; as well as offering vivid descriptions of the air fighting. It explains with great authority how both sides developed their air forces in the inter-war years, a necessary prelude to a true understanding of the Battle itself. It provides fresh insights into the controversies of the time and makes use of original material derived from interviews and correspondence with over three hundred surviving air-crew and ground staff.

Originally printed in 1946 at the order of Vice Admiral Lockwood, Commander of Submarines, Pacific Fleet, United States Submarine Losses memorializes the 374 officers and 3131 men lost at sea between 1941 and 1945. It also chronicles the gallantry and persistence of these men, who under the most difficult conditions possible, performed critical missions and almost single-handedly decimated Japan¿s merchant fleet. ¿To those whose contribution meant the loss of sons, brothers or husbands in this war,¿ Admiral Lockwood noted in a speech given on Navy Day, 1945, ¿ I can assure you that they went down fighting and that their brothers who survived them took a grim toll of our savage enemy to avenge their deaths. May God rest their gallant souls.¿ This book is a testament to all those, living and dead, who served in the Silent Service in WWII. This enhanced, softbound edition features the entire original text and includes an official appendix of Axis submarine losses.

This book brings to life the stories of the 121 submarines that lie entombed on the seabed of the English Channel. Most of them got there as the result of war and peacetime accidents. The first was lost in 1774; the last was the tragic accident that befell HMS Affray in 1951, the last British submarine to have been lost at sea.

Contrary to what many Australians believe, during 1942 Japanese submarines were active in Australian waters and Japanese spy planes made surveillance flights over our major cities. With enemy submarines patrolling off the Western Australian coast, Fremantle became an important international submarine base, the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. During the war Fremantle played host to over 170 Allied submarines, with submarines of the United States, British and Dutch navies making a total of 416 war patrols out of the port between March 1942 and August 1945. The secrecy surrounding the operation of the Fremantle submarine base meant that its existence was little known at the time and, until now, has been largely forgotten by history.