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Chicago, Illinois, Follet:1975
courtesy San Antonio Public Library

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"From 1939 until 1942, Hitler's U-boats - the submarine fleet dubbed the 'gray wolves' - threatened to accomplish what his air force had been unable to achieve: to starve Britain into submission. The ensuing struggle for control of the Atlantic trade routes was to become the longest, and one of the most bitterly fought, campaigns of World War II.
Battles might be won or lost, Winston Churchill later wrote, but the island nation's power to continue the fight depended, above all, on the outcome of this war-within-a-war. The U-boat attack was, Churchill recalled, 'the only thing that ever really frightened me during the war.' The submarine battle was of such strategic importance that it devoured manpower and led to astounding losses: over the course of this sprawling conflict, Allied powers would lose more than fifty thousand seamen and fifteen million tons of shipping. In this rousing historical narrative, Andrew Williams vividly recounts these crucial years of battle against the dreaded German 'wolf packs.' Through exclusive interviews with survivors on both sides, including those given for the first time by former U-boat crew members, he creates a compelling picture of the claustrophobic and dangerous life on board. With breathtaking immediacy, The Battle of the Atlantic also enters the war rooms where leaders such as U-boat Fuhrer Karl Donitz and Royal Navy Admiral Sir Max Horton angled for any advantage in a race that spelled doom to its loser, and follows the trials of the code-breakers, the unheralded few whose critical contributions ultimately changed the course of the battle - and the war.
Highlighted by hitherto untold tales of personal valor, endurance, and loss, it is an important and lasting contribution to our understanding of one of the greatest battles of the twentieth century."

New York, NY, Basic Books:2003, (hardcover) ISBN 0-465-09153-9

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"H. P. Willmott's Warships, a valuable addition to the Octopus Modem Military Series, tells the story of modern warships and modern naval warfare in an informative and comprehensive text. Like the other titles in the series, Warships will take a welcome place on the bookshelf of many a modeller, illustrator and military history buff. Even considered from its most technical angles this story of ocean warriors is of intense human interest for, as Admiral Samuel Eliot Morrison, one of the greatest of modern naval historians, has written: 'The nations that have enjoyed sea power even for a brief period - Athens, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, England, the United States - are those that have preserved freedom for themselves and have given it to others.'"

Westlands Roads, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong, Mandarin:1975, ISBN 0-7064-0356-8

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"Welcome aboard the USS John F. Kennedy...
The most sophisticated weapon on the face of the earth. Home to more than 5,000 men, the aircraft carrier is more than a ship. It's a floating city, a fortress, an airport, a naval installation, and a matchless model of military efficiency.
Now, Washington Post defense correspondent George C. Wilson takes you aboard the pride of America's navy for a full tour of duty. He writes of the men, from the boiler tenders to the captain, to the Top Guns who fly the ship's squadron of F-14s. From the hazards and boredom of day-to-day duty to actual combat conditions off the coast of Lebanon, Wilson shows how the $3½ billion vessel functions and its vital role in America's response to global hot spots."

New York, N.Y., Berkley:1986, ISBN 0-425-10926-7 (paperback)

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"The Battle for Leyte Gulf was the greatest naval battle of the Second World War and the largest engagement ever fought on the high seas. For the Japanese the battle represented the supreme naval effort of the war. They committed to action virtually every operational fighting ship on the lists of the Imperial Navy, including two new battleships of the Yamato class which were designed as the most powerful war ships of the world. Rarely in all naval history has a power staked so much on one operation as the Japanese did at Leyte Gulf and rarely has any power suffered such an overwhelming defeat."

New York, N.Y., Ballentine:1947 (paperback)

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"Carrier Warfare in the Pacific tells the story of the pilots and aircrews who lifted off carriers in pursuit of the enemy and also of the ships they left behind - and of the heroic efforts of the ship's company to continue flight operations regardless of the destruction and suffering from enemy attack.
Capturing the emotions of the moment, when lives and victory were in peril, this book records the exploits of the men who fought the war in the air and on the sea, including pilots and air crewmen of carrier squadrons, officers and men of the ship's company, and admirals and their staffs. These compelling personal accounts reveal the behind-the-scenes planning and operations for six major carrier-versus-carrier battles: Coral Sea, Midway, Eastern Solomons, Santa Cruz Islands, Philippine Sea, and Leyte Gulf.
Through these pages, the reader shares the varied experiences and emotions of life in the Pacific theater. Fighter pilot Jimmie Thach relays his rush of pride and elation as he fought hordes of enemy fighters and glimpsed, high above, a 'beautiful silver waterfall' of Dauntless dive bombers pouring down on the enemy fleet. Vice Adm. P. D. Stroop describes his fascination as he stood on the flag bridge of the old Lexington at Coral Sea watching the bombs released from Japanese planes head straight for his carrier deck. Through other accounts the reader experiences the uncomfortable lives of crewmen, men like Roger Bond, who helped paint the wooden deck of the Saratoga countless times, bathed and washed clothes from buckets of water, and slept in hammocks strung from the overhead of the mess decks.
Recipients of a Medal of Honor, twelve Navy Crosses, and dozens of lesser awards, the distinguished group of eighteen officers who relate their exploits here were responsible for the destruction of sixty-nine enemy aircraft in air-to-air combat and the destruction of scores of enemy ships, including battleships and carriers.
Vividly showing the perilous life of the sbip's company, Carrier Warfare in the Pacific adds another dimension to the story of aerial combat at sea."

Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution:1993 (hardcover) ISBN 1-56098-264-0

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