Bøker av John Winton

An enthralling examination on the impact that military intelligence had on the Second World War at sea. Perfect for readers of John Keegan, Max Hastings and Ian W. Toll. How was the work of Alan Turing and other men and women at Bletchley Park used to influence naval strategies and shape the course of the war? And how did they use the information without alerting the Axis powers that their codes had been broken? Shining a light on information that was previously kept secret from public view, Winton's book assesses the impact of ULTRA and how the breaking of Enigma codes shaped Allied antisubmarine warfare in the Atlantic, convoy defence in the Arctic, amphibious assaults in the Mediterranean and attacks on heavy German naval vessels like Tirpitz. 'This is a very good book; well researched, well written and well up the pecking order.' The Naval Review 'Altogether an interesting book which gives such a fascinating new perspective to events that one wonders why it has not been written before!' Seascape International Maritime Magazine 'Ultra affected almost every operation against the Germans at sea and hence this book is almost a complete history of the war at sea.' Journal of Naval Science '... an excellent detailed examination of the practical application of Ultra intelligence in the war at sea' Cryptologia 'Until recently, no author has examined the impact of how ULTRA was used to win the battle for the Atlantic and adjacent waters. John Winton's ULTRA at Sea addresses this imbalance.' Military Review 'Whether we like it or not, the Ultra story is a prickly one, and is at least changing the tones of the well-established picture we have of the Second World War.' Navy News

A full examination of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm from the beginning of World War Two until final operations off Japan in August, 1945. Perfect for lovers of naval and aviation history. At the beginning of the Second World War the Royal Navy had only seven aircraft carriers and a couple of hundred obsolete aircraft. Six years later it had more than fifty aircraft carriers of various types and thousands of frontline aircraft. John Winton provides a thorough record of Fleet Air Arm's activities during the war, from the initial setbacks of the Norwegian campaign in the spring of 1940 to the long campaign against Tirpitz in 1944 and finishing with the triumphant operations of the British Pacific Fleet as part of the US 3rd Fleet off the mainland of Japan in the summer of 1945. Find, Fix and Strike! The Fleet Air Arm at War, 1939-45 charts how naval air power came to hold an increasingly important position in the Royal Navy through the course of the war. Uncovering the operations of British aircraft carriers and shore bases, catapult fighters from merchant ships, support given to the British army in North Africa, escort carrier and catapult-launched floatplane activities, as well as numerous instances of individual heroism has allowed Winton to demonstrate the true importance of Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. 'interesting, clear and accurate account ... deserves attention by all naval history enthusiasts.' Warship International

Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima; the War in the Pacific was one of the most brutal aspects of the Second World War. This enthralling history would be perfect for fans of Ian W. Toll, James D. Hornfischer and Craig L. Symonds. On the morning of December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service launched their surprise military attack on the US battlefleet at Pearl Harbor. After three and a half years of conflict Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and General Douglas MacArthur with representatives from the other Allies: Great Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, China, France, the Netherlands and Russia, accepted the unconditional surrender of Japan. It had come at the cost of hundreds of ships, thousands of aircraft and the lives of millions of men who had died far from home. In War in the Pacific John Winton tells how the Allies had been able to turn back the seemingly overwhelming Japanese forces and worked together to drive ever onwards towards Tokyo Bay. It is a remarkable account of the ferocious naval war that took place in the Pacific and uncovers the ships, the submarines and aircraft, the naval tactics and the equipment used to defeat the Japanese. Winton also provides insight into the leaders of the Allied forces, not just Admiral Nimitz but also William 'Bull' Halsey, the superb Raymond Spruance, hard-charging Arleigh 'Thirty-One Knot' Burke, 'Close In' Conolly, the fighting Marine General 'Howling Mad' Smith, the submarine ace Sam Dealey, and the pioneering carrier admiral Marc Mitscher.

An epic account of how the Royal Navy tracked down, cornered, and sank one of the most fearsome German warships of the Second World War. Ideal for readers of Craig L. Symonds, Max Hastings and Doug Stanton. The Scharnhorst was a state of the art capital ship of Nazi Germany's navy. Launched in 1936 she had terrorized Allied shipping since the beginning of the war, famously destroying the aircraft destroyer HMS Glorious in June 1940. Since then she had made numerous sorties into the Atlantic to raid British merchant fleets and had evaded destruction in the Channel Dash of 1942 in order to interrupt convoys to the Soviet Union. The danger posed by the Scharnhorst to the Arctic convoys was monumental. Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, commander-in-chief of the Home Fleet, devised a plan to lure their enemy from its Norwegian base and pound it with shells from the battleship HMS Duke of York and supporting cruisers and destroyers. John Winton's comprehensively researched book, drawing on British and German eyewitness accounts, uncovers how the threat of the Scharnhorst was eventually brought to an end at the Battle of the North Cape in the freezing conditions of the Barents Sea.

The engrossing but tragic history of the Royal Navy's worst loss of World War Two. Ideal for readers of Jonathan Dimbleby, Max Hastings and Craig L. Symonds. On 8th June 1940, the British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and her two destroyer escorts HMS Ardent and Acasta were sighted by the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst and her sister ship Gneisenau. In a brutal gun battle that lasted over an hour all British ships were sunk and more than 1500 men lost their lives. Why had Glorious left the main troop convoy to proceed independently? Why was she so lightly protected? Why did British Intelligence give no warning that the German battlecruisers were close by? And why were the survivors left in freezing Arctic waters for three days before being picked up? Official documents do not answer these questions and so John Winton has drawn testimonies from men who served on Glorious in the pre-war days as well as her very few survivors to understand how this ship functioned both before and during the war, what happened on that fateful day and why is there still so much secrecy surrounding this heart-rending event. "Winton paints the best and most complete picture of any carrier of any navy" Naval War College Review Carrier Glorious: The Life and Death of an Aircraft Carrier is an extraordinary history of this ship from her early beginnings as a battle cruiser in the First World War to her conversion into an aircraft carrier and service through the interwar years before uncovering what truly went on in her battle with the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

An engrossing biography of one of the most important naval leaders of the Second World War. Perfect for people who enjoy biographies of Chester W. Nimitz, Isoroku Yamamoto or other legendary World War Two admirals. 'In the Eastern Mediterranean we found in Admiral Andrew Cunningham an officer of the highest qualities and dauntless courage.' Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War After serving in the Boer War and World War One with distinction, Andrew Browne Cunningham, popularly known as ABC, served as Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet when the outlook for British forces looked bleakest at the start of the Second World War. A brilliant naval tactician, Cunningham led his fleet to smash the Italian Navy at Taranto, the first completely all-aircraft naval attack in history, and later at Cape Matapan. He successfully evacuated the army from Greece and later from Crete and worked tirelessly to keep supply lines to besieged Allied forces in Malta and Tobruk open. As the tide of the war began to turn he directed naval support for Eisenhower's landings in North Africa and Italy. From 1943, ABC became First Sea Lord and professional head of the Royal Navy, overseeing the final defeat of Nazi Germany's naval forces and assisting with setting the strategy for defeating the Japanese in the Far East. Drawing information from Cunningham's personal letters and wartime diaries has allowed John Winton to provide vivid insight into all of this naval leader's merits and flaws. Additional material from official sources and contemporary memoirs gives a thorough and unique perspective of the Second World War at sea.