Douglas Reeman

From the author of The First to Land, a novel set during World War II....

Adriatic, 1940s....

In 1941, when she was turned into an armed merchant cruiser, the SS Benbecula was already old....

It was an age of empire, an age of contrast, and an age of dramatic change - and one which would determine the destinies of nations as well as of men....

As the Second World War progresses, the destruction of Allied shipping mounts. Fighter pilot Tim Rowan is posted to an escort carrier to help guard the precious convoys....

It takes a special sort of courage to serve in midget submarines, and Lieutenant David Seaton needs no reminding of the perils involved....

The crack German cruiser Prinz Luitpold had always been lucky in battle....

The dramatic sequel to Badge of Glory, China 1900. When the Boxer Rebellion erupts into bloody war. The Royal Marines, true to their motto, are the first to land - and the last to leave....

When Captain Guy Sherbrooke joins HMS Reliant in 1943, he knows he may be her last Captain....

It was in 1943. On the Black Sea, the Russians were fighting a desperate battle to regain control....

January, 1944. When the British light cruiser Andromeda arrives at Williamstown naval dockyard to be handed over to the Royal Australian Navy, she is already a legend....

Malta 1941. To most people H.M.S. Saracen is just an ugly, obsolete ship with an equally ugly recent history: her last commander is due for court-martial after shelling the troops he was sent to protect....

HMS Royston, Coastal Forces Depot Ship, is mother ship to a battered, war-worn bunch of MTBs and MGBs....

The Mediterranean, 1943... The HMS Rob Roy. A tiny machine, just 230 feet from stem to stern....

HMS Temeraire: latest and most advanced of Britain's nuclear submarines....

The year: 1943. Now there was to be no more retreat for Britain and her Allies. At last the war was to be carried into enemy territory....

Western Ocean, 1942....

In November 1941, Lt Ralph Trewin, DSC arrives at Singapore as second-in-command of HMS Porcupine. To the shell-shocked Trewin, the gun boat and her five elderly consorts symbolise the ignorance and blind optimism he finds in Singapore.....

They were the men and women of the Royal Navy's Special Operations units....

There will be days when you wonder at and question some of the risks you had to take, the sacrifices you were forced to offer in the face of death....