Featured battle : Gaëta

Part of French War of the Third Coalition

Date : 26 February 1806 - 18 July 1806

This formidable fortress should have been supported/relieved by a naval squadron under Sir Sidney Smith but he failed to carry out his orders promptly. Nearly 6,000 of the garrison were released on condition that they would not fight against France or her allies for one year.

British Naval Trawlers and Drifters in Two World Wars

Steve R Dunn
The work of Trawlers and Drifters has had a mention in many books but non conveyed the quite incredible amount of service given by these ships and their crews. The narrative contains many stories of particular actions which illustrate the enormous range of tough tasks these small ships were given. The range runs from the almost static boom defence drifters to trawlers acting as rescue ships for the arctic convoys, from the insertion of clandestine agents to the evacuation at Dunkirk. Losses were high from mines, torpedoes and bombs with, in most cases, no survivors. Some reference to the internal politics of the Admiralty is made in the context of explaining why so many of our fishing fleet were required to support the navy. Passing reference is also made to that support still being needed for the Falklands war.
Anyone familiar with John Lambert’s drawings will not be disappointed by those assembled here; quality and quantity almost sufficient to build a boat and certainly great for any ship modeller.
The quality of the publication is such that if the content had been limited to the many photographs and drawings with simple annotations it would have been a very interesting book but with Steve Dunn’s supporting narrative it is raised to a higher level.
We highly recommend it.

Seaforth Publishing, 2021