The Blockade Busters

Ralph Barker

ISBN 10: 1844152820 / ISBN 13: 9781844152827

Published by Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2005

About this Item

Condition Notes: A little wear to the edges of the dust wrapper. Sticker remnant to the first blank. The contents complete, clean and tight otherwise; Hardback. Dust wrapper over blue boards with gilt titles to the spine; Measures 9½" x 6¼" (0.9 kg); pp 224; Index; Cover art by Jon Wilkinson; Includes: Black & white photographs; Maps; List of sources; || The book is on the shelf, ready to be appropriately packed, and posted from the pastoral paradise of Peasedown St. John, Bath, by a real bookseller in a real book shop - with my personal guarantee and beady eye on the Consumer Contracts Regulations. REMEMBER! Buying my copy means the book shop Jack Russells get their supper! My Book #193718 ||.

Seller Inventory # 193718

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Blockade Busters
• Publisher: Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime
• Publication Date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1844152820
• ISBN 13: 9781844152827
• Binding: Hardback in Dust Wrapper.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Military Naval

About this title

Synopsis

Recounts one of the greatest sea stories of World War II. It is the story of how George Binney, a 39 year-old civilian working in neutral Sweden when Norway was overrun by the Germans in 1940, set about running vital cargoes of Swedish ball-bearings and special steels to Britain through the blockaded Skagerrak, where German air strength was dominant and where the Royal Navy dare not trespass. Despite Admiralty gloom and in the face of political objections that were overcome by Binney's persistence, five ships carrying a year's supply of valuable materials for the expanding British war industries were successfully sailed to Britain in January 1941.

A following attempt was not as successful and ended when six ships were sunk or scuttled. But then came the saga of the Little Ships, the motor gunboats flying the Red Duster that operated out of the Humber to and from the Swedish coast in the winter of 1943/44, defying the strengthened German defenses and the wrath of severe weather.

About the Author

Ralph Barker joined the RAF in 1940 as a radio operator/air gunner and logged 2,000 flying hours before he was demobilised in 1946. He later rejoined the RAF and retired from it in 1961 to write full-time as a journalist on several leading British national newspapers. He has many well-known books to his name as has been widely acclaimed by reviewers.

Ralph Barker, passed away on the 20th June, ages 93.