The Blockade Busters

Barker, Ralph

ISBN 10: 0393056090 / ISBN 13: 9780393056099

Published by New York: Norton, 1977, New York, 1977

About this Item

Cloth. Very Good+/Very Good. 1st Printing. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. 224pp w/ 1 table, 1 facsimile of document and 2 maps, plus 12 pages with 32 bw photos. Story of two convoys bringing material from Sweden to England: one successful in January 1941, the second in 1942 lost 6 ships of the 8 that set sail. Story of the Motor Gun Boats under the Red Duster which were breaking the German blockade during the winter 1942/1943. Price clipped. Clean.

Seller Inventory # 004334

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Blockade Busters
• Publisher: New York: Norton, 1977, New York
• Publication Date: 1977
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393056090
• ISBN 13: 9780393056099
• Binding: Cloth
• Edition: 1st Printing
• Condition: Very Good+
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • World War II

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.