Armed Forces

The bestselling complete history of the British Navy – our national story through a different prism.

The story of our navy is nothing less than the story of Britain, our culture and our empire. Much more than a parade of admirals and their battles, this is the story of how an insignificant island nation conquered the world’s oceans to become its greatest trading empire. Yet, as Ben Wilson shows, there was nothing inevitable about this rise to maritime domination, nor was it ever an easy path.

EMPIRE OF THE DEEP: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE BRITISH NAVY also reveals how our naval history has shaped us in more subtle and surprising ways – our language, culture, politics and national character all owe a great debt to this conquest of the seas. This is a gripping, fresh take on our national story.

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THE MULTIMILLION COPY BESTSELLER

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SURVIVING ANYWHERE

The Collins Gem SAS Survival Guide is the pocket companion for adventurers everywhere. From making camp and finding food in the wild to security and self-defence in the streets, be prepared on land or sea. SAS legend John ‘Lofty’ Wiseman’s unrivalled guide will teach you:

Preparation – Understanding and assembling latest, most resilient, kit.

Navigation – Skills, technologies and techniques to get you through unfamiliar terrain.

Food and Health – Finding resources in your environment, feeding yourself, healing yourself and avoiding disease.

Safety and Security – Recognising dangerous situations, defending yourself and saving others.

Disaster Survival – Dealing with unstable environmental conditions: what to do in the face of flash flooding or fast-spreading fire.

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This book examines the campaigns, armies, navies and personalities that fought in the region between 1797 and 1815. Campaigns rarely mentioned in the history of the period. Austrian, French, Russian, British, and their foreign regiments fought up and down the coast, sometimes with or against local leaders like Peter I of Montenegro and Ali Pasha of Ioannina. Many commanders were far from home, with orders taking weeks to reach them. This meant even junior officers could take military and diplomatic decisions usually reserved for more senior officers.

This is a story of strategy and small wars with many colourful personalities playing their part in a fascinating, if violent, tale against the backdrop of the frontier sea.

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‘The Armchair General team has done it again. An absorbing read for Christmas.’
Peter Caddick-Adams

‘Brilliant and immersive.’
Harry Sidebottom

The second book in the Armchair General series, where YOU choose the fate of the First World War

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HISTORY IS WRITTEN BY THE VICTORS. WILL IT BE YOU?

TAKE THE HOTSEAT
Assume the role of real historic decision-makers: general, leaders, soldiers and intelligence officers of the Allied Forces during World War I.

EXAMINE THE INTELLIGENCE
Explore eight key moments from the First World War, using real contemporaneous intelligence: including the July Crisis, the Battle of the Somme, and the Russian Revolution.

CONSIDER THE SCENARIO & MAKE YOUR DECISION
From battlefields to the Royal Courts, each tactical and strategic decision you make leads to a different outcome.

Will you follow the path of the past – or shape a new history…?
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PRAISE FOR THE ARMCHAIR GENERAL SERIES

‘An original and exciting approach…The Armchair General adds enormously to our understanding of the conflicts’ JAMES HOLLAND

‘A reminder that history is a never ending now, a relentless and endless present that comes without the luxury of hindsight’ AL MURRAY

‘Wonderfully original…putting readers at the heart of the decision-making process and allowing them, literally, to change the course of history. This is counterfactual history at its very best’ SAUL DAVID

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*OUT NOW* From bestselling author and British astronaut Tim Peake, an inspirational human history of space travel, from the Apollo missions to our future forays to Mars. The Right Stuff for a new generation.

‘This book is brilliant – once in a blue moon. A book for the whole family.’ Chris Evans, Virgin Radio

‘An extraordinary book. For anyone – even if you’re not interested in Space. If you’re interested in human stories and the human character – this is delightful.’ BBC Breakfast

‘A fascinating, detailed, playful book drawn from extensive research – Peake met seven Apollo astronauts, Russian cosmonauts and various other space technicians – as well as his considerable personal experience. Lifts the lid on what space is like: the dedication and sacrifice; the politics and pantomime; the practicalities and the peril; the glory and fame; the adjustment back to normal life.’ iPaper

‘A thrilling human history of space’ Daily Mirror

‘The bible of space travel’ Chris Moyles, Radio X

As seen in the major TV series Secrets of Our Universe with Tim Peake.

Only 628 people in human history have left Earth. This is their story.

Astronaut Tim Peake traces the lives of the remarkable men and women who have forged the way for humanity beyond Earth, from Yuri Gagarin to Neil Armstrong, from Valentina Tereshkova to Peggy Whitson.

Full of fascinating insight into our greatest pioneers and unsung heroes, and astonishing detail only an astronaut would know, Peake’s book is the first of its kind to chronicle the human evolution of space exploration over sixty years, from our first forays to now. In the process, Peake reveals what spaceflight is really like: the wondrous view of Earth, the surreal weightlessness, the extraordinary danger, the surprising humdrum, the unexpected humour, the new-found perspective, the years of training, the psychological pressures, the gruelling physical toll, the thrill of launch and the trepidation of re-entry.

In the next few years, NASA will send the first woman and the first person of colour to step on the lunar surface. What will separate these upcoming moonwalkers from the legendary Apollo crews? Does it still take a derring-do attitude, super-human fitness, intelligence, plus ‘the right stuff’ – a fabled grace under pressure? And how will astronauts travel even further – to Mars and beyond?

Space: The Human Story reveals all.

‘Space enthusiasts will snap up Peake’s compelling book in their droves, but his account of courage,
camaraderie and the determination to go where few have gone before deserves to be read by a much wider audience too’ – Daily Express

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The US Navy’s Seventh Fleet was at the forefront of America’s campaign in Vietnam for a decade, from the Gulf of Tonkin Incident that began it all to the final evacuation of South Vietnam. Its mission was highly strategic, and while its primary role was to provide carrier-based air power over North Vietnam – from Rolling Thunder through Linebacker – the fleet’s operations were complex, sensitive, and varied, and required all the capabilities of the fleet.

This book is the first overall examination of how US Navy’s most powerful fleet fought and operated in Vietnam. Distilled from thousands of declassified secret documents by renowned US Navy specialist Dr Edward J. Marolda, it offers a unique new portrait of how the Seventh Fleet fought the Vietnam War, from the offensive strike power of naval aviation to the vital role of fleet logistics. As well as the carrier operations, he examines the surface combatant fleet’s gunfire support role, and its raids against the North Vietnamese coast. Dr Marolda also looks at amphibious warfare, fleet air defense, search-and-rescue, and mining and interdiction operations.

Illustrated throughout with archive photos, 3D diagrams and spectacular new artwork, and informed by never-before-translated official documents, publications, and personal accounts from North Vietnamese, Soviet, and Chinese sources, this is the real story behind the US Navy’s Vietnam War.

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Seven years before the outbreak of World War I, the Imperial German Navy rebranded its ‘Home Fleet’ as the Hochseeflotte (‘High Seas Fleet’). This reflected a more aggressive role for it, and one that would inevitably lead to it challenging the Royal Navy. Although never large enough to match its British rival, by 1914 the High Seas Fleet was sufficiently powerful to threaten Britain’s control of the North Sea. For the next four years these waters would become their battleground, as the fleets vied for naval supremacy.

Drawing on extensive research, this book offers the reader a concise, fully illustrated account of how the entire High Seas Fleet was designed and built, how it operated, and how it fought. The fleet was a modern, balanced force of dreadnought battleships, battlecruisers, cruisers and torpedo boats, using Zeppelins and U-boats for reconnaissance. The ultimate test between them came in May 1916, when they clashed at Jutland.

Packed with spectacular original artwork, maps, 3D diagrams and archive photos, it looks not just at the ships, crews and armament, but also explores the command and doctrine of the Kaiser’s new naval weapon, and show how the fleet was forged into a force capable of taking on the most powerful fleet in the world. It also examines how the High Seas Fleet performed in action, and how the Germans battled to keep it in fighting trim until the very end of the war, when the fleet sailed to captivity and self-destruction at Scapa Flow.

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The British Pacific Fleet was the Royal Navy’s primary contribution to the direct defeat of Japan in 1945, and is among the most powerful fleets Britain has ever sent into action. With naval supremacy in home waters achieved by 1944, many of the best and most modern ships in the Royal Navy could be sent to the Pacific, including battleships, submarines, light forces, replenishment groups, and shore establishment. However, the main striking force was the fast carrier force.

Illustrated throughout with dramatic new artwork, 3D diagrams, maps and archive photos, this book explains how the Royal Navy joined the Pacific carrier war, and how the fleet adopted the US Navy’s ruthlessly effective fast carrier doctrine. With ships optimized for short-range operations in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, the BPF had to rapidly adapt to the long-range, high-tempo warfare of the Pacific, and the story is often one of inspired improvisation. The BPF shared the US Navy’s terrifying experience of kamikaze strikes, and famously its armoured carriers proved tougher than the US counterparts.

With discussion of the ships, their technology, how the fleet was organized and commanded, and how it fought the campaign, this book is a fascinating exploration of the Royal Navy’s part in the victory over Japan.

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Often overshadowed in military history by the tanks and aircraft of Blitzkrieg, Germany’s artillery was key to its methods of waging war throughout World War II. Field artillery remained the primary killer on the battlefield, often responsible for three-quarters of combat casualties inflicted.

Redressing the balance, this book surveys the major Wehrmacht guns of the war, and the basic organizational structure of the German field artillery. Its primary focus is on the divisional field guns, especially the lFH 18 10.5cm field howitzer and the 15cm sFH 18 field howitzer that formed the backbone of German artillery. A brief survey is also made of the infantry guns used at the regimental level, and of corps-level heavy artillery. The issue of the use of”Beutewaffen,” captured war-booty field guns, is also looked at, as is the Nebelwerfer and schwere Wurfgerät rocket artillery.

With archive photos and meticulously detailed new illustrations, this book provides a concise study of the German Army’s big guns of World War II, how they were organized and how they were used, both on the Eastern and Western fronts.

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A popular history of the Arab invasions that carved out an empire from Spain to China

Today’s Arab world was created at breathtaking speed. Whereas the Roman Empire took over 200 years to reach its fullest extent, the Arab armies overran the whole Middle East, North Africa and Spain within a generation. They annihilated the thousand-year-old Persian Empire and reduced the Byzantine Empire to little more than a city-state based around Constantinople. Within a hundred years of the Prophet’s death, Muslim armies destroyed the Visigoth kingdom of Spain, and crossed the Pyrenees to occupy southern France.

This is the first popular English language account of this astonishing remaking of the political and religious map of the world. Hugh Kennedy’s sweeping narrative reveals how the Arab armies conquered almost everything in their path. One of the few academic historians with a genuine talent for story telling, he offers a compelling mix of larger-than-life characters, battles, treachery and the clash of civilizations.

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