Destroyer Down

The author of Beneath the Waves provides a thorough history of the sinkings of Britain’s destroyer warships during World War II. His Majesty’s destroyers had a long and costly war. Some eight thousand destroyer men did not survive. At the height of the war the Royal navy was commissioning four new vessels a month, which was only sufficient to replace those which had been sunk or severely damaged. This outstanding book contains the details of the majority of the sinkings that occurred throughout World War II and includes many firsthand accounts from the officers and crew involved.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1930.

As the eyes and ears of the fleet, the Destroyers perform a vital role to any naval force; often given the dirtiest jobs of any task force, the Destroyer is the workhorse ship. In this fascinating volume, written by Commander Holloway H. Frost USN in 1935, the author describes how to best handle a flush deck destroyer in a variety of situations. Richly illustrated with diagrams Commander Holloway offers sage advice and reveals the secrets of the seaborne Destroyer, from formation cruising to handling the ship in heavy weather.

Reproduction of the original: The Dreadnought Boys Aboard a Destroyer by Captain Wilbur Lawton

Fast, manoeuvrable and heavily armed, destroyers were the most aggressive surface warships of the twentieth century. Although originally conceived as a defensive screen to protect the main battlefleet from torpedo attack, the gamekeeper soon turned poacher, and became primarily a weapon of offence. As such they were involved in many hard-fought battles, using both torpedoes and guns, especially with enemy vessels of the same kind. This book recounts some of the most significant, spectacular or unusual actions in the history of destroyer warfare, from the first employment of torpedo craft during the Russo-Japanese War to the recent terrorist attack on USS Cole. With individual chapters devoted to each incident, the book may be read as a series of dramatic narratives, but each reflects a development in the tactics or technology, so taken as a whole the book amounts to a complete history of the destroyer from an unusual and previously neglected angle.

Destroyer Squadron 23 is the epic account of Commodore Arleigh Burke and the men and ships under his command in the South Pacific in World War II. Burke's leadership skills and innovative tactics, described in detail in the book, proved crucial to the U.S. defeat of the Japanese navy in the Pacific.

Merriam Press World War 2 History. The Hadley was a destroyer which served in the U.S. Navy and in early May 1945 was assigned to radar picket duty at Okinawa. On 11 May, a large force of Japanese aircraft attacked. Hadley fought off these attackers, but not without damage to itself. Hadley fought on, but was hit by a bomb and three kamikaze aircraft. Hadley shot down a record 23 aircraft that day and aided in splashing many others, but lost 30 crew members. A determined crew kept her afloat and she was towed back to the States. This new book by a relative of a crew member killed that day off Okinawa, tells the story of the ship, and that fateful day, through the words of many of the survivors, which the author interviewed. This is not just a story about a ship, but about the men that made that ship a legend in the annals of Navy history. 9 appendices, bibliography, 112 photos, 7 illustrations, 6 maps.

This is an account of what it was like to command a destroyer during World War II. Spanning 1942 to 1945, Hill commanded HMS Ledbury during the tragedy of Arctic convoy PQ17 and played an outstanding role in Operation Pedestal. The pressures of command and the strain of years of continual fighting are conveyed here.