Zeebrugge: The Greatest Raid of All
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
A force drawn from the Royal Navy and Royal Marines set out on ships and submarines to try to block the key strategic port, in a bold attempt to stem the catastrophic losses being inflicted on British shipping by German submarines. It meant attacking a heavily fortified German naval base. The tide, calm weather and the right wind direction for a smoke screen were crucial to the plan.
Judged purely on results, it can only be considered a partial strategic success. Casualties were high and the base only partially blocked. Nonetheless, it came to represent the embodiment of the bulldog spirit, the peculiarly British fighting élan, the belief that anything was possible with enough dash and daring.
The essential story of the Zeebrugge mission has been told before, but never through the direct, first-hand accounts of its survivors – including that of Lieutenant Richard Sandford, VC, the acknowledged hero of the day, and the author’s great uncle. The fire and bloodshed of the occasion is the book’s centerpiece, but there is also room for the family and private lives of the men who volunteered in the hundreds for what they knew effectively to be a suicide mission.
Zeebrugge gives a very real sense of the existence of the ordinary British men and women of 100 years ago – made extraordinary by their role in what Winston Churchill called the ‘most intrepid and heroic single armed adventure of the Great War.’
Christopher Sandford
Christopher Sandford is a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines on both sides of the Atlantic. He has written numerous biographies of music, film and sports stars, as well as Union Jack, a bestselling book on John F. Kennedy’s special relationship with Great Britain described by the National Review as ‘political history of a high order – the Kennedy book to beat’. Born and raised in England, Christopher currently lives in Seattle.
Read more from Christopher Sandford
Imran Khan: The Cricketer, The Celebrity, The Politician Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Masters of Mystery: The Strange Friendship of Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/51964: The Year the Swinging Sixties Began Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJamming: Art and Discipline of Business Creativit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Zeebrugge: The Greatest Raid of All Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rolling Stones: Fifty Years Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Final Innings: The Cricketers of Summer 1939 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Final Over: The Cricketers of Summer 1914 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLaker and Lock Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKeeper of Style: John Murray, the King of Lord's Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnion Jack: JFK's Special Relationship with Great Britain Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Zeebrugge
Related ebooks
Zeebrugge: The Greatest Raid of All Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Norfolk Coast in the Great War: King's Lynn, Hunstanton, Sheringham, Cromer and Great Yarmouth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHMS Gloucester: The Untold Story Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Beyond Endurance: An Epic of Whitehall and the South Atlantic Conflict Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Wreckers: A Story of Killing Seas and Plundered Shipwrecks, from the 18th Century to the Present Day Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGreat War Lives: A Guide for Family Historians Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Matter of Honour: The Story of England's Last Fatal Duel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSamuel Pepys and the Strange Wrecking of the Gloucester Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Untold Story of Captain James Cook RN: Revelations of a Historical Researcher Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScotch on the Rocks: The True Story Behind Whisky Galore Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Broadsides: The Age of Fighting Sail, 1775-1815 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Story of the Ocean Monarch: Fire, Family, & Fidelity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Final Innings: The Cricketers of Summer 1939 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWreck of the Isabella Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lusitania Saga & Myth: 100 Years On Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Her Majesty's Nuclear Service Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Field Gun Jack Versus the Boers: The Royal Navy in South Africa, 1899–1900 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Coal Black Sea: Winston Churchill and the Worst Naval Catastrophe of the First World War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Siege of Charleston, 1861-1865 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Battle of Port Royal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Civilian Bomb Disposing Earl: Jack Howard & Bomb Disposal in WW2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Bearskin's Crimea: Colonel Henry Percy VC & His Brother Officers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings"The Red Watch": With the First Canadian Division in Flanders Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Afterlife of King James IV: Otherworld Legends Of The Scottish King Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSea Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIncessant Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lost Story of the William and Mary: The Cowardice of Captain Stinson Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In Pursuit of the Essex: Heroism & Hubris on the High Seas in the War of 1812 Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Walcheren 1809: Scandalous Destruction of a British Army Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSamuel Pepys and the Strange Wrecking of the Gloucester: A True Restoration Tragedy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Modern History For You
The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Night to Remember: The Sinking of the Titanic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fifties Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All But My Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The God Delusion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/577 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shakespeare: The World as Stage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/518 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Profiles in Courage: Deluxe Modern Classic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Voices from Chernobyl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Captured: A True Story of Abduction by Indians on the Texas Frontier Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Notebook Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 2]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Zeebrugge
0 ratings0 reviews