Graham A Thomas – författare

During the Allied advance across northwest Europe in 1944, the opening up of the key port of Antwerp was a pivotal event, yet it has been neglected in histories of the conflict. The battles in Normandy and on the German frontier have been studied often and in detail, while the fight for the Scheldt estuary, Walcheren and Antwerp itself has been treated as a sideshow. Graham Thomas's timely and graphic account underlines the importance of this aspect of the Allied campaign and offers a fascinating insight into a complex combined-arms operation late in the Second World War. Using operational reports and vivid first-hand eyewitness testimony, he takes the reader alongside 21 Army Group as it cleared the Channel ports of Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk, then moved on to attack the Scheldt and the island stronghold of Walcheren. Overcoming entrenched German resistance there was essential to the whole operation, and it is the climax of his absorbing narrative.

The Allied landings at Dieppe in German-occupied France in August 1942 are one the most famous amphibious operations of the Second World War and many books have been written about them, mostly from the Allied point of view. The German side of the story has been neglected, and that is why Graham Thomas's fresh account is so valuable. He reconstructs the immediate response of the Germans to the landings, gives a graphic detailed description of their actions throughout, and looks at the tactical and strategic lessons they drew from them.Each phase and aspect of the action is depicted using a broad range of sources including official reports, correspondence and recollections - the preliminary British commando attacks on the gun batteries, the landings themselves, the German defences and preparations, and their counter-attacks, and the associated naval and air campaigns.The result is a finely balanced and incisive reassessment of this remarkable operation. It also offers the reader an engrossing account of one of the most dramatic episodes in the war in Western Europe.

One hundred and fifty years ago the Royal Navy fought a daring campaign against ruthless pirates and won. On West African shores they killed The King of the Pirates, Bartholomew Roberts and captured his fleet. Scores of his men were executed by the Admiralty Court.On the Barbary Coast of North Africa pirates preyed on shipping in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic as they had done for centuries and they terrorized the populations of the coastal towns. To them, piracy was a way of life, and the great sea-powers of the day couldnt stop them. Then, in one of the most remarkable and neglected anti-piracy operations in maritime history, the Royal Navy confronted them, defeated them and made the seas safe for trade.This is the subject of Graham A. Thomass compelling new study of one of the most pernicious episodes in the history of African piracy. As he tells this compelling story, he uncovers the long tradition of piracy and privateering along the African shore. Vividly he describes attacks not only in the Mediterranean but also on the other side of the continent, along the shores of West Africa and around Madagascar. But perhaps the most telling sections of his narrative concern critical engagements that stand out from the story the daring rescue of the British merchant ship The Three Sisters by HMS Polyphemus in 1848 and the actions of the battleship HMS Prometheus against the Rif pirates a few years later.His account is based on documents held at the National Archives and other original sources. It gives a fascinating inside view into the way in which the Royal Navy responded to the menace of piracy in the nineteenth century.

As the Allies broke out of Normandy in June 1944 and pushed into France and the Low Countries they soon found that their supplies lines became more and more extended. They needed a proper working port on the Channel that would enable them to bring in more men and materiel to fight the Germans in Europe and alleviate their supply issues. Antwerp was the prize they were after but the Germans had it covered so other ports needed to be captured as a matter of urgency. This is the story of the capture of Dieppe, Le Havre, Boulogne and Calais and the Siege of Dunkirk that the Allies decided to do while they concentrated on capturing and bringing only the port of Antwerp. It was a siege that was to last until the end of the war.

In the summer of 1944 the Germans launched more than 10,000 flying bombs at Britain, most of them towards London. Thousands of people were killed many more injured. RAF fighter pilots flew round the clock patrols desperately trying to shoot the robot rockets down and stop them from reaching their targets.

On 2 August 1708 Captain Woodes Rogers set sail from Bristol with two ships, the Duke and Duchess, on an epic voyage of circumnavigation that was to make him famous. His mission was to attack, plunder and pillage Spanish ships wherever he could. And, as Graham Thomas shows in this tense and exciting narrative, after a series of pursuits and sea battles he returned laden with booty and with a reputation as one of the most audacious and shrewd fighting captains of the age. He was then appointed governor of the Bahamas by George I with the task of suppressing the pirates who roamed this corner of the Caribbean and preyed on its shipping. He was equally successful as a privateer and pirate-hunter in an age when brutality and ruthlessness were the law of the sea.

Edward Teach Blackbeard-is one of the legends of the so-called golden age of piracy. There have been so many accounts of his short, bloody career that it is hard to see him and his times in a clear historical light. This new study looks for the man behind the legend, and it gives a vivid insight into the nature of piracy and the naval operations that were launched against it.The narrative focuses on the roles played by the Governor of Virginia Alexander Spotswood who masterminded the pursuit of Blackbeard, and Lieutenant Robert Maynard of HMS Pearl who led the pursuit and finally cornered Teach and his crew and, after a vicious fight, saw him killed.In vivid detail, it reveals how the hunt for Blackbeard was orchestrated, how he was tracked down, and the parts played in the drama by the larger-than-life leading characters in this extraordinary story. This freshly researched study of the pursuit of the notorious pirate and his crew—and of the final fight in which Blackbeard lost his life—makes compelling reading.

Edward Teach – ‘Blackbeard’-is one of the legends of the so-called ‘golden age of piracy’. There have been so many accounts of his short, bloody career that it is hard to see him and his times in a clear historical light. This new study looks for the man behind the legend, and it gives a vivid insight into the nature of piracy and the naval operations that were launched against it.The narrative focuses on the roles played by the Governor of Virginia Alexander Spotswood who masterminded the pursuit of Blackbeard, and Lieutenant Robert Maynard of HMS Pearl who led the pursuit and finally cornered Teach and his crew and, after a vicious fight, saw him killed.In vivid detail, it reveals how the hunt for Blackbeard was orchestrated, how he was tracked down, and the parts played in the drama by the larger-than-life leading characters in this extraordinary story. This freshly researched study of the pursuit of the notorious pirate and his crew - and of the final fight in which Blackbeard lost his life - makes compelling reading.

One hundred and fifty years ago the Royal Navy fought a daring campaign against ruthless pirates and won, killing ‘The King of the Pirates’, Bartholomew Roberts off the coast of Africa and capturing his fleet. Scores of his men were executed by the Admiralty Court. On the Barbary Coast of North Africa pirates preyed on shipping in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic as they had done for centuries and they terrorized the populations of the coastal towns. To them, piracy was a way of life, and the great sea-powers of the day couldn’t stop them. Then, in one of the most remarkable – and neglected – anti-piracy operations in maritime history, the Royal Navy confronted them, defeated them and made the seas safe for trade. This is the subject of Graham A. Thomas’ compelling new study of one of the most pernicious episodes in the history of African piracy. As he tells this compelling story, he uncovers the long tradition of piracy and privateering along the African shore. Vividly he describes attacks not only in the Mediterranean but also on the other side of the continent, along the shores of West Africa and around Madagascar. But perhaps the most telling sections of his narrative concern critical engagements that stand out from the story – the daring rescue of the British merchant ship The Three Sisters by HMS Polyphemus in 1848 and the actions of the battleship HMS Prometheus against the Rif pirates a few years later.His account is based on documents held at the National Archives and other original sources. It gives a fascinating inside view into the way in which the Royal Navy responded to the menace of piracy in the nineteenth century.

On 2 August 1708 Captain Woodes Rogers set sail from Bristol with two ships, the Duke and Duchess, on an epic voyage of circumnavigation that was to make him famous. His mission was to attack, plunder and pillage Spanish ships wherever he could. And, as Graham Thomas shows in this tense and exciting narrative, after a series of pursuits and sea battles he returned laden with booty and with a reputation as one of the most audacious and shrewd fighting captains of the age. He was then appointed governor of the Bahamas by George I with the task of suppressing the pirates who roamed this corner of the Caribbean and preyed on its shipping. He was equally successful as a privateer and pirate-hunter in an age when brutality and ruthlessness were the law of the sea.

With the outbreak of the Korean War, the UN Security Council called on its members to act and 16 nations did, with Britain sending aircraft carriers such as HMS Truimph, from which piston engined Sea Fury fighters and Fairey Firefly fighter-bombers operated.This is the story of the British and Australian Fleet Ari Arm pilots and their missions over hoistile territory, missions carried out with distinction and honor.

This book is the story of the RAF Typhoon fighter-bombers involved in the battle for Caen in July 1944. Using official squadron histories, log books, interviews with veterans who flew the mighty Typhoon, memories from Alanbrooke, Montgomery, Air Marshal Tedder and others, and some German reports, this book takes the reader right into the action from the build-up to D-Day right through to Operation Goodwood and the battle for Caen. Veterans from 197, 609 and 198 Squadrons tell their stories about pounding German troops in the Caen area with bombs and rockets.The author's interviews with men like Derek Lovell who flew with 197 Squadron and Sir Kenneth Adam, a German who escaped Germany and flew Typhoons against his own countrymen, bring the narrative alive. Detailed in the book are the day-by-day sorties against accurate and intense flak that each pilot had to endure. The book builds to the capture of Caen that enabled the Allies to break out of Normandy and begin the race across France. Was it a success? Was it worth the cost? Did it achieve its objectives? These questions are answered.