Australian Cruiser Perth : Light Cruiser : WW2 Warship : HMAS : Pfennigwerth, Ian

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Catalogue > Transport Books > Maritime Books > The Australian Cruiser Perth: Pfennigwerth, Ian

Description

From Book Cover Description:

For all but a few months from commissioning in June 1939 to her sinking on 1 March 1942, the Australian Light Cruiser Perth was engaged in wartime operations against the forces of Germany, Italy, Vichy France and Japan. She served in the West Indies, the Pacific and Indian Oceans, the Mediterranean and, finally, in the Java Sea. Her operations included the blockading of German merchant ships in neutral ports, escorting vital troop convoys to the Middle East, attacking shore positions in Libya and Syria and providing air defence of convoys, especially from the feared Stuka dive bombers of the German Luftwaffe. She participated in several pivotal battles, especially Matapan and Java Sea, and in the evacuation of Commonwealth forces from Greece and Crete in April-May 1941. Despite all this service, up until her sinking she had lost fewer than a dozen of her company to enemy action.

This books is not just an account of the Cruiser's War Service. Using diaries kept by members of her ship's company to supplement British, Australian, German, Italian and Japanese official sources, Ian Pfennigwerth has provided a picture of the men who contributed to the ship's proud record and the conditions under which they did so. He describes how the unshakable bonds of trust between crew members were developed and forged in the crucible of ferocious attacks by the enemy, even into the ship's last desperate battle against a superior Japanese force. This sustained the survivors in the ordeal of imprisonment and mistreatment that was to follow. Years afterwards, a former petty officer would wonder that so many had 'been touched by the ghostly character of this long gone ship, which has so affected us'

This book is a story of adventure and courage in adversity, written as a tribute by a former commanding officer of the cruiser's namesake, the guided missile destroyer Perth II.

Details

SKU:

Navy

Quantity:

1 item(s) available

Author/s:

Ian Pfennigwerth

Military Campaign:

World War II (West Indies, Pacific / Indian Oceans, Mediterranean, Java Sea)

Printing Year:

2007 - 1st edition

Printing &/or Publishing Information: