Douglas Reeman

But to Captain Richard Chesnaye she brings back memories - memories of the First World War when he and the old monitor went through the Gallipoli campaign together. But as the war enters a new phase Chesnaye senses the possibility of a fresh, significant role - for him and the Saracen.

Hong Kong, 1960s: The old submarine-chaser USS Hibiscus, refitting in a Hong Kong dockyard before being handed over to the Nationalist Chinese, is suddenly ordered to the desolate island group of Payenhau. For Captain Mark Gunnar, who is driven by the memory of his torture at the hands of Viet Cong guerillas, the new command is a chance to even the score against a ruthless, unrelenting enemy. But Payenhau is very different from his expectations, and as the weather worsens, a crisis develops that Gunnar must face alone.

March 1967: HMS Temeraire is Britain's latest and most advanced nuclear submarine. But when the Temeraire's trials are cut short and she is ordered to the Far East to reinforce the British fleet against a threat from Red China, Captain David Jermain knows that this is no routine exercise in flag-waving. And once in Asian waters, he and his submarine find themselves involved in a hidden, undeclared conflict beneath the sea. While the politicians on land haggle over a situation that could hold the seeds of a full-scale war, Commander Jermain must keep his faith in himself and in his new ship's potential--even when ordered to take the Temeraire to the edge of a catastrophe.

January 1944: On the vast grey waters of the Atlantic, the balance of power has shifted. For Rudolf Steiger, ace U-boat commander, there is a new sense of urgency. Dedicated, ruthless, and fanatical, he has become a legend in his own time, a symbol of Germany's greatness. But now, as he takes the U-boat flotilla Meteor out into the bitter winter seas, he faces a new and deadly enemy--his own nagging doubts about the outcome of the war. And Steiger is beginning to realize that his destiny may be to court a heroic death rather than suffer the shame of defeat.

December 1917: Germany opens the final, bitter round of the war with a new and deadly weapon in the struggle for the seas. When the Vulkan sails from Kiel Harbour, to all appearances she is a harmless merchant vessel. But her peaceful lines conceal a merciless firepower of guns, mines, and torpedoes that can be brought into play instantly. For the Vulkan is the last of the German commerce raiders, tasked with breaking through the British blockade and then heading west and south to the open seas. And under crack commander Felix von Steiger, her mission is to bring chaos to the Allied seaways.

As a refugee who escaped a war-torn climate on a ship named the Sigli which disappeared under suspicious circumstances, Rupert Blair finds himself being called back to the mystery decades later, embarking on a naval adventure across fierce surroundings.

The Allies are poised for the invasion of Italy. Yet the Germans hold a vital card: a floating dock, and it must be destroyed. Only one team can do the job and still stand a chance of surviving--the crew of submarine XE.51.

With his motor yacht Sea Fox, former naval officer Philip Vivian hoped to earn a living free from the petty restrictions of everyday life, close to the sea he loved. But his dream is threatened by financial difficulties, and soon he is trapped in a web of violence and crime, torn between his past loyalties and his duty to a society he despises.

Burmese Coast, 1944 . . . After four years, the tide of war is turning in North Africa and Europe. The conflict in Southeast Asia, however, has reached new heights of savagery. The Special Operations mission off the Burmese coast requires volunteers. Men with nothing to live for, or men with everything to lose. Men like Lieutenant James Ross, awarded the Victoria Cross for his work in underwater sabotage, or the desperate amateur Charles Villiers, heir to a fortune now controlled by the Japanese. The two-man torpedo--The Chariot--is the their ultimate weapon in a high-risk war. Cast loose into the shadows before an eastern dawn, the heroes or madmen who guide it will strike terror into the heart of an invulnerable enemy, or pay the ultimate price for failure.

Singapore, November, 1941 . . . They called it the "Gibraltar of the Far East"--a British rock that could not be taken. But suddenly, in a lightning blow, Singapore may be defeated. Call it incompetence or call it false pride--it doesn't really matter. Just as the warplanes of the Rising Sun take command of the skies. Lt. Ralph Trewin, who was a proud recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, arrives at Singapore as second-in-command of the gun boat HMS Porcupine. Is it too late to overcome the ignorance and blind optimism he finds in Singapore?

Yet even she was needed to protect the vital Atlantic sea lanes. Commander Lindsay, her new captain, had to work desperately to mould the ship's company - raw recruits and old timers - into a fighting force. And better than anyone, Lindsay knew this could be his last command, his last chance...

With the Allies poised for the invasion of Italy, the Germans hold a vital card: a floating dock, the only one in the Adriatic large enough to take a major warship. Air, surface and conventional submarine attacks are out of the question. Only one team can do the job and still stand a chance of surviving - the crew of HM Midget Submarine XE 51-

Memories are short of HMS Royston - they have to be. As mother ship to a battered, war-torn bunch of MTBs she must carry out her vital role whatever the conditions, whatever the risks. Sub-Lieutenant Royce's predecessor has only been dead forty-eight hours, and already the crew has forgotten him. Royce must learn the job the hard way...

Twenty-five years ago HMS Terrapin was part of a crack hunter/killer group in the Battle of the Atlantic. Now she is working out her last commission in the Gulf of Thailand. To Lieutenant-Commander Standish, the frigate seems to mark the end of his hopes of a career in the Navy. Then a new captain arrives...

Malta 1941. To most people HMS Saracen is just an ugly, obsolete ship with an equally ugly recent history: her last commander is due for court-martial after shelling the troops he was sent to protect. But to Captain Richard Chesnaye she brings back memories--memories of the First World War when he and the old monitor went through the Gallipoli campaign together. It seems that captain and ship are both past their best. But as the war enters a new phase, Chesnaye senses the possibility of a fresh, significant role--for him and the Saracen.

Tasked to protect the vital, threatened Merchant Navy convoys in the Western Approaches, Howard finds himself in the middle of the Battle of the Atlantic--a full-scale war that was a relentless, savage battle against an ever-present enemy and a violent sea in an arena known to embittered survivors simply as the killing ground. This fictionalized account of the Battle of the Atlantic, which spanned nearly six years and was the longest military campaign of World War II, is seen through both British and German eyes and deals with the extreme perils of war at sea and stands as an excellent study in leadership with characters that ring true.

Douglas Reeman's 30th naval thriller1941To the residents and defence forces of the Crown Colony of Hong Kong, th war in Europe remains remote. Even the massive build-up of Japanese forces on the Chinese border cannot dent their carefree optimism.Yet one man suspects the truth. Lieutenant-Commander Esmond Brooke, captain of HMS Serpent and a veteran of the cruel Atlantic, sees all too clearly the folly and incometence of Hong Kong's colonial administration. To Brooke, attack by Japan seemsinevitable.But, in war, there will always be some who attempt the impossible, even in the face of death. This is the story of one ship and her company who refuse to accept the anguish of defeat and surrender to a merciless enemy...

1899, China. The Mandarins are becoming troublesome again and there are rumors that attacks will soon begin on British trade missions and legations. Captain David Blackwoodof the Royal Marines, received a VC in the bloody battle for Benin, Africa but is now being packed off to this apparent backwater.

It was an age of Empire, an age of contrast, and an age of dramatic change - and one which would determine the destinies of nations as well as of men.

But it is the summer of 1944, and on every front the war is going badly for Germany. When the roder comes to leave the Baltic to attack and destroy eenmy shipping in the Atlantic, Kapitan zur See Dieter Hechler knows that once out in the vast killing ground it will only be a matter of time before the hunter becomes the hunted.