1939 - The Second World War at Sea in Photographs
1939 - The Second World War at Sea in Photographs
Amberley | 2014 | ISBN: 1445622351 | English | 136 pages | PDF | 36.6 MB
World War Two at sea began badly for the Allies. On the day war was declared, the unarmed passenger liner Athenia was sunk off Rockal, creating an uproar on both sides of the Atlantic. Later that month saw the loss of HMS Courageous, a badly needed aircraft carrier, as well as the daring raid by Gunther Prien’s U-49 on HMS Royal Oak while she was berthed in the supposedly safe anchorage of Scapa Flow during October. In the meantime, German commerce raiders were creating havoc in the South Atlantic. It was only in December that the battle cruiser Graf Spee was finally cornered and scuttled in Montevideo, giving the hard-pressed Allies some good news to end the year.