Twin brothers Romulus and Remus Hutchinson grew up in a proud seafaring Liverpool family. So when war breaks out in Europe, they are both keen to sign up and do their part.
With their parents’ consent, both boys join up on their 16th birthday in October 1939 – Romulus as an RNVR sub-lieutenant on a Royal Navy destroyer and his brother as a deck hand with their father’s employer, John Holt & Company.
But with Romulus’s sadistic training officer seemingly intent on breaking the cadets’ spirits before their careers have even set sail, he struggles with the intense training.
There is no time for doubts, however, as the two brothers are quickly thrown into combat.
With Operation Dynamo around the corner, will the Hutchinson brothers both make it out alive…? Can they make their mark as their forefathers did before them?
Or will the bottomless deep claim yet more victims…?
SOE pilot Gus ‘Bouncer’ Beaumont is beginning to feel the effects of an exhausting war. After making a bad navigational error he is taken off piloting duties and posted as liaison officer to a Free French bomber squadron.
But the pressure on him continues to build.
First there is the moral dilemma of bombing civilians, then the suicide of a comrade. And, to top off everything, he is accused of murdering a fellow RAF officer.
The murder investigation is dropped, but a cloud of suspicion hangs over Gus and the only way to clear his name is by tracking down the real killer.
Can Gus clear his name and mend his reputation? Will he return to fight in the skies?
We are delighted to announce that we have signed a new naval fiction novel set during the Second World War by Anthony Palmiotti.
Anthony Palmiotti
In Anthony’s words:
“When searching for subjects to write about, I look for little-known stories or actions within bigger events that emphasize the strength of character and the contributions made by ordinary people — the individuals that make a difference to the outcome. Invariably, it is the strength of character of the common man or woman that determines the outcome — that makes the difference between winning and losing. It could be a single heroic action or simply a steadfast stubbornness. It might be the will to go on when common sense says this is not a good idea. They are the unknown people who make the seemingly impossible, possible.
“Operation Pedestal was just one convoy in a war that saw hundreds of convoys. Malta was just one island in a sea of islands. What makes these two different is that they faced extreme odds and yet, through a steadfast perseverance, they beat the odds. The citizens of Malta and the common men on the convoys showed an uncommon resolve. They simply did not give up, even when giving up was the smart thing to do.
“My take on Malta during the summer of 1942 and Operation Pedestal is not a history but a novel. A novel allows the writer to get personal. It not only offers the facts, but, hopefully, a feel for what it’s like when ordinary people are asked to do extraordinary things.”
Sisters Anna and Jennifer Nightingale have been flying in top missions with the Secret Sirens all-female RAF unit for nearly a year.
Their squadron of twelve Mosquitos stages a raid on Rouen to divert the enemy’s attention from the Lancasters which are coming in to bomb the marshalling yards and port.
But while Jennifer makes it through the mission safely, Anna and her navigator, Maria, are forced to ditch into the Channel.
Luckily they are picked up by a British Destroyer. And on board is none other than Winston Churchill himself.
Impressed by the skill-level and bravery of the female pilots, Churchill is keen to learn more about their training.
He escorts them back to base where they are given a new mission: to attack the Nazi-occupied Mimoyecques Fortress.
The Allies know that the Fortress is being armed with high calibre guns capable of reaching London in a massive, unending bombardment. The Sirens need to drop bombs into the railway tunnel entrance of the Fortress as soon as possible before the unthinkable happens.
But with very little time to train, will the Sirens be able to pull off the task? Can they reach the Fortress unscathed?
Or will these Fire Maidens join the many thousands who have already lost their lives in this brutal war…?
Canadian paratrooper Leo Heaps (1923–1995) was seconded to the British Army during the Second World War and participated in the Battle of Arnhem. He was captured by the Germans and upon his escape, his work with the Dutch Resistance to help rescue hundreds of Allied soldiers behind enemy lines resulted in his being awarded the Royal Military Cross for “outstanding gallantry”. To commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War, Leo’s son Adrian reflects on his father’s life in 1945.
Leo Heaps
In 1945, Leo Heaps was just twenty-two, a young Canadian whose experiences in the Second World War shaped him into the complex figure I knew.
Born in Winnipeg in 1923, growing up as the son of Abraham Albert Heaps, a prominent Parliamentarian, wasn’t easy, but Leo forged his own path. Educated at Queen’s University, the University of California, and McGill, he was restless by 1944, bored with the Canadian Infantry Holding Unit. His commanders underestimated him, calling him “not of officer caliber, no initiative, not aggressive enough.” Sarcastic and defiant, he failed to qualify for the Infantry. His father urged him to work on his aunt’s farm, an exemption from service, but Leo sought action. He volunteered for the CANLOAN program, seconding Canadian officers to the British Army, a choice that plunged him into Operation Market Garden.
Leo (upper right) before his first jump into Arnhem
In September 1944, Leo joined the British 1st Airborne Division, commanding the 1st Parachute Battalion’s Transport — without ever having jumped before. He described his first drop on 17 September 1944 with vivid clarity: “I floated down gently from heaven at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday… The sun shone, the fields of Wolfheze were bathed in warm light and the green meadow bloomed with large bursts of yellow sunflowers.” That beauty was short-lived. The Battle of Arnhem, part of a failed plan to seize Rhine bridges, ended in defeat. Captured by the Germans, Leo didn’t stay a prisoner for long. With the help of the Dutch Resistance, he escaped, hiding in a chicken coop at Ennyshoeve. There, he met members of the Resistance risking their lives for Allied evaders.
Leo with his father and brother David
His work with the Dutch Resistance earned him the Military Cross, a rare honour for a Canadian in British service. His brother, David, also received the Military Cross, making them the only Jewish brothers during the Second World War to win the decoration. Leo’s role in Operation Pegasus, the escape of over 100 Allied soldiers across the Rhine, was a triumph he chronicled in his book The Grey Goose of Arnhem. He called it “the most amazing mass escape of World War II.”
But some memories were harder to share. In April 1945, Leo was among the first to enter Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after the Germans fled, leaving behind a typhoid outbreak and unimaginable suffering. As a Jewish soldier, the sight of skeletal survivors, the stench of death, and the chaos of the camp struck him profoundly. In Escape from Arnhem (1945) he described the eerie silence broken by the groans of the starving, the piles of unburied bodies, and the desperate eyes of those clinging to life. The scale of the horror overwhelmed him. He rarely spoke of Belsen, but when he did, his voice was subdued. I can picture him there, a young man of twenty-two, confronting a darkness that no one could fully process.
Leo with his father following his decoration
By May 1945, Leo was no longer the kid who frustrated his commanders, but a decorated veteran, a survivor of capture, combat, and collaborator with the Dutch underground. However, the war left its mark on Leo in what we now recognise as PTSD. The loss of friends killed by the Germans ushered a quiet guilt for those surviving when so many didn’t. Yet Leo channelled his unease into action, as if movement could keep the ghosts at bay. His writing, his adventures, his relentless drive — they were, in part, his way of coping with a war that never fully left him.
In 1994, my son and I accompanied Leo to Arnhem for the fiftieth anniversary, as one of forty Canadian veterans. I often wonder what he felt in those sunflower fields, thinking of his lost comrades and his own life’s pursuits. Some of these feelings can be found in his records and letters in the Ontario (Canada) Jewish Archives, which offer a glimpse of the man and the many moments beyond his stories.
Leo died in 1995, leaving a legacy I’m still unravelling. In 1945, he emerged from the war not just as a survivor but as a storyteller who gave voice to the unsung. His books are a testament to a war that left its scars, but also of the man who became my father.
Air Commodore Roderick Chisholm, CBE, DSO, DFC & Bar (1911–1994), author of Cover of Darkness, was a night fighter pilot, flying ace and a highly decorated British airman of the Second World War. To commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War, his son Julian reflects on his father’s life in 1945.
Roderick Aeneas Chisholm by Sir William Rothenstein. Image used with permission from Museums Sheffield
In 1930 Roderick Chisholm joined 604 Squadron of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force. He learnt to fly and was commissioned as an officer. He left the squadron in 1935 when his work took him to Iran. Before rejoining his squadron in late June 1940, he took a refresher course to become a night fighter pilot and fly the squadron’s Blenheims. During the war, while flying Beaufighters and Mosquitos, he shot down nine enemy aircraft with the assistance of his airborne observers and the ground controllers, he commanded the Night Fighter Interception Unit at Ford, and was the second-in-command of Bomber Command’s 100 Group, which was charged with defending RAF bombers over enemy territory. He recorded his wartime experiences in Cover of Darkness, which was first published in 1953.
Immediately after hostilities ended, Roderick led a team of twelve charged with gaining as much intelligence as possible about the impact of 100 Group’s radar-assisted night fighters, Mosquitos, and Radio Counter Measures. The team did their work at the final base of the Luftwaffe in Schleswig, just before it was disbanded and its personnel transferred to POW camps. They carried out interrogations of Luftwaffe night fighter commanders and pilots, observers, flight controllers and technicians, held technical discussions, and examined the vast number of German aircraft parked on the airfields. The team gained confirmation of the effectiveness of 100 Group’s efforts, and had the satisfaction that as a result RAF losses were significantly reduced. The Mosquito had an awesome reputation amongst the German airmen.
Major Schnauffer was one of the pilots whose interrogation Roderick witnessed. Schnauffer was a brave and skilful night fighter pilot who was credited with shooting down no less than 124 bombers in defence of his country. He wore uniform, and on the last day the Germans were allowed to wear medals, he wore the highest order of the Iron Cross around his neck. The exchanges with the Germans were generally civilised and friendly, but my father could not ignore that they were Nazis, and that nearby were camps for Russian prisoners living in ghastly conditions, and mini-Belsens for Jews and other displaced persons.
Roderick’s mission complete, he flew back to Norfolk. While doing so, he envisioned a future Europe in which frontiers would mean no more and individual nationalities were less important, as per the multi-national squadrons of the Battle of Britain. After the collapse of France in 1940, British, French, Belgian, Czech, Polish and other nationalities had flown in harmony in polyglot fighter squadrons. Their aims were identical, and their understanding effective thanks to the basic English of the radio. Sadly, later, as national squadrons were formed, national identities asserted themselves and the unity achieved in the Battle of Britain became compromised.
Major-General Hubert Essame, CBE, DSO, MC (1896–1976) was a British Army officer who fought in the First and Second World Wars. Following his retirement from the army, Hubert lectured in military history at King’s College London, and published several books and articles. He was also an advisor to television producers for military programmes. To commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War, his granddaughter Antonia shares her memories of him below.
Hubert Essame
Brigadier, later Major-General, Hubert Essame led 214 Independent Infantry Brigade, part of 43rd Wessex Division, in the capture of Mont Pincon, the key to Normandy, as well as of Hill 112, the successful yet most costly single battalion action of the Overlord campaign.
He was a sharp-witted and determined man remembered by the actor and raconteur Dirk Bogarde, his one-time liaison officer, for his “brilliant blue eyes and tongue like a whip”. He had a caustic sense of humour and was a formidable leader from the front.
Soon after the war, Hubert wrote the Division’s official history, The 43rd Wessex Division at War, 1944-45, and later Battle for Normandy, Normandy Bridgehead, The Battle for Germany, and a biography of General Patton. His perspective as a leader of troops into battle, alongside his use of a wide-ranging variety of sources as a historian, makes for a great read even for those who know about Operation Overlord.
His 214 Independent Infantry Brigade, which together with 129 and 130 Brigade and their supporting arms formed Major General Ivor Thomas’s 43rd Wessex Division, were in turn part of the XXX Corps commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Brian Horrocks all the way from Normandy to Bremerhaven.
The Wessex Division story spans the stormy Overlord crossing and later the crucial Battle for Hill 112. This point south-west of Caen was defined by Eberbach, commander of Panzer Group West, as the “pivotal point of the whole position” and it saw the first of the grim battles of attrition immediately following Caen’s fall. The battle involved heavy casualties and tested the 43rd Division against some of the most seasoned German divisions, well dug in and skilfully hidden.
Road and rail lines lay at right angles to the direction of advance. The bocage of tiny, often boggy fields with sunken lanes and thick hedges reduced visibility for artillery and impeded all movement. And it was high summer. Hubert describes vividly how he crawled forward in the August heat to assess Mont Pincon’s southern slopes before its eventual capture by the Division and 8th Armoured Brigade.
Hubert was a writer whose extraordinarily immediate account includes, for example, the information he gained from German prisoners, subsequent revelations about Hitler’s orders to his generals, and his own point of view at the head of 214 Brigade. His perspective sheds light on some of the huge challenges of the campaign, such as that of establishing a key bridgehead over the Seine at Vernon despite the civilian population’s determination to celebrate as though the campaign was already won.
214 Brigade fought on through northern France and the Netherlands, including Operation Market Garden, and were among the first Allied troops to enter Germany. They played a key part in the turning of the tide in the Reichswald. I am proud that ‘Brigadier Twinkletoes’ was my grandfather and attempt to read across from his high standards of resolve and determination to the greyer demands of the here and now.
Jeremy Howard-Williams DFC (1922–1995), author of Night Intruder, had a distinguished career in the RAF as a night-fighter pilot during the Second World War and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for gallantry. To commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War, Jeremy’s son, Anthony Inglis Howard-Williams, reflects on the arrival of peace in 1945 and how it influenced his father’s life.
Jeremy Howard-Williams warming up the engines of a clipped wing Spitfire
When peace came to Europe in May 1945, Flight Lieutenant Jeremy Howard-Williams DFC was stationed at HQ, 11 Group Uxbridge. Three days before Germany’s unconditional surrender, a party was held to celebrate peace. Jeremy and his brother Peter did so by marching a guest — Flight Lieutenant Andrew from RAF Intelligence — between them up and down an anteroom. The junior flight lieutenant just happened to have been their pre-war boarding school housemaster, and the brothers had found it too good an opportunity to miss. When, years later, he was asked how the lieutenant had taken the ribbing, Jeremy replied, “with remarkable good humour!”
Jeremy at his wedding in 1951
Like so many in 1945, Jeremy was headed for an uncertain future. With peace came the pressing question: what happens now? For most, life outside of the forces beckoned. With millions demobilising, the assimilation of those who had been at war back into civilian society became one of the new post-war government’s biggest challenges. For those who did not want to leave the forces came a different challenge. With Jeremy’s father a retired RAF pilot, Peter a Battle of Britain day-fighter pilot and Jeremy a night-fighter pilot with the Fighter Interception Unit — an elite force at the forefront of the RAF’s early experiments with radar equipment — both brothers understandably wished to remain serving.
With the Royal Air Force downsizing, deployment meant less flying — not a very exciting prospect for a twenty-three-year-old war veteran. Jeremy had specifically joined the RAF in order to fly when the Nazis had tried to seize control of Western Europe. However, in the new modern era of the jet engine, aircraft were flying ever faster and higher. Now that was exciting!
In the end, both brothers remained in the RAF. Jeremy was first posted in an admin job to Singapore during the Malayan Emergency, where he met his wife, uniting two distinguished RAF families. He later worked as an assistant air attaché in the Paris and Berlin embassies. He did fly during these postings, but mainly a desk. He resigned in 1957.
Ultimately, Jeremy’s parents divorced and his father remarried into the Ratsey family, where Jeremy became sales manager for the famous sail-making firm Ratsey & Lapthorn in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. After leaving the company, he wrote many authoritative books on sailing, as well as Night Intruder, republished by Sapere Books, a personal account of his wartime service as a pilot and the radar war between the RAF and Luftwaffe night-fighter forces.
Sir Frank Whittle, author of Jet: The Story of a Pioneer, was a Royal Air Force pilot and aviation engineer known as the inventor of the jet engine. He obtained his first patent for a turbo-jet engine in 1930, and in 1936 co-founded Power Jets Ltd. In May 1941, his engine was fitted to a Gloster E.28/39 airframe — the plane’s maiden flight from RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire heralded the beginning of the jet age. Frank retired from the RAF in 1948 with the rank of air commodore, and that same year he was knighted. He was awarded the Order of Merit in 1986. To commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the end of World War Two, his son Ian reflects on Sir Frank’s life in 1945.
Frank as a junior officer in 1929, when he proposed the turbojet
My father’s company, Power Jets, was nationalised in 1944. From then until 1946, he was on the board of the government company that emerged under a slightly different name. At the time, he was working on the design for the aft-fan engine that also incorporated the after-burner system he had patented in 1936 — the modified W2/700. This was expected to propel the experimental Miles aircraft (M52) intended to be the first in the world to go supersonic. He was also working on the development of what would have been the world’s first hi-bypass turbo-fan engine — the LR1. Both projects were cancelled by the government in 1946 — as was the M52. These decisions resulted in Frank resigning from the board and putting himself in the hands of the RAF to do whatever they would wish him to do.
Frank holding his slide rule
1945 was a year of change for my father. He was still a serving officer in the RAF, but Power Jets had become publicly owned and entirely dependent on government funding. He found himself subject to the needs of the large independent aero-engine manufacturers who objected to a government company in competition. However, on three occasions he briefly got away from it all and flew the Meteor jet fighter. Apart from the Wright brothers, he was the first person to pilot an aeroplane powered by an engine of his own design. At other times, he found himself sent off to deliver lectures at various venues to describe the impact and differences when changing from piston engine/propeller propulsion to jet propulsion.
As a little boy, I remember him coming home after flying the Meteor along the high-speed run at Herne Bay. “How fast did you go, Daddy?” I asked. “Oh, about 450,” he replied. “Is that all?” I said with some disgust, and turned away to do whatever it was that I was doing. I had expected him to tell me 600 miles per hour. When I asked him about this, many years later, he said he was quite crestfallen by my reaction. He also explained that, as he was flying at about 50 feet above the surface of the sea, he really was unable to pay much attention to his airspeed indicator — his attention was focussed on keeping the aeroplane steady and level. And anyway, he would have been speaking of knots, not mph!
Sir Peter Gretton DSO** OBE DSC (1912–1992) was an officer in the Royal Navy. He was active in the Battle of the Atlantic during the Second World War, and was a successful convoy escort commander. He eventually rose to become Fifth Sea Lord and retired as a Vice-Admiral before entering university life as a bursar and academic.To commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the end of World War Two, Sir Peter’s son, Vice-Admiral Mike Gretton, shares his memories of him below.
Lieutenant Commander Peter Gretton with the Ship’s Company of HMS Wolverine
On 8 May 1945 — Victory in Europe Day — Peter Gretton was thirty-three years old and utterly exhausted. He had been continuously in seagoing appointments since the outbreak of war in September 1939. He had married Wren Judy Du Vivier in 1943 during a short break between convoys, and they had had their first child, Anne, who was not yet one year old. They were renting a flat in Kensington so that he could readily get to work: his job at the time was in the Joint Planning Staff in the Cabinet Office working on strategic plans to end the war in Europe and then in the Far East — not exactly a rest cure.
Peter had served continuously in seagoing ships from September 1939 until he came ashore in March 1944 — still only thirty-one years old. He had served in five ships during that time, starting as a First Lieutenant, including HMS Cossack in which he was mentioned in Dispatches for his performance during the Second Battle of Narvik under the very demanding Captain Philip Vian VC. From February 1941, he was in command of destroyers, starting with HMS Sabre in which he was awarded an OBE, and then HMS Wolverine (March to November 1942) when his ship was an escort for Operation Pedestal, the relief of Malta. He was awarded his first DSO for ramming and sinking an Italian submarine at the expense of wrecking his bows and having to proceed astern to port at Gibraltar.
Commander Peter Gretton with the Commanding Officers of ships in B7 Escort Group
From there, he was recalled to the UK as a Commander to become the Senior Officer of Escort Group B7, to be based in Derry, and he initially embarked on HMS Duncan. The Escort Group supported Atlantic convoys for two years and five months. He was awarded the two bars to his DSO during that time, the first of which reflected the successful battle for convoy ONS5, which historians regard as the tipping point in Allied fortunes in the Atlantic convoy campaign.
Peter with wife Judy in 1965
In March 1944, Peter dedicated himself to writing a new book — The Admiralty Convoy Instructions — based on his and others’ experience at war, with a readership in the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and Merchant Navy. This became the bible for convoy protection and the same book, with minor amendments, was the basis of my own training as a naval officer in the 1970s.
Peter and my mother rejoiced exuberantly at the victory in Europe: he writes that they ‘walked up Picadilly and thence to St James’ Park … remarkable scenes’. They would have reflected proudly on their own contribution to the outcome: my father at sea and my mother as a Wren in the Western Approaches Tactical Unit (WATU), which developed and taught tactics for the Atlantic battle. I was born nine months after VE Day, in March 1946.
1943
Sisters Anna and Jennifer Nightingale are recruits in the top-secret Siren Squadron: a group of women trained in the RAF to fight against the enemy.
The Sirens are tasked with flying a series of night stealth missions as part of Operation Scorpion. The first mission is successful, and on returning to base they are told that new members will be joining their ranks.
Hopeful that this means the all-female squadron has been deemed a success, the sisters welcome the new recruits and start training them on the Mosquitos.
They head out on another night mission. But this time not everyone returns.
With a downed plane found empty off the English coast, fears grow that one of the Sirens hasn’t survived.
But the show must go on. And Anna Nightingale has to destroy the crashed plane so the Sirens can remain classified.
As their night missions continue, increased skirmishes with enemy pilots suggest someone may be leaking information to the Germans.
Have the Sirens been compromised? Can they find the mole?
Or will these daring female agents be forced out of the war…?
Congratulations to Justin Fox, whose thrilling military adventure, Hell Run Tobruk, is out now!
Hell Run Tobruk is the third book in the Jack Pembroke Naval Thriller series: authentic British Navy war stories set during the Second World War.
December, 1941
Lieutenant Jack Pembroke is ordered to join a convoy and sail his small escort ship, HMSAS Gannet, from the Royal Navy base in Simon’s Town, South Africa, to Egypt.
With the Mediterranean all but closed to maritime traffic, and Rommel’s forces rampaging through North Africa, it seems unlikely that Gannet will survive the coming battles.
Jack arrives in Alexandria and is soon thrust into the action, escorting ships running supplies to the beleaguered town of Tobruk in Libya.
With the pressure building and ships around him being sunk by enemy bombers, Jack must deal with his own PTSD while leading his men to safety.
And with Tobruk surrounded, about to fall to Axis forces, Gannet is still trapped in the port…
Can Jack lead his men to safety? Will he make it out of Tobruk in one piece?
Congratulations to Patrick Larsimont, whose thrilling military adventure, The Wire and the Lines, is published today!
The Wire and the Lines is fifth instalment of the Jox McNabb Aviation Thrillers series: action-packed historical novels following a young RAF pilot during the Second World War.
Summer, 1943
When fighter pilot Jox McNabb crashes on the wrong side of the straits of Messina, he is captured by the Germans.
It seems that for Jox, the war might be over.
But Jox is never one to give up. Desperate to escape, he quickly familiarises himself with the camp and gets to know his fellow prisoners.
With punishment brutal for those that have attempted to flee previously, morale is low in the camp and there is little motivation to try and break the rules.
The war is still raging on the outside and Jox will do anything to get back to his No. 333 Squadron, the Black Pigs.
On the orders of a cruel Luftwaffe Colonel, Jox is embroiled in a scheme to use high profile POWs as human shields, covering shipments of precious artworks looted from Sicily and Italy.
Could this mission provide Jox with the means to escape? Can he blow the whistle on the stolen loot?
And can he get back in action and rejoin the war in the skies…?
We are delighted to announce that we have signed Anthony Palmiotti’s American Merchant Marine series set during World War II.
Anthony Palmiotti
In Anthony’s words:
“Thank you, Sapere Books, for allowing my series to sail on.
“World War II was, perhaps, the most dangerous of all times for American Merchant Marines and British Merchant Navy seamen. Particularly in the early years, these civilian seamen had less chance of surviving the war than their comrades in the traditional military services. The series starts just as things are heating up when a young third mate, Patrick Welch, joins the tramp freighter Arrow. Throughout the first three books in the series, Patrick, and the crew of the Arrow, deal with Nazi U-boats, unforgiving weather and are part of a little-known rescue of Norwegian civilians from the far north.
“The goal of these novels is to highlight the contribution and sacrifice of these civilian warriors. And, of course, tell a good sea story!”
Congratulations to Patrick Larsimont, whose thrilling wartime adventure, The Vulcan and the Straits, is out now!
The Vulcan and the Straits is the fourth book in the Jox McNabb Aviation Thrillers series: action-packed, authentic historical adventures following a young RAF pilot during the Second World War.
Autumn, 1942
Fighter pilot, Jox McNabb has survived the desert and the second battle of El Alamein, but now No. 111 Squadron is heading into a fresh new storm.
They embark on Operation Torch, the invasion of Vichy North Africa, but adverse weather conditions make flying almost impossible.
And their Commanding Officer, Tony Bartley is losing control as he becomes more and more dependent on alcohol.
After a rocky few months, and a final disastrous mission, it is decided that Jox should step up to Squadron Leader.
But as the North African campaign worsens and Bartley becomes increasingly erratic, Jox finds himself fighting an uphill battle.
Is Jox up for the challenge of command? Can he lead his men to victory?
Congratulations to D. R. Bailey, whose exciting wartime thriller, Tides of Change, is out now!
Tides of Change is the fifth book in the Spitfire Mavericks Thrillers series: action-packed aviation adventures set during the second world war and featuring a team of vigilante pilots.
December, 1941
After a tense encounter with attacking Focke-Wulfs, Flying Officer Angus Mackennelly returns to base to find Squadron Leader Bentley announcing the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
US forces are being drafted in as war is declared on Japan and an American airbase is to be established next to the RAF Banley base used by the Maverick Squadron.
Angus is promoted to Flight Lieutenant and is given orders to lead a squadron escorting the American bombers on short-range missions until they have their own escort fighters.
But after the US bombers have landed, the Germans stage an attack on the airbase and rumours start to circulate that there may be an enemy spy on base.
As Angus and the Mavericks prepare for more intense air battles over Europe, suspicion between the team grows.
Is there a spy? Are they only targeting the Americans?
And can Maverick Squadron prepare their new allies for the realities of war…?
Congratulations to Tony Rea, whose fighter pilot adventure, Bouncer’s Battle, is published today!
Bouncer’s Battle is the first book in the Gus Beaumont Aviation Thrillers series: action-packed military adventure novels set during the Second World War.
England, 1939
When Gus Beaumont completes his training in June 1939, he is given the nickname ‘Bouncer’ for his less than smooth landings.
Despite that, he is an excellent flyer, and his Polish-British heritage inspires the secretive Wing Commander Sir Alexander Peacock to set him on a mission.
The British are aware that Poland is likely to fall to Germany and they are desperate to get the Polish fighter pilots to safety beforehand so they can continue fighting against the Reich.
Gus’s cousin, Staś Rosen, is a Polish fighter pilot and Gus is sent to persuade him to pass the message on to those in charge.
By the time Gus returns to England, war has been declared, and after some tough battles against the Luftwaffe, Staś manages to escape from Poland.
Gus is jealous of Staś’s tales of adventures as he finds himself once more stuck in training, and failing to see any action.
But all that will change when Gus is sent to fight in the Battle of Britain…
Can Gus ‘Bouncer’ Beaumont make his mark? Will he find himself fighting alongside his cousin?
Or will the realities of war prove to be more than he can handle…?
Congratulations to D. R. Bailey, whose page-turning military adventure, The Sunrise Raiders, is out now!
The Sunrise Raiders is the fourth book in the Spitfire Mavericks Thrillers series: action-packed aviation novels set during the second world war and featuring a team of vigilante pilots.
Autumn, 1941
During a routine patrol, Flying Officer Angus Mackennelly ends up in a skirmish with the enemy over the English Channel and is nearly captured.
It is clear the Germans have unleashed a new weapon.
Back at base, Maverick Squadron are told the new German fighter plane is the Focke-Wulf 190. And it is far more manoeuvrable and nimbler than anything the British have got.
Soon the FW is causing problems for every unit. Squadron Leader Bentley exhorts the Mavericks to do their best no matter what and continue to fly in combat against the new plane.
The Mavericks struggle on against the enemy but the odds are falling further out of their favour.
Something needs to change and Angus is tasked with capturing one of the enemy craft for British intelligence.
But that’s easier said than done…
Will Angus succeed in his mission? Can the British match the new German technology?
Or will Maverick Squadron be forced to admit defeat…?
We are delighted to announce that the first three books in D. R. Bailey’s absorbing World War II adventure series, the Spitfire Mavericks Thrillers, will be released as audiobooks by Tantor Media.
The books follow the progress of RAF officer Angus Mackennelly as he flies into battle while becoming embroiled in a series of mysteries.
In David’s words:
“I am very excited to be working with Tantor to bring my books to the audio platform. This is a tremendous boost for any author, and I’m pleased that it will take the Spitfire Mavericks series to a new audience. Working with Sapere has been an excellent experience and I’m very happy that the series is set to continue.
“The Spitfire Mavericks was born out of a love for Spitfires, plus the feeling of wanting to write something new and different about the air war. The series is a mixture of action, love, romance, thriller, mystery and all of the things I like to put into my writing. It is of course fictional, set within the historical context of World War II. As an author, I love to explore the ‘what if’ and weave a story from that. I am very attached to my characters too, in spite of the tribulations I put them through. Joining Sapere has been everything I had hoped. It has taken my writing career to new heights, and I’m eternally grateful for all of the support from Amy, Caoimhe, Richard and Natalie, and the opportunity to bring my work to a wider audience.”
Congratulations to D. R. Bailey, whose page-turning World War II adventure, A Fool’s Errand, is published today!
A Fool’s Errand is the second book in the Spitfire Mavericks Thrillers series: action-packed aviation adventures set during the second world war and featuring a team of vigilante pilots.
1941
The Battle of Britain is over, and RAF Fighter Command turns its attention to France.
Flying Officer Angus Mackennelly and the rest of ‘Maverick’ Squadron 696 are engaged in tactics to lure the Luftwaffe into battle.
But Angus has grave misgivings about the orders he has been given, which are justified when he loses a brand-new pilot on their first incursion.
And the squadron is dealt another blow when one of their pilot officers is discovered dead in the hangar.
The inquest rules the death a suicide, but Angus is certain something more sinister has happened.
In between bouts of furious dogfights in the skies, Angus and his good friend Flying Officer Tomas Jezek work tirelessly to investigate the murder.
While they risk their lives fighting a deadly foe, could the real threat be coming from an enemy within? Are the Spitfire Mavericks being targeted by someone who is supposed to be on their side…?
Congratulations to D. R. Bailey, whose gripping military adventure, Dawn of Hope, is out now!
Dawn of Hope is the first book in the Spitfire Mavericks Thrillers series: action-packed aviation adventures set during the Second World War and featuring a team of vigilante pilots.
1940, England
After a series of run-ins with his superiors, Flying Officer Angus Mackennelly is posted to Squadron 696 – the Maverick unit full of misfits and outsiders.
Angus has just returned from gunning down enemy aircraft when he is given a shocking top-secret mission.
A spy is in their midst, feeding information to the Germans, and Angus is tasked with exposing him.
MI6 pin their suspicions on one of the squadron’s foreign pilots, but Angus is not convinced. He needs to get closer to the men in his unit to try and unravel their secrets.
As the fight in the skies intensifies, it is clear the Germans are anticipating their every move, putting the lives of the pilots in the Maverick squadron at a deadly risk.
Can Angus unmask the traitor? Will he save the men in his squadron?
Congratulations to Patrick Larsimont, whose thrilling World War II adventure, The Raiders and the Cross, is out now!
The Raiders and the Cross is the second book in the Jox McNabb Aviation Thrillers series: action-packed, authentic historical adventures following a young RAF pilot during the Second World War.
Winter, 1940
Enemy raiders are bombing Britain’s cities relentlessly. Casualties are high and morale is at an all-time low.
Jox McNabb and the rest of No.111 Squadron train to become night fighters to take on the raiders inflicting such carnage on Britain’s cities.
But then tragedy strikes and Jox is devastated by the loss of those close to him.
Scarred physically and emotionally, he recovers slowly. Seeking a fresh start, he volunteers to serve in the turbulent skies of besieged Malta.
But this new location quickly becomes just as dangerous as the last.
Can Jox forget the tragedy that haunts him? Will he survive the murderous assault of the Luftwaffe?
And can a desperate Malta withstand the relentless onslaught?
Congratulations to Patrick Larsimont, whose thrilling wartime adventure, The Lightning and the Few, is published today!
The Lightning and the Fewis the first book in the Jox McNabb Aviation Thrillers series: action-packed, authentic historical adventures following a RAF pilot during the second world war.
Scotland, 1939
When Jox McNabb is expelled from school he is forced to look to his future.
Inspired by the sight of a Hurricane flying over him, he becomes determined to join the RAF.
And after basic training, Jox is posted to RAF Montrose with the growing group of other recruits he has met along the way.
Battling the bleak Scottish elements and finding themselves immediately thrown in at the deep end, the lads struggle to keep up with the training.
Many are deemed unfit for service, and after tragedy strikes, Jox questions if he’s got what it takes.
Can Jox earn his wings to face Blitzkrieg and defend his country in its hour of need? Does he have the courage and skill to become one of The Few? Will he beat the odds to survive his first battle?
Justin Fox is the author of the Jack Pembroke Naval Thriller series: authentic British Navy war stories set during the Second World War.
I grew up around boats and the sea has always been an important part of my life and my writing. Our family spent holidays in an old house in Simon’s Town, the former Royal Navy base in South Africa, and from an early age I knocked about in anything that floats: rowing boats, sailing dinghies, windsurfers and yachts. My reading as a boy was also nautically orientated, particularly naval yarns by the likes of Douglas Reeman, Patrick O’Brian, Nicholas Monsarrat and CS Forester.
Midshipman Justin Fox, aged 17.
After leaving school, my two years of national service in the South African Defence Force were spent in the navy, based in Simon’s Town. During that period, I had six months at sea on a replica medieval caravel sailing down the Atlantic from Portugal to South Africa in a re-enactment of the voyage of Bartholomew Dias in 1487. The first book I ever wrote (never published) was the story of that voyage.
When I later joined Getaway travel magazine as a photojournalist, I volunteered for any boating assignment: sailing a brigantine around the Seychelles, a felucca down the Nile, a pirogue to Timbuktu, island-hopping by catamaran around Madagascar, taking the mail ship to St Helena Island and sailing a dhow up the Kenyan coast (which provided material for my Somali pirate novel, Whoever Fears the Sea, published by Sapere).
My Jack Pembroke series is inspired by my love of history and the sea, but I also aimed to bring to the fore a theatre of World War II that is not well known and is little written about: the fighting off the South African coast that resulted in the loss of more than 150 Allied ships.
View from Justin’s flat in Cape Town.
I live in a flat in Cape Town and my desk overlooks the city’s anchorage. Watching the ships come and go each day, I often think of the war years when thousands of vessels were routed around the Cape. When a convoy was in town, Table Bay would be crammed with more than fifty ships, all of them needing protection. In place of today’s yachts and pleasure craft puttering jauntily out of the V&A Waterfront, minesweepers and anti-submarine vessels would make their daily round of the bay.
During the war, the Cape of Good Hope became a vital strategic point on the sea route around the continent and was particularly important during the North African campaign. Once Italy entered the war in 1940, the Mediterranean became too dangerous for Allied convoys, and most were diverted around the Cape. Much preparation was needed before Nazi warships made their way to Africa’s southern tip. The Royal Navy base in Simon’s Town had to be expanded and reinforced, and a fledgling South African Navy created almost from scratch.
First came the German surface raiders, then the U-boats. They attacked within sight of the coast and near the entrance to the harbours of Cape Town and Durban. There are incredible stories of heroism and cloak-and-dagger raids around our coast. For instance, one U-boat slipped into Table Bay and its captain allowed his crew on deck to see the bright lights of Sea Point (of course, all German cities were blacked out at the time). There are many apocryphal stories that surfaced in the folklore of coastal towns, such as German sailors coming ashore and playing soccer with Nazi-sympathising locals, spies passing on information about Allied ship movements and farmers replenishing U-boats around Cape Agulhas.
Cape Town minesweepers during WWII.
Like many South African children of my generation, I had a fascination with World War II. I built model ships and aeroplanes, played war games in our suburban garden and devoured books about the great campaigns. But I was always mildly disappointed that most of the stories were about the North, and that South Africa seldom featured in the accounts.
During my time in the navy, I began to learn a little bit about the battles fought in local waters and became interested in the exploits of South Africa’s ‘little ships’. If the actions of raiders, U-boats and convoys were soon forgotten by the general public after the war, the exploits of minesweepers and anti-submarine vessels hardly received mention at all. Yet the industrious, daily patrols by these ships kept South African ports open and took the fight to the U-boat wolf packs. It is that story that forms the backdrop to the first two Jack Pembroke adventure novels, The Cape Raider and The Wolf Hunt.
Congratulations to Justin Fox, whose thrilling wartime adventure, The Wolf Hunt, is out now! The Wolf Hunt is the second book in the Jack Pembroke Naval Thriller series.
1941
Lieutenant Jack Pembroke has found a new home and new love at the Cape, but it will all hang in the balance with the arrival of the enemy in South African waters.
With the Mediterranean all but closed to maritime traffic, and Rommel’s forces rampaging through North Africa, this sea route is vital to supplying the Allied forces in Egypt.
But German U-boats have been sent by Admiral Donitz from their bases on the west coast of France to cripple the convoy route.
Jack is put in command of a small anti-submarine flotilla in the Royal Navy base of Simon’s Town, South Africa.
But he has very little time to train his officers and men, and prepare his ships, for the arrival of the Nazi wolf packs.
With the Cape under attack, Jack has to escort a vital convoy from Cape Town to Durban.
But with the enemy U-boats lying in wait in the storm-ravaged waters, he’ll be luck to make it out alive…
Congratulations to Tim Chant, whose exhilarating nautical action novel, Mutiny on the Potemkin, is published today!
Mutiny on the Potemkin is the second book in the Marcus Baxter naval thriller series: action-packed, authentic historical adventures following former Royal Navy officer Marcus Baxter during the early 1900s.
Marcus Baxter may have survived one naval battle, but his troubles are far from over.
Despite serving with the Russian navy aboard the Yaroslovich, he is arrested by the Tsarist secret police for conspiracy and sent west on the Trans-Siberian railway to St. Petersburg. Competing factions within the secret police disrupt his journey and he finds himself in Odessa.
Odessa, though, is in the grip of revolutionary riots and Baxter finds himself trapped in the city as violence and anarchy spreads.
The crew of the Potemkin has mutinied, killing most of the officers and bringing the battleship into port.
When Baxter realises a friend is trapped in the carnage, he is determined to get onboard the battleship.
When I wrote A Shadowed Livery, it didn’t occur to me that Inspector James Given would spawn a series, so I happily scribbled away with no thought of the future. But the series developed, and by three-quarters of the way through the third novel I was trying to think of ways of killing him off, so I could move on to other projects. I’m not unusual in this. Conan Doyle famously had Holmes plunge from the Reichenbach Falls, only to re-emerge alive in a later story, and virtually all of our favourite Game of Thrones characters met their deaths before the end. However, I had a slightly more difficult problem than those. My series is written in first person, from James’s point of view, so how could he tell the stories if he were dead? It has been done, but I didn’t like it as a device.
The simple answer is he didn’t die, and I’m still working out how he might.
As a result, when I finished A Patient Man, I was on the lookout for ideas for the next in the series when a story arose on the Facebook page for my local area. The posts said a man with a bicycle had been found dead in the River Severn, under a bridge about a mile from my home. It turned out not to be true and, if it were, I probably wouldn’t have written about it. But it was such a bizarre image, not just the body in the water, but the bicycle with him, I knew there had to be a story there. The old ‘what if?’ kicked in, and Where Every Man was underway.
In the first three novels, James Given is living in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, and I could have moved him close to where I live in Shropshire for the new one, but at the end of A Patient Man he was contemplating a move to France. I’ve always wanted to live there, so why not take James instead? There were, however, some practical considerations, not least of which were that at the time of the action the Second World War had begun, German forces were on the French border, James is Jewish and the ferries had been commandeered for military service.
Despite these difficulties, James and his wife make it to Brittany, with the help of an acquaintance, to settle into a life of country air, good food and new friends. But that wouldn’t necessarily have made for a good story. When the local librarian is found dead in the river, with her bicycle by her side, things become a lot more interesting.
Where Every Man is the fourth James Given novel and is due for release on 6th October.
Jane Cable is the author of ANOTHER YOU and ENDLESS SKIES, modern romantic sagas that draw on the Second World War.
Although I hated history at school, in my adult life I have become a total history buff. Not history about royalty, wars and politicians though – the history of ordinary, everyday people. A history I feel connected to and is more often than not local.
For my contemporary romances the history I choose is sharply focussed, linked to the setting. For Another You, the most gripping part of Studland’s past was its role in the practices for D-Day, and for Endless Skies I decided to stay with World War Two. The book is set in Lincolnshire, so to my mind is inextricably linked with Bomber Command.
The wartime setting for Endless Skies is RAF Hemswell, now an industrial estate best known for its antiques centres and markets. In fact, that was the reason I went there in the first place. But wandering around the old barrack buildings, I could almost see the airmen on the stairs and hear the stamp of their boots in the parade ground. This had to be the place.
The staff at Hemswell Antique Centres were able to give me a leaflet with a short history of the base, and that set me off on my research. While we were in Lincolnshire I walked its buildings and roads then drove around the area, so I was totally familiar with the terrain, and once we were back at home I started to dig deeper.
Here the internet is invaluable, and there are a number of websites giving the history of RAF bases. Hemswell was one of the first to be operational right at the beginning of the war, but as I dug deeper I found two Polish squadrons had been based there in 1942-3 and had suffered huge losses. I knew exactly where to focus my research.
This is where local history becomes exceptionally localised for me: one place at one point in time. In Endless Skies my protagonist, Dr Rachel Ward, is an archaeologist and my own work made me think of hers: researching a site, carrying out a survey, opening a trench, trowelling into every corner then digging out a single artefact. She finds … well, it would be spoiling the story to tell you. I find words.
Hemswell War Memorial
But sometimes before you focus down you need to pan out, so I read around the subject: first-hand accounts from wartime bomber crews; memoirs of civilian life on RAF bases. For background on Hemswell itself I was very lucky – it was where The Dam Busters was filmed in the 1950s, and there was both a book and documentary about making the movie so I could watch almost contemporary footage.
There was also a treasure trove on the internet about the Polish airmen who crewed the station, and seeing photographs of them was quite an eerie experience. In fact, I ended up with far more information than I could possibly – or would want to – use in the book. But the level of detail gives me confidence my historical details are correct.
But equally interesting to me were the ghost stories associated with Hemswell: a pilot in flames on the runway, the echoes of 1940s music and the sounds of bombers taking off and landing. And having researched them, it would have been such a shame not to use at least one of them as well. Although my ghosts, of course, are completely fictional.
During World War Two, the Channel Islands were the only part of the British Isles to be occupied by the Germans. I saw a picture online of a British ‘bobby’ or policeman talking to a Nazi soldier, and it sparked my interest. Jersey is a tiny island, only eight miles long, so I was fascinated to find out how the population managed to keep up their morale, when as many as fifteen thousand (yes, you read that right) Germans had taken over. What happened to the Jews on the island, or to the other groups that the Nazis considered ‘undesirable’? How did it feel to be invaded by a foreign army?
The story became much more interesting and involved the more I uncovered. At the beginning of the war, Jersey had been ‘stood down’ for military action, as nobody believed the Germans would want such a small territory. Men of fighting age had been sent elsewhere, so it was a population of women and farmers. When the invasion came, it was a total surprise and there were no defences in place. After a brief bombing campaign, the German army just walked in. Before long, white ‘surrender’ flags were fluttering from Jersey houses.
German soldiers standing in King Street, St Helier, Jersey
This was the beginning of Nazi rule on the islands, which was supposed to be a ‘peaceful’ occupation. Of course, when you are invaded it might look peaceful, but underneath the tensions soon began to show. The oppressive Nazi force vastly outnumbered the British people left on the island. Those that remained had to find ways to resist, and ways to outwit the unwanted intruders in their traditional way of life. German rule took over – people had to speak German, cars had to drive on the right, many things that had been allowed before, such as owning a car or a radio, were ‘verboten’ – forbidden. The Germans began a vast building programme to fortify the island, which they intended to use at a military base to attack England. The vast concrete fortifications were built by slave labour.
My story is based on several true accounts, although I have welded them together and compressed them into a fictional narrative. Céline and Rachel’s story was inspired by the true Jersey story of Dorothea Weber, who hid her Jewish friend Hedwig Bercu from the Germans. More on this surprising real life story can be found here.
Fred’s story in The Occupation is based on a number of accounts of life in the Germany army, and in the French Resistance. I was interested to examine the idea of occupation from the point of view of both the occupier, and the occupied. What always interests me in fiction is the conflicts that arise because of the circumstances of war, where one nation is pitted against another, and people who might have been quite amicable before the conflict are forced to swear allegiance to a sharp division between one side and another, when in reality, and in people, many shades of grey exist.
