From the moment he was shot down to the final whistle, Jimmy James' one aim as a POW of the Germans was to escape. The Great Escaper describes his experiences and those of his fellow prisoners in the most gripping and thrilling manner. The author made more than 12 escape attempts including his participation in The Great Escape, where 50 of the 76 escapees were executed in cold blood on Hitler's orders. On re-capture, James was sent to the infamous Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp where, undeterred, he tunnelled out. That was not the end of his remarkable story. Moonless Night has strong claim to be the finest escape story of the Second World War.

On 25 September 1939 Melvin Young reported to No.1 Initial Training Unit. He was selected as a bomber pilot and promoted to Flying Officer. Having undertaken a Lancaster conversion course Melvin and his new crew were posted to 57 Squadron at Scampton - soon to become 617 Squadron. On 15 May the Order for Operation Chastise was issued - the raid to be flown the next night, 16/17 May. The plan for the operation was that three waves of aircraft would be employed. The first wave of nine aircraft, led by Gibson, would first attack the Mohne Dam, then the Eder followed by other targets as directed by wireless from 5 Group HQ if any weapons were still available. This wave would fly in three sections of three aircraft about ten minutes apart led by Guy Gibson, Melvin Young and Henry Maudslay. At 00.43 Melvin and his crew made their attempt on the Mohne dam. Gibson recorded that Young's weapon made 'three good bounces and contact'.Once the dam had been breached Gibson with Melvin as his deputy led the three remaining armed aircraft towards the Eder Dam. On the return trip Melvin Young and his crew fell victim to enemy guns.

Allan Diffey s charming and amusing memoir portrays a long lost era of the Royal Navy in the 1950s, and one boy s love for ships and the sea. Diffey had never seen the sea until he was five years old, having been born just after the outbreak of the Second World War, and evacuated to Andover after his family s house in Gosport was bombed. On leaving school aged only fourteen, Allan was employed by the N.A.A.F.I. Institute and for the next two years delivered Ration Stores to all the small R.N. Craft that were based in Portsmouth Dockyard, and to H.M.S. Vernon. At the age of seventeen Allan became eligible to serve on sea going R.N. ships in a civilian capacity in the Ships Canteen and Goffa Bar whereon five days after his seventeenth birthday he was drafted to his first R.N. ship, H.M.S. Kenya. Allan relates his memoirs in a very simple manner as he recalls an era that was fast coming to an end of R.N. ships, the like of which we shall not see again. This book is a fascinating snapshot of Naval History from a civilian prospective.