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"He is usually dressed rather like a tramp. His sweater is worn, his trousers frayed, while what was once a cap is perched askew on his tanned face. He wears no gold braid or gold buttons: neither does he jump to the salute briskly. Nobody goes out of his way to call him a 'hero', or pin medals on his breast. No - he is just a seaman of the British Merchant Service. Yet his serves in our Front Line today." Montague Smith, writing in The Daily Mail, November 1939. The Allied Merchant Navies in World War II provided a vital but often forgotten service to their countries' war effort. At the outbreak of war, the British Merchant Navy was the largest in the world, and up to 185,000 men and women served during the course of the war, some as young as 14. The US Merchant Marine all told numbered over 200,000. The risks they faced to maintain the essential flow of armaments, equipment and food were considerable. Danger came from submarines, mines, armed raiders and destroyers, aircraft, kamikaze pilots and the weather itself. Life on board a merchant ship could be tense, with hour after hour spent battling high seas, never knowing if a torpedo was about to hit. In the Arctic convoys sailors had to cope with extreme cold and ice. But there was also comradeship and more open society than was the norm at the time, free of distinctions of class, race, religion, age or colour and a mixture of nationalities, especially in the British fleet. The Merchant Navy Seaman Pocket Manual provides a fascinating glimpse into the world of these intrepid seamen, many of whom did not return. Collating documents, diagrams and illustrations from British and American archives, it combines information on training, gunnery, convoys, anti-submarine techniques with personal accounts. Covering the battle of the Atlantic, the Arctic Convoys, and the Pacific, this pitches the reader into the heart of this vital but often forgotten arena of WWII.

Attractive pocket manual bringing together advice and tips for families on the homefront during World War II

The Paratrooper Training Pocket Manual 1939-45 provides an unusually detailed insight into what it took to make a military paratrooper and how he was then utilized as part of wider operations.

Pocket manual detailing the training and operations of the British pilots, ground crew and anti-aircraft gunners.

The official field-manuals for spycraft, espionage and counter-intelligence 1945-1968, with full introduction and commentary from leading historian Philip Parker.

Published in the months leading up to the Battle of Jutland, W.M. James¿ New Battleship Organisations, was the ultimate guide to command and organization of every aspect of a modern First World War capital ship. The book provides a unique, and highly revealing, insight into life aboard ship, the mechanics of command, seamanship, the issuing of orders, and the broad expectations placed upon British naval officers. Specific sections are dedicated to the organization of watches, the division of work (from fellow officers right through the ship¿s company to the ratings), naval routine, parades, anchor and cable work, coaling and right down to the organization of chapel, on-board shops, cleaning and even the ship¿s barbers. A series of detailed tables, diagrams and humorous cartons accompany the lucid, period language of the First World War Senior Service and provide a further glimpse below-decks that will appeal to social and family historians, and anyone with a general or specialist interest in naval history. The book, re-published here by the Pool of London Press as The Royal Navy Officer¿s Jutland Pocket-Manual 1916, marks the centenary of the First World War¿s most famous, and deadly naval encounter.

Excerpts from the many unofficial 'manuals' avidly bought by members of the British Home Guard desperate to prepare for invasion during World War II

This volume in the Pocket Manuals series is based on The Partisan's Companion, the Red Army manual used to train partisans to fight the Nazi invader