Ralph Barker

The Schneider Trophy Races

Epic story of low-level strikes on Axis navies in World War II One of the most dangerous forms of air attack used during the war Written by a participant This stirring book recounts how British torpedo-bombers took the war to enemy naval fleets and shipping vessels during World War II. Episodes covered include the attack by a single plane on a German battleship, the torpedoing of the Gneisenau in Brest harbor, and the vital blows against the supply lines of Rommel's Afrika Korps in the Mediterranean.

British Torpedo-Bombers in World War II

Ship-Busters

This text tells the story of the Royal Flying Corps, and its part in all the major battles of World War I, from Bloody April 1917 through Third Ypres and Passchendaele to the chaotic retreat from Ludendorff's offensive.

A Brief History of the Royal Flying Corps in World War I

Captain 'Bill' Lancaster, pioneer flyer of the twenties and thirties, disappeared on a flight over the Sahara in 1933. It was twenty-nine years before his body was found beside the wrecked plane; a logbook tied to the wing, contained the calm yet moving record of his wait for death. Bill Lancaster's dramatic end was in keeping with his adventurous and colorful life. His service career established his reputation as a man without fear, and when he left the RAF in 1926 he turned to trailblazing. An attempt to be the first man to fly a light plane to Australia involved him with a top woman flyer, 'Chubbie' Miller and, neglecting their families, the pair flew together for four years until the depression forced Lancaster to leave in search of work. How Bill Lancaster made a desperate effort to retrieve his fortunes, how Chubbie fell in love with an American writer, Haden Clarke, while he was away, and how Clarke was shot dead on Lancaster's return, leads up to a full account of one of the most sensational murder trials of the century. A story as exciting as the age it is set in, its unique denouement leaves the reader free to pronounce his own verdict on Bill Lancaster, pioneer flyer and adventurer.

Bill Lancaster- The Final Verdict

From Mons to the Somme

The Royal Flying Corps in France

John Tillotson

The Remaining Discourses, On The Attributes of God

Arch-Bishop Tillotson's

The Story of the S.S. City of Cairo

Goodnight, Sorry for Sinking You

Recounts one of the greatest sea stories of World War II. It is the story of how George Binney, a 39 year-old civilian working in neutral Sweden when Norway was overrun by the Germans in 1940, set about running vital cargoes of Swedish ball-bearings and special steels to Britain through the blockaded Skagerrak, where German air strength was dominant and where the Royal Navy dare not trespass. Despite Admiralty gloom and in the face of political objections that were overcome by Binney's persistence, five ships carrying a year's supply of valuable materials for the expanding British war industries were successfully sailed to Britain in January 1941. A following attempt was not as successful and ended when six ships were sunk or scuttled. But then came the saga of the Little Ships, the motor gunboats flying the Red Duster that operated out of the Humber to and from the Swedish coast in the winter of 1943/44, defying the strengthened German defences and the wrath of severe weather.

The Blockade Busters

Includes accounts of British Arctic Air Route Expedition 1930-31 and Watkins' East Greenland Expedition 1932-33.

A Biography of F. Spencer Chapman, DSO

One Man's Jungle

Tells the true story of one of the most tragic of mountain misadventures. The 1957 expedition to Haramosh Peak in the Karakoram range in Pakistan is a tale of an expedition that has gone terribly wrong. It tells of three days and three nights without food or water as the climbers try and extricate one another from an icy grave.

The Last Blue Mountain

‘When an accident occurs, something may emerge of lasting value, for the human spirit may rise to its greatest heights. This happened on Haramosh.’ The Last Blue Mountain is the heart-rending true story of the 1957 expedition to Mount Haramosh in the Karakoram range in Pakistan. With the summit beyond reach, four young climbers are about to return to camp. Their brief pause to enjoy the view and take photographs is interrupted by an avalanche which sweeps Bernard Jillott and John Emery hundreds of feet down the mountain into a snow basin. Miraculously, they both survive the fall. Rae Culbert and Tony Streather risk their own lives to rescue their friends, only to become stranded alongside them. The group’s efforts to return to safety are increasingly desperate, hampered by injury, exhaustion and the loss of vital climbing gear. Against the odds, Jillott and Emery manage to climb out of the snow basin and head for camp, hoping to reach food, water and assistance in time to save themselves and their companions from an icy grave. But another cruel twist of fate awaits them. An acclaimed mountaineering classic in the same genre as Joe Simpson's Touching the Void, Ralph Barker’s The Last Blue Mountain is an epic tale of friendship and fortitude in the face of tragedy.

The great Karakoram climbing tragedy

Beskriver hvorledes den engelske Fleet Air Arm forsøgte at beskytte egen konvojsejlads ved at benytte skibsbaserede jagerfly med katapultstart.

Ralph Barker

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