In the original dustsheet. Black cloth binding with gilt title on the spine.

• F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

In June 1941 the Ark Royal won one of Britain’s most famous naval victories. The German destroyer, Bismarck, had been ravaging the British fleet in the Atlantic. Sailing through a ferocious storm the Ark Royal tracked the Bismarck. A dozen swordfish bombers took off from her deck. Battleships pounded shell after shell into the German battleship, sending her to the ocean floor. It was a signal victory that resonated around the world. Hitler, furious at the loss of the German fleet’s flagship, demanded that the Ark Royal be destroyed at whatever cost.

HMS Ark Royal is one of the Royal Navy’s most iconic ships. When she was launched in 1938 she was one of the most sophisticated weapons at the disposal of British military command. The aircraft carrier was the latest, and soon to be one of the most feared, developments in naval warfare. In her first two years of operation the Ark Royal survived countless attacks, and was considered one of the luckiest ships in the Navy. But her air of invincibility was to prove wishful thinking. Within one month of sinking the Bismarck, the Ark Royal too was destroyed while sailing off the coast of Gibraltar. And there she rested, one kilometer below the surface of the Mediterranean, until her wreck was discovered by Mike Rossiter in 2004.

In gripping detail, and using the testimony of survivors of the sinking and men who lived, flew and fought on the Ark Royal, Mike Rossiter tells the remarkable story of the life and legend of this most iconic of ships. Also, and for the first time, he reveals the story of the quest to discover the wreck of this naval legend.

Review: A well researched and written account of the famous Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier and, the authors’ search for Her wreck site in the Mediterranean Sea. Mike Rossiter does a fine job of integrating the 2004 search for Ark Royal with the history of the ship. Mr.Rossiter also briefly covers the history of the Fleet Air Arm and aircraft carrier development in the Royal Navy as they relate to the design of the ship and her operation. The accounts of Ark Royal’s surviving crew give a wonderful glimpse of life in the Royal Navy and aboard one of His Majesty’s Ships during early World War Two. This is an enjoyable, informative and moving account of the men, the events, and the ship which did so much to hold back the forces of tyranny during the dark days of the Second World War, when Great Britain stood alone.