The Gates of Hell

London England: Jarrolds, 1960. Hardback. First Edition. The Gates of Hell. Slight foxing to edge. Brown cloth with red lettering. Foreword by Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fraser of North Cape. The German's failure entirely to stop the convoys led ultimately to Hitler having one of his celebrated brainstorms; and the German pocket-battleships and heavy cruisers (which had been a constant threat throughout) were relegated to the status of floating barracks, or were decommissioned. To tell the complete story of the Arctic convoys would require several volumes. Each convoy in itself was an epic in the truest sense of the world, an epic both glorious and tragic. Within self imposed limites I have tried in the following pages to paint a picture on a wide canvas. I have limned in the first tentative sailings across the roof of the world, and then the later sailings when the convoys had, quite literally, to be fought through fire and blood - to the end when they sailed almost arrogantly, dragging their coat-tails across the noses of the Germans. Throughout this narrative it becomes apparent that the long-distance planners, seated around broad tables a couple of thousands miles away, obviously thought they knew better than the man on the spot....And the men in the ships suffered because of this assumption; because of it they had to die, some of the unnecessarily. They had been given orders, and they obeyed. Illustrated. 144 pp. (We carry a wide selection of titles in The Arts, Theology, History, Politics, Social and Physical Sciences. academic and scholarly books and Modern First Editions, Reference books ,and all types of Academic Literature.) . First Edition. Cloth. Very Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" Tall Octavo. Hardback.