Bernard Edwards
Auteur van Donitz and the Wolf Packs
Over de Auteur
Bernard Edwards pursued a sea-going career commanding ships trading worldwide. After nearly forty years afloat, Captain Edwards settled in a tiny village in rural South Wales, to pursue his second career as a writer. His extensive knowledge of the sea and ships has enabled him to produce many toon meer authentic and eminently readable books which have received international recognition. Beware Raiders!, Attack Sink, The Cruel Sea Retold, The Quiet Heroes, Japan's Blitzkrieg, Twilight of the U-Boats, Death in the Doldrums, The Road to Russia, The Wolf Packs Gather, Convoys Will Scatter, The Decoys, Dnitz and the Wolf Packs, Churchill's Thin Grey Line, U-Boats Beyond Biscay and From Hunter to Hunted have all been published by Pen Sword Books. toon minder
Werken van Bernard Edwards
We Are Family 2 exemplaren
Good Times 1 exemplaar
Tagged
Algemene kennis
- Geslacht
- male
Leden
Besprekingen
Misschien vindt je deze ook leuk
Statistieken
- Werken
- 31
- Leden
- 395
- Populariteit
- #61,387
- Waardering
- 3.4
- Besprekingen
- 2
- ISBNs
- 88
- Talen
- 1
Bernard Edwards tells that story, but he tells it with a difference. Although he does not deny that the Jervis Bay fought, he credits another ship, the Beaverford, with standing off the Scheer until the convoy was well away.
This story, he says, has not been told because the Beaverford fought after the convoy was already in flight, so no one saw her battle, and she left no survivors (by contrast, about a third of the Jervis Bay's crew was rescued).
It is that claim that sets this book apart, and... it seems a little dubious. Oh, there isn't any doubt that the Beaverford tried to defend herself when the Scheer came after her; she sent wireless messages to that effect, and she ended up being sunk. But Edwards, in his Author's Note and elsewhere, claims that the Beaverford fought the Scheer for five hours!
Every other record indicates that the Scheer wasn't even in the area for five hours. She came, she sank half a dozen ships, she got out before the British could catch her. (The fact is that there were no British ships near enough to catch the Scheer. But the Germans couldn't know that; they played it safe.) Edwards is making an extraordinary claim -- and he doesn't even have much ordinary evidence. Yes, there is some doubt about the timing of events, in part because many of the ships involved were using different time zones. But I don't think there is enough to allow for his claim. And he offers no proof -- no evidence of his own, and no citations of anything else; the book is un-footnoted.
The "good" news is, this doesn't interfere with the book too much; because Edwards doesn't have information from the Beaverford, he can only devote perhaps 5% of his pages to its fight. The rest is a readable, well-organized account of a tragic and heroic incident. But I came away wondering about a few other things Edwards said -- only wondering; I can't prove them wrong. But the weight of it all makes me think that it's probably better to read a different book about the Jervis Bay before tackling this one; if you start with this one, you might get a wrong impression that's hard to shake.… (meer)