As of 1 July 2021, items imported to the EU with a value of EUR22 or less will no longer be exempt from VAT. This means that all goods sent directly from GB to consumers in the EU, both via online marketplaces and sales made directly, will be subject to the local rate of VAT in your country. The overseas post or parcel operator will collect the import VAT (and customs duty, if payable) from the EU buyer prior to delivery, alongside a Delivery Duties Unpaid (DDU) fee - a standard service for all postal authorities. We would like to communicate this to our EU customers in advance so there are no surprises when additional VAT and duties are being charged by local postal operators. Over the course of next week we will be putting a message up on our website to reflect these charges.
May 24th 2021 will mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Denmark Strait. During this action HMS Hood was lost along with 1,415 of her gallant crew.
The HMS Hood Association is planning to ‘Shine a Light’ on this commemoration day by asking Association members and friends to light a candle and remember one of the lost crew. The Association is inviting you to join them to make this a truly memorable occasion.
The name of HMS Hood is one that is unique amongst warships: her reputation and fame exceed any other ship from her time, and her catastrophic loss was a devastating blow for Britain and her Allies. But her loss was felt especially by the families of those who were lost in the sinking, for whom it was a tragedy. The aim of the Association is to hig
Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh passed away aged 99 on Friday 9 April 2021. His was a life of extraordinary events and circumstances and of outstanding heroism during his time with his beloved Royal Navy. It wouldn’t be overstating the issue to say that the Senior Service was the moulding force that took a young refugee Greek Royal and tempered and shaped him into the remarkable man he would become.
Born on Corfu in 1921 to Prince Andrew of Greece and Princess Alice of Battenberg, the young Philip was born into the lower echelons of the Greek Royal family but the early 1920s were a troubled time for Greece and on 27 September 1922 the new Greek military Government swept into power and banished the Royal Family of King Constantine I. Within days the young Philip and his entire f
The Anatomy of the ship series has covered a wide range of ships from the Mary Rose to the Warspite and is described as being aimed at modelmakers, ship enthusiasts and naval historians. This latest edition on the Scharnhorst by Stefan Draminski, who also wrote the Anatomy series book on the Bismarck, is immediately impressive with a striking red cover, coffee table book size and over 600 drawings.
The sub title – the “Battleship” Scharnhorst and not “Battlecruiser” as some describe Scharnhorst and the author addresses this slightly contentious issue. Whilst she and her sister ship Gneiseau were fast, they carried only 11” main armament and hence the argument that they should be described as battlecruisers, but both the Kriegsmarine and Janes in 1940 called them battleships.
Originally built with a low straight bow and bow heavy, they were not good sea boats. Commissioned in early 1939, Scharnhorst was refitted with a clipper shaped “Atlantic” bow – a more attractive
The words of the title are the opening words of Reginald Cogswell's book that describes 43 months of his life aboard HMS EXETER. A period that included peacetime visits to the ports of South America, assisting earthquake victims in Chile, suppressing riots in Trinidad; then came the transition to war and his part in the Battle of the River Plate.
Below are extracts from Ch 15 - when the action against the German Panzershiffe Graf Spee starts:
The alarm for Action Stations tore me out of that little sleep. The harsh sound of it drove me up and out to run for’ard and on my way to meet a bugler sounding off as he ran the other way. The rasp of Action Stations on a bugle would hasten anything that could hear and move. It hastened me against a stream of men who were mostly running the other way. There was a clumping-to of armoured doors and the clank of dogs being set to hold them tight. Men were going down through hatch manholes only big enough f
75 years ago today - HMS EXETER was lost in the Battle of the Sunda Strait fighting against an overwhelming Japanese force.
HMS EXETER, and her ship’s company, were battle scarred veterans when she deployed to the Far East in 1941. She had limped back to Devonport in January 1940 after carrying out temporary repairs in the Falkland Islands following the Battle of the River Plate and the sinking of the Graf Spee.
The work to refit her ready for sea took just over 12 months and included the replacement of her single 4 inch AA guns with twin mountings: a new catapult and tripod masts. Her new captain, Captain W N T Beckett (known as ‘Joe’ Beckett after a famous boxer of the time) was an experienced officer with a distinguished career but sadly died, of complications arising from wounds sustained when commanding Coastal Motor Boats on the Dwina River in Russia in 1919. His death occurred on the day that EXETER was to re-commission. He was replaced by Ca
Last week NavyBooks highlighted Admiral Burton`s Report to the All Parties Parliamentary Group (APPG) (for full speech click here). Mr R J Wilcox, a long time customer of NavyBooks responded and we publish his thoughts below:
Comment: An excellent report on recent Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary tasks. Reading it, one understands what our Navy is doing over the horizon. Despite having so few ships active at sea, it illustrates how involved the Navy is and, correspondingly, how over-stretched, it is. This must impact on the wear-and-tear on hulls, machinery, and crews (even wh
This week's House of Commons Select Committee's report entitled: Restoring the Fleet: Naval Procurement and the National Shipbuilding Strategy has a key phrase:
"At 19 ships, compared with 35 in 1997, the Royal Navy’s frigate and destroyer fleet is way below the critical mass required for the many tasks which could confront it. If the National Shipbuilding Strategy can deliver the Type 26 and Type 31 GPFF to time, the MoD can start to grow the Fleet and return it to an appropriate size. The 2015 SDSR set out the Government’s ambition for a modern, capable Royal Navy. Now is the time for the MoD to deliver on its promises".
Few would argue with that statement.
Several newspapers and commentators have picked up on this and the phrase 'and
It was widely reported this week that Royal Navy ships will be left without ASuW missiles and forced to rely on naval guns. The Navy’s Harpoon missiles will retire from the fleet’s frigates and destroyers in 2018 without a replacement, while there will also be a two year gap without helicopter-launched anti-shipping missiles.
Harpoon missiles are unlikely to be replaced for up to a decade, naval sources said, leaving warships armed only with their 4.5in Mk 8 guns for anti-ship warfare. Helicopter-launched Sea Skua missiles are also going out of service next year and the replacement Sea Venom missile to be carried by Wildcat helicopters will not arrive until late 2020.
A Naval source said the new helicopter-launched Sea Venom missile will have a shorter range than the Harpoon and helicopters are also vulnerable to bad weather and being shot down.
By Allen George
Lying 35 fathoms deep, at the northern end of the Drøbak Sound 15 nautical miles south of Oslo, is the wreck of the German heavy cruiser BLÜCHER, still detectable on the echo sounders of passing ships. She was sunk by shells and torpedoes from the Oskarborg island fortress which guards the entrance to the Norwegian capital, a testament to Norway’s ability and willingness to fight the German invasion of April 1940, and the courage and initiative of a 64 year old Norwegian officer, who acted without orders.
Outbreak of hostilities:
The early months of 1940 were a time of anxiety for Norway, and a growing awareness the country would have to prepare for war, despite being neutral, if it was to protect its freedom. The country was under pressure from Great Britain, which wanted to stop the coastal iron ore trade from Narvik in the north to Germany, but was hampered as the traffic sailed within Norwegian territorial wate
