Eagles Over Taranto (A World War II Naval Adventure)

She was a Fleet carrier; her name was Eagle. She was the latest and largest of her class, outfitted with fighters and torpedo bombers.Until now Alexandria had been free of air-raids and bombardment. But on that black night of 19 December, in seven minutes, 31,000-tons of disciplined steel had resolved into a broken and unbuoyant mass going down into the cold and lightless deeps of the Mediterranean.Angry and frustrated, torpedo bomber Bishop exclaimed:"A few hours' work and the whole strategic position in the Med has swung right over their way.""What do you suggest?" Haining, Seafire fighter leader asked.Bishop's terse reply came at once:"Taranto – the main naval base of the Italian Royal Navy, and opposite number to Alexandria."If they could hit Taranto hard, they could prevent embattled Malta being starved of food and ammunition, ensure absolute British naval supremacy in the Eastern Mediterranean and exact revenge for the loss of English battleships Alexandria, Valiant, Queen Elizabeth, and Barham.But could they and how would they? JAMES EDMOND MACDONNELL was born in 1917 in Mackay, Queensland and became one of Australia's most prolific writers. As a boy, he became determined to go to sea and read every seafaring book he could find. At age 13, while his family was still asleep, he took his brother's bike and rode eighty miles from his home town to Brisbane in an attempt to see ships and the sea. Fortunately, he was found and returned to his family. He attended the Toowoomba Grammar School from 1931 to 1932. He served in the Royal Australian Navy for fourteen years, joining at age 17, advancing through all lower deck ranks and reaching the rank of commissioned gunnery officer. He began writing books while still in active service.Macdonnell wrote stories for The Bulletin under the pseudonym "Macnell" and from 1948 to 1956 he was a member of The Bulletin staff. His first book, Fleet Destroyer – a collection of stories about life on the small ships – was published by The Book Depot, Melbourne, in 1945. Macdonnell began writing full-time for Horwitz in 1956, writing an average of a dozen books a year.After leaving the navy, Macdonnell lived in St. Ives, Sydney and pursued his writing career. In 1988, he retired to Buderim on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. He died peacefully in his sleep at a Buderim hospital in 2002. He is survived by his children Beth, Jane and Peter.Macdonnell's naval stories feature several recurring characters – Captain "Dutchy" Holland, D.S.O., Captain Peter Bentley, V.C., Captain Bruce Sainsbury, V.C., Jim Brady, and Lieutenant Commander Robert Randall. J. E. Macdonnell wrote over 200 novels, in at least 7 different series under several versions of his own name and several pseudonyms. Macdonnell's naval stories feature several recurring characters. His work has been published in at least nine different languages. As an ex-Royal Australia Navy gunner, his fiction is full of authenticity. With action and navy life spot on.