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	Collector's Series #1
	STAND-BY TO RAM! The Scimitar was a stroke of fire on a sea of white spray. The ship was already at 25 knots and in the ridged sea she could take no more. Her nose was pointing straight at the cruiser's bridge. Five thousand yards. God, why hadn't the enemy opened fire? Five thousand yards! He couldn't miss. And then he had opened, and a storm burst around them. "Full ahead together!" the captain said, his voice clear and slow, as if he were tasting every word.
	Commander Bruce Thornton (Auntie) Sainsbury S.S.O. and Bar

	Collector's Series #2
	TARGET UNIDENTIFIED Was the strange ship friend or foe - afraid or cunning? This with Sainsbury's dilemma: If the other ship had made the least hostile move they could have opened fire at her without hesitation - but her only move had been the perfectly natural one of flight. Now, on this present course, they were closing the range rapidly. Captain Sainsbury's eyes flicked to the range repeat - 5,500 yards. Hell, if she is the raider, he thought, we're in for it. And that was a bit of British understatement!
	Captain Bruce Thornton (Auntie) Sainsbury H.M.A.S. Scimitar

	Collector's Series #3
	BATTLE ENSIGN When they unfurled this flag, men knew they were about to die. It was a White Ensign, the Navy's badge of honour, its folds reaching more than halfway to the deck from the bridge. Peter Bentley explained its significance: "It's that size to ensure identification - plus a bit of bull, of course. We fly it from where it is now. Right at the foremasthead." "You can hoist your submarine or torpedo or aircraft-attack signals," Bentley said, grinning. "But you know you're really in for it when the Old Man orders: 'Hoist Battle Ensign.'"
	Lieutenant-Commander Peter Bentley

Collector's Series #4

ENEMY IN SIGHT
The submarine slid through the silent sea. "Periscope depth," Peter Bentley ordered.
He took a long look at the harbour in front of him as the tension curled like wire in his stomach. Two thin black masts stood above the surface of the bay, much taller than the forest sticks rising from the flotilla of destroyers moored to the left inside the boom. They belonged to his target - a heavy Japanese cruiser. Bentley stared a moment longer at those masts - longer than he should have.
Briskly he lowered the periscope and told the crew: "Enemy in sight, bearing 010. Action stations!"
Lieutenant Peter Bentley

Collector's Series #5

COMMAND
"TORPEDO TRACK APPROACHING STARB'D!" They heard it plainly, high and clear, from the bridge above them.
"Bearing?" Bentley snapped.
Symonds pointed. Bentley saw it at once. After the first instant twitching at the pit of his stomach, his mind reverted automatically and coldly to assessing their chances.
It was this that set him apart from the others - the frightening burden of command.
Lieutenant-Commander Peter Bentley

Collector's Series #6

ALARM-E-BOATS!
THE DANGER WAS CLEAR AND OMINOUS. They heard the deep rumbling as the line of gray shapes speared towards them out of the darkness, their bow waves throwing up great white spumes..
Bentley knew all about these evil little boats. He knew they packed a staggering armament of deadly torpedoes quite capable of blowing his own ship out of the water.
Now the line of boats were screaming around in a high-speed turn to bear on Wind Rode.
Bentley was a highly trained professional. His reaction was instantaneous. The order went out "Alarm - E-Boats!"
Lieutenant-Commander Peter Bentley

Collector's Series #7

THE WEAK LINK
RUFUSAL TO OBEY WAS, IN THESE CIRCUMSTANCES, INTOLERABLE. Bentley crawled painfully over to the chart table.
"Hanson," he said distinctly, "listen carefully to what I say. I am quite capable of turning the ship around myself. I order you again - turn the ship round and set course to engage the enemy."
Hanson hesitated. Then all his hate for this oppressor surged within him. "No," he said hoarsely, "you'll kill us all. The ship stays where she is." Bentley reached up, put his hand in the drawer, brought it out with the heavy pistol, raised it quickly and shot Hanson through the forehead. Now the battle could be joined.
Lieutenant-Commander Peter Bentley

	Collector's Series #10
	TARGET BATTLESHIP Was he merely a glory hunter? It was as if something were driving Commander Valance to get right in where the shot and shell were thickets... driving him above and beyond the call of duty. And whether they liked it or not, the men in Sabre knew their lives depended on his judgement in Target Battleship. Commander Henry Valance

Collector's Series #12

COFFIN ISLAND
"Cruisers altering to make their firing run, Sir."
Bently swung his head. There they were, the flagship leaning well over as she heeled under full rudder. As they watched, the two other ships altered course at the exact spot where the leader had turned, so that now they were racing along, still one astern of the other, but now broadside on to the beach. From Wind Rode they could see the four big turrets on each cruiser swing round further until each gun was sniffing at the beach.
"Hold onto your hat," Randall growled, his voice gruff to hide the excitement that surged in him.
Then the cruisers' sides broke into flame and smoke as they hurled their mighty projectiles toward the shore of what would come to be known in the Japanese army as Coffin Island.
Lieutenant-Commander Peter Bentley & CAPTAIN Bruce Thornton Sainsbury

Collector's Series #13

FROGMAN
Whitey waited until the Jap frogman was three feet away before he lifted his knife and struck at the junction of neck and shoulder.
But water is highly resistant to abrupt movement, and this rasped harmlessly against the front of the enemy frogman's mask.
The Jap jerked his head back in an abrupt gesture of astonishment, and for a fraction of time Whitey stared into a contorted almond-eyed face. Then the Jap's hand went down to his knife.
Whitey knew that he had lost all advantage - now it would be a fight to the death! A ghostly struggle in a silent world. The world of the frogman.
Lieutenant-Commander Peter Bentley

Collector's Series #15

NIGHT ENCOUNTER
They were four hundred yards clear to seaward now, hidden in the night. Hooky got the idea, and a searchlight, stupidly lighting on one of the enemy destroyers and holding her there as if for identification, clinched his thought.
"Skipper!" he jerked urgently. "Put the sub on the wheel and let me get down to the six pounder!"
He had to stop the enemy getting away scotfree from this night encounter.

Collector's Series #16

THE SECRET WEAPON
"Cruisers altering to make their firing run, Sir."
Commander Bentley knew this was the time for nothing but concentrated attack...
This was no exercise, no leisure manoeuvre by which Wind Rode could show her competence. They were up against a desperate enemy submarine, a vehicle armed with explosive teeth and claws - the destructive potential of which they could not gauge. A terrifying secret weapon.

Collector's Series #17

THE BROOD OF THE EAGLE
The three seafires were diving and zooming, banking and diving again at the gun-positions. But the big Barracudas, coming in on a set line, made easy targets. A stream of tracer bit into the body of the left-hand bomber of the third flight and Haining felt his guts tighten as its nose dipped.
He did not see the third lot of torpedoes strike and as he came around again he could see the dam clearly enough, and he saw it was still intact. It was then the first doubts slid into his brain and charged him with failure. He had assumed twelve torpedoes would smash that concrete into a water-pouring cleavage. He had assumed... now it looked as if he could be hellishly wrong.....

Collector's Series #18

THE SURGEON
Surgeon Landis went out, sliding, the door shut behind him. Jagar stood there, staring at the door thoughtfully. You did a good job on that hand - a damned good job. Nice, pretty surgery. But how will you go when you've got a sickbay full of major casualties? Working with suicide-bombers howling down, the ship jumping and knocked sideways under bomb-blast, the guns blasting their heads off? You seem all right, you look like you might be a pretty good surgeon - but we ain't in Macquarie Street here buster.
Commander Peter Bentley

Collector's Series #20

THE RECOMMEND
"Stand-by - depth charge attack!"
Termagant's men had seen action before. They knew how her quarterdeck could spew out the crushing canisters of high explosive amatol, and they felt a rising certainty that this particular Japanese submarine was due shortly for a violent and conclusive death.
The order from the bridge was all they needed to relax their vigilance a little and to savour in its place the grim and pleasurable certainty that the ship was about to kill.
So that none of them was prepared for the next startling evidence of the progress of the hunt.
Commander John "Dolly" Gray

Collector's Series #21

THE COXSWAIN
In every battle Wind Rode had come out on top.
Weapons, whether aircraft cannon or submarine torpedo or destroyer guns, were aimed and fired by men. The destroyer’s men had proved superior in the handling of theirs.
Now the train of successes had been broken. They had six big guns and a multiplicity of smaller weapons: they should have got those Jap aircraft. As it was, only a lucky shot from the Oerlikon saved them from disaster.
It was not seamanship or training: simply a problem of morale.
Captain Peter Bentley

Collector's Series #22

THE CHALLENGE
"Stand-by torpedo attack!"
the order rapped out. Not more than half a mile away, bulking huge at the close range, came the enemy cruiser.
"Port thirty," he snapped down the voice pipe, and over his shoulder at the torpedo officer: "Fire when your sights come on!" Torps was crouched over his pronged sight. His voice came crisp and clear:-
"Fire one; fire two, fire three, fire four..."
Lieutenant-Commander John Benedict "Dutchy" Holland

Collector's Series #24

FIND AND DESTROY
"Find...and destroy!"
The order buzzed in Palethorpe's brain as he leaned over the map, working quickly with dividers and pencil along the latitude scale.
"I knew it!" he said savagely. "If that blasted bearing isn't fixed soon, the enemy'll be clear long before we get in position"
"He might be that anyway," his friend Renshaw put in helpfully, "if he didn't take the course we thought he would."
Palethorpe jerked his head around. He stared hotly into the other's eyes. Then he brought his head back slowly to stare at the chart.
Out there was an enemy convoy as big as either had seen - a mass of heavy ships, all heavenly loaded, headed towards the Indies. And here they were, crippled submarine, a good six miles away, with no hope of carrying out their mission.

Collector's Series #25

THE BLIND EYE
The huge battleships surged through the calm sea...they bulged wildly sideways, and their armoured sterns forced up a toppling pile of white from the blue.
His ears heard it first, Whooo, whooo, whooo - urgent, strident siren, urgent meaning: submarine contact!
The admiral was taking no chances, Four destroyers, Wind Rode among them, heeled out of line and dug their tails down.
The future career of Admiral Sir Sidney Granville, as well as the lives of thousands of British sailors, depended squarely on the efficiency of these four hunting destroyers.
Commander Peter Bentley

Collector's Series #26

EAGLES OVER TARANTO
She was a Fleet carrier; her name was Eagle.
The carrier had been in salt water little more than a year. She was the latest and largest of her class, outfitted with fighters and torpedo-bombers.
Her task was to avenge the loss of three British battleships. Eagle's planes started their attacking run on the five Italian battleships, into a heavily defended harbour and certain suicide...
Lieutenant-Commander Haining & Captain Styles

Collector's Series #27

ESCORT SHIP
"Enemy bridges in sight, sir. Course unchanged. Definitely Takao-class."
"Very good. Let me know..."
"Just a moment, sir!"
Still leaning sideways to the voice-pipe mouth. Bentley twisted his head round and up. All he could see was a pair of shoulders, a pair of binoculars held very steadily, and an old white canvas hat. Then the hat bent sideways.
"Enemy altering course towards, sir. They're...I think...yes, they're altering formation to line abreast."
Wind Rode met a long swell and her foc's'le lifted gently a further six feet.
"I can see the bow-waves now, sir. Almost level with the gunnels. I'd say about 30 knots. And I think they've sighted us, sir."
Bentley said two words, "Make smoke."
Lieutenant-Commander Haining & Captain Styles

Collector's Series #28

FLEET DESTROYER
"In this enthralling book, FLEET DESTROYER,
J.E. MacDonnell sustains the realism and stark drama of war at sea."
- Adelaide Advertiser
"Throughout the book there is no dearth of description...
it is at its best in its extremely lively pictures of naval action
and of ships of all classes."
Sydney Bulletin
"FLEET DESTROYER is filled with interest from first page to last."
Australian Journal
J.E. MacDonnell At Sea

Collector's Series #30

THE LESSON
Together they were sailing on an independent mission...
COMMANDER BENTLEY - justly proud of his record and the ruthless efficiency of his destroyer Wind Rode, he was confident and eager for action.
CAPTAIN SAINSBURY, V.C. - deceptively prim and untigerish is appearance, he’d taught Bentley all he knew about naval tactics.
No longer were they pupil and master, for the young man had long since earned himself an outstanding reputation for bravery and skill. Yet now the cautious and cunning flotilla leader was to give Peter Bentley the greatest lesson of his service career...
Captain Bruce Thornton Sainsbury & Captain Peter Bentley

Collector's Series #31

BATTLE LINE
The Japanese Fleet, and the Australian destroyer Wind Rode astern, moved on into the eye of the wind.
And then Bentley could see, as the sky lightened, that the mass ahead of him was not an indeterminate bulk, but a Jap battleship.
He lowered his glasses and he breathed in lowly and deeply to steady himself. Then he said, deliberately;
"Increase to two-five-oh revolutions, Starb'd twenty, steer 180.
"Stand-by torpedo attack."
Commander Peter Bentley

Collector's Series #32

THE LONG HAUL
Wind Rode had been a long time on the receiving end... helpless under the bombers, helpless against that prowling submarine. Now she was being towed home with no radar, no asdic, no depth-charges in effect; nothing but her guns for protection. The men were beaten and Commander Peter Bentley fully appreciated their sub-conscious need to prove their ability to fight back and win.
"Out there's a chance to dish out something of what we've been taking," he told them vehemently."
"I'm going to take that chance!"
Commander Peter Bentley

	Collector's Series #33
	AWAY BOARDERS Lieutenant Peter Bentley's first command... and in a matter of seconds the twin tracks of torpedoes could blow his ship into bits. The ship was at full power, her rudder was hard over. There was absolutely nothing they could do. Peter Bentley was to know some nasty moments in the years of war ahead, but nothing like those few seconds of waiting. Lieutenant Peter Bentley

Collector's Series #34

THE FIRST LIEUTENANT
The "V & W" destroyers fought against fantastic odds...
Whippet took on everything from the Tobruk run to Stukas, submarines and offshore bombardments.
And under the able tutelage of her captain, "Big Bill" Mallett, Sub-lieutenant Bob Randall learnt how to fight the hard way in the toughest war zone until Whippet faced her supreme challenge...
Captain "Big Bill" Mallett

Collector's Series #35

U-BOAT
Bismarck, the pride of the German navy, was scuttling for home. But as Renown and Ark Royal closed in for the kill, the British ships could not suspect that they would be steaming directly in front of a U-boat's torpedo tubes - lining themselves up as the perfect target.
With the deadly new weapon "U-648" carried he could not possibly fail, Kapitanleutanant Junack told himself exultantly...
Kapitanleutant Kurt Junack

Collector's Series #40

FLOTILLA LEADER
Six destroyers against five. Through the din of gunfire, the thrashing of the spray, the scutiny of the enemy in this lonely and windlashed battle, Captain Bentley was acutely aware of his responsibility for those five destroyers.
This was his first ship-to-ship action in command of any ship other than his own... now he was THE FLOTILLA LEADER
Captain Peter Bentley, Captain (D) Sixth Flotilla

Collector's Series #41

ABANDON SHIP
There were only seconds left, yet in that time captain Bentley's mind uncompassed several possibilities.
The torpedo might be a dud. There might not have been time for the vanes of the firing pistol to screw right back against the detonator. The torpedo could have been dropped at too acute an angle, it might not regain the correct depth in time. The target ship might slip its doom.
The possibilities were abruptly and irrevocably negatived in a gigantic WHAM of sound. "Wind Rode" reeled as if she had been clubbed..
Captain Peter Bentley, Captain (D) Sixth Flotilla

Collector's Series #46

THE BUFFER
'Hooky' Walker...or, to give him his rightful name, Chief Petty Officer William Walker of the destroyer 'Wind Rode,' was a man's man; you would be fortunate to have him as a friend. He was a man, and so not perfect. A friend's sister was safe with him but this moral and biological restriction did not extend to all sisters. In port he drank a good deal. Sometimes, but not often, he made mistakes.
But, in this pattern, there were two staunch straight strands: though not overtly religious, he did not ever blaspheme; and to his shipmates and his captain he was unimpeachable loyal.
These traits caused him to risk his life often...and now he was faced with the biggest crisis of his life...

	Collector's Series #47
	DECISION The Giant Carrier was on a capsize angle... It was Bentley's decision to run alongside and rescue her men, but to do this before she sank meant coming in on the dangerous low side. Should he risk his own ship and the lives of his men? Bentley was the only man who could make the dangerous DECISION. Captain Peter Bentley

	Collector's Series #48
	ABANDON AND DESTROY Pelican was the oldest and slowest destroyer in the flotilla. Rust-streaked and narrow-gutted, lacking modern equipment, she would be no loss to the Royal Australian Navy. Yet her tough, casual captain commanding an apparently ill'disciplined crew proudly scorned the order to ABANDON AND DESTROY. Captain "Dutchy" Holland

Collector's Series #52

COLLISION COURSE
The crew of Utmost felt the urge for action - in a ship with one gun and a short-range-pom-pom. "You're responsible," his first-lieutenant told the captain, Dutchy Holland.
"You've made these men what they are. You toughened them. They're restless now."
Neither officer knew that Utmost was to see action soon - against a fast, heavily-gunned Jap destroyer on a vital mission!
Lieutenant-Commander John Benedict "Dutchy" Holland

	Collector's Series #56
	COURSE TO INTERCEPT Sainsbury gave the order in a thin, clipped voice. The practical, sensible, dutiful course would have been to turn his cruiser and run. Six-inch shells could not penetrate the Japanese battleship's fourteen-inch armour plating. But an American convoy was in danger and Sainsbury knew his duty.... Captain Peter Bentley & Captain Bruce Thornton Sainsbury

Collector's Series #57

CREEPING ATTACK
The U-boat captain was concentrating on the convoy, planning his attack on the small forest of masts coming steadily on from the westward. The position was perfect.
His eyes lifted from the compass and satisfaction changed to horror as he turned sideways. He was staring at the high-curving white from the stem, then the whole gray forepart of his most dreaded enemy a destroyer, close, boring down on him at full speed!
In his shock he thought nothing of how the mongoose had been able to creep so close to the snake. He thought only of ACTION.
Captain Bruce Thornton Sainsbury & First Lientenant Peter Bentley

Collector's Series #58

THE JAWS OF HELL
Incredulously, Fawkner saw the white plumes leaping high from the lagoon and heard the thunderous roar. With the rest of them he was frozen with shock and disbelief until the alarm bells, harsh and imperative, jangled and beneath him the calm blue water was thrashed into white
"Hard-a-port!" Bell snapped. "Full ahead star'b'd!"
And she started to run.
But as she ran she fought - desperately and bravely and with everything she had.
Captain Bell

Collector's Series #60

FLASHPOINT
Captain Sainsbury tapped the chart with a thin forefinger: "Remember the torpedoed Jap battleship that holed up in shelter off Feni Island? The admiral thinks she's still there!"
"We're not going to flush her out? It'd be murder!" said Peter Bentley, thinking of the flotilla.
"Not if you're careful," replied Sainsbury, meaning a single ship... the destroyer Wind Rode against a Japanese battleship, crippled but still deadly.
It was a mission from which Wind Rode might not come home.

Collector's Series #63

THE MISFIT
"The mine was no more than two feet from the ship's side when between horns and waiting steel a body forced itself. Hudson braced his back against the ship's side and his hands went out to mine..."
Was he a coward trying to prove himself? Or was there another explanation for Hudson's strange behaviour? Why did he cover up for Bronson? As Number One, he was in a position to protect the man from the consequences of his drunkenness while on board ship - but why? And what was Captain Peter Bentley to do about the situation? But Hudson was only one of Bentley's worries. As captain of the Flotilla leader, he had a lot more on his plate. There was a war to win, for instance...

Collector's Series #66

Our thanks go out to Robert Kelly who donated this book
POINT OF DEPARTURE
Captain Bentley’s dilemma. Was he simply wasting time and men? By losing only two torpedoes in each attack instead of a possibly crippling shoal? By firing at such long range when he should have been pressing home every run? Subjecting his ships to much the same without achieving a thing?
And what - the thought shocked him - if Holland had been wrong in his positioning of the island!
What did he really know of that shabby lieutenant-commander, and old officer obviously passed over for higher rank? He’s sunk a carrier.
“Had he been a fool, a crassly stupid fool, to base a whole plan of attack on information given him by a man he had never met in his life before?”

Collector's Series #67

Our thanks go out to Robert Kelly who donated this book
LOOM OF ICE
Bentley was unable to fathom his Captain’s reasoning. Suddenly Scimitar’s guns spat fire, tracers of lead. It dawned on him what might happen. An ominous pause, and what had been an enormous white wall of gleaming ice was now crumbling.
Thunder crashed.
Chunks of splitting ice, tons thick, splayed the sea with a hissing roar. Someone shouted aghast. The core of the iceberg leaned towards them, slowly like a cathedral in an earthquake. And fell. Had Sainsbury’s awesome stroke been really successful?

Collector's Series #69

FOUL GROUND
Wagenheim stood rigid, staring ... at the towering black smoke, its crown already leaning and the flames which licked yellowly across the sky ... His face was hard and dark, like craved stone.
It was then that Dutchy thought that when a man sees his own ship go down, it's maybe the worst thing.
Desperately he urged his steed - slowly Jackal wheeled away from the Jap fusillade, her battered hulk groaning.
Lieutenant-Commander John Benedict "Dutchy" Holland

	Collector's Series #70
	THE UNFORGIVING SEA The constant menance of the Japanese enemy troubled captain 'Dutchy' Holland, and so did his mission. But - towering above them all, the pursued and the pursuers - were the turbulent waters in which they meshed... the unforgiving sea. Lieutenant-Commander John Benedict "Dutchy" Holland

Collector's Series #71

RAT ISLAND
The mine field surrounded them now. Ugly spiked weeds growing in a green sea garden. Death a wave's slap away.
Fear was on Jackal's bridge, as palpable as the electric tension which had men holding the breaths each time she lifted, gripping hold with their hands and braced feet, though that would have done no good at all if half a tone of amatol had burst beneath them.
The ship crawled on. Ahead lay Rat Island, the object of their mission.
Lieutenant-Commander John Benedict "Dutchy" Holland

	Collector's Series #72
	BROADSIDES! Here are graphic recollections of the Royal Australian Navy in action in the European theatre, the Mediterranean theatre, the Indian Ocean theatre, the Pacific theatre, and after... Lieutenant-Commander John Benedict "Dutchy" Holland

	Collector's Series #74	OTHER SHIPS & CAPTAINS ----------------------------- Captain John Gaunt - British Survivor aboard Munchen ----------------------------- Captain Hermann Fricke - German Supply Ship Munchen ----------------------------- Raider Pelican - German ----------------------------- Star Of Portsmouth Sunken Supply Ship ----------------------------- Cruiser Cornwall - British
	Published 1983 - Copyright 1966 by J.E. Macdonnell - National Library of Australia Card No. and ISBN 0 7255 1462 0
	HELL SHIP There were a hundred prisoner of war aboard the German ship Munchen. A hundred disillusioned men subjected to the mercy of a brutal Nazi psychopath. The pitiful hopes of 99 of those men lay in one man - a man who knew they were sentenced to an endless imprisonment - who, on a sudden desperate impulse had flung a garbage can into the sea. But had he been stupid? Had he failed? Why else was Captain Fricke enraged? He only knew that, somehow, he had to leave another sign, another clue... Lieutenant-Commander John Benedict "Dutchy" Holland R.A.N. (H.M.A.S. Jackel)

Collector's Series #75

THE CONVERT
It looked to Lieutenant Walt Kenyon as if there could be a fair slice of hell ahead of him in his new command. The crew of the 44 boat, naturally loyal to their previous commander, viewed him with suspicion as they waited to pass judgment.
In one morning he managed to tangle with almost everybody from his junior officer down. Yet he had made his decision, and must stick to it. Their very lives depended on the correctness of his judgment.
Lieutenant Walt Kenyon

	Collector's Series #76
	PETTY OFFICER BRADY Continuing... the great series of sea stories featuring JIM BRADY by that master naval Story-teller J. E. MACDONNELL Petty-Officer James Brady

	Collector's Series #80
	COMBAT ASSIGNMENT Captain Kenyon is back in another action drama of the war as seen from the decks of an American Torpedo boat, continuing the compelling series that began with THE CONVERT and DOWN THE THROAT. And this time Walt Kenyon is in real trouble. Lieutenant Walt Kenyon

Collector's Series #81

JUDAS RAT
Dutchy Holland and his men face an all-out onslaught by Japanese fighters and bombers - and, amid the fierce fire of battle, as each passing second ticks away another life, the unavoidable conclusion is reached:
The enemy knew their position. There is a spy on the Australians' side.
Read this new and unusual adventure
in the continuing saga of Dutchy Holland and
the JACKAL
"Dutchy" Holland

Collector's Series #82

HIGH COMMAND
A few minutes earlier the Mediterranean night west of Malta had been streaked and slashed with fire, lanced with the swinging swords of searchlights, opened up like a brilliant burst of lightning as a ship's magazine or cargo of high-octane petrol had been blown into abrupt incandescence by an E-boat's torpedo.
Now the night was dark and quiet.
But soon it would erupt again, with light and sound and the swift fiery streaks of arriving death...
A new, incredible adventure which brings Peter Bentley and Wind Rode into the most harrowing and complicated battle of their careers, and introduces many new and unforgettable characters fighting side-by-side in Britain's battle to win the Mediterranean.
LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER Bruce Thornton Sainsbury

Collector's Series #83

APPROVED TO SCRAP
The great ship captained by Dutchy Holland and ridden to glory by her famous crew fights her last battles - against the enemy in the open Pacific and against a ferocious typhoon off the coast of Queensland - in this stirring tale of valiant action by the internationally renowned naval author, J.E. Macdonnell. The destroyer Jackal and her men, outnumbered, outgunned and bedevilled by a remorseless fate, bravely meet and courageously challenge the greatest danger of their careers.
"Dutchy" Holland

Collector's Series #84

ATTACK AND BE DAMNED
Here is the story of the successor to Jackal, of her first courageous, incredible mission under the command of Dutchy Holland.
Here is the story of Dutchy Holland's fierce revenge for the death of his beloved ship.
Here is the excitement of a new adventure, a new trial, a new triumph in the continuing saga of Holland's career - and here, too, is a surprise for those who thought they had heard the last of HMAS Jackal.
Lieutenant-Commander John Benedict "Dutchy" Holland

Collector's Series #89

THE HAMMER OF GOD
The PT Boat moved silently
in the aftermath of the attack....
The very volume of the enemy fire had saved them, Walt Kenyon knew. It was so heavy the Jap gunners could not spot their own fall of shot and make corrections. The Japs hadn't planned on that.
But they had planned on sending a destroyer across to wipe out the undefended base! And here the bastard was, having heard the sounds of slaughter back there, taking his time! Why wouldn't he? So far as he knew, it would be simple target practice.
Kenyon's voice was determined. "That guy's after the base. He's not worried about astern. I want him. We'll come in on his port quarter with everything we have left in the tubes. Pass the word. Drop back. No lights."
LIEUTENANT Walt Kenyon

	Collector's Series #90
	THE POWER & THE PRIVILEGE These stories are not true. Not quite. They are fiction and their characters are fictional But as all have read J.E. MacDonnell's naval stories know, this is the way it was. These men who performed the deeds that saved a nation and a way of life... This collection of short stories admirably continues the MacDonnell tradition

Collector's Series #92

FULL FATHOM FIVE
There were two ships:
WIND RODE and JACKAL
There were two captains:
Dutchy Holland & Peter Bentley
Each on his own mission.
Each facing hard-won victory
or bitter defeat
Here is an exciting tale of men at war - the story of minor battles when those who die are men you know and of two famous captains brought together on the high seas in a booming climax of violence and courageous triumph.
"Dutchy" Holland & Peter Bentley

Collector's Series #93

NOT WANTED ON VOYAGE
With his base left a burning ruin, Walt Kenyon is forced to put to sea with a woman on board. He picks up two American soldiers, to find they're deserters who are prepared to kill the girl to force the captain's cooperation in aiding their escape.
Rosen, of the angelic face and the deadly aim, dispatches these two mongrels. Now Kenyon can get on with his main job.
Sink a Japanese cruiser, heavily escorted by destroyers, carrying the greatest prize of all... A Japanese Admiral.
AND DO THE WHOLE THING ALONE.
LIEUTENANT Walt Kenyon

Collector's Series #94

TO THE DEATH
Dutchy Holland and the men of the Jackal were after an enemy submarine that was sinking freighters and troop ships - and so far was big enough and fast enough and had a captain clever enough to get away clean.
What they found, to begin with, was a lone lifeboat carrying a single survivor! A woman.
The story she told made Holland determined to catch the sub before returning to port, but before the time came for them to engage the enemy in the grim game of fight-to-the-death, there was another little problem to worry about.
What do you do on a warship with a woman every man wants --- and some men can have?
"Dutchy" Holland

Collector's Series #96

EXECUTE!
Bruce Thornton Sainsbury, veteran of many of the early stories written by J.E. MacDonnell, here returns in league with Peter Bentley on a mission to run interference for an American task force.
To cover a planned invasion, these two men lead the men and their ships into the dangerous seas between the enemy and the American armada. Their job: To report the approach of enemy ships: to delay and confuse: to engage if necessary: to destroy if possible: to succeed at any cost. But heroic missions can sometimes fail, just as heroic men sometimes die.
Captain Peter Bentley & Captain Bruce Thornton Sainsbury

Collector's Series #97

OBJECT DESTRUCTION
In two great stories, J.E. MacDonnell vividly re-creates two classic naval battles of World War II.
The first story demonstrates the superb strategy and raw courage of the Royal Navy when, completely outgunned, three British cruisers engaged the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee off the River Plate.
The second story tells of the magnificent courage of H.M.A.S. Yarra in her suicidal engagement of an overwhelming Japanese force in the protection of her assigned convoy, an engagement which guaranteed forever Yarra's heroic name in the annals of Naval history.

Collector's Series #98

STRIKE FORCE
To Dutchy Holland and the men of the Jackal, the captain of the Japanese heavy cruiser Atago was known, simply, as Bonai the Beast. He was a marauder, prowling the seas for prey. The few survivors he took aboard his ship were soon made to wish that they had been left to drown or to be consumed by the flames of burning oil. But Bonai the Beast was not only a sadist -- he was also to prove a cunning opponent for Dutchy as the two men pit their wits in a fantastic duel at sea.
The Beast must die, but how many men, how many ships could Dutchy afford to sacrifice in the struggle?
Captain "Dutchy" Holland

Collector's Series #99

BATTLE HYMN
"General MacArthur left the Philippines with the words:
"I shall return."
Four long years later he did return through Leyte Gulf, supported by the most massive concentration of sea power ever assembled in the history of the world. The whole fleet comprised: 12 battleships, 26 cruisers, 53 aircraft carriers, 167 destroyers, 46 transports, 238 landing craft, 14 cargo ships, "and Lord knows how many L.S.I's, L.S.T's and so on."
This incredibly vast armada is historical fact.
Now James MacDonnell injects the five ships of Bentley's destroyer flotilla so that the reader may relive this stupendous action...
Captain Peter Bentley

Collector's Series #101

FOG BLIND
Fog was not a great problem for H.M.A.S Jackal. She was a modern ship, armed with the latest radar equipment - the eye that could see right through fog... but could it? The Japanese developed a fog-like substance that could smother radar waves, could render the opposition blind, could make them utterly vulnerable. All the Japanese had to do was lay their artificial screen, set their range, and wait for the blinded ship to emerge from the fog bank. Then they could blow the Jackal to kingdom come.
Commander John Benedict "Dutchy" Holland

Collector's Series #102

OPERATION JACKAL
Mission: To Kill A Legend
To his crew Dutchy Holland was admirable, irascible and a damned fine seaman. But to the Japanese High Command he was a legend, a legend which gave their enemy an image of invincibility.
The Japanese knew that Holland and the ship he commanded had to be eliminated, and quickly. To accomplish this the best men in their Navy were chosen, dedicated men who would lay down their lives before surrendering.
The mission itself was given the code
name OPERATION JACKAL
Commander John Benedict "Dutchy" Holland

	Collector's Series #103
	Our thanks go out to Robert Kelly who donated this book DIED FIGHTING

Collector's Series #104

AND THE HEAVENS SPOKE
The Wind Rode and Tempest were under orders to escort a liberty ship with a classified cargo from Manus through the notorious Jomard Passage, where she would be given an air escort for the remainder of the journey to Port Moresby.
But it was in the Jomard Passage where the danger lay, and every man was aware of this. It was there that the Jap submarines waited, and there that ships were at the mercy of enemy aircraft.
Not one man in that escort party counted on ever seeing Australia again.
Captain Peter Bentley

Collector's Series #105

CIRCLE OF FIRE
In earlier days of the War in the Pacific, Japanese submarines had clobbered Allied shipping with dreadful effectiveness.
However, the Allied advance had cut off these killers of the deep from their fuel supplies. Their range was over extended; their crews were tired; they were sustaining heavy losses at the hands of the Allied destroyers.
Then the Imperial Japanese Navy enlisted the help of a truly brilliant engineer. They established under-water fuel supplies in the lagoon of Mantigui Island. Now they were potent once more - Allied shipping losses increased alarmingly!
Dutchy Holland was given the job. His mission, to get H.M.A.S. Jackal into this hornet’s nest and destroy the fuel tanks. It was a mission from which Dutchy entertained scant hope of returning…
Dutchy Holland (H.M.A.S. Jackal)

Collector's Series #107

FOR VALOUR
"Speed in attack is the only hope of success against odds... "We are up against tremendous odds, therefore we must act quickly." His voice burred up to a commanding rasp. "Pilot, bring her round to come up astern of the enemy. Torps, prepare all tubes for firing starb'd side. Number One, do not open fire until we're sighted. When you do, concentrate the whole main armament on her side midway between the flight-deck and water-level, using armour piercing shell," Spindrift was already leaning on the turn towards.
Lieutenant-Commander Bruce Thornton Sainsbury

Collector's Series #108

TORRENT OF FIRE
Two men, violently opposed, forced together on a dangerous mission against four Japanese cruisers - and a volcano...
SAINSBURY, V. C...
The spinsterish, tigerish little captain of the cruiser Tempest.
"DUTCHY" HOLLAND...
Destroyer commander, built like a bulldozer, tough, with no regard for impossible obstacles or senior officers...
Captain Bruce Thornton Sainsbury & "Dutchy" Holland

Collector's Series #109

GUNS FOR GOD
Randall came on to the bridge.
"Happy New Year," he smiled generally, and then, suddenly sober, to Bentley: "I wonder what the New Year holds for us."
The director told them.
"Alarm aircraft," said Lasenby the Gunner." Bearing Red three-oh, torpedo bombers approaching fast. All Guns follow director."
So Wind Rode and her flotilla shot their way into a most unhappy beginning of the New Year.
Captain Peter Bentley

Collector's Series #110

DAMN THE TORPEDOES!
"E" stood for "Explosive" in Italian E-boats, Powered by an Alfa-Romeo 2500 engine they had a speed of 32 mph. The forepart of the craft contained a keg of 300kg of explosive bursting upon impact or hydrostatic pressure capable of tearing an enormous leak into even a battleship's hull.
It was an E-boat Dutchy Holland saw powering for the rusty old bucket Reaper...
Dutchy Holland

Collector's Series #114

THE WORST ENEMY
“Ilwaki coming on the beam, sir”
“Yes,” Bentley answered, straightening from the scanner,
“but not for us. This will do fine out here. Number One, you remember the position of the oil tanks I told you?”
“On top of the cliff, I’d hardly forget that”
“Then light the bloody thing up, “he snarled. “Yeoman, make to the flotilla... Stand-by to bombard.”
Captain Peter Bentley

Collector's Series #115

NORTH WEST BY NORTH
The bridge was not large, the night was calm: almost every man up there had heard the Captain's plan of attack.
"Jackal" came clear of Balut Island at an easy twenty knots. It was the only easy thing about her. The minds of the men were tight, their stomachs knotting with tension. The night was moonless, but they knew that if they could see the point of Sarangani Island, then "Jackals" bulk and her bow-waves would be similarly visible. In the darkness they felt horribly naked.
"Hard-A-Starb'd!" Dutchy snapped down the pipe.
"Rapid broadsides!"
Captain "Dutchy" Holland

Collector's Series #116

CHAIN OF VIOLENCE
"This is the Captain, We are bound for Malta. Sorry about the leave, but it will keep, and this is the most vital convoy ever to sail for Malta. If it doesn't get through then the fall of Malta is just a matter of time".
"The convoy must get through!"
Windrode was only one of the weaving, sniffing destroyers in the heavily gunned force assigned to get the convoy through to Malta. The main defence would come from the 16-inch monsters on the battleships Prince of Wales and Nelson, and the aircraft from the carrier Ark Royal.
Captain Peter Bentley

Collector's Series #117

CLOSE UP
"Speed in attack is the only hope of success against odds... "We are up against tremendous odds, therefore we must act quickly." His voice burred up to a commanding rasp. "Pilot, bring her round to come up astern of the enemy. Torps, prepare all tubes for firing starb'd side. Number One, do not open fire until we're sighted. When you do, concentrate the whole main armament on her side midway between the flight-deck and water-level, using armour piercing shell," Spindrift was already leaning on the turn towards.
Lieutenant-Commander Bruce Thornton Sainsbury

Collector's Series #119

THE BRAVE MEN
The destroyer sighted a hump-backed object momentarily surfaced on the horizon. She increased to thirty knots and swung towards.
Her engines had just reached the ordered revolutions when without warning, and probably through bad handling, another U-boat broke surface dead ahead! The captain had time to bellow “Hang on!” before the thrust of 36,000 horsepower hit the submarine full amidships.
That fierce meeting pushed the U-boat bodily sideways in a smother of white foam, cut her almost in two, and sheared the destroyer through and over the stricken remnants on into clear water.

Collector's Series #120

POINT BLANK
Cynical, careless of other opinion, Pelican’s reprobates went about their dirty assignments not knowing that most of the men of the flotillas looked on them with a sort of respectful wonder...
And they had precisely the right leader in “Dutchy” Holland. He stood before them now and cleared his throat: “This information is top secret. If I hear any man blabbing about it, I’ll have his blood for breakfast.
“It is highly dangerous mission. Not all hands will be required to perform it. In short, this is a volunteer job. I have deliberately asked for and been given approval on that, which should convince you how I feel about our chances. Right. Those who want to stay behind...”
There was movement. The front ranks broke...
Captain "Dutchy" Holland

Collector's Series #121

MOST IMMEDIATE
Pelican was still on the turn towards, when off her port bow the sea leaped. There were less than twenty white columns in that forest, but that was because only the forward guns of the enemy were bearing. If the flotilla swung to right or to left... But they wouldn't, Dutchy judged in his racing mind. Against one old destroyer with only two guns on her foc's'le there was no need to bring full broadsides to bear. As it was they still mounted four times his gun power.
If he turned away from the enemy, then he would expose Pelican's broadside length to a deluge of shells. "Most immediate. Disengage at full speed to the south. Repeat, Most immediate" That type of order had to be obeyed at once. It was the Navy's top priority signal. Dutchy Holland flashed a wolfish grin. "Signal misunderstood".
Lieutenant-Commander John Benedict "Dutchy" Holland

Collector's Series #122

Our thanks go out to Robert Kelly who donated this book
THIS SHIP IS MINE
“On this day, Larch, we will meet everything but submarines. You mark my words,” Dutchy said. Instinct told him that today would be bad. Larch showed his amazement.
“On this patrol we will meet aircraft, shore batteries, minefields, E-boats, maybe even cruisers, even battleships. But we will not, repeat not, come across anything so safe and easy to handle as a submarine.”
Dutchy Holland was known to have been wrong on some occasions.
But then he wasn’t aware that his deadliest enemy had sworn to get vengeance.

Collector's Series #123

THE TRAP
Hard with his thumb, Pilot pressed the alarm gong. From ahead came a sparkle of yellow light. He had hold of himself now, knew that they were running to meet a large Jap force, just as he knew that apart from those broadsides just loosed there would be one more, possibly two, already in the air.
The men in Wind Rode knew that they must be heading into a broadside that could plunge upon her forepart and bludgeon it off -- a direct hit anywhere would destroy their ship.
Captain Peter Bentley

Collector's Series #125

BLIND INTO DOOM
Submarine contact!
"Missed astern, sir," Fawcett said. "He dived back into a cloud."
Duncan barely heard him. He was listening for, dreading to hear, another sound, while he watched to see what action the screen would take. This was not his province. It belonged to Captain Sherwood. Though junior to himself both on the Navy List and in his command, Sherwood was senior officer of the escort group: U-boats were his business. His own destroyer, leading ship of the starboard screen, heeled on the turn so acutely that Duncan was able to see the whole of her upper-deck. Swinging with the same despatch and hard-over rudder, the second destroyer followed him round.
"Standby for maneuvering," Duncan said, and Pilot passed it down to the wheelhouse and thus the engine-room. If the U'boat had fired, a shoal of torpedoes could be heading for Warwick.
Captain Richard Duncan

Collector's Series #128

ATTACK!
There was not all that much difference between full speed and full power, but than a torpedo has only to miss by one foot and that means the difference between life and death.
Pelican was very narrow and light. In just about any sort of sea and even at low speed she trembled, for she carried enormous power inside that thin grey skin.
Her men were gripped by fear. Most of them were on the upperdeck at action stations. They did not know what was out there. But they could see nothing of any surface craft, they were feeling her lean as she swung, and the shuddering, and to men as experienced as these there could be only one answer: not only a submarine, but loosed torpedoes. And this they did know: If a 21-inch torpedo with its half/ton warhead struck her, anywhere, she was finished. Not perhaps killed at once, but the bow or the stern blown off, or the superheated boiler-rooms penetrated, leaving her at the enemy's mercy. Finished
Lieutenant-Commander John Benedict "Dutchy" Holland

Collector's Series #129

A COUNCIL OF CAPTAINS
"Destroyers," Blaskayne said on a release of breath. "They heard our firing and are closing to ..."
Something else, heard loud and menacingly close, rode over him. Their heads swung, just as that shearing noise changed its tune to an ear-thumping blast. Not more than four hundred yards off the starboard beam the sea rose in a wide white wall; high, coloured black at the base.
"Destroyers, Commander?" Sainsbury queried.

Collector's Series #132

OPERATIONAL IMMEDIATE
High speed in this murk had all the potentialities of bucking disaster. To try and lessen them he steamed in line–abreast formation, with Swift on his starboard beam and Witch to port. There were dangers in this arrangement… was there one without?… but at least like this each ship had the whole length of her sister on which to keep station, instead of the narrow–gutted stern they would have been reduced to if in line-ahead.
In practice, there were so many possible and ugly variations of this theoretical theme tat Bentley quite consciously refused to think about them.
Captain Peter Bentley V.C.

Collector's Series #134

CONFIRMED IN COMMAND
Commander William Mallett was dismissed from his Fleet destroyer for drunkenness and placed in command of Wanderer, old and worn and manned by misfits.
When Wanderer was blown up, Mallett was given command of the Fleet destroyer Verity. It was his last chance to regain his previous reputation as a top rate destroyer commander. HIS MISSION: To intercept and sink a Japanese destroyer sailing to rejoin the fleet.
ON BOARD: The commander of the Japanese fleet, a marked man who had to be destroyed

Collector's Series #135

THE DARK OF THE NIGHT
"Enemy challenging, Sir."
"Engage," he said, and tasted the word.
"Open fire," said the director phone-number into his instrument, and "Shoot," said Mr. Bates into his.
Jackal was silent for a moment; long enough for Dutchy's hope to surface. the prime object of his plan was to escape, not to sink enemy ships. If he could burst through the Jap division without crippling damage, even without damaging them, then the way was open. While they wasted time and distance on the turn after him, Jackal would be rushing fast away, and showing only her narrow-gutted stern to their guns. And if he and Verril couldn't slip a few broadsides under those conditions...
Captain "Dutchy" Holland

Collector's Series #137

THE SHADOW
Jackal came careering round, still at thirty knots, right round through east and north-east and then past north:
Leaning far over, her lean flanks almost level with the sea; and even now, like this, A-turret got off its starshell, keeping the brute nakedly lit. Regularly, though nowhere near Jackal's rate of fire of twenty-five rounds per minute, Wolfe's six-inch batteries bared their yellow teeth at her. All around her, the sea convulsed in leaping spouts. But so far, no shells had hit. Here was a savage cheetah of a ship, swinging so fast that no guns could allow for the rate of change of bearing, or the constantly changing range.
It was a macabre scene; tremendous in its exhibition of skill, of ferocity, and of brassbowelled courage. But it was too fierce to last. Something had to give.
Captain "Dutchy" Holland

Collector's Series #138

STAND OFF
The plan came on slowly, designed to fly like that, her pilot and observer staring with all their eyes, striving to make sure of what they had here. Caledonia was obviously what she was: a big, fast, heavily loaded merchantman, just as obviously headed for Malta. But the destroyer was not so easy to peg. A modern Fleet boat was more than 300 feet long, but Pelican rated 280 feet; a difference hard to determine from up there. She was streaked with rust, but so were the latest ships after a hard long time at sea, and the Italian pilot had no way of knowing if her stains were permanent. It seemed he was intent on finding out.
Captain "Dutchy" Holland

Collector's Series #139

DEATH OF A DESTROYER
"Speed in attack is the only hope of success against odds... "We are up against tremendous odds, therefore we must act quickly." His voice burred up to a commanding rasp. "Pilot, bring her round to come up astern of the enemy. Torps, prepare all tubes for firing starb'd side. Number One, do not open fire until we're sighted. When you do, concentrate the whole main armament on her side midway between the flight-deck and water-level, using armour piercing shell," Spindrift was already leaning on the turn towards.
Lieutenant-Commander Bruce Thornton Sainsbury

Collector's Series #140

WALL OF FIRE
The gunner's mate struck the match, and so while the cutter had begun the mission, Saunders actually ended it. The petrol trail flared with a swift bright yellowness that ran snake-like to bite at the building. And it was daylight in the night jungle, the quiet trees outlined by a fiery carapace that rored, and presently the trees began to move gently, and then toss in the fierce heated updraught.
Randall watched with his before his face, imbued with exhilaration. But part of his mind was occupied with a grimmer consideration - the whole sides of the building were ablaze, the flames peaking high above it..
Captain Peter Bentley

	Collector's Series #141
	DON'T GIMME THE SHIPS A block and tackle wouldn’t have hoisted Able Seaman Windy Gale’s face north again after he’s got his draft from the “boats” to the “ships”. It was the biggest bombshell of his young life… more devastating even than an atomic explosion. And when he staggered down the cruiser gangplank for the last time, the only words he could manage were…