PURSUIT

Signed on the title page by

Sir Ludovic Kennedy

Collins First Edition, first printing 1974.  254 pages and well illustrated with photographs and with maps on the endpapers.

Fine condition hardback book in navy blue covers with silver gilt titles.  In a Very Good condition unclipped dustjacket with a small 2cm area of loss to the top of the back panel.

A vivid account of the chase of the mighty Bismarck by the well-known broadcaster who served as a sub-lieutenant in HMS Tartar during the action.

In May 1941, the German battleship Bismarck, at that time the most formidable fighting ship afloat, escaped into the Atlantic. The hunt that followed covered over two million square miles ranging from the Baltic to the Arctic to the Bay of Biscay. Nearly 4000 British and German sailors died and it was one of the greatest naval battles of all time. Swordfish from HMS Ark Royal, in a daring attack, smashed her rudders which enabled the crippled battleship to be finally cornered and sunk.

Ludovic Kennedy was a writer, journalist, and broadcaster, known for his investigations into miscarriages of justice. Born in 1919, his father was Edward Kennedy, a naval captain who died heroically in command of HMS Rawalpindi (sunk by the Scharnhorst). Educated at Eton, and Oxford where he read Classics, he followed his father into the Royal Navy and recorded his experiences in his first book, ‘Sub-Lieutenant: A Personal Record of War at Sea’ anonymously published in 1942 in the same series as Paul Richey’s famous ‘Fighter Pilot’.

Later in his career, several books and films followed about famous naval battles (Scarpa Flow, Dieppe) and the hunt for the battleships Scharnhorst, Tirpitz, and the Bismarck. His ship, the destroyer HMS Tartar, was one of those that pursued the battleship Bismarck following the Battle of the Denmark Strait. He witnessed the final battle, until Bismarck was ablaze and its crew began to abandon ship, but shortage of fuel forced Tartar to depart for home before Bismarck sank.

An epic and scrupulously researched account of the dramatic action. Kennedy interviewed not only German and British participants but also resistance fighters in Norway and France and also the ‘neutral’ American pilot who re-sighted the Bismarck when she was lost. A signed copy of this  important book is a great addition to any WWII library.