This is an authoritative and readable account of all aspects of Q ships (ships disguised as merchantmen but actually armed), commerce raiders and the convoys which kept Britain alive in World War II. It also has a broad brush look at specific facets of naval history to the middle of the twentieth century. The Nazi invasion of Russia in 1941 gave birth to an operation which involved 3 1/2 years of struggle to supply arms and logistic supplies to the Russians, which included the use of Q ships, in close proximity to the might of German sea and air power. The book also covers the Mediterranean and Far East theatres of war which brought other perils and hardships to those who manned them and the convoys of those who escorted them.