James Edmond Macdonnell (1917-2002) was born in Mackay, Queensland and was Australia's greatest novelist of the sea, and his stories of naval warfare have since become classics of their type. As a boy, Macdonnell 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.
Eventually 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. 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.
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.
He was a prolific writer using a number of pseudonyms, James McNell, James Dark, James Edmond Macdonnell, James Macdonnell, J.E.M., Jim Macdonnell, J. Macdonnell, Macnell, Kerry Mitchell, Michael Owen.
There are 147 titles I have found in the series and those not yet added are listed at the bottom of the page. The series is currently being republished by Piccadilly Publishing at the rate of 1 book per month and the rest may be added once republished.
Series: The Naval War Series
Stand by To Ram! : Why hadn’t the Jap opened fire? Five thousand yards! He couldn’t miss
Target Unidentified : The charges went over, and some evil fate exploded them right outside the forward engine-room
Battle Ensign :
Scimitar was ordered to join the American Fleet, but itheydidn’t have much time for the Aussie battleship
Enemy in Sight : Peter Bentley had three weeks to learn to handle the midget submarine
Command :
Wind Rode was a sorry-looking destroyer. Everything about her had been allowed to slide
Alarm - E-Boats! : Bentley looked toward the shore. Beyond the dunes lay Rommel’s headquarters
The Weak Link : Who would expect a lone destroyer to close the range of three cruisers and a destroyer flotilla?
Presumed Sunk : She had chosen her watery grave and
Wind Rode intended to go down fighting …
Mutiny! : The tension among the crew was hard, menacing.
Wind Rode was perilously close to mutiny
Coffin Island : That wasn’t going to stop Bentley from risking everything to send the larger vessel to the bottom of the sea!
Frogman! : Their first big mission—to destroy a powerful radar station
Killer Ship : The deadly battle of wits began between destroyer and submarine really started
Night Encounter : William Walker volunteered for a spell with the Light Coastal Forces
The Secret Weapon : Bentley knew this was the time for nothing but concentrated attack
Target Battleship : Was something driving Cdr. Valance to get right in where the shot and shell were thickest
The Surgeon : The testing time was soon to come for Surgeon-Lieutenant Geoffrey Landis
The Gunner : The enemy destroyers were almost dead ahead
The Captain : news travels like a breath of wind, especially that an officer is confined to his cabin
The Recommend : None of them was prepared for the next startling evidence of the progress of the hunt
The Coxswain : The new coxswain of the
Wind Rode found himself faced with a twin challenge
The Challenge :
Pelican’s ancient guns snapped their challenge at the grey monster racing alongside them
Convoy : The deadly pack was closing in on its prey
Escort Ship : Bentley’s decision to continue fighting was possibly the simplest he had ever made
The Blind Eye : Bentley knew he had to destroy that refuelling point
Eagles Over Taranto : If they could hit Taranto hard, they could prevent embattled Malta being starved of food and ammunition
The Rocky : Bentley is determined to destroy a German raider who preyed on unescorted merchant ships and then vanished mysteriously
Battle Fire : "Sink the French fleet!" Those were Bentley's orders
The Ordeal :
Wind Rode was screening on the side furthest from the bombers
Sainsbury V.C : The career of an RAN Officer from his training in the 1930s
Battle Line : The fleets closedand
Wind Rode and
Scimitar tore at a crippled Jap battleship
The Long Haul : Wind Rode was helpless under the bombers, helpless against that prowling submarine.
Away Boarders! : Bentley had captured a ship in the Indian Ocean and planned on giving the German Navy an unexpected surprise
The First Lieutenant : Randall learnt how to fight the hard way until
Whippet faced her supreme challenge
U-Boat : As
Renown and
Ark Royal close in on
Bismark they are a perfect target for U-648
Flotilla Leader : For
Wind Rode's Captain this was his first ship-to-ship action in command of a flotilla
Conflict : Bentley and Randall's close bond is threatened
Repel Boarders : For the first time for almost a century the order passed through a British warship, "Repel boarders!'
Not Under Command : “All the officers are dead,” the coxswain said. “You’ll take orders from me.”
Fire One! : The intrepid Australian commander takes his destroyer on a daring ‘lone-wolf’ mission
The Buffer : "Hooky” Walker was faced with the biggest crisis of his life …
Jim Brady Series
Command Decision : What better berth to land in than a rust-bucket with a ramshackle crew
Choke Point : Dutchy Holland senses trouble. Dutchy is very good at this
Commander Brady : A devastating enemy air attack obliterates a sister ship before Brady's eyes
Series: n/a
