Military History Encyclopedia Forum

[jpfoynes]

I must share the following about authors Jon Sutherland and Diane Canwell.
A few months ago I sued them via Norwich County Court for plagiarising--and in places verbatim-copying, my book "The Battle of the East Coast 1939-1945", so as to make up 40% of their book "AIR WAR OVER THE NORE". I alleged infringement of the 1988 Copyright Act. They settled out of court for the full sum I was claiming.
Meanwhile a whole series of people including aviation author M J F Bowyer, Foulsham Books, a colonel of the Royal Anglians, Lt-Cdr Hoole of the RN Mine Warfare Website, Royal Naval Patrol Service webmaster N Clark, reviewer Andy Gale, Professor Derek Law and others wrote to the same authors and publishers deploring the copying and utter lack of research in the same AND other titles.
The latest Sutherland/Canwell book purports to be a photo-illustrated account of the first voyage of the German battleship TIRPITZ, made to the Caribbean in 1939.
This book is a scam. Not one of its photos shows any such voyage, because TIRPITZ was not completed till 1941 and never went withing 5000 miles of the Caribbean. In fact only a few of the photos in the book show the TIRPITZ at all!
A google search of Amazon reviews for these co-authors gives just a small sample of the unhappy story.
Sutherland and Canwell say they have written over 200 books, and on about 35 very different subjects. This works out at one book every 3 weeks. Common sense, as well as comparing their texts and photos with other people's, gives an indication of what is going on.