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1942: Hitler's U-Boats are ravaging merchant ships that Britain depends on for its survival. Enter a plan, for a gigantic warship, to help the Allies win the Battle of the Atlantic. It will be built in Canada and made from ... ice! Richard Longley tells the story of iceberg ship Habbakuk, in all its icy eccentricity.



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In late spring of 1940, nine and a half months after the war against Hitler began in Europe, the writing was on the wall: France had fallen to the Germans and Britain was now on its own in the fight against Nazi Germany.On June 18th 1940, the Prime Minister of Great Britain,, stood in the House of Commons, and spoke of what would come next. That summer, the Battle of Britain began. It was fought entirely in the air, the RAF - Britain's Royal Air Force - against the German Luftwaffe. In the midst of this, "Project Habbakuk" was born. A wild, some say crazy idea, for a gigantic warship the British could deploy in the Atlantic: an Aircraft Carrier, built of ice., Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University., Hans Rausing Professor, Imperial College London.y, Royal Canadian Navy (Retired)., State Underwater Archaeologist, Maryland Historical Trust., Alternative Service Worker with Project Habbakuk at Patricia Lake, Alberta., Historian, Department of National Defence, Canada., Professor, Department of History, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityDirector of Research, Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies., Professor of Military History, University of Victoria., Oxford University Press, 2005., Deadly Allies,, Ch 6,Toronto, McLelland & Stewart, 1989., New Scientist, 23 July, 1981, pp246-247., New Scientist, 30 July, 1981, pp302-303..,, Victoria BC, Heritage House, 2012., London, Allen Lane, 2011.t, Cambridge, International Glaciological Society, 1993., London, Evans, 1959., Canadian Journal of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, vol 10, no. 2, 1986, pp119-131., Oxford, 1998 Ch 7, Enemy Alien, pp73-108., Cambridge, Journal of Glaciology. Vol.1 No.3 March 1948 pp 95-104., Canada, Department of National Defence, 1998.Montreal-Kingston, McGill-Queens, 1996.