Angus Konstam was brought up in Orkney, and is the author of over 60 books, 30 of which are published by Osprey. The body of work of this acclaimed historian includes Sovereigns of the Sea, Piracy: The Complete History, Blackbeard, Salerno, 1943 and The Battle of North Cape. His most recent work is There was a Soldier, a collection of first-hand accounts by Scottish soldiers. A former naval officer and museum professional, he worked as the Curator of Weapons at the Tower of London and as the Chief Curator of the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West, Florida. He is now a full-time author and historian, and lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, although he still returns regularly to visit family and friends in Orkney.

Peter Dennis was born in 1950. Inspired by contemporary magazines such as Look and Learn he studied illustration at Liverpool Art College. Peter has since contributed to hundreds of books, predominantly on historical subjects, including many Osprey titles. A keen wargamer and modelmaker, he is based in Nottinghamshire, UK.

A strategically important natural harbor in the Orkney Islands, Scapa Flow served as Britain's main fleet anchorage during World Wars I and II. In 1914 and again in 1939, the British began building a comprehensive defensive network by fortifying the entrances to Scapa Flow, and then extended these defenses to cover most of Orkney. By 1940, it had become an island fortress, the largest integrated defensive network of its kind in Europe, manned by as many as 50,000 Commonwealth troops. Backed by newly commissioned artwork, naval historian Angus Konstam tells the story of this mighty naval fortress, many pieces of which can still be seen on the island today.