| Entry Text: | HAYES, John. Face the Music: A Sailor's Story. xv, 239p., illus. Durham: Pentland, 1991. ISBN: 1872795056.
Hayes entered Dartmouth in 1926 and the first half of the book addresses the prewar years. In August 1939 he was appointed Navigator of Cairo as the Reserve Fleet mobilised. After three months on the East Coast he spent a year ashore then transferred to Repulse. He was with her for the Bismarck hunt and her journey to Singapore where he survived her sinking. He performed some naval liaison duties in Singapore and was then evacuated to Java in Jupiter then traveled in a Dutch coaster to Colombo. Repatriated to the UK he joined London in Scapa as Staff Officer Operations to Admiral Hamilton. This made him an eyewitness to PQ17. 1944 was then spent, still with Hamilton, ashore in Malta. The last two years of the war are described in only two pages. A final section covers his postwar career. |
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