| ID | Description | Categories | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2602 | PARTRIDGE, Richard. Operation Skua. 159, [4]p., illus., index. Yeovilton: Friends of the Fleet Air Arm Museum, 1983. ISBN: 0902633864.
The autobiography of one of the 40 Royal Marine pilots of WWII. Much concerned with the Norwegian campaign and the legendary Konigsberg attack. He was shot down near the end of the campaign and spent the rest of the war as a POW. The recovery of his plane in 1974 is also described. |
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| 2603 | POLLITT, J. E. Marine to Mayor. [vi], 238p., illus. Exeter: [author, 1990].
He joined up in late 1943 aged 17 and in a glittering career rose to be Senior Regimental Sergeant Major before gaining a commission. There is a detailed account of his training in the latter part of the war. |
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| 2604 | ROWE, Robin. Sticky-Blue! A Boy and a Battleship. 191p., bibliog., illus. Christow: Devonshire House, 1995. ISBN: 0952451301.
Sticky-Blue was the name for a Boy Bugler. Rowe joined up in 1941 aged 13. Training is engagingly described and a year later he joined Howe, where he spent the rest of the war serving from the Arctic to the Pacific, via Operation HUSKY and the surrender of the Italian Fleet, finishing as a hardened regular aged 17. Simply and well told. |
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| 2605 | SAMAIN, Bryan. Commando Men: The Story of a Royal Marine Commando in North-West Europe. xviii, 188p., illus. London: Stevens, 1948.
A history of 45 Commando from D-Day to VE Day. Reprinted by White Lion in 1976 and by Greenhill Books in 1988. |
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| 2606 | SKIDMORE, Ian. Marines Don't Hold Their Horses. 128p., index. London: W. H. Allen, 1981. ISBN: 0491026943.
The biography of a Royal Marine, Colonel Alan Warren. He was associated with the creation of Combined Operations under Keyes and later operated in the Singapore area with SOE and other clandestine groups before being captured by the Japanese and spending the rest of the war as a POW. |
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| 2607 | SOUTHBY-TAILYOUR, Ewen. Blondie: A Biography of Lieutenant–Colonel H.G. Hasler, DSO, OBE, Croix de Guerre, Royal Marines. xx, 412p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Cooper, 1998.
Hasler was widely known as a yachtsman, but better and more popularly as the leader of the Cockleshell Heroes. Commissioned in 1932, he fought in Norway, then moved to special forces, both in the Far East and Europe. About one-third of the book describes his war. |
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| 2608 | SPENSER, James. The Awkward Marine. 303p. London: Longmans Green, 1948.
Conscripted against his will into the Royal Marine Labour Corp in 1941, the author caused trouble and awkwardness until allowed to join the Royal Marine Commando. He was promptly captured at Dieppe and then spent the rest of the war being a nuisance to the Germans. |
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| 2609 | ST. JOHN, John. To the War with Waugh. x, 56p., illus. London: Cooper, 1974. ISBN: 0850521637.
The author recounts his war service in the Royal Marines where he struck up a friendship with Evelyn Waugh. The book is mainly concerned with their training and the assault on Dakar. First published in a limited edition in 1973. |
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| 2610 | STANNARD, Martin. Evelyn Waugh: No Abiding City, 1939–1966. xx, 523p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Dent, 1992. ISBN: 0460860623.
The second volume of this major biography covers his war service, with its mixture of courage, dissatisfaction, and ultimate failure. |
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| 2611 | SWALES, Joffre. We Blew and They Were Shattered: The Life and Music of RMB X1522. x, 270p., illus. Haverfordwest: Singing Saw, 1993.
An enjoyable tale. He joined up in 1940 as a bandsman and trained at Deal before joining the new King George V and saw the Bismarck hunt. Later in 1941 he joined Norfolk and saw service in the Arctic including the sinking of Scharnhorst. A spell ashore at the training camp Glendower was followed by joining the RM orchestra, the Oceanaires to entertain the Forces, serving in Germany until war's end. |
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| 2612 | THOMPSON, J. Alan. Only the Sun Remembers. 276p. London: Dakers, 1950.
The wartime life and loves - especially the latter - of a Royal Marine. After a gruelling introduction to war in Norway, he spent the next few years based in Ceylon while setting up coast defences in the Indian Ocean in such varied sites as the Seychelles and Addu Atoll. |
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| 2613 | WALLIS, John. With God's Blessing and a Green Beret: A Pilgrimage. 112p., illus. Poole: Firebird, 1994. ISBN: 185314200X. An autobiography. Wallis volunteered in 1941 and served as a chaplain with 41 Royal Marine Commando until in 1944 he transferred to the depot ship Tyne, serving with her at Scapa and in the Pacific. Very good on the unsung and unpleasant work of a non-combatant padre as medic and gravedigger at Sicily and Salerno. |
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| 2614 | WAUGH, Evelyn. The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh. [x], 814p., index. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976. ISBN: 0297771264.
Waugh kept an extensive diary which describes his career in the Royal Marines. He took part in the Dakar expedition and fought in Crete. After some time in the UK he then served in Yugoslavia. Almost 200 pages are devoted to his wartime experiences. |
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| 2615 | WAUGH, Evelyn. The Letters of Evelyn Waugh. x, 664p., illus., index. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; New Haven: Ticknor & Fields, 1980. ISBN: 0297776576.
The wartime letters, mainly to his wife, occupy 80 pages and are a useful complement to his diaries. |
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| 2616 | YOUNG, David. Four Five: The Story of 45 Commando, Royal Marines 1943–1971. xiv, 463p., illus., index. London: Cooper, 1972. ISBN: 0850520932.
Formed in the reorganisation of 1943, this famous unit first saw action at D-Day, then fought through Holland and Germany. |
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| 2617 | BAXTER, James Phinney. Scientists against Time. xv, 473p., illus., index. Boston: Little Brown, 1946.
An official history of the American Office of Scientific Research and Development. Provides some useful background to British work on science research for the war at sea. |
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| 2618 | BLACKER, Stewart. Pathans, Planes and Petards. 134p., frontis. [n.p.: author, c.1967].
Born in 1887 he served in the Indian Army and on retirement became an inventor. He was much concerned with the development of forward-firing spigot weapons and the creation of Hedgehog, a system of firing a cluster of bombs when attacking submarines. |
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| 2619 | BROWN, Louis. Technical and Military Imperatives: A Radar History of World War II. xvi, 563p.,bibliog., illus. index. London: Taylor & Francis, 1999. ISBN: 0750306599.
A comprehensive and coherent account covering all arms and all theatres. Very readable. |
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| 2620 | CROWTHER, J. G., & WHIDDINGTON, R. Science at War. [vi], 185p., illus. London: HMSO; New York: Philosophical Library, 1947.
An official account. There are four sections, on operational research, radar, the atomic bomb, and science and the sea. |
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| 2621 | DOBINSON, Colin. Building Radar: Forging Britain's Early-Warning Chain, 1935-1945. xx,665p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Methuen, 2010. ISBN: 0413772299.
An excellent history with some material on the use of radar in protecting coastal convoys. |
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