| ID | Description | Categories | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1262 | AUSTIN, John, with CARTER, Nick. The Man Who Hit the Scharnhorst: The Ordeal of Leading Seaman Nick Carter. 189p., illus. London: Seeley Service, 1973. ISBN: 0854220119. Carter fired the torpedo from Acasta which hit the Scharnhorst, while the destroyer was making a vain attempt to protect Glorious as she left Norway. Acasta was sunk and he was the sole survivor. Carter later served on Manchester and Howe. |
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| 1263 | BADHAM, Michael. A Dog Named Bill or the War Time Adventures of an English Sea Puppy. [ii], 47p., illus. [North Bath, Me: author, 1990].
He joined Dartmouth in May 1940 and this is in essence his midshipman's diary. In January 1944 he joined Duke of York with the Home Fleet, mainly engaged in covering or attacking Tirpitz. That September he moved to the cruiser Orion based in Athens and involved in the Greek Civil War. In April 1945 he moved to the destroyer Musketeer based on Toulon then theminesweeper Circe based on Genoafor his small ship time. In mid-July 1945 he returned to the UK. An enjoyable if brief reminiscence of lost youth. |
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| 1264 | BAILEY, Chris Howard. Social Change in the Royal Navy 1924–1970: The Life and Times of Admiral Sir Frank Twiss KCB, KCVO, DSC. xix, 236p., illus., index. Stroud: Sutton, 1996.ISBN: 0750906103.
Frank Twiss joined Dartmouth in 1924 and rose to become Second Sea Lord despite a terrible ordeal as a Japanese POW. The book is based around interviews taped by Chris Howard Bailey for the Royal Naval Museum. He began the war as a Flotilla Gunnery Officer on Malcolm, then early in 1940 stood by Trinidad. In late summer 1940 he was appointed Gunnery Officer of Exeter. He sailed with her for the Far East and her sinking in the Battle of the Java Sea. His four years as a POW are sympathetically described. |
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| 1265 | BAILLIE, D. G. O. A Sea Affair: An Autobiography. x, 290p., illus., index. London: Hutchinson, 1957.
Captain Baillie spent 40 years at sea with the P.&O. line. During the war he served first on Carthage, before returning to the Merchant Marine in the autumn of 1942, where he served for the rest of the war. About 20 and 45 pages respectively are devoted to these two periods. |
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| 1266 | BAKER, John. Ajax and 940. x, 140p., illus. Braintree: Writing Life, 2004. ISBN: 0954446550.
He joined up as a fifteen year old boy sailor in 1939. After training he joined Ajax in the Mediterranean. When she returned to the UK in mid-1942, he was transferred to landing craft and combined operations. He soon joined LCT 940 as coxswain and the bulk of the book describes her career, culminating in the Normandy landings and his post-war life. |
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| 1267 | BAKER, Richard. Dry Ginger: The Biography of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Michael Le Fanu, GCB, DSC. 254p., bibliog., illus., index. London: W. H. Allen, 1977. ISBN: 049101788X. Le Fanu was to rise to become First Sea Lord. During the war he served on Aurora, at Whale Island, on Howe, and as liaison officer with the American 3rd and 5th Fleets. The first biography of this central figure is a well researched and sympathetic one which looks kindly on his actions. Reprinted by Pen & Sword Naval in 2015, ISBN: 9781473841833. |
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| 1276 | BROOKE, Geoffrey. Alarm Starboard! A Remarkable True Story of the War at Sea. 280p., illus. Cambridge: PSL, 1982. ISBN: 0850595789.
He began the war as a midshipman on Nelson. He joined Douglas in 1940 at Gibraltar after his Sublieutenant's course. She returned to the UK after Mers-el-Kebir and he then joined Prince of Wales, serving from her commissioning to sinking. After an astonishing escape from Singapore to Ceylon he joined the new Bermuda and took part in Operation Torch. A short spell at the Boys Training School in the Isle of Man was followed by service in Indomitable and Formidable in the Pacific. |
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| 1277 | BROWN, Tommy. From Engine Room to Admiralty. vii, 308p., illus. Ringwood: Navigator, 1995. ISBN: 0902830570.
He went to Dartmouth in 1930 and by 1939 was a Lieutenant (E) on Valiant then being modernised. Work up in Bermuda was followed by Scapa, Norway, Mers-el-Kebir and Alexandria, including the Matapan action. In mid-1941 he returned to the UK for a gunnery engineering course via the Pacific and North America. After two months as a gunmounting overseer in Newcastle, he joined Nelson at the end of 1943 at Rosyth. She provided fire support for D-Day then went to Philadelphia for a major refit before a gentle peregrination to the Far East, arriving at Trincomalee in July 1945 and after limited action took part in the surrender of Singapore. He went on to serve until 1958 and this too is described. The contented memories of a contented man. |
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| 1278 | BROWNE, Ian. Skipper's Memories. 130p., illus. Colchester: Orphean, 2010. ISBN: 0954509471.
The very readable autobiography of a regular who joined as a Special Entry Cadet in January 1939 and spent the next fifteen years at sea in ships as varied as Ark Royal and Viceroy. |
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| 1279 | BRUNDRETT, Alan. Two Years in Ceylon: The Diary of a Navy Secretariat Member 1944–1946. 501p., illus., index. Lewes: Book Guild, 1996. ISBN: 1857760433.
Brundrett was called up in 1944 and served as a Writer in Ceylon. This is reflected in this huge volume which is his lightly annotated contemporary diary. It in turn was full of his training and lecture notes and everything else which he could set down in his omnivorous desire for knowledge of everything from the trivia of cricket scores to the methods of office practice to the morality of the atomic bomb. There is a very full account of training routines and of the tedium of base life in Ceylon, to which he was posted. The book neither records great events nor represents great writing, but it gives a fascinating insight into the growth from gauche teenager to man and an impression of how the necessary but unglamorous management of the Navy was conducted at the lowest level - and could be a useful vade mecum of naval custom and tradition for those of a younger generation. |
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| 1280 | BRYCE, Ian Kinloch. Shipmates & Mistresses – Bye and Large. xvi, 315p., illus., index. Stanhope: Memoir Club, 2005. ISBN: 1841040436.
A frank and often racy autobiography. Training as a merchant Navy cadet in 1939, he was called up as an RNR Midshipman. He was swiftly sunk in Kittiwake, then did a spell in Fitzroy where he was decorated for his work at Dunkirk. In 1941 he joined Oribi, where he spent three happy years, much of it on Arctic convoys before joining Wildgoose at war's end. The book also covers the rest of a successful and happy life |
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| 1281 | BUCKINGHAM, Fred F. The Strife is O'er: Trials and Tribulations in the Long and Varied Career of a Royal Navy Sparker. 224p., illus., index. Minster Lovell: Bookmarque, 1993. ISBN: 1870519205. He joined the Navy in 1929 and was a PO Telegraphist in Havock in the South Atlantic when war broke out. She moved north for the Norwegian campaign, then back for the evacuation of Holland. After a year in Iceland he went to submarines in mid-1941, and after training joined P 35 at Scapa. By year's end she was in Malta. After a hard 14 months P 35 (now Umbra) returned to the UK. She recommissioned as an A/S training submarine based at Campbeltown. In mid-1944 he moved to the depot ship Adamant at Trincomalee and later Fremantle and Hong Kong. An interesting and unusual perspective from a strong character. Published in a limited edition in hardback. |
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