| ID | Description | Categories | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1402 | JONES, Tristan. Heart of Oak. 283p. London: Bodley Head, 1983; New York: St. Martin’s, 1984. ISBN: 1853109665. A bawdy but enjoyable autobiography from the lower deck by a teller of tales who claims to have been in many of the major actions of the war, from training at Ganges to the sinking of Comorin, from Arctic convoys and PQ17 to the sinking of the Hood. Subsequently proved to be the fictitious work of a born storyteller who did not join the RN until 1946. |
view | |
| 1403 | KANE, James S. In Peril on the Sea: The Naval Career of Signalman Henry Kane. x, 115, [v]p., illus. Lurgan: Ulster Society, 1994. ISBN: 1872076173.
Kane was born in 1897 and joined the navy, seeing service in WWI. On his discharge he joined the reserves and was called up to the destroyer Eclipse in 1939. In 1940 he was posted to the "Q" ship Prunella. It is with her career, her loss to U 28 and Kane's death that his grandson is concerned. |
view | |
| 1404 | KELLETT, Fred. A Flower for the Sea a Fish for the Sky. v, 219p. Carlisle: Dellwood, 1995. ISBN: 0952680807.
Having initially failed to get into the Fleet Air Arm as a pilot in 1941 he was accepted into the RN as a cadet on the Y-Scheme and trained to become a radar operator. In 1942 he joined the crew of Polyanthus. By a stroke of luck his draft to train at Daedalus, arrived just before Polyanthus set out on her last voyage. He went on to become a pilot in the FAA flying a Barracuda. |
view | |
| 1405 | KENNEDY, Ludovic. On My Way to the Club: The Autobiography of Ludovic Kennedy. 429p., illus., index. London: Collins, 1989. ISBN: 0002176173.
A very enjoyable memoir with 90 pages on the war, including a section on his father's death in Rawalpindi. He served for two years on Tartar, including the Bismarck hunt and Russian convoy duty; in Watchman on the North Atlantic run; for a year in Canada as ADC to the Governor of Newfoundland; as Press Liaison Officer in the Admiralty, which included a view of D-Day from Largs; with Zebra in the Home Fleet and, briefly, with Wheatland refitting at Taranto. |
view | |
| 1406 | KENNEDY, Ludovic. Sub-Lieutenant: A Personal Record of the War at Sea. 104p., illus. London: Batsford, 1942.
A discreet autobiography covering his life at Eton, Oxford, King Alfred, then two years on Tartar, where he saw action in Norway, the Lofotens Raid, and the Bismarck hunt. Also contains a tribute to his father who went down as captain of the Rawalpindi. |
view | |
| 1407 | KENT, Ken. You Shouldn't Join If You Can't Take a Joke. [iv], 76p., illus. London: Avon, 1996. ISBN: 1860332439.
He joined up in 1935 as a Boy Seaman and in September 1939 was at Malta on Imogen which returned to the UK serving at Plymouth and Scapa until sunk in a collision in mid-1940. He then joined the new cruiser Phoebe and saw service in the Greek and Cretan evacuations. In August 1941 he was drafted to Griffin working with the Fleet and on the Spud Run to Tobruk. In mid-1942 he moved to Resolution and the Eastern Fleet. In May 1943 he returned to the UK on Gambia then undertook his Petty Officer training, then saw out the war at the Scapa base. A lightweight account. |
view | |
| 1408 | KERSLAKE, S. A. Coxswain on the Northern Convoys. ix, 191p., illus., index. London: Kimber, 1994. ISBN: 0718305086. A prewar trawlerman, he saw very active service in northern waters on the Northern Gem, notably in Norway and with Arctic convoys. In 1943 he joined the African Coastal Flotilla, initially at Algiers and saw service in the Mediterranean. A good read. |
view | |
| 1409 | KIMBERLEY, Ken. Heavo, Heavo, Lash Up and Stow: A Memoir of an East Ender's War. 96p., illus. Kettering: Silver Link, 1999. ISBN: 1857941349.
After joining up and extended training in radar he joined Arbiter in Vancouver for her commissioning in late 1943. A lengthy journey eventually took her to the Pacific Fleet Train and she returned to the UK some months after war's end. Enlivened with excellent drawings by the author. |
view | |
| 1410 | KIMMINS, Anthony. Half-Time. 290p., illus. London: Heinemann, 1947.
The war memoirs of a reservist who became a naval broadcaster. Extracts from his broadcasts are mixed with accounts of all the major operations in which he took part and of all the famous people he met. |
view | |
| 1411 | KNIGHT, Esmond. Seeking the Bubble. 168p., illus. London: Hutchinson, [1943].
The author was an actor. The last 30 pages of this autobiography record his short wartime naval career, in which he was tragically blinded in the Hood action, while serving on Prince of Wales. |
view | |
| 1412 | LAMPEN, A. M. D. The Gilded Image. 45–580, [5]p., illus. San Francisco: Shields, 1978. ISBN: 0960194207
The slightly disjointed autobiography of a RN officer. He returned from the Far East in Folkestone in 1939, then served in Orion in the Mediterranean in 1940–41, going to the US with her after damage off Crete. He next served in Howe in 1942–43 then became involved in the logistic support for D-Day and the Mulberry project. Before war's end he went to Australia to set up a damage control training unit. |
view | |
| 1413 | LANE, Peter. Prince Philip. 352p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Hale, 1980. ISBN: 0709185901.
Only a dozen pages on his wartime career, but containing some original reminiscences from colleagues. |
view | |
| 1414 | LANG, Frank. My Little Bit. [viii], 192, [22]p., illus. Worsley: author, 1994. ISBN: 0952510200.
He joined up in 1939, was trained at Royal Arthur then drafted to Durban based at Singapore early in 1940. He stayed with her through the fall of Singapore, after which shewent to New York for major refit. Next came a gunnery course and after almost a year of shore appointments he trained at King Alfred. He then joined the minesweeper Lioness as gunnery officer in spring 1945, where he stayed until demobbed. |
view | |
| 1415 | LA NIECE, P. G. Not a Nine to Five Job. 248p., illus., index. Yalding: Charltons, 1992. ISBN: 0952021900.
Covers his career from 1937 to 1955. At the outbreak of war he was a midshipman on Mohawk in the Mediterranean. He transferred to Barham and shortly after to Hood then Warspite and the Northern Patrol. In mid-1940 he did his Gunnery Course and joined Lydd at Grimsby then Birmingham and the Home Fleet at the end of the year. She led a busy life in the South Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Indian Ocean. He then transferred to the Dutch cruiser Heemskerck as Liaison Officer based at Sydney. In March 1943 he returned to the UK and joined Viscount as First Lieutenant in the Liverpool Escort Force. In June 1944 he joined the training cruiser Dauntless then went on his long Gunnery Course toward war's end. |
view | |
| 1416 | LARGE, Tony. In Deep and Troubled Waters: The Story of a South African at War Who Survived the Sinkings of Both HMS Cornwall and the Troopship Laconia in 1942. xiii, 194p., illus., index. Donington: Watkins, 2001. ISBN: 1900289318.
An autobiography which focuses on these two events. |
view | |
| 1417 | LAWRENCE, Ivor D. A Naval Schoolmaster Looks Back. v, 286p., illus., index. Worthing: Churchman, 1989. ISBN: 0948601175.
Born in 1901 he joined the Merchant Service in 1917 to train as a deck officer. After the postwar contraction of shipping he trained as a teacher and in 1923 joined the RN as a "schoolie." In late 1939 he joined Aurora and saw service through the Norwegian campaign. He then joined Naiad and saw six months' hard service in the eastern Mediterranean, notably at Crete. Posted home in January 1942 he took a shore post in Edinburgh and toured the country lecturing. Several shore posts took him to discharge in 1946. His war service occupies only some 50 pages. |
view | |
| 1418 | LEACH, Henry. Endure No Makeshifts: Some Naval Recollections. xiii, 274p., illus., index. London: Cooper, 1993. ISBN: 0850523702.
Leach joined as a Cadet in 1937 and retired as First Sea Lord and an Admiral of the Fleet in 1982. This is an anecdotal rather than analytic biography with notable gaps and an avowed reluctance to criticise. There are 50 pages on WWII. Most of this time was spent at sea, first in Mauritius (and a poignant last meeting in Singapore with his father before he sailed for the last time with Prince of Wales), then in Walpole followed by Duke of York in 1943–1944, including the sinking of the Scharnhorst. He saw out the war in a mutinous Javelin preparing for service in the Far East. |
view | |
| 1419 | LE BAILLY, Louis. The Man Around the Engine: Life Below the Waterline. 186p., illus., index. Emsworth: Mason, 1990. ISBN: 0859373541.
Admiral Le Bailly went to Dartmouth in 1929. In 1939 he was serving in Hood, but at the end of the year joined the then building Naiad. She spent the second half of 1940 based at Scapa, then after a refit moved to the Mediterranean, where she was damaged in the evacuation of Crete and finally sunk in March 1942 on a Malta convoy. He spent the next two years as Professor of Marine Engineering at Keyham and at the beginning of 1945 joined Duke of York, which was bound for the Pacific Fleet and attended the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay. The final third of the book describes his postwar career. |
view | |
| 1420 | LEWIS, A. H. A Caul & Some Wartime Experiences. iii, 136p., illus. Newton Abbot: author, 1995.
Lewis joined the RNVR in mid-1939 and was called up in September as a Stores Assistant at Devonport. He soon moved to the submarine depot ship Forth in Scotland. In mid-1940 came Norfolk and the Northern Patrol. In January 1941 he became an officer cadet and trained at King Alfred before appointment in March 1941 to Coastal Forces as spare officer of the 3rd MGB Flotilla based at Fowey then the 7th ML Flotilla at Dartmouth. In March 1942 he joined the 19th Flotilla as First Lieutenant of MTB 336. The flotilla immediately moved to the West Indies for escort and rescue duties. After a year he and other officers helped ship a flotilla of LCTs to Gibraltar from the Chesapeake Bay then returned to the UK. He next commissioned MTB 705 at Southampton which joined the 59th MTB Flotilla at Dover in late 1943, undertaking 110 operational patrols in the next six months up to and including D-Day. In August he joined the new MTB 766 but was hospitalised after an accident and returned to command the older MTB 612. After more action in the Channel he moved as a Training Officer to the Coastal Forces Base in Anglesey in March 1945. |
view | |
| 1421 | LINCOLN, F. Ashe. Odyssey of a Jewish Sailor. 78p. London: Minerva, 1995. ISBN: 1858636000. A fairly bland account of his naval service, up to and including the formation of the Israeli Navy. A lawyer and a member of the naval reserve he was called up in 1939 and specialised in mine clearance. He later served with 30 Commando in the Mediterranean examining German naval stores and late in the war went to Washington to work on captured Japanese torpedoes. |
view |