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The actor's autobiography covers the war in 25 pages. A curiously vapid account of a full career as a DEMS gunner in the Jervis Bay convoy, a spell in Liverpool as a training officer, then active service on Aurora in the Mediterranean in 1942–44, before ending the war as a Fighter Direction Officer on the carrier Victorious in the Pacific.

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Four extended memoirs, one from early in the century. Bill Dunlevey was a CPO on Exeter when she went down and survived as a POW, although in Nagasaki when the atomic bomb fell there. Morley himself was called up in 1940 and after training joined Verdun on the East Coast. In late 1942 he joined the new Redoubt and served mainly in the Mediterranean and Central and South Atlantic before joining the Eastern Fleet. In June 1944 he joined trawlers minesweeping at Aden. Finally W. P. McGrath was a Royal Marine Commando at Dieppe.

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As a member of the RNV(S)R, Muncaster was called up in February 1940. After some brief tribulations in Andania and a spell of illness, he went to the Admiralty, with responsibility for the camouflage of ships at sea. He held this post until invalided out in 1943. This saga is covered in 25 pages of a full biography. There was a separate and numbered limited edition of 100 copies.

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The first attempt at a record of Mountbatten's phenomenal career in war and peace.

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A very uneven autobiography. After training he joined Barham at Alexandria and was sunk in her. He then joined LCH 185, which was mined off Normandy. Promotion to sub–lieutenant followed and a move to Alacrity which then travelled to the Far East.

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He joined the RN in 1935 as a Boy Telegraphist and in September 1939 was serving as a Telegraphist First Class at the St. Angelo base in Malta. A year later he returned to England for foreign service leave then stood by Marigold. She worked mainly in the North Atlantic and early in 1942 he left for a promotion course. As a new PO he joined Bleasdale serving on the East Coast and the Channel, taking part both in the Dieppe Raid and the D-Day landings. After VE Day and a refit she sailed to join the East Indies Fleet. A good tale but compiled as something of a scrapbook.

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He was accepted into the Royal Navy Youth Scheme as an officer cadet in 1943 and completed his combined operations training in time for D-Day on a Landing Craft Rocket. This was followed by the Walcheren landing, where his LCR was badly damaged by shellfire. He saw out the war standing by a new LCR building at Middlesbrough.

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OLLARD, Richard. Fisher and Cunningham: A Study of the Personalities of the Churchill Era. 192p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Constable, 1991. ISBN: 0094704902.

A masterly study which makes no attempt to give detailed career histories, but uses the thread of their careers to illustrate the character of two of the greatest admirals of the twentieth century. Their relations with Churchill are examined with some relish.

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Oram had a fascinating early career in the sailing Merchant Navy before shifting to the RN and submarines in 1913. Steady promotion was abruptly halted by the tragedy of the Thetis. He was the senior officer on board and one of only four survivors. After this tragedy he was appointed Flag Captain to Admiral Harwood in Hawkins, based in the South Atlantic. After two years of this Hawkins returned to the UK and Oram to a minor job in the Admiralty, although he was influential in the adoption of a new officer selection scheme. He retired from the Navy, still a Captain in 1946.

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An enjoyable autobiography full of tall tales. During the war, this RNR Skipper claims to have captained corvettes, been on a motor launch at the raid on St. Nazaire, been a Commando who was on the Tobruk raid, a parachutist into Belgium, Royal Marine Beachmaster at D-Day and in the Far East, been captured by and escaped from the Japanese, shot tigers, and fought crocodiles.

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A fair account of arguably Britain's greatest admiral since Nelson.

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PACKER, Joy. Deep as the Sea. x, 246p., illus. London: Eyre Methuen, 1975. ISBN: 041332690X.

A biography of her husband, Admiral H. A. Packer. Most of the material covering WWII also appears in Grey Mistress.            

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War memoirs of a naval wife with information on her husband's career, in command of Calcutta, Manchester, the gunnery school Excellent, Warspite, and Chief of Staff to Sir John Cunningham.

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During WWII the author was recalled to the RN and served as a Plotting Officer at Plymouth and later as Staff Officer (Escorts) at Liverpool under Admirals Noble and Horton.

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A young RNVR officer's wartime diary. He served on Clematis, Exe and Amethyst, mainly on convoy duties, but including action against Hipper. An engaging account.

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A tribute to Mountbatten from an especially strongly linked group of men, bound together by the sinking of Kelly off Crete.

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PAWLE, Gerald. The War and Colonel Warden: Based on the Recollections of Commander C. R. Thompson, CMG OBE RN (ret.), Personal Assistant to the Prime Minister 1940-45. [4], 427p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Harrap; New York: Knopf, 1963.

Colonel Warden was Churchill’s cover name when travelling. Thus this is an account of his and his assistant’s travels during the war years. Reprinted by White Lion in 1974 (ISBN: 0856176370).  

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Autobiography from a career officer who began the war in Nelson, moved to Manchester in 1940, then became a Signals Officer on Medway in Alexandria. He was sunk in Huntley in 1941 then served as a Flag Lieutenant. This was followed by brief service in Renown, Malaya, and Eagle as a staff Signals Officer based at Gibraltar, then time on the staff of the Liverpool Escort Force. Further attachments followed to the Mulberry project then Londonderry before he saw out the war in the East Indies. His soubriquet appears well-earned.

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The dust-jacket describes this as a biography of Captain A.W. F. Sutton; the title page lists him as the author, while the copyright statement gives this honour to Richard Pike. Despite this confusion of authorship the book is a focussed account of three episodes as seen by Sutton: the Invergordon Mutiny; Mediterranean Service in a destroyer and the Spanish Civil War; and, finally, after a transfer to the Fleet Air Arm, the attack on Taranto. The rest of his career is thinly filled in between these three major reminiscences

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September 1939 found the author as the young chaplain of the 11th Cruiser Squadron on Ceres, where he spent the winter on the Northern Patrol. In February 1940 he sailed to Singapore as Chaplain of the Naval Base, where he stayed until escaping to Ceylon early in 1942. From May 1942 to June 1944 he was Chaplain to the Royal Marine's 2nd MNBDO in England, Egypt, Malta, Sicily, and Scotland before spending the last part of the war at the Marines depot at Deal in Kent. The final third of the book covers his postwar career. The book was first published in 1986, but is more commonly available in this edition.

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