| ID | Description | Categories | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1462 | POLAND, Peter. Hands to Action Stations.[e-book c.222p.
Kindle], 2012. A scrappy wartime autobiography. Good on his spell as a midshipman on King George V and her hunts for German capital ships. Then progressively weaker on his time in Combined Operations and on destroyers. |
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| 1463 | POOL, Richard. Course for Disaster: From Scapa Flow to the River Kwai. x, 196p., illus. London: Cooper, 1987. ISBN: 0850526000.
Pool joined the RN in 1937. In 1939 he was on Revenge covering North Atlantic convoys. As an Acting Sublieutenant he was at Dunkirk and gives a full description of this. He next joined Repulse, in which he was sunk. He stayed in Malaya until its loss, escaping from Singapore in a small boat, only to be captured by the Japanese after being marooned on a small island for four months. |
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| 1464 | POYNDER, Charles. Of Frigates & Fillies. 203p., illus. London: Nautical, 1994. ISBN: 0952299704.
Poynder entered Dartmouth in 1938 and in 1941 was appointed to Kenya, serving with the Home Fleet in the Arctic and two Malta convoys. In late 1942 he joined London, and after a few months there move to Eggesford and quickly to Musketeer. Much of 1943 was spent in training before joining Unbending, refitting in Devonport. In late 1944 he stood by Scotsman which went to the Far East and was based at Subic at the end of the war. |
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| 1465 | RADFORD, George. Captain Radford's Diary. vi, 105p., illus. Droitwich: Grant Books, 1992. ISBN: 090718619X.
He went to sea with the British Tanker Company in 1929. In May 1939 he began his RNR long training. He soon joined Revenge in time for her gold carrying trip to Halifax. After sick leave he joined White Bear working with the 2nd Submarine Flotilla on training duties in Scotland, latterly as her CO. In January 1942 he joined Wanderer for a short spell of training and was then posted to Aubretia as First Lieutenant. She was based at Freetown, where he contracted malaria. After treatment and a spell in a shore post in the UK, he took command of Genista in mid-1944 at Aden. She worked between Kilindini and Aden until the end of the war when he sailed her back to Chatham and the Reserve Fleet. His postwar career in the Merchant Navy is also described. Rather thin and in a limited edition of 500 copies. |
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| 1466 | RADFORD, J. Pilot Aboard. viii, 319p., illus. Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1966. ISBN: 0851580211. The author first went to sea in the merchant service in 1916 and served in a number of ships until 1935 when he joined the Pilotage Service at Southampton. In 1939 he was called up and served in Carnarvon Castle for six months, mainly in the South Atlantic. He was next appointed to Dunluce Castle, an accommodation ship at Scapa, where he stayed until 1944, latterly acting as Fleet Compass Officer. He returned south in 1944 to use his pilotage skills in the run-up to the invasion of Europe. |
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| 1467 | RICHARDSON, Jack. Jack in the Navy: Memories of a Naval Chaplain. [vi], 184p., illus. Morpeth: Bridge Studios, 1988. ISBN: 0951263013.
Richardson was an engineer officer throughout the war but was ordained as a chaplain in 1948. These are jokey anecdotal memoirs. In September 1939 he was standing by Mooltan in Belfast while she was converted to an AMC, but he swiftly moved to Cyclops, depot ship of the 3rd Submarine Flotilla at Harwich. He then moved to Inveraray and Combined Operations. He finally had a series of shore jobs fitting out gun mountings. |
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| 1468 | RITCHIE, G. S. No Day Too Long - An Hydrographer's Tale. xiv, 250p., illus., index. Edinburgh: Pentland, 1992. ISBN: 1872795633.
The author became Hydrographer of the Navy. In 1939 he was on Franklin, responsible for the Channel Mine Barrage, followed by a diet of Scapa, the Faröes, and wreck surveying off the East Coast. In January 1942 he moved to Endeavour in the Middle East to survey the Great Bitter Lakes then the Mediterranean Coast. He then joined a Mobile Survey Unit, which surveyed ports in Sicily and Italy. By February 1944 he was First Lieutenant of Scott, which worked in support of the D-Day Landings and in surveying the liberated French Ports. |
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| 1469 | RITCHIE, Jock. Letter of Proceedings: Origins, Childhood, Four Careers. xiii, 588p., illus London: Minerva, 1999. ISBN: 0754105903.
Born in 1917, he went to Eton then joined the RN as a special entry cadet in 1934. By the start of war he was newly in command of MA/SB 3, carrying out anti-submarine patrols at Portland. In early 1940 he and the boat joined the local defence force at Alexandria. She was mined and he was wounded in the Suez Canal. After almost a year recuperating he took command of the new SGB 4 building at Yarrow's. After six months of action in the Channel he moved to King Alfred and then to the staff of RA Coastal Forces. In October 1943 he returned to sea as First Lieutenant of Mackay based at Harwich and the following April took command of Lancaster of the Rosyth Escort Force. In late November 1944 he took over the damaged Wensleydale, but almost immediately moved to Catterick, based at Alexandria. After service mainly in the Aegean, she was heading to South Africa for refit when the war ended. A lively and enjoyable tale which also covers his postwar career. |
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| 1470 | ROBERTSON, I. G. Renegade Signalman RN. 96p., illus. Plean: [author], 1987. ISBN: 0904475344. The author began his war in Curlew, until her sinking in Norway, then moved briefly to the new Combined Operations HQ before going to the Middle East with Laycock’s Commando. He quickly became involved in organising the naval liaison for the evacuations of Greece and Crete. He was wounded in the latter campaign, which is described at length. After recuperation and a visit to the US, he took command of the Combined Operations Signal School at Troon in 1942. The following year he moved to the staff of SEAC. After a brief spell with the Pacific Fleet he returned to the Combined Operations HQ in London. A beautifully produced and illustrated limited edition of 250 copies. |
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| 1471 | S. W. R. Claude Francis Webster Born 2nd September 1910 Died on Active Service - 13th Nov. 1944. Chaplain, Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve 1941–1944, By His One Time Commander and Captain S. W. R. 72p. [n.p.: author, 1945(?)].
A tribute written by the historian Stephen Roskill, this memoir is fullest on their joint service in Leander. |
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| 1472 | ROSS, Alan. Blindfold Games. 303p. London: Collins Harvill, 1986. ISBN: 0002727730.
Ross is a well-known poet who joined the RN in 1942 from Oxford University. One hundred pages of his autobiography cover service on Onslow in convoy JW51B (also described in a major poem by him), East Coast convoys on Vivien as a CW candidate, then time on the staff of Captain(D) of 16DF at Harwich. |
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| 1473 | RUTHERFORD, Iain W. At the Tiller. vi, 218p., illus., index. London: Blackie, 1946.
Some tales of a yachtsman. The last third of the book is devoted to his wartime experiences, first in the drifter, Suilven, patrolling the Tay, then in motor launches based on Stornoway. |
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| 1474 | RUTTER, Owen. Allies in Arms: The Battle for Freedom. 160p., illus. London: Lincolns-Prager, 1941.
Brief biographies of the main allied military and political leaders. Naval figures are Tovey and Cunningham, Corneliussen and Danielsen of Norway and Furstner of the Netherlands. The whole is profusely illustrated with portraits and an excellent selection of general photographs of the war. |
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| 1475 | SANDERSON, Reginald. From Land to Sea. [ii], 315p. Swavesey: Silent Books, 1990. ISBN: 185183026X.
The autobiography is determinedly lyrical in its writing. He ran away to sea in the thirties. At the start of the war he was an AB in Southampton, then moved to Eskimo and the Norwegian Campaign where she was badly damaged. In late 1940 he rejoined the refitted and repaired Eskimo but soon moved to the converted merchantman Springbank in which he was sunk. In early 1942 he joined Gambia and a tour to Australia. After further training he joined Melbreak working in the Channel. In mid-1944 he joined Mauritius for the Normandy landings then was based at Scapa. In May 1945 he transferred to Atherstone at Trieste. He ended the war as a Petty Officer. |
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| 1476 | SCOTT, Ian. My War at Sea. 190, [2]p., illus. London: Jenkins, [1943].
Trials and travels of the captain of Foxglove, plus some morale- boosting tales. After Dunkirk he went to the Perim Patrol, before returning to the UK. |
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| 1477 | SCOTT, Morin. War Is a Funny Business. xiv, 237p., illus., index. Bognor Regis: Square Rigged Services, 1989. ISBN: 0284988464.
Happy anecdotal memories of a full war. He began as a midshipman in the AMC Worcestershire on the Northern Patrol. He then joined the corvette Auricula and served at Freetown and in the assault on Madagascar in which she was sunk. Next came the destroyer Griffin serving with the Eastern Fleet, detached to the Mediterranean for convoy duty and then escorting Ramillies to New York. Christmas 1942 was spent at home then came a posting to Moyola and North Atlantic and Gibraltar convoys. Convoy SL139 is described in some detail. In mid-1944 he joined Deveron which joined the Eastern Fleet. Finally he joined the repair ship Gombroon, which also acted as HQ for the Burma Coast Escort Force. |
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| 1478 | SELBY, W. F. A Matelot's Memories. 35p. Ilfracombe: Stockwell, 1991. ISBN: 0722325207.
He joined up as a boy in 1936 and by the start of the war was an Ordinary Seaman in Repulse. He was with her when she was sunk and there is a full and lively account of her sinking and of his escape from Singapore to Malacca in the water tender Heather. He then went on to Fremantle in Stronghold and finally and briefly describes two years with the RAN on Wollongong before returning to the RN and the Mediterranean with Teviotbank, then stood by the new destroyer Comet. |
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| 1479 | SEYMOUR, Philip. Where the Hell Is Africa? Memoirs of a Junior Naval Officer in the Mid-Twentieth Century. xiv, 342p., illus. Edinburgh: Pentland, 1995. ISBN: 1858213002.
Aged 13, he entered Dartmouth in 1939 and this autobiography reflects the careers of his classmates as well as his own. In January 1943 he joined Revenge at Mombasa and spent nine months in south and east African waters before she returned to the UK to refit. After leave he joined Enterprise in Glasgow and after an extensive work-up she was based at Plymouth for Biscay and Channel sweeps, which brought real action. In April 1944 he went to the destroyer Orwell for his small ship time. She was part of the D-Day covering forces. That August he was promoted Acting Sublieutenant and soon joined MTB 476, in which he saw hard action in the winter months covering the Antwerp convoy route. After VE Day he was appointed to Lauderdale, fitting out for the Far East. She was in Walvis Bay at war's end. The book also covers his postwar career and is an enjoyable if slight memoir. |
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| 1480 | SHARP, P. S. Pilot. 270p., illus. Cape Town: Bulpin, 1972. ISBN: 0949956023.
The rather disjointed autobiography of a Cape Town harbour pilot. It includes brief accounts of service on Dragon, Birmingham,and Indomitable, but is strong on naval custom and practice as experienced by a new rating. |
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| 1481 | SHERWOOD, Martyn. Coston Gun. vii, 289p., frontis. London: Bles, 1946.
Sherwood shoots a very engaging biographic line covering 1902–1945. He was recalled to service in 1939 and refitted King Gruffyd as a Q Ship. He then served in the trawlers Lord Wakefield in the Bristol Channel and Cape Passaro in Norway, where he was sunk. He next took command of Peony and led a group of minesweeping corvettes to the Mediterranean, where he fought hard on the Spud Run, on the evacuations of Greece and Crete, and in the Eastern Mediterranean. When she was sold to Greece, he spent the next 12 months ferrying groups of LCI(L)s from the USA to Gibraltar. His final period of service in Hart and Highlander is covered in desultory fashion. |
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