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He joined the RN aged 16 in 1927 and most of the autobiography concerns the prewar Navy. In September 1939 he was a Leading Seaman on Emerald. After some time in the Atlantic she moved to the Persian Gulf. In 1941 as a PO he moved to shore duties in the Gulf then in 1943 returned to the UK and various base duties. In April 1945 he moved to Nelson as Captain of the Top Division and sailed with her for the Far East. An unadventurous telling of anecdotes.

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John Donald Merrett was a small time crook, gambler and murderer. He murdered his mother over debts in 1926, although found not proven on a majority verdict. He decamped to Hastings, married and spent more time in jail for fraud, now with the name Ronald Chesney, before inheriting a small fortune aged twenty-one. He soon drifted into smuggling and became familiar with small boats, moving to the Mediterranean for richer pickings. He returned to the UK when war started and was commissioned in the navy in 1940, moving to Alexandria where he commanded a schooner running supplies to Tobruk, accompanied by more black market dealing and some degree of heroism. He was captured, escaped, was recaptured and repatriated due to illness, then commanded small craft in Home waters, finishing the war at Scapa, as a Lt Commander with a fearsome reputation for wine, women and song. After a spell serving in Germany with looting and the black market as his main activities, he was court-martialled for theft. The next ten years were spent in and out of prison until he murdered his wife and subsequently committed suicide. Indeed a bad man.

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Born in 1924 of a Jewish textile exporting family he chose a naval career and went to Dartmouth in 1937. He passed out in late 1941 and joined Ajax in the Mediterranean. After three months he transferred to Hasty and after a hectic three months went on to Revenge. Early in 1943 he returned to the UK on the AMC Ranchi having passed for Sublieutenant. After six months on courses he joined Norfolk at Scapa and took part in the sinking of the Scharnhorst. Thanks to action damage most of the crew transferred to Devonshire, again based at Scapa. At the beginning of 1945 he joined the Hunt Class Blackmore, which was to join the Eastern Fleet. An exciting postwar career is also described.

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The slightly colourless war memoirs of a seaman who rose to fame during the war, with his exploits in Cossack and later in the Mediterranean and Pacific.

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He joined Conway for training in 1936 but in 1939 failed the RN entrance exams. However he managed to join the RCN in mid-1940 and was sent to Dartmouth. In January 1941 he joined Queen Elizabeth. In April she moved to the Mediterranean. He served with her until her "sinking" by Italian underwater craft, apart from a spell ashore on the C-in-C's staff. In May 1942 he moved to Jervis which took part in convoy operations, Spud Runs, the disastrous Tobruk raid and fleet actions. In April 1943 he was appointed to the staff of FO Red Sea in Port Tewfik but very quickly moved to Bulolo as cypher officer in time for the Husky landings. After this he moved to Combined Operations, based at Suez as administrative secretary to the base commander. Rather derivative and fizzles out in late 1943 when he was recalled to the RCN.

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Waller joined the Volunteer Reserve in London in March 1939 and was trained on President and Chrysanthemum in the Thames. Called up in September he trained as a signalman at Royal Arthur in Skegness then joined HMT Glen Heather at Milford Haven. In May 1940 he was selected for a commission and trained at King Alfred. He joined HMT Amethyst which was soon mined while sweeping, then acted as relief on the new corvette Primula before an appointment to HMT Tourmaline early in 1941. She was sunk by a Stuka attack and he joined HMT Lady Shirley to be based at Gibraltar where an eventful period saw the sinking of U 111. He then had a shore job on the signals staff at Gibraltar and returned to the UK in mid-1943, followed by appointment to HMT Southern Pride based at Freetown. In June 1944 she ran aground and sank off Liberia. He then moved to LST(2)2 as Navigator and was sailing for the Far East as the war ended. An informative but rather self-righteous tale.

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He joined as a Boy Sailor in 1936. Bored, he deserted in January 1939 aged 18. In March 1940 he gave himself up rather than join the infantry. Given a Free Pardon, he took up his career. He began in Foylebank which was soon sunk. After survivor's leave he took an ASDIC course then joined Bulldog in early 1941. Trouble with the police in Liverpool within weeks was followed by a transfer to Windsor and East Coast convoys. After a year he joined the new Acute for TORCH. In late 1943 he moved to the USA to stand by Kingsmill in Charlestown which arrived in the UK in time for D-Day. He finished up in Brissenden where he was rated up to Petty Officer. His post war service in the RN is also described.

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He joined up as a seaman in 1936 and at the outbreak of war was at Devonport training in torpedoes At the end of the year he joined Griffin based at Harwich and Scapa and took part in the evacuation of France. She moved in late 1940 to the Eastern Mediterranean and took part in the bruising battles there until she joined the Eastern Fleet in February 1942. At the end of the year she returned to the UK and, now a PO he undertook nine months training before joining Inconstant in January 1944, based at Gourock, first for Arctic convoys then as part of the D-Day forces and latterly in the Western Approaches.

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Warner volunteered in 1943 and after training joined Renown late in the year. Early in 1944 he was drafted to Black Prince. He gravitated to a Combined Operations base and at the end of the year joined Frolic. In August 1945 he joined a tank landing craft. His career took him steadily through the ranks. The book is full of the skills required of a steward. His 1949 report said "Honest and hard–working, but outside his duties has the intelligence of a child." The book bears this out.

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Admiral Lambe began his career as a midshipman in 1917 and rose to become Admiral of the Fleet and First Sea Lord. About one-quarter of this book is concerned with his war service, which began in command of Dunedin, continued in staff appointments, latterly as Director of Plans, and finished with a year in command of Illustrious.

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An authorised and largely uncritical biography. US title: Admiral of the Fleet Cunningham of Hyndhope.

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The autobiography of a controversial immigrant to Australia. His war career is covered in 50 pages. After serving on Southdown as an able seaman on East Coastconvoys, he joined Manxman and on her loss, the new destroyer Savage, now as an officer. Three years in Northern waters were followed by his appointment to a staff post in Australia after D-Day.

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He trained as a Merchant Navy officer but in 1939 was a management consultant. He soon joined up and after A/S training took command of the Royal Naval Patrol Service manned trawler St. Loman. She saw extensive action in the Norwegian campaign earning three DSCs and six DSMs. A spell of Atlantic convoy work when she was credited with two U-boat sinkings, was followed by transfer to the American Eastern Sea Frontier. An active but enjoyable spell there ended in October 1942 with a transfer to Walvis Bay then Capetown. In September 1943 he returned to the UK to take command of the new frigate Rushen Castle. She operated largely on the Liverpool-Gibraltar Run. The book is to some extent padded with official reports.

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MacLean was a very private man and so this biography provides only the sparsest details of his service on Royalist as a Torpedoman in the Arctic, Mediterranean and Far East.

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An anecdotal autobiography from the lower deck. He began the war in Zulu, then joined Basilisk at Christmas 1939, was sunk at Dunkirk, joined the new Tynedale for East Coast convoys, became an asdic instructor and finally joined the depot ship Philoctetes at Freetown.

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Memoirs of his service in Shearwater (1939–41) and Phoebe (1942–45).

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A wholly eccentric and often barely comprehensible autobiography, which mixes diary with poetry, history and stream of consciousness. He joined aged 15 in 1939 and had a very active war, serving on Phoebe in 1940–41 through Greece and Crete, in Tobruk where he was wounded, then in the hard worked Jervis in 1942/3. He then joined Orion which covered the main Mediterranean invasions. When she returned to the UK in 1944 he joined Whimbrel and served in the Arctic. Then late in 1944 he went to Laertes and saw service to the end of the war in Canada, Norway, and Home Waters - by now a 20- year-old Petty Officer!

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A fictionalised autobiography. He served in the Fleet Air Arm and in LCTs in Combined Operations.

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Tells the story of John Leach, and analyses the influences that shaped him and led him ultimately to his heroic end on Prince of Wales.

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The autobiography of an official war artist in both world wars.

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