Category: Royal Navy Autobiographies & Biographies

A brief account, in his own words, linked by the author.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

He joined as a cadet and Dartmouth and his active wartime service saw him at Salerno, Omaha Beach and sailing on Arctic convoy. This is briefly described but the book concentrates on his post-war career as a senior naval commander and on his career in business.

An autobiography. No copy seen.

An autobiography covering his life from joining the Navy from school during the war. He describes time in Coastal Forces with the 15th Flotilla transporting agents to and from France and Norway.

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.

A career autobiography of a Merchant Mariner. He spent most of the war on his pre-war ship, the private yacht Evadne, converted for the patrol service. Late in the war he went to Germany as Deputy Harbour Master at Kiel. An enjoyable tale.

Captain Rory O'Conor was an outstanding young officer whose career was tragically cut short when Neptune was sunk in a minefield off Tripoli in 1941. He had begun the war in the Plans Division of the Admiralty and at age 37 was by far the youngest promotion to Captain of his time. This biography by his niece is based on naval records, interviews and his voluminous correspondence.

Mainly concerned with the war in the Far East.

He had an active career and was involved in major actions from Dunkirk to Sicily. A fond account of one of the last survivors of the First World War.

An autobiography. As war broke out he left school and became a cadet in the British India Steam Navigation Company, as a back door route into the Royal Navy. After sixteen months at sea – including the Dakar operation – he was accepted as a Midshipman in late 1941 at Greenwich and by March 1942 had joined Euryalus at Alexandria and was very quickly involved in the Battle of Sirte. He soon transferred to the small minesweeper Lord Irwin based at Beirut. In August he moved to Erica and stayed with her until she was sunk off Benghazi in February 1943. After a brief two weeks on the anti-aircraft control ship Antwerp, he was appointed to Delphinium performing Mediterranean convoy work. In September 1944 he returned to the UK and joined Tavy quickly taking part in an Arctic convoy before being based at Gibraltar. In June 1945 he moved to Cockatrice and was demobbed early in 1946 soon returning to a successful career in the Merchant Navy.

A revisionist history of reputations with Ramsay emerging as the author's hero. The feats of all the major admirals are reconsidered.

He volunteered in 1941 and trained as a CW candidate on Edinburgh and was sunk on her in the Arctic. After training at King Alfred he joined the D.E.M.S unit at Belfast then Bangor. Finally in 1945 he went to India as a Gunnery Instructor.

The author's service aboard Rodney in early 1941.

A whole series of anecdotes by a good raconteur. They include the sinking of Blean; a drink-induced grounding in Morocco; sinking an Italian submarine; entry into Taranto; painting the flotilla padre's car; the looting of a German supply ship; Torch and the rescue of the trooper Thomas Stone as seen from Wishart; ramming a French submarine in error; liberating stores; dealing with a VD case in a North Atlantic convoy.

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

A retired Lt. Commander, the author was recalled in 1939 and spent some time based at Scapa as captain of the A/S trawler Coventry City. He then moved to the Admiralty as a Naval Observer and recalls various trips: a Malta convoy in Edinburgh, on Somali for a raid on the Lofotens, an aborted Commando raid on Bayonne, on Bleasdale at Dieppe, with convoy KMF1 for TORCH, on the command ship Largs, and finally the fall of Germany.

An excellent modern biography, whose sympathies are obvious.

Over 30 pages concern King George VI's wartime relations with the fleet and Prince Philip's wartime career.

A memorial to his wife. The first part consists of her poems and an account of her war career as a WRNS despatch rider. The larger part recalls his war service and is cast in the form of pseudonymous letters to a sister. He volunteered from Cambridge then, after training, joined Pelican in 1940. In 1941 he was commissioned and joined Vivacious, which took part in the abortive attempt to stop the Channel Dash. In late 1942 he joined the new Haydon, but in mid-1943 volunteered for submarines. In spring 1944 he joined Tantivy at Colombo although she later worked out of Fremantle.In April 1945 she returned to the UK. A rather saccharine account.

Covers the war years. He is perhaps best known for the account of PQ17 while on Pozarica, but he later served on Cumberland, before being invalided out.

Winn enlisted as an anonymous ordinary seamen after three years as a war correspondent. Tells of his training and service on Cumberland, before he was invalided out.

Windsor was called up in 1942 and trained as a Telegraphist. The book is largely concerned with the over two years he spent near Freetown at a direction finding station taking bearings on U-boat transmissions. Something of a barrack room lawyer and a gambler he was in regular trouble.

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

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.

Recounts his war service. He was with Ajax at the Battle of the River Plate, but spent most of the war in destroyers in the Atlantic, Arctic and Mediterranean.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

He joined up in 1942 as an OD and CW candidate. He joined Atherstone and served in the Western Mediterranean. After training at King Alfred he joined Vidette in the North Atlantic. In late 1943 he went to New York for the commissioning of Inman and served in her until the end of the war. A rather ordinary account strongest on his North Atlantic service.

He joined the London RNVR in June 1939. After training he was sent to Singapore, but by March 1940 had joined Kent patrolling in the Indian Ocean. She soon joined the Mediterranean Fleet, suffered bomb damage, and returned to the UK. After shore time and now technically in the FAA, he joined Shropshire, supporting her Walrus crew and headed first for Simonstown then attachment to the Home Fleet at Scapa in mid-1941. That October she went to Chatham for a major refit then in March moved to Simonstown. When she returned to the UK six months later he had a spell ashore before joining Asturias in March 1943. She was torpedoed but not sunk later in the year and he moved back to the UK as an instructor at Daedalus. A good story which rather fizzles out.

Substantial pieces of biography separate a very good selection of edited and annotated documents. Covers the period 1936–1945.

Cunningham was the best-known and most celebrated British admiral of the Second World War. He held one of the two major fleet commands between 1939 and 1942, and in 1942-43, he was Allied naval commander for the great amphibious operations in the Mediterranean. From 1943 to 1946, he was the First Sea Lord and a participant in the wartime conferences with Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt and the US Chiefs of Staff, deliberating the global strategy for Allied victory. He also led a very active public life for almost 20 years after his retirement in 1946.

The usual excellent publication from the NRS, with an extended introductory essay by the editor in volume one. The first volume is sub-titled 'The Mediterranean Fleet 1939–1942' and the second 'The Triumph of Allied Sea Power 1942-1946'.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Recalled from the retired list, Ramsay was responsible for the planning and execution of all the great amphibious operations in European and North African waters, from Dunkirk, through D-Day to Walcheren. He died in an air accident on 2 January 1945.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A tribute written by the historian Stephen Roskill, this memoir is fullest on their joint service in Leander.

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.

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.

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.

WILSON, Alastair. A Biographical Dictionary of the Twentieth-Century Royal Navy. Volume 1 - Admirals of the Fleet and Admirals. 96p., Barnsley: Seaforth, 2013. ISBN: 9781848320888.

The book comes with a CD which contains the service histories and careers of the 336 most senior admirals on the Navy List from 1900 onwards. A treasure trove of information.

JAMES, William. The Sky Was Always Blue. xiii, 271p., illus., index. London: Methuen, 1951.

The enjoyable autobiography of an important figure, with a distinguished career, notably at the start of World War II.

DOWLING, Tom. Journal of a Midshipman 1941-1943.  315p., illus. Leeds: Propagator Press, 2010. ISBN: 1860298176.

He trained at Dartmouth and had an active war as a midshipman, serving on Queen Elizabeth, Beaufort and Uganda, mainly in the Mediterranean. This is his beautifully illustrated midshipman’s  journal, with later annotations and explanations. A second revised edition was published in 2011 (ISBN: 1908037180).

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.

GUINNESS, Alec. Blessings in Disguise. xii, 238p., illus., index. London: Hamilton, 1985; New York: Knopf, 1986. ISBN: 0241116813.

He trained in tank landing craft then went to the US to collect LCI(L) 124, which he brought to the Mediterranean. He took part in the Sicily landings then sank in an Adriatic storm. Moving to LCI(L) 272 he next took part in the Elba Invasion and finally spent the rest of his service in the Adriatic. The war occupies 40 pages of engaging reminiscence. See also the autobiography of fellow-actor Peter Bull, who served with him.

SLATER, Susan. Dear James: Letters From a Wren in World War II (Once Upon A Wartime, IV). iii,117p., illus. Grantham: Barny Books, [2005]. ISBN: 0948204664.

Anna Tyler joined the WRNS Supply Branch in 1940. These letters were sent to a badly wounded fighter pilot recovering on her father’s Yorkshire estate. They simply and tellingly describe a wartime life of duty and pleasure.

GREGSON, Paddy. Ten Degrees below Seaweed. [vii], 131p., illus. Braunton: Merlin Books, 1993. ISBN: 0863036600.

The wartime life and loves of one of the elite Boats’ Crew Wrens. A light hearted account of service mainly in Devonport and Middlesbrough.

CURTIS-WILLSON, Rosemary. c/o GPO London: With the Women’s Royal Naval Service Overseas. viii, 191p., frontis. London:  Hutchinson, [1949].

Charming autobiographical account of service in the Wrens in World War II though somewhat overburdened in places with travelogue.  The author joined in 1941 as a young girl and served mainly overseas, in the Middle East, Quebec (briefly) and Ceylon (Katukurunda), ending the war as a Third Officer.  She was also involved for a while in the planning for D-Day at Fort Southwick.

GALLEGOS, Adrian. And Who Are You? 406p., illus. London: Adelphi, 1992. ISBN: 1856540669.

An autobiography, which is in effect a substantially expanded second edition of his earlier book From Capri into Oblivion, the tale of a young RNVR officer captured and made a POW in Italy.

WORT, Stanley. Prisoner of the Rising Sun. ix, 178p., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2009. ISBN: 1848840039.

He joined up in 1940 and after training was sent to Hong Kong, where he was captured by the Japanese. The book focuses on his POW experiences.

WINGFIELD, Mervyn. Wingfield at War (The British Navy at War and Peace, Volume 1). xi, 179p., illus., index. Dunbeath: Whittles, 2012. ISBN: 9781849950640.

The autobiography of a heroic but little known officer, originally written in 1982-3 for his family. About half covers his very active wartime career. He began the war in the Indian Ocean, returned to the UK to successfully take his Perisher course, then served in Umpire, Sturgeon and Taurus in the North Sea, Arctic, Mediterranean and was the first submariner to sink a Japanese submarine. An excellent tale well told.

THOMAS, Leona J. Through Ice and Fire: A Russian Arctic Convoy Diary 1942. 216p., illus. Stroud: Fonthill, 2015. ISBN: 9781781554401.

A short history taken from her father’s papers. It records his service on Ulster Queen  in 1942 when she took part in PQ15 and PQ18 as well as QP12 and covers time spent in Archangel.

VAREY, Peter. Life On The Edge: Peter Danckwaerts GC, MBE, FRS brave, shy, brilliant. iv, 368p., bibliog., illus., index. Cambridge: PFV Publications, 2012. ISBN: 9780953844012.

The biography of a distinguished chemical engineer and academic. During the war he served in mine and bomb disposal in London and the Mediterranean. After being wounded in Sicily, he was given a role in Combined Operations HQ working on scientific projects and intelligence.

TAYLOR, G. A. Ships and Stars and Isles: A Personal Record of Naval Service During World War II edited and annotated by Mark Taylor. 266p., illus. Bognor Regis, Woodfield, 2009. ISBN: 184683077X.

An enjoyable book derived from an extensive collection of letters written by Taylor whilst he was serving with RNVR.  His letters home vividly describe his wartime life ~ both on and off duty ~ whilst undergoing training and when serving at sea. Transcribed and annotated by his son and written in an informal yet informative style they reveal details of life in the RN. He served on Royal Eagle, Aubrietia, Loch Glendhu and Loch Craggie and was involved in a variety of action, from the Dover Patrol, via the Dunkirk evacuation (where he was awarded the D.S.M.), Atlantic convoys, U-boat encounters, the invasions of both North Africa and France, and ultimately the Japanese surrender in the Far East.

SOARS, Thomas. I Married a Princess: the True Love Story of How an English Naval Sub-lieutenant Came to Marry a Persian Princess During World War II. x, 202p., illus. Bognor Regis: Woodfield, 2009. ISBN: 1846830648.

He was an administrative officer based at HMS Sphinx - a temporary wartime Royal Navy shore base and accommodation camp at Sidi Bishr, just outside Alexandria, where he met and married a grand-daughter of the former Shah of Persia. Describes his day to day life and its tribulations.

SEABRIDGE, Allan, MORGAN, Shirley & CHADWICK, David. High Seas to Home: Daily Despatches from a Frigate at War. 190p., bibliog., illus., index. Derby: Derby Books Publishing Company, 2012. ISBN: 9781780910413.

Cliff Greenwood was a 40-year old journalist called up in 1943. After training as a Coder he served on Byron in Home Waters, the Arctic and the Atlantic until war’s end. He wrote home every day and his letters are printed here enriched with the reminiscences of crewmates and background detail from the authors.

PIKE, John G. Bamboo Years. 208p., illus. Grantham: Barny Books, 2009. ISBN: 1906542139.

He was a young midshipman who joined  Prince of Wales in May 1941. He served with her through the sinking of Hood to her own sinking in the Far East. He briefly joined Exeter until her sinking and was a POW for the rest of the war. A good tale simply but well told.

PEARSE, Anthony. From Stormy Seas to Calmer Waters: Sailor At Sea, Salesman Ashore. 68p., illus. Studley: Brewin, 2008. ISBN: 1858584272.

Brief memoir by a seaman officer who after Pangbourne served in Warspite as a midshipman which he joined on the west coast of Canada before she proceeded via Australia to join the Eastern Fleet.  He was with her at Salerno when she was struck by a German glider bomb.  After a navigation course at Dryad he served in Bermuda and West Africa before being sent home for his sub's courses.  As a Lieutenant he joined the Battle Class destroyer Gravelines, building at Cammell Laird's in Greenock.

MATTIN, W. G. A Sailor’s War. 224p., Ilfracombe: Stockwell, 2012. ISBN: 9780722342015.

He volunteered in 1940 and after training as an asdic operator joined London in the Mediterranean. He moved to Atlantic escorts and finally back to a cruiser in the Pacific. A rather slight tale.

KNOWLES, Sydney. A Diver in the Dark: Experiences of a Pioneer Royal Navy Clearance Diver and former diving partner to Commander Lionel 'Buster' Crabb. xiv, 160p., bibliog., illus., index. Bognor Regis: Woodfield, 2009. ISBN: 1846830826.

He served in the North Atlantic aboard Zulu during the hunt for the Bismarck and on Lookout on Atlantic convoy duty and Operation Pedestal before volunteering to join a small squad of Navy divers known as the Underwater Working Party, based at Gibraltar.

PUGH, Marshall. Commander Crabb. ix, 165p., illus. London: Macmillan; New York: Scribner, 1956.

Crabb gained notoriety when he disappeared in Portsmouth Harbour in 1956 in mysterious circumstances. This biography also describes his wartime exploits fighting the Italian 10th Light Flotilla from Gibraltar then clearance diving in northern Italy. US title: Frogman.

LAMBERT, Andrew. Admirals: The Naval Commanders Who Made Britain Great. xx, 492p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Faber, 2008. ISBN: 9780571231560.

A glorious celebration of the Royal Navy from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. There are biographies of eleven admirals, including a masterly forty page summary of A. B. Cunningham’s career.

CUNNINGHAM, A. B. A Sailor's Odyssey: The Autobiography of Admiral of the Fleet, Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope. [4], 715p., illus., index. London: Hutchinson; New York: Dutton, 1951.

A full autobiography, factual rather than critical, of one of Britain’s greatest admirals. He is perhaps best remembered for his total domination of the Mediterranean. A new edition was published by Seaforth in 2022, ISBN: 9781399092951.

CARNE, W.P. The Making of a Royal Naval Officer. 350p., illus., index. London: Uniform, 2021. ISBN: 9781913491598.

The story of a distinguished career, compiled by his grandson, from letters, diaries, memoirs and official documents, many of which are reproduced. Born in 1898, he joined the Navy in 1914 and served for over fifty years. He had an active First World War including the battle of Jutland and rose steadily in rank. By 1940 he was Fleet Torpedo Officer of the Mediterranean Fleet and it is on his service in the Mediterranean that the book largely then focusses. There are full accounts of the Battle of Calabria, the bombardment of Bardia, the battle of Matapan and the attack on Taranto and the capture of Tobruk. In May 1941 he was appointed Captain of the cruiser Coventry. Within ten days he saw dramatic action in the evacuation of Crete, including the rescue of many of the crew from Calcutta. The rest of his career is then briefly summarised. He left Coventry a few months later, served on the Admiralty Delegation in Washington for a year, then in mid-1943 took command of the escort carrier Striker serving in the Arctic then moving on to the Pacific.

COPEMAN, Harold. At War at Sea in the Med 1941-44: The Naval Diary of Harold Copeman transcribed and edited by Caroline and Chris Pond. 64p., illus. Loughton: The Alderton Press, 2020. ISBN: 9781905269310.

Published by the family to mark the centenary of his birth. Has some background contextual detail but basically transcribes the diary he kept on the coding sheets he used as a leading coder. Entries are short and sparse, typically a sentence for each day, but give a good picture of daily life on the lower deck. He served principally on the cruiser Cleopatra and Aurora  

MCKAY, John R. Surviving the Arctic Convoys: The Wartime Memoir of Leading Seaman Charlie Erswell. 200p., illus. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2021. ISBN: 9781399013031.

He served from 1941 to 1946 then briefly in the merchant navy. Although he saw action in several theatres it is the tale of life on the Arctic convoys which lies at the heart of this memoir.

KEMP, Ross. Warriors: British Fighting Heroes. viii, 328p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Century, 2010. ISBN: 9781846057991.

A personal tribute which provides eleven brief biographies of men of courage and their sacrifices. It covers all of the armed services. This includes “Blondie” Haslar from the Royal Marines who led the Cockleshell Heroes, Captain Edward Fegen of the completely outgunned Jervis Bay who saved his convoy when it was attacked by the Admiral Scheer, and Malcolm Wanklyn, the submariner captain of Upholder who was lost in action in the Mediterranean.

PARKER, Johnny. A Smack at the Boche: The World War 2 Diary and Photographs of Leading Seaman Ronald Turner Aboard the British Cruiser HMS Hawkins 1939-1941. [6], 166p., illus. n.p.: author, 2016. ISBN: 9781520145297.

A member of the RNVR he was called up at the outbreak of war. He served on Hawkins in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean. This is a transcript of his illicit wartime diary, with linking material by the author, his nephew.

CROSSLEY, Jim. Churchill’s Admiral In Two World Wars: Admiral of the Fleet Lord Keyes of Zeebrugge and Dover GCB KCVO CMG DSO. xii, 200p., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2020. ISBN: 9781526748393.

An engaging biography of a charismatic fighting admiral who saw action from anti-slavery patrols at the end of the nineteenth century to being present at the Leyte landings after his retirement. Has a brief account of his service in WW2, notably in Combined Operations.

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.

SCHOFIELD, B.B. With the Royal Navy in War and Peace: O’er the Deep Blue Sea. xviii, 270p. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2018. ISBN: 9781526736475.

An excellent memoir, edited by his daughter. After serving as a midshipman in the First World War, Schofield qualified as a navigator and interpreter in French and Italian. At the outbreak of WW2 he was Naval Attache in The Hague and Brussels before becoming Director of Trade Division (Convoys) during 1941-1943. While commanding King George V he witnessed the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay in August 1945. After the war he wrote several notable works on WW2 RN actions.

JOHNSON, C. J. A. Hither and Yon: Memoirs of a Naval Officer 1937-1973. 287p., illus. Bristol: Paralalia, 2007. ISBN: 0954811747.

The autobiography of a happy and successful career naval officer. He joined as a cadet in 1937 and saw wartime service on Verity on the East Coast and in the Atlantic; on Dauntless in the Indian Ocean; and as First Lieutenant on Melbreak in the Channel and at D-Day where he saw much action. He was standing by Chaplet in 1945 as the war drew to a close.

HORE, Peter. Henry Harwood: Hero of the River Plate. xi, 244p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Seaforth, 2018. ISBN: 9781526725295.

Harwood is best known for his defeat of the Graf Spee at the Battle of the River Plate. His later career, particularly as C-in-C of the Mediterranean Fleet in 1942-43 has been much denigrated as a failure. This biography sets the record straight with a much more balanced and nuanced account of his career.

PARKER, Charles Joseph. Red Duster to White Ensign: My Life at Sea in Peace and War. xiv, 112p., illus. Spiderwize: Peterborough, 2018. ISBN: 9781912694747.

Written in the 1970’s and as edited by his son in the 1990’s, this is his autobiography. He joined the Merchant Navy in 1921, aged fifteen. In 1940 he transferred to the RN where he served as a Steward. He was first on the minelayer Port Napier until her grounding and sinking that November. In March 1941 he joined the AMC Laconia, but when she was returned to the Merchant Navy as a troopship in September 1941, he joined the A/A ship Alynbank until the end of 1943, first on Arctic convoys and then in the Mediterranean. In May 1944 he joined the carrier Speaker briefly for six months then finally joined the LSI Keren where he served until discharged in 1946.

DENNIS, J. A. J. In Action with Destroyers 1939-1945. The Wartime Memoirs of Commander J. A. J. Dennis, DSC, RN, edited by Anthony Cumming. 208p., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books, 2017. ISBN: 9781526718495.

Dennis served in four destroyers; HMS Griffin and Savage initially before commanding Valorous and Tetcott. He was mentioned in Despatches three times (Norway, sinking the Scharnhorst and in the North Sea) and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (Greece 1942). His war service also included the Madagascar operation, the Malta and Arctic convoys and D-Day.

ROBB, J. D. Only Survivors Tell Tales. vii, 167p. New York: Vantage Press, 1990. ISBN: 0533089034.

The story of a young man in Tank Landing Craft in the Royal Navy during the later part of WW2. A humorous tale of escapades, voyages to Australia, India, the East Indies and Japan; of sex and growing-up during wartime. Semi-autobiographical, but inspired by imagination and other's experiences.

DANIEL, R. J. The End of an Era: The Memoirs of a Naval Constructor. 370p., illus. Penzance: Periscope, 2003. ISBN: 1904381189.

The author served in the Eastern and Pacific Fleets during World War Two. At the end of the war, he landed in Japan and prepared a report on the atomic bomb damage to Nagasaki and was seconded to the Manhattan Project for the Bikini A-bomb tests. Also covers his post-war career.

LINDOP, J. B. AB RP3: AB Lindop, J. B., His Life and Times. 113p., illus. [n.p.: author, 1995].

A hearty self-published account of his service. He joined up late in 1944 and after training at Royal Arthur specialised in Fighter Direction, joining Fighter Direction Tender 13.  He served on after war’s end. It was first published privately in 1989 and a revised edition was published in 1995. It was then republished in 2015 by Mercianotes as A Sailor’s Tale: The Wartime Reminiscences of AB. RP3. D/JX 540875, Lindop, J.B.  ISBN: 1514802139.      

LEWIN, Terry. He Who Would Valiant Be: the Wartime Diary of Midshipman T. T. Lewin, HMS Valiant, 1940. [c 370p., illus. e-book]; London: Lewin of Greenwich Organisation Limited – Kindle edition, 2016. ISBN: 9781783018680.

An excellent example of such a journal is edited by Tim Lewin, the son of the author.  This journal describes his service as a midshipman aboard Valiant ranging from the bombardment at Mers-el Kebir to deck hockey tournaments. The events are described with some clarity.

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.

BURKETT, Molly & STREET, Robert. Once Upon A Wartime X. 96p., illus. Grantham: Barny Books, 2001. ISBN: 1903172144.

A small set of oral recollections. Only one is naval. Douglas Martin joined up in mid-1942 and after radar training was posted to Allynback [sic – presumably Alynbank] in Cardiff in mid-1943. He took part in HUSKY and when she decommissioned he was sent to Serapis and the Russian convoys. She moved south for D-Day. He then transferred to Zest in mid-1945.

FOX, Hubert. Letters from Sea. 67p., illus. Torquay: Goss Albion, 1985.

In 1939 he was First Lieutenant on Boadicea and in 1940 moved to command an MTB flotilla. In the spring of 1942 he joined to the staff of Admiral Pegram in Freetown and after 12 months there returned to the UK. In early 1944 he became Staff Officer Operations to a D-Day Assault Group and that autumn moved to the Mediterranean to undertake a similar job in the Adriatic. Finally he was an Operations Officer for the projected invasion of Malaya. These are literally letters and show the usual wartime caution and censorship. Another edition was published by Merlin Books in 1996. (ISBN: 086303750X).

DUFF, Douglas V. On Swallowing the Anchor. 224p., illus. London: Long, 1954.   

Covers the same ground as May the Winds Blow!, but his unorthodox war is again recorded in engaging style.      

DE CHAIR, Henry Graham. Let Go Aft: The Indiscretions of a Salthorse. [iv], 195p., illus. Tunbridge Wells: Parapress, 1993. ISBN: 1898594023.

About one-third of the book covers WWII. In 1939 he was Captain of Thracian in Hong Kong and served there until January 1941 when he returned to the UK. In May he took over Vimy, mainly on the Gibraltar run and then in the South Atlantic. In the spring of 1943 he became First Lieutenant and Training Officer at King Alfred. In early 1944 he moved to Mountbatten’s staff in SEAC. This was soon followed by command of Venus in late 1944 and she soon sailed to join the East Indies Fleet and take part in the sinking of the Haguro and the ending of the war in the Far East. A rather patchy account.                      

CURTIS, Stanley B. Happy in My Hammock. 130p., illus. Shrewsbury, author, 1992.

An autobiography covering a happy life. It describes the inevitable highs and lows of life in the Royal Navy between October 1935 and March 1948 including his survival following the sinking of Hermes.

BULLEY, Hugh. A Boy at Sea. [x], 461p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Velvet Hoof, 2005. ISBN: 0954604512.

He grew up as a prep school headmaster's son and went to Dartmouth aged thirteen in 1938. In 1942 he left to join Queen Elizabeth in Alexandria as a snotty. He moved to the a/s auxiliary Cocker to get sea time but soon moved to Eridge and was with her when she was badly damaged by air attack. He then moved to Javelin and then on to Orion. For a busy part of the Mediterranean war. In mid-1943 he returned to the UK for further training at Excellent followed by an appointment to Nith, refitting in Glasgow as a headquarters ship and in which he served off the Normandy coast until her damage from air attack in late June. At the start of 1945 he joined Tyrian refitting for the Eastern then Pacific Fleets, reaching Sydney just before war's end. A full and anecdotal autobiography enriched with the author's own paintings.

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.

HODGKINSON, Hugh. Before the Tide Turned: The Mediterranean Experiences of a British Destroyer Officer in 1941. 242p., illus. London: Harrap,1944.

Memoir of a first lieutenant and later captain of destroyers in the Mediterranean. Gives a vivid picture of the strain of combat. The author served in Hotspur in convoys, battles, and evacuations in one of the most hard-fought campaigns of the war at sea.

DITCHAM, A. G. F. A Home on the Rolling Main: A Naval Memoir 1940-1946. 348p., illus. Presteigne: author, 2012. ISBN: 1848321759.

He joined Renown as a midshipman in 1940, then served in Holderness, Reading and Scorpion, finishing as a Lieutenant having seen service from Kola to Normandy. An enjoyable memoir.

CHAPMAN, A. J. The War of the Motor Gun Boats: One Man’s Personal War at Sea with the Coastal Forces, 1943-1945. 176p., illus. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2013. ISBN: 1783462248.

Tony Chapman was born in Southampton in 1924 and joined up as soon as he could. Within hours of being posted to his first Motor Gun Boat as a Telegraphist, he was involved in an epic Coastal Forces engagement when his flotilla took on a force of thirty E-boats. His flotilla operated in the Mediterranean and Aegean where the MGBs played a key role. Daily life is vividly described. They operated in the Levant and on combined operations in the Aegean with the Greek Sacred Regiment of Commandos. The culmination of their efforts was when his boat, ML838, took the surrender of the Island of Kos in 1945.

GRANT, Donald. A Working Holiday 1940-1945. viii, 247p. Gisborne: Allen & Hodden, 1992. ISBN: 0959796584.

A New Zealander who volunteered in 1940, he joined Pytchley after training. The 21DF mainly covered East Coast convoys. On promotion to Leading Telegraphist he joined Onslow. She was based at Scapa for Arctic convoys, the Vaagso Raid, the Harpoon convoy and the Battle of the Barents Sea. Then came D-Day and more Arctic work. By war’s end he was a CPO. An enjoyable account of life on the lower deck.

WALLIS, R. Ransome. Two Red Stripes: A Naval Surgeon at War. 144p., illus. London: Ian Allan, 1973.ISBN: 0711004617.

This memoir is concerned principally with the two years that Wallis spent on London in 1941-42. After a short spell hunting German supply ships in the South Atlantic, London spent most of her time on the northern patrols and Arctic convoys.

BENTLEY-BUCKLE, A. Through Albert’s Eyes (The British Navy at War, Volume 2). viii, 152p., illus., index. Dunbeath: Whittles, 2013. ISBN: 9781849950664.

An autobiography, roughly half of which describes his wartime career. He joined the RN in early 1939 and was initially with Dunedin on the Northern Patrol and then in the Caribbean. In mid-1940 he moved to Edinburgh serving from the Arctic to Freetown. In mid-1941 he joined Revenge with the Eastern Fleet. After a spell ashore he trained as a beachmaster and served in Sicily and Italy. He moved into special operations and was captured, escaped and recaptured in Croatia. He spent the rest of the war as a POW, including helping with the famous escape of “Albert, R.N.”.

JONES, John Charles. From the Fo'csle Messdeck to the Wardroom. iv, 120p., illus. Lewes: Book Guild, 1987. ISBN: 0863322050.

Jones served from 1917 to 1953, rising from Boy Seaman to Lieutenant. In WWII he served as "Guns" on Jupiter in the North Sea, then moved to Lively. After she was sunk in the Mediterranean, he became a Bomb Disposal Officer, mainly based in that theatre.

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.

CHATTERTON, E. Keble. Leaders of the Royal Navy (Leaders of Britain, no. 1). 126, [2]p. London: Hutchinson, [1940].

Potted biographies of Admirals Pound, Forbes, and Cunningham.

A critically acclaimed work and probably the most balanced on this controversial figure. A sympathetic but accurate portrait.

A fairly rambling autobiography. During WWII the author was first Fleet Supply Officer on the staff of C-in-C Mediterranean and later Command Supply Officer, Western Approaches.

It was an active war. Worsley joined up as a midshipman in 1939 and was sunk in his first ship, the AMC Laurentic. This was followed by six months on Lancaster in the Atlantic then Wallace on the East Coast. After only two months there he joined Devonshire in the US and sailed to join the East Indies Fleet in spring 1942. She returned to the UK in the summer of 1943 and he was elected a War Artist, the first of only two active service artists. He next joined the staff of C-in-C Mediterranean and followed the action in Sicily and Salerno before being captured in November 1943 during clandestine operations by Coastal Forces in the Adriatic. He continued to work as an artist while a POW including three important portraits of naval VCs. He also created the famous dummy "Albert RN" used for a successful escape from Marlag "O". At the end of the war in Europe he completed his service by painting portraits of several notable VIPs, including Montgomery of Alamein.

He joined the RN Supply Branch in 1938 and at the start of the war was serving on Effingham. She saw service in the Atlantic and West Indies before being sunk in the Norwegian Campaign through grounding on an uncharted rock. In June 1940 he stood by Quorn which was to be based at Harwich. Promotion to Leading Hand led to a transfer ashore at Portsmouth then Greenock. Further promotion to Petty Officer led to a posting to the new Racehorse. She had a quiet time in the South Atlantic and South Africa. In August 1943 he was disrated for fiddling the stores and given a shore post in Mombasa. He was rerated in March 1945, drafted home and saw out the war in Lowestoft. A lively and cheeky autobiography.

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).  

HAYES, Syd. A Signalman’s War. [vi], 133p. Canberra: Fellowship of Australian Writers, [c.2000]. ISBN: 1876409177.

 A fictionalised autobiography. He joined the RN in 1942 aged eighteen as a signalman. After a short spell in Saladin, he joined the First Minelaying Squadron in Home Waters. In 1943 he volunteered for submarines and served in Home Waters then the Far East.

HART-DAVIS, Duff. Man of War: The Secret Life of Captain Alan Hilgarth, Officer, Adventurer, Agent. xii, 433p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Century, 2012.  ISBN: 9781846059711.

An extraordinary life of adventure. He fought at Gallipoli, went gold hunting in Bolivia and wrote thrillers. He was an intelligence officer in Spain and a key player in Operation Mincemeat and later Chief of Intelligence for the Eastern Fleet. 

HARRIS, Richard & WILLIAMS, Barrie. Goodhart: The Life of Rear Admiral Nicholas Goodhart, CB, Legion of Merit, FRAeS, RN (1919 - 2011). 180p., illus. Bognor Regis: Woodfield, 2012. ISBN: 1846831466.

Goodhart entered the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth in the Hawke Term in 1933. He then attended the Royal Naval Engineering College at Keyham, He served as an engineering lieutenant, and saw action in the evacuation of Crete in 1941 on Formidable He then served on Dido escorting convoys to Malta and the assaults on Italy over the next two years. He undertook pilot training in Canada in 1944 and joined the Fleet Air Arm and served in the Pacific Fleet. He had a distinguished career as a Test Pilot after the war and retired as a Rear Admiral.

GREGORY-SMITH, FRANK. Red Tobruk: Memoirs of a World War II Destroyer Commander. viii, 200p., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2008. ISBN: 1844158624.

An autobiography. He went to Dartmouth in 1922 and by 1939 was First Lieutenant of Jaguar. After Norway and Dunkirk he stood by Eridge as her new captain. On completion she moved to the Mediterranean and a hectic war with eighteen months of convoys to Tobruk and Malta. In August 1942 she was torpedoed by an Italian MTB. Under constant air attack, she was towed to Alexandria, but was irreparable. This Mediterranean period forms the heart of the book. A brief coda describes his role as a D-Day Beachmaster.

FORRESTER-BROWN, Glennys E. A Diver's Escapades: The Early Life and Wartime Experiences of Joe Forrester - A Lad from the Potteries Who Served in the Royal Navy During World War II. 126p., illus. Bognor Regis: Woodfield, 2012. ISBN: 184683127X.

A biography by his daughter but based on contemporary notes. He joined the Royal Navy in 1926, at the age of 17, and was with Emerald in Ceylon in 1939. He was sunk in Curlew in Norwegian waters in 1940. Later, as a gunner on Prince of Wales, he was involved in the Bismarck action and was sunk with her in the Japanese air attack. He escaped hidden on a native ship and made it to Ceylon. Here he was involved in salvage work as a diver on the salvage vessel Salviking for the next two years. He was aboard when she was torpedoed and sunk near the Maldives. Once again, he was fortunate to survive.

EBERLE, James. Life on the Ocean Wave: The Second Book of Admiral Jim, A Trilogy. vi, 255p., illus. Broompark: Roundtuit, 2007. ISBN: 1904499163.

This volume covers his war service. He went to Dartmouth in 1941. He was appointed to a flotilla of fast patrol boats based at Newhaven in summer 1944. He soon went to Renown based at Trincomalee, only to return with her to the UK and join Belfast in June 1945 as she readied to sail for the Pacific Fleet.

SIMMONS, John R. Campaign Ribbons. 188p., illus., index.   Kansas: Sunflower UP, 1990. ISBN: 9780897451321.

The autobiography of a junior paymaster. He began the war as a purser in Empress of Australia, notably in the Norwegian Campaign. Next came service on  Hilary and later Keren for the assault on Madagascar and for the Torch and Husky landings. He moved on to Portland to stand by Trouncer and stayed there until the end of the war.

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. 

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.   

The autobiography of a RNVR officer. He served briefly on the trawler Flanders in Home Waters then was commissioned and posted to work with landing craft in the Mediterranean. He helped in the evacuation of Crete and was captured at the fall of Tobruk. After a spell as a POW in Italy he was repatriated then served as a beachmaster at the Normandy landings.

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.            

MELLY, George. Rum Bum and Concertina. iii, 183p. London: Wei-denfeld & Nicolson, 1977. ISBN: 0297773410.

A riotously funny account of Melly’s anarchic naval career as an ordinary seaman. From his conscription in 1944 he spent the next four years as a misfit, homosexual, jazz enthusiast, dilettante, surrealist, and journalist. A very different view of shore training establishments and the base ship Argus at the end of the war.

MCGEOCH, Ian. The Princely Sailor: Mountbatten of Burma. xiv, 285p., bibliog., illus., index. London:  Brassey’s, 1996. ISBN: 1857531612.

A supportive and exculpatory account by a loyal supporter of this charismatic figure. Republished by Sparkford in 2009 as Mountbatten of Burma: Captain of War, Guardian of Peace  (ISBN: 1844256863).                                

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.

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.        

JERRAM, F. R. Tales From the Middle Watch. vii, 103p., illus. Sherborne, author, 2003. ISBN: 1858453429.

Entertaining if somewhat disconnected reminiscences.  He joined Dartmouth at 13 and went to sea in January 1940.  He served initially in HMS Southampton (18 months), then Warspite (6 months), was involved in the landings in French North Africa in November 1942.  This was followed by a spell in Pytchley.

HICKLING, Harold. Sailor at Sea. 224p., illus. London: Kimber, 1965.   

The enjoyable but guarded memoirs of a seaman. Hickling served in both world wars and, saw action at the 1914 Battle of the Falklands. In WW2 he commanded the dummy ships of Force W then the cruiser Glasgow and later the Normandy Mulberry harbours, retiring as an admiral in 1947.

HICHENS, Antony. Gunboat Command: The Life of ‘Hitch’ Lieutenant Commander Robert Hichens. DSO*, DSC** RNVR 1909-1943. xvii, 348p., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2007. ISBN: 1844156567.

A member of RNVR, he was called up in October 1939 and after training joined the minesweeper Halcyon. In April 1940 he moved to Niger, but after Dunkirk switched to Coastal Forces. It was here that he built a towering reputation for fresh thinking and innovation as well as great gallantry until his death in 1943. Written by his son and based on his diaries.

HARVEY-JONES, Sir John. Getting It Together. 378p., illus., index. London: Heinemann, 1991. ISBN: 0434313777.

At 13 he entered Dartmouth and in 1940 went straight into action. Torpedoed twice in the next two years he gravitated to submarines. In 1945 he was sent to learn Russian and on leaving the service rose to become chairman of ICI.

The adventures of the author (a telegraphist) on the Yugoslav submarine HMY Nebojsa and his subsequent escape after Yugoslavia's capitulation in 1941. Following his escape the author was posted to Queen Elizabeth, the submarine Rorqual, and later retrained in signals and posted to land-based units. From 1942 onward the book quickly covers his preparation as a sleeper in Alexandria (waiting for Rommel!), subsequent postings and migration to Australia to work on the Snowy Mountain hydroelectric scheme.

Almost half the book covers his war service. He was a member of the RNV(S)R and in 1939 was given command of the armed yacht Grey Mist of the Dover Patrol, before serving on the staff of Admiral Cunningham in the Mediterranean in various capacities. His involvement in all sorts of escapades is recalled with considerable gusto.

The privately printed autobiography of a senior paymaster. In 1939 he took over various Scottish RAF stations and converted them to Fleet Air Arm bases. Late in 1942 he moved to Warspite and served with her in the Eastern Fleet then later the Mediterranean. In May 1944 he moved ashore to the Naval Control Commission for Germany and latterly was Command Supply Officer Germany before retirement.

The memoirs and views of Admiral Dreyer, who was recalled to active service in 1939. He then served as commodore of convoys, inspector of merchant ship gunnery, chairman of the U-boat assessment committee, chief of naval air services, and deputy chief of naval air equipment before his final retirement in 1943.

His autobiography to 1941, with thin disguises for the names of people and ships. In the chaotic early days of the war, he served on a trawler in Norway, in the small ships of Dunkirk, went to King Alfred and then to a new corvette in the Atlantic. Published under a pseudonym, the author's real name of Harling was used for a later edition. Under that name his service in the Atlantic is also described.

The television newsreader includes a brief account of his war service. He volunteered in 1942 and after basic training was taught Russian. He then served as an interpreter/liaison officer first at Murmansk and then in occupied Germany.

The memoirs of a destroyer captain who saw almost incessant action with Black Swan in Norway, with Guillemot and Verdun on the East Coast, and with Ulster in the Mediterranean, Anzio, Biscay, and at D-Day. He then took passage to the Far East in Glengyle. Reprinted by Seaforth in 2009.

He joined Renown as a midshipman in 1940, then served in Holderness, Reading and Scorpion, finishing as a Lieutenant having seen service from Kola to Normandy.

A first attempt to describe the twenty-two Americans who were commissioned in the Royal Navy before the United States entered the war. A fascinating tale.

Born in 1920, he joined the merchant navy as a cadet and the RNR as a midshipman in 1938. In September 1939 he joined Delhi on the Northern Patrol. When she paid off in January 1940 he joined Keppel at Gibraltar. He was at Oran and the evacuations from the South of France. She was then based at Greenock on North Atlantic convoy work with the odd Mediterranean run. Keppel took part in PQ17 and Pedestal then went for a refit at which point he joined the new destroyer Relentless. After a spell at Scapa she joined the Eastern Fleet at Trincomalee. In 1945 he returned to the UK for a gunnery course then briefly commanded Anthony. An enjoyable but rather vague set of anecdotes.

He joined up in September 1939. After training he joined Havelock. In April 1941 he went to King Alfred for training and was then posted to ML 273 as First Officer. In late 1942 she went to the Mediterranean and he soon switched to ML 338. In late 1943 he was given command of ML 134 which undertook a lot of minesweeping before he was appointed to Coastal Forces staff at Malta. In late 1945 he returned to courses and shore posts in the UK before demob in 1946.

Durham entered Dartmouth in 1934 and by 1939 was a midshipman on Barham. He was quickly transferred to be second-in-command of the trawler Beryl, part of the A/S defences at Alexandria, but after a few weeks transferred again to Norfolk returning to join the Home Fleet. A winter on the Northern Patrol was followed by transfer to the destroyer Echo and the Norwegian Campaign. In late summer he joined Renown, which became a mainstay of Force H. At the end of 1940 he returned to Portsmouth for technical training and in mid-1941 then stood by Laforey. She was soon based at Gibraltar as part of 19DF. She took part in the Madagascar campaign then the Pedestal convoy. On her return to the UK to refit he volunteered for submarines. His first patrol was in Graph - the captured U 570 - but in July 1943 he joined Stoic as First Lieutenant. After working up she went to the Eastern Mediterranean and then Trincomalee. Patrol work followed then transfer to Fremantle. In February 1945 she returned to the UK and Durham joined a party preparing for the surrender of U-boats. In May he even sailed U 776 up the Thames to Westminster. As the war ended he took his "Perisher", the submarine commanders' course.

Born in 1900 he followed a naval career and when war began was Second in Command of Newcastle, which began the war on the Northern Patrol. After a refit in spring 1940 and a summer based at Plymouth she went to the Mediterranean and took part in the Battle of Cape Spartivento before joining the South Atlantic Division. In March 1941 he returned to the UK and a year in a staff post at the Air Ministry, followed by command of a large FAA station in the north of Scotland. In late 1944 he returned to London and a staff post at Combined Ops. HQ.

Not a life but a battle history. Born in 1871 he revelled in and sought battle. In 1940, aged 70 he wangled his way back to war in combined ops and travelled to the Middle East with the Commandos, but soon switched to the Indian Cavalry to stay in action. He was captured, pistol in hand in action with the Italians. Repatriated he circuitously made his way back to the Mediterranean as Naval Liaison Officer to a commando unit and travelled and fought in Italy and Yugoslavia seeing action as late as age 73. He moved to the retired list in August 1945.

A witty autobiography with a very few pages on his wartime career mainly helping with Combined Operations training.

Davies joined up in mid-1940. After basic training he volunteered for a course as an antiaircraft gunner, then joined ML 216 for two weeks before joining MGB 320. In 1942, after a refresher course at Whale Island he joined MGB 611 and stayed there until 1943 when he returned to Whale Island and trained as a Gunnery Instructor. The book ends as he arrives in Algiers as a newly fledged GI. Although interesting as a lower deck account of Coastal Forces the book is repetitious and rather self-indulgent.

He was called up in mid-1941 and after training joined Tynwald and stayed with her until her sinking in the Mediterranean in November 1942. He was then posted to a radar station in Fair Isle, Scotland. After a failed attempt to become a CW candidate he was posted to Scourge where he saw action on Russian convoys and at D-Day. He was eventually commissioned in mid-1945 and sailed for the Far East just as the war ended.

He was a bank teller who volunteered as an ordinary seaman in 1939. After training he served on Gloucester in the Mediterranean, then in 1940 returned to the UK as a CW candidate. He moved to Combined Operations and made good progress, eventually leading a beach commando at D-Day.

As a youth he lived on a small brigantine with his widowed mother, often cruising in Norwegian waters. He was commissioned in 1939 and his knowledge of Norway sent him there in April 1940, where he managed a flotilla of small ships. Although these mainly moved troops, he evacuated the population of Narvik against orders. After a spell on an AMC he was based in the Shetlands to run MTB operations to Norway. In mid-1943 he moved to X-craft and later took a parachute course. He then joined 30th Assault Unit a Naval Intelligence Unit, which tried to capture papers and equipment before they could be destroyed. The unit landed on D+4 and kept up with or ahead of forward elements through France and Germany until VE Day. 30AU worked for Ian Fleming and Dalzel-Job is seen by some as a prototype for James Bond.

A happy autobiography of 36 years at sea in everything from minesweepers to Britannia. "Fish" Dalglish went to Dartmouth in 1927. In late August 1939 he joined Kempenfelt in Portsmouth as Gunnery Officer of the 18DF. Less than a month later he was transferred to Excellent and spent four months there before joining Faulknor as Gunnery Officer of the 8DF. An arduous period followed in Norway then with Force H based at Gibraltar covering Mers-el-Kebir, club runs to Malta, the Dakar affair, sinking U 138 and the support ship Alstertor. A refit in the UK followed in late 1941 then came Home Fleet duty and a Russian convoy. In April 1942 he joined the gunnery school at Chatham and in late 1943 stood by the new cruiser Swiftsure. She commissioned in June 1944 and six months later joined the BPF in Sydney and served there until the end of the war. Almost 50 pages cover this period of his life.

An autobiography. The author joined the RN in 1929 aged sixteen. At the start of the war he was in Glasgow standing by Kelvin and spent an active period with her, mainly in Home Waters before joining Euryalus in 1942 as Captain's Yeoman and seeing bitter fighting in the Mediterranean, which is graphically described. She moved to the Home Fleet in 1944 and he left her to move on to the Pacific.

An autobiography which includes his wartime service in the RNPS and Coastal Forces. He served on the Tree Class minesweeper Bay from commissioning until late 1941 and gives a good account of the ship in convoy duty off Kent.

An autobiography. He started his Boy Seaman training at St Vincent in March 1939, and after moving to the Isle of Man completed his training the following March

Tells the story of three brothers, Vic, Bill and Eric Foster, and their friends and contemporaries from Thurmaston, Leicestershire. It explains how the three went to war and how one of them, Vic Foster, did not return. He served aboard Volunteer in the Atlantic and Arctic but in 1943 transferred to Combined Operations and joined HMLST418 in the United States before she moved to the Mediterranean. He was lost aboard the ship in February 1944, when she was torpedoed. The book also tells the story of Bill Foster's escape from Singapore and Eric Foster's time in India. Published in 200 copies.

The autobiography of the much loved Scottish actor-comedian. Born in 1924 he volunteered under the "Y" Scheme in 1941 and joined Ganges in March 1942. After training he joined the new sloop Ibis for sea time, was sunk in her, and after five hours in the water was picked up by Scylla. He then went to King Alfred and after training joined ML 1421 as First Lieutenant. After a gruelling year of work in the Channel, he was invalided out early in 1945.

The author first served on Montrose and Malcolm, then volunteered to serve in submarines in mid-1941. After training he joined Sahib, which served from the Arctic to the Mediterranean. A further spell of training in H 44 was followed by a transfer to midget submarines in mid-1944. He made an attack on Singapore Harbour in XE 3 for which he won the Victoria Cross.

He was called up in mid-1940 and after training joined the collier ss Redriffe as a DEMS gunner on the East Coast. In 1943 he undertook officer training then joined the trawler Breeze engaged in special operations as First Lieutenant, working in the Mediterranean and Adriatic. In June 1944 they returned to the UK to commission the Jacques Morgand working in home waters. In spring 1945 he moved to Prodigal then finally and briefly to the repair ship Berry Head.

A selection from his letters and diaries. He went to Dartmouth in 1925 and by 1939 was First Lieutenant of Delight. He served with her through the Norwegian Campaign until her sinking in the Channel in June 1940. In September he took over the Town Class destroyer Roxborough and spent almost two years with her on Atlantic convoys. In September 1942 he took over Ilex, then refitting in Charleston and served with her for the invasions of Sicily and Italy. Early in 1944 he moved to a staff post in the planning of Neptune and he landed in Normandy on D-Day. He retired in 1961 at the top of the Captains List.

As an RNVR midshipman, he went straight to King Alfred when war was declared. He served first on the drifter Shower based at Loch Ewe, then in late 1940 went to Tynedale which was based at Portsmouth then Plymouth for coastal convoy work. In mid-1941 he was transferred to Coastal Forces and after training took command of ML 292. He transferred to MASB 39 in Essex and spent eight months on air sea rescue work then moved to MGB 9 at Ramsgate and later MGB 118. After heavy action he took over MTB 435, ran her aground and was court-martialled and dismissed his ship. He was promptly appointed as a junior officer on Musketeer and by May 1944 was her gunnery officer on Arctic convoys. At the end of the year he moved to a staff job in Freetown, where he stayed until the end of the war. An interesting memoir from an avowedly difficult character.

He began the war with the Home Fleet in Fortune. After successful A/S work, she fought in Norway, before moving south to join Force H. He next spent a spell in the Admiralty before standing by Pathfinder in January 1942. She went to the Mediterranean, seeing action first with the Pedestal convoy then at the Torch landings. In January 1943 she returned to the UK and spent five months in the Western Approaches. Then it was back to the Mediterranean for the Sicily, Salerno, and Corsica landings. Forbes spent the rest of the war in shore appointments.

Magennis joined up in 1935 and in October 1939 he joined the new Kandahar and served with her until her sinking in 1941. He was then drafted to submarines. After training he volunteered for X-craft and in March 1943 moved to their new base at Loch Striven. He was in the passage crew of X 7 for the attack on the Tirpitz. Early in 1945 they moved to the Far East where Magennis won his VC for his part in the attack on the cruiser Takao in Singapore.

A thin lower deck memoir of time spent on Sharpshooter in 1941–43, notably on Arctic convoys and from 1943 to 1945 in Ulster in the Mediterranean and Channel and with the Pacific Fleet where she was hit by a kamikaze.

A happy autobiography. During the war he commanded Wakeful until sunk at Dunkirk. He next joined Pridham-Wippell's staff in the Mediterranean, where he was at Matapan then closely involved in the Greek and Cretan evacuations. After the Second Battle of Sirte there followed a spell setting up port operations as the 8th Army advanced. He then took command of Musketeer in 1943, mainly on Arctic convoys, and helped sink the Scharnhorst. In November 1944 he took four M class destroyers to the Aegean and was soon embroiled in the Greek Civil War. His war ended in the Plans Division of the Admiralty.

A short autobiography, largely concerned with the role of Warspite at Salerno in 1943.

Finch joined as an apprentice in 1928 and in 1939 was on the newly completed Belfast. He served with her prize crews on the Northern Patrol and stood by her while repairing from mine damage until January 1942 when he moved to Excellent for diving experiments. This was followed by a brief spell with Maidstone at Gibraltar then appointment as Warrant Engineer on King George V in 1943, then in the Mediterranean. The following year he transferred to the FAA. A rather stiff account of a little remarked area.

Kerans commanded the Amethyst in her famous 1949 escape from the Yangtse. There is a brief account of his career.

A rather slight and disappointing account of his naval career. He joined the RN in 1937 and in September 1939 was a midshipman in Kent on the China Station. In May 1940 he joined Encounter as a sublieutenant and sailed to the Far East. When she was sunk at the Battle of the Java Sea he was captured and spent the rest of the war as a POW in Indonesia. After the war he became a career diplomat.

Short biographies of Ramsay, the planner of invasions; Agnew, the leader of Force K; Fraser, who sank the Scharnhorst; Murray of the Royal Canadian Navy; Sherbrooke, who won the VC in the Battle of the Barents Sea; Syfret, who held several successful seagoing commands, and Troubridge who commanded forces in the Mediterranean invasions.

In 1939 he was Governor of the Royal Merchant Navy School but on the declaration of war he was quickly restored to the Active Service List and took command of the new HMS Medina set up on the Isle of Wight for training FAA entries. In 1942 he moved to Glasgow as Chief of Staff to Admiral Troup, Flag Officer Glasgow. In 1944 he moved to Liverpool to command trawler forces and just after VE Day he became Chief of Staff at Liverpool. A rather formal memoir.

Edwards came from an acting family and took to the boards. He was called up in 1940 and after training at Skegness, where he received RDF instruction, he joined the newly RDF equipped Wren. He survived her sinking and moved to Fernie, escorting Channel convoys. In December he moved to King Alfred, then became an RDF instructor in Holyhead. In April 1942 he joined Eclipse with the Home Fleet. After six months he joined Formidable, which took part in the Torch landings and Mediterranean service. At the end of 1943 he transferred to the Azores and a succession of shore based appointments. After the war he became a leading figure in the City. An engaging view of a wonderfully varied life.

Eadon volunteered in 1942 and after seatime on Berwick in the Arctic and training at King Alfred he joined Formidable at Gibraltar in the cypher office. He saw the attacks on Sicily and Salerno then returned to the Clyde to stand by Indefatigable, as an Air Landing Control Officer. In July 1944 she attacked Tirpitz and in November left to join the Pacific Fleet. Almost two-thirds of the book is devoted to his experiences in the Far East. The work is notably laced with the reminiscences of almost 50 shipmates.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Briggs was a reserve officer based in Hong Kong who watched the fall of the Far East as First Officer of Scout. He quickly moved to a staff job in Bombay, while his family were in captivity. After the war they settled in Australia. A frank and moving account of the impact of the separation of war.

The author grew up in a pit village in County Durham and was at College when he was called up in 1940. He was sent to train as a telegraphist at Royal Arthur in Skegness. After training he went to Egret, a sloop initially protecting east coast convoys against and later on convoy work in the Atlantic. He then went as an Officer Cadet to Lancing College and, after further training in Scotland, to Newhaven to serve on a Fairmile RML, serving on ML 1157 and eventually commanding ML 1391 on the South Coast. In 1944 he was sent to Freetown to join HMS Pict an anti-submarine trawler and remained with her until he returned home, finally having been promoted to Lieutenant, in 1945. A wonderful description of life at the sharp end of the war with everything from snakes to shipwrecks.

He joined up from school in 1939 and after a spell in Wild Swan, went to King Alfred in 1940. Much of the book then describes his time as the young commander of an MGB in the Channel before his transfer to the destroyer Undaunted for the final part of the war.

A privately published memoir describing the career of a young officer who served at Dunkirk and later died an untimely death off Africa in a minesweeper in 1943.

His autobiography. He joined as a Special Entry Naval Cadet in 1943 and spent twenty-seven years in the RN. After a quiet period as a midshipman in battleships at Scapa he had an active war running supplies to Cretan guerrillas then serving in the Pacific. An engaging tale.

An autobiography with a brief but interesting 20 pages on war service. He volunteered in 1941 and served in Sandwich on Freetown convoys and the Mediterranean. When she paid off he joined the new Affleck in the US. She operated with 1EG in the Atlantic and Biscay until torpedoed. Enjoyable.

He joined up in September 1939 and trained at Ganges. In 1940 he became a CW candidate and went to the US as one of the crew for the Town Class destroyer Chesterfield. After training at King Alfred, he joined the converted ferry Daffodil in June 1941, based at Loch Fyne in support of Combined Operations. In mid-1942 he joined LCT 6 as First Lieutenant and within weeks took command of LCT 356. After a spell in the training flotilla he took command of LCF 34 then trained for and took part in the invasion of Normandy off Sword beach. Later that year he took over LCG(G) 449 and in December sailed for the Far East and support of operations in Burma. A good tale.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A very brief reminiscence, unusually by a chef, with one or two interesting anecdotes. After training he joined the Special Desert Squadron on the Spud Run to Tobruk. He returned to the UK with dental problems in late 1942. After a year ashore he joined Bellona with the Home Fleet and served out the war in her.

From a naval family, he joined Dartmouth in 1933 and was on his sublieutenant's courses when war began. In January 1940 he joined Jupiter based at Hull. After convoy duties she took part in the Norwegian campaign before being based at Plymouth. In mid-1941 he stood by Middleton which completed at the end of 1941. After six months with the Home Fleet she went to the Mediterranean. After hard action it was back to Scapa and the fringes of PQ17. A spell on the staff at King Alfred was followed by a Signals Long Course, then appointment as Fleet Wireless Officer on Duke of York with the Home Fleet. In November 1944 he joined Swiftsure as flag lieutenant to Admiral Brind, commanding the cruisers of the BPF. He was in Tokyo Bay at war's end. A distinguished career continued after the war when he rose to become Chief of the Defence Staff. A well-told tale. The memoirs were edited by Eric Grove.

An enjoyable and pungent account of a varied career. He entered Dartmouth in 1930. By 1939 he was in MTBs and early in 1940 was put in command of the 10th MTB Flotilla based at Haslar. In 1941 they moved to the Eastern Mediterranean where they saw much action. In 1943 he moved to be First Lieutenant of Scarborough in an Atlantic Escort Group. In mid 1944 he took command of Wivern, supporting East Coast convoys. There is an interesting if bitter account of her sinking of U 714 credited to Natal. In mid-1944 she paid off and he took Loch Killisport to the Far East. Also covers his later career.

Alliston was a regular and in 1939 was First Lieutenant of the new Kandahar. After a winter in the North Sea, she moved to the Red Sea. In 1941 she moved to the Mediterranean and operations around Crete. Later that year he took command of Decoy again in the Mediterranean. After convalescing from wounds received in Malta he moved to Javelin and took her home to the UK in 1943. Then came a spell in Shropshire in the Pacific with TF74, until he took command of Warramunga in September 1944 and of Urania in May 1945. Enjoyable but slight.

The autobiography of Captain Agar. The final third of the book concerns World War II, in which he commanded Emerald for nine months, was then with Coastal Forces until mid-1941, when he took command of Dorsetshire, where he stayed until her sinking.

Memoirs of a full life. He joined up as a boy sailor in 1938 and after training at Ganges, joined Eagle in the Far East and stayed with her as she moved steadily west. In September 1940 he joined Gloucester in Alexandria. After six months he joined Hasty in February 1941 and served throughout the Crete campaign before transferring to Formidable., from which he swiftly moved first to Tank Landing Craft then back to the UK to join Howe. When she went to the Mediterranean, he was transferred to Le Fantasque. In December 1943 he was rated Yeoman, took a three month course then joined Indomitable and served with her in the Far East until war's end. Interesting but rather rose-tinted.

After training, Cdr. Cherry saw active service on HM Ships Winchester, Reading, Evadne, Riou, and Wren, before serving in Germany. His career is very pleasantly recalled.

A career naval officer, he went to Dartmouth in 1942. Late that year he joined Duke of York at Scapa as a midshipman and served with her in the Atlantic and Arctic and for the TORCH landings. Late in 1943 he briefly joined the destroyer Venus before taking his Sub-Lieutenants courses. In mid-1943 he stood by Carron and served with her in European waters until war's end when she sailed for the Indian Ocean. The book then describes his later naval career.

The autobiography of a Russophile. His wartime career, including service with the naval mission in Moscow is described in 20 pages, and the book concentrates on his controversial postwar career.

The author ran away to sea from Eton, returned, went to Cambridge University but volunteered for the RN as a seaman in late 1941 under the Y Scheme. After training at Ganges, he joined Kent in July 1942 and served in the Arctic. In May 1943 he went to King Alfred but failed the exams and was sent to Puffin on East Coast convoys to improve his signals work. In 1944 he began training as an Electrical Officer and was still in training at war's end. The book also covers his successful post-war career.

Two generations of naval history covering the period 1905–1963. The son and author went through Dartmouth in the middle of the war and in 1944 joined Valiant in Ceylon. After her drydock accident he joined Queen Elizabeth which promptly had a two month refit in Durban. In February 1945 after his Seamanship Board, he joined the destroyer Norman, which moved to Sydney and in April joined the BPF, often with the replenishment group. She returned to Sydney in June and Corson went back to the UK for his promotion course. The interesting tale continues with battles from Borneo to the Cod War.

A very enjoyable chronological view of the war from a very different viewpoint. As much concerned with King's Regulations, punishment warrants, and incipient mutiny, with sippers and messing arrangements as with battles and bravery.

He was 19 when war broke out. He volunteered and after training joined the depot ship Hecla. After surviving her sinking he joined the destroyer Anthony.

He joined as a cadet Paymaster in May 1939. At the outbreak of war he was posted to Revenge which operated with the Halifax Escort Force. In July 1940 he took part in the "raid" at Plymouth to take Surcouf. Revenge then acted as part of the anti-invasion covering force and eventually moved on to join the Eastern Fleet. In September 1941 he transferred to Emerald as Senior Midshipman. She returned to the UK in June 1942 and he transferred to Carlisle as Captain's Secretary. She had a very long work-up before moving to the Mediterranean in March 1943. In mid-1943 he moved to a base job at Malta but after a year engineered a transfer to one of the Port Parties taking over Italian installations. A blissful period ended with VE Day and he was in transit to the Far East as the war ended. Enjoyable.

A disappointing and somewhat self-indulgent book, mainly concerned with postwar sailing adventures. He began the war as First Lieutenant of Punjabi and fought at Narvik. After a brief spell in command of Anthony, he moved to Repulse in which he was sunk. Captured by the Japanese in the aftermath of the fall of Singapore he spent the rest of the war as a POW.

An autobiography couched in the third person. He joined up in 1943 aged 17. After training he joined Myngs then completing in the Tyne, as a seaman. An Arctic convoy was followed by supporting carriers attacking Tirpitz and this routine continued until VE Day. As a fleet destroyer she was soon off to SEAC but saw no action although at the surrender of Singapore. Most of the book describes his postwar career in diving and bomb and mine disposal.

In 1939 Garrod was at a naval training school and in 1940 he joined up as a Boy Seaman. Training in the Isle of Man was followed by a circuitous journey to join Rodney in mid-1941 to see service with the Home Fleet and Force H. In November 1941 he was transferred for Combined Operations training and in mid 1943 went to the United States to help take over LCI 297. The rest of the war was spent in the Mediterranean with invasions and special operations. A light tale full of drink, sex, and class warfare.

Chatfield was First Sea Lord from 1933 to 1938. He was then fairly swiftly called in to the Cabinet as Co-ordinator of Defence, which post he held until retirement in 1940. The latter part of volume 2, entitled "It Might Happen Again," describes this period.

The autobiography of one of Britain's leading admirals. He was in Dover command during Dunkirk, a planner for Torch and a commander during Husky and Neptune.

A collection of short stories of naval life at war by the well-known poet. First published in 1951, this new edition includes a long autobiographical fragment describing his training and seatime at Skegness and with a Home Fleet destroyer.

Catlow went to the Royal Naval College in 1928. By 1939 he was in submarines and had the unenviable task of breaking to families the news of the loss of Thetis. That September he was Third Hand on Trident and later spare First Lieutenant at Harwich. For the second half of 1940 he was First Lieutenant of Clyde and at the beginning of 1941 did his Perisher. He was appointed spare Captain at Gibraltar and in early 1942 flew as a replacement to Malta. His plane was shot down over Sicily and he was captured. Keen to escape he got out of camp and as far as Denmark as a result of which he spent the rest of the war in Colditz. The book also describes the rest of his career.

The former Prime Minister describes his war service briefly. He joined up in 1942 and served as a seaman in the Royal Naval Patrol Service trawlers at Lamlash. After a period of illness, he became an "expert" on Japan at the Admiralty. He served a short spell with East Indies Fleet before standing in the 1945 General Election.

He had a busy war, serving with Birmingham in Norway before moving on to Prince of Wales in which he served during the Bismarck chase and going with her to the Far East. After surviving her sinking he briefly transferred to the then refitting Glasgow. He moved to a spell at the Signals School then to the staff of Force 26 at Plymouth, leading to a period of violent action in sweeps off the French Coast. After this he joined the staff planning the occupation of Germany.

Captain Bush's autobiography, one-third of which describes his career in WWII. He was with minesweepers at Dunkirk, helped guard the Channel, took command of the new cruiser Euryalus which served in the Mediterranean, then assisted in the staff work for D-Day. Finally he temporarily recommissioned Malaya for bombardment duties before serving in SEAC until the end of the war. A delightful book.

The author was Walker's gunnery officer on Starling and brings the intimacy of reminiscence to this good but hagiographic account.

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

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.

An autobiography which focuses on these two events.

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.

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.

Only a dozen pages on his wartime career, but containing some original reminiscences from colleagues.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

He joined up as a Boy Seaman on the outbreak of war and after training joined Aurora early in 1941 at Scapa. Later in the year she joined Force K at Malta. After six months of hard action she sailed for a UK refit, then more convoy work prior to the Torch landings and a further year in the Mediterranean. He returned to the UK and a year in various shore bases before transfer to the Pacific just as the war ended.

An Australian, he trained at the Thames Nautical Training College on Worcester at Greenhithe in Kent, where he joined the RNR. He joined the RN in 1939. He then moved up through roles as executive officer on armed trawlers, then corvettes, a sinking, and by mid-1942 was commanding Snowflake. At 25 he was the youngest captain of a major warship in the Royal Navy. By age 29 he commanded a destroyer. Then it was back to the Merchant Navy. He joined Australia's Commonwealth Lighthouse Service whose vessels he commanded for the rest of his eventful career.

Admiral James was C-in-C Portsmouth from 1939 to 1942, then Chief of Naval Information and an MP for Portsmouth. These are effectively his war memoirs and are cast in the form of letters to a friend, recording events in his command and his views on the war.

An Exciseman, he was called up in 1940 and trained as a Telegraphist at Ganges, before joining Aurora in March 1941. He served with her in the Home Fleet and in the Mediterranean. At the end of the year he returned to the UK for officer training at King Alfred, followed by a posting to the minesweeping trawler Bern building in Hull, then based at Milford Haven. In late 1943 he moved to New York then Boston to stand by Tortola. She served mainly on the Gibraltar run. After VE Day he trained as a schoolmaster and served as such until demobbed. His growing Christian faith is the major theme of the book.

A list of those lost at sea with no known grave, as recorded on the war memorials at Chatham, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Liverpool, Lowestoft, and Lee-on-Solent. Each entry gives brief detail of date of death, ship and family. An eloquent list of over 45,000 names. A supplement was issued by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in 1982.

An autobiography lightly disguised as fiction. He grew up in the Merchant navy as a young officer and as a member of the RNR was called up in 1939. He spent time on the Northern Patrol, notably in Montclare, then moved to Victorious. Finally in 1944 he joined a new sloop as Navigator and served on her at D-Day and in the Bay of Bengal. Really a series of vignettes and tales he recalls in old age.

As much a study of his influential thinking as a biography.

A fictionalised autobiography. The author joined up in 1939 and after training as a Signalman worked on merchantmen on the staff of convoy commodores. He was commissioned early in 1941 and became a Boarding Officer based in the West of Scotland. After further training he joined North Sea escorts briefly (including the Dieppe Raid) and then Penylan (Ramsey in the book) in which he was sunk in December 1942. He then joined another Hunt and served in the Mediterranean through the various invasions. In late 1944 he was given a shore job at a Mediterranean repair base.

Based on his illicit wartime diary. He served first in Dorsetshire joining her in Hong Kong in October 1939 as an RNVR Officer and seeing service in the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic, mainly hunting commerce raiders or as convoy escort. After a brief refit in the UK and more of this work he joined the new destroyer Brocklesby as a sublieutenant. She took part in the St. Nazaire and Dieppe Raids as well as convoy work. From November 1942 he spent six months standing by the refitting Griffin, but when she transferred to the RCN he joined Orwell as First Lieutenant. She served with the Home Fleet and in the Atlantic and Russian convoys, notably taking part in the sinking of the Scharnhorst. In April 1944 he took over the new Fitzroy as CO, based at Harwich. In September 1944 he went to Greenwich for the six-month staff course and in March 1945 took over Wolverine and was based at Gibraltar until VE Day. After paying her off he finally took over Holderness in July 1945 shuttling back and forth to Europe

A solicitor in the City and a member of the RNV(S)R, he was called up as war began. He spent some time shuttling between Malcolm and Wren. The two destroyers worked on training reservists, escorting troops to France, escort and A/S work then Dunkirk. From October 1941 he was based at Derry, briefly in a shore post. Late in 1941 he took a party of signallers on Prince of Wales to cover the Churchill–Roosevelt meeting at Argentia. He next acted as Secretary to Commander (D) on Brighton an escort group for minelayers based at Loch Alsh. He took radar training and was appointed to Queen Elizabeth and the Eastern Fleet based in Ceylon. In January 1945 he was promoted Lieutenant Commander and moved to the depot ship Woolwich, before returning to the UK as an instructor at the radar school in Portsmouth.

He joined the London Division of the RNVR before the war and in September 1939 was sent to Curlew. Service on her forms the bulk of the book. After her sinking in Norwegian waters, he moved around barracks until he volunteered for Coastal Forces as a CW candidate on HMML 147. His career as an officer is covered in two pages.

In 25 pages he gives a short account of his career in the Engineering Branch in various smaller craft and depot ships.

A brief memoir. He joined as a Boy Telegraphist and fought at Jutland. After 24 years service he retired in 1939 as a Chief Yeoman, only to be recalled to the colours that August. He served in various Port Signal Stations at Scapa, Lulworth, Gibraltar, and from mid-1943 on Pretoria Castle. Has little of interest but one or two yarns.

Some 44 pages recount his varied wartime career: contraband control at Ramsgate; Dunkirk; assistant navigator of the King George V and the Bismarck chase; the Freetown run in Ibis and finally on the escort carrier Activity from Murmansk to Singapore.

An RNVR autobiography. One man's experiences of WW2 from Ordinary Seaman to Lieutenant in command, from RNPS minesweepers in Home waters, an Antarctic whaler, in the Mediterranean (torpedoed) and landing craft of various types..

He joined up in 1940 and after training joined Windsor. He trained as an officer and became liaison officer on Rubis. After a year there he joined Intelligence as a member of a COPP unit, working mainly in the Far East. An enjoyably told tale.

The war is covered in 50 pages in which he served and was sunk in Transylvania on the Northern Patrol, then spent three years on the staff of the Royal Naval College Greenwich before taking command of the frigate Cygnet in Arctic waters. This was followed by a spell on the staff of the C-in-C Mediterranean and finally command of a ship in the Fleet Train. US title: The Captain's Bridge.

The story of the man who joined the Navy in 1904, served at Gallipoli, was imprisoned by the Bolsheviks, was Controller of the Navy 1939-42, sank the Scharnhorst, and commanded the most powerful British fleet of all time in the Pacific.

Somerville is best known for his command of Force H and later of the Eastern Fleet. He was one of the major naval figures of the war.

In September 1939 he was serving on Skipjack as navigator. She was sunk at Dunkirk. He next went to Bridlington as First Lieutenant, then in June 1941 he joined Mendip. Next came a complete change when he became the Signals Officer in Charge on Largs. In April 1943, she arrived in North Africa and he spent eighteen months working in the Mediterranean theatre. In January 1945 he joined Tartar as Staff Signals Officer, 8th DF. They were bound for the Far East and in Trincomalee at war's end.

A fascinating insight into the mind of one of the great admirals as the invasion of Europe unfolded from conception to success.

Love joined up in 1936 and by 1939 was in Inglefield which joined the Home Fleet soon after the start of the war. She served in the Norwegian Campaign and on Operation Menace. In 1942 he transferred briefly to USS Sterett before returning to Inglefield and the Arctic. In 1943 he did a spell in several troopships. Early in 1945 he joined Palomares and soon headed for the Pacific, but had got no further than Ceylon by war's end. Not the liveliest of tales.

The only son of an Irish father and an English mother, at the age of seven he left India with his mother, who had decided to return to England following the death of his father. He entered the Royal Navy, in which he served as a signalman on trawlers in the North Sea and the Channel. He was commissioned and transferred to landing craft. He saw action in Sicily, Italy then Normandy. Drafted to the Far East, he eventually left the Navy and became a tea planter in Assam. Some years after that, he and some friends migrated to Australia, to eventually settle in Western Australia, where he became a pioneer farmer.

The autobiography of a career officer. He was First Lieutenant of Whitshed in 1939–40 until she was seriously damaged in the Fall of France. He then served as First on Southdown, before taking command of Guillemot in mid-1941 with Nicholas Monsarrat as his First Lieutenant. After East Coast convoy work he stood by Rockwood before she served in the Mediterranean and Aegean. He brought her home damaged in early 1944 and the book ends as he goes to Staff College. A good tale.

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.

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.

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.

Describes the naval career of a regular, from the 1930s to the 1950s. During the war he served on Hero in the Mediterranean and South Atlantic, briefly on Fiji while she worked up, on L'Incompromise in Portsmouth, on London and Campbeltown. In late 1942 he went to the US to join Ilex, which was refitting there. She moved to the Mediterranean in 1943 and when she paid off at Malta in 1944 he joined Paladin at Colombo and served in her until the end of the war. An amusing if vague account of life on the lower deck.

First published in 1944 under the pseudonym Nicholas Drew.

The autobiography of a quiet war. He volunteered in 1941 from university as a CW rating and did his three months sea time on Carnation on the Liverpool-Gibraltar route. His service on an anonymised but easily identified Easton, which he heartily disliked was in the Mediterranean before he transferred as liaison officer to the French corvette La Moqueuse in 1943. Half of the book concerns his quiet but happy service on her in the Levant and later the South of France. An excellent memoir.

A brief and unoriginal retelling of the Royal Family's connection with the RN from William IV to Prince Philip in WWII.

Admiral Hall had an unusually long career of 41 years, ending as Hydrographer of the Navy. During the war he served in hydrographic ships and the minesweepers Derby and Fraserburgh and notably leading a COPP party in the Far East.

He joined Ganges as a Boy Seaman in 1937 and soon after the war started joined Bedouin as a Torpedoman. A busy war followed; Norway, the Lofoten Raid; Arctic, Atlantic, and Malta convoys, in the last of which she was sunk in June 1942. Picked up by an Italian `hospital ship, the second half of the book describes his experiences as a POW in Italy and Germany.

The author joined the RN as an apprentice artificer and after almost five years training joined the battleship Emperor of India. He then served in a variety of cruisers and destroyers and was serving in Ajax when war was declared. He saw service at the Battle of the River Plate, at Crete, and Matapan. In June 1942 he returned to the UK and joined 22 MTB Flotilla as CERA at Lowestoft. He next saw service in the repair ship Greenwich at Iceland, and finally joined Euryalus for service with the Pacific Fleet.

The author served in the RN from 1914–1947. In 1939 he was on Nelson as staff intelligence officer, a role which gave him a wide perspective reflected in the text. He served on the Home Fleet flagship until 1943 and there are very full accounts of the Norwegian Campaign and the Bismarck chase, before going to SEAC. Although a little irritatingly written in the third person, this is an interesting account from a well-placed and well-connected career officer.

In 1939 as a young journalist he was called up as RN Special Reservist No. 1 and became a stoker. This lively account of his service describes his service in Afridi, notably in the Norwegian campaign. He then had a spell on shore with the Humber Boiler Cleaning Party at Hull. In 1943 he moved to Danae as a leading stoker but six months later was transferred as a Temporary Acting Sub-Lieutenant to the Press Division of the Admiralty. He covered the D-Day landings from an LCT and became Press Liaison Officer for the beachhead then covered the Walcheren assault. He then moved east and covered the landings in Arakan and moved full circle when he was on Tartar on a successful anti-shipping sweep in June 1945. A lively tale.

A fictionalised autobiography. After training he joined a Tribal and saw service in the Mediterranean at Matapan and Crete, where he was sunk. He joined a damaged cruiser for a US refit then moved to a Town Class destroyer. A brisk Atlantic war was followed by transfer to an LST and the Mediterranean landings. In summer 1944 he moved to a Castle Class corvette in the Arctic, and after her sinking joined a Loch Class Frigate sent to the Far East.

Contains sections on Prince Louis of Battenberg, Lord Louis Mountbatten, and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. This last is particularly interesting as it gives the best account of his wartime service, which is much less well-recorded than the spectacular rise of his uncle, Lord Louis Mountbatten.

He joined under the Special Entry scheme in 1941 when he was seventeen

The author joined up in 1940 and trained as a signalman. After training he went to the USA to commission Lincoln. At the end of 1941 he was transferred to the East Indies to Scout then the minesweeper Tewera. He returned to the UK to commission the new destroyer Zephyr, where he saw out the war. Strongest on his experience of naval life.

He joined up in 1939 and after training went to Calcutta. Convoy work was followed by the Norwegian campaign and the Channel then the Mediterranean Fleet and its hard campaign in which she was sunk. He transferred to Barham, but the book finishes with a spell of illness in Durban and a return to the UK in late 1941.

The privately printed memoirs of a career naval officer who retired as Flag Officer, Scotland. Eighty pages record his wartime career as, successively, head of the Signal School, Captain of the cruiser Kent serving with the Home Fleet and on the Murmansk Run, Commodore of the RN Barracks at Chatham, and finally in command of the 10th Cruiser Squadron with his flag in Birmingham. A modestly told but very enjoyable story.

The author's autobiography. He commanded Exeter during her last commission from 1941 until her sinking, and was then a prisoner of the Japanese until the end of the war.

One of a series for young people describing teenage life. He was called up at Christmas 1943. After training at Collingwood and Whale Island he joined the minesweeper Foam. He soon transferred to Stevenstone and went to the Mediterranean, where he saw the various postwar problems of the Eastern Mediterranean from the Corfu Incident to Palestinian refugees. A thin account of his experiences.

A memoir based on his midshipman's diary. After training at Conway he joined the AMC Canton in 1940. In spring 1941 he joined the new Abdiel. In 1942 he moved to Sheffield and saw action from the Torch landings to the Barents Sea. In 1943 he moved to King George V for Force H and Husky. Early in 1944 he joined Tintagel Castle as a sublieutenant and spent the rest of the war with her.

The autobiography of two bachelor twin brothers who spent most of their lives working for the community. They were called up in October 1939 and after training were appointed to an MTB flotilla based at Portsmouth. Several months of training and patrolling were followed by a hectic raid in support of the Dutch, and a planned but failed attempt to destroy the North Sea lock gates of the Zuider Zee. Then came night patrols covering the Dunkirk evacuation. Geoffrey alone took part in these events as Trevor was reserve navigator for the flotilla. Nervous exhaustion for Geoffrey and six months shore duty followed for the twins, who were kept together as Divisional Officers of the New Entry Training Staff at the Royal Naval Barracks and later at HMS Royal Arthur in Skegness. Trevor was invalided out and shortly afterward in 1943, Geoffrey was appointed to command the converted A/A paddle steamer HMS Plinlimmon in the Thames. Later that year he was appointed to HMS Armadillo in Glen Finart where beachmasters were trained. After D-Day he was sent to Glasgow University for a course on Japan, but was demobilised in July 1945.

The author served on RHN Adrias for six months in the South Atlantic and Mediterranean, then moved to the gunboat Scarab for the invasions of Sicily and Italy. From October 1943–October 1944 he was based on the stone frigate HMS Nile at Alexandria. He saw out the European war as Base Medical Officer at Piraeus during the liberation and civil war.

The biography of Bob Oldfield, who spent his war in regular brushes with death: in Ajax at the Battle of the River Plate; in the submarines Narwhal, H 31, Spearfish, Ursula, Splendid, and then in Saracen, in which he was sunk; in Italy and Germany as a POW.

An enjoyable war memoir. Covers Atlantic seatime in Scarborough and Broke and cleaning up after the Plymouth blitz. CW status was followed by training at Ganges and King Alfred. Sea appointments followed in Scylla, notably covering PQ18, then transfer to the carrier Slinger, a long fitting out and operations in the Pacific.

A loving biography of her father. He joined up in 1938 and as war began was serving in Janus. He saw action with her in Norway and the Mediterranean, then after an appendix operation and some trouble with the military police worked with one of the shore parties in the evacuation of Crete. Evacuated in Orion, he moved briefly to Abdiel, but after more fisticuffs was sent to the small coastal whalers patrolling the North African coast. Late in 1941 he joined Neptune and was her sole survivor when she was mined a month later. Picked up by Italian forces, he was eventually repatriated in June 1943, but within three weeks was back in service re-training on Asdic. In April 1944 he was drafted to Mermaid on Arctic convoy duty and in August 1944 to the then building minesweeper Rowena. She served in the Mediterranean but was sent to the Far East at the very end of the war. He later became a professional boxer.

One-third of the book records his war. He began as a war correspondent with Richard Dimbleby, but after Dunkirk joined the navy as a second hand at Lowestoft. He spent the winter in small ships off the East Coast, but was soon commissioned and went to Scapa as Flag Lieutenant to Admiral Binney, Flag Officer Scapa. He was with Arethusa on the fringe of the Bismarck chase but then migrated to SOE and support for secret operations in Norway for the rest of the war.

A full length biography of Lord Louis, published soon after his tragic assassination. It attempts to be a "warts and all" study. One hundred pages cover his meteoric wartime rise.

More Mountbatten than Kelly, the book is rich in personal anecdote and captures the mixture of glamour and ineptitude which characterised his career in destroyers.

A rather slight and disappointing work, which covers his service in 20 pages. After call-up he volunteered as a DEMS gunner. Service on the City of Florence led to a transfer to Illustrious as a Fighter Direction Officer. In 1945 he moved to a post in the Admiralty.

The first biography of an officer who won his VC in the St Nazaire Raid. Although forever associated with this, his active war included service in Q Ships, Combined Operations, at D-Day and commanding an Arctic convoy's destroyer

He went from Australia and a reserved occupation in 1941 to the UK. He spent 1942 as a seaman in the new destroyer Panther, working up and then at Colombo, before moving to King Alfred. The next year was spent as a sublieutenant on Intrepid, first based on Iceland and covering Murmansk convoys, then in the Mediterranean. In November 1943 she was sunk in Leros Harbour. He then spent 10 months as a Lieutenant on Terpsichore in the Mediterranean, before returning to Australia to become First Lieutenant of Gascoyne from January 1945.

A brief memoir by a survivor of the sinking of Barham, who later served on Kingston in the Mediterranean and in landing craft, where he was disrated. Also concerned with his search for Christianity.

An anonymous biography, although the subject is reputed to have had a large hand in it. Certainly, many of Mountbatten's private photographs are included. There is some coverage of his part in WWII.

He joined Dartmouth in 1936 passing out in summer 1940 and was posted to Valiant in Alexandria where he served through the hard war of the fleet for 18 months. The book is based on his midshipman's diary and ends early in 1942 when he passed his exams to become a sublieutenant. Excellent.

His active war career is touched on in a mere half dozen pages.

An enjoyable memoir of the RN in the thirties. The last twenty pages describe his war. The autumn of 1939 was spent in Harrier at Dover and at the end of the year he went to Vernon for the Long T Course. His war soon came to an abrupt end in May 1940 when he was wounded with the Ijmuiden demolition parties.

A happy autobiography of a regular naval career. He served from battleships to minesweepers during the war and from Norway to D-day as well as a training post at Dryad.

The biography of one of Britain's most loved post-war admirals. He joined the navy as a Special Entry Cadet in January 1939. At the start of the war he joined Belfast and after her mining, Valiant. In October 1941 he joined Highlander as a sub lieutenant but within a few weeks contracted diphtheria. On his recovery he was appointed to Ashanti and served on her for three happy years. He saw Arctic convoys, the Pedestal convoy, the Torch landings, and Channel sweeps and earned a DSC and no less than three mentions in despatches while rising to be First Lieutenant. At the end of 1944 he joined the Long Gunnery Course where he was serving at war's end.

Of farming stock, he went to Dartmouth in 1924. In September 1939 he was First of Decoy on the China Station. She was immediately transferred to Malta then moved to Gibraltar and finally to join the Fleet at Alexandria. After brisk action and the evacuations of Greece and Crete, he was given command of Hotspur in mid-1941. More action included the sinking of U 79 until in February 1942 she moved to join the Eastern Fleet in Ceylon. In October he was relieved and returned to England to stand by Brecon, which commissioned in December 1942. She spent some time with the Home Fleet then Herrick returned to the Mediterranean for Sicily, Salerno, and Anzio. In February 1944 he returned to England and a spell teaching at Collingwood. In January 1945 he was appointed to and stood by Cockade, then building but not completed before war's end.

The enjoyable autobiography of a warrant officer engineer. He served in the RN from 1925 to 1947. He was on Ark Royal from the start of the war until her sinking. He then stood by Aries, building in Canada and served with her in the Mediterranean.

The autobiography of a policeman with the Met. In 1943 he was called up and trained as a radar mechanic. His training and shore-based service are briefly described.

Hayes entered Dartmouth in 1926 and the first half of the book addresses the prewar years. In August 1939 he was appointed Navigator of Cairo as the Reserve Fleet mobilised. After three months on the East Coast he spent a year ashore then transferred to Repulse. He was with her for the Bismarck hunt and her journey to Singapore where he survived her sinking. He performed some naval liaison duties in Singapore and was then evacuated to Java in Jupiter then traveled in a Dutch coaster to Colombo. Repatriated to the UK he joined London in Scapa as Staff Officer Operations to Admiral Hamilton. This made him an eyewitness to PQ17. 1944 was then spent, still with Hamilton, ashore in Malta. The last two years of the war are described in only two pages. A final section covers his postwar career.