Category: Rescue and Medical Services

SHIPPERBOTTOM, Percy. Percy's Piece of the War: Exploits of an RAF High Speed Launch Wireless Operator in the UK and Far East During the Second World War. 75p. Bognor Regis: Woodfield, 2010. ISBN: 1846831075.

He became a wireless operator with the RAF Marine Branch and served in 1940/41 aboard HSL 120, based in Ramsgate and engaged in air-sea rescue work in the Channel and North Sea, picking up Allied (and sometimes German) airmen whose aircraft had ditched. Later in the war he was posted to the Far East, where he served in the same capacity at No.226 Air Sea Rescue Unit (226 ASRU), based at Chittagong.

A description of the creation and evolution of the service is followed by geographically arranged individual tales.

About half of the book covers the history of British hospital ships and all known vessels used in this role up to the end of WWII. The 1939–45 period is covered in 20 pages.

An illustrated guide to the various types of launch.

A general history with a good account of WWII experience. Includes some good personal accounts.

Two participants give a lively account of the topic spiced with autobiography and reminiscence.

Describes the careers of some 29 ships specially converted to accompany convoys and to rescue the crews of torpedoed merchantmen.

Centaur was torpedoed off the Australian coast in May 1943, with huge loss of life. This memorial volume describes the ship and her passengers as well as the events of the sinking as part of a campaign to erect a memorial at Point Danger.

She was a New Zealander member of the Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service. She served in the UK, South Africa and Ceylon. The volume consists of her voluminous letters home, lightly annotated. Essentially social history.

A fascinating history enlivened by personal reminiscences. Nurses showed great courage under fire in convoy and in hospital ship.

A brief account, demonstrating some of the hazards faced by lifeboatmen in war and some of their successes, including work at Dunkirk. A second edition was published in 1948.

A Yorkshire dentist, he volunteered in 1939 and served in Portsmouth Barracks and the Marine Depot at Lympstone. He also spent time at the Stokers training establishment and on the hospital ship Aorangi. But the core of the book is the 20 months spent on Norfolk from August 1941 to May 1943 when she saw action from the Arctic to the Mediterranean. Rather dry.

A light-hearted tale of a wartime VAD in the RN, who served in England, Australia, and Hong Kong.

The author was a PO Sick Bay attendant on board from her commissioning in 1942 to her service with the Eastern Fleet. An interesting mix of personal anecdote with descriptions of the routine of a hospital ship.

JACKSON, Bill. Air Sea Rescue During the Siege of Malta: An Eyewitness Account of Life with HSL107 1941-43. xx, 375p., bibliog., illus., index. Leicester: Matador, 2010. ISBN: 1848764723.

An autobiographical tale of life with the Air / Sea Rescue teams based in Malta. Focussing on High Speed Launch (HSL) 107 which rescued close to 100 pilots during the siege of Malta, he captures the spirit and camaraderie of this close knit group.

A jokey censored account of the career of a Surgeon Lieutenant RNVR. He served at a trawler base, at a submarine depot ship for two years, on a Q-ship, briefly with MGBs, then headed east with another submarine depot ship.

HARLAND, Kathleen. A History of Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service. 169p., illus. [n.p.]: Journal of the Royal Naval Medical Service, 1990. ISBN: 0951490605.

The only history of this dedicated group.

HARVEY, W. J., & TURRELL, K. T. J. Empire Tugs. 160p., illus., index. Kendal: World Ship Society, 1989. ISBN: 0905617479.

Data and histories of all 140 tugs built or borrowed in WWII. Includes details of various salvage and rescue battles.

PILBOROUGH, Geoffrey D. Royal Air Force Rescue Boats of World War Two. 5 vols.in 4, illus. London: Canimpex, 1992–95. ISBN: 0951026682 (Part 1); 0951026690 (Part 2); 1898875022 (Parts 3 & 4).

        Four very slim volumes lovingly recall these craft. A fourth volume is entitled Commonwealth Rescue Boats of World War Two (ISBN: 1898875065).

PARRY, Joyce Ffoulkes. Joyce’s War: The Second World War Journal of a Queen Alexandra Nurse, edited by Rhiannon Evans. 256p., illus., index. Stroud: History Press, 2015. ISBN: 9780750962308.

Parry spent much of the war on the hospital ships  Otranto and Karapara as well as time on shore in hospitals in Alexandria and Calcutta. This edited diary is full of details of life ashore and afloat, worries about family and friends and social life. A fascinating volume.

BERRYMAN, Nick. In the Nick of Time. 214p., illus. Bognor Regis: Woodfield, 2000. ISBN: 190395312X.

An enjoyable autobiography focused on his RAF career in air sea rescue. He joined up in 1942, aged 18. He trained in the USA. In early 1943 he joined 276 Air Sea Rescue squadron in Dorset and became a Walrus pilot. In 1944 he moved to Egypt in the same role with 294 squadron. He returned to the UK at the end of the year and took up a role as a flying instructor in Scotland.

BEARDOW, Keith. Sailors in the RAF: the story of the Marine branch of the Royal Air Force. 240p., bibliog., illus., index. Sparkford, Patrick Stephens, 1993. ISBN: 1852604077.  

The story of the Marine Branch of the Royal Air Force which, over nearly 70 years, provided waterborne support and rescue services for the RAF.

DEAR, Ian. The Tattie Lads: the untold story of the Rescue Tug Service in both world wars and its battle to save ships, lives and cargoes. 304p., illus. London: Conway, 2016. ISBN: 1844864014.

        Although part of the Royal Navy, the contribution of the Rescue Tug Service remained curiously absent from the naval history of the Second World War. Yet the Service had developed what a wartime American newspaper called 'a new type of naval vessel--the British fighting escort tug' and had saved millions of tons of shipping, both warships and merchant ships, not to mention the crews and the precious cargoes. The official history of the Merchant Navy did not mention the Service either, nor do other books on the war at sea.

HOWLETT, Lorna. The Oranje Story. 72p., illus. [Gerringong, NSW]: Oranje Hospitalship Association, 1991. ISBN: 0646064096.

In early 1941, the Dutch government-in-exile offered the ship to the Australi-an and New Zealand governments as a hospital ship. Capable of 26 knots, Oranje was the fastest hospital ship in the world, and represented a valuable addition to the Allies’ medical capability. Originally staffed and operated by a Dutch crew, with a small complement of New Zealand and Australian staff, it later carried a largely Australian, and eventually a largely New Zealand medical staff. The Oranje completed 41 war voyages, covering over 382,000 nautical miles and carrying some 32,461 patients. It was then used to repatriate many Dutch internees from the Far East. A second revised edition was published in the UK in 1995, ISBN: 0951581562.

FRANKS, Norman. The RAF Air Sea Rescue Service in the Second World War (Images of War). 144p., illus. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Aviation, 2016. ISBN: 9781473861305.

 A photographic record of the service.

BROWN, Kevin. Fittest of the Fit: Health and Morale in the Royal Navy, 1939-1945. xi, 276p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Seaforth, 2019. ISBN: 9781526734273.

This very good history of the Medical Branch is focussed on public and occupational health issues rather than the treatment of casualties. Ships, and especially submarines, were unhealthy spaces and major concerns were then the treatment of illnesses as varied as tuberculosis, mental health and venereal disease. A fascinating study.

HALL, James S. Sea Surgeon. 205p., illus., index. London: Kimber, 1960.

The memoirs of a local doctor who worked with the Walmer lifeboat in tending to injured and sick seaman in the Downs area. Concentrates on the 1939–40 period. The book went through several editions and was finally republished in paperback by the author in 1968 as a Pain Pocket Edition.         

HEMINGWAY-DOUGLASS, Reanne & DOUGLASS, Don. The Shelburne Escape Line: Secret Rescues of Allied Aviators by the French Underground, the British Royal Navy & London’s MI-9. xxiv, 197p., bibliog., illus. Anacortes, WA., Cave Art Press, 2014. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Aviation, 2015. ISBN: 9781473837782.

The story of the escape route from Brittany set up in late 1943 by MI-9 agents. Full of personal stories including those of the French who hid the escapees and with some small naval relevance. Researched and written as a labour of love over some eight years.

SCHOFIELD, B. B., & MARTYN, L. F. The Rescue Ships and the Convoys: Saving Lives During the Second World War [edited and expanded by Victoria Schofield]. 208p., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2024. ISBN: 1036102661.

An expanded edition of the title first published in 1968. Describes the careers of some 29 ships specially converted to accompany convoys and to rescue the crews of torpedoed merchantmen.

DOE, Helen. One Crew: The RNLI’s Official 200-Year History. 288p., bibliog., illus., index. Stroud: Amberley, 2024. ISBN: 9781398122352.

An excellent history of a magnificent organisation with appropriate information from WW2.

The Edward Z. Dresden was one of the lifeboats which took part in the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk in 1940. Its war service is briefly described.

The author began his training as a dentist in London in 1939 and joined up in 1943. He served in shore establishments on the south coast and at Lowestoft and was always on the fringe of great events.

Eight lightly dramatised tales of the rescue of pilots who had to bale out over the sea.

An autobiography from the famous sailing photographer. Includes tales of his adventures in RAF Air-Sea Rescue Boats in WWII.

A charming autobiography. It describes growing up in wartime in a village in Kent. In mid-1944 he was called up and trained as a Sick Berth Attendant. After training he joined a flotilla of Algerines and sailed for Ceylon and on to Singapore at the end of the war.

The sailing and wartime memoirs of the author who served with the Air-Sea Rescue service in the UK and the Indian Ocean.

Opens up a little explored area. The salvage crews saved millions of tons of shipping, often in extreme circumstances.

The reminiscences of a Trinity House man. The last third records his war service, mainly on the North Sand Head lightship, in the early part of the war.

Some old stories retold. They include the Altmark rescue and two tales of Air-Sea Rescue.

Volume 1 deals with administration and volume 2 with operations. The second volume in particular is much more wide-ranging in its content than the title suggests, being virtually a history of the war at sea. It is fuller on the earlier years of the war when casualties were greater. It also includes the diary of the MO of Scylla covering almost one year.

A good history of an unglamorous service.

279 was the first squadron to employ the airborne lifeboat, which was carried beneath the belly of the Hudson. In January 1942, a practical boat, fitted with oars, sails and engines was put into production. Containing first-hand accounts, this book covers the development and the operations.

He served briefly in the RN in 1939 as ship's doctor on the destroyer Mackay. Invalided out with chronic seasickness, the bulk of the book goes on to tell of his service in Greece with the RAMC, of his capture there, and of his adventures in various POW camps.

Between 1941 and 1945 these squadrons rescued or assisted over 1,300 aircrew. This is very much oral history describing operations through the memories and anecdotes of those concerned.

Covers the adventures of 283, 284, 293 and 294 Walrus Squadrons, operating from North Africa, Sicily, Italy and Sardinia. Includes many personal reminiscences.

The memoir of a 30-year career in which the author rose from Sick Bay Attendant to Lieutenant Commander. About 80 sometimes gruesome pages view the war from the sick bay. He was in Singapore in 1939, returned to Plymouth in 1940, went to the US and eventually joined Stalker on her commissioning. She saw action in the Mediterranean and after convoy work, he left in early 1944 to be based at Plymouth. He was there for a year before moving to Australia for the final months of the war. An interesting tale from an unusual viewpoint.

A general history followed by accounts of four Australian ships from the two world wars.

A popular guide to the growth and operation of Air-Sea rescue.

Very much an operational account with summaries of the service of each vessel.

A slight but interesting memoir, some of it a contemporary diary. Just after joining up he was whisked off to Norway as a surgeon with the Royal Marines and his experiences there fill half the book. In 1940/41 he set up a blood transfusion service at Chatham, but in mid-1942 transferred to Argonaut where he survived her torpedoing. After a brief spell in Coreopsis he was based ashore in North Africa until 1944 when he came back to the UK for a shore appointment.

An autobiography. The author was Surgeon-Consultant to the Shetlands throughout the war and as such treated many servicemen and merchant seamen.

The entertaining biography of a deb turned naval nurse who served at Haslar and in Alexandria.

An unambitious but competent retelling of the major incidents in which the lifeboats were involved.

Lifesaving services off the East Anglian coast. It includes a chapter covering WWII.

A full review of what happened and the aftermath including the rumours which surrounded her loss to Japanese submarine attack.

Banks was an Australian doctor enlisted in the RANVR. In 1939 he joined the AMC Moreton Bay as her surgeon. When she reached the UK he undertook medical research for the RAF, then went to HMS Condor at Arbroath to train, practice medicine, and write papers on FAA training. In 1942 he was appointed principal medical officer to Furious. Chance and an appendix operation moved him as medical liaison officer to the USAAF Eighth Air Force before he was posted to Kanimbla. In late 1944 he joined a plastic surgery team in England and devoted the rest of his career to this specialty.

Surgeon Rear-Admiral Mussen's autobiography, with only 35 pages on WWII. From 1939 to 1942 he was a specialist at Haslar and from 1942 to 1945 he was in the US to liaise with the US Surgeon General.

Set up in 1940, this was arguably the busiest and most successful ASR base in the UK.

Parkin was an army nurse, but spent some time on hospital ships. A slight and romanticised memoir.

RAF rescue launch memoirs, from training to operations in the Straits of Dover and East Anglia, then support for D-Day before moving to Gibraltar at the end of the war.