Product Description

Using official records from the National Archives personal accounts from the Imperial War Museum and other sources, Coastal Convoys 1939 - 1945: The Indestructible Highway describes Britain's dependence on coastal shipping and the introduction of the convoy system in coastal waters at the outset of the war. It beings to life the hazards of the German mining offensive of 1939, the desperate battles fought in coastal waters during 1940 and 1941, and the long struggle against German air and naval forces which lasted to the end of the Second World War. Reference is also made to the important role played by coasters during the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940 and the Normandy landings in 1944.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #72349 in Books
• Published on: 2008-11-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

First Rate & Long Overdue
This is a really excellent book, dealing with a major aspect of the war at sea which has been sadly neglected for far too long. There have been numerous works on the subject of the Atlantic convoys, and two superb studies of the Arctic Convoys and the Malta Convoys by Richard Woodman, but little has hitherto been available on the crucial role played by the East Coast convoys. Happily, this book goes a long way to correcting this omission.

As a professional historian with the Imperial War Museum, Mr. Hewitt (no relation, by the way!) obviously has access to a wide range of documents and archives, and is able to bring the events he describes vividly to life, by extensive use of quotations from survivors and veterans of these convoys, which are both illuminating and often moving.

Thankfully, early in the book, he exposes the idea put forward by Len Deighton, in 'Fighter', that the coal needed by the south coast power stations could have been transported by the railway network, for the nonsense that it is. The very suggestion that 40,000 tons of coal per week could have been moved in this manner is, frankly, absurd! The coastal convoys were essential.

In the whole 244 pages of the book, I could find only one minor point with which I disagreed, when Mr. Hewitt refers to HMS Sabre as the Royal Navy's oldest destroyer. In point of fact, in May/June 1940 there were some 40 destroyers older than Sabre still in service.

This is, however, a minor and pedantic quibble! The fact is that the book sheds important light on a neglected part of the war at sea, and it demonstrates beyond dispute how vital to the survival of the United Kingdom in the early years of World War 2 the Royal Navy really was, a fact which sadly seems to have been forgotten in favour of the Battle of Britain legend.

In short, this is a splendid book, and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone either interested in the subject, or who would like to learn about it.

My only regret is that I can only give it five stars!

Thought provoking
It is inevitable when trying to cover a wide variety of activity that you cannot cover everything in depth. However, there is enough material in this book to give a real flavour of the diverse issues faced by the coastal convoys. It's the sort of book that will make you want to look into some of the aspects in more detail. Importantly it makes point that the naval war went on until the final days of the war; the Battle of the Atlantic may have been won in 1943 but many still lost their lives after that date in the coastal waters of the UK.