Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1324540 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 319 pages

Journal for Maritime Reaearch, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
Those who know little about the subject will be educated, moved and entertained.

Hull Daily Mail: John Weller
Anyone with an interest in wartime naval manoeuvres will appreciate this compelling historical document.

Synopsis
This is the autobiographical account of nearly seven years in the wartime Royal Navy, the last three as Official Naval Reporter (Lieutenant RNVR) following four years on the Lower Deck as a stoker. John Gritten was the only ONR to land on a D-Day beach after his craft was holed. He filed reports on: a gun-toting German woman, allegedly firing on American troops (which prompted questions in Parliament); Hitler's secret weapons' attacks on Allied Normandy shipping (blue-pencilled by the Admiralty censors and recounted here for the first time); operations with Royal Marine Commandos in France, Holland and Burma; and with the British East Indies Fleet, including the liberation of Rangoon. By coincidence, Gritten was aboard the Tribal class destroyer HMS Afridi in 1940 when it was bombed and sunk in the evacuation from Namsos, Central Norway -- the Second World War's first Dunkirk -- and again aboard the Tribal Class Tartar, near-missed by a Japanese bomber shortly before the end of the war. That completed his 'full circle'.

Other highlights include: an account of near-obliteration by 'friendly' rockets; the ordeal of HM Submarine Shakespeare; the sea rescue of prospective 'comforts' for the Japanese troops; and mind-searing descriptions by French and British survivors of what happened to their comrades when two destroyers were sent to the bottom by dive-bombers.

Customer Reviews

An absolutely amazing read!
The real McCoy!! A brilliant first hand account of life both onboard and occasionally off the tribal class destroyer, HMS AFRIDI.
The book is illustrated with a generous handful of contemporary photographs as well as Gritten's ability to lead his readers through beautifully woven words down into the real action below-decks in the massive boiler rooms. The narrative is amazingly descriptive, in some parts funny and others sad and shocking as Gritten accurately depicts the real horrors that face those at war.
WARNING! A delightfully detailed account which cannot be read in a hurry, but put the book down and it will you lure you back before too long! SB