Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #229383 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-30
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Synopsis
This work contains one hundred biographies which were published in "The Daily Telegraph" during the past twenty years - men of the Navy, Marines and Fleet Air Arm, as well as the merchant fleet. They include such heroes as the Atlantic convoy commander Peter Gretton and the submariner Godfrey Place, VC; the yachtsman and U-boat hunter Stan Darling as well as the corvette commander Charles Cuthbertson, model for the captain in The Cruel Sea. Bill Sparks, the cockleshell hero, and Derek Pounds, who fought behind the lines in Korea, represent the pluck of the Marines while "Hooch" Williamson, who led the attack on Taranto, and Ken Pattison, who had the best claim to have sunk the Bismarck, demonstrate all the dash of the FAA. Written with humour and insight, here are tales of the derring-do, skilled seamanship and steady judgement which characterises the Senior Service.

Customer Reviews

The best so far.
As a shipwreck historian, I have often encountered a number of the names contained within this book. As an occasional author of a "letter to the Editor," I have also spoken with the David Twiston Davies on more than one occasion when he was Letters Editor for the Daily Telegraph. Somehow, a combination of these two factors has brought out the very best (for me at least) in this series of books. Perhaps it's just that Naval History is my subject and this book is full of those who made it.

Obituaries are, by there very nature, a brief means of celebrating in words the lives of those who, for whatever reason, are deemed important enough to be included. Some enjoyed long and fruitful lives, others not. Some, such as Admiral of the Fleet Lord Lewin of Greenwich (probably one of the greatest men of our time), achieved the highest possible office and rank. Others, such as Bill Sparks DSM (last of the Cockleshell heroes), did not. In this book they are given equal billing and quite rightly so.

Amongst "some" of the other names which sprang from the page as I scanned the contents list were; Rear Admiral Godfrey Place VC (commander of X-Craft 7 - a miniature submarine in which he mad a successful attack of the 41,000 ton German battleship Tirpitz in Kaafjord in 1943, an attack from which the ship never recovered) and, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Flotillenadmiral Otto Kretschmer who, as commander of U 99 (the Golden Horseshoe) went on to become the most successful U Boat Ace of World War Two.

I was aware that Kretschmer was captured and became a POW in Ontario (during which time he was even promoted because of the intelligence he was sending back to Germany!). I did not know, however, that he joined the post-war German Navy (Bundesmarine) in which he went on to complete a full career - eventually reaching the rank of Flotillenadmiral which equates to our Commodore. A small number of American and Russian personalities are also included. It was most interesting see which had been of sufficient interest to a British newspaper.

Altogether, 106 obituaries from the past 20 years as published in the Daily Telegraph. If you missed any of them first time around, then this is your chance to find them again. One thing is for certain though, you cannot possibly avoid reading the next one - and then the next.

Several annoying typographical errors (mostly missing spaces between two words) but these will not spoil your enjoyment of an otherwise outstanding book.

NM