I finished Ludlum's Bourne trilogy, then dug into a trio of American classics: Shane, by Jack Schaefer and Zane Grey's Riders Of The Purple Sage and it's sequel, The Desert Crucible (originally published as The Rainbow Trail).

Now I'm back at sea: I stumbled across a copy of Nicholas Montserrat's The Cruel Sea. I'm loving the feel of the book; very few novels have made me feel like I'm really there. Interestingly, I've complained many times of Montserrat's attitude in his introduction to U-boat 977, which is of the "Don't believe a word they say, they were all die-hard Nazis" variety. In The Cruel Sea he goes out of his way to justify the attitude that they were all warriors doing their jobs. His descriptions of riding out gales in a little Flower-class corvette is truly amazing. Picture Das Boot's storm sequences, the major difference being you can't dive to get away from it.

His descriptions of the early convoy efforts are also quite dramatic. They suffer from a constant feeling of helplessness; they very rarely pick up a u-boat with the asdic or see one, mainly they spend their time picking up survivors. I'm currently in the middle of 1941, and so far the book is fantastic.

Now that's a co-incidence Steve, I'm also reading The Cruel Sea...I find it a very good book, the atmosphere of the crew during the war both at sea and on land is well captured. :up:

Das Boot. Just got it recently. Great great book! :up:

What am i reading right now?
This thread LOL:rotfl:
I'm reading that many this minute they seem to be merging into one HUGE book :cry:

Something else has struck me that I never thought about: Montserrat describes the escort groups escorting from Liverpool to a midpoint, then picking up an inbound convoy and returning home with them. Obviously the Canadian escorts would do the same thing from Halifax.

I find this to be immensely rational; I just never thought of it before, always picturing the escorts making the whole trip. Of course this would eliminate the need for finding berthing for the crews in a foreign port, and shorten the time away from home.

[Edit]I just finished the book, and realized I horribly mispelled the man's name: it's Monsarrat.

I also just discovered a collection of his sea tales, appropriately titled Monsarrat At Sea. It includes several collections of notes written during the war that eventually became The Cruel Sea. More to come

4 books, just receive them yestedray, begin with Unbroken:

Unbroken the story of a submarine by alastar Mars,
No higher honor saving the USS Samuel B Roberts in the Persian gulf by Bradley Peniston,
The death of the USS Thresher by norman Polmar,
Topedo by Jeff Edwards.

I just started C.S. Forrester's Hornblower series after completing O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series. I think I've become addicted to that genre now.

I also have a copy of Torpedo Junction by Homer Hickam, jr. that a friend gave me. I'm a bit burned out on non-fiction right now, but it looks like a good book.

"U-Boat Killer" - by Capt. Donald Macintyre :up:


"A classic of naval warfare, this is a royal Navy destroyer Captain's personal account of his experiences in the Second World War in the battle against the German U-boats as they attacked the Allied convoys in the harsh conditions of the North Atlantic.

In four unrelenting years Captain Macintyre fought a dozen convoys through the 'wolf packs', captured Germany's greatest U-boat commander and killed naother famous ace in one single savage night, to survive the war as the royal Navy's ace U-boat killer credited with seven U-boats destroyed."

from the book's jacket cover

"Shattered Sword, the untold Story of the Battle of Midway"

I am not even half through it but it is an amazing book which features incredible detail, even pilot rosters. It corrects many myths about this battle by trying to give an insight into japanese leader's psychology. Highly recommended ...

http://www.shatteredswordbook.com/

I just started "The Submarine" by Parrish. I picked it up last summer knowing that I'd want some submarine books for the late autumn. I'm a bit skeptical because one book seems a bit stretched to cover the history of military submarines from before the 20th century through both world wars and the cold war; also it's got a blurb on the back by one of the authors of "Red Star Rogue" which I read and hated.

I recently read "On Dangerous Ground" by Larry Bond which despite some flaws (not the least of which is the title) loved it. Easily one of the best (and few really good) submarine technothrillers I've seen in the past decade. It's not an epic "Red October" style book. It's a small story but one that really makes clear just what sort of day-to-day complications make up the life of those serving in subs.

I'm re-reading Silent Victory by Clay Blair. After reading the first 100 pages, it still amazes me that we survived. It was a good thing that the Japanese did not understand/respect submarines.

Just finishing up "Battles With the Luftwaffe" by Theo Boiten and Martin Bowman. Very informative, covered the strategic air campaign from 42-45. Alot of good pictures, most I have never seen before. Gets kind of repetitive, mostly tells where missions were flown too, who got what kills by bomber and/or fighter. Covers the evolution of the campaign. Overall I give it an OK.

Currently in the middle of J E Macdonnell's Find And Destroy which has an interesting juxtaposition between a U-Boat in the Atlantic and a British submarine in the Med.

Anyone else read any J E Macdonnell? for the uninitiated he's one of Australia's most prolific writers on fictional WWII naval encounters. They are usually short novellas and only take a day to read if you have the time.

Have started to read Shadow Divers.:up: Cant seem to put it down:hmm:

Finished Monsarrat At Sea. Great book. It's a collection of short stories and novellas written over a great period of time.

H.M. Corvette: The initial groundword for what would become The Cruel Sea. Monsarrat was a sub-lieutenant on a corvette he calls HMS Flower (he had to use fictional names, it being wartime and all). He relates many stories and anecdotes, and it's obvious to a reader of The Cruel Sea that several of his characters have experiences which in real life were Monsarrat's own. Though the character Lockhart is based on his own background, sub-lieutenant Ferraby gets one of the writer's real experiences: not knowing the correct command for taking in the stern lines, he gets help from the rating responsible for that job; all he has to do is give a general order to "take in the lines" and the enlisted rating does the rest for him. Again, when his is on his first night watch he starts to feel his power as the man actually in charge, and gives a course change order just to see what happens. The first lieutenant calls out "What the hell's going on up there?" Monsarrat answers that he saw a log in the water and changed course to avoid it, thus earning a dirty look from the lookout, who certainly would have shouted out had there been an actual log.

East Coast Corvette: Unlike his characters, who stay together for the war, Monsarrat was transferred to the British east coast when he was made first lieutenant. he relates many stories of dealing with attacks by German bombers and "e-boats" (Schnellboote).
Corvette Command: Monsarrat gains command of his own ship. Since the east coast had quited down by 1944 he spends a lot of time talking about the loneliness of command; the captain is not part of the officers' wardroom, he is just a guest there. There is no one he can turn to for advice; he must work everything out for himself. He does relate one story about leaving a convoy to escort two ships into Hull. When racing to regain the convoy, they keep looking for "bouy number 25", but can't find it anywhere. As they approach the convoy, they can see the light from the bouy blinking on and off, but they can't seem to get any closer. Finally they discover the truth: one of the merchants ran over the bouy, severed its chain and is now towing bouy number 25 behind it. The chain finally fouled the merchant's propellor, and they had to call for a tug to tow the hapless merchant and a trawler to escort it to the nearest harbor.

I Was There: A delightful short story about three men delivering a yacht to its new owner. They are forced to anchor off Dunkirk for the night, and spend their time telling personal stories of the deeds done during the 1940 evacuation.

HMS Marlborough Will Enter Harbour...: Another fiction concerning a sloop which is torpedoed, losing half the crew instantly. It's an hour-by-hour account of the captain deciding whether to abandon ship or try to get her back to port.

It Was Cruel: A new account of Monsarrat's wartime experiences, written in 1970, so he can finally name the corvette he served on: HMS Campanula. He includes more anecdotes, and finally reveals that his first captain was regular Naval Reserve and didn't like the 'Volunteer' reserves, and never hesitated to say so. No love lost there. He relates two similar experiences: one time he feels sorry for a German Condor pilot who flies 500 miles each way to drop one bomb a mile-and-a-half from the convoy. "What does he report when he gets home?" He then tells how much he hates it when there is an attack on Liverpool and one stray bomber has one bomb left and manages to use it to sink a merchant just as they're entering port at the end of the voyage.

The Ship That Died Of Shame: One last fictional story about a Fairmile-type gunboat HMS MGB 1087. The story basically takes place in 1950, when the down-and-out former skipper is reunited with the boat and his former first lieutenant, who gets him involved in questionable smuggling operations. He knows that a ship is just steel and wood, and in no way like a woman, but the more illegal the jobs get, the more things seem to go wrong with the boat.

All-in-all, Monsarrat At Sea is a fascinating read, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes the sea, naval history or naval fiction.


I am currently starting The Eyes Of The Fleet: A Popular History Of Frigates And Frigate Captains, 1793-1815, by Anthony Price.