Second World War Books: the best reads for sailors

There is nothing like getting into a good book while spending days on deck, anchored in your favourite cruising ground or marina.

We choose some of the best Second World War books – fact and fiction – which will appeal to sailors and non-sailors alike.

Alistair MacLean’s War

‘Alistair MacLean was a giant figure when I was growing up,’ writes thriller writer, Lee Child.

Many postwar children will concur.

Simply reading the list of titles brings a wave of nostalgia for those annual novels, published almost without intermission from 1955 until 1987.

MacLean was perhaps a surprising character to become such a sensational bestseller.

He joined the World War Two Navy as an ordinary seaman aged 19, and served five years in the Arctic Convoys, Mediterranean, Aegean and Far East.

Another crucial experience came when he and a friend bought Silver Craig, a Loch Fyne skiff.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who will relish the reminders of these books of our youth and feel some sadness for their author who seems to have got such little joy from his achievement.

Alistair MacLean’s War by Mark Simmons, Pen & Sword,  £20

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Uncommon Courage: the Yachtsmen Volunteers of World War Two

It took the Royal Navy a while to get used to the assistance of the yachtsmen who made up the Royal Naval Volunteer Supplementary Reserve at the start of the Second World War, writes Peter Willis.

The likes of Maurice Griffiths, Peter Scott, Robert Hichens, Nevil Shute Norway and Adrian Seligman brought an inventiveness to situations that sometimes challenged the ‘Navy way’ but got results.

They also wrote letters, journals and memoirs, and it is these that Julia Jones has sifted to make up this remarkable mosaic of frank, front-line accounts of the war at sea.

For those of us who were the children of the men involved but who often chose not to talk about them, it is a deeply fascinating, and moving document.

Uncommon Courage: the Yachtsmen Volunteers of World War Two by Julia Jones, Adlard Coles, £20

Buy Uncommon Courage at Amazon (UK)

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Buy Uncommon Courage at Waterstones (UK)

Buy Uncommon Courage at Foyles (UK)

Buy Uncommon Courage at Audible

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Maid Matelot – The Adventures of a Wren Stoker in World War Two

This gem of a book is the latest in the Golden Duck series of little-known life stories of wartime sailors, writes Claudia Myatt.

Lady Frederica Rozelle Ridgway Pierrepont was the only surviving child of the 6th Earl Manvers.

Her life appeared preordained – coming-out balls, social responsibilities and a suitable marriage.

The Second World War gave her the escape she craved, and at 17 she joined the WRNS becoming 65152 Wren Stoker Pierrepont, discovering a new world of hard work and unpretentious friendships.

It’s frank, lively and at times very funny. In the final months of the war, Rozelle was at the heart of the D-Day preparations, but when the end came there were few opportunities for skilled and sea-loving women.

Maid Matelot – The Adventures of a Wren Stoker in World War Two by Rozelle Raynes, Golden Duck,  £11.99\

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Torpedoes, Tea and Medals

The highly decorated Second World War RNVR officer Derek ‘Jake’ Wright was called up for war service at the age of 24.

Prior to the war, he was a tea merchant for Brooke Bond.

In the course of his successful career in Coastal Forces, he was mentioned in despatches and awarded a Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) with two bars.

Jake Wright was also involved in some of the earliest mine laying sorties from Felixstowe to Oostende, Flushing and Dunkirk.

The author’s direct understanding of ‘unmanned warfare’ made this a vivid and interesting section.

It’s a well-researched, undeniably expert volume and is sold in aid of the Coastal Forces Heritage Trust.

Torpedoes, Tea and Medals by Captain Chris O’Flaherty RN, Casemate Publishing, £17.99

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More Lives than a Ship’s Cat

G.A. ‘Mick’ Stoke was from a family with Jewish immigrant origins.

At 18, he took the surprising decision to apply for Special Entry to Dartmouth College to join the Paymaster Branch of the Royal Navy.

When he arrived at HMS Britannia in 1939 he discovered he was the only grammar school student among the ex-public school boys but reassured his parents that he wasn’t experiencing snobbery. Mick Stoke won a lot of medals, and served on warships, often cruisers such as HMS Glasgow and HMS Carlisle.

He didn’t remain a midshipman, and Stoke was frequently recommended for accelerated promotion.

More Lives than a Ship’s Cat is written by his youngest son, Jeremy, based on his father’s letters.

He has done a fine job of using other written records such as Admiral Cunningham’s memoir, senior officers’ reports and personal recollections supplied to the BBC People’s War project to put his father’s letters in context.

Stoke finally left the Navy in 1947. His youngest son’s book is a worthy testament to subsequent happy family life as well as a successful wartime career.

More Lives than a Ship’s Cat by Jeremy Stoke, Pen and Sword, £25

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Continues below…

The Gathering Storm

The Gathering Storm examines the impact of the Holocaust on the high-ranking sailing family, the Kastners and their valued servants, the Nussbaums in the town of Kiel. It is the first volume of a Holocaust story.

The story is set in Kiel, a city that is sufficiently small and distinctive for neighbour to be set against neighbour, knowingly.

The existences of the Kastners and the Nussbaums are intertwined, symbolising the dependence of one class and one people on another, yet it does not strain credulity to accept that they are also friends.

Kastner is a good man unable to escape involvement in progressively terrible events. He and his family also love sailing and it’s fortunate for him that he’s able to get out on the water occasionally in one of those slim and beautiful racing yachts that adorned the pre-war Baltic.

The Gathering Storm is a big book in all senses: 746 pages of conspicuously small print covering a relatively small number of characters developing gradually over a number of years.

Physically as well as imaginatively it’s not a comfortable read.

A narrative of this size is a significant commitment which some readers will find daunting and others an immersive experience.

The Gathering Storm (Sturmtaucher Trilogy vol1) by Alan Jones, Ailsa Publishing,  £15.99

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The Greatest Raid: St Nazaire 1942

The Greatest Raid: St Nazaire 1942 examines Operation Chariot and the lengths those in charge went to ensure its success, at the cost of the lives of yachtsmen

At the time it was the largest, most ambitious undertaking for the relatively new Combined Operations team led by Lord Louis Mountbatten.

15 motor launches, a motor torpedo boat and a motor gunboat escorted the expendable destroyer HMS Campbeltown up the Loire to St Nazaire, where she was exploded against the gates of the Normandie Dock, effectively denying access to the much-feared German warship Tirpitz.

Many of the officers piloting the boats were yachtsmen.

Both the Campbeltown and the smaller boats carried commandos whose mission was to rush ashore and cause further damage. Very little thought had been given to the means by which they could be taken off again – or the vulnerability of the wooden, petrol-driven launches in a close quarters gun fight.

Only three of the launches made it back to Plymouth. The overall casualty rate was 62% killed, wounded or captured: among the commandos it was 72%.

Though publicly and politically hailed a success, in human terms it was a disaster – and one which could have been foreseen.

Whittell’s access to Andrew Lownie’s research into the Mountbatten papers offers an insight into vanity and callousness. Even before the raid took place Mountbatten was prepared to lose everyone who went.

If there is a weak point in Giles Whittell’s energetically written and highly readable book it his research into the RNVR participants.

Buy The Greatest Raid at Amazon (UK)

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Buy The Greatest Raid at Waterstones (UK)

Buy The Greatest Raid at Foyles (UK)

Buy The Greatest Raid at Audible

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Surviving the Arctic Convoys: the wartime memoir of Leading Seaman Charlie Elswell

Historic novelist John R McKay had written his own novel The Worst Journey in the World about the Arctic convoys and was contacted by veteran Charlie Erswell congratulating him on his accuracy.

McKay and Erswell met and became friends, and he helped Charlie to tell the story of his wartime experience as Surviving the Arctic Convoys.

Clearly the ‘as told to’ aspect takes something away from the immediate authenticity of the individual voice; however it does ensure that the essential fact-checking is there so the book can be read as history as well as memoir.

Charlie Erswell was 19 when he had his first experience of the ‘Kola Run’. He was serving on HMS Milne escorting convoy PQ18 – the immediate successor to the famously disastrous PQ17 – and his memories of that action provide a worthy centrepiece to the book.

As with most memoirs it’s the human detail that sticks in the mind: the difficulty of needing a pee when sent to action stations, the extreme sadness of being sent to collect dog-tags and paybooks from dead sailors; the recurrent spells of duty chipping ice from the ship’s superstructure.

Leading Seaman Erswell’s memories naturally include anecdotes from other sea areas and other aspects of his service life, including his immediate post-war experience in the merchant navy.

A worthwhile read.

Surviving the Arctic Convoys: the wartime memoir of Leading Seaman Charlie Elswell by John R McKay, Pen & Sword Maritime,  £19.99

Buy Surviving the Arctic Convoys at Amazon (UK)

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Buy Surviving the Arctic Convoys at Waterstones (UK)

Buy Surviving the Arctic Convoys at Foyles (UK)

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