Sailor's Odyssey

First published in 1951, this is the autobiography of a distinguished commander of WWII. Serving in both wars, he was Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean at the outbreak of war, forced to cope with inadequate resources and virtually no air cover. After a short spell in Washington as a Naval Representative he returned as Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean and worked with Eisenhower and Alexander.His unique insight into the meetings with Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt make this a riveting read."e;My main reasons for yielding to the suggestion [of setting down this record of my life] were because I wished to do justice to those under whom I served and from whom I learnt so much in my earlier years at sea, and also to pay a deserved tribute to those many whom I later had the honour and privilege to command in the Mediterranean and elsewhere. Further, before memory became dimmed by the passage of time, I was anxious to describe what I saw of the part played by the Royal Navy in the two great wars of the present century which lasted in all for more than ten years."e;In describing the years of war I have kept as closely as possible to those matters with which, and in which, the Navy was primarily concerned and engaged. Moreover, as nearly as may be, I have tried to concentrate upon that portion of the Navy with which I happened to be serving. [...] success in war cannot be attributed to any single Service. Each one is helpless without the closest and most loyal co-operation with the other two. This applies equally to our two great Sea Services. In war the Royal and the Merchant Navies have always been interdependent and indivisible."e;