Customer Reviews

The Captain Class Frigates in the Second World War: An Operational History of the American-Built Destroyer Escorts Serving Under the White Ensign from

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This book presents a view of the Battle of the Atlantic that no other does; the view of the thousands of British sailors already accustomed to three years of war and food rationing, who were sent to American ports to pick up American-built DEs built for the Royal Navy. The author's account of a meal in the dining room of a US Navy dormitory for British sailors is both heartbreaking and hilarious. Also interesting is his assertion that the British soldier's and sailor's exposure to the relative abundance and egalitarianism of American life was part of the reason for the militance of demands for change in post-war Britain.

Also hilarious is the account of the accidental shelling of Boston Harbor during a shakedown cruise of one of the new DEs.

The rest of the book is a straightforward account of the Battle of the Atlantic, with it's patient hunt for German submarines in rough, freezing seas.