A. G. F. Ditcham

Brilliant Naval Memoir
In 1940 Tony Ditcham left the Royal Naval training ship HMS Worcester as a midshipman the first level on the naval career ladder. Nothing unusual in that really all except Britain was at war, and he would be entering an arena that would be important to the survival of the British. Through the comradeship on board he made many friends that lasted over 70 years.

Just like The Cruel Sea before it this book is an honest account of what life was like during the war but this is an open honest and factual account of that life aboard ship. As one of the last veterans left standing Ditcham provides us with some very powerful descriptive language, while using humour that covered his incident packed naval career.

Ditcham served on all the European battle arenas during the war and some of his very notable service took in the Arctic Convoys for which you would have to battle not only the weather and freezing cold but were in an ally where you could be picked off at will by the Germans. He also uses wonderful descriptive language for the Battle of North Cape in December 1943 and how he was once of the first to see the Scharnhorst and he had a grandstand seat as he saw it being destroyed. He also covered the American beaches on D-Day and saw ships around him being sunk at the same time as they were providing the cover for troops on the beaches.

This is a wonderful memoir and it has been an honour to read it as it is probably one of the last to be written by a veteran as their number declines with the years. This is also an important voice being left for all of us to remember how war touches all of us and that people Tony Ditcham stood tall for us in our hour of need. This will be used by students of history as not just a memoir but a witness statement to life on the seas during World War Two.… (meer)