As a young man in the 1960s I worked in the City of London. A rather small unprepossessing man came into our office regularly, one of the older men who worked with me said that before 1939 he had regularly gone swimming with this man who was a very good swimmer. At the starting of WWII he had joined the Merchant Navy and had a been on the convoys North to the Soviet Union sailing around Norway and had survived three sinkings, one when he was on a oil tanker and he had to dive into the sea that had burning oil covering most of the surface with only patches of sea that was not covered with burning oil. He dived under the burning oil from one patch of sea free of burning oil to the next, and so got out of the burning oil and was picked up. All the hours he had spent swimming in the council swimming pool had saved his life.

@greatbooksontape782

Жыл бұрын

Wow. If must have been terrible to hear the cries of those who weren't good swimmers. There is a scene like that in the Bogie movie '"Action in the North Atlantic".

Superlative narration ! Robert Powell’s diction is pure perfection. Thank you!

Those men, that People...the British people...and we Americans...left such big shoes for guys like me to fill. After a Navy career spanning twenty three years, calling six ships home during my time, and three tours of duty in South Vietnam...I sincerely doubt whether I adequately filled those big shoes. But I tried. The Lord knows I tried. These guys are my personal heroes. Master Chief John S, U.S.Navy (Ret.)

@matthbhhh2439

10 ай бұрын

Lol

@samb7652

28 күн бұрын

As did we all.

For those of us that have sailed the north Atlantic the bravery and struggles of the sailors in the convoy system is amazing.

@DaveSCameron

Жыл бұрын

Kudos and respect. #LestWeForget ☘️ 🇬🇧📚☘️

@ShirleyZhang-bt4dj

8 ай бұрын

Absolutely.We owe them so much.

This audio book just has the edge over the film for me. I never tire of either but Robert Powell's narration is brilliant and puts the listener right there in tbe scene. 👍

@xanaduhouseguest

Жыл бұрын

I agree that it's a fine reading from an excellent actor but for me the film remains one of the best produced here about WW2. It's a grim story about men battling two enemies, the Germans and, of course, "the cruel sea". The film has a fine cast playing their roles as people just getting on with their jobs as best they can in often terrible conditions without false "John Wayne" type heroics and I imagine, which must be a fair reflection of what actually happened.

@wiredspeaker5658

5 ай бұрын

His character's voices are amazing. He's a natural.

I truly enjoyed listening to "the Cruel Sea" . Very well written & very well narrated. Thank you.

Another book, this time about a Royal Navy ship escorting one of the Murmansk convoys that in WWII took aid to the Soviet Union is Alistair MacLean’s HMS Ulysses. It really shows what the sailors, Merchant Navy and Royal Navy had to endure, well worth a read.

@greatbooksontape782

Жыл бұрын

I checked on Amazon and found this comment in the description of HMS Ulysses. "The story of men who rose to heroism, and then to something greater, HMS Ulysses takes its place alongside The Caine Mutiny and The Cruel Sea as one of the classic novels of the navy at war." //There is an excellent movie that takes place on WW2 convoys titled "Action in North Atlantic" starring Humphrey Bogart, who also starred in "The Caine Mutiny".

My dad served on the trail This book makes me think of him and his tales

Outstanding work, outstanding reader. My parents were the WWII generation; as they die off, so too do the memories of this horrific conflict. Young people today know nothing of it, and could not care less. (I taught history for a number of years.) The sacrifices of these brave men will be forgotten, to humanity's loss.

@johnbevan4684

2 жыл бұрын

Agreed, just like WWI which in many ways was far worse than WWII. All wars are gruesome and all wars are soon forgotten.

@DaveSCameron

Жыл бұрын

James Donald Cameron 32, 1943, HMS Celendine. RIP. #LestWeForget ☘️

@edithpiaf9250

Жыл бұрын

@@DaveSCameron God rest him.

@vaughanpower4538

10 ай бұрын

People believe they live forever nowadays. Complacency and entitlement.

@eleveneleven572

2 ай бұрын

​@@vaughanpower4538 Yes, at a conference in 2001 during my speech I mentioned our mortality. A woman in the audience had a panic attack and started screeching. Obviously mortality hadn't occurred to her. 😕

I'm 54 and have been a warship enthusiast since i was a kid. Models, books and of course movies. This book is such a moving story. Even my generation has very few that know, or care, about the brave men and women that fought for our freedoms during WW2. It wasn't that long ago that we nearly lost everything.

A classic story. One of the best.

I was a Petty Officer (L/s acting up) Coxswain of a small ship in the mid 70s. A few of the senior NCOs had seen service in the closing years of the war. They were brilliant, I learned so much from them. I loved smaller ships, you got to do so much more. Thanks for posting this. Always a favourite, many of the discriptive passages were all too familiar in my past memories.

Read it a multiple times. Watched the excellent film many times. Thank you.

Not knowing the story at all I give credit to this narrator I found it very very moving and I'm 52 years old and have spent my life reading and listening to audiobooks so thank you for introducing this story to me from listening to the comments I understand there is an unabridged version that offers more detail and I will look into it but I think this is a fine rendering thank you very very much

Also one off the finest war movies. First rate in every respect.

Read it when I was at school, my parents were born in 1914 so had gone through 2 world wars, they explained the finer points and read it themselves. Don’t think I ever took the book back to school.

My dad served on a corvette the Trail he liked this book as I do thank you

@gazza2933

Жыл бұрын

An incredible group of men. 👍

@DaveSCameron

Жыл бұрын

Our grandfather died abourd HMS Celendine aged just 32 in 1943. #LestWeForget ☘️ 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 📚

My uncle John served in the Merchant marine service WW2, till he mentally broke down! Truly a suicide mission! For the high percentage of losses, that they had!

@Lexington125

3 ай бұрын

My grandad did too, I never met him . Them old boys had some guts !

Excellent reading by Robert Powell of a great heart wrenching story!

The one remaining Corvette in the world, HMCS Sackville, a Flower-class corvette is docked in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Visited it in July 2023

@wntu4

2 ай бұрын

I love the Flowers and have deep respect and admiration for those that sailed the NA in them. Also I am profoundly grateful I never had to. 😁

@my567car

Ай бұрын

Missed you by a month. Loved the tour of the Sackville.

I really enjoyed this narrator, his accents for the different characters was off the hook. The story was equally entertaining

Read the book (many times) for English Literature O level 1967. No other book has left such a deeply disturbing lasting impression on me. Beautifully crafted book. The author draws each character with skill and narrates the story in great detail and empathy for his characters. Robert Powell reads beautifully. Very listenable to voice. I got a Grade 1 Eng Lit GCE, mainly due to this set book. Thoroughly recommend listening to this. Thank you for uploading. Very moving story.

Wow. So beautifully written. The beauty of the words are amazing in their contrast to the tragic, yet resilient lives of those that protected us.

My dad was on watch in the north Atlantic, he looked down and saw two torpedoes, they ran under and hit a tanker inside the convoy

Powerful. It does seem short. My Dad’s copy is close by, and it’s time I read it again.

Puts one directly into the action and in consequence shows the matter of fact heroism of the Merchant Marine. 'Mariners died at a rate of 1 in 26, which was the highest rate of casualties of any service.' One of the best of its type.

@sean_d

2 жыл бұрын

And in the merchant marine if you were torpedoed and took to a lifeboat your pay stopped the day the ship sank.

@lordrexus

Жыл бұрын

Didn’t bomber command crews die at rate of nearly 50%

Enjoyed enormously thank you so much for posting 👏👏👍

Thank you for all your hard work. Yes it’s a shame that the books are abridged but still quite spoiling to be read to ! I’m so pleased to have found your channel and am delighted to subscribe.

Brilliant book, beautifully read,

Fantastic story. My time with the 6th fleet was the most dangerous and exciting part of my Marine Corps service.

@nedrobinson7490

Жыл бұрын

When was your service? Tell me more about the 6th fleet? Obviously an admiralty thing? - a curious American

@RailRoad188

6 ай бұрын

6th fleet is the US Mediterranean fleet. OPs handle includes 1970 so if he enlisted around 18 he could have been in the Med as early as 1989, probably in for Gulf War 1 and possibly into the mid 90s Balkan Wars.

What a great voice.....reminds one of the actor Michael Renee{SP?}

@suburbanbanshee

4 ай бұрын

Michael Rennie?

Gritty, realistic and dark story, almost an anti-war story in many ways. It is one of the best war novels written, there is no glorification of war, no excitement and no over the top heroics. It is utterly brilliant and could only have been written by one who was there. The fil made in the 1950's starring Jack Hawkins, Stanley Baker, and Donald Sinden plus a host of well knowns who's names you can never remember is also excellent if you get a chance to see it.

@johnking7685

2 жыл бұрын

Agreed . The film which I have on DVD captures the serious unglamorous tone of the book. No schoolboy heroics, one-man "John Wayne" type garbage. Very un-Hollywood & therefore true.

@andypanda4927

2 жыл бұрын

Sounds as if a film, actually, worth seeing. Had not realized a film of any of his books was out there. 1st time recall reading any novel by Monsarrat was'74 or '75 and was a title cannot recall, but, was about an Aux Cruiser.

@georgekforrpv6857

2 жыл бұрын

Seems to me that any book or movie that tells the real truth about war and the horrors people face and terrible sacrifices people had to make must be anti war!

Simply excellent..

Robert powell is top of the food chain of narrators😂

The novel, based on the author's experience of serving in corvettes and frigates in the North Atlantic in the Second World War, gives a matter-of-fact but moving portrayal of ordinary men learning to fight and survive in a violent, exhausting battle against the elements and a ruthless enemy.

One of the things about these old recordings is the fact you can hear previous recording attempts on the tape and sometimes bumps and knocks of people moving around close by

Fantastic reader!

Excellent reader!!!!

My 6'4" father was a navigator on one of the Canadian Navy's corvettes in the WWII convoys across the Atlantic. It might have been the Forest Hill,

Paraphrase of one of the opening paragraphs. The corvettes were experimental, anti-submarine, escort ships for convoy carrying vital supplies across the N. Atlantic to Britain, with a crew of 88. They were floating platforms for depth charges with a high forecastle carrying a single 4“ gun. They were 200 feet long, broad, chunky, and graceless. They had been produced quickly and had no forced air and no refrigeration. They were hot in the summer and cold and damp in the winter. They’d be a bastard in any seaway and thrown about like a chip of wood in any Atlantic gale.

I loved it, reminded me of the radio theater programs of my youth. I miss the greatest generation, I so enjoyed listening to their remembrances of the war. Now, I'm the old man repeating my adventures over and over again to those who will listen.

Incredibly well read, thankyou…

Hearing this recording makes one truly appreciate the "unabridged", the original, version of this fine novel.

@benedict7335

2 жыл бұрын

I am grateful for the superb reading of this version.

Still a brilliant book so we'll written and so true

Great story, great narration, greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!! Bravo!! Well Done!!!

brilliantly read and presented

There is an excellent book written during WW1 which describes life on a British War Ship in the North Sea and North Atlantic. Written by a young navy officer, Stephen King-Hall titled "North Sea Diary". A young officer aboard the HMS Southampton a light cruiser, it was one of two ships which took part in all four major battles between Germany and the UK.

@DaveSCameron

Жыл бұрын

#LestWeForget ☘️ 11th November. 🇬🇧☘️📚

thank you!

@greatbooksontape782

2 жыл бұрын

Your welcome, though Monsarrat, Powell and all the good people at the now defunct "Listen For Pleasure" company deserve the real credit. For me, even though it was fiction, "The Cruel Sea" is a powerful story of the type of thing the men in the allied navies of World War 2, and to a degree the convoys they escorted went through. It was brave, terrifying, and heart wrenching. During WW2, 3500 allied merchant ships plus 175 allied warships were sunk. 72,200 sailors died in the Battle of the Atlantic. Never forget.🫂

This is quiet brilliantly done all ‘round! Thank you for the upload 👍🏼😁

Some scenes have been left out, scenes that I remember very well from reading the book years ago. I’ll stop listening now and find the book.

@bodegabreath4258

2 жыл бұрын

I have the book. Bought it from Amazon. An abridged work is an abomination. Day Of The Jackal is another of their abominations. Shame, I would have liked to have a listen to them in their entirety.

Fantastic upload, our grandfather died abourd HMS Celendine in 1944. 🙏☘️#OurHistory

@greatbooksontape782

10 ай бұрын

May you Grandfather RIP. Did a quick internet search of HMS Celandine (k75). During 1942 it rescued 44 survivors of a Belgian merchant ship Elisabeth Van Belgie and 49 out of 69 survivors of the Royal Canadian Destroyer HMCS Ottawa. An honorable record. Both ships had been sunk by German U-boats. Makes me wonder if there's a way to contact actual survivors of those ships or their descendants to hear their survival stories.

@DaveSCameron

10 ай бұрын

@@greatbooksontape782 Hey there and many thanks for your reply here and I wonder if you could share the 'site that you visited with me at all? ☘️

It is a wonderful book you can come back to time and again.

Love this audiobook 😊

Riveting, fear and hope continuously ensnares the reader.

Thanks for the upload OP! And such great narration by Robert Powell!

Yes in answer to a point. If you take a slice of the Army Air Corps 51% of aircrew were killed on operations, 12% were killed or wounded in non-operational accidents and 13% became prisoners of war or evaders. Only 24% survived the war unscathed. Of course aircrew was not the total of the Air Corps. However you want to look at it the death toll for both branches (as well as others) was horrific and amplifies the heroism of the combatants.

Riveting! Thank you

I can recall reading this probably 45 years ago, a green covered hardback. Time to go ferreting in the loft and read it in full again as well as hunt out the film version.

Oh my God I can honestly say in all of my years of reading and listening to audio stories this is the number one most horrific and tragic and speaking of the scene where the boat returns and comes upon the shore of its rectum village

@john1653

2 жыл бұрын

Rec...oh, never mind.

@OldSethOnetooth

Жыл бұрын

Re rectum village, you have made a mistake, their ports were Glasgow and Liverpool, not Edinburgh and Manchester.

@RailRoad188

6 ай бұрын

​@@john1653😅😂

A little gem.👍

Have seen Mr. Powell in the role of Jesus and wondered what happened to this great actor.. other than being typecast but, I would know that voice anywhere! Great Story and Great Actor! Thank You!!

Please read the book. It’s riveting

Very good, but what happened to "Snorkers, good-oh!" ?

The film inspired to read the book, funnily it's same with many of the books I've read and in some cases the books have been better.

1:00:11 I literally spouted "Oh Fu--!" 😂 Do you think Lockhart poisoned Bennett? Or perhaps another member of the crew? Such a thing is not unheard of. Take Vietnam for example... Frag out! Oops sorry sarge, here's one of your legs, lemme see if I can find the other one, hold on.

The very best book about ww2 leading to the best film

@lordrexus

Жыл бұрын

This and ‘the cauldron’ by Zeno

@blusnuby2

Жыл бұрын

Also: WITH THE OLD BREED, by E.B. Sledge

Always enjoy this story, as someone from the "Dominions" the condescending tone re the Australian First lieutenant has always irked me.

@billgreen576

2 жыл бұрын

The tone is aimed at Bennett, not all Aussies.🤗

@maddyg3208

2 жыл бұрын

He also keeps referring to sausages as "snorkers". I'm Australian and I've never heard that in real life, they're called "snags" here

@cpoldunit2834

2 жыл бұрын

@@maddyg3208 Absolutely right. I still believe in the inherent snobbery in this , despite this a very fine book.

@guypenrose5477

2 жыл бұрын

The character Allingham is also Australian - he seems to be a reasonable type, perhaps no snobbery there.

I have the book. Have read it a number of times. Bought it from Amazon. My two fav WWII naval authors are Nicholas Monserrat & Douglas Reeman. An abridged work is an abomination. Day Of The Jackal is another of their abominations. Shame, I would have liked to have a listen to them in their entirety.

@john1653

2 жыл бұрын

Wow...you agree with me...Reeman and Monsarrat...the finest naval writers I have ever read. Master Chief, USN, Ret.

@john1653

2 жыл бұрын

@Bodegabreath Hey shipmate! I enlisted June 1963, retired March 1986...whaddaya mean, ships, if any? Hahaha! Six ships...if I can remember them...USS Camp, USS Ticonderoga, USS Orion, USS Vreeland, USS San Jose, USS Frank Cable. One incountry tour Vietnam...Four Corps, Binh Thuy riverboat base. Officer-in-Charge, Enlisted Dining Facility 1128, RTC, Great Lakes, IL. three years (and a NEY Award First Place , Large Ashore.). And a few other things. How you doing, Bodega breath? You okay?

@john1653

2 жыл бұрын

@@bodegabreath4258 If I was in charge of the galley the food was good, hot, and plentiful. This is just a wild guess but I suspect you like to talk, don't you? Probably drive me nuts...anyway, Fair Winds, etc. John

@john1653

2 жыл бұрын

@@bodegabreath4258 Hey buddy...how you doing, bud? Yeah, I was stationed in Rhode Island, too...my first ship. But as soon as Vietnam heated up they sent us over. So I did two deployments to VN at sea, and one incountry. Wow, you have a way of expressing yourself...hahaha! Sounds like you an exciting tour aboard ship. It is not what you see in the recruiting posters, huh? But I had fun, and made Master...wow...a simple guy like me, a master chief. I was blessed of God. But, keep your nose clean and do your job,,,no telling what might happen. I am going back to sleep now...see you!

@chuckkisner595

Жыл бұрын

Thanks to you and John for sharing y'alls time in service. I enjoyed reading the texts. I could imagine if u two got together, and the stories y'all would share. Thank you for your service. God bless

It wasn't a U-boat. It was tbe the sinking merchant ship

Brilliantly read , but is the abridged version of the book. The battle of the Atlantic always gets forgotten .

Sounds like he's in a well

2.10.00

Royal Navy, not British Navy !

@greatbooksontape782

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the correction.

5

The sound quality needs work. There are a lot of chirps, whistles, and lisping noises in the beginning. Later in the recording the sound does improve.

Too bad! Harsh “S”-sounds makes this impossible for me to listen to...

@iriswaterford8881

2 жыл бұрын

Don't hear any harsh S sound ?

@iap-ug3oy

Жыл бұрын

Perfect at my end ……but some people just have to complain about everything…….

Poor audio shame

@iap-ug3oy

Жыл бұрын

The audio for me was perfect…do not know what happened at your end …..

Audio goes from low to loud. Narrator speaks quickly, hard to follow.