The Real Cruel Sea

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First-rate - Rated

Having discovered the existence of this book by Richard Woodman on 'Amazon' & read the enthusiastic reviews, I ordered it as a birthday surprise for my husband who avidly read it, then wondered if I could obtain 'Malta Convoys, 1940-1943' which is likely to be just as absorbing & fascinating. Highly recommended.

Forgotten Heros Recognised - Rated
This book will appeal to anyone interested in the detail of WW II. The author has meticulously researched the convoys that brought imports and exports to and from our shores, and carried war materials that were essential to maintaining our participation in the war. The allied victory would not have been possible without hard-fought victory in the Battle of the Atlantic.

The Real Cruel Sea focusses on the Merchant Navies of the UK and our allies and is a valuable compliment to other volumes covering the same conflict particularly the two volumes by C.Blair.

Although the subject matter is grim, Richard Woodman's style makes this long book a comfortable read, and despite the fact that the fundamentals of the conflict between convoys and U-boats were largely similar throughout the four years covered by the book, the narrative never becomes repetitious.

The reader is made to realise the incredible levels of stress which must have been day to day reality for the merchant seamen serving in the convoys. The use of the names of the masters of vessels personalises the narratives.

It is therefore unfortunate that the final chapter dwells on the bad behaviour of a small number of merchant seamen when the survival of this country depended on the willingness of seaman to sail into the Atlantic battlefield with its constant threat of sinkings.

In his introduction Richard Woodman is clear that he is not including statistics available elsewhere.

I believe that this is a mistake. Information summarising the details of each convoy and their losses of ships and of manpower would have been useful. The book neccessarily concentrates on those convoys that were targetted by the U-boats. An Idea of the number of convoys that sailed unscathed would enable the reader to better understand the threat to seaman and their vessels.

Most men, still alive, who sailed in convoys are now over eighty years of age. The Real Cruel Sea is a timely tribute to them, and to the memory of those who died.

At last, a serious merchant navy account - Rated
Mr Woodman has set the record straight for the merchant navy. We have had a myriad of serious accounts of the Royal Navy at war but the merchant navy has long been the neglected branch of the services. True, there have been books about the merchant navy in the past but they have been subjective and based on woolly recollection. The Real Cruel Sea makes full use of contemporary accounts but crucially, anchors them within a structure of material fact, time and milieu. In fact the book makes a very useful complement to Blair's U boat War volumes. If you want a good factual read, this book is for you, if you are a serious historian, The Real Cruel Sea is essential reading. Either way, anyone with an interest in the sea and our heritage, should buy this book.

I really wanted to like this book - Rated
Billed as the Battle of the Atlantic from the seamans' viewpoint this book offers a concise summary of the prevailing political, infrastructure and human factors that in 1939 led to the concept that the UK had a "Merchant" navy - as distinct from the warship Royal Navy.

Key tactical moments are identified from well researched sources (the biblography and index is 25% of the page count!) and the merchantman's experience is related through extracts of survivors' reports after sinking.

Though the descriptions of convoy attacks, sinkings, cargo losses and survivor accounts are painstakingly presented on page after page - the volume of reports (and I recognise thay are but a fraction of the real losses) do convey how long and weary the battle was. But the catch is that the sheer volume presented - with all the passion of a statistician - means you quickly cease to care about the lists of sinkings, the men in the boats struggling to survive and the book becomes a struggle to finish in its own right.

This is not to criticise the author's research - but his style is lacking.

Nicholas Monsarrat's "Cruel Sea" - a fictionalized account of the Battle of the Atlantic from the bridge of an escorting corvette and Tristian Jones's "Hearts of Oak" account of being sunk while on an Armed Merchant Cruiser convey more about the pain, suffering and losses of both Royal and Merchant navies than this book does. Perhaps you needed to be there like they were.

If you want a scholarly, researched work on the Merchant side of the Battle - "The Real Cruel Sea" is for you. There are a number of appropriate photographs (though most have been published elsewhere already) and some very nice pen and ink sketches of ships at the head of each chapter.

If you want to know what it was like to have to go in the water as your ship and others were destroyed around you - I would try Monsarrat and Jones first. You can get both books here on Amazon.