Glynn Christian, The Truth About the Mutiny on HMAV Bounty and the Fate of Fletcher Christian by Thomas Malcomson

Reviews 495 often overlooked in history.After basic, he was assigned to HMS Attack, an RN Coastal Forces base and further assigned to a ML designated for rescue operations.One anecdote in the book -in Chapman's first sea cruise, he immediately suffered from sea sickness -a condition he never fully overcame in his RN career.After that introductory period, the RN assigned him to a MGB, and it is here that the narrative takes shape.The rescue ML saw little action aside from recuse operations; the MGB was in the thick of things.His descriptions of the actions between E-Boats and his MGB are vivid and illuminate just how vicious was the war waged between British and German coastal forces.Later, Chapman was assigned to duty in the Eastern Mediterranean.This is a valuable contribution to history, as the war in the eastern Mediterranean is little-known after the 1941 German invasion of the island of Crete.(One slight exception -the British invasion and subsequent German recapture of the islands of Kos and Keros in the Dodecanese has attracted some attention from military historians.)Chapman served in the Mediterranean from 1943 through the German surrender in May 1945, and his narrative makes it clear that duty in the eastern Mediterranean was no backwater of war picnic.His descriptions of landing commando parties, traveling in international waters within reach of German coastal artillery, and the ever-watchful presence of the Turkish military, anxious to preserve its nation's neutrality.(Turkey eventually did declare war on Nazi Germany in 1945, too late to have a marked effect on the war.)Chapman first wrote this book in 1979 so his grandchildren would have some remembrances of the part he played in the Second World War.He put it away for seven years, rewrote it in 1986, and then, with the help of fellow Coastal Forces veterans, rewrote the manuscript a third time.It is good that he did so, for this book captures the life aboard Coastal Forces' vessels -the cramped conditions, the heat of the Mediterranean, his ever-present bouts of seasickness, all vividly bring the reality of Chapman's war to the reader.