Last But Not Least

The year was 1943 and WW2 was in full swing a ship being built in U. S. A. was nearing completion. It was destined for the Royal Navy, we were in fact in dire straits being short of warships and there was yet the 'Second Front 'to think about. The stories inside recall how men ( many of them little more than boys) manned H. M. S. Goodall and fought not only U-Boats, mines and torpedoes but the natural enemy, the sea. The ship and nearly half of its complement lasted no more than 18 months, ending in a sea of fire within a few weeks of the end of the war in Europe. The author, a Battle of the Atlantic veteran was 18 year old at that time, serving on H. M. S. Carron a destroyer protecting special convoys. He retains his connection with the Royal Navy by being a volunteer working on the conservation of two historic warships H. M. S. BELFAST at London Bridge and H. M. S. CAVALIER at the Historic Dockyard Chatham Kent.