John Winton > Quotes

“The Prime Minister’s meaning was clear enough: the Fleet Train was the horse, and the fighting Fleet the cart. They must be kept in their proper order. As the size of the horse was fixed, it was pointless to plan an ambitious cart.”
― John Winton, The Forgotten Fleet

“especially Courageous and Glorious, had expended prodigious amounts of ammunition. Courageous had fired ninety-two 15″ shells, Glorious fifty-seven, for one hit, shared between them, on one of the light cruiser Pillau’s gunshields. The two ships had also fired 180 4″ High Explosive and two hundred and thirteen 4″ common shell, for no result whatever. The light cruisers had done no better: they fired 2,519 6″ shells to achieve a total of three hits. Repulse, who had fired the last shots in the battle, had one hit on Königsberg,”
― John Winton, Carrier Glorious: The Life and Death of an Aircraft Carrier

“Despite the strenuous efforts of the BBC to enlighten them, the Argentinians did not appear to realize the failures of their bombs for some time.”
― John Winton, Air Power at Sea, 1945-1989

“Whatever praise or reward comes our way, whatever success we may have, we should never forget that our reward was only made possible by the blood of those who went in jeopardy of their lives. That should be enough to keep us humble.”
― John Winton, A Drowning War: A powerful WWII naval adventure

“Once again, Skipper could see the Captain exercising his magnificent panoramic vision in any affair which affected the ship. He was always able to argue from the particular to the general, to take a lesson from a part and apply it to the whole, to see in one man’s predicament his relevance to everyone on board. No man was an island in this ship. The Captain made sure they were all involved.”
― John Winton, Aircraft Carrier: A thrilling novel of the War in the Pacific

“The sailors of the Grand Fleet were much less polite. They called Courageous and Glorious the Outrageous and the Uproarious. The two sister ships and Furious were known as Helpless, Hopeless and Useless.”
― John Winton, Carrier Glorious: The Life and Death of an Aircraft Carrier

“This was like the worst of bad dreams, with all the necessary components, of darkness, and uncertainty, and imminent danger and a hopeless situation which could never be solved in time.”
― John Winton, The Night of the Scorpion: A historical espionage thriller set in 1944

“Perhaps the final proof that the war was really over came at six o’clock on the first evening, with the pipe - ‘children to supper’.”
― John Winton, The Forgotten Fleet