The Corvette Navy: True Stories from Canada's Atlantic War

by James Lamb

Book by Lamb, James

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Naval History

224 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2000

Reviews

[Au Yong · Rating 1 out of 5]

For those readers who were looking for dramatic action accounts of naval battles, they will be disappointed. There is only one or maybe two chapters that described the naval actions and even these were brief and desultory. Instead the rest of the book wandered among various topics such as the diversity of characters, the difference in treatment of ships arriving at different ports of calls or even hilarious signals between ships. While all these might be illuminating, there is little or no mention of how corvettes fitted into the larger scheme of the Royal Canadian Navy during the war years. There was also a distinct lack of maps or charts.
The story about the Royal Navy has been told and retold innumerable times. If only we could find a compelling and detailed account of the Royal Canadian Navy and its operations from the other side of the Atlantic, it would have plugged the historical gap. As matters stand, the wartime mid-Atlantic gap will have to wait to be adequately covered by long range aircraft - and a suitable naval historian.

[Craig MacKinnon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was thrilled to discover this book had been re-released, as it had been unavailable for years. This book is a fascinating look at the every day lives of men in the naval service. Little more than boys, really, thrown in over their heads to either sink or swim. However, the stories contained in this book are often humourous, as "boys will be boys" stories. The humour is intermingled with some interesting insight into the feel of the RCN in WWII - for example, their awe at being in the presence of a British battleship. Highly recommended for anyone interested in this era.