Hunter to Hunted - Surviving Hitler's Wolf Packs: Diaries of a Merchant Navy Radio Officer, 1939-45

It's early 1939. The nineteen-year-old son of a local schoolmaster graduates Dundee Wireless College and sets off on a gruelling six-month Antarctic Whaling Expedition. It barely prepares him for what comes next.

 

On the North Atlantic Convoys, he faces attacks from U-Boats, aerial bombing and mines in the longest campaign of WWII, the Battle of the Atlantic. For five long years he sends and receives sensitive communications on poorly-defended vessels suppling the war effort with everything from oil to fighter planes, and coal to invasion barges. Experiences range from surreal to tragic, heart-warming to heart-breaking.

 

A compelling first-hand account of the war at sea from one of the 185,000 merchant seamen and women who served - 1 in every 6 of whom were lost. With 4 of his 7 vessels lost to enemy action, his journey from 'Hunter to Hunted', becomes a rite of passage, and his life's work.