Hostilities Only

[John Burchell]

For those not old enough these were the men who signed on for the duration only of the second world war.

The book is by Brian Lavery and titled 'Hostilities Only Training the Wartime Royal Navy' published by the National Maritime Museum.

The book covers the setting up and running of the various training bases the Navy needed to get their men trained and into ships. For me it was an eye opener plus included information on Anti-Sub training base which I am interested in.

The book is 304 pages containing some pictures and diagrams. The 21 chapters cover 'The Navy in 1939' to 'Operational Training and Work Up' with lastly 'An Assessment'.

In the light of some recent threads covering the demise of the present day RN it make interesting reading to show what is involved building a first class Navy from scratch.

Regards JB ;)

[steve roberts]

Hi JB. Did you know that a lot of Hostilities only ratings actually signed up for full term sevice after the war? Some unfortunates were actually retained in technical branches due to expected manpower shortages and the time it had taken in training them!!!.....Regards Steve.:eek:

[INVINCIBLE]

For those not old enough these were the men who signed on for the duration only of the second world war.

The book is by Brian Lavery and titled 'Hostilities Only Training the Wartime Royal Navy' published by the National Maritime Museum.

The book covers the setting up and running of the various training bases the Navy needed to get their men trained and into ships. For me it was an eye opener plus included information on Anti-Sub training base which I am interested in.

The book is 304 pages containing some pictures and diagrams. The 21 chapters cover 'The Navy in 1939' to 'Operational Training and Work Up' with lastly 'An Assessment'.

In the light of some recent threads covering the demise of the present day RN it make interesting reading to show what is involved building a first class Navy from scratch.

Regards JB ;)

Many discharged HOs went on to achieve great things in Civvy street. In their positions of power they often supported their old Service, which sadly does not happen now. My old boss, an ex HO leading hand, went on to found NCP and become one of the UKs richest multi millionaires. His last ship in the RN was HMS LEANDER, so when he built his super yacht it was called LEANDER, until recently one of the biggest in the world. He was also knighted, twice and the Queen made him an Admiral (Hon) in the Royal Navy. Not bad for an ex Leading Hand!!