44 NAVY NEWS, FEBRUARY 2008
Badge of dishonour
SOME wags joke that American almost £400), but he does
servicemen earn a badge give a good indication
simply for fl ying across the of their rarity, or
Atlantic. otherwise.
If badges, crests, If Royal Navy
medals and insignia badges past and
are rife in the US present seem
military, they were (a) manifold and
rampant in the (b) confusing, then
Third Reich. the Kriegsmarine can
More than probably top that (there
60 years after were even insignia for
the destruction of teletypists and telephone
Nazism, however, trade operators).
in its uniforms, medals and And however odious and
memorabilia is big business morally bankrupt, the Nazis
with professional collectors and really did produce some rather
wartime re-enactors – seemingly fine medals, definitely much more
much more so than the Allied grandiose and lavish than anything
side. on our side.
The German Navy is no Indeed, they had a particular
exception. Artefacts and badges fondness for gold-plated medals
abound – and so too interest in with diamonds encrusted, often
them. embedded in a swastika (tasteful
As a guide to this vast amount of – Ed).
memorabilia, medals and uniforms Even as the Third Reich
expert Christopher Ailsby has crumbled and men at the front
produced the profusely-illustrated were short of ammunition and
A Collector’s Guide to the equipment, German medalmakers
Kriegsmarine (Ian Allan, £15.99 continued to churn out accolades.
ISBN 978-0-7110-3099-2). When the Allies overran France
The author – wisely – does not in 1944, they simply bypassed
offer suggested prices for items some ports and fortresses and
as they quickly date a book (at continued eastwards. Some 26,000
present a Narvik shield, awarded men, chiefly sailors, were holed up
to veterans of the 1940 fighting in in St Lorient... but they did have a
northern Norway will set you back gold shield as compensation.
Table d’or
● Eleven of the best... Royal Marine Commandos of 11 Troop – at the heart of Chris Terrill’s book – fi re 51mm light mortars at Taleban
positions in the village of Chinah after coming under enemy rocket, RPG and small-arms fi re
Picture: PO(Phot) Sean Clee, RN Photographer of the Year
UNDOUBTEDLY the largest volume ever to pop (or, more
accurately, thud) through the Navy News postbox, Sam Willis’
Fighting Ships 1750-1850 (Quercus, £25
ISBN 978-1847241719) is the defi nitive
‘coffee table’ book.
Corps business
Actually, such a tag is rather unfair.
It’s probably too large for most coffee
tables, and its contents deserve
LOCKED in a pointless
producer/narrator Terrill downed over a beige landscape; thick acrid side of the men who proudly wear
much more than the cursory glance
debate on an internet
his lens at the day’s end, he picked smoke pouring over the battlefi eld; the green beret. Warriors yes, but
invariably afforded oversize picture
books.
forum a few months ago,
up his pen, just as he did with his mud walls of enemy compounds also men, human beings with
excellent Shipmates. collapsing after Apache helicopters feelings and emotions.
The author, a naval historian
I bemoaned the fact that Whereas the documentary often have unleashed Hellfi re missiles; To Terrill, this ‘human’ face of
and consultant, charts the last publishers only ever
fl itted between Lympstone and the “the sickening noise of a bullet life in the Corps is important. He
century of warfare in the days
seemed interested in
front-line, the accompanying book against bone and fl esh followed by enjoys a ‘hot wet’ –a ‘Julie Andrews’
of sail through paintings and a
– Commando (Century, £18.99 a muted scream”. (white coffee – or ‘white nun’, get
short but incisive commentary.
elite units: SAS Greatest
ISBN 978-1-846-05208-8) is At the heart of the action that it?) which must, of course, be
A few things stand out in this fine
Raids this, Inside Navy much more chronological – and day was Mne Tom ‘Vinders’ accompanied by a Hobnob for
book. Seals that, writes Richard
better for it. Curry – a proverbial dunking – “a Marine’s biscuit”.
The author has not limited his research to
Hargreaves.
Terrill spent eight months man mountain with He samples Christmas Day with
the RN, but has cast his eyes around the globe
following 924 Troop a personality to the commandos in Kajaki (his
Chris Terrill, on the other hand,
to include other navies and conflicts beyond the traditional
through training at match. He was present from Santa’s sack was a
has spent the past dozen years
Anglo-French clashes (the latter, unsurprisingly, form the
Lympstone and joined killed in battle box of chicken ‘cuppa’ soup).
dealing solely with regular forces,
backbone of this volume, however).
11 Troop half-way ten days later. And he observes an
one regular force, in fact, the RN:
The quality of reproduction is first-rate, with some magnificent
around the world His comrade admonishment posted on an offi ce
two books and 12 documentaries
paintings shown in all their glory.
fi ghting the Taleban. hauled his lifeless door: No shagging in this grot. If I
have appeared out of the Terrill
But, above all, what is evident is that the maritime world has
Never one to do body out of harm’s fi nd you in my room I will pork your
produced some of the finest art by some of the world’s finest
stable.
things by halves, way – ‘Vinders’ died in girlfriend and then you. You have
artists, from Nicholas Pocock to Geoff Hunt.
None really featured the Royal
he also earned his an instant, killed by a shot been warned!
Fittingly, the story ends with Turner’s Fighting Temeraire
Marines, who were “only ever an
green beret at the to the head – and wrapped Books on the Royal Marines
– voted the finest painting in a British gallery by the public – and
aside”, the fi lmmaker concedes.
ripe old age of 55. his face in a scarf grabbed abound. But there aren’t too many
the triumph of steam over sail.
After concentrating on the regular,
It is Afghanistan where from a dead Taleban. about current operations. And
And that is where the author will begin with his successor
Terrill at last turns to the elite.
the book, more so than the “I started to speak to Tom,” there are fewer still written by an
volume, celebrating the next century of naval warfare and the era
The result, Commando: On the
TV series, really comes into its the Royal recounted to Terrill outsider looking in.
of ironclads, dreadnoughts, submarines and aircraft carriers.
Front Line, which aired on ITV last
own. later. That provides some objectivity
autumn pulled in over two million
While most of us were struggling “Weird, I suppose, but I just to the subject matter, but living,
viewers per episode (top-rated
back to work with bloated post- wanted to talk to him. I said: ‘Tom, working, fi ghting side-by-side with
● The frigate Philadelphia blazes in Tripoli harbour having been
dramas on terrestrial channels
set on fi re by American sailors in February 1804
festive stomachs, 11 Troop spent sorry, mate, going to have to wrap the Royals for eight months, it’s
Painting: Edward Moran
only draw about four million souls January 2 2007 storming a Taleban your head in this. Hope you don’t impossible not to become attached
in our multi-channel, multimedia stronghold. mind but it’s for the best.’ We all to them.
age). The dozen or so pages devoted really miss him. Strong as an ox And after those eight months
The fi rst series of the TV to that assault – just one more and brave as a lion. I hope they living with the Corps, Terrill comes
documentary – released last month attack amid scores on terrorist give him a medal ’cos he deserves to the conclusion that these men
on ITV DVD (£17.99) – provided bases and fortifi cations during the one.” who proudly wear the green beret
us with some of the most visceral Royals’ six months in Helmand ‘They’ didn’t. ‘They’ did, do indeed fi ght for Queen and
front-line combat footage since – get to the heart of what fi ghting however, mention him in country, but above all they fi ght
Vietnam three decades ago. in Afghanistan is all about: pink dispatches. for the man next to them – “They
And when cameraman/ tracer from Taleban guns racing Such remarks show the ‘human’ would do and die for each other.”
Once more into the deep
CLEARANCE Divers have a bit account of the helicopter fl ight The two Fleet memorable. He explains that
of a reputation – “undisciplined to Bluff Cove, where he cleared Clearance Diving re-reading his diaries brought
and probably mad” according to the inlet ready for the landings, Teams were sent it all back to him as if it were
Commodore Michael Clapp, and then he takes us back seven almost as an yesterday, and that is how it
if you read this very entertaining years or so to his initial afterthought, reads.
book you’ll see why. (very tough) training. but ended Equally memorable are his
Not that “undisciplined” It’s all vividly up removing accounts of his fellow divers and
refers to the way they do their described. Groom’s 11 unexploded their wild parties in the 70s and
job, or Tony Groom wouldn’t grandma noticed bombs from 80s – not suitable reading for the
have survived to tell his tale in very early in his ships, in addition easily shocked, but extremely
Diver (Seafarer, £9.99 ISBN 978- life that he was to their other tasks. funny.
1-57409-269-1). born to dive They were the One thing puzzled me about
But there is no doubt they – “Look at that boy, gypsies of the task the book – Groom received no
revel in their reputation as the he just stares at the force, as Groom explains: medal other than the Falklands
wild boys of the Fleet – hard- water forever” – but on the “We didn’t have any duties medal, and yet Commodore
working, hard-drinking, and strength of this book he’s a on board, we didn’t have a Clapp, in his afterword, states
unable to suffer fools gladly. natural writer too. mess, we were just there… that man for man the Fleet
(There are at least two accounts The middle chapters, about and went where we were Clearance Diving Teams got
of delayed score-settling in this the Falklands, were mostly required, hunkered down and more awards than any other
book, hugely enjoyable for the taken from his diaries of the made it home for a while.” units down south.
reader as well as the author.) time, and have all the immediacy Groom’s accounts of clearing Perhaps this book, cracking
Tony Groom opens his book in and sense of disorientation one Bluff Cove, and of shifting read as it is, will bring him
the Falklands with a hair-raising would expect. the UXBs from the ships, are recognition of a different kind.
NEW 044-045_NN_Feb.indd 1 18/1/08 16:11:48
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