|
REVIEW OF BRIAN CRABB'S BOOK "BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY" by
John Armstrong This book aims to bring together in one volume a record of all the women, whether in the armed services or the mercantile marine, who were killed at sea as a result of enemy action in the Second World War. It achieves this by a large number of vignettes of sinkings. These tend to follow the same pattern and are well contextualised. The background of the ship is given; its owners and its peace time duties are specified, as is the particular final wartime journey with details of the crew size and composition. The circumstances of the attack are given in detail - the mode of attack, whether by submarine, surface raider or plane; how many shells, torpedoes or bombs were fired, and if they hit, where on the ship. The minutiae of the ship's sinking are given as well as the number of lifeboats launched or rafts released. In each case there is an estimation of the number of crew or passengers lost and those rescued, and how that was achieved. There are sad tales of long ordeals in open boats with little water and few provisions. Heroes and villains emerge as well as victims, and special emphasis is given to the female heroines, often stewardesses, who saved lives, raised morale and nursed the injured, some of whom were honoured by medals or decorations. There were also some acts of humanity by German u-boat commanders, such as surfacing among lifeboats and rafts to give out water and biscuits and in one case at least to repair an upturned lifeboat, and in another taking on board survivors. (This was before the Laconia order issued by Donitz.) Among the book's strengths are an abundance of illustrations (well over a hundred), a very full index stretching over 20 pages, a substantial bibliography and a long list of primary sources consulted, mostly in The National Archives at Kew. There are also some useful appendices which claim to give comprehensive coverage of all women known to be lost at sea in the Second World War in chronological order of sinking, honours and awards made to women who served at sea, and various lists of ship losses in sundry convoys. The author is also keen to notice the record breakers. The first sinking of the war which caused female service casualties was the Athenia on which four stewardesses died, and the worst, that is the greatest loss, was the Khedive Ismail which took 77 service women to their death when it was torpedoed in the Indian Ocean in February 1944. My main criticism, rather paradoxically, is that there is not enough about women in the book: they remain marginal. In many of the cases studied there is full contextualisation of the sinking in great detail and then in a sentence or two it is mentioned that there were a number of stewardesses on board, their names are given, but little more is known than that they went down with the ship. I would have welcomed more on these women. A similar imbalance can be seen in the chapter on the 'Evacuation of Singapore' where several pages are devoted to the loss of the Prince of Wales and Repulse but to the best of my knowledge there were no women in either crew, and certainly Crabb makes no mention of any female involvement. So should this incident have been included? There is another mismatch between chapter title and content in chapter 6, 'Japan's commerce raiders enter the fray', in which several pages are devoted to losses in the North Atlantic, which involved no Japanese! The problem probably lies with the sources. In many cases, no more has been recorded about these women despite Crabb's assiduous searching. In some instances there is substantial data available or first-hand accounts have survived and here there is plenty of flesh on the skeleton. To sum up, this is a useful source book for maritime historians. It has an abundance of cases of maritime loss, mostly those involving women, and has much detail on awards to women for bravery. We should not forget the huge sacrifice made by merchant mariners in the Second World War - about 35,000 killed, Crabb suggests - or the women who were lost at sea, also in the line of duty - well over 200. |