Author Description

"Fleet Air Arm memories: 1939-1946: Tales of the Brummagem Bastard" details my grandfather's service in the Fleet Air Arm from 1939 to 1946 on the Arctic, Atlantic Mediterranean and the Pacific convoys. This is a war as viewed by a Hostilities Only and very cynical, seaman. Norman Harry Mills did not suffer fools gladly (or at all), and despised idiots and incompetent officers. Nicknamed the Brummagem Bastard, he was a fanatical Ockers (Ludo) player as well as a Communist. His memoirs include the 1942 Pedestal Convoy, Operation Torch when he was attached to the naval battalion with the first army in North Africa (1943); the Sicily and Italian campaign of 1944 and dealing with kamikazes in May, 1945. Unlike the earlier e-book version, the print edition contains three original photographs from the archives.The book is just over 33,000 words in length and uses a lot of naval slang. I attempt to explain these in footnotes or as short additions in the text. There may be a few passages that upset modern sensibilities, including a few sexual references, bad language and one use of the 'F' word. It is, however, impossible to apply modern political correctness to the Royal Navy of seventy years ago. Times have most definitely changed. In preparing the memoirs, it was never my intention to offend and I have omitted a few terms and toned others down. The painstakingly detailed card index of navy slang found in the archive was invaluable, but not all of it was fit for print!