Destroyer Actions: September 1939 - June 1940

This book focuses on the human side of destroyer actions in the first eight months of the War, using eyewitness accounts, many previously unpublished, of those who participated or played a part in the actions. It thus has Polish, French, and Norwegian as well as British and German, naval and civilian input, much of it researched from primary sources. The author has included sufficient contextual background—political, strategic, and tactical—to allow the reader to understand the key role played by the destroyers and their men, of both sides, during the so called "Phoney War" period of WWII. Destroyer crews of both sides had a life of unremitting hardship during the first eight months of the war and their service was one of long periods of boredom, tedium, and tiredness interspersed with intense spells of horror and terror, leavened by very occasional episodes of humor. Always present was the common enemy—the hostile waters of the North Sea and the Atlantic.