Heart of Oak

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant storyteller
Review: A very good example of the British Navy during WWII. Can it be proven that he saw both the Hood and the Bismark go down? Who cares! It is still a wonderful read as only Tristan can tell.

Rating:
Summary: A vivid, first-hand view of life in the WWII British Navy
Review: A welshman's soulful and realistic retelling of a matelot's live in Her Majesty's Navy during the dark days of World War II. Tristan Jones recounts his experiences with all the colour and song of a poet; a sea poet - and that he is. The lives of these men carry with you long after reading this book. Put Tristan Jones near the top of my favorite author's list.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Tale of Life in the WWII Royal Navy
Review: Always the consumate story teller, Tristan Jones relates his experiences as an enlisted man in the Royal Navy with a sense of realism that is so missing from many other accounts. In particular, his ability to put the reader into the world of the matelots (enlisted sailors) sheds light on a part of military history that has often been ignored. This is of particular importance when looking at the WWII Royal Navy, with it's rigid class divisions and the almost parallel worlds that existed between officers and men on RN ships. Many WWII accounts came from RN officers, with their often highly paternalistic and class bound accounts of the actions of their ships and crews. Jones takes you inside the very dynamic societies that existed in those thin skinned steel tombs that sailed the Atlantic.

Jones's account also offers a rare glimpse of the world of the boy sailor, a rank now abolished but the starting point for many of the previous generations of RN sailors. I personally met a WWII vet who, like Jones, had started as a boy sailor in the Royal Navy, and he vouched for the accuracy of Jones's tale.

An excellent read, and a often gripping look at the life of the ordinary (and often extraordinary) men who sailed the ships that won the war.

Highly recommended

Rating:
Summary: A gripping war and sea story
Review: Heart of Oak is one the finest war books and sea stories that I have read. I found it hard to put down. Although the intensity of the war and its effects on the men was depressing, I was compelled to keep reading.

Jones' gives the reader a different and personal perspective--that of the lowly, poor, and teenage sailor; looked down upon by everyone else and facing death, boredom, and discomfort constantly.

I agree with another reviewer that it is unlikely that Jones witnessed as much as he claimed, and I cannot attest to the accuracy of his descriptions of life aboard His Majesty's Navy, but there is a truthfullness and sincerity in Jones' narative that I find totally convincing.

Rating:
Summary: A gripping war and sea story
Review: Heart of Oak is one the finest war books and sea stories that I have read. I found it hard to put down. Although the intensity of the war and its effects on the men was depressing, I was compelled to keep reading.

Jones' gives the reader a different and personal perspective--that of the lowly, poor, and teenage sailor; looked down upon by everyone else and facing death, boredom, and discomfort constantly.

I agree with another reviewer that it is unlikely that Jones witnessed as much as he claimed, and I cannot attest to the accuracy of his descriptions of life aboard His Majesty's Navy, but there is a truthfullness and sincerity in Jones' narative that I find totally convincing.