Clear the Decks! 13y Rear-Admiral Daniel V. Gallery, U.S.N. (Harrap.
12s. 6d.)
ADMIRAL GALLERY writes with engaging gusto of his war experiences in command of, first, the U.S. Navy's air-base in Iceland and, later, the Guadacanal, one of the „fifty "baby flat-tops" mass-produced by the fabulous Mr. Kaiser. Several successful anti-submarine operations in the Atlantic culminated in the capture of U-505 almost undamaged and with all her charts and papers intact, an achievement with conse- quences of the utmost importance, parti- cularly as the enemy continued to use the same codes unaware that the Allies were deciphering his signals. The feat was the more remarkable because the author and his task-group had declared the capture of a U-boat to be their particular ambition and had planned a way to accomplish it. Apart from this unique achievement, Admiral Gallery's adventures were arduous, some- times exciting, but of a kind familiar to many who fought the Atlantic battle. His opinions of wartime Washington, where he served a short spell on the naval staff, are also com- mon to many who stepped straight from the fighting line into the hot-house atmosphere of a headquarters. But his directness of manner, his good humour and abounding energy give a distinctly personal flavour to his account, and it is-not difficult, from the way he tackles his problems and his general attitude to life, to iinagine Admiral Gallery in his earlier role of an Olympic wrestler. His book is not an important contribution to history, as he himself points out, but it is full of good sense and good fun.
G. P. G.
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