Almost all written narratives of the war at sea from 1939 through 1945 are told from the naval perspective, the merchant services upon which Britain depended for her survival, and that sustained the Allied armies on to eventual victory are rarely mentioned except in passing or as an adjunct to the naval narrative.
This book does much to correct that, telling the story of the rescue ships that accompanied the convoys during the Battle of the Atlantic. They were all small ships averaging 1500 tons, mostly elderly coal-burning coastal freighters or ferries converted to the job, although later in the war five Castle class corvettes also became rescue ships. Rescue ships were not naval vessels, and they flew the Blue Ensign with a gold anchor in the fly.
Besides facilities to care for at least 150 survivors they were outfitted with a hospital and surgical team, but they were not hospital ships under the Geneva Convention and carried no distinguishing marks. They took their place at the rear of their convoys and were subjected to the same aerial and torpedo attacks suffered by the other merchantmen. The first rescue ship, Beachy, came into service in December 1940, but was sunk during its third voyage in January 1941.
There were only thirty Rescue Ships during the war, so one could not be sailed with every convoy. Twenty survived, seven being lost to enemy action with 216 of their complement killed. The rescue ships saved almost 4,200 sailors at great risk to themselves, and their medical services were frequently called upon to deal with all forms of illness or injury to sailors in the ships in convoy, undoubtedly saving many more lives. Their presence in the convoys was essential to keeping up the morale of the men in the merchant service, who lost 8,800 sailors killed through 1941.
The first edition of this book was published in 1968 using original source materials and interviews with survivors, sailors, and staff of the Rescue Ship Service, so it is very much a first-person account. Vice Admiral Schofield’s daughter Victoria, herself a published author, updated and edited the text into this modern edition, correcting errors in the original and expanding the book using new materials not available to her father.
I recommend The Rescue Ships and the Convoys to any person desiring an account of the Battle of the Atlantic told from a little known and unique perspective. The book sets the Rescue Ship Service into the historical context of the overall war, and the ten chapters tell the story in logical and easy to read fashion, including one dedicated to the ill-fated convoy PQ-17. The appendices include a precis of the history of each of the thirty rescue ships.
