Hell or High Water New Zealand Merchant Seafarers Remember the War

Harper Collins, 2005. 268 pages. Spine faded, otherwise good secondhand condition.

During World War Two several thousand New Zealanders served in the Merchant navy. Many braved the deadly German U-Boats during the Battle of the Atlantic and sailed in perilous convoys to Arctic Russia and Malta. Others manned transport and hospital ships for the Allied landings in North Africa, Italy and France, or ferried troops and supplies across the vast Pacific and Indian oceans. Although they were essentially civilians, merchant seafarers often found themselves in the front lines of the war at sea - at least 120 Kiwi seamen were killed, and another 128 were taken prisoner. From interviews with the men who were there in the darkest days of a bloody and terrible conflict, this book includes stirring accounts of war at sea.