'Navy Larks'
by Dennis Knibbs
ISBN 1-900467-21-6 Price £6.99.
Softback.
150 x 210 mm (approximately)
72 pages

Navy Larks
may be ordered from:
Southern Map Distributors
Greenstalls Park
Costello Hill
Ilchester
Yeovil
Somerset BA22 8LB
England
Telephone: 01935 842080
Fax: 01935 841911

Price £6.99

Like many of his generation, Dennis Knibbs tried to escape the grip of the increasing austerity which gripped Britain in the aftermath of World War II, in his case, on the spur of the moment, taking the ‘King’s shilling’, joining the Royal Navy as a ‘Boy Seaman’.

At the start of this new and exciting phase in his life, the author, in February 1947, arrived at HMS Ganges, a shore establishment near Ipswich, for a period of intensive training and by trying not to mimic the indisciplines of some of his fellow ‘Ganges Boys’, by and large, he escaped the reputed harsh treatment that HMS Ganges was capable of.

Training completed, he went on to experience life in the Royal Navy in its many forms, first of all joining HMS London in Hong Kong in April 1948, remaining a crew member until the ship’s decommissioning in September 1949 and then going on to serve in minesweepers, destroyers and an aircraft carrier.

However, it was a member of the crew of HMS London in April 1949, when the ship was caught up in the infamous ‘Yangtse Incident’ that the author’s memories are at their most vivid.

In December 1948, due to the Chinese Civil War, a British warship was stationed at Nanking to act as guardship to the British Embassy. On 20th April 1949, HMS Amethyst was en route to relieve the guardship when it came under heavy fire from the Communists and went aground. The following day, HMS London, with the author aboard, was sent up the Yangtse River to help HMS Amethyst, but itself came umder heavy fire, receiving direct hits killing and wounding many of the crew.

In this book, the author provides minute by minute details of this action and his impressions of what it was like to be a junior sailor on board his ship while under fire.