Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #613544 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

Customer Reviews

The simple truth about a great disaster.
Who knows what thoughts dog a man's mind as he grows up in the knowledge that his father was killed when he was just 7 month's old. This author was denied such parenthood at that very age and grew up in the knowledge that his father was one of the 725 men who perished when HMS Gloucester was lost in 1941.

After careers in both the Royal Navy and the Police, Ken Otter then set out to research the story of the ship on which his father served and died. As someone who researches facts about ships and their final journeys for a living, I appreciate and understand the value of - and the difficulties associated with, painstaking research. In this instance, I congratulate this author on a job so very well done.

"HMS Gloucester - The Untold Story" is a complete account of this ship from her launch in 1937 right up to her loss in 1941 and should, in my own humble opinion, be accepted as the official history of this ship. That a valuable Cruiser - already low on anti-aircraft ammunition, should have been sent to the aid of a stricken Destroyer was a questionable decision in the first instance. The fact that no rescue or aid was then sent to that Cruiser once she was set ablaze from stem to stern - or even after she had sunk, just adds weight to the overall argument that those in command were not exercising their authority in a clear and concise manner. Military leaders from any of the three services may be forgiven for any personal faults in their overall makeup - but NOT for indecision!

Whilst I can understand how this particular book will have been a personal quest for the author, it is so well written and clearly so very well researched, I can only hope Mr Otter will now turn his attention to other, similar tragedies in order to provide us with further accounts where those stories still remain "untold."

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