As Featured In
Vol. 32, No. 1 (Spring 2022)

The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

"...can be easily recommended to a general readership interested in a quick overview on the history of the RNPS and the operations of smaller naval craft during World War II."

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The Naval Historical Foundation

Review by John Johnston

Sutherland and Canwell give due prominence to the bravery and fortitude shown by the officers and men of the RNPS. The latter part of the book contains an index of vessels lost and the medal roll of honour that will gratify genealogists and researchers of family history, while students of military technology will find the operations of wooden hulled motor yachts and the armed trawlers have lessons for those of minesweepers and offshore patrol vessels today. The general reader, however, will be engrossed by this fascinating and compelling story of a strange and little known part of the war at sea.

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Australian Naval Institute

'Engaging' The depiction's of the RNPOS are so compelling that one feels a small burst of excitement on the admittedly rare occasions a trawler sinks submarine.

The Northern Mariner - Dec 2011

This book makes a fitting and accessible tribute.

The authors have done for the Second World War Royal Patrol Service what E Keble Chatterton did in the 1930's for its First World War predecessor, the Auxiliary patrol - produce a book that will be a definitive work on Britain's wartime Trawlers, drifters and minesweepers.

Naval Historical Collectors & research Assosiation

The superbly detailed text is enhanced significantly by nearly a hundred pages of appendices that list all trawler losses from 1939 to 1945, with additional information on each vessels and its fate, where known.

This book makes a fitting and accessible tribute.

The Naval Review NHCRA

There are many illustrations of the bravery and remarkable skills of the people and the durability of their ships, whether working as minesweepers, submarine hunters or straight convoy escorts.

It does bring home the mixture of officers and ratings from a wide assortment of backgrounds. The reading here is good value for an average price that whets the appetite for more.

The Nautical Magazine