This down-to-earth war memoir provides an illuminating account of the day to day occurrences experienced by the crew of an RAF High Speed Launch (HSL) during World War II.

The author, Percy Shipperbottom, from Bolton in Lancashire, became a wireless operator or ‘Sparks’ with the RAF Marine Branch and served in 1940/41 aboard HSL 120, based in Ramsgate and engaged in air-sea rescue work in the Channel and North Sea, picking up Allied (and sometimes German) airmen whose aircraft had ‘ditched’ into the water.

Later in the war he was posted to the Far East, where he served in the same capacity at No.226 Air Sea Rescue Unit (226 ASRU), based at Chittagong, undertaking patrols along the dangerous Arakan Coast, rescuing Allied airmen stranded at sea.

Percy's recollections of his remarkable adventures, told informally in his own words and laced with dry Northern humour, make for entertaining and educational reading.