The Sea in a Sieve

by Peter Bull

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0552103802
• ISBN13: 9780552103800
• Release Date: January 1977
• Publisher: Corgi
• Length: 205 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Commanding Landing Craft in WW2 - a personal recollection

Really (really) good book about Landing Craft in WW2. The author, Peter Bull, was a well known British actor on the outbreak of WW2. He joined the RNVR and served out the war in Landing Craft, primarily Tank Landing Craft. He is quite a humourous writer, he stresses the lighter side of life and pokes a lot of fun at his own gaffes and lack of seamanship. Aside from all of that, you do get a good look at the grim side of what it was like on Landing Craft, on long trips, in action, the living conditions, what they were like in combat. Its a good all round picture. He goes through chronologically, starting with lower deck training, officer training, his first command, a look at the Canadian and Commando raid on Dieppe, then on to the Mediterranean and the landings at Anzio and Salerno, then the invasion of the South of France. For all the humour and the pokes at his own ability, by the end of the war he had been awarded the DSC, promoted to Lieutenant-Commander and commanded a Flotilla of landing craft. No mean achievement. 224 pages, 13 b & w photos. Contents as follows Part One: Extraordinary Seaman-1941 (HMS Raleigh, HMS Thing, HMS Hesperus, HMS King Alfred) Part Two: In and Out of Flat Bottoms-1942 (HMTLC 168 and HMLCT 303, Alarms and Excursions, including a Day Trip to Dieppe, Shocks Snacks and Surprises, HMLCF 16 (a Landing Craft Flak)) Part Three: The Mediterranean Cruise Section (North Africa, Sicily and Salerno, Disappointments and Diversions, Anzio, Ritorno di Messina, My Ship and Those Who Sailed in Her Part Four: The Lieutenant-Co)mmander Hates the Sea (Towards the Cote D Azur, Marseilles and HMS Sordid, Winter of Discontent, Adriatic Antics, Not the easiest Way Home) The author, Lieutenant-Commander Peter Cecil Bull, DSC (b 21 March 1912 in London - d 20 May 1984) was a British character actor. He was the son of Hammersmith MP Sir William Bull, Bt.. In the 1970's he ran a small shop just off Notting Hill Gate, selling zodiac related items. He was educated at Winchester College. His first professional stage appearance was in If I Were You at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 1933. He was brought to Hollywood for a small role in Marie Antoinette (1938), which co-starred his lifelong friend and fellow Briton Robert Morley. His performance as the Russian Ambassador, Alexi de Sadesky, in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1963) is among the best-known of his several dozen film and TV appearances. Other films include As You Like It (1936), Oliver Twist (1948), Scrooge (1951, in which he both narrated and played a small on-screen role), The African Queen (1951, he plays the Captain of the Louisa), The Green Man (1956), The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960), Tom Jones (1963), The Intelligence Men (1965) and Doctor Dolittle (1967). His last film appearances were in 1983. In films, the corpulent Bull was often cast as unpleasant prosecuting attorneys, hard-hearted businessmen or officious government men; on stage,

Commanding Landing Craft in WW2 - a personal recollection

Really (really) good book about Landing Craft in WW2. The author, Peter Bull, was a well known British actor on the outbreak of WW2. He joined the RNVR and serve out the war in Landing Craft, primarily Tank Landing Craft. He is quite a humourous writer, he stresses the lighter side of life and pokes a lot of fun at his own gaffes and lack of seamanship. Aside from all of that, you do get a good look at the grim side of what it was like on Landing Craft, on long trips, in action, the living conditions, what they were like in combat. Its a good all round picture. He goes through chronologically, starting with lower deck training, officer training, his first command, a look at the Canadian and Commando raid on Dieppe, then on to the Mediterranean and the landings at Anzio and Salerni, then the invasion of the South of France. For all the humour and the pokes at his own ability, by the end of the war he had been awarded the DSC, promoted to Lieutenant-Commander and commanded a Flotilla of landing craft. No mean achievement. 224 pages, 13 b & w photos. Contents as follows Part One: Extraordinary Seaman-1941 (HMS Raleigh, HMS Thing, HMS Hesperus, HMS King Alfred) Part Two: In and Out of Flat Bottoms-1942 (HMTLC 168 and HMLCT 303, Alarms and Excursions, including a Day Trip to Dieppe, Shocks Snacks and Surprises, HMLCF 16 (a Landing Craft Flak)) Part Three: The Mediterranean Cruise Section (North Africa, Sicily and Salerno, Disappointments and Diversions, Anzio, Ritorno di Messina, My Ship and Those Who Sailed in Her Part Four: The Lieutenant-Co)mmander Hates the Sea (Towards the Cote D Azur, Marseilles and HMS Sordid, Winter of Discontent, Adriatic Antics, Not the easiest Way Home) The author, Lieutenant-Commander Peter Cecil Bull, DSC (b 21 March 1912 in London - d 20 May 1984) was a British character actor. He was the son of Hammersmith MP Sir William Bull, Bt.. In the 1970's he ran a small shop just off Notting Hill Gate, selling zodiac related items. He was educated at Winchester College. His first professional stage appearance was in If I Were You at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 1933. He was brought to Hollywood for a small role in Marie Antoinette (1938), which costarred his lifelong friend and fellow Briton Robert Morley. His performance as the Russian Ambassador, Alexi de Sadesky, in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1963) is among the best-known of his several dozen film and TV appearances. Other films include As You Like It (1936), Oliver Twist (1948), Scrooge (1951, in which he both narrated and played a small on-screen role), The African Queen (1951, he plays the Captain of the Louisa), The Green Man (1956), The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960), Tom Jones (1963), The Intelligence Men (1965) and Doctor Dolittle (1967). His last film appearances were in 1983. In films, the corpulent Bull was often cast as unpleasant prosecuting attorneys, hard-hearted businessmen or officious government men; on stage, he enjoye