William Griffiths served the best part of his working life in the Royal Navy, from the North Atlantic- including the frightful Russian Convoys- to the South Atlantic, the Medataranian, and on to the Far East and the Pacific. He served in many types of ships: landing-craft- from the Beaches of North Africa to Messina, Salerno, Anzo and D-Day Normandy- destroyers, frigates corvettes, and aircraft-carriers. So what? He says; so did many thousands of other matelots. To become an officer in peace time, he-in Naval parlance-'came up through the hawse-hole', which means that he was commissioned from the lower deck. The hawse-hole is a hole in the bows of a ship through which the anchor cable travels on its way up and down. Since retiring from gainful employment he has travelled extensivley, in many instances back to the places where the navy earned some of it's hard come by laurels. Otherwise he has concerned himself with authorship, and says that there are other books to follow this one- if he can find a publisher. A confirmed European, he has a second home in France, and when not there, lives in Surrey, is married and has a daughter who aspires to be a full time artist