One man's war as seen through the eyes of a volunteer sailor, Albert Welch, who served on the Royal Naval warships HMS Mauritius, HMS Capetown, HMS Widnes and HMS Centurion during World War 2. The book represents the factual history of the ships that Albert served on during this period in the context of his detailed eye witness accounts of major battles, some of which were to become momentous events in world history. Following his early training in the UK, he shipped out to the Far East on the converted liner RMS Strathmore where he was temporarily attached to HMS Widnes based in Colombo. In October 1940 he joined the cruiser HMS Capetown patrolling the Indian Ocean and the African coast during the East African Campaign. In 1941 the Capetown was deployed in the Red Sea and in April of that year she was torpedoed by an Italian MTB where Albert was lucky to survive. There followed a brief period in Bombay attached to the old battleship HMS Centurion, secretly disguised with wooden guns to resemble HMS Anson, but in October 1941 Albert joined the cruiser HMS Mauritius and he was to remain with her until July 1944. During this time the Mauritius had a lucky escape from Singapore before it fell, and was then deployed on convoy protection duties in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Following a series of missions, in May 1943 the Mauritius was transferred to the Mediterranean where she suffered the indignity of running aground off Alexandria before participating in the invasions of Sicily and Salerno, followed in 1944 by the invasion of Anzio and the D-Day landings on the Normandy beaches. Albert’s vividly described, eye witness accounts of these events tell of shore bombardments, air raids, enemy attacks on Allied hospital ships, of ships being sunk, a close call with a V1 “Doodlebug” in London, and even a short lived mutiny on board HMS Mauritius. The account is fully illustrated with over 100 photographs, many of which are taken from Albert’s wartime photo albums. This book provides a broad perspective on the war at sea, the home front and visits to exotic foreign ports, contrasting periods of humour, tragedy, danger, boring routine, and the full horror of warfare up close. Above all, it shows the risks these young men took for King and Country and the sacrifices so many of them ultimately made to preserve our freedom today.