Welsh Journals

Some ships were sunk by enemy aircraft or German armed raiders, but the majority of the 22 ships recorded here were destroyed by U-boats. These had a greater range, speed and armament than the often ageing and generally unarmed merchantmen and their inadequate naval escorts, and U-boat wolf-packs frequently ravaged North Atlantic convoys with impunity. The Royal Navy lost 25 destroyers at the Dunkirk evacuation and its remaining resources were overstretched for the rest of the war. So large convoys of slow, heavily laden ships, like the famous HX 84's 38 vessels, sailed from Canada in October 1940, escorted solely by the gallant but inadequately armed merchant cruiser Jervis Bay. Like many others in that convoy, the Fresno City (Reardon Smith) was sunk by the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer. Such armed merchant cruisers were a poor substitute for naval vessels and they were withdrawn in 1942 after 15 of them had been sunk. Captain Edwards contends that while the courage of these seamen is indisputable, they have received scant recognition from successive goverments. Wartime pay was ungenerous, though seamen's behaviour-in continuing to sail despite dangers- compared favourably with that of dockers, shipyard workers and miners who struck to promote their pay and conditions. He contrasts the importance of her merchant fleet to Britain as a trading nation with the failure of governments to learn that lesson and with their continued refusal of economic and political support. Caught between this free market attitude and the protectionism of other nations and undercut by competition from flags of convenience, British merchant shipping steadily shrinks and Welsh shipping has almost disappeared. Today, the port of Cardiff has only nine registered vessels, Newport two and Swansea none. Famous firms, Reardon Smith, Evan Thomas, Radcliffe, have ceased trading in this decade. Edwards intends his book as a memorial to those seamen killed in the last war. He believes they died in vain, since Welshmen have 'forgotten their maritime heritage'. This is a charge that other Welsh maritime historians have made and are now doing so much to correct, and one which deserves serious examination by Welsh and maritime historians. Why has there been such a concentration on the history of industrialized Wales and so little on maritime Wales? Is this part of that contest between Welsh and anglicised Wales, or between central authority and local communities? Edwards's book should help us to reflect on these questions. P. K. CRIMMIN Royal Holloway and Bedford New College HITLER A'R NATSIAID. By Einiona Bebb. Tr.34. ARLOESWYR Y RHEILFFYRDD. By John W. Roberts. Tr.35. Y LLYCHLYNWYR. By John A. Roberts. Tr.35. SIARL I aiFyd. By Robert M. Morris. Tr.35. Y RHYFEL CARTREF. By Robert M. Morris. Tr.41. CROMWELL. By Robert M. Morris. Tr.39. £ 2.00. In the 1970s one of the most pressing problems confronting teachers of history in bilingual comprehensive schools was the scarcity of material through the medium of