WHITE ENSIGNS

Good panorama of bravery, courage, loyalty, great gestures in this stout stuff of the British Navy, by an authority who knows his ships and his men, Capt. Taprell Dorling. Primarily, these are stories of a merchant cruiser, whose captain was recalled to active service, and whose son is one of the young officers on a destroyer. The daily lives, the high moments of adventure, the hardships and dangers, the morale of the men, all are seen in Chenies' work in convoy, in Tony's North Sea patrols, in the evacuation of Dunkirk, in meeting the enemy. Tony hears of his father's death with his ship -- and later learns that he has been rescued and has become a hero in a suicidal engagement with a German pocket battleship. Good true story fictionized.