The voices of over 125 Royal Navy men and women recount their days of service to Britain and the world during the 1939-1945 war at sea. The stories selected from the audio archive of the Imperial War Museum cover as wide a range as possible of wartime experiences that include: life before the war, motivations for enlisting, training and reporting for sea duty. Accounts of fear, anger and terror are intertwined with others that concern love, humor and fun. Shipboard life is remembered as ranging from hectic to monotonous, both inspiring and frustrating and dangerous, yet also secure. The book's chapters accompany the men and their ships from great oceans to unknown backwaters as they engage, year by year, in the war's naval battles and campaigns, the majority of which are represented. There is a chapter dedicated to the wartime contributions of the WRNS, another chapter dedicated to the RN's Boy Seamen and an epilogue that tells about the post-war fate of some of the ships and men featured in the book.