CAMFIAIGN RIBBONS iS the autobiography of one of those unsung iunior

0fficers who make the services function．John Simmons was a purser who

spent the first half of the Second Wbrid W打on dicey assignments in merchant

ships．He was on the Empress of Australia when she was sent as a combat

troopship during the ill—fated Norwegian expedition of Spring 1940，and he

spent months at sea on the armed merchant cruiser Hilary in the middle of the

Atlantic when U—boats and surface raiders were prowling and came through

that unscathed．He was then posted to the attack transport Keren and did the

1942 Madagascar landing—perhaps more hazardous a shiphandling matter

than the assault itself—then on the Red Sea and the Med’．and the TORCH

(North Africa)and the 1943 HUSKY(Sicily)landings． ．

After those relatively unglamorous tasks，in which his principal iob a s a

paymaster was to keep track of everything that was done on the supply side of

the ship．he was sent away to the United States，all the way across to Portland，

Oregon．There he became one of the party of Royal Navy officers responsible

f、0r the supervision of the construction of the new escort aircraft．carrier(CVE)

HMS肋uncer．only to see her used ultimately as an aircraft transport．But the

bright spot for John Simmons．as for many others sent overseas，was to meet

his future wife in Portland．

CAMPIAIGN RI BBONS iS about the unglamorous side of a worldwide war．

Yet it adds to our knowledge of that conflict and of the long periods of patrol

and preparation which were required to bring victory．John Simmons’story

helps balance the picture of the war at sea．

Robin Higham