On the Road to Normandy and a Little Beyond

Foreword by Rear Admiral Paddy McAlpine CBE Deputy Commander Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO "As President of the Royal Navy’s Minewarfare and Clearance Diving Officers’ Association, I was delighted to be asked to write the Foreword to this book. Although I never met Bernard Upton, his personality and typical Minewarfare Officers’ mentality are evident in this book, which contains a great detail of hitherto unknown, but nevertheless interesting information. Bernard was clearly of “the old school” and I should have liked to have met him during his remarkable life. In particular, the events of the sinking of HMS Cromarty on 23 October 1943 and Bernard’s leadership in the water that fateful day and the following days, is a great inspiration to us all. The clarity with which he wrote the “Senior Survivor’s Report” to Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean, only a few days after his ship was mined, is remarkable. Towards the end of WW2, Bernard assumed command of one of HM Ships, and after the war he returned to the printing business and took up sailing, including crossing the Atlantic. As a keen yachtsman, his narrative of how he built a wooden Atalanta yacht and sailed it for almost 50 years is of great interest. The fact that he completed two sets of RN exercises every day into his late 90s and kept himself remarkably fit is a testament to his RN training. In summary, this is an interesting book about the life and times of a WW2 hero, which I thoroughly recommend to all those interested in minewarfare."