Wartime Career
Mark Arnold-Forster served throughout the Second World War, first as a merchant seaman and then in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve. He served on a destroyer on the Murmansk convoy and then (1942–4) on motor torpedo boats in the English Channel. Eventually he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in command of a flotilla at Dover, despite looking quite young for his age. His tasks included engaging the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Prinz Eugen in battle and torpedoing a tanker. He limped home from a battle with a broken-down engine after being nearly rammed by a German destroyer. He also laid mines under fire off the French coast and worked for naval intelligence. He was awarded the DSO and DSC, was three times mentioned in despatches, and was demobilized as a reserve Lieutenant in 1946.
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Famous quotes containing the words wartime and/or career:
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