Subtitled Experiences of a Pioneer Royal Navy Clearance Diver and Former Diving Partner to Commander Lionel Crabb, this is the long-awaited story of the naval diving career of Sydney Knowles BEM (Military).
Not many authors can claim to live in fear of their lives for what they say or write, especially when they are decorated war heroes and their new enemy is a little closer to home.
But this is exactly what Knowles is claiming, and that one attempt was actually made on his life in 1990 in a botched effort to silence him on the issue of Commander Crabb's disappearance.
Despite the alleged intimidation, he has courageously put pen to paper and revealed his factual experiences and frank opinions about his prolonged, close association with Commander Crabb, from 1942 until that fateful day in April 1956 when Crabb disappeared during a clandestine surveillance mission under the Russian cruiser Ordzhonikidze in Portsmouth Harbour.The book chronicles Knowles's entire naval career, from joining the Royal Navy on his 18th birthday on 3 September 1939, the same day WW2 broke out.
His first taste of action was as a First Class Stoker aboard HMS Zulu in the North Atlantic, but the story really takes off in 1942, when he was recruited by Lt-Cmdr Crabb in Gibraltar to help counter the Italian frogmen who were mining ships in the harbour.
This is when he became one of the Navy's very first clearance divers.
Knowles relates many of his adventures with Commander Crabb as the war unfolded in the Mediterranean, first combating the legendary Italian frogmen and later working with them.
He describes the many truly amazing operations with an objective style, often underplaying their dangers and accomplishments.
The climax of the book is however the enduring enigma of Crabb's disappearance.
Knowles details his contacts with Crabb and his mysterious associates in the final days. He unreservedly denies that it is Crabb's body buried at Milton Cemetery in Portsmouth, having personally inspected the corpse.
Most controversially, he believes that Crabb was murdered by his own diving buddy, acting under orders. He blatantly accuses various authorities of hiding the truth, and finally lists nine key unanswered questions.
Just when the whole Crabb debacle appeared to be resolving, Knowles has reignited this smouldering controversy. Stand well clear of the fan, because the s**t is about to hit it!
John Bevan
Woodfield Publishings
ISBN 1846830826
Softback, 160pp, £14.95
