Hospital Ship (HMHS Tjitjalengka)

There have been many books published on World War II, but little has been written on the work of the hospital ships. The unusually named HMHS Tjitjalengka was a brand new Dutch ship built for the Java-Japan trip but converted to a Hospital Ship and requisitioned by The Royal Navy.

The author was a Petty Officer sick bay attendant who served on the Tjitjalengka from its maiden Atlantic voyage as a hospital ship to its service in the Far East. His memoirs combine entertaining anecdotes of Naval life with descriptions of the ship's voyages and life on a floating hospital.

The book is illustrated with the author's own previously unpublished photographs.

"It would be difficult to think of a WW2 subject not covered by the thousands of books produced over the years but here is an unusual and interesting one. Very much the personal memories of one "hostilities only" sailor but all the more interesting and poignant for that... Sick bay attendant Jack Woolman travels the world from March 1940 to May 1946 courtesy of the Royal Navy. We travel with him in his adventures from Portsmouth to Trincomalee to Sydney and back, in this easy to read and often amusing account of life aboard a floating WW2 hospital."

Windscreen Magazine