Salt in His Veins: The Life of Vice Admiral Sir Albert Poland KBE CB DSO DSC
248 pages
Rear Admiral Allan du Toit AM RAN (Retd)
Recently launched in London and soon to be launched at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney, retired Vice Admiral Peter Jones’s latest naval biography, aptly named Salt in His Veins, tells the remarkable story of Vice Admiral Sir Albert Poland KBE CB DSO DSC (1895-1967) who was undoubtedly deeply connected to the sea.
Already an accomplished naval biographer, Peter Jones’s latest work admirably brings a hitherto and largely unknown figure to life and to his proper place in the naval history of the last century.
Universally known in the Royal Navy as ‘Patsy’ and to his family as ‘Bertie’, Poland came from a long-standing naval family. He had an action-filled and highly decorated career spanning two world wars and saw service well into the early years of the Cold War.
Born towards the end of the Victorian era, when Britain’s naval supremacy was at its peak, Poland died during the years of nuclear stand-off between the United States and the Soviet Union. Even in peacetime his service took him to some of the world’s most contested regions. His career therefore spanned a period of unprecedented strategic change and many shifts in technology.
Poland loved being at sea from the outset. He was to become a fine seaman and a highly respected leader. Importantly, he could and would make difficult decisions at sea in action. This garnered him the profound respect, trust and loyalty of his ships’ companies.
As aptly highlighted by Captain Jeremy Stocker in his foreword, the naval history of the 20th century is largely written in terms of the naval policies of the principal protagonists, the naval campaigns of the two world wars, and the ships and submarines that fought in them. An important and endlessly fascinating sub-genre is that of naval biography; the stories of the men who served in those ships, fought in those campaigns, and played a role in those policies. War at sea is not just about navies, battles and ships. It is above all, about people living, working, fighting and, all too often, suffering and dying at sea.
The author, who too had a distinguished 40-year naval career spanning both peace and war, commanded the frigate HMAS Melbourne during operations in the Persian Gulf and later the coalition Maritime Interception Force in the 2003 Iraq War. He therefore writes with first-hand insight and authority based on his own experiences. Since retirement, he has been an Adjunct Professor in the Naval Studies Group at the University of New South Wales Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy and served as president of the Australian Naval Institute. His two earlier books were Australia’s Argonauts: The Remarkable Story of the First Class to enter the Royal Australian Naval College (2016) and Guy Griffiths: The Life and Times of an Australian Admiral (2021).
What makes Albert Poland such an interesting biographical subject is that he was an early product of the Selborne-Fisher training system, which was designed to prepare naval officers for the ‘dreadnought’ navy. While not near the top of his naval college term, Poland became a highly accomplished and respected naval officer who excelled in some of the most difficult operations the Royal Navy was involved in during the the two world wars.
For most of the First World War Poland served in the battle cruiser HMS New Zealand, taking part in the battles of Heligoland Bight, Dogger Bank and Jutland. He earned a DSC commanding a torpedo boat in the heroic Ostend Raid. After the war he saw service in the Black Sea during the Russian Civil War and then commanded gunboats on the China Station and destroyers in the Mediterranean.
Poland’s service in the Second World War was even more eventful, earning him a Distinguished Service Order and Bar, two Mentions in Despatches and appointment as a Companion of the Order of Bath. The prolific Second World War naval historian Captain Donald Macintyre wrote of Poland that he “had more bombs aimed at his various ships than any other naval officer.” He commanded the sloop Black Swan in the Norwegian campaign, which was bombed yet miraculously survived.
As one of Admiral Cunningham’s trusted Captains, Poland is probably best remembered as commander of the hazardous Tobruk Ferry Run, the navy’s resupply effort to besieged Tobruk, during 1941-42. His ships of the inshore squadron were a motley collection of Australian, British and South African ships ranging from destroyers, sloops and converted anti-submarine whalers to schooners and lighters. The book gives a commander’s insight to the operation to keep the army supplied at its bases along the northeast African coast, most notably Tobruk. Poland had an excellent working relationship with Major General ‘Merciless Ming’ Morshead and his staff ashore, as well as with the officers and sailors who plied the dangerous waters known as ‘Bomb Alley’ from Alexandria to Tobruk.
Among the many letters of condolence to Lady Poland following his death in 1967 was one from the Australian Rats of Tobruk Association, which in part, read “Sir Albert was better know to us as Captain ‘Patsy’ Poland. He was a magnificent man and served his Country and Empire with distinction. He will be sadly missed by a host of friends and ship mates throughout the world.”
Poland went on to command the the famous 14th Destroyer Flotilla at the Second Battle of Sirte. And, after a restorative break as commanding officer of the training establishment HMS St George on the Isle of Man, he was thrust back into the war as Commodore (Destroyers), Eastern Fleet in mid-1944. Again, as in the inshore squadron in the Mediterranean, there was a strong Commonwealth connection. He and his staff initially embarked in the destroyer HMAS Napier and after the Australian destroyers returned home, he shifted to the destroyer HMS Relentless which, like many of the other destroyers under his command, had a significant number of seconded South African officers and ratings serving as part of their ship’s companies.
During the closing stages of the war, Poland took the Japanese surrender at Sabang ahead of the main surrender in Singapore where Admiral Mountbatten was receiving officer. Had the Second World War continued, and Poland flown his flag at sea, he would no doubt have been better known.
When he finally returned home, he found a country and its navy undertaking changes of historic proportions. By war’s end the Royal Navy had ballooned to a service of 900 warships and 866,000 men and women in uniform. This high-water mark was receding as expeditiously as the Admiralty could facilitate.
After serving as chief of staff to the C-in-C The Nore, the second Poland to fill this appointment, he was promoted to rear admiral in 1948 and returned to the Mediterranean as Senior British Naval Officer Middle East. The relationship between Britain and Egypt in the immediate post-war period was a complex one. By the time he arrived, British forces had withdrawn from Palestine, and the difficult Palestine Patrol had ceased.
Poland’s 27th and final appointment was as Superintendent of Chatham Dockyard in mid-1950 but he had to wait a year before he had sufficient seniority to be promoted to vice admiral. He finally retired in 1954, but the Poland connection with the navy continued, as his eldest son Peter, a salt horse like his father, was on exchange with the RAN, in command of the corvette HMAS Gladstone. And two years later his youngest son Patrick joined the Fleet Air Arm.
In tracing the course of such a remarkable career, Salt in His Veins, which for those who love pictures, includes an excellent selection of photographs and maps, describes in graphic detail some of the Royal Navy’s greatest deeds and gravest vicissitudes of the 20th century, bringing to light much original material that gives new insights into nearly 50 years of the Royal Navy’s operational and social history.
Peter Jones should be congratulated on again producing a very thorough, professionally researched and highly readable naval biography. Highly recommended.
