Mike Crossley's They Gave Me a Seafire follows his squadron aboard HMS Implacable in 1944. A Seafire that cleared the barrier crashed into the forward deck park, where fire detonated its cannon ammunition and damaged more aircraft. Commander Flying Charles Evans defended the ship's landing performance against criticism and earned the airmen's loyalty. The carrier was due to accommodate seventy-eight aircraft despite having been designed for little more than half that number, and crowded passageways left ratings struggling to sleep in their hammocks. Crossley himself had a noisy, poorly ventilated cabin above an outer propeller. During a November gale off Norway, one accompanying escort carrier suffered flight-deck damage while aircraft broke loose in Pursuer's hangar.
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Seafire operations aboard HMS Implacable
They Gave Me a Seafire supplies a pilot's view of HMS Implacable's air group, flight-deck hazards, landing practice, and crowded wartime accommodation.