From first joining the Royal Navy in 1940 until the end of the campaign against Japan, Tony Ditcham was in the front line of the naval war. After brief service in the battle-cruiser Renown, he went into destroyers and saw action in most European theatres, against S-boats and aircraft in Bomb Alley off Britain’s East Coast, and on Arctic convoys to Russia. During the dramatic Battle of the North Cape in December 1943 he was probably the first man to actually see the Scharnhorst from his position in the gun director of HMS Scorpion.