Jack's Dits: Tall tales from the mess

DitsMilitary HumourJokesTidbitsPisstakeMessdeck HumourWith hundreds of men, tons of military paraphernalia, complicated machinery, technological equipment, weaponry, stores and various other forms of kit, you can be assured not every day was straightforward and undemanding.Equipment failed. People made mistakes. Accidents and mishaps occurred. Personalities and characters clashed. Add to this mix the activities of matelots on a 'run ashore' in far-flung, unsavoury and questionable seaports. Include beer, spirits, wine, women and song into the equation and the resulting concoction is a wonderful hothouse for the creation of imaginative narrative. The goings-on of Sailors, both aboard and ashore, created astonishing accounts of events to be told at stand easy or after a watch; when the exaggerated telling's of the day's happenings or those of last nights run, would be shared in the mess squares of Royal Navy ships and shore bases throughout the world.This book is not one which simply and only harks back in nostalgic fashion to the past, Jack's Dit's is an authentic validation, a historical record of Royal Naval Social History; one told by the voices of those who served, those who were there. It is a true and genuine recording of life during the Royal Navy's heydays, the late 1950s through to the earlier part of the 1980s. One I was proud to be part of.