'Fittest of the fit' was the Royal Navy's boast about its personnel, a
claim based on a recruitment process that was effectively
self-selection. This book examines that basic assumption and many of the
issues that followed from it.
Beginning with the medical aspects of recruitment, it looks at how
health and fitness was maintained in the adverse environment of sea
service, including the particularly onerous extremes of Arctic and
Tropical conditions, and life for its submariners and airmen as well as
those in the surface fleet. The massive mid-war expansion of personnel
was a particular challenge to accepted wisdom and how the Navy coped is
a major aspect of the story.
Beyond the purely physical, the importance of psychological factors and
the maintenance of morale is another theme of the book, taking in
everything from entertainment to tolerance of onboard pets. Inevitably,
the effects of battle, injury and stress dominated naval medicine, and
action experience led to rapid changes in everything from basic
preparations to protective clothing. In a conscious search for
improvement, the Navy became an early adopter of many medical
innovations, driven by a permanent committee created to study personnel
issues.
To put this all into context, comparisons are made with the other
British services as well as US Navy practice. From this emerges a
rounded picture of a crucially important factor in the wartime success
of the Senior Service.
