Something I have in common with other historians is a certain desensitisation when reading about both heroic and tragic events of the past. That is not to say we become cold, warmongering hawks – in fact, it is the opposite. We are numbed by the words we read and the pictures we see because of the volume with which we consume them, but it is never a case of “a single death is a tragedy, a million deaths are a statistic”.
Rather, we find constant reminders of the human stories at the centre of global events. Within these pages you will read about great disasters and greater successes, reckless gambits and selfless heroism, and about the wizards who by the turn of a screw won wars, often at great cost in the air, on land and on sea. It angers me to be reminded – yet again – that not everyone sees human sacrifice that way. This distress is shared by Andy Brockman, who recently got in touch regarding rumours of renewed plundering of the wreck of HMS Prince of Wales in the South China Sea. Sadly, as Andy discovered, the battleship that serves as a grave to at least 327 men has been badly affected. We are now able to confirm that the same fate has befallen the battlecruiser…
