Authors' note to second edition: The Silent Service saw print in 1944, that grimly momentous year which saw the enemy's fleets and armies reeling back from our own Australian shores.

Authors' note to first edition: We set out to write the 'Story of the Anzac Navy' but soon realised that such a work would need a C. E. W. Bean and the labours of years. So we concentrated on "Action Stories of the Anzac Navy" embracing the battle actions, during World War II, of every ship in the Anzac Navy.

Chapter 1: "Action Stations!" That urgent bugle call thrilled the ship's company. ... So it had come at last! The watch below stared with cup at lip, knife and fork gripped motionless. Then Achilles sprang to life, seemed to leap ahead.