Commander A.F.C. Layard, RN, wrote almost daily in his diary, in bold, neat script, from the time he entered the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1913 until his retirement in 1947. The pivotal 1943-45 years of this edited volume offer an extraordinarily full and honest chronicle, revealing Layard’s preoccupations, both with the daily details and with the strain and responsibility of wartime command at sea. Enhanced by Michael Whitby’s explanatory essays, the diary is a highly personal piece of history that greatly enhances our understanding of the Canadian naval experience and the Atlantic war as a whole.

Michael Whitby is a Senior Naval Historian at the Directorate of History and Heritage, DND, and co-author of The Official History of the Royal Canadian Navy in the Second World War.

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• Commended, Keith Matthews Prize, Canadian Nautical Research Society

Commanding Canadians is an important new contribution to the history of the Battle of the Atlantic ... Whitby has edited this important diary very well, and it can therefore be recommended to all ...

International Journal of Maritime History, vol. XVIII, no.1

If there was one book I wish I had had a chance to read early in my career, this is it. Commanding Canadians is a gripping history of a small part of the Battle of the Atlantic, a fascinating picture of the realities of life at sea and ashore throught extended periods of operations and, most valuably, a wonderful case study of leadership.

Canadian Naval Review, vol. 2, no. 2, Summer 2006

Michael Whitby writes that readers of Layard's wartime diary 'will find a very human story of a man struggling to maintain his way in difficult circumstances and under enormous pressures. His success marks a triumph of the human spirit over adversity, and deserves to be known.' Absolutely.

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