David Tuch
Entrepreneur and author of "The Wireless Operator" (Icon Books, 2025), the true-crime story of his cousin Harold Derber, pioneer of the drug-smuggling "mothership" method; executive chairman and founder of Lightpoint Medical.
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Sep 20, 2026
David TuchGUEST
may be a couple of reasons why he signed up with the Merchant Navy as opposed to the Royal Navy.
David TuchGUEST
My guess is that because the age of eligibility is one year younger, so you can start training at 16 and then deploy at 17, whereas it was 18 for the Royal Navy.
David TuchGUEST
So he studies to become a radio operator with the British Merchant Navy and then ships off at the age of 17 in 1943 to serve in the Battle of the Atlantic.
David TuchGUEST
So he serves first on a Dutch Merchant Navy ship and followed by Norwegian merchant ships.
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