Hugh, I was in during the eighties and into the ninties. I remember the cramped conditions as a junior rate in the Leanders I was on, but I much preferred those to the later Type 42 I was also on.
Last year I took a trip to the HistoricWarships museum at Birkenhead (just gone into liquidation I think) and was on board HMS Plymouth, HMS Onyx and U534. Asides from the spooky feeling I got from looking around the Plymouth (expecting the Joss to stride up and tell me to get my hands out of my pockets at any moment!) I was so thankful, after seeing Onyx and the remains of U534 that I wasn''t in submarines! Being on the Plymouth was a very weird feeling though as although I never served on a Type 12 she was fitted with all the equipment I remembered so well, and once inside was eerily similar.
I do recall the older guys saying how much easier we had it than them, and I guess the older guys were saying the same to them when they were sprogs too!
I was just commenting to someone the other night how I didn't think our generation could cope with a Blitz, a prolonged 'home attack' war or any other kind of real hardship.
Give it another 50 or 100 years and those of the 'civilised' world will find it traumatic to even get out of bed in the morning!
Dave