大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Sarah Harding of Kirklees Libraries on behalf of Mr. Boocock and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

September 1941. I was an armourer in the RAF posted NE Scotland. I was soon posted abroad and given 48 hrs leave. I got home, got married by special licence and returned to NE Scotland.
We were taken to Gourock where 400 RAF personnel boarded a large Naval Ack Ack Cruiser as passengers. Other large naval ships The Battleship The Prince of Wales, two Battle Cruisers, The Ark Royal and 9 Destroyers joined our group on the Clyde.
The group moved north of Ireland where several merchant ships joined the group to make up the convoy (now over 40 ships).
The whole convoy moved into the Atlantic and sailed 1000 miles West out of the range of the German U boats. Here we turned South for another 1000 miles. No ship was allowed to use its radio or its Morse signalling lamps for sensitive information so a destroyer moved alongside and shot a rocket and rope over the bows of our ship and a message was pulled across.
We turned North East through the Bay of Biscay and were told our ship was going to Gibraltar for refuelling. We went in on a very dark night, refuelled and moved out while it was still dark. Our departure was timed to meet the rest of the convoy in the Straits and moved along the Med Eastward close to the North African coast.
We were not told of our precise destination for another 600 miles but eventually the Captain came on the Tannoy to say 鈥淲e were now making for Malta, we still had 200 miles to go and were expecting some activity.鈥� The order for everyone was 鈥淎ction Stations鈥�.
The Italians attacked the convoy with bombers, and fighters took off from the Ark Royal. The Italians brought the big ships of their Navy out to attack the convoy and torpedo bombers took off from the Ark Royal to help The Prince of Wales and the two Battle Cruisers which had left the convoy to intercept the Italian ships.
The order came over the Tannoy 鈥淪tand by for Ramming鈥�. Our ship was expected to ram an Italian submarine but he dived and we missed him. The Italians attacked the convoy with torpedo bombers, one of them dropped his torpedo and flew down between our ships to get away. One of the gunners on our ship opened up with his Pom Pom Gun which had eight barrels each firing a hail of 2lb shells, in this case at short range. The aircraft disintegrated into a thousand pieces.
We did have one of our merchant ships slightly damaged and could not steer. A destroyer pulled alongside her, took off all her personnel and deliberately sank her.
Eventually we pulled into The Grand Harbour in Malta.
The Captain was cool and calm and gave us a running commentary throughout the entire action. He made a hazardous journey into a fascinating experience I shall never forget. Thank You.

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