大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Bernie Hawkins and has been added to the website on behalf of George Woodley with his permission and he fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I did not take an active part in the D-Day landings, but I was involved in a very important part of the organisation. During the War, Northern Parade School, Doyle Avenue, North End, Portsmouth, was taken over by HMS Excellent, the RN Gunnery School, as overflow accommodation.

Early in 1944 a team of four petty officers and four leading seamen (I was a leading seamen) were drafted there to set up a naval despatch sorting office (NDSO) in the school assembly hall. We had a half-day instruction at the Portsmouth post office sorting office, being shown how to sort mail and seal mails bags.

All official mail for the southern area was brought and collected by army despatch riders, naval messengers and WRNS and WAAF and from the Admiralty couriers in London. There were motor fishing vessels available to deliver mail to warships and merchant ships, transports and landing craft being assembled at Spithead.

There were officers designated to deliver 鈥淭op Secret鈥� mail marked 鈥淏y Hand of Officer Only鈥�. A lot of mail was to and from Fort Southwick, the deep underground headquarters, and to HMS Dryad Southwick from where General Eisenhower directed the D-Day operation.

We knew 鈥淒-Day鈥� was near by the volume of mail for the hundreds of ships assembled at Spithead and the Solent. Each ship had at least two bags of mail weighted with lead weights for disposal in an emergency. It was not to be opened until directed by radio. It took a well organised operation to deliver it in time.

On the morning of D-Day we watched the skies as wave after wave of aircraft towing gliders passed over Portsmouth. A never to be forgotten sight.

The NDSO remained in operation for another two months before it closed down. I was then drafted to join the Eastern Fleet at Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to help in the war against the Japanese.

Note: George Woodley鈥檚 experiences on a 鈥淨鈥� Ship in the north Atlantic can be read at A7303943 and his RN service record at A7036274 .

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