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John Cumming

This story is taken from an interview with John Cumming, and has been added to the site with their permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interview was by Deirdre Donnelly, and transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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In the navy I spent most of the time, on action stations. There was a chart, a needle marked the ships course. There were u-boat scares. You had to plot a new course. I was on a destroyer 3 yrs on the Atlantic convoys. HMS Volunteer — ironic!
Towards the end we did convoys to Russian, and back in time for D-Day. I came back on an old Dutch cruiser, minesweeping Jap mines. Java, Sumatra, Borneo.

The oil on the sea, blokes swimming about, you can’t stop to help or you’ll be a target too. You plough through them.
The Russians were not helpful, it was the days of communism. We’ve been back since. The people were very nice.

I had a sister nursing in Ebrington Barracks. We operated mostly from Liverpool, but if we were short of oil fuel we came in here.

If you got weekend leave it was as fast as you could get home, not hang around here.
Weather in the N Atlantic was as hard to contended with as subs and warships.

We were out East, minesweeping when the war finally ended. It ended officially, but we weren’t dispensed with. It could be a couple of yrs before they let you home.

I was back to my job, teaching. I was called up a second time for the Korean war for 18 months.

In the winter you were more scared of the ship surviving the Atlantic.

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