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 John Atkinson with his permission and he fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Until we were torpedoed at Dakar in September 1940, I was Aircraft Artificer with HMS Resolution Air Division, looking after a Swordfish floatplane. An account of this time can be read in another story. In 1941 they formed up a fighter squadron of American aircraft that had been earmarked for Poland and France. With them I joined HMS Illustrious and was with her for the capture of the harbour of Diego Suarez at the northern tip of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean in 1942.

Although I was an aircraft man, I must say I didn鈥檛 enjoy my time on the aircraft carrier Illustrious as much as I did on the battleship Resolution. Resolution was a much more air-minded, helpful ship than Illustrious. The young pilots of Illustrious made up rather 鈥渃harming鈥� 鈥� and not very complimentary 鈥� little ditties about the Captain etc. Not so on Resolution. No 鈥淏attleship Brigade鈥� mentality there!

The Commander of Illustrious didn鈥檛 like it because I used to pipe for his stoker to fill up our aircraft. An empty tank is more dangerous than a full one and anyway fighter aircraft should always be ready to go. The refuelling Stoker was given two jobs by the Commander 鈥� the other one as far away from the flight deck as you could get, for example inspecting the temperature of the main shaft plumber blocks. The Commander still had a personal stoker as a runabout 鈥� making kai (naval cocoa), etc. The War had been on for three years and this is typical of the co-operation the Fleet Air Arm obtained. Needless to say our Captain was a gunnery officer. The poor old Stoker wished he had joined the FAA!

My Squadron (881) of 16 Wildcat F4 Mk II fighters was the largest in the fleet. They had Pratt & Whitney engines, electric props and folding wings. They were young, intelligent pilots, recruited from Oxbridge, who shot down all the opposition 鈥� more with it than the top brass. 882 Squadron had six (later five) Wildcat Mk I with Wright Cyclone engines, Hamilton props and fixed wings, so were kept on the flight deck.

On the morning of the action at Diego Suarez, first off the flight deck in my squadron was S/Lt. Waller and Midshipman Lindsey. They shot down five aircraft between them. S/Lt. Waller was awarded an immediate DSC, Midshipman Lindsey a Mention.

On one occasion I remember, unfortunately one aircraft, after being in action and landing on the flight deck and parked, was hit by a stray 0.5 canon whilst I was interviewing the pilot. It hit in front of the mainplane, 2 centimetres from my left ear. I have been totally deaf in that ear ever since.

After Diego Suarez, I was sent ashore to Tanga in Tanzania, on the border with Kenya, to salvage all the aircraft that had forced landed on the sisal and coconut plantations. There were Fulmars, Wildcats, Hurricanes and Swordfish. I鈥檇 collect them in a lorry with between twenty and forty local volunteers from HM Prison Tanga. Only two of them could speak English, the rest spoke Bantu or Swahili. They called me 鈥淏wana Maguba鈥�, Big White Chief. The planes were loaded on to trains at the Moi and Moshi railheads and taken to the Royal Naval Aircraft Repair Yard at Nairobi.

As the Senior Artificer, it was my job to keep the aircraft flying. The Sergeant Armourer was awarded the D.S.M. I got sweet F.A. I never lost a pilot, or an aircraft, or any of my young lads on the flight deck, which was a very dangerous place. During other watches and in other squadrons, young lads walked into whirling propellers. The dangerous procedures for interviewing pilots or starting up a rogue aircraft I took upon myself to do, and kept my lads safely down on their chocks out of harm鈥檚 way. During the time I was away ashore at Tanga, S/Lt. Waller was shot off the catapult, but it malfunctioned and he trickled off the bow of the ship and drowned. 鈥淒arkie鈥� Shaw, Petty Officer Pilot, also lost his life. Five pilots were lost when I was away. A Turret fired into B Turret, killing all those in B Turret. Two of my young lads walked into rotating props when the other P.O. was on deck. I never lost any.

Ugly incidents happened all the time. Our Squadron were three months late going on board Illustrious at the start because she and HMS Formidable ran into each other in the Atlantic returning from America. As you can gather, I didn鈥檛 much enjoy my time on Illustrious 鈥� especially compared to HMS Resolution.

After two months ashore, I returned to the ship with malaria. I nearly died. (The natives who caught it usually did!) I went down to five stone and only the constant nursing for three weeks (of which I knew nothing) by a Doctor Crick, RNVR, saved my life. Only one officer came to see me that I was aware of 鈥� Frankie Furlong, who had won the Grand National on Reynoldstown before the War, and who was a very good pilot. He brought me some apples from the wardroom 鈥� lovely man. Of course, others may have paid me a visit during the three weeks, which I wouldn鈥檛 have known about. During my recuperation, Doctor Crick put me on wardroom diet, which the b****y awful chief cook tried to stop.

After Illustrious I had a varied career in the Navy until 1952. In 1943 I was part of the first detachment to go to RNAS Maydown, Northern Ireland, where we built hangars and a long concrete runaway. This was 886 Squadron and we had a Swordfish specially modified to operate from small merchant navy grain carriers. It had rockets and ASDIC, a fine pitch propeller and used 100 octane fuel.

In 1944 I joined HMS Premier, (formerly the USS Estero) an escort carrier working the North Atlantic and Russian convoys. Here we did deck landing training of large Corsair, Avenger and Hellcat squadrons from the USA. Premier was the last escort carrier to be returned to the USA after the war.

After witnessing the first landing of a jet aircraft at sea (Caspar John aboard HMS Ocean), my last ship was HMS Unicorn.

John Atkinson's account of his service with HMS Resolution Air Division can be read at A7589794 and his story of the bombing of Seaforth Town Hall while serving at Woodvale at 7619637.

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