大象传媒

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My name is (Dinger) Bell. I tried to volunteer but as I was only 17, I had to wait until I was 18 and therefore, on 24th November, 1941, I joined the Royal Navy and in 1942. I attended the Shotley Training School and volunteered for radar training on aircraft direction.
After the course, I went up to Rosyth in Scotland in early 1943, and joined the battleship HMS George V sailing to Gibraltar where we joined Force H (Mediterranean Fleet). My position was AB.on radar plot. It was here that I joined HMS Formidable where I stayed for the rest of the war.
My first bit of action was when a Junkers 88 tried to bomb us, but luckily, it didn鈥檛 succeed. I went to Alexandria on two occasions, by which time the landings had happened in North Africa just before we arrived. The Free French were not very happy with us.
On 10th July, 1943, we left Alexandria and went west to invade Sicily. We covered the landings there and then we went up the coast to Anzio. . I had a year in the Med. In October 1943, we were to go home on leave, but this was altered and we were sent to Scapa Flow and Iceland. We covered RA54A Convoy to the northern waters (North Cape). On one occasion on this convoy the weather was so bad, a shipmate of mine and I saw that there were men in a boat in the water. All of a sudden, the fog rolled in and we never saw the men again. It was a bit upsetting for a youngster.
In 1945, we went to Manilla and bought out 1,000 Australian 8th Division and 300 British and took them back to Sydney.

I came out in 1952. The ship went up to the breakers yard and as far as I know, she still lives as non-radio active steel - x-ray machines.

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