大象传媒

20 Oct
We came alongside HMS Broke? today at Belfast, we filled up with steel plate all round the ship, and on the bridge.

21 Oct
Twenty Tommy guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition were got aboard today, and also got grappling hooks and ladders and gangways.

22 Oct
Three hundred Yanky soldiers came aboard today and marched off again.

23 Oct
This evening we left Belfast and proceeded to sea, we are definitely going to invade some where the buzz is Southern Ireland.

24 Oct
We picked up 12 Yanky soldiers and two are in our mess, they don't know where they are going in the ........................

25 Oct
The buzz says we are going to Gib, I reckon this is right as we are going in the right direction.

26 Oct
It is blowing up today and a lot of the lads are sick as are the yanks.

27 Oct
We are out of bread now and its grim in the mess water and stink and over crowded.

28 Oct
At dawn we sighted a convoy and joined it, it's full of R.N. transports.

30 Oct
Sea rough.

6 Nov
Today we arrived at Gib a lot of the boys went ashore and got drunk more buzz around the ship re Dakar.

7 Nov
The watch went ashore and got drunk, curly came off and I turned him in, he was bad.

8 Nov
At 4am this morning we left for our destination, the skipper told us of the operation and told us that us and the Broke were to ram the boom at Algiers.
We got 300 hundred yanks aboard from the Sheffield and they stacked their gear around the plates which had been specially fitted round the sides, the Broke took her soldiers on as well.

9 Nov
At 2 o'clock this morning the Broke and us zigzagged up to the Bay of Algiers, we could see the town lights in even rows from where we were, suddenly two searchlights fingered out in the dark and swept passed us several times, the Broke was leading us, she slowed and put up a smoke screen and we got in, we put up a smoke screen then crept closer, we were thirty yards from the boom now, and everyone on edge waiting to open fire or be fired on. A flash on the port side told us that froggy had got [word uncertain], the first few shells went over, then the [words uncertain] which we were [flying?] came down around us up on the 3 in gun deck. Then every thing came at us, a heap of mortar [armour?] which we stacked under the gun went on fire and clouds of steam came pouring out the galley flat. And we took on a list and turned away with clouds of sparks pouring from the funnel, three of our four boilers were hit with shell as the searchlight came on again I looked over the edge of the gun deck down to the iron deck, I could see soldiers sprawled out in all directions and shapes, a yank directly under the gun who had his legs blown off was kicking his lost small stump of legs and working his fingers the blood was pouring out, I felt sick; all round, below us cries for doctors came, I dropped flat on the gun deck and listened to the shells screaming over head, we were still crawling out on fire. The fire [words uncertain] going on the fire and some got it out. As dawn breaks the boys looked over the gun deck at the mess below. Blood and pieces of men were splattered everywhere and the deck was in a terrible state. I can't describe what it was like. The buffer and a few hands covered the bodies with a piece of canvas. My gun was splashed with blood and pieces of flesh. I threw a piece of bone over the side myself.

10 Nov
Twelve soldiers were killed and twenty were injured. Thirty four of our crew were hit with shrapnel seriously and one not so bad. We managed to get along side the depot repair ship at ten o'clock and inserted a big pump as we were sinking, we had seven shell holes in us, four on or below the water line. Eleven o'clock we went in action against aircraft which kept dashing over in ones. We had nothing to eat until dinner time when we went aboard the depot ship and got our dinner.

11 Nov
We pumped the water out all night and washed down the decks, in the morning we are in a terrible state holes everywhere in the [word uncertain], the air raids continued and an AA cruiser was hit and went on fire.

12 Nov
Capt. speech - Today we entered the harbour at Algiers and saw the Gun which battered us, the Broke which managed to crash the boom with 54 and on the ninth, held the docks until 11 o'clock on the 10th, when she tried to withdraw she was heavily damaged and sank 36 hours later.

13 Nov
We left Algiers with 4 ships and two corvettes, we lost a ship after a few hours [word uncertain].

14 Sept
At dawn today we lost another ship it鈥檚 grim the med. rotten with subs. We reach Gib at 4pm.

15 Sept
I had a good sleep and feel a lot better than of late.

17 July
I wonder if I will get through this war. I have done 5 years 10 months up to now, I would like to get home as I am getting fed up. If I get killed I would like my wife to have this book, it began a new life on 9th May 1945.

EDITOR鈥橲 NOTE: Although not specifically stated, this account almost certainly describes H.M.S. Malcolm. This Campbell class destroyer, which was completed in 1918, sailed in company with H.M.S. Broke to destroy the boom at Algiers harbour and land U.S. Rangers ashore. The action took place as part of Operation Torch, the allied invasion of North Africa.
A.B. Robert Miller died in 2003 and this story was transcribed from his notebook by kind permission of his daughter, Mrs. Mary Jamieson. The notes were obviously written under conditions of extreme stress and discomfort and, as a result, are quite difficult to decipher in places. The spelling and grammar are variable but are, with a few exceptions, reproduced as he set them down at the time. The names of some of the ships as spelt by Mr. Miller do not appear to match known British warships, and the nearest approximation in Jane鈥檚 Fighting Ships is suggested in these transcripts.

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