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It was just after D-Day. We’d done the D-Day landings and I am proud to say that we helped the boys on Omaha Beach. That was a hot spot to be in.) HMS Wensleydale was ordered to sail north and assist in the capture of Antwerp.

I’d just come down from the 1st watch (8pm-12am). I always used to read in bed before I slept — there was a ventilation shaft above my hammock. I was fully awake then, when I heard a huge BANG. A US landing craft had hit us amidships. We were sinking gradually, gradually down. There was a tannoy announcement ‘Stand by Abandon Ship Points’.

We were at our stations when the NAAFI canteen officer came round to give us all chocolate and cigarettes — just in case. As I said, we were sinking very gradually and two ocean going tugs came and put hawsers around us and towed us to Sheerness.

When it was clear that we weren’t going to sink, the NAAFI man asked for all the chocolates and ciggies back. Well, I won’t tell you exactly what we said — Naval terms you know — but we told him where to get off. He went to Captain Goodfellow to complain who told him to mark it down as ‘lost at sea’.

Luckily no one was hurt but we had a big hole amidships. At Sheerness we were put into dry dock and did running repairs before tugs took us to Hartlepool where the whole crew were paid off. That was the end of HMS Wensleydale. She was a good ship, a happy ship and a lucky one. Now she’s razor blades.

After I was paid off, I did a Radar training course in the Isle of Man, aboard HMS Valkyrie. After that I served in the Far East, Burma. My final voyage was in 1946, aboard HMS Victorious. We brought 700 war brides back to England from Australia. And I came back home to marry my pen-pal. And that’s another story.

This story was told by Ernie Moseley to Jenni Waugh, ´óÏó´«Ã½ People’s War Outreach Officer, on Remembrance Day, 2005. Mr Moseley accepts the site’s terms and conditions.

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