大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer on behalf of Sid and has been added to the site with his permission. He fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Sid gave me permission to interview him for this story being fully aware that it was going to be used for the 大象传媒 WWII People鈥檚 War Internet archive.

Sid was born on the water in Doncaster in 1922. His father had his own barge where the family lived and worked. He鈥檚 travelled on the water most of his life. He started working on the inland waterways carrying a100 ton of cargo such as flour, bricks and other goods up the south Yorkshire canals as far as Sheffield. First they鈥檇 go down to Hull to load up, calling in a various places dropping cargo on the way. His father died 鈥渆arly doors鈥� of cancer. Although he never went to school his mother taught him to read and write and the other life skills he needed he picked up through experience. He remembers having a very good childhood and being very happy travelling about all the time.

When war broke out he remembers that he was staying with his married sister at Mexborough, both of their parents being dead by that time. He heard the news on the radio. 鈥淚 thought if there鈥檚 gonna be a war I might as well be in it and went to join up鈥� He was 19 at the time. As could be expected he chose the navy. He went for the interview and signed his name and that was that, he was in. His training started on the HMS Ganges at Plymouth. There he was put through drill as well as square bashing and taught all of his knots, something that wasn鈥檛 needed in his case.

After training he joined the Phoebe in 1942 and never left her for all the years he was in the navy, which was quite unusual. Each time she went in for decommission she kept a skeleton crew onboard, one of which was always Sid. He remembers her fondly, 鈥淗MS Phoebe was a Dido class cruiser 5.25 dual guns, single and twin guns as well as torpedo tubes and depth charge racks. A big ship.鈥� She was manned by 600 crew including a Chaplain and the Royal Marines.

She survived the war although she got torpedoed, Sid remembers, in 1943 (archive information states1942) off the African coast. The torpedo ripped a huge hole in the side of the ship, big enough, according to Sid, to 鈥渄rive a bus through it鈥�. The hit was made worse due to the fact that it struck just around breakfast time when the night watch were sleeping and the afternoon watch were having breakfast. So only one watch was above deck. Sixty hands were lost all together. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 war鈥�, he shrugged when asked about the event. He never feared for his own life because he never thought about it, he just loved being on the water, it didn鈥檛 bother him one bit.

Being in battle, 鈥淵ou just don鈥檛 notice it, you鈥檝e a job to do and you just do it, you don鈥檛 think about what鈥檚 going on. If you鈥檙e a gunner you know you鈥檙e a gunner and you have to be alert all the time. As soon as they said 鈥渁ction stations鈥� you went to your position and just got on with your job.鈥�

To get 鈥減atched up鈥� they had to cross the Atlantic all the way to America, not an easy journey for a vessel in her condition. She was taken into dry dock at Brooklyn navy yard and the crew was given permission to go ashore, which Sid said, was a nice break from the sea. Sid recalls his time in New York as being quite different from what he had seen in Europe, 鈥淵ou wouldn鈥檛 have thought a war was going on鈥�.

He enjoyed being onboard the ship even if you had to make your own entertainment when you weren鈥檛 working. 鈥淵ou had to work three watches and you had one watch on and one watch off so that you didn鈥檛 repeat the shifts. Morning, afternoon and night. A 鈥渄og-watch鈥� was a two-hour watch, the normal watch being a four-hour one.鈥� So when he wasn鈥檛 on watch he wrote letters to his sister that were taken ashore the few times they docked to take on food and oil. He wrote often although it took a long time for the letters to get back home. He also played the piano on the mess deck, did his washing or read in the library when the noise of 鈥済abbing鈥� got too loud.

He remembers once that rats got onboard while they were in Bombay dry dock repairing one of the four propeller shafts. They had to use traps to get rid of them. Fortunately they all slept in hammocks that where swung between two bars on the mess deck so there was no danger of them getting into bed with you!

Sid recalls that HMS Phoebe鈥檚 tours of duty took her to the Mediterranean where she partook in the liberation of Malta as well as escorting Merchant Navy convoys off the African coast and in the Far East. He also remembered that they had to take the King and Queen to Ireland. He got to see them but he never met them.

He was out by Rangoon when he heard that the war had ended and the ship sailed to Plymouth to decommission. He was de-mobbed in 1946 and remembers being given the famous grey pinstriped suit with a Trilby. They wanted him to stay on but 9 out of 10 who were asked said 鈥渘o way!鈥�. He was awarded the following medals; Burma Star, Italy Star, Africa Star, 1939-45 Star and Atlantic Star. He was very sad to hear that the Phoebe had gone for scrap in the 1950鈥檚.

After the war he went back to live with his sister and got a job at a steelworks in Mexborough making circular saw blades. He met his wife after leaving the navy and soon went back again to the water in a 150-ton oil tanker based at Hull where he worked up to his retirement. He used to travel up to Leeds and Selby, up the Humber and up the Ouse.

His final comment to sum up his 83 years was this; 鈥淚t was my life, I was born on the water and I lived on the water鈥�

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