大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Christine Wadsworth of Wakefield Libraries and Information Services on behalf of John of Featherstone and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

As my 18th birthday was approaching and I was due to register, I volunteered for the Navy beacuse I didn't want to go in the army. I had uncles who had served in the First World War but my family also had a seafaring history, serving in the Merchant Navy for over 200 years.(John's ancestors fought in the Napoleonic wars and he has letters dating from then.)

I was called up on the 29th June 1942 and went to join the shore-based naval training ship, HMS Ganges for basic seamanship training. During my training I took aptitude tests and volunteered to be one of a few selected to do a special job. Although we didn't know what the job was, we did know that it would end in promotion to Leading Seaman.

Early in September I was one of a small group sent home on leave. We were told that we would be moved to Chatham Royal Naval Base, then on to somewhere else. On returning from leave, nineteen of us were taken to Battersey, London and there posted in billets in the Clapham area. My landlady had originally come from Guiseley and normally took in students for a local pharmacy college.

We arrived on a Saturday in late September and on the following Monday reported to Battersey Polytechnic at 08.00 hours and started on a theoretical and practical course of electrical engineering and radio maintenance. This lasted 6 months and every 6 weeks or so we had an exam which we had to pass before we could continue. Those who failed had to return to barracks.

We learned precision engineering work, radio theory maintenance and fault finding. At the end of the 6 months we were sent to the Isle of Man for a further 6 weeks course this time on RDF (Radio Direction Finding later called RADAR maintenance and fault finding), as some of the early equipment was prone to break down. Returning to the mainland we had a few weeks at an establishment near Petersfield where we learnt about wireless telegraphy equipment.

Having passed everything our group was sent to Portsmouth Royal Naval Base where we were given a change of uniform and became Leading Hands. Eventually I was drafted to a destroyer at Devonport, HMS Limbourne, near Plymouth. This ship and others of it's type were involved in coastal convoy work most of the time, but sometime around June, July or August we took on board a special cargo and the Captain announced to the ship's company after we had left port, that we were sailing under sealed orders and were destined to go to the Mediterranean. He was instructed to take a large detour out into the Atlantic and proceed south and when off south Portugal go westward to Gibraltar. We approached Gibraltar later in the evening and took 900 tons of fuel on board from the oiler.

Gibraltar was a wonderful sight to see - all lit up- after coming from the UK where eveything was blacked out. We didn't approach closer, but went on to the Mediterranean eventually docking in Algiers where we unloaded our very special cargo which was all the maps for the invasion of Italy. After discharging the maps we proceded to Oran, North of Algiers, where we joined a convoy going back to the UK.

Back in Devonport we resumed our convoy duties. Sometime around September we sailed from Portsmouth towards France with a large convoy of merchant ships and other escorts almost to the French coast, then turned back. The captain called this a 'spoof'. With the shorter days we resumed convoy work, but at night time we proceded from Devonport towards the French coast sailing around the Channel Islands intercepting any enemy vessels we found. Sometimes we suffered some damage, but no serious loss of life.

On the 23rd of October 1943 whilst on one of these offensive sweeps, a voice over the action intercom reported that HMS Charybdis had opened fire. Next the order to fire rockets was heard over the intercom ... and that is all I remember ...at 01:30 hours the ship that I was on was torpedoed. I don't remember anything more of this incident, but was told in hospital that the bows of the ship had been blown off and that after we survivors had been taken off, the ship was torpedoed by one of our own vessels and sunk off the Sept Isles so that vital equipment aboard didn't fall into enemy hands.

After recovery and sick leave I was eventually posted to Grimsby where a small unit consisting of another radio mechanic and myself were responsible for the maintenance of all radar uquipment on local minesweepers and on any naval vessel that was in dock.

In early 1944 our unit was involved in fitting special equipment to interfere with enemy radar prior to the D Day landings. By May we were working very long hours to complete this work, but on the actual day, the 6th of June, all ships had gone and we had a day of rest.

I left the Navy officially in June 1946 as a Petty Officer.

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