大象传媒

First submitted as an article to The Review, Quarterly Journal of The Naval Historical Collections and Research Association, Autumn 2003 (Vol. 16, No. 2, p39-44).For associated photographs please see the article in The Review.

When I finished this yarn to my daughter she said 鈥測ou should write it down鈥�. So I did. It begins in 1937. I was a sub lieutenant, ready to join the fleet, having completed one year as a cadet, two years as a midshipman, and courses in gunnery (Whale Island), torpedo (Vernon), navigation (Dryad, and a year at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.
War with Germany was inevitable. Peacetime in the Royal Navy was great; foreign travel, lots of sport, social occasions, and a healthy outdoor disciplined life in a seafaring world; wartime would prove to be very different. I decided that the Surveying Service would be an interesting experience until war broke out. I was always happy with maths, physics, chemistry etc. Surveying involved outdoor work with sextants, theodolite, astrolabes, echo sounders, etc., and calculations for correcting charts and making new ones. In fact it was advanced navigation. Much of the fieldwork was in remote foreign places and very close to nature in the raw. Local natives were not exactly hostile, more doubtful of one鈥檚 presence until the doc had preformed one or two first-aid jobs. We then were their 鈥榖est friends鈥�. To cut a long story short (as my old friend the bosun would say before starting one of his marathon yarns), it was 1939 and I was back in the fleet as navigating officer of the destroyer HMS INTREPID. INTREPID was very special. The ship鈥檚 company was first class, the officers, captain, No. 1, No. 2 (me), sub, gunner (T), doc, chief (engineer), plus the odd RNR and RNVR sub or midshipman, were a great team.
INTREPID was very different from today鈥檚 destroyer. She was 321 feet long, 32 feet beam, draught 8 陆 feet. She had four low angle 4.7 inch guns, (useless against aircraft), two banks of five 21-inch torpedoes, the latest Asdic Set (Anti-Submarine), depth charge rails and throwers. Most importantly, she had 35,000 horsepower driving two large screws. At full power she could do 35 knots (40 mph). The bridge was open (no roof). We had no RADAR, just good eyesight and powerful binoculars. Weight reduction to achieve speed meant that the ship鈥檚 plating was not armoured and, in fact, was as thin as possible.
Destroyers were versatile. Whenever an unforeseen need arose the destroyer was called upon to meet it. In 1939 we needed high-speed minelayers to lay fields in enemy waters. WELSHMAN and MANXMAN, specially designed for this purpose, were not yet ready so INTREPID, with five other destroyers, did the job. Out came two 4.7 LA guns, out came the two banks of five 21-inch torpedoes, and out came the depth charge chutes and throwers. Two rails (port and starboard) to carry 25 mines and their sinkers were fitted on the upper deck and hey presto INTREPID was a high-speed minelayer. HM ships EXPRESS, ESK, IVANHOE, ICARUS, and IMPULSIVE were similarly converted and the six destroyers (now minelayers) became the 20th M.L. Flotilla, based at Immingham.
The 28 May 1940 found INTREPID on night patrol in the channel between Calais and Dover. The object was to keep an eye on the French (now German) coast. It was a very pleasant night. We had the Channel to ourselves. The Germans had already sited a 鈥楤ig Bertha鈥� battery near Calais and were lazily lobbing large shells onto Dover twenty miles away. The gun flashes and the shells landing on Dover were clearly visible. The time of flight seemed to be about one minute. We could predict when a shell would land on Dover and also when it was overhead. Six miles from Dover is Deal where I spent a lot of my childhood and where my mother, a naval widow, still lived so I was quite close to home.
All good things come to an end. We received a signal to 鈥榩roceed to Dunkirk, forthwith鈥�, and we were off on another job. We adjusted speed to arrive at Dunkirk at daylight. Going into any harbour in wartime was dangerous because of enemy mines, wrecks, changes in the swept channel, etc. In daylight you could, hopefully, pick a safe course in. At daybreak the first thing we saw was a pall of black smoke rising from the town; probably an oil depot which had been bombed. As we drew nearer, the pier for which we were making stood out as a grey silhouette. We passed close to a large ferry that had been mined. It was sitting in the shallows bolt upright with its masts and funnel half submerged. A sad sight. We were now getting closer to the pier and quite suddenly it was apparent that, from the sea end to as far as the eye could see inland, it was crowded with troops, hundreds and hundreds. Closer still, and although busy with nursing the ship alongside, I could now see the individual faces of disillusion and defeat. There was however perfect discipline. They stood waiting as though on a parade ground. A small 鈥楤each Party鈥� consisting of an officer and six men were in charge. They had given up their chance to leave.
We were 鈥榮tarboard side to鈥� and 鈥楯ack鈥� had eased off the guardrails so that the troops could board along the entire length of the ship. Our conversion to a minelayer was a blessing. We had all that extra space on deck and were free of all that top weight. In minutes the deck was completely covered; I estimated we had 550 men and perhaps more on board.
A brief exchange with the 鈥楤each Party鈥� and we were off. So 鈥榮low astern starboard鈥�, and we eased away from the pier. 鈥楯ack鈥� needs no orders on occasion like these; he does what needs to be done. The guardrails were re-rigged; the last thing we wanted was someone falling overboard on the way home. Normally hot tea, ship鈥檚 cocoa and corned beef sandwiches, would appear for survivors pulled out of the water. Not possible for over 500. However 鈥楯ack鈥� did his best with a bit of the old psychological 鈥榶ou鈥檒l be alright there mate鈥�, or 鈥榟ave a duty free鈥�, (cigarette). More or less isolated on the bridge the captain and I tried to pick out a safe course among the wrecks. A good rule (which was to serve INTREPID well later in the year) was the 鈥榬oute in without trouble is the best way out鈥�.
Once again we passed the sunken ferry. Further on we came across a German airman standing on his plane, luckily still afloat. He was waving his arms and shouting, rather arrogantly I thought. The German language always sounds a bit rough. Friend or foe in the water is, where possible, always rescued from our common enemy, the sea. Unfortunately on this occasion we could not risk the lives of so many men by stopping. As we drew near one of our wags with a voice like a foghorn bawled, 鈥榩assing鈥�, to the amusement of our ship鈥檚 company. (See footnote 1 which fully explains this joke).
We were fast reaching the point where we could alter course for Dover. At the front of the bridge is a cubbyhole into which you can get your head and shoulders. The chart in use rests on the plate glass underneath a lamp for night use. I was checking the course for Dover when there was a b鈥�.y great bang. It was a near miss bomb from which we suffered light damage but my chart table glass was shattered by the pressure wave. The chart in tatters, my hair full of powdered glass, and on my face just one single cut.
Above circled a single light bomber. There were more to come. We had no air cover. Our two remaining guns were low angle and quite useless. All we could do was the aircraft when we saw the aircraft lining up to attack. We were going at speed and having to put the wheel over to do this. The wheelhouse is below the bridge and there is a short vertical voice pipe at the front of the bridge for passing down orders. Normally orders for altering course at speed requires a little time i.e.,

Officers of the watch:Starboard twenty Quartermaster:Starboard twenty, sir - Wheels on Starboard twenty, sir
Officers of the watch:Very good

Officers of the watch:Midships Quartermaster:Midships, sir - Wheels amidships, sir

And so on.
Now there was no time for this palaver. A mad dash to the voice pipe, starboard twenty! And then flattening out on the deck before the bomb arrived. Two more near misses and we were starting to get confident. There was a pause indicating that the aircraft had no more bombs. Great relief and suddenly 鈥榡ust could not help laughing鈥� at our necessary but undignified scrambling about the deck (and very glad not to have been observed). The aircraft was still circling above. Then came the chatter of machine guns. 鈥極h here he comes again鈥�, and we were once more into the 鈥榟ide and seek鈥� game. Somehow we were more confident now. By the gunnery control tower at the back of the bridge there was just a little cover if you chose the right side. If the aircraft was coming from port you tucked in on the starboard side and vice versa. The bridge space in front of us was no place to be 鈥� the bullets were just ripping in on one side and out the other. It is hard to believe but we still laughed as we dived for cover with remarks like 鈥榳rong side, sir鈥� or 鈥榤ore cover over here鈥� and so on. A few more attacks and then silence and the aircraft was gone. We pressed on and reduced speed from 鈥榝ull ahead鈥� to a lively twenty knots or so.
We were looking forward to a short rest while the troops disembarked before returning for a second load. At Dover we joined another destroyer alongside and the troops left. Our job was done for the moment. The organization for receiving the troops was first class, registration, refreshments, train and leave vouchers, and trains to get them home, was all laid on. However, inspection of the hull showed that we had received bomb damage and were declared unseaworthy, a return trip to Dunkirk was off. We were to go instead to Smith鈥檚 Docks, Middlesborough, for repairs. It was common knowledge that the INTREPID was in harbour and my mother and I were able to have a reunion at the 鈥楲ord Warden鈥� near the dock.

Notes:
1. When powerboats move between ships in harbour or at anchor it is important to know if the boat heading towards is calling. For example if we in INTREPID challenged a boat with 鈥榖oat ahoy鈥� and he answers 鈥業VANHOE鈥� it means that the captain of the IVANHOE is calling. Etiquette demands that the captain of the INTREPID be on the gangway to greet him. Among other answers to the challenge 鈥榖oat ahoy鈥� is 鈥榩assing鈥� which is self-explanatory.
2. INTREPID was lucky; nine destroyers were lost during the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from Dunkirk. With few exceptions all of the destroyers involved received bomb or machine gun damage.
3. INTREPID鈥檚 one trip was on 29 May. 鈥極peration Dynamo鈥�, the code-name given to the evacuation of the BEF lasted seven days from 28 May to 4 June 1940. 338,226 troops of which 123,000 were French were brought back to England (85% of the BEF). INTREPID was bombed and sunk by German aircraft in Leros harbour, Dodecanse on 29 September 1943.

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