大象传媒

...Continued

The dawn came up that morning as it only can over the Indian Ocean, the sky filled with red and gold streaks. During the morning watch our Captain spoke to us over the Tannoy system, he read out a signal he had received from the C in C, to the effect that the Japanese had sighted us and we could be expected to be attacked at any time, but the fighter aircraft were being sent out for our protection...

鈥淣ow, repeat Now.鈥�

We waited and waited but no aircraft put in an appearance, only Japanese. At 10.30am we had the report, 鈥渆nemy aircraft in sight鈥� immediately our A.A. opened up, Hermes was a sitting duck, our anti aircraft defence was inadequate against the number of dive bombers that attacked us, there were 85 of them. Zero dive bombers each carrying a 250lb bomb that was delay fused, they went through our flight deck (we had no armour plating) exploding below decks.

The planes dived out of the sun and apart from a few near misses every bomb was on target, they went through our flight deck like sticking your finger through tissue paper causing absolute destruction below decks. One of the first casualties was our forward lift, it received a direct hit, was blown 10ft in the air to land upside down on the flight deck eventually sliding into the sea, all personnel in that area were instantly killed.

Wave after wave of these Zeros came at us. Our Captain was doing his best to dodge the bombs by using the speed of the ship. We were moving flat out at about 20-25 knots shuddering from stem to stern, not only from the speed, but from the continual pounding we were getting from those little 鈥淪ons of Nippon鈥� up in the air. Where oh where was our fighter cover, we never did get any. Up until then we had a commentary of what was happening up top.

The AA guns crews did a magnificent job and to assist them because the planes at the end of their dive flew along the flight deck to drop their bombs and because the guns could not be fired at that low angle, all the 5.5.`s, mine included had orders to elevate to the maximum so that as the ship slewed from side to side to fire at will hoping that the shrapnel from the shells would cause some damage to the never ending stream of bombers that were hurtling down out of the sun to tear the guts out of my ship that had been my home for the past 3 years.

Suddenly there was an almighty explosion that seemed to lift us out of the water, the after magazine had gone up, then another, this time above us on the starboard side, from that moment onwards we had no further communication with the bridge which had received a direct hit, as a result of that our Captain and all bridge personnel were killed.

Only about fifteen minutes had passed since the start of the action and the ship was already listing to port, fires were raging in the hanger, she was on fire from stem to stern, just aft of my gun position was the galley, that received a direct hit also, minutes later we had a near miss alongside our gun, talk about a tidal wave coming aboard, our crew were flung yards, tossed like corks on a pond. Picking myself up and finding no bones broken, I called out to each number of our crew and got an answer from all of them (no-one washed overboard), we were lucky; our gun was the only one that did not get hit.

At this stage Hermes had a very heavy list to port and it was obvious that she was about to sink. As the sea was now only feet below our gun deck I gave the order 鈥渙ver the side lads, every man for himself, good luck to you all鈥�.

Abandon ship had previously been given by word of mouth, the lads went over the side and I followed, hitting the water at 11.00 hours, this is the time my wristwatch stopped (I didn鈥檛 have a waterproof one).

As she was sinking the Japs were still dropping bombs on her and machine gunning the lads in the water. In the water I swam away from the ship as fast as I could, the ship still had way on and I wanted to get clear of the screws and also because bombs were still exploding close to the ship, the force of the explosions would rupture your stomach, quite a few of the lads were lost in this way after surviving Dante鈥檚 Inferno aboard, so it was head down and away.

Continued...

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Genevieve Tudor of the 大象传媒 Radio Shropshire and CSV Media Action Desk on behalf of S.B Curtis and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Stan Curtis Medals Awarded 1939 - 45 Star, Atlantic Star, African Star, Italian Star,Burma Star, Victory medal, Long Service and Good Conduct Medal

Period of Service 1935 - 1953

Ships served in: HMS Drake, Lucia, Ramillies, Resolution, Honesty, Gosling, Royal Aurther, Cumberland, Hermes.

See more of Stan's stories and photos:

• The Sinking of the HMS Hermes
• The Sinking of the HMS Hermes 鈥� Continued
• Stan Curtis in 1935
• Stan Curtis in 1938
• Stan Curtis in Malmesbury, South Africa
• Stan Curtis in Mowbray
• Stan Curtis in Shrewsbury
• Stan Curtis in New Jersey
• Stan Curtis in Mombasa
• Stan Curtis in Mombasa, the following year

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.