大象传媒

This story was submitted to the people's war website by a volunteer from 大象传媒 GMR Action Desk on behalf of John Butler and has been added to the site with his permission. John Butler fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was called up to the Navy at 17 and trained as a coder and sipher. My first major voyage was on HMS Gedisha. We set off from Liverpool and were headed to St John's in New Found Land. About 3 days out the Asdic (a machine which detected objects between the ships and the sea floor using ultra sound) detected a submarine was below us. We calculated as close as we could at what the depth the sub was likely to be and sent down the depth charges - bombs which dropped straight down and went off at a designated depth. It was a nerve wracking experience as if we didn't get the sub it was going to get us. But although we heard nothing after a few minutes we saw oil on the surface of the water - a silent sign the sub had been hit. After that we made it back to Liverpool without further incident.

Once back I was posted to another ship - a troop ship called the Orion and sailed to the Alexandria. In Alexandria we moved again, this time to a Greek Destroyer called Ierax. This ship was manned - believe it or not - by boys! 12-16 year old boys who'd escaped from Greece.

After some time docked in Alexandrea on the Ierax once more we moved - to a net laying cruiser called the Guardian. We sailed on the Guardian down the Suez and into the Pacific where we stayed for two years. At this stage the war had finished in Europe but still continued with Japan. Sailing the Pacific, our role was to act as target practice for allied air forces! We towed a target which the pilots would practice hitting - and sometimes they got a bit too close for comfort!

I witnessed the Japanese surrender of Hong Kong and the war came to an end. We had to steal some oil from a Japanese tanker - but we let the crew board our ship and watch an old Betty Garble (1940s pin up!)film we were watching projected onto a wall on deck. They brought with them little bamboo chairs which they perched on as they enjoyed the film. We didn't blame them for the war and what had happened and they were very grateful to us for the treat of watching a film.

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