大象传媒

There was pandemonium.The order had gone out "Abandon ship!" Some men were already in the water swimming away from the ship. Most of the Tubes crew were tugging at lines, securing carley floats and it was here that my razor sharp trusted seamans' knife came in handy. I undid it on its lanyard around my waist, I slashed binding after binding whilst the others carried anything that would float and dumped it over the side. Then my attention was attracted by a young Asdic Rating Able Seaman Hillier. He was sceaming, moaning,crying and gibbering; he was in a terrible state. Two of us got hold of him and shook him but it was no use. Down below in the water, sat in a craft we had just launched, were the ship's Chief E.A. and Chief Purser. They were paddling away from the ship's side and when we shouted for them to wait for others, they just ignored us. We thught of chucking Hillier over the side in the hope he would clamber into the raft, but the other two in it were moving away. Later on Hillier's body was found washed up on the beach, drowned. I am sure, with a bit more cooperation from the two in the raft, we could have saved him. I still think about it.

When the "Abandon Ship" order was given, the Battle Ensign flying at the main mast was hauled down, indicating we had surrendered. The Germans sportingly ceased firing on our now helpless boat.

Joe and I still remained together and as the shelling had ceased the general panic subsided. There were still a few men left and we were a bit reluctant to go over the side. I think it was then that Gunner McCracken collared me and said he wanted me to help him, so I followed him inside to the ship's office. He seemed so cool and relaxed as if he were on an everyday job. Pointing to an oil fuel tank cover he said he wanted it open which was no trouble. He then handed me a bunch of keys; he said one fitted the ships' safe and I was to go through them one at a time until I got the safe open. We suceeded and and then he told me to hold out my arms carefully and take every single paper as he got them out and dump them in the fuel tank. Midway through this operation he came across some money - 拢1 notes, ten shilling notes, two shilling pieces and stuffed them into his pockets. I remember thinking - he could have given some of it to me- but under the circumstances it did not seem much use. The job completed, he banged the safe shut whilst I dropped the lid on the tank.

Out on the upper deck there was some activity around the after topedo tubes, the Torpedo Officer, along with some torpedomen were preparing to fire the remaining torpedo, which they did. Whether he intended ditching it to prevent it falling into enemy hands or whether he hoped it would hit one of the enemy destroyers patrolling some distance away, I cannot say, but within some ten minutes the defenseless Hardy was again being shelled causing more casualities. One of them was Chief Stoker Stiles who died from his injuries.

Just prior to this renewed shelling voices from up on the bridge were yelling at me to go up on the fo'c'stle deck just below them. They had the Captain lashed on a stretcher, lowering him feet first, and wanted me to grab him and lay him on the deck. As he came down I saw that his head and face were in a terrible state; he was groaning and breathing heavily and as he breathed lumps of flesh on his face were moving in and out. I did not think of him dying, but then the Officers came rushing down and took charge.

Then with renewed firing we knew it was time to go! The Officers dumped the Skipper in the water and dived in after him.He was dead when they got him to the beach. I was told that some of his last words spoken on the bridge, were "I shall never forget No Fours gun crew"

I took my shoes off and tied them by the laces to my belt, made sure my life belt was inflated, I got hold of the ships' Battle Ensign lying at the foot of the mainmast, rolled it up and tied that to my belt. As I climbed the guard rails I felt a blow on the inside of my left leg near my knee and realised I had been hit with something. There was no time to investigate as more shells were coming inboard.

Joe and I dived in the water together, struck out and in a few minutes we had reached a point near the beach where we could wade. Then from behind us we heard a cry for help and looking back we saw Paymaster-Lieutenant Stanning waving. We were undecided what to do, as we were suffering from the effects of the bitter cold water, but back we turned. We saw that one of his ankles was shattered. It wasn't so bad hauling him though the water but when we got to the beach and a high wall of snow at the water mark, it became really hard work. He was compaining bitterly at our rough treatment. Yard by yard we kept at him supporting him either side (he was quite a big man). Our object was a wooden house about 400 yards away.

Eventually we made it and the surprise of our lives. The house was crammed full of Hardy survivors in all sorts of stages of undress being warmed and thawed out before a great roaring fire, and being given hot cups of coffee by the occupants, Mrs Christiansen and her daughter.I have forgotten to mention that when I reached the beach my boots were missing - the laces may have broken when I jumped overboard - so I had made the journey up to the house in stocking feet.

The ships' Medical Officer, Surgeon Lieutenant A.P.B. Waind RNVR was doing his best to give treatment to the wounded. One man I noticed was Able Seaman Trigger whose Action Station had been Bridge Communication No. He had a nasty looking wound down his back. As we brought Paymaster-Lieutenant Stanning in,the Officers grabbed him, sat him on a chair and used a knife to cut away his wellinton on his injured ankle. They pulled the other one off and threw it on one side. Seeing that I had no boots I made a mental note of this. I went outside, took my overall off, wrung as much water out of it as possible and put it back on again. It was certainly chilly! But as Joe and I had expended a lot of energy bring in the wounded Officer, our blood circulation was in excellent condition. I needed shoes badly so I sneaked over and pinched the good wellinton discarded by Stanning and then managed to find another fairly good match.

It was then that Lieutenant Commander V.G.D. Mansell called us all together and said "Now when the Germans come for us we are only to give information about names and service no". On no account were we to say what we did on board, eg asdics, signals etc. Joe and I decided that as we were in good physical condition and getting warmer all the time we would make a break for it and get away from the house. We knew Narvik was in one direction so we decided to go the opposite way.

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