- Contributed by听
- smcornriggs
- People in story:听
- Eric Sykes, Samuel Kay
- Background to story:听
- Royal Navy
- Article ID:听
- A2014129
- Contributed on:听
- 10 November 2003
During early 1939 my uncle, Eric Sykes, and his friend, Samuel Kay, worked as glaziers for George G Kirk, a family-run business based in Kilmarnock. After much discussion between them, they decided that they wanted to join the Royal Navy and soon after my uncle's 16th birthday they travelled to Glasgow to sign up.
A few weeks later, in May 1939, they began their training on board HMS Caledonia, based at Rosyth. This initial training period ended on 4 September 1939, the day after WW2 began. They then continued training with 47 Class on board HMS St George, based at Douglas, Isle of Man. The class was stationed at Cunningham's Holiday Camp during the training, as it was being used to barrack naval recruits. My uncle also attended gunnery school and qualified as a 15'' gunner.
After completing their training, my uncle and Samuel Kay received notification in June 1940 that they were to join the crew of HMS Hood at Liverpool. They were pleased at this posting, as Hood, a 42,000-ton battleship, was the flagship of the British fleet. However, my uncle's naval kit went missing en route to Liverpool and he wasn't allowed to embark. While he waited for his kit to arrive, Hood sailed from Liverpool without him, much to his annoyance. He then received orders to join the crew of HMS Warspite (which was then part of the Mediterranean Fleet) and soon saw action, with the Battle of Calabria taking place two weeks after he joined the ship. During this battle, the Italian flagship Guilio Cesare was hit by the Warspite from a range of over ten miles! My uncle also saw action during the Battle of Cape Matapan and the Battle of Crete, where Warspite took a direct hit from a bomb released by a German aircraft. However, the ship was able to sail via Singapore and Pearl Harbor to Washington for repairs.
Meanwhile, just under a year after HMS Hood sailed from Liverpool without my uncle, the German battleship Bismarcksank her on 24 May 1941 during the Battle of the Denmark Strait. All but three of Hood's crew were lost, and my uncle later found out that his boyhood friend, Samuel Kay, and a few other men that he knew from his naval training service were among those who perished.
My uncle saw out the remainder of WW2 on board a variety of ships (including HMS Royal Sovereign, HMS Indomitable and HMS Ajax) and also saw active service during the Korean War on board HMS Warrior. Interestingly, two of the survivors of the Hood tragedy, Bob Tilburn and William Dundas, served alongside my uncle on board Warrior, although they never spoke much about what had happened.
My uncle is now aged 80 and lives in British Columbia, Canada. To this day, he regards himself as the 'fourth survivor' of the Hood tragedy and one of the luckiest men to have survived WW2. For, were it not for his kit going amiss, he would have sailed with HMS Hood and would surely have died along with Samuel Kay and the 1,414 other crewmembers in the ice-cold waters between Greenland and Iceland.
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Message 1 - The Hood,
I posted my story of Cousin Frank Holland who died on the Hood when she went down. The Commander was also called Holland.
The memory of the joy on Aunt Anny's face when he came in and said "Mum I have got posted to a Battleship" "which one" "The Hood" Things like that are seared into a boys brain especially as I was so jealous at not being old enough to join up. We were not to know she was a flawed ship and the authority's knew it but still sent her out.
My story is A1306829 on my personal page. Frank Mee Researcher 241911.
听
Message 2 - The Hood,
Posted on: 18 February 2004 by petersyms
My great-uncle survived the Hood by an equal stroke of "luck". He volunteered to transfer to the submarine sevice, an act which was considered suicide at the time. He left the Hood a few weeks before its final voyage.
Frank Mee- Your criticism of the "authorities" and the Hood as being " a flawed ship" are very unfair. The Hood wasn't a "battleship"- she was a "battle cruiser"- an very heavily armed ship which sacrificed armour to gain speed. I've heard her described as "an eggshell armed with a hammer" she was also an old ship having been designed in 1915.
Sadly at that stage in the war we had no choice but to fling everything we had into the fight. Leaving a 40,000 ton warship in harbour because it MAY be sunk is insanity. The Bismarck posed a terrible threat to our merchant fleet (I lost 6 other great uncles due to U-boats) & HAD to be stopped regardless of the sacrifice.
听
Message 3 - The Hood,
Hello Petersyms,
She was a Battle Cruiser of course you are right. To us lads of the time she was a Battleship. We thought in Battleship Cruiser Destroyer Aircraft Carrier lines at that time and I had Dinky Models of quite a lot of them including Hood. I only wish I had them now.
The paragraph you pull me up on was not my words. Quote from the Director of Naval Construction in 1939. Her machinery is in very poor shape and the Hood is not fit for battle. His very Prophetic words were "If not given a complete modernization there might be eternal cause for regret" and I think the loss of 1416 Officers and men was too big a sacrifice.
The Bismark had realised her mission was pointless and was heading for home having had battle damage caused by the Prince of Wales. The Ark Royals planes dropped the torpedo which caused the damage to her steering allowing her to be caught and sunk.
I am sorry I cannot eat my words, the Hood could have been up armoured without too much loss to the fleet at that time but then that is only our own opinion I suppose and we do have the right to those.
Like a lot of things that happened during the war years we wondered why it had to be and many mistakes were made. In my own military career I discovered that parsimonious government had a lot to answer for and still have by all accounts nothing changes.
Regards Frank.
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Message 4 - The Hood,
Posted on: 23 February 2004 by petersyms
Hello Frank, Thank you for reply.
The condition of "The Hood" was similar to the state of all three services (& God help us our armed forced today....)
In a perfect world fighter command would have had a 1000 spitfires (rather that cloth winged Hurricane 1's + Gloster Gladiators), our Bomber pilots would have something more like the Mosquito rather than Hampdens & Battles. The army in France would have a tank that could match the Panzers & the Navy would have had modern warships of the quality of the the Tirpitz or Bismarck. Sadly 1939 wasn't a perfect world & men were thrown away to buy us time. I think the only real alternative to this was to go along with Lord Halifax & negotiate a surrender.... I'm very grateful to those who sacrificed their lives to prevent this happening. I dread to think what europe would be like if Hitler had ruled for 20+ years.
A lot of things went wrong with the Hood's mission. She initially engaged the Prince Eugene rather than the Bismarck which allowed the Bismarck to engage the Hood unopposed. In the end it was one "fluke" 15" shell igniting a magazine that sunk her (not unlike the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbour). If that shell had hit anywhere else the outcome may have been better and more men may have survived.
I do agree with you that in retrospect the sacrifice WAS too great. The Bismarck attempted to return to base. At the time though this couldn't have been known and the order had to be given to stop her. She was a very dangerous ship even when damaged. The task force that eventually sunk her outgunned her many times over.
I'm not convinced that any-amount of extra armour would realistically have saved her though. Even the more modern Prince of Wales was quickly sunk by the Japanese. A 15" shell will penetrate pretty much any ships deck. The amount of shipyard time & steel it would have taken to up-armour the Hood would be excessive- the same resources could have made many new destroyers or cruisers. I'm no expert, but I'd imagine that a proper overhall would take at least a year (based on modern overhall times). Ideally this hsould have been done in the mid 1930's. Unfortunately only "mavericks" like Churchill wanted rearmament then. By the time war was percieved as inevitable we'd left things far too late.
听
Message 5 - The Hood,
Hello Petersyms,
I have no idea of your age or if you were around during the war. That is not relevant in Knowledge of the war as it has been well documented and can be easily researched. The thing that is relevent and you will know this if you are of an age was the spirit of the people.
The Earl of Halifax 1881-1957 was thought of by my Father, a peace loving person and all my relatives as a traitor. He with Chamberlain became pariah's in our area a heavy industrial area with its militant workforce who had been through the bad times. They deploed all attempts at appeasment. We welcomed Churchill and revered him through out the war. The second the war was won he was put out to grass because he was a warmonger and we wanted peace. The right man in the right place certainly and I am sure we would all be Germans now without him. Halifax later went on to re-habilitate himself as our representative in Washington where he fought our case very well indeed.
If I may add an opinion to your views on the Hurricane she was the actual winner during the battle of Britain. We had 2309 Hurricanes in 32 Squadrons compared with only 19 Squadrons of slightly faster Spitfires. The Hurricane had armour behind the pilots seat that saved many a life, they were easier to build maintain and repair after battle damage.
Hrricanes shot down the first German plane in France and during the Battle of Britain shot down more enemy aircraft than all the other UK defences together.
When German planes started to carry more armour the Hurricane mounted twelve machine guns or four twenty mm cannon. They were the very first tank busters and have carried a can opener as their sign ever since, they could carry two 500lb bombs and flew in every theatre of war. We and the Canadians sent around 4500 to Russia and they were in service until 1947. Many of the pilots preferred the Hurricane to the Spitfire and many a German claimed to have been shot down by Spitfires when it was a Hurricane.
Tanks. We had a very good tank in the Matilda 2 designed in 1937 it weighed 27 tons and carried 78mm armour and a two pounder gun. It had twin diesel engines and reached speeds of 15mph. Some of them shook the Germans rigid at the battle of Arras during the retreat. In the the desert war they were the Queens of the desert until the 88mm gun appeared. The Matida's failing was the two pounder gun a useless bit of kit at the best of times.
You did make my point for me by saying when we did catch up with Bismark she was outgunned many times. Hood could have just shadowed her until the rest of the fleet gathered, Admiral Holland (same name as my cousin) made a couple of bad decisions, very easy for us arm chair warriors to say I know, I still think it could have turned out in a different way.
As a last word and hope you are still with me. This being a large shipbuilding area we saw how quickly ships could be altered refitted and repaired after battle damage so it would have been possible to take Hood out of service for a short while.
Thank you for an interesting discussion, having been at the mercy of parsimonious government and interference from ministers in my own service it does give an understanding of why our forces never ever had all they needed.
Regards Frank.
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Message 6 - The Hood,
Posted on: 23 February 2004 by petersyms
Dear Frank,
Some very good points. Incidentally I'm 26. Remember that the cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk were shadowing the Birmarck. The Hood & Prince Of Wales were expected to sink it. In retrospect that was overly ambitious- they SHOULD have waited for more ships to join up. I wonder what would have happened if the Hood had initially engaged the right target.... one salvo from the Duke of York did incredible damage to the Sharnhorst including disabling its radar & gun laying section. The Hood had a hell of gun battery.
I suppose at that time airpower had never really be used against ships at sea & was still an unknown factor. It would take the loss of repulse & P.O.W to show the navy that battleships should always have a flotilla of escort ships with them.
The Hurricane that won the Battle of Britain was a fabulous aircraft. Unfortunately the Hurricane that was sent to France in late 1939-early 1940 was a much more limited aircraft-it had canvas wings which limited its turn circle, a fixed pitch 2 bladed wooden prop which had a nasty habit of breaking in flight & no back armour (although many fighter pilots illegally fitted their own armour scrounged from wrecked bombers....or Me109's!!!!). The guns were initially fixed to converge at 400yrds (the dowding spread). In a sense it was a single winged biplane (if that makes sense). Added to some pretty unrealistic ideas about formation flying many squadrons were thrown away. Fortunately these failings were rapidly corrected and an all metal hurricane with a modern 3 blade variable pitch prop. was rushed into service. The Hurricane was a better gun platform than the spitfire though & was a lot easier to land (because of the wider, stronger undercarriage).
Lord Halifax's reputation always seems very unfair. Unlike, say Mosley, he was a true patriot (as shown by his efforts in Washington) who belived that Britain was doomed. Certainly given the speed that europe was conquered & our own defeat at Dunkirk I can see why he felt that Hitler was unstoppable. As a result I can see how he believed that a negotiated peace may have left us independent (although for how long is debatable). Fortunately Churchill's won the argument but I wonder what even Churchill thought our chances really where. His "we'll fight them on the beaches" speech is really pretty desperate. Certainly he'd made some pretty serious plans for a nazi invasion including "the British resistance" who were only expected to survive for 7 days.
Which part of the country are you from? My family were all from Newcastle/Sunderland (hence many of them being in the merchant Navy). Churchill was loved by most of the people, but there was some resentment about him, mainly from (untrue) allegations that he ordered troops to break up protests during the General strike.
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Message 7 - The Hood,
Hello Petersyms,
Spot on with all those facts but did you know the very first spitfires also had a two blade prop. I live in Stockton on Tees and we had Thornaby Aerodrome near by so saw the weekend flyers doing their stuff in 1938-39. they had mainly Furies which I thought great until I saw the first Hurricane and then wonder of wonders the Spitfire at the local show. It was like a Race horse at a donkey derby compared with most but the Hurricane held its own at that time.
The one reason I think this forum is viable is the fact the people writing give that aura of the wartime spirit. It was not something tangible but it was something that brought the best out in most people. There were bad eggs as in all walks of life.
It pleases me that young people as yourself take an interest in those days adding your thoughts about what happened. We are all on notice now and the youngsters have to take in the lessons learnt to make sure it never happens again. We are not so far apart in thought and area really, you will know about the people around the North East. There were a greater proportion of North Easterners in the fighting than some parts though all did their bit.
Regards Frank.
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Message 8 - The Hood,
Posted on: 24 February 2004 by petersyms
Dear Frank,
Part of the reason I'm here at all is because of the war- my Grandad (then working in a shipyard in Yarrow) ran out of cigarettes & asked my gran (who was assembling bofors guns) for a loan of some... one thing lead to another & here I am.
You can tell some of their most vivid memories come from that time. The first time my grandad saw a hurricane close up was when one ran out of fuel & had to make an emergency landing in the field behind their house.
He had an eventful war- he was called up a few years later & fought at El Alamein, Italy & then Belgium/North Germany before finally ending up in Palestine until DeMob.
Your point about making sure it never happens again is spot-on. The current war in Iraq may not have been fought for the best reasons, but some of the mass graves they've found in the south are far too much like my Grandfather's description of Belsen for comfort. Churchill was right about not appeasing tyrants.
听
Message 9 - The Hood,
Dear Peter,
You sound very proud of your grandparents. It was my grandchildren bringing questionnaires from school about wartime conditions that got me into all this. I would answer the questions that led to more and realised that I was only giving them a synopsis of the humerous things that happened and knew that was not fair to them. They actually put me onto the WW2 Peoples War forum having seen the adverts on TV and here I have been since. It got me back writing after many years and a new interest to keep me out of mischief.
I dare not ask Peter but if your grand parents are still there, you write down their stories and post them on here, every one has something to tell and your granddad must have some stories of his time in the forces. I too was in Palestine (My service was from 1947-48 Palestine then many places after)as it was then called until the end of the Mandate in 1948 so may well have trod in your grandfathers footsteps. Our own 50th Div. The Tyne Tees as they were called went the route your granddad took, was he one of those lads, they certainly got some of the hardest fighting and some units had 300% turnover during the war. That did mean only a few men made it the whole way with their own company. get those stories written down Peter.
I wrote about my Mother's war effort too so your grandmother's story is very relevent to these pages. Without those women doing mens jobs we would have ended up under the German flag, they did sterling work and again it wants writing down.
Like Churchill I was never one to turn the other cheek, if I was insulted I hit back but those war years plus my own time in the forces after the war taught me that war settles nothing. Any one who has seen action of any kind does not go back voluntarily. You obey orders but watch out for yourself and your mates, I never met a soldier of any army who wanted a war apart from the very green ones, they soon learnt.
I was against the war in Iraq because having been in that area I knew that you can never settle those people. Chop one head off and another three grow which again have to be attacked. Afghanistan is a very good role model for that, the war lords are all at logger heads and a settled government can only come with a very strong man in the lead and we all now what happens then. Palestine -Israel still the fighting goes on 56 years later, did we do them any favours by leaving in the first place?
I saw Belsen during my time in Germany, as a Senior NCO I took party's of young lads round the place. Everything had gone by then apart from the mass graves with 2000 dead and 5000 dead buried here, there were a lot of them. The Walls of remembrance and the museum at the entrance it was all very awsome even to me. The lads would go very quiet for some while after so I thought it was a good lesson on inhumanity, we should all learn from those times.
Your grandparents gave up a lot of things for your future willingly I might say. As long as you remember them they live, so write those stories Peter you seem very capable in the English prose department, let us see them posted for all to read.
Best Regards Frank.
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Message 10 - The Hood,
Hi Frank and Peter,
Sorry for joining your conversation but i am also intrested in HMS Hood due to my Great Uncle serving on it. for years I have been brought up with stories of an uncle who survived the sinking of the hood but could find no confirmation of it, then 2 years ago I started to reseaerch my own grandfathers war record and found out it was my grandfathers brother in law who survived the sinking. His Name was Ted Briggs and he married my grandfathers sister during the war after the sinking as Ted was a leading signalman by then but he was wearing a HMS Hood cap tally in his wedding photo,but they divorced up after the war.
I have been in touch with the HMS Hood Association but so far I have had no contact with Ted possible due to the bad memories.
Kind Regards
James
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Message 11 - The Hood,
Welcome James,
This is a free speech forum anyone can join in, that is what the war was fought for.
I do know one of the survivors lived in our part of the North East of England and may be able to find the name for you.
The other possibility is he would now be around the 80's and I stand alone as the last of my friends fell off the perch at Christmas and I am only 75. That is one of the reasons we want all the surviving vets or people who have their stories to post them on this forum before they are lost.
I will go through my local history books and see if I can turn anything up for you, the Hood association should have been able to give you the information you needed though, try them again.
Keep looking in Regards Frank.
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Message 12 - The Hood,
Posted on: 26 February 2004 by smcornriggs
James,
Ted Briggs is still alive (now the only remaing survivor). He featured on a Channel 4 programme (and associated book) about the search for Hood's wreck. The book can be bought from the Channel 4 website.
My uncle, Eric Sykes, served with Ted Briggs and another Hood survivor, Bob Dundas, onboard HMS Warspite during the Korean War.
Regards,
Stuart.
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Message 13 - The Hood,
Posted on: 26 February 2004 by smcornriggs
James,
Sorry, correction to my previous message. My uncle served with Bob Tilburn and William Dundas onboard HMS Warspite during the Korean War. Along with Ted Briggs, they were the only 3 survivors of the Hood tragedy. Ted is the only one still alive.
Stuart.
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Message 14 - The Hood,
Thank you Stuart,
I have looked in all the local reference books to see which of the survivors was the local man but cannot find mention of it. There was a large spread in the local paper several years ago and the surviver told his story it will be in the archives of the Evening Gazette (Teesside).
I saw the documentarty about the search for Hood and was both curious and shocked at the same time for too me it is sacrosanct as a war grave. Channel 4 did a good job but who is to say about the future now her position is known.
Regards Frank.
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Message 15 - The Hood,
Hi Frank and Stuart
Thanks for all the info.
I got in touch with the Hood association last year and spoke to their it guy who said he would pass on my contact details to Ted, but as Ted and my great aunt divorced I have not heard anything.
I have a photo of Ted on his wedding day and have been to the royal navy museum where they have a display about ted and the hood.
many thanks again
james
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Message 16 - The Hood,
The Admiralty were well aware of the frailties of the Battle Cruiser. You just have to look at what happened to Beatty鈥檚 Battle Cruiser squadron at Jutland to see what could go wrong. Battle Cruisers were principally designed as long distance Raiders that could match the speed but out-gun and destroy the Cruisers of the time. They were never designed to be Ships of the Line. The problems with the Hood were being addressed as the fore decking had already been strengthened. The Bismarck sailed before the Hood鈥檚 rear decking could be improved. The Captain of the Hood was well aware of the problem because he attacked the German ships by sailing straight at them to get in as close as possible and keep the aft out of the firing line. At large distances capital ships fired their guns like howitzers so the shells would fall on the decks from above. When in close the shells travelled horizontally so tended to hit the sides and the superstructure. The Hood had almost reached this range and was turning broadside to bring the rear guns into action. For those few minutes the read deck was venerable. The Hood was unlucky to be hit at this time. Of course in hindsight it is a valid point that it was unwise for the Hood to take on a modern Battleship like The Bismarck.
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Message 17 - The Hood,
Hello Bob,
All your points are valid and in war time they have to make terrible decisions at times. Parsimonius governments do not help, they think they can get the military on the cheap.
That certainly happened in my time and still today by all accounts. We got to test the original FN Rifle that the SLR 7.62 was based on. It was a wonderful weapon that would fire on full automatic if required. When it came back as the SLR the full automatic had gone, it was single rounds or semi automatic. What did they save? they did say it would use too much ammo and burn the barrel out. Any soldier knows you have to carry every round you fire so I could never see us blasting off for the sake of it.
That Leyland Multi fuel engine in the AFV's, I would not have put it in a lawn mower and having had to change many of them can tell you it was a pig. The Germans put a truck engine in their tanks and tuned it down, no problems.
Now it is the SA80 rifle the lads say it is rubbish, lack of body armour and a shortage of everything.
At 75 I have learned one thing governments will go for the cheap option every time and to hell with the service men and women.
Regards Frank.
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Message 18 - The Hood,
Hi Frank,
Interesting what you say about automaic rifles. My father was at Arnhem where the Airborne troops used sten guns liberally. You often see, in films like 'A Bridge Too Far' the sten guns being used on automatic. Banging away like Rambo. He said, in combat, the sten gun was mainly used on single shot. You would empty the magazine in half a second otherwise.
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Message 19 - The Hood,
Hi Bob,
Having carried and used the Sten I can tell you it was just as dangerous to the user as to the man in front of it.
You had to be very careful where you gripped the barrel as you could lose a finger in the working parts. We had one with a slightly longer barrel but the Mag still had 28 rounds in it, it was supposed to carry 32 but the springs were so weak it was impossible.
We used them on single shot mainly and they were useless beyond 100 yards but to us lads in ARV's better than the 38 pistol that was issue.
In later years I graduated to the Stirling, similar weapon but a Rolls Royce to a Sten.
We could fire it on Automatic but had it down to three rounds a burst every time, press the trigger on automatic with a sten and it took on a life of its own.
If you did not put the lock on the Sten it would go off on its own as you jumped out of a vehicle. The spring loaded working parts would move back if you hit the ground hard with the butt load a round and away it would go. We never carried it about with a mag on.
Regards Frank.
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Message 20 - The Hood,
Frank,
As an expert perhaps you can help me with this one. My father mentioned that there was a type of sten with a curved magazine that they used in the Border Regiment at Arnhem. I have been told that this could have been the Stirling but many experts insist that the Stirling was never used at Arnhem. I have to except this but why would my father have distinctly mentioned the curved mag? Unfortunately my father died last year so the mystery remains. He also could not understand why, as an officer he was issued with a pistol. He said he couldn't hit a barn door at 12 paces with it!
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Message 21 - The Hood,
Bob,
There were as many variants of the Sten gun as beans in a can.
I personally had them with a wooden butt and pistol grip we had a bayonet fixing for a fighting knife on it too. I dont think I would have used the bayonet when I could pull the trigger and spray everything within ten yards.
There were some to take silencers and some had longer barrels which gave slightly better accuracy. You could hit a barn door at ten paces with that one.
It was the ugliest weapon I ever saw and was developed at the Royal Small Arms Factory by two men called Shepherd and Turpin.
Right up to the last models still in use in 1960 it was still hated by the people who had to use it as a dangerous thing with a mind of its own some 4,000,000 were made and went all over the world.
It was a close quarter weapon only and in that capacity quite deadly. 150 yards was about maximum but it was usually much closer than that.
The weapon you may be thinking of is the Royal Navy Lanchester. It was based on the German MP28 and I believe some had curved magazines. this was a very good weapon and we did get hold of a couple to play with.
The Stirling was new in my time after the war and came out around the time of the SLR. I only ever saw straight Magazines as they fitted on the side of the weapon. Curved Mags were for underside fittings and gave a lower ground clearance if you were keeping your head down.
Our Officers always carried a Rifle or a Sten when things were a bit warm. I often carried a 1911 pattern Browning Automatic as well as the sten, we had a large stock of weapons in the base so could have what we wished.
Our best weapon was the Bren gun, we loved that one and I see even today there is a variant in use with the Infantry as the GPMG. It was far better than the Brownings we had they were pigs for jamming.
Most of the AFV's had Besa machine guns and some Besa 15mm were the main armament of armoured cars. I still thought the SLR was the best rifle and could win the falling plates competition with ease, it was so accurate.
Hope you have your answer in there some where.
Regardsa Frank.
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Message 22 - stens
Posted on: 26 May 2004 by Timbeeb
The REME website has a section with pics of many of the wpns you have mentioned. You can see at:
About links
Hope this is of interest.
Rgds,
Tim
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Message 23 - stens
Thanks Tim,
I got most of it right then and will now look into the site further.
I appear to have trouble each time I access REME trying to find ex-mates but that site looks like the answer.
Regards Frank.
听
Message 24 - The Hood,
Helo Frank,
I have just been reading both sides of the story of the Hood!
I read these with great interest!
Well done, Frank.
Regards, Joan-Elizabeth.
听
Message 25 - The Hood,
Posted on: 03 November 2004 by Judi
Although I am too young to have any personal experience of this I thought I would add this.
My uncle Reg (Reginald Carter) served on the Hood but was not on her on that last voyage. I don't know why and would love to find that out! I know he was an electrician and possibly a leading seaman. He never really got over losing all his friends when she was sunk.
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Message 26 - The Hood,
Hello Judy,
People got left behind in wartime for a variety of reasons.
They went on leave, on upgrading courses and as happened with hood a train delayed by bombing that literally missed the boat. Your uncle could have missed the Hood for any of those reasons or he may have been posted to another boat.
Everything was mobile during the war and soldiers found themselves changing Regiments with no choice in the matter, they were sent where they were needed and that was all the forces.
The individual had no choices in wartime and in my case after the war either, you went where you were sent.
Regards Frank.
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Message 27 - The Hood,
Hello Joan Elizebeth,
Thamk you for those kind words. It was something that made me stop and think as a boy, up to that time the war had seemed a lark to a lad my age, losing a family member brought home the horror. Aunt Annie never got over it so it blighted the whole family in many ways.
It makes me sad when our politicians blithly go to war thinking it will all be quick and easy. I was in the Middle East after the war finished during the Palestine Mandate and that is still going on today 56 years later.
We appear to learn nothing and that worries me, the future of My grandchildren is in their hands and they cannot hold a peace dove without dropping it. I fear for their future.
Regards Frank.
听
Message 28 - The Hood,
Frank -
this has been a most fascinating thread which I have enjoyed for many a long month and it has been a rare source of many contributions from many readers - however I must dis agree with you on one issue and that is that you state "you are now alone as your last friend fell off the perch last christmas" - I didn't as I am still here and have considered you a friend for some time - as I hoped that you would me ! I shall be cutting you off my Tomato list if you keep this up - then you will have to buy those local organic red things which will serve you right ! I'm sure Ron and Peter will feel much the same !
best regards Grandad !
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Message 29 - The Hood,
Tom,
There are friends and brothers, my friends are the people who we were easy with whose families used each others houses. We would go on holiday together and get well and truly jolly at Christmas and New Year. We could talk about everyday things and send raspberry's to the people who think they lead us tax us and generally mess things up for us. Those are the friends who have gone Tom and yes I feel I have lost part of me, I miss them so.
Brothers I never had but in the army found them. Many and varied but people you would trust and at times put your life in their hands among those I include your good self Peter Ron Ted in New Zealand Harold Len and many more too numerous to mention.
We all talk the same language, the same numbers and abreviations. We are comfortable with each other and the common denominator the Forces made that so.
So Tom, Brothers in arms who can never really talk to others who did not share our life in the forces, we can talk to each other in that easy way brothers have almost reading each others minds.
I hope you will now replace me on your tomato list as those shop bought things with tough skins (like us) and no taste (like us) are not allowed in the house except for cooking.
Regards Frank.
听
Message 30 - The Hood,
Frank -
I'll go along with that and replace you on my Tomato list...I have just been informed this a.m. by Radio 3 of the 大象传媒 that " I made a valuable contribution to their Classical Music for Troops" programme and they are sending me a copy of that programme - so you see - we are not all without some taste or other !
Our Pacific Salmon beats your Kippers anyday !
Cheers
tomcan
Message 1 - Warspite vs Cesare
Posted on: 19 February 2004 by jembateman
SM Cornriggs mentions his uncle being aboard Warspite when she hit the Italian battleship Guilio Cesare from 10 miles away. I'm pretty sure this was the longest range hit ever scored by one capital ship against another.
The long range envisaged in the designs of the US and Japanese battleships never happened, as their modern battleships never fought each other.
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