大象传媒

IN AT THE BIRTH鈥� 鈥N AT THE DEATH

Bill Moss is my half brother and he served as a Stoker on HMS The Prince of Wales, the last battleship to join His Majesty鈥檚 fleet. Bill鈥檚 life has been greatly influenced by his love of football, his family, and the comradeship he found in the surviving members of the crew of 鈥榟is ship鈥�.

The first time he boarded the Prince of Wales was when she was being built and fitted out in the dockyard at Birkenhead, but was not yet commissioned. As a Stoker, Bill was proud to have been assigned to such a great ship and BOARDING HER BEFORE IT WAS LAUNCHED WAS LIKE BEING IN AT THE BIRTH OF SOMETHING GREAT AND GLORIOUS.

Bill had been selected to be a 鈥渒ey man鈥� member of the crew. This meant he was to board and take a detailed tour of the ship and thoroughly familiarise himself with its general layout. This was a special assignment, and the opportunity to get to know the total layout of the ship, which, in the heat of battle, proved to be a Godsend and no doubt saved Bill鈥檚 life.

The following narrative is a brief story told in Bill鈥檚 own words as he told it to his brothers sixty years after it happened. It is a story he had never before related, and he still has clear memories of that time.

Bill has approved this record, and its submission as requested in the recent television programme dealing with the naval involvement during the war in the Mediterranean Sea.

BILL鈥橲 STORY

鈥淎s a boy and later as a young man of 21, I thought I would never drown because I was born with a veil over my face. That was one thought I always clung to during my service in His Majesty鈥檚 Royal Navy. Years ago sailors would pay a lot of money just to own one of these veils, and I had mine with me when I went into the navy, but I lost it when The Prince of Wales went down. Nevertheless, I remained quite confident I would never drown.

Z FORCE

鈥淚n December 1941 a flotilla of six ships, which became known as the Z FORCE, had been assigned to duty in the Far East to help bolster British forces in that sphere. Z FORCE consisted of H.M.S. REPULSE a battle cruiser, the battleship flagship of the flotilla H.M.S.PRINCE OF WALES, and four supporting destroyers, His Majesty鈥檚 Ships ELECTRA, EXPRESS, TENEDOS and H.M.Australian Ship VAMPIRE.
鈥淲hen we got to Singapore things seemed pretty quiet, but when the Japanese came into the war and the Pearl Harbour attack took place, this changed things dramatically for us. We heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour when were on boiler cleaning duty, and suddenly everything had to be put back and we had orders to proceed up the eastern side of the Malay peninsular into the Bay of Siam (Thailand) to support our land forces there. It was said that the Japanese army had commenced a landing further down the coast, but this turned out to be false information, and we set out to return to Singapore.
鈥淗owever, we had no aircraft cover, which we should have had, We realise today it was ridiculous to go without such cover to spot for us and protect us from the air, a lesson which we should have learned in the Falklands war, but
fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

鈥淪o, we decided to turn back to Singapore, but as history tells, the planes of the Japanese air force spotted us. Our Walrus amphibian spotter plane had been sent up but found nothing. But then without any prior warning, a great number of Japanese planes suddenly came from nowhere and attacked the ships in our flotilla. They hit the Prince of Wales and slowed us down, and then they returned to finish off the Repulse. As they sank the Repulse first our captain slowed down a bit more, a thing that he should never have done. But anyway, he did, and that was a thing in war he should never have contemplated. You don鈥檛 slow down to pick anyone else up if there is immediate danger to your own ships, do you?

THE JAPANESE AIR ATTACK

鈥淎nd so, the Japanese planes came over and bombed us, but as we soon discovered, they also had torpedo-bombers and they hit us with quite a few of their torpedoes, just as they did to the American fleet at Pearl Harbour three days before. I remember being below decks when one hit on the port side and it seemed as though it flooded the engine room on that side.
鈥淲e were below the armoured decking and of course, eventually all the communications got knocked out. Chief Mech. Matthews who was in charge of us in Damage Control decided to send a couple of us up on to the upper deck to see what was going on. Well, we were below an armoured deck, which was wound up by a winch, which meant one seaman could not get out single-handed. So my mate Di Exeter and myself wound up this winch and crawled through. Di, who was a footballer as well as me, and was on Charlton Athletic鈥檚 books, went up with me onto the upper deck where there was a great deal of commotion, I think it was then that we saw that a shell or a bomb had gone right through the boat deck and ruined it. I was not sure what hit us, but it certainly had made a bit of a mess.

鈥淪o, we went down below decks again and reported. Later, Chief Mech. Matthews asked us to go up again and report what was happening. 鈥淚鈥檒l see that you lads are recommended for this鈥�, he said. So we went up again, but this time, it was different altogether. When we got up there, everything was at panic stations. We were amid-ships, by the Hanger of the Walrus and the point where the Walrus took off by the flight deck. Suddenly, one of the crew came running across and shouted a warning the Japanese were coming again. So I said to Di 鈥淐ome on, let us get below quick!鈥�, but he wouldn鈥檛 come with me. So, I went down below alone, and he went into the hanger. Just as he did, a stick of bombs dropped right on the catapult deck. I think poor old Di must have got the direct blast from them, and I think he must have got killed there and then. I went down below where it was chaotic, because there were clouds of what seemed like sulphurous dust filling the air and you couldn鈥檛 see a thing. And then there were panic stations to get up onto the upper deck, and in this panic I got knocked flying by a Chief Stoker. When I got up, I decided to go to the other side of the ship. I knew the ship pretty well from my training as a key man as I was on the ship before it was fully built, and it was then that I got to know my way about. But now, I couldn鈥檛 see anything because of all this sulphur-like dust, and although I had a torch, I couldn鈥檛 see more than two yards. As I really couldn鈥檛 see anything at all, I threw the torch away as it wasn鈥檛 a bit of good to me. Then I thought I had reached the other side. But what it was, the upper deck had split open. Well, there was about a 10inch gap through which I could see what I thought was the upper deck. I had to make a bit more progress, but was hindered by one of the large green marine lockers which were in the passageway. One had fallen down so I picked it up with strength which I don鈥檛 really know I had. So I got underneath that and went across to the other side, but I still couldn鈥檛 see a thing. I was like a blind man actually. However, I got to the other side and then I found out there are two archways there and turning to the left, I felt this rail and I thought 鈥淥h, my word, this is the range mess deck鈥�, because this is the rail in which they put all the hammocks, so I turned round and found my way to the other archway, and when I looked up I saw the ladder which I was hoping to go up was broken and was dangling loose, and I thought 鈥淢y God, how am I going to get up there?鈥�. But of course, I was pretty athletic and only young, being only 21 and an active sort of person, and I managed to jump up on to this ladder and climb up, and I don鈥檛 know how I got through really, but eventually I got to the top and got out. I stood there for a minute or two then went to the 鈥淎bandon Ship鈥� Station as the ship was pretty well under water at the back end by this time. Whilst I stood there by this 5.2 gun turret, I said to a nearby sailor 鈥淚 think they are going to abandon ship here鈥�. 鈥淥h,鈥� he said, 鈥淲e鈥檒l be alright here鈥� and I thought, 鈥淭hat is no use to me鈥�. Then I saw this hand come up through the crack, which I had thought was the other side. So I went down and I shouted through this split where I鈥檇 come up, but I never saw anybody else come through. So I went back on the gun turret, and I saw there was a commotion at the back on the quarterdeck, and I decided to go down there. As I started to make my way there, one sailor ran past me, and it was as though the skin on his back was peeled right off. He had been hit and was running with shock. I did not know where he was going and I don鈥檛 think he knew either 鈥� he just vanished.

鈥淎ny way I went on the Quarterdeck and a Lieutenant Wildish and three or four seamen were trying to lift one of the Carley Floats into the water to carry this sailor who had been hit and who had blown up like a balloon. I had never seen anyone swell so much. So the Lieutenant said to me 鈥淐ome over and give us a hand鈥�, which I did. But unfortunately, when we had lifted it over the side, the ship was still going along in the water, which we had not realised because it didn鈥檛 look as though it was moving. And as the Carley Float shot away he yelled 鈥淗old it back!鈥� and I went straight over the side, never having thought a thing about it, and was swept away. I eventually reached the Carley Float and Lt. Wildish and the other sailors came after me. When we eventually got on the Float, which was pretty big and would hold about a dozen sailors, one end of it was sinking a little bit and Lt Wildish was organising water rations within five minutes. The float must have got punctured as it was sinking a bit at one end and he said 鈥淲ell all of us can鈥檛 stop on this 鈥� So me and another lad went over the side and hung on to the float. Then he said 鈥淭here鈥檚 a cork mattress floating down, can you try and get to it?鈥� We saw this mattress, which was quite a distance away and without more thought I started to swim after it. I had been swimming in the baths at Singapore quite a lot before we left port and it never occurred to me that now my feet could not reach the bottom. But anyway I swam over to the mattress and eventually got to it.
There was no paddle with it so any paddling which was needed had to be done with bare hands. I managed to get on it, which was a bit awkward, but by this time the ship was about a mile away, as it was still afloat and had continued going away from us.

IN AT THE DEATH OF A MIGHTY BATTLESHIP

Then I saw the ship going down - stern first. I had a good side view of it and the bow seemed to have a massive hole right through the middle and it seemed to be as clean as a whistle as though a torpedo had smashed clean through.
鈥淎nd then, of course, I saw the Prince of Wales sink right down and it was as though I was in at the death of this glorious ship.
鈥淎s I observed all that was happening to the ship, time was passing and I eventually swam over to the Carley float and tied it to the mattress. One or two of us stayed on this mattress, and after what seemed an eternity; a rescue boat from the Electra came and picked us up.
While some of the men got into the boat the rest of us automatically got onto the Carley float from the cork mattress. The coxswain tied the float to the rescue boat and started to tow it along. This was OK but as it was being towed along, the cork mattress kept shooting up into the air as it was being pulled along, and the coxswain said, 鈥淐an somebody get on to the mattress and hold it down鈥�. So, I jumped on it, but I was being propelled up and down all the time as I was being towed along. However, we eventually got alongside the destroyer, the Electra, but the steps on Electra were covered with fuel oil, and as I was climbing them, I slipped back into the drink again, but this time I came up absolutely covered with fuel oil and really was in a terrible mess. One of the sailors helping us up said 鈥淐ome on, mate鈥� and we were taken into one of the mess decks, where they dished out a good ration of rum to each of us who had been saved from the sea. I had only the clothes I stood up in which was a pair of shorts, but nothing on my feet, which was something of a problem, as the decks of the ship were rather hot. There was some rag lying around, so I tied that round my feet. Which gave them some protection. Then I heard one of the officers shout up to the bridge 鈥淲e shall be going at 28 knots for 8 hours鈥�. By this time I was absolutely exhausted so I lifted the cover off one of the lifeboats and as I had had so much rum, I straightway fell fast asleep. When I woke up, there wasn鈥檛 a soul about and we were tied up. I walked down the gangplank and came to a massive building and in the centre, there was a crowd of sailors in a ring and as I went towards them, one of my pals, Steve came towards me and shouted to me 鈥淲illy鈥� (he always called me that) and he put his arm round me and said 鈥淐ome on Willy. Have you had any rum?鈥� and I replied 鈥淣o, I鈥檝e had nothing鈥�, and he said he would get me some. I remember asking him if he had seen Reg Whittingham, because Reg and I grew up together and he was on the Prince of Wales, and I knew his family would ask about him if I got home before him. But it鈥檚 a funny thing, I cannot remember ever seeing him on the ship but Steve told me he was OK. And he brought me another large ration of rum! So that was another good soaking.
鈥淏ut going back to what happened on the ship itself, there was something I once mentioned to Bryan my youngest brother, but which I have never mentioned to anybody else. And that was when I got into difficulties lifting up the locker I mention above, even then I wasn鈥檛 frightened, but I was bothered. But I didn鈥檛 ask for God to save me, but I asked for help from my Mother, who was a strong and cheerful character. But my silent cry for help was unusual because I was never brought up with my Mother but was brought up with my grandparents. To this day, I don鈥檛 know what made me say what I said, but it has always stuck in my mind 鈥� I asked for my Mother.
鈥淲ell eventually we got back to Singapore and we had to go through the procedures of giving our names and so forth, and there, they gave us another good ration of rum! So again, we got well soaked by the time that procedure was over.

鈥淏ut we were safe鈥�.

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