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This story was submitted to the People's War site by Eileen Linder on behalf of Alexander Somerville, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
The interviewer was Bruce Logan, and the event was run by 2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment.

Experiences of War

I was born in Ballylesson and joined the Royal Navy in 1943 at the age of 17.

My first ship was HMS Devonshire, a county class cruiser based at Scapa Flow. We operated on the Arctic convoys to Murmansk in Russia. But mostly we were employed escorting the aircraft carriers that were bombing the Tirpitz. She was a worry at the time in case she came out, so the whole fleet were really more interested in keeping her bottled up. We were attacked by aircraft from German bases in Norway and submarines. I mean there were maybe two or three aircraft carriers and a couple of battleships all in the fleet so it was a big target.

We never did see much of the Arctic, it was so cold that you couldn’t go on deck. The people on the bridge were on an enclosed bridge. Those in the engine room stayed down there because it was the warmest place in the ship and everything else was closed up. There were no portholes open. All you would see was a mass of sea. You slept at your action station, just slept there, slept whatever….. If you were a lookout on the bridge you did 2 hours on and 2 hours off. But that didn’t finish you. You went and slept at your damage control post and moved from one post to the other. All we got in the way of food was corned beef and cold tinned potatoes. It went on for days/weeks or you dropped down to action stations stage 2 or 3 which still meant you being at your post although you could sometimes relax and have a shower, shave and something to eat. It wasn’t easy during the war especially up there. I would rather have been in the tropics, if you went into the water up around the Arctic you wouldn’t last two minutes.

I was on the Devonshire for most of the war and we took the Prince and King back to Norway from England when we re-occupied Norway.

When I left the Devonshire I went to Canada to commission a ship and then we went to the Far East for the takeover again of Singapore from the Japanese.

On completion of that I travelled round quite a bit and went to Korea and we took the first British troops out of Posan. This was the Korean war and I served on the aircraft carrier HMS Unicorn. It had the old piston driven aircraft, Sea-fires and Sea furies on board. There were no jet planes then! I also spent a lot of time in Hong Kong and visited Japan.

There wasn’t a lot of difference living and working on an aircraft carrier. But there were a lot more people for a start and the conditions were a bit more cramped as you can well understand. If you were a sailor it didn’t matter what ship you were on you soon adapted to it. Wartime complements were larger because there was a bigger risk of the ship being damaged you needed more people for damage control and to replace the casualties. You had a hammock which you lashed up and stowed when not in use. At night the guy next to you was virtually sleeping with you.

I also served on HMS London, a guided missile destroyer during the confrontation with Indonesia. Indonesia were making noises, there wasn’t any action just a matter of being there showing the flag and a bit of muscle. I didn’t get to Londonderry in wartime but had a very enjoyable time based there after the war, it was a great anti-submarine base then.

I was lucky and had a great career. The Russians didn’t give me a Service Medal, I did get the 39-45 Star, the Pacific Medal, a United Nations and General Service Medal with 3 bars. A Long Service and Good Conduct Medal and bar (that’s 30 years undetected crime). Two Peninsula Medals and one for Northern Ireland. I also received a British Empire Medal.

I was in the navy from 1943 and discharged to pension in l976 having serviced 32/33 years. I finished up as a Master at Arms, a Chief Petty Officer in charge of discipline.

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