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Part three of an edited oral history interview with Mr. Donald Robert Church conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum.

HMS Meynell operated from Sheerness
"We operated from Sheerness and you have to remember that Germany was just across the North Sea, the English Channel was on the south coast, Sheerness is a little bit round towards the east coast, it’s up by Harwich. They’d got patrol areas right from above Immingham which is Grimsby all the way down the coast, round and starting in the North Sea to Dover and each area was designated Area 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, all the way up the coast. Our main job was to escort convoys down the east coast to Dover. We had to patrol all the areas round the coast and we had other jobs that they used to send us out on too. And so they’d send us out and I forget what patrol area it was, I think it was patrol 5, on more than one occasion we were sent out to protect the area opposite Yarmouth and we’d been in Action with ‘E’ Boats off Yarmouth on several occasions. We were attacked on several occasions with sometimes four, sometimes six, sometimes eight ‘E’ Boats. They used to come over at night. ‘E’ Boats were like big torpedo boats and they used to come at us. In the Navy they had different classes of Destroyers like they had different classes of Battleships. Some Destroyers were built and they were very impressive, they had got very, very heavy armament and they were Battle Class Destroyers. They went out with the Fleet to protect the big Battleships and Cruisers. But the Hunt Class Destroyers that I was on, they were designed to do the job that we were doing. And one of the things that they were good at, because they were fast, faster than the ordinary Destroyer because they were lighter and because they had a very quick turning circle. So you could manoeuvre against torpedo boats because torpedo boats could go 60 knots, so that’s why we patrolled. Now we’d go out and there was one occasion you could almost see the (German) coast and we were out and we had Action Stations. But before we got to Action Stations we saw the bullets coming over, the shells and they were coming over and of course they were fluorescent, every other one was fluorescent and you could see them coming. I was on the Bridge, Starboard I was on Look-out and I could see ‘em! And what they’d done, they came at us in four groups of two. Say the ship is here, two would come this way, two would come that way, two would come this way and two would come this way and they’d cross and they would fire their torpedoes. (Four groups of two ‘E’ boats attacking on a diagonal line to each side of the bow and the stern of HMS Meynell). I was on the Starboard Look-out and I was looking out to sea and I saw the wake of this torpedo and I shouted a warning and gave them the direction and fortunately it went under the bow because it was too deep and I saw it coming! I saw it come like that and I’m here and it’s here, it came right underneath like that. If I’d have been that side, on Port, I would have seen it pass and we were OK, it didn’t hit us. But apart from that we had a very easy time compared with some.

We had to go out from Sheerness and the Germans were by this time being really pushed back and the Army had gone right through France and they were pushing back along Belgium and the more they pushed them back and the more they were trying to attack us. Our warships were bombarding the Germans as they were retreating along the coast and one of the big Battleships - I won’t say any names because I can’t remember — all I know was that we were ordered to sea to escort the Battleship. Now our type of Destroyer wasn’t the type of Destroyer really that was designed to protect Battleships but everything was busy so we were ordered out to help the Battleship that was bombarding the German coast. Our Captain was always volunteering and he volunteered for this mission and we knew we were going to go into a lot of trouble. Anyway as he left the harbour, for some reason I think he was anxious, he went the wrong side of the bouy, there are bouys out to sea, and he went the wrong side of the bouy and hit a wreck under the water. The propeller was badly damaged so he had to abort the operation and another ship, another Destroyer of the Flotilla was sent in our place and they lost several lives. They didn’t sink it but there were about 30 very serious injuries and several died. But anyway they brought that ship back. HMS Meynell was towed to London to have the propeller repaired and we were put in the big port in London.

Anyway we were towed up there and by that time the V2s were dropping. Well you wouldn’t remember but you’d hear about the V2s. Well, they were something you didn’t see. They’d come over and they’d drop and then they’d explode and then you’d see it. They took us there and we stayed up there for weeks. Now, normally when you were in the Navy if a ship was damaged and they couldn’t put to sea for weeks they would pay the ship off, take all the men off put them into Barracks until they went onto another ship. But maybe because at that time the Germans had had it and the war was well on and I think there was so much activity they couldn’t put us on another ship because they were all occupied. So they kept us in London and during that time. They put us in the dry docks and they were doing the propellers — one Watch went on leave, they could do what they liked during that time - the other Watch stayed on board. When I went on leave it was ‘Victory in Europe’.

What happened then was the Starboard Watch had the weekend off and we could go in to London. We went on shore leave and I’ll always remember it - because I wasn’t a drinker - we got to Victoria Station - we got out of the train in our uniforms and we were walking out through the entrance and I remember they ‘chaired’ us! They lifted us up and carried us out and I thought where are we going? And they chaired us all round and they took us to a pub, we eventually then got right into London near Soho and I think it was the ‘Duke of York’. I don’t know how I got there and they took us in this pub and they said, ‘Come on, you’ve got to have a drink!’ I said, ‘No, I don’t’ and they brought out whiskey and gin and you couldn’t get whiskey and gin and all this drink came out, whiskey the lot! And for the first time in my life I don’t know what happened! The next thing I know I wasn’t in Soho - I wasn’t anywhere near there — I was back in Victoria Station! I was at the YMCA and I had slept in an armchair in the YMCA all night and when I woke up I didn’t know where I was and I can’t remember. My mates were with me and when they woke up none of them knew what really had happened. I mean they were drinkers, I wasn’t and of course I was a puny little chap, I mean whenever we used to go ashore you know they used to protect me. But it was the greatest celebrations ever! London was absolutely packed you couldn’t move anywhere.

Loss of a pal
We had a trainee and I think his name was Negus but I’m not sure, he came on board ship and he’d finished his training as an Officer and he’d got some active duty to do before he could become fully fledged. He’d been with us quite a few months and this is coming up to the time when the Germans were retreating and war had more or less been won. He’d got a father who had done a lot of good work but he was on a special job so he was never in the Services and he wasn’t young. Whilst he was on board ship his father had to go up this big building to do his job. He was on the lift in this building and the bottom dropped and the lift came from top to bottom and killed his father outright. I remember him being so upset because he’d lost his father, they gave him leave and then he came back on board ship again afterwards. Shortly after that they sent him to Antwerp when the Germans had gone although the fighting was still going on, and they sent him there. He’d now become an Officer and he had everything to live for and he was in this pub after being there just a few days and a German shelled it and killed him. He was only a very young chap and I knew him very well and he was a great pal of mine and it really hit home. These are the sorts of things that people should be told about because it makes you realise just how serious it was.

Posting to Wilhelmshaven after VE Day
We were on duty along the German coast and I don’t know what the duty was but we knew we’d got to go in to Wilhelmshaven and we’d understood that was a big port, it was a military port in Germany. The Germans had retreated through there at that time and all the lads on the ship said, ‘Well, how are we going to get up there? Because it’s in the river it’s not right on the sea front, how are we going to get there, they must have blocked it.’ ‘No’ they said, ‘it was captured intact.’ And of course we go into the harbour, we go right up and we tie up alongside the jetty and we tied up. We were allowed to go ashore in Wilhelmshaven, as long as we were in groups. The Germans had long gone and what they’d done they had left some of our military behind to control the German Admiralty place. But they hadn’t left enough Servicemen behind so they had left a few Germans — they’d given them revolvers but no bullets, nothing like that and I suppose they’d picked an odd one or two. They were left there to guard this big naval store in the dock yard and not only that there were about three ‘U’ Boats, submarines tied up along the jetty. We were allowed to go ashore as long as we were armed and we had to go in groups. We went ashore and the first place we went to was to see these submarines. We went on board and there was a German sailor there on duty, I don’t know what his job was exactly, and we walked down to have a look. We went through there and that was absolutely fantastic to go on them. I mean British submarines were small but they were a damned sight smaller and when you got down to the bottom — right inside the hatch and right down into where the conning tower is - on the side there, there was a picture. And there was a picture of who do think? Not Hitler of course but Doenitz, he was the man who took over when Hitler committed suicide. They allowed that but not anybody else. We walked around there looking at this submarine and that was a fantastic feeling. It was the first time we saw a German. I must admit we looked at him and we really let him know who we were, probably it was a bit silly but that was part of going into Wilhelmshaven.

I’d got four or five friends, they were friends right the way through the time I was in the Navy and one was a Petty Officer. He was a Petty Officer/Steward really he shouldn’t have been on a small ship but he was with us, anyway he was a nice bloke. We used to go ashore with him and he was a bit of a lad — he was a married man with a very beautiful wife but he did like women. We went ashore with him and as I told you we had to go armed and in a group and we were instructed not to molest the public or anything, not get involved in anything but just look around. We were going down into Wilhelmshaven - we got badly bombed but so did they - Wilhelmshaven was flattened! It was a very big town Wilthemshaven, there wasn’t a house there that had got a complete roof, they had been bombed into oblivion, they really had. We were walking down this little road and it was a picturesque road and you walked down here and on the right, at the end of this big house there was an archway. You looked through the archway and on the lawn at the back you saw this young lady, she was sitting on the lawn. I mean, everywhere was bombed, it was amazing to see this beautiful young girl sitting on the lawn and she was doing something with her hair and the Petty Officer said, ‘I’m going over to this girl.’ We had a hell of a job to stop him because we knew what he would do, he was a right devil and we didn’t know whether he would try anything with her. We had a hell of a job to stop him going down to her.

And then a little bit further on we saw this little shop, it was a tiny little shop, it had got everything in it like you used to have here. We walked into this little shop and this old lady was behind the counter. And we walked into the shop and as soon as she saw us you should have seen the fear in her face. I don’t know what the Germans had told them but when she saw us she shoved something forward and stepped back through the doorway and she looked absolutely dead scared! I always think about that and I’m sure that the Germans must have told them we were going to do all sorts of terrible things to them. But she was dead scared, really dead scared. But the place was flattened. Even that shop - the shop room was alright, the roof had gone and I think there was a room at the back, I think the room from what I could see because they had got those beaded curtains and it was job to see but there was nothing much there. They took a beating. The one thing we couldn’t understand was there weren’t many civilians about. I think they were hiding. I think they saw us and they got out of the way.

Demob
I joined up in June/July 1942 and I served until 1946. What they had done to HMS Meynell - like a lot of other ships — it was mothballed in Sheerness. The last time I saw the Meynell it was anchored to a bouy in Sheerness harbour and it was covered in foam like stuff, it was sprayed over to protect the upper structure. But I understood after that it was dismantled because it was no longer needed.

I went into Chatham ready for demob and I should have been demobbed a short while after arriving there. But for some reason - what they called the ‘Chatham Gestapo’ - that was the Chatham Police which were sailors who were promoted to the Police in Chatham. The rumour went round the Barracks that a certain amount of men were being put into the Chatham Police temporarily, if they went into the Chatham Police, even if they were going to be demobbed they’d got to stay in an extra three months. So I thought they won’t put me in because I was still only 8 stones 6lbs but unfortunately they did. For some silly reason they put a skinny little beggar like me in the Chatham Police! And they put me into, I forget which Ward it was, but they put me in there and I stayed an extra four months. And the first couple of nights I was there somebody stole me watch — in the Police! Now you imagine, I’d got a special band on my arm like the Military Police and I used to have to strut around as a Policeman, well I couldn’t have arrested anybody but there you are that’s how I finished my time."

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