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‘I was 18 when the call up arrived and because I had been a sea cadet I was accepted into the Navy. After 6 weeks basic training at HMS Collingwood I was sent to Edinburgh where I joined HMS Enterprise that has just been refitted. The choice of ship was a wonderful coincidence as my ship had been adopted by my native city, Oxford.
‘We carried out our sea trials in November then joined HMS Glasgow and saw our first action.’
According to the official history, on 28 December 1943, in the Bay of Biscay, HMS Enterprise and HMS Glasgow intercepted a force of eleven German destroyers which should have been escorting Alsterufer a blockade runnerwhich was sunk the previous day by air. Three of the destroyers, T 25, T 26 and Z 27, were sunk and four damaged.
‘We sailed back into Plymouth and everybody, the dockers and all the seamen were cheering. They had heard the new of our amazing battle. We paraded on the quarter deck and it remains the proudest time of my life. I reckon our captain saved the ship.
‘I spent my first action working in the magazines. We had a running comentary of what was going on above us and we were kept very busy. I didn’t feel any fear at the time as I was only 18 ½. But after that action I did a gunnery course and in future my action station was with the guns and not in the magazines.
‘I think I was very lucky as I only missed that one Christmas at home.’
This story was submitted to the people’s War site by a volunteer from CSV Oxford on behalf of Raymond Parker. It is the edited transcript of a taped interview and he gave written permission for the material to be edited and published.

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