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Born 16 June 1923. Lived Ordsall, Salford.
He was on holiday in Blackpool with his family on 3 Sept. He noticed the sailors congregating and heard that war had started. He decided not to report to duty but would wait for a telegram. He went back to barracks and discharged to Devenport. He was a boy telegraphist. From there he joined a convoy in Grenock near Glasgow. He joined a troop ship but was attacked by a hippa, a German heavy cruiser. It was an old ship and often broke down so they were at the back of the convoy and that was how the hippa caught them. It made a great hole in the side. He and 5 other boys found a big hole in the side of the ship. They blocked it with their kit bags and hammocks. His kit back went through the hole. They managed to block the hole which was just above the water line. They secured it with ropes and covered it with tarpaulin.
They went to Gibraltar there he was transferred to a destroyer ship called Hasty. They sailed to Malta on the way they were bombed all the way. They escorted

The weather was kind and they got to Gibraltar and from there he was transferred to a destroyer.
The aircraft carrier, the Illustrious was hit by dive bombers and they were detailed off to give her protection from submarines. She was diverted from the convoy they were in to go to Malta. All the way from the convoy to Malta they were continuously bombed until a spitfire came and drove them away. John wrote for a medal from the Malta experience but they questioned his service around Malta. He was on board the HMS Hasty who brought the Illustrious in. They then went straight back to the convoy which was accompanied by 2 aircraft carriers, 2 battleships, a cruiser squadron and 2 flottillas of destroyers for 5 ships to be taken to Greece.

From there in the late part of 1940 they went to Alexandria and he was transferred to the Orion. Took part in the Battle of Matapan. He was in the remote control office. During a lull in the battle the officer sent him for tea. Been up since dawn. Sent him to the gun room for tea but told not to go on the upper deck. To go the other way was tedious going through many doors. So went on upper deck but at that moment the Italian battleship started to offload shells. He ran and spilt all the tea.

From there they went to Crete in 1941. That was a nightmare. There was the Fiji and themselves, the HMS Orion. They met a group of Greek fishing boats. The Germans were attempting a seabourne landing on Greece and they met them complete with 3 destroyers and they shot the lot but they suffered also. Their ship was hit. John Michael hit the deck and then ran into the office. When he went out there were bullet holes where he had been lying…
From there they went to the evacuation of Crete and their ship was badly damaged killing many. John ducked a piece of steel flying past him and that killed comrades. 3 bombs hit them. John on the mess deck. A bomb exploded below. This happened on 28 May 1941. Many killed below and their bodies were trapped within the bent steel of the ship. In July they arrived in America and the bodies were still there. An American came onto ship and asked what was the smell. It was the smell of the rotting bodies. He ran off and came back with a face mask. They transferred the sailors onto a ferry. They had to cut a side of the ship wawy so that they could get inside to reach the bodies. 126 crewe were killed and 220 soldiers. They were evacuating Crete and had between 500-1000 soldiers. One man in 4 of the crewe were killed and one man in 2 were wounded. The bomb divided the ship and set fire to it and some jumped out of the portholes to escape but the ship could not stop for them. He will never forget the look on a man’s face as he knew he wouldn’t be picked up.

They went through the Panama canal. They had to search for a German Radar around the Galapogus but they had very little fire power. They left Aden and were going down the Indian Ocean and they hit a monsoon. He was on the graveyard watch (middle of the night). The bulkhead was creaking and moving with the storm. He ran to the wireless office in fright and did his watch. He told another sailor to look at it on the way back as a joke. That sailor was not too pleased!

They came into America at Mare Island, the repair depot for the Pacific fleet. The mustering place was Santiago. John lost 2 friends in the bombed ship. Evacuation of Crete had been considered too risky but their admiral had said — it takes 2-3 years to build a battle ship, it takes 200 years to build a reputation. His ships were going in and they did at some cost. It was touch and go. About 30,000 soldiers were evacuated. The navy lost 2 cruisers the Gloucester and Fiji, 4 destroyers, the Juno, Greyhound, Kali and Kasmir, 2 battleships and several other cruisers were damaged. The ships were attacked by 500 Nazi bombers and men were machine gunned in the sea. A destroyer was damaged and couldn’t keep up so they had to take the soldiers off and sink her and that delayed them and from then they suffered bombing after bombing. Sailors get very attached to their ship and this raises the fighting spirit and they do not accept defeat.

The ship was repaired and sent back to Britain and she was then detailed to go to the Mediterranean to the Sicilian campaign and the Italian campaign. John moved onto an East Coast Convoy destroyer HMS Wallis. Prince Philip was a young subby there. They were damaged in the North Sea. There was low lying fog and you could see the sea and they were being attacked by aircraft and the convoy scattered. They were trying to round them up. A merchant ship came out of the mist into their side. They could not go fast, about 3 knots, through E-boat territory!

They went into the East India docks and skipper, Harvey Lonsdale decided to keep his crewe. He must have prevailed upon the Admiralty to do this and he kept his Crewe. The excuse was that he wanted them to be trained as commandos in the meantime. Equipment was brought for them to put together and to put on. A couple of soldiers helped them for some cigs. They had to go to Purbright Camp for a Commando Course. They had to march to the barracks. They were not used to this. He wrote a story about this. They were led by the Scots Guard, who were emaculate and then came them. They had to do the course. They did training, marching, grenade throwing etc. (He told stories from this with the mishaps that happened during the course.)

The second in command decided he was going to catch an E-boat. He picked his crewe and they were given a Webley 45. They had shooting practice shooting tins in the sea. No-one hit. They were going to be given cutlasses. They prayed for no E-boats and did not come across one.

At D-Day he was in a naval party and they had to go on shore in khaki. They were to supply the communications between the navy and army when they crossed the Rhine and the Wesel. Saw great devastation there. Village was flattened. They had communications sets to transmit messages between command posts. He finished up in Germany. Started in Minden. They took over Melitta Bens factory. It had 2 pools, 2 gardens, 2 firing ranges, beautiful lawns. They became the Central HQ for all the Allied Navies. Then he transferred to Hamburg to Altserdorf outside it. There was absolute desolation.. It an important site because of the harbour. People were living in the basements which was all that survived.

Then moved to Silt, an island. It was a harbour and barracks and they took it over. He was in Minden when war ended. He had had enough. He came home 1948. He tried engineering for a time but developed an allergy to the coolant on the machines. Then became an engineering buyer and chief purchasing officer and ended up an engineering buyer for an international company.

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