大象传媒

This story has been written onto the 大象传媒 People鈥檚 War site by CSV Storygatherer Robin.D.Bailey on behalf of the author James 鈥淛im鈥� Libby. They fully understand the terms and conditions of the site.

鈥淯ncle鈥� Bill and HMS Exeter:

While the Battle of the Atlantic was going on, we were worried as a distant cousin of ours, who we called 鈥淯ncle鈥� Bill, was on HMS Exeter which along with Ajax and Achilles engaged the German pocket battleship Graf Spee at the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939. HMS Exeter was later sunk by the Japanese in March, 1942 in the Sunda Strait. Luckily, Uncle Bill was one of 300 survivors, who picked up by the Japanese became prisoners of war. However, Bill was abused and punished each time any of the prisoners who were of a lower rank than him, did anything wrong. - None of this was known to us at the time - After a considerable time, I think it was the Red Cross, managed to make contact and arrange for letters to be sent through, but they were heavily censored, both coming in and going out.

I remember being shown a letter by someone, it was quite cut up with some lines, or part of lines missing; Cut off with scissors by the looks of it. The prisoners soon found that if they wanted their letters to go through the system without being too mutilated, they had to make it sound as if they were in somewhere like a holiday camp. Even so, letters coming and going were at least a lifeline with loved ones.

Uncle Bill once got away with writing at the close of his letter 鈥� It is a case of, it鈥檚 all my eye and Betty Martin, Love Bill.鈥� I think this phrase was a Cornish version of Cockney Rhyming Slang, anyway the Censor left it in.

Unfortunately, Uncle Bill was treated so badly, that he was unable to return home when the war ended. He was taken to Australia, it was said, for recuperation. When his wife asked to go out there to see him, this was refused, and he had to stay there for about two years. However, when he did finally come home, some of our family went to Plymouth Dockyard to collect him from a ship. When they first caught sight of him, high up on a platform on the ship, dressed in his all white uniform, they could hardly believe how well he looked, full and even his hair was shiny.

Uncle Norman and Dunkirk:

Before the war, my Uncle Norman was a senior steward on cruise ships that went all over the world, to some of the most exotic locations. During the war, he was doing something similar for the Royal Navy and made quite a number of trips over to Dunkirk to bring back some of what was left of our army. Unfortunately, afterwards he was taken ill with pleurisy or pneumonia and died at Birkenhead Hospital. My Father and another Uncle, went up and brought him back to Looe.

My Grandparents, especially my Grandmother, was obviously extremely traumatised. I think it was particularly so, as Norman was possibly her favourite son. He was so well liked locally and had made my Grandmother鈥檚 life so interesting by bringing home unusual gifts and photos of exotic places. He had obviously done well for himself, only to lose his life after the evacuation of Dunkirk.

I am sure he encountered some extreme difficulties and conditions during the Dunkirk operation. I think I remember something being said about everybody and everything being wet all the time. Also, that he had given all the ship鈥檚 canteen stock to the soldiers rescued.

Near the time of Norman鈥檚 funeral, my Grandparents had taken in his Brother, Fred鈥檚 wife Julia, who had come home from the Channel Islands where they had been living until just before the Germans occupied the Islands. Our Grandparents let Julia have a ground floor room at the
back as a bed-sit. Norman鈥檚 wife lived at Wadebridge.

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