- Contributed by听
- winagame
- People in story:听
- Thomas Bannerman
- Location of story:听
- Off the coast of Sri Lanka
- Background to story:听
- Royal Navy
- Article ID:听
- A3299646
- Contributed on:听
- 19 November 2004
I am writing this story on behalf of my father Thomas Bannerman who was a " Pom-Pom " gunner on HMS Dorsetshire when it was attacked and sunk by the Japanese planes off the coast of Ceylon. They had not been at sea long and had an escort HMS vessel XXX (Cant remember the name). My father was on deck and firing at the aircraft when the Dorsetshire exploded and went down quickly, about six minuets all/most below deck went down with the Dorsetshire and the same happened to the escort also.
The Captain and crew who were above deck had the luck to survive, although they only had a wooden mast to hold on to,and took it in turns to swim also so that they all had a chance to survive. The Captain I believe was in a dinghy. My father never used to swim so it was an experience for him, especially as other crew members were dying and I was told they were pushed in the direction they were travelling from so that any sharks would go that way for them not the survivors. My father told me on many occasions that all he had was a pair of underpants that he wore on their head to protect them from the sun's rays, as it was extremely hot.
The sea was full of oil from both sunken vessels and they were in the sea for 30 hours before they were saved by a HMS New Zealand boat ( HMS XXX )
My father was taken to Durban in South Africa wearing only his underpants, he was clothed by a farmer where they stayed before being transferred to his next vessel could have been the HMS Cattistock, I can't be sure on this.
It was a dreadful experience and one that you would not wish on anyone.
There used to be a very good HMS Dorsetshire club which used hold a yearly meeting and party session down at a HMS training area some where down near Southampton. I became a member after my father's death and will try to get the information in respect of the " Club " I think the guy in charge was living in Canada but can't remember his name.
I was told there where 800 crew and only 250ish survived luckily my father was one of them.
Hope that this information proves useful and is his version of the sinking,my mother Florence Bannerman was told they were missing and eventually recieved a cable to confirm he had survived.
J.G.Bannerman.
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