大象传媒

This story has been written onto the 大象传媒 People鈥檚 War site by Storygatherer Lucy Thomas of Callington U3A on behalf of Frederick Edward Astley-Jones. They fully understand the terms and conditions of the site.

WORLD WAR II Details from Edward Astley Jones
Part 1 War is declared

War was declared on 3rd September, 1939, when 1 was serving in the Torpedo School, HMS Vernon at Portsmouth. A week later, my work was taken over by an RNR Lieutenant, and I was ordered to Plymouth to join the staff of the Commander-in-Chief, Western Approaches, Admiral Sir Dunbar-Naismith, at his headquarters at Mount Wise. I was 20 a sub-lieutenant and my name is Edward Astley Jones.

In my few months at Plymouth one incident stands out. Suddenly we were all bidden from our offices at Mount Wise onto the headland and there we saw, making her way around Drakes Island and coming in to be docked was HMS Hood. We roared with acclamation as she came up the Tamar. She was only in port for thirty six hours while she was docked and scrubbed. Then she went out again, alas as we all know never to return.

By Christmas, 1939, it had been decided to bring some of our submarines from the Mediterranean to operate in the North Sea. They formed the 3rd submarine flotilla at Harwich alongside Parkstone Key. There they were supported by the depot ship, HMS CYCLOPS. I was sent to be Secretary to the Captain of the Flotilla, Captain Philip Ruck-Keene. Submarines in our charge were, HMS SEALION, SNAPPER, SUNFISH, SALMON, SHARK, STERLET AND SPEARFISH In the summer of 1940 three of the seven submarines named were sunk by German action in the North Sea.

That winter was very, very cold and the Stour that river which comes out at Harwich was frozen over and I can see today HMS Sealion trying to come through the ice flows as she came back from patrol to come alongside Parkstone Quay

In 1940, the Germans began to lay many minefields in the North Sea and it was considered unwise to allow the flotilla to become blockaded at Harwich, therefore we moved to the Firth of Forth. In late summer 1940, it was considered safer to move our submarine bases to the west of Scotland. HMS TITANIA took over as the flotilla depot ship, and we sailed around the north of Scotland to the Firth of Clyde and into the Holy Loch which became a permanent Submarine base.

In August 1941 I was given a new appointment and I left the mountains of Argyllshire for the flat terrain of Suffolk, and the port of Lowestoft. My posting was as Secretary to the Commodore of the R.N. Patrol-Service Central Depot and entertainments organizer, where fishermen were being mobilised and trained to serve in minesweepers.

At this time, we had some three thousand navy men in the Port - 2000 in HMS EUROPA which was the ship name given to the Central Depot; 500 in HMS Mantis the minesweeping squadron, and another 500 in HMS Minos the motor torpedo boat Squadron. By the end of 1943, there were over 5000 men in the Central Depot alone, equalling about a third of the town's population! Lowestoft had been a holiday resort, with a peacetime population of 32,000 but was now a shadow of its earlier size with only 12,000 or 15,000 the rest had been evacuated to the midlands. Commodore Daniel de Pass, commanding the Central Depot was a very imaginative leader, and he realised that hard training by day deserved some recreation after 6 pm!

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.