大象传媒

Joining the Navy.
It was 1942 I was in Plymouth, Davenport to join the Navy.17 years old never been out of Yorkshire!
All the houses has been flattened, bombed. There was bombing every night.
We had missed the Ferry to HMS Raleigh a training establishment, we had to stay in Toc h the only building left standing until the next morning.

We picked the ship up from Glasgow, John Brown's, 12 of us. What they call advance party.
It was a brand new ship, we were cheered all the way down the Clyde.
We finished up at Scapa Flow. I saw the Fleet.
I said to a boy that joined with me,
"We can't lose!"
When I saw the size of the fleet and all the battle ships. I never thought we could lose, never.

It was my 19th birthday, January 1944.
We were called out for the second time to help a convoy. Slowing down to drop depthcharges we were hit.
The back of the Ship was torpedoed right off. I had finished my watch and was asleep. It was 4am. It was my friend Bean who was on watch, I saw him laid out, he didn鈥檛 make it. The Germans knew when the watch changed and timed their attacks.
We were sinking. I saw part of the ship go under and the green of the sea, I thought that was it.
A Lieutenant ordered us to go up to the focsule where it was safer.
AB Mc Carthy dived straight overboard off the sinking ship. His face appeared and I pulled him back on board. The water was freezing. He asked me what we should do. I said,
"I am going to go down with the ship."
I had resigned myself to it. I never thought we would be rescued. We then looked for survivors and friends, You don鈥檛 think about your own safety in that kind of situation. The commander came, we tried to get the lifeboats off but they were frozen stuck. We managed to get one off. I held its rope as the others went and picked the men out of the freezing water.
The commander got the DSO The others got the British Empire Medal I got nothing as I was holding the rope!

Another ship came alongside. HMS Venus. The Captain said over the tannoy,
"if you can jump, jump but I am sorry I can't stop."
We all managed to jump off as the boat was sinking.

I saw our ship sink it was awful, you can鈥檛 imagine but someone stole the takings from the canteen till. A man asked me to hold one of his cases, I refused I had left all my belongings, only bothered about getting off!

We were taken to hospital in Russia, Kola Inlet.

I was really upset, out of 43 Merchant ships only 3 got in with only 8 survivors.
It was after the Scharnost the u boats had really set about the convoys.

A Norwegian destroyer cut the u boat that attacked us in half.
All the destroyers went around us to protect us.
I was very lucky to go back on this destroyer as a guest.

The Norwegian destroyer came with us into the harbour to the hospital.
Luckily I was chosen to go back on this ship. The Captain sent for us and said that we were his guests, so we didn鈥檛 have to work, we got a free ride!
When we got back there was a whip- round for us three and we got 拢43 which was a fortune then, 1944.

Two friends who I went to school with, had joined with me. I was on leave just before I started convoys, and they were on leave at the same time. With our packs on our backs we went to the pub opposite Leeds train station for a drink. The landlord asked us if we were going back to sea, we were. He asked us if we wanted steak and chips, there was no steak in them days! It was all rationed. So we all had steak and chips. When I came back on leave after I had been torpedoed I picked the paper up, they had both been killed even though they were on different ships.
I couldn鈥檛 believe it. Both could swim better than me and I had survived.

I went to a reunion 50 years later in Portsmouth. It was marvellous dancing to Glen Miller and all that. They had made a big cake with all the flotilla on, and our ship half way down, sinking.
The Captain of the ship that picked us up was sat in the corner, 50 years later. I went across to shake his hand and thank him for saving my life, he said I was about the 6th that night and he invited me and my wife to his table and we all had a marvellous night.

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