大象传媒

This is a letter that Angus Forbes wrote to his grandson Robert Alder in 1977, detailing his wartime experiences in the Royal Navy.

His daughter Marion Alder has given permission for us to add Robert's letter to the website and she understands the terms and conditions of the site. This story was added by Eleanor Fell at Freshwater Library.

"I was an Air Raid Warden at the Post 70 Wembley Borough Council from the 11th May 1939 (4 months before the 2nd World War started) until the 26th July 1943, when I joined the Royal Navy and served on the Escort Aircraft Carrier H.M.S VINDEX from the time she was built and commissioned for sea trails. On the VINDEX we were fortunate to have assigned to us a crack Fleet Air Arm Squadron No. 825 and if you ever go to the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovil you will see their fine record. Squadron 825 flew onto the VINDEX about November 1943 and we did 4 or 5 anti 鈥攕ubmarine patrols each of about three weeks durations, which involved searching out by radar carry 鈥楽wordfish鈥� aircraft, which carried a 21 or 18 inch torpedo.

On these operations which were on the Atlantic Ocean, we were accompanied by six frigates, which were under the seagoing command of the famous 鈥榃AKEWALKER鈥� and when the aircraft located the German submarines then a frigate would be despatched to the exact spot to drop depth charges. The operations were a great success. On the first Atlantic operation I was responsible for 鈥楩lying Clothing鈥� and when the first of the four planes returned I had to be on the Flight Deck and my first taste of war was when they handed me a blood soaked flying jacket as the observer had been killed by anti-aircraft fire from a German submarine.

Later we set sail for Murmansk and we did five Russian Convoys. The VINDEX was the flagship, as our Captain H.T.T Bayliss was a very senior sea going captain and we always carried on board for each Russian Convoy either Sir Roderick McGrigor or Sir Frederick Dalrymple-Hamilton, who were full Admirals of the Fleet. Sir Frederick had commanded the battleship 鈥楻odney鈥� prior to sailing on the VINDEX. The 鈥楻odney鈥� which weighted 33,900 tons, sank the German battleship 鈥楤ISMARK鈥� which was 42,000 tons. Both the Admirals were Scotsmen as was my father. On the last Russian Convoy we brought back to the UK the last survivors from the H.M.S. GOODALL, which was sunk as we left Murmansk.

There is a lot to tell about the Royal Navy, but nor enough space here, but I am fortunate to have been on the VINDEX for the whole of her war service and left the ship at Sydney, Australia and travelled back to Portsmouth in the USA carrier 鈥楺ueen鈥�. I did a total of 110 thousand knots at sea during war time (according to our Engineer Commander) and that equals over 120 thousand land miles.

After the last Russian Convoy of World War 2 we reached Scapa Flo on VE Day, so we took on more fuel and went straight down to our anchorage at Greenoch 鈥� next to the QUEEN MARY.

After three weeks leave we sailed for Australia and then Manus, Papua New Guinea in the Pacific, as the Japanese War was still on. We called at Port Said, in Egypt and then the Port of Aden in Jordan and then onto Port Colombo in Ski Lanka where we were under the Command of Lord Mountbatten. We were then ordered to go to Brisbane and when we arrived I was the only one allowed ashore, as I had to take the Confidential Charts to the Admiralty Office.

We then started off from Brisbane for LAE in Papua New Guinea but we were order to alter course for Sydney. When we arrived, we were informed that the Japanese were negotiating to surrender so after a short 2 days ashore we set off for Manus again in Papua New Guinea, which was mainly an airbase in wartime. We were allowed onshore and I have never seen such tall coconut trees! We could not throw high enough to dislodge the coconuts, but the monkeys thought we were throwing things at them, so they pelted us with coconuts!

We left Manus and made for Kowlown on the Chinese Mainland and about 200 Japanese prisoners were captured. We then went to Hong Kong which was disease ridden and we got the power stations working. At a later date we were at the Official Surrender of the Japanese.鈥�

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