- Contributed by听
- Jeffrey Dawson
- People in story:听
- Jeffrey Dawson and friends
- Location of story:听
- Malta
- Background to story:听
- Royal Navy
- Article ID:听
- A8247350
- Contributed on:听
- 04 January 2006
Me (right) and some friends on HMS Illustrious in the Med during World War Two.
I left the Isle of Man in 1940 for Skegness to train for the gunnery for about 4 weeks - we then went to Devonport for boat training for aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious. We continued on to Bermuda for more training before joining the Mediterranean fleet in the Middle East. I was in the 4/5 Gunnery.
The worst time was in Malta - we were bombed very badly, lots of people lost their lives on the Illustrious. It was a dreadful time. There was also a lot of damage done to the harbour. The dead bodies of my friends were floating in oil at the bottom of the ship. We had to sneak out of the harbour in the dark.
On the way to America for repairs, we stopped at Durban, South Africa, where I met up with my brother Sydney who had moved there to work on the mines at Broken Hill, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). We stayed a few days to collect stores and oil for the ship.
I left the Illustrious in America and came back to the UK on the Queen Elizabeth.
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