大象传媒

I left the sea cadets at the of 19 years as a volunteer to fight for my country. In Civvy St I was an apprentice toolmaker here in Birmingham and being in a reserved occupation my boss did not want to let me go I was keen. So he said go & good luck. I set off to H.M.S. Excellent a gunnery school in Portsmouth, having passed my engineering trade test and the gunnery test I was then ready for my first ship being H.M.S. Southern Prince, which was based in the Kyle of Localsh, Scotland. A converted liner Into a minelayer carrying 560 magnetic mines & Acoustic with other minelayers. We dropped them in the Denmark straits between Iceland & Greenland. After 12 months we paid off in Hebben on the river Tyne from these to H.M.S. Excellent to wait for my next ship which being H.M.S. Chanticleer a new ship which I boarded in Govan on the river Clyde.

Having done our working up trials in OBAN Scotland we were now based at Londonderry ready for arduous journey, back and forth to America. On Atlantic convoys. We attacked U-Boats with our depth charges here and there. With others, escorts we kept them at bay from the convoys over 12 months glad to say we never lost any tankers, of those which were vital to the U.K. We escorted a convoy from the Mediterranean back to the U.K. whilst doing this we were torpedoed off the Azores islands we were then towed into the Azores from being damaged hense we came home on an American destroyer to Greenock on the Clyde back to Portsmouth I then joined a LST for a short while but I was one to many so back to whale island (H.M.S. Excellent) it was not long before I joined H.M.S. Formidable. A carrier in Belfast. We set sail for scapa flow to join escorts ETC from these we all set sail to Norway the fjords where the German battleship was hiding our planes, carriers and avengers did several raids to sink her but no luck, I believe that she was sunk by submarines to continue back to scapa from there to Gibraltar en route to the far east unfortunately we ended up in dry dock in Gibraltar for repairs on our seals on our propeller shafts, in November 1944 so we spent Christmas there. Ship repaired off to Sydney Australia to cut a long story short we loaded up with all the bombers and fighters we could carry off to war on the Japanese bombing sakashima and Okinawa where unfortunately we were hit by a kamikaze which caused fire and planes on deck with casualties among the crew. We needed propeller repairs to our flight deck which was in hand but again we were hit, again five days later it became rather scary to say the least however back to Sydney for repairs whilst there I met with mates young people who鈥檚 parents came from Birmingham after the first world war they made us most welcome. To end the story of to Japan with the U.S. Carrier fleet to end the job in may 1945. At the time of the atom bomb we had to move back 200 miles for safety. From there back to Sydney where we made H.M.S. Formidable a hospital ship to take P.O.W.S. back to there home land India, U.K. and other
areas.

To end my story I have seen the world and glad to have done my part in the war, thank god I came home safe and sound to my wife, family and friends, now at the age of nearly 82 years it鈥檚 a memory that will not be forgotten.

Mr.Norman.R.Healey

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