大象传媒

This is the second part of Alfred Longbottom's war time experiences in the Navy as a decoder (1941 - 1945), in his own words.

In May 1941, HMS Nigeria escorted the 'pride of the Navy' - HMS HOOD - out of Scapa Flow into the North Atlantic, and left her to return at full speed, to Scapa. Shortly after anchoring, the whole of the Navy, and indeed, the country, was 'rocked' by an Admiralty announcement that the HOOD had been sunk in the Denmark Strait by the German Battleship BISMARCK, with only three survivors out of a total of 95 officers and 1,323 ratings.

Some time later, a signal was received by NIGERIA from Admiralty stating that MIDSHIPMAN DUNDAS was one of the three survivors of HOOD, and as this signal was read by the Captain of NIGERIA, Captain DUNDAS, informing him that his own son was one who had survived. I was told that tears were streaming down his face.

Homeward bound, and just a couple of hours out of Murmansk, NIGERIA encounted a submarine on the surface at a distance of several miles. She was proceeding slowly, and was immediately challenged and asked to give the necessary recognition signal.

There was no response. Repeated attempts were made to gain contact with her, but it was all to no avail. So the order was given for "full speed ahead, stand by to ram submarine." As NIGERIA got closer and closer, the Admiral (we were flagship of the 10th Cruiser Squadron) arrived on the Bridge and at the very last minute, ordered the NIGERIA to take avoiding action. With probably only seconds to spare, we immediately altered course and left the scene. Later that day the NIGERIA received the following signal from the Naval Officer in Charge, Murmansk, "DISABLED RUSSIAN SUBMARINE HAS ARRIVED AT MURMANSK". No doubt a major international crisis had been averted!!

On the 6th September 1941, to the East of North Cape, Norway, NIGERIA met a German Convoy in very heavy weather and poor visibility.

In the action which followed, the German Training Ship BREMSE was sunk, but the two troopships she was escorting, reported to be carrying 1,500 troops, managed to make good their escape. NIGERIA was badly damaged and her bow was ripped off. (One report was of torpedo damage, the other of having struck a submerged shipwreck.) As the forward part of the ship was not strong enough (although shored up by the shipwrights) to go "head on" into the waves, she sailed stern-first from North Cape to Scapa Flow, escorted by the Cruiser AUROA. On arrival on 10th. September, she was "cheered" as she sailed through columns of the whole Home Fleet which was assembled to welcome her back - a wonderful sight and a unique experience. As a result of this action, several medals were awarded to officers and men of NIGERIA.

Heavily damaged in the "PEDESTAL" Convoy to Malta of August, 1942, HMS NIGERIA was temporarily 'patched up' in Gibraltar before sailing to Newcastle-upon-Tyne (our home port) for permanent repairs. We looked forward to some leave and many of the crew bought a bunch of bananas to take home, as they were almost impossible to get in the UK.

As we headed north through the Bay of Biscay, we received a signal prefixed (O-U) which meant "MOST IMMEDIATE" - the very highest degree for action. I myself decoded this message, which was exactly as follows:-

To : NIGERIA FROM ADMIRALTY. (MOST IMMEDIATE) OWING TO A DOCK STRIKE AT NEWCASTLE, DIVERT FORTHWITH TO CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, U.S.A. REPEAT CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, U.S.A.

So bang went all thoughts of home leave, and we had now to eat all our own bananas! A dock strike in War Time? Yes, it's true.

ICELAND - JANUARY 1944 TO MAY, 1945

For seventeen months, I was in Iceland assigned to working in the Radio Station of the Admiral in charge of Icelamd Command. The Naval Camp was just outside Reykjavik, and was known as H.M.S.BALDUR 2. The Radio Station was a short distance from the camp, and was manned by telegraphists, coders, and teleprinter operators who decoded messages on the Enigma machine which we called TYPEX.

We were accomodated in Nissen Huts, and the only heating was from a small coke stove in the middle of the hut. Quite often, the water in the separate Nissen Hut, used as a washroom, would be frozen, and the only way to have a wash, or shave, was to put some snow, or ice, into a tin can on top of the coke stove.

The weather in winter could be cruel, and it was sometimes impossible to breath when walking against a gale-force wind, so the answer was to walk backwards! We understood that anyone who served for nine months or more in Iceland could never be sent there again by the Navy, as strong winds could possibly affect the lungs. It was well known that any fractures could not be treated in Iceland, so a broken ankle meant an immediate return to the U.K. For this reason alone, some would deliberately fall off a ladder, or break a finger!

The weather in Spring and Summer could be beautiful. Sunday mornings saw Church Parades marching into Reykjavik for worship in the church there. When off duty, I was able to go skiing, or visit some of the hot springs and geysers, and magnificent waterfalls. Strange as it may seem, Iceland has an abundance of wild flowers of many varieties.

The Icelandic people were very much anti-British. I believe they felt we had invaded their country. They would not sit next to you in the local Cinema, and as you walked in Reykjavik you could expect empty bottles to be aimed at you from the top of buildings. So we had little contact with the local population.

After one year, I was granted 14 days home leave, and spent 4 days in travelling by sea and rail to Halifax, West Yorkshire, only to be greeted, on arrival, by a telegram ordering me to return immediately to Iceland! I found out that an invasion by German Paratroops was imminent. As it turned out, some paratroops were dropped, but were quickly rounded up and marched into BALDUR 2 under armed guards.

On V.E. Day (8th May 1945) around the coast of Iceland U-Boats surfaced flying a white flag of surrender. On the 31st May 1945, I embarked in an old Depot Ship (HMS BALDUR) which had been moored in Reykjavik harbour for sometime, for passage back to U.K. She had no engines and so had to be towed back to England. It was a hair-raising experience, as several times the tow-rope broke and we simply drifted in the North Atlantic.

And so I left Iceland, to await my next draft, which turned out to be COLOMBO.

IN THE JUNGLE OUTSIDE COLOMBO 1945.

Having left Iceland, August, 1945, saw me travelling through the night on a crowded troop train to Southampton, to join a troopship for transit to HMS MAYINA, a huge camp in the jungle, a few miles out of Colombo. Some joker had chalked on the railway carriages the words. "TOKYO EXPRESS"!In the camp were thousands of sailors who were to form the biggest fleet ever assembled for an invasion of Japan. Conditions in the camp were pretty grim - water was strictly rationed - and was delivered to the camp each day by tanker lorries.

There were snakes and scorpions, and 'tree-rats' which lived in the trees, together with many strange noises from animals and birds which lived in the jungle. Because of scorpions, it was not a good idea to sit on the toilet, so you stood up on it!

The heat was intense, and around noon each day we were not to be out of doors in the open, as the temperature could rise to 120 degrees in the shade. Many suffered from tropical boils, beriberi, skin rashes and deafness, the latter said to be caused by insect bite.

Unexpectedly, the Atom-Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and that was to signal the end of the war.

AND SO - THE LARGEST NAVAL FORCE EVER TO BE ASSEMBLED NEVER SAILED FOR JAPAN!

POSTSCRIPT

At the age of 67 Alfred was awarded a medal by the Presidium of The Supreme Soviet of the USSR - the country's highest state authority. It was only given to men who served on the convoys. The medals are inscribed in Russian to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. He made 13 trips on the convoys, including the PQ17 convoy of 36 ships in 1942. Only six ships arrived in Russia as the rest were sunk.

Alfred died suddenly in May 2004 just after he wrote his story.

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