大象传媒

Our American Allies

During the World War 2 from 1st September 1939 鈥� December 1944, I served on the battle cruiser H.M.S. Renown. During this period Renown served in several theatres of war. She often carried the flag of Admiral Sir James Somerville of force 鈥楬鈥� fame based at Gibraltar. We of ten, operated with units of the American Navy, also their Merchant Navy that lost so many of their ships in the Mediterranean, Atlantic and during the Russian convoys, many of which being based at Hualfiord. Iceland was on the Murmansk run and had been so months before Pearl Harbour, taking food etc., to the Russians. All so often one hears people saying 鈥淥h, the Yanks only came in because they were attacked at Pearl!鈥� 鈥 won鈥檛 say what I think! I could answer in Naval language, especially when we often saw their ships blown up and not by so called friendly fire, which happens on all sides, I should know, I was fired on by one of our marines whilst serving with allied forces in the Far East. It happened at the time when allied forces including Uncle Sam, were helping us the Brits, driving the Burma campaign as they had previously done at the time of the North African landings in 1942. Despite all the post war criticism of our allies, I ask one simple question. How the heck could we have won the war without them in the age where cynicism reigns supreme? I for one thank them from the bottom of my heart. We are part of them; let鈥檚 not forget the sacrifice they made on our behalf! We had Winston Churchill as our leader, he was half American and what a leader! He and President Roosevelt both were. We have a lot to be thankful for!

In the hour of dire need

Renown, along with many of our other ships, had returned to the base after covering another convoy. Many of our vessels, especially Allied Merchant men, had taken a heck of a battering during this spell of bad weather. I have always found it difficult to describe conditions in the Arctic, this time we arrived back at Scapa knowing we, the ships company, would be allowed two beer tickets. We had just downed this meagre allowance and returned on board sober. No doubt, when we had been back on board a short while, we received a signal ordering us back to sea. This time we were heading for the Clyde. On arrival we saw an American aircraft carrier of the Hornet Class; I believe it was the Bee or Wasp, with her escorting destroyers. We were surprised to see her loading with Spitfires! The usual 鈥渂uzz鈥� rumours began to fly around the Clyde. Soon we would see these same planes flying to Malta.
It seemed that Mr Churchill had to request our American friends to assist in the ferrying of our craft from their flight deck. Our carriers that were available were not suitable. These planes were desperately needed at this particular of the siege. By all accounts, the operation was a success, though we lost some on take off, I being on the bridge saw one take off and take a dive into the sea and the carrier ploughed over it, a common occurrence often seen when our planes were taking off from our old chummy ship, HMS Ark Royal.

Less we forget

One has only to visit the war graves on the continent to see how many lives were lost and how many were American. We from the Hull branch Normandy Veterans Association, never fail to go on an annual pilgrimage to pay homage to these gallant men who lost their lives at sea, in the air and on the land.

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