大象传媒

I was born in Grantham in Lincolnshire in 1918 and so in 1939 I was aware that a war with Germany was imminent. I joined the navy I January 1940 and for my basic training I was sent to HMS Royal Arthur. This used to be one of Billy Butlin鈥檚 holiday camps before the war and was at Skegness on the east coast, just 50 miles away from Grantham. There I learned how to carry a rifle. The hours spent marching up and down to the bellowed commands of a Petty Officer seemed monotonous and endless so I was pleased when the basic training was finished and we were sent up to HMS Port Edgar.

This was a shore base near to the Forth Bridge and from there we went out to sea every day to learn how to sweep for mines that had been dropped by the Germans. One day on the way out to May Island where we did most of our sea training, we passed a sunken trawler called 鈥淩oyal Archer鈥�. The Germans had sunk this trawler earlier in the day whilst they were trying to bomb the Forth Bridge. As we came back into the base in the evening the captain switched on the wireless and we heard a broadcast given by some English man speaking in a very posh voice in which he announced that 鈥淗MS Royal Arthur鈥� had been sunk! This made us all laugh out loud because as you already know, HMS Royal Arthur is a shore base. But after this particular incident all ships were given orders that all the brass mountings and ships nameplates were to be painted over with admiralty grey paint.

After a suitable amount of training I was sent to docks at Grimsby and from there I was drafted to 鈥淗is Majesty鈥檚 Trawler Elbury鈥�. Along with a couple of other trawlers we were ordered to take some barges to Poole in Dorset. Then we helped to sweep some of the seas around Dover, Sheerness and Felixstowe. After sweeping for mines we also had to lay Dan Buoys that showed our ships where the channel had been swept. Not an easy task at the best of times and very tricky in bad weather in the North Sea or English Channel. When we weren鈥檛 out at sea sweeping for mines or towing barges full of war material we were based at Lowestoft. This base was called HMS Europa and whilst we were there we lived ashore in Nissan huts. Our food was cooked for us and we were able to see live stage shows that were put on by a government group called ENSA. We enjoyed the comforts offered but all too soon we were off to sea and its dangers.

We came into Lowestoft harbour one Christmas Day and as usual in harbour we settle down to have our dinner and open the parcels and letters that had been waiting for us. As I read one of my letters my best mate opened his parcel from his mum.

鈥淟ook at this鈥� he said. He showed me a pot basin that had smashed in transit with a Christmas pudding in it. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 no good鈥� he said as he threw it out of the porthole. He then started to read a letter from his mum in whish she told him to be careful whilst eating the Christmas pudding because she had put some silver sixpences, wrapped in greaseproof paper, in the pudding! 鈥淭here will be enough to take you and your mate for a drink at the local pub鈥� the letter explained.

With that my mate started to take most of his clothes off. 鈥淲hat are you doing?鈥� I asked. He said 鈥淚鈥檓 going to tie a rope round my waist and go over the side to get that pudding and you will hold the end of the rope for me!鈥�

It would seem that he had noticed some time before that there was only about 6 foot of water under the ship. He did just as he said and after he had a shower and got changed we went ashore and had a good time.

I can remember one incident when there were three trawlers sweeping for mines the Wash near Boston. There was also a paddle steamer bringing in supplies following us wanting to go into Boston docks. Three German fighter planes came into sight and started to bomb the paddle steamer and although we opened fire on the planes at the third try they hit the steamer in the middle of the ship and it immediately started to sink. We went in to see if we could rescue anyone and I found this chap with his hands wrapped very, very tightly around a 5 gallon drum that he had found floating by. He turned out to be a South African who had come over to England to fight on our side. He later gave me his cap as a keepsake.

When we were being attacked it was my job to keep the gun supplied with ammunition at all times. Having used the ammunition close by I leaned over to get the shells stacked in front of the gun and whilst in this position the gun was fired right over my head. This damaged my ears and to this day, 63 years later, I am still very deaf.

In 1942 whilst onboard HMT Ash a mine blew up underneath the stern of the ship and two shipmates were killed and 8 others injured. The ship started to split in two and sink so a French tug came alongside and tried to pump the water out. This proved to be impossible so one of the other trawlers came and took us off. Whilst we were making for the nearest harbour, which was Sheerness, the injured were given morphine. ON reaching Sheerness the first person I saw was a chap from Grantham whose name was Jack Wright, and he said to me, 鈥淢y God, you were lucky. That jerry plane dropped 3 mines. The first one went under your stern and blew the ship up. The second one hit another trawler amidships on the upper deck causing a lot of damage, and the third one hit the liberty boat killing everyone onboard.鈥� He took me to see the naval paymaster because I needed some money to buy some kit to replace the stuff that had gone down with the ship. He turned out to be another chap from Grantham and I promised to go and see his family and tell them that he was ok when I went home on 7 days survivors leave. This turned out to be a little later than I thought because whilst the rest of the crew were sent home on the leave, I had to remain behind to give evidence at a Board of Enquiry.

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