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This story has been written to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ People's War site by CSV Storygatherer Coralie, on behalf of Joel Blamey. The story has been added to the site with his permission and Joel fully understands the terms and conditions of the site.

I was born in 1904 and the 2nd World War broke out when I was 35. My wife, Clare, wanted me to come out of submarines, but as I had a lot of experience, in 1938 I was posted to H.M.S. Dolphin, a base in Gosport. This was to train to war standard in a 400 ton 'H' boat, the smallest submarine at the time. We trained in the 'Seahorse' which was too old by then to be used in war.

We were on a training manoeuvre attacking a convoy of 6 destroyers, trying to stop them, when the 'Seahorse' was rammed by the destroyer 'Foxhound'. The bridge structure was knocked off completely and 'Seahorse' was pushed right over. In that size vessel, at that time, it was only safe to dive to a depth of 300ft, but we went down to 450ft before we regained control. Of course, everyone was thrown all over the place inside the submarine. The 'Seahorse' was sent to be repaired at Devonport, where they gave it a temporary wooden mast to provide somewhere to send and receive signals from.

I was then on H.M. Submarine 'Porpoise', a mine-laying class of submarine. I was then Chief Engine Room Artificer (ERA), which was the highest Lower Deck rank. For a year we were patrolling Heligoland Bight, near Skagarak and laying mines. We had a Norwegian Lt. Commander with us, but unfortunately he didn't know that particular fjord, which put us in a dangerous position. We had laid a 'Z' shape of mines on the bottom, wired to an anchor — 16 in the top row, 17 in the crossbar and 17 in the bottom row — and at a predetermined time we came up to about 15ft. We turned after this first set of mines had been laid and the submarine turned straight into a sandbank. We managed to get off again and had to surface, so we were expecting to be seen but thankfully no-one did see us and we carried on to lay the other sets of mines.

Another time, around Skagarak, we had dived and then came up to charge the batteries and by night-vision, spotted a German sub on our port side going through the fjord. We came around to attack her and she dived to 100ft, so we dived too and fired 6 torpedoes at her. We hit her with the 3rd torpedo and she fired 4 torpedoes at us which we heard going overhead. We were saved that time when we could so easily have been sunk, and it turned out that we had sunk the first German sub.

After this tour of duty, the 'Porpoise' was taken for a refit to Troon in Scotland. It was fitted with mines, torpedoes and a 4 inch gun. It was fitted out to carry up to 20 tons of high octane spirit, with which to refuel Spitfires based in Malta. This fuel was very volatile, so we could only carry half the usual amount of fuel for the sub itself. Saddle tanks were fitted on its sides, the top half of which carried fuel and the bottom half of which were used to flood with water in order to dive.

It took us 10 days to get from Malta to Haifa, in order to refill the tanks and return to Malta. We did nine trips out there but on these journeys, getting the fuel was more important than attacking enemy craft, except on the leg of each trip when the tanks were empty. In addition we did patrols and mine-laying as usual. On one of these trips we received a signal that a destroyer was escorting an Italian convoy so we were to seek them out. At dawn the destroyer tried to ram us, and though we managed to evade it by diving, at about 3 pm they dropped about 80 depth charges which shook the whole sub, some going off underneath it cracking the battery cells and spilling acid into the bilge tanks. This produced gas in the sub so as the crew were suffering from the effects, we had to surface. As it was likely we would get blown up, for the first time the gun was manned, but to our amazement there was nothing around — the destroyer had obviously left the area and re-joined the convoy.

We were in view on the surface, so we were very vulnerable and had to move as quickly as possible. This was very difficult as the engines were completely shaken and not working efficiently as a result. As we had to make our way slowly back to Alexandria, two 'Mosquitoes' were sent to find us and the following day two 'Hunt-class' destroyers were sent to escort us. On reaching Alexandria we were sent on to Port Saiad to be repaired by a French docking company there. The repairs took 2-3 months and initially the crew were camping on the desert. However, the Commanding Officer kicked up a fuss about the unsuitability of this and commandeered a picture-house for us to live in for the remainder of the time. The 63 men slept there and all the meals were cooked there. As Chief ERA, I personally oversaw all the repairs to make sure that everything was to the correct standard for our return to sea. We did one more patrol and then returned to the UK for proper repairs and a refit.

In mid-1943 I was promoted to Commissioned Warrant rank and was sent to 'stand by' a boat-building as I needed time away from the war because by that time my nerves were very frayed. I oversaw the building of H.M Submarine 'Sanguine' which was an ordinary sub of the same class as the 'Seahorse', having a crew of about 50 men. When there were 3 weeks to a month to go, and I was due 4 days leave at the time, the Engineer Commander sent for me. He told me that the engineer of the 'Strongbow' had gone sick and that I must go with it to the Far East. However, it took an extra 10 days to get it up to scratch for the trip. The 'Sanguine' was a much better sub so I was disappointed not to be able to see the building through to its conclusion.

Each sub was attached to a 'parent' ship which could repair it and to which it always returned. The parent ship of the 'Strongbow' was the 'Wolfe' and the base was Trinkamalee on the east coast of Ceylon. The southern islands were occupied by the Japanese. There were some Englishmen in the area who were passing on information to us, but they had to wait till dusk to paddle out to the sub so that we could surface with less chance of being detected.

In order to charge the batteries of a sub, it is necessary to come up to the surface, making it much more vulnerable. The clutch of one engine is slipped producing a dynamo and the other engine is put into slow/half forward in case it is needed in order to dive. At this time, we had a 1st Lieutenant who was newly promoted from the lower deck. He was overcharging the batteries of the sub, which produced a gas giving everyone on board bad headaches. He ignored all advice given to him regarding the situation, making it necessary for a signal to be sent to the 'Wolfe' asking for them to send him instruction.

We had been charging the batteries overnight, to reduce the risk of detection, and in the morning we were patrolling when, as it turned out, the first Japanese anti-sub flotilla using new technology, which could find subs even when they were submerged, came into sight. They sent down 6 depth charges, two of which were to get our position, and the side of the sub was stove in about 2 ½", on the hull. We had to stay down once again. Subs could only stay down an absolute maximum of 24 hours, 10 hours being a more reasonable time, as the diminishing oxygen level made the crew drowsy over time, making the situation very hazardous. The air in the sub got really bad so that the crew could hardly breathe as the oxygen was so low, but we managed to wait to surface under darkness. Having expected the Japanese boat to be there waiting, once again there was nothing in the vicinity. Having sunk the first German sub in the war, we were the last sub to be sunk by the Japanese.

We went north and signalled to the 'Wolfe' that we were leaving our patrol area and returning to Trinkamalee. I received orders that I had to refit the engines and that the 'Wolfe' would remake any parts that were needed and provide any help that I may need. For eleven weeks I worked till 6 pm every evening, after which I had to clean myself up and dress for dinner. We did one more patrol, landing troops in Burma, and as they needed a weather expert there to do a weather report for General Wavell we had to stay off the coast ON THE SURFACE FOR 2 WEEKS. By that time in the war, fortunately there were hardly any Japanese about.

We started to sail back to Britain, arriving in late summer 1945. I was then able to take a badly-needed fortnight's leave in Falmouth with my wife, Clare, and my teenage daughter. Imagine my irritation when, after only two days of my leave, I was sent for to take the 'Strongbow' from Portsmouth to Chatham for a refit, although someone from Portsmouth could have taken it. However, I had returned from the war safely to my family, despite being in danger many times.

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