大象传媒

My father(now 86) was an asdic operator on
the Fiji when it was sunk on the 22nd May
1941.He was rescued by the destroyer H.M.S.
Kandahar which along with H.M.S.Kingston
saved a large number of his shipmates.Very
early in the action when the ship was being
attacked repeatedly by enemy bombers the
instruments in the asdic cabin were made
inoperable by many near misses of bombs
exploding in the sea.This was reported to
the bridge and permission was given to abandon the asdic cabin and report to their
no.2 action stations.In my father's case this was the upper deck first aid party.
They had the dangerous task out in the open
of collecting wounded sailors and taking them to the sick bay located under the bridge.Dangerous because of the constant
strafing of the ship with machine gun and
cannon fire.He recalls well one incident.
A call came from the pom-pom deck where a
gunner had been severely wounded.He was lowered in a davis stretcher with dad taking
hold first of the lower end and his boiler
suit was immediately drenched in blood.
The gunner was taken to the sick bay and handed over.Dad stood for a moment taking
in all what was happening there when an
S.B.A. noticed him covered in blood and
said:'what's wrong with you!' and dad replied 'nothing' whereupon the S.B.A.
(sick berth attendant) said 'well get the
hell out of here'.Some time later dad realised that his shoes were squelching
and looking down saw that they were filled
with the gunner's blood.After return to
England and survivor's leave he was drafted
to H.M.S.Cape Sable but that's another story.

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