大象传媒

When the War was declared in 1939 a section of the Admiralty Headquarters was moved to Bath, where I worked in the Empire Hotel. I was living in a so-called billet where the landlady had to provide "bed, breakfast and one hot meal per day" for the sum of one guinea a week, (i.e. 拢1.05 in current currency).

During my time at Bath the Germans carried out a so-called Baedeker air-raid - so called because there was a series of raids on the cities which appeared to have no military significance but which were listed in the German Guide Book "Baedeker".

I remember one raid when, during a lull in the attack my landlady and I wanted to get her three daughters to the air-raid shelter at the top of our road. I carried her 7 year old daughter on my back. Suddenly, as we ran up the road, a plane opened fire and shattered the windows of the shop at the top of the adjacent road. If the shop had been at the top of our road that would have been the end for me and the little girl.

Later I was posted to the Naval Armament Depot at Naples, just before the invasion of Southern France. I remember as we came in to land that it looked as if one could walk across the Bay of Naples on the ships, there were so many.

An early feature I remember about Naples were the (at that time) infamous street urchins who were notorious for being able to jump into the back of a pick-up and throw any portable luggage to a comrade whilst the vehicle was slowing down for a corner or roundabout. Both would then disappear up a side street before the vehicle could be stopped and chase given.

The Naval Armament Depot was based in a series of caves on the shore of the Bay at a place called Posillipo which had once been an Italian seaplane base. It was at the bottom of a hill which rose above the Bay of Naples and carried a road out to the North.

This served a number of handsome villas requistioned by the Allied authorities. I was amused to see that the villa almost directly above the Depot was occupied by the Supreme Allied Commander Mediterranean (SACMED). I wonder if he knew he had 5,000 tons of ammunition directly below him.

One unusual feature of the Depot which I recall was the attachment of a squad of 50+ Royal Army Pioneer Corps soldiers to lead the Ialian labourers in the often heavy work. So we had the unusual position of 50+ soldiers under the control of Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) officers.

I was at Naples until the end of the War in Europe in May 1945. I remember that our celebrations mainly consisted of a visit to the Vomero Stadium in Naples to see a football match between a local British Army team and the touring British Army team which included ten members of the England team of that time - the eleventh member was Stanley Matthews who was, I believe, in the RAF.

I was then posted to join the British Pacific fleet, serving on the so-called Fleet Train. This was the nearest one could get to a mobile base facility with repair, supply, water and hospital ships, I would imagine that this was unique in the annals of the Royal Navy. It was under the command of Rear Admiral Fisher and was based at Manus, a large coral island in the Admialty Islands to the north of New Guinea. Hence it was almost on the Equator and was rather hot and humid!

I was serving there when the Japanese surrender was announced and the surrender document was signed bt the Commander-in-Chief of the British Pacific Fleet, Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, in Tokyo.

That day we were steaming towards Hong Kong to play our part in this surrender of the Japanese there.

I moved ashore in Hong Kong to re-open the Naval Armament Depot there, on Stonecutters Island in the middle of the harbour. I returned to the UK in October 1947.

FOOTNOTE: In 1948 I was posted, as a clerical officer, to the Naval Armament Depot at Ditton Priors in Shropshire, the Depot was built about 1941. The Admialty thought it was a perfect location because there was already a railway line between Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors. There were dumps of ammunition all along the railway line at egular intervals.

It was quite a large Depot with 40,000 tons of explosive. This is surprising because if you go to Ditton Priors now, you wouldn't think it could have been such a hive of activity.

I remember at the centre of the Depot stood an old farmhouse which the Admiralty had taken over and the people that had lived there hab been moved out. The farmhouse was used for storage.

At least 450 people worked there, being bused in every day from as far away as Madeley and Richards Castle. I met my future wife at the Depot, she had started working there in 1942. We were married in April 1949 at the Holy Trinity Church in Much Wenlock.

My wife's stories can be found at:

* A4206421 "Entertaining the men from St Dunstan's"

* A8708538 "Death at the Dingle" (The Fuel Dump at Farly Dingle, near Much Wenlock)

* A8709221 "The Day the Bomb dropped on Ironbridge"

* A8820821 "Brothers-in-Arms" (The Cartwright Brothers War Service)

STORY: This story has been submitted to the People's War Site by Muriel Palmer (volunteer) Age Concern Shropshire Telford & Wrekin on behalf of Charles RATCLIFFE (author) and has been added to the site with his permission. Th author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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