大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Janet Kowalska and has been added to the website on behalf of Mrs Jean Ganther (nee Chalmers) with her permission. She fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I lived in Hounslow and worked in London in the Post Office Savings Bank. I was 20 years old and engaged to a Scot (Gordon MacTavish) who was a bomb aimer in Stirlings. Gordon's father was a naval lieutenant and in January 1943 I was invited to stay with Gordon and his family at Colintraive where Gordon's father was stationed.

Colintraive was not a naval base. It was very small and Gordon's father was based on a yacht moored offshore. It was called 'Chicana' and had apparently been loaned to the Navy by Barbara Hutton, the Woolworth heiress. We were invited to visit the yacht for coffee and were rowed out by a sailor. I commented to Gordon's father that it was unusual to find a yacht stuck out there on its own and he said that it was used as 'examination vessel' and gave no further explanation.

After the war I found out that the yacht was a base for testing midget submarines. These could go right under big ships and attach mines to their hulls. A film was later made about them called 'Above Us the Waves'. Only about two years ago, a memorial was erected, at Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, to the men who had served in midget submarines.

Ten days after his leave had finished, my fiance was shot down and killed over Holland, returning from a bombing raid on Germany.

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