- Contributed by听
- raymond ladds
- People in story:听
- ralph ladds RNR
- Location of story:听
- the north sea/north atlantic
- Background to story:听
- Royal Navy
- Article ID:听
- A3652364
- Contributed on:听
- 11 February 2005
This is a story about my father who is sadly no longer with us,and to this day I miss so much,he was a lieutenant commander in the RNR sometimes called the wavy navy, before the war he was a skipper of a deep water trawler,on one particular event was when the trawler he was skipper of,the ships name was VERESUS was very badly damaged by huge seas,the ship lost all its navigation equipment and most of its steering capabilities,he brought the ship back to port by navigating by the stars and the whole episode was front page headlines in the grimsby evening telegraph,to which the whole crew spoke of his coolness and skill. We as children very seldom saw him during the war years,but i remember being so proud when we saw him in his uniform when he came home on leave.Although he never spoke of his time during the war years,we were somewhat aware of the dangers he and others were in,particular when we were in the air raid shelter during air raids,we know that he was on mine laying and mine sweeping duties,and that he also did some time on the russian convoys,we also know that he was mentioned in dispatches and among his medals were oak leafs ect.also recalled was the time he picked up a downed german pilot and brought home his flare gun and his dagger which had the words of blood and honour down the blade,it also had a swastika on the handle. Thank god my father came home to us after the war,unlike so many brave men and women whom we will forever be in there debt. after the war he continued in the fishing industry untill his retirment and sadly passed away on the 4th oct 1987 at the age of 85.
漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.