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Message 2 - Russian Convoy Work

Posted on: 22 February 2004 by Peter Walker

[ WILL TRY AND HAVE A LOOK .THE UPGRADED FLOWER CLASS WERE MUCH THEY HAD BETTER ASDIC USING AGIRO COMPASS AND BETTER ANTI SUBMARINE WEAPOnS I SERVED ON HMS SPIREA FOR A SHORT TIME DURING 1942
IN 1943 TILL END OF WAR IN EUROPE I SERVED IN HMS BELLONA A MODIFIED DIDO CLASS CRUISER .BELLONA PRTICIPATED IN SEVERAL RUSSIAN CONVOYS TO THE KOLA INLET.
SOME YEARS AGO I RECIEVED THE RUUSSIAN COMMEMERATIVE MEDAL AS A VETERAN

Message 2 - Snowberry

Posted on: 20 February 2004 by Peter Walker

you are not talking about the same ship .most of the details you refer to conflict with those of the original flower class corvette .The Snowberry I served in had type 123a asdic known as the Trawler Set The asdic you are refering to was type 127 fitted to later or refitted corvettes
I Left Snowberry at Iceland in sept 1941 and took passage to th UK in HMS BULLDOG .
Snowberry was due to go to Charleston North Carolina for o long refit
I was regular RN and lent to the RCN AS the were short of SD operators .An RN Coder was also lent because the RCN did not have any coders at tha time

I was 19 when I joined Snowberry and was probably the youngest member of the crew I wonder how many of them are around today

Message 3 - Snowberry

Posted on: 20 February 2004 by Peter Walker

HMCS SNOWBERRY ,CONVOY ESCORT---------------Comments on Forum refering to message number

Message 1
I was not a member of the depth charge crew .If there had been occasion to drop charges they would have been dropped over the stern at a safe depth setting and interval .
I had to use the binoculars as lookout in the crows nest and wing of the bridge they were very small and had a decorative trim They were not like the admiralty pattern ones I used on my previous ship the battleship Rodney
The was a saying amongst corvette crews that they rolled 45 deg.It looked like 45 deg to me..When we looked at other corvettes rolling we could see the ships bottom from water line to keel or thereabouts .It stood out because of the reddish anti fouling compound use to treat the bottom against barnacles.
I am not a Naval architect or constructor so do not know far the ship could roll before foundering .What I do know that we often rolled gunwhales under.
I often did a trick at the helm noticed that in heavy seas the magnetic compass went hard over in the gymbals Likewise when operating the Asdic(SONAR) the
magnetic compass went hard over obscuring the line of light that was meant to show the heading of the oscillator (transducer)
I joined the ship at Gourock/Greenock on loan to the RCN. The drafting authority told me that it had been given to the RCN but they were short of asdic operators.It looked like an RN corvette that is why I thought it was built on the Clyde
I do not recall seeing any radar antenna or equipment and the were no radar operators in the crew .I do recall seeing an antenna which looked like a modern portable TV ariel .It was mounted on the deck above the wireless office The Telegraphist told me that it was for the Radio Direction Finding Equipent and showed me the reciever which was about the size of a domestic wireless set and worked of an HT battery and accumulator
Although primarily an asdic operator I also did lookout duties from time to time .The port and starboard lookouts were stationed in the wings of the bridge.that is where
the guns were .They were for firing in the air at low flying aircraft I particularly remember the tommy gun because I had never seen one before

Message 4 - Snowberry

Posted on: 22 February 2004 by Peter Walker

THE SHIPS PARTICULARS GIVEN BY HARRY LOOK LIKE THOSE OF AN UPGRADED OR LATER FLOWER CLASS WHICH HAD TYPE 127 ASDIC WHICH HAD A GYRO COMPASS NOT A 123A WHICH HAD A MAGNETIC COMPASS IN A SPECIAL BINNACLE .THIS SET WAS KNOWN AS A TRAWLER SET USED BY SHIPS WITH NO GYRO
PROBABLY SNOWBERRY WAS UPGRADED WHEN SHE WAS REFITTED LATER IN 1941 AFTER I LEFT