大象传媒

After having some breakfast I reported to an RPO and was put with a party of about seven or eight other stokers. A young two-ringer was put in charge of us and he said we were to be a demolition party in the docks if the Japs got too near. We had to report to him next morning but he must have been given other orders because he didn't turn up.

We reported back to the office and stayed in the barracks for two or three days. We were then taken by lorry to a camp about six miles outside Singapore. There were Indian troops in the camp, with one Bofors gun, but after a couple of days they moved up to the front in North Malaya and we had the camp to ourselves.

Officers frequently came to the camp, usually at night, to ask for volunteers for various jobs. Some went as motor boat crew on the Penang ferries which were being heavily bombed by the Japs.

One night about 6pm we were put aboard a lorry and taken to Singapore docks. We boarded a merchant ship called "SS Erinpura". There was a raid on at the time and we had a bit of difficulty getting out of harbour. She was a very old ship of about 3000 tons, a coal burner with a British captain and a Lascar crew, I thought she would be lucky to make 7 knots.

We steamed all night and before dawn damped the boilers down and got the ship as far as possible under the palm trees (Smoke could be seen for miles). As soon as it was dark we carried on down the coast of Sumatra. We were making for Australia but before we got to Java the skipper received a wireless signal to say there were Japanese cruisers between us and and Australia.

We altered course and went through the Sundo straits between Sumatra and Java. This brought us into the Indian Ocean and the nearest port was Columbo in Ceylon. We had a long journey ahead with very little food water or coal, but plenty of rice.

There was no bread, potatoes or meat and only water to make tea. We were very hungry. We found out that the Lascars had a goat on board, so we killed it, cooked it and ate it. This incident almost caused a mutiny with the Lascar crew. When it rained we tried to save water in the canvas awnings (the only time we washed).

The ship took on a bad list caused by shortage of coal and water. However we sighted land (Ceylon) and arrived in Columbo harbour. By this time, not being able to wash, we were blacker than the Lascars. We were dressed in singlet and shorts which were our only possessions. We anchored in the harbour at Columbo and a young naval officer in spotless whites came aboard and asked for the naval ratings to fall in.

We must have looked to him more like pirates than naval ratings. However he gave us 40 rupees each and told us to go ashore, get something to eat, get cleaned up and report on board the next morning.

Four of us who were pals got a bumboat ferry boat (native) to the passenger jetty for a couple of rupees, then a taxi to the fleet club. We ate steak, egg and chips three times and woke up next morning at the table where we had eaten. We then went under the showers in our singlet and shorts and scrubbed them and ourselves fairly clean, then walked about in the sunshine for a while to dry off. We returned on board and all the naval personnel were sent to a rest camp about 120 miles from Columbo up in the hills with a cool climate, a place called Diyatalawa. There we were issued with new shorts, navy singlet, shoes and socks and shaving gear.

We spent a week doing nothing but eating and drinking and wondering what would happen next. We soon got to know; we were all drafted to different ships.

My ship was HMS Lucia, a submarine repair ship in Columbo harbour. We were the depot ship to two 'T' class subs, Trusty and Truant and also three Dutch subs. When they had completed a patrol they would tie up alongside and we would charge their batteries and carry out any repairs that were needed. We also supplied them with torpedoes and ammunition. When they were ready for sea we provisioned them with fresh baked bread and vegetables. The 'T' class had two escape hatches and these hatches were the only place we could put the potatoes and fresh veg. Fortunately the potatoes and fresh veg. didn't last very long in the tropics but it was hoped that the escape hatches wouldn't be needed in the first 48 hours.

There were rumours that the Japanese were going to invade Ceylon.
The fleet left Columbo. We couldn't leave because we were waiting for Trusty to come out of dry dock and we had her torpedoes and ammunition.

On Easter Sunday morning, 1942 a Japanese Carrier force was in the Indian Ocean. Japanese planes bombed Columbo and Trincomalee. We had been closed up to action stations. Trusty had come out of dry-dock and received her torpedoes and ammunition. She sailed out of the harbour and dived.

Shortly afterwards, a squadron of planes attacked and we received a direct hit. The bomb went through the gun platform, through three decks and exploded at the ship's side below the water line.
Two sub spare crew men were killed on the mess deck below where we were. The ship took on a bad list (20%) but bulkheads and watertight doors held.

Also hit in the raid were an armed merchant cruiser, AMC Hector, set on fire, and a small destroyer, HMS Tenedos, hit in her after magazine and blown up.

Because of the raid, all the native labour had vanished. The ship's company took over all the harbour installations and we were able to take the ship into dry dock. The hole in the bows was about 20ft. We were able to weld girders across the hole and bolt 9" by 3" timbers, caulk the joints and concrete the inside of the patch. (There was no steel plate available).

The two bodies were buried in Columbo cemetery. We pulled them on a gun carriage at the slow march. After the service we returned at the quick march, singing the latest songs of the day. An admiral came on board to tell us we had to go to Bombay for repairs but we had to follow the coast and, if the patch didn't hold, we had to beach the ship.(This type of ship was in short supply).

We arrived safely in Bombay and went straight into dry dock. We had to put guards on the boiler room and engine room to stop the Indian workers from stealing the brass fittings. At first we were living in an hotel and a bus would take us to the ship and back to the hotel about 2 o'clock (tropical routine).

The powers that be must have decided it was costing too much money so petty officers and ratings were sent to an army transit camp at a place called Deolali. It was also the monsoon season and it was impossible to even play football on the pitches. We complained so much that they eventually sent us back to Bombay and the hotel. It wasn't much better in Bombay because Ghandi was causing trouble and it wasn't safe for Englishmen to be on the streets.

We were pleased when the time came for us to go. The heat in Bombay was oppressive and the bed bugs in the hotel kept you awake. The journey back to Columbo was much rougher because of the monsoons. I don't think our temporary patch would have held in that sort of weather. Our subs were having plenty of success and it was great to watch them coming in with the Jolly Roger on the conning tower showing how many kills they had made.

It was now 1943. Another Christmas and New Year away from home.
I wondered how many more.

There were rumours that we were to go to South Africa for a major refit but we only half believed it. However the day did come and we left Columbo, first to the Maldives to coal ship, then the long journey without any escort to the Seychelles islands. We visited a lovely tropical island with a Creole population who dressed as they did a century before. We were only allowed afternoon leave (12 till 6). Before reaching Durban we called at Mombasa and had a run ashore for each watch.

We arrived at Durban and couldn't wait to get ashore, having heard so much about the place. It was a modern city with skyscrapers but they couldn't find a dockyard for us. So many ships had been damaged in the Mediterranean that all the dockyards were full. We were then sent to a private dockyard in Port Elizabeth. They were all pro-English people there and they made us very welcome.
It was like being at home.

Three weeks before Christmas the refit was complete. We went out on trials. We limped back to the dockyard at about two knots having to use seawater on the main L.P. bearing to keep it cool.
Somebody had sabotaged the bearing and that meant another six weeks in dock. I don't think I would be allowed to say who was responsible but it meant Christmas and New Year in Port Elizabeth.
Nobody grumbled about that.

There were some very emotional goodbyes from Port Elizabeth but at last we left for Durban. Arriving at Durban we coaled ship with Natal coal but found we couldn't keep steam pressure. It was the wrong type of coal for our boilers so we had to decoal ship and wait for a deck cargo of Welsh coal on a tanker from Aden. With the coal on the tanker came a letter from one of the Somalis. (We carried some British Somalis as seamen and coal trimmers. I think they were paid two rupees a week and their keep).

The letter had come from this man's village by native runner, then camel train to Aden and tanker to Mombasa. The letter was from his brother to say a neighbouring village had raided his village, killed his cattle and stolen his wife. He applied for compassionate leave.

When asked what he would do when he got home, he said he would gather all his relations together, raid the other village, kill all their cattle and get his wife back. His leave was granted.

I would have loved to hear the end of the story but those of the crew who had done two and a half years abroad were due to go home and we were put ashore at Durban when the Lucia sailed.

We were to take passage on the Niew Amsterdam, a Dutch passenger liner of about 40,000 tons, with a small naval contingent, army, air force, Italian prisoners, Australian nurses, Polish girls and political prisoners from Italy (the Italians had surrendered in 1943).

As we were leaving Durban, the lady in white sang to us through a loud hailer. She sang to all the troop ships that left Durban. She dressed in a white dress almost to her ankles, and a big wide- brimmed hat as in Edwardian times. "Now is the hour" was one of her songs. We rounded the Cape to Freetown and then had an uneventful crossing of the Atlantic.

What a thrill to see the UK after all this time! We docked at Greenock, disembarked and there was a train waiting to take us to Plymouth. Devonport barracks looked exactly the same as when I had left it almost three years before. We were quickly given medical examinations, foreign service and survivor's leave and free travel warrants and pay to cover leave.

I can't describe the feeling I had on that train journey home, wondering how I would find Mam and Dad, sisters Ivy and Dot and brother Jack, and most of all my sweetheart Elsie, who I was hoping to marry. What a great feeling to be home! Everybody looked great except my Dad who looked very frail but never complained.

Elsie and I were married on April 1st 1944 and most of the food and drink for the reception was obtained on the black market.

I was soon back to barracks at Devonport to await draft to some other ship. There were thousands of Yanks in Plymouth and Devonport. I slept at Aggie Weston's in Plymouth, it was known as the sailor's home and it cost 1/- (5p) a night. (You also had to sign a temperance card). Anywhere was better than sleeping in the barracks.

Walking back to the barracks the next morning along Plymouth Hoe, we saw hundreds of ships and knew it was the second front starting.

About 10 stokers, myself included, were drafted to the HMS Black Prince at Middle Dock, South Shields and I was able to see my wife often. After about a fortnight we were sent back to barracks as they only wanted us for a boiler cleaning party while the crew were on leave.

At last I was drafted again, this time to John Brown's dockyard at Clydebank, to a new destroyer that was being built - HMS Cavendish. I was one of the advance party and, as the ship was being fitted out, we could not sleep aboard. We were provided with lodgings in Clydebank and walked to and from the dockyard just like workmen.

My lodgings were in a tenement block with a man and wife and two children. Even though it was a bit tight for sleeping space and great inconvenience to them, the man and woman let Elsie stay for the time we were there.

The ship was completed and handed over to the Navy and commissioned. We went to Scapa Flow for working up trials. We were supposed to have six weeks working up but after two weeks the skipper said we were ready to join the fleet. We immediately took part in two raids on Norway. The first was with three small aircraft carriers, one cruiser and seven destroyers. We set off at night and the planes took off before dawn and bombed Bergen airfield. The next raid was on Stavanger airfield which was also being used by German aircraft.

We were known as the Six Destroyer Flotilla, Fast Escort Group. The skipper volunteered for Arctic convoys but we were sent to Liverpool to the Western Approaches and Atlantic convoys. This was my worst time in the Navy, with the rough weather and bitter cold.

Since more ships had become available to the Navy, tactics were changing. Instead of being on the defensive we were looking for U-boats to attack. This was a busy time for us, mainly escorting
large, fast troopers bringing American troops for the push into Germany.

We had been at sea for a longish period and returned to Liverpool. Among the letters from home were two telegrams, one to say my father was seriously ill and the other to say that he had died.

I immediately took the telegrams to the Engineering Officer who took me to see the Captain. He said he had an order that no compassionate leave could be allowed at this stage of the war.
However, he said that we would be in harbour for 48 hours and if I promised that I would back on board before the ship sailed he would give me a free travel warrant. He added that he realised
I would have gone anyway.

I caught a train at Lime Street Station and was home early next morning. Unfortunately the funeral had been been the day before. The train back to Liverpool was late and I was afraid I had missed the ship. I ran through the dockyard to find them just casting off.

On deck, the Officer of the watch gave me a dressing down and put me on Captain's report for being adrift. He didn't give me a chance to explain. I reported to the Engineering Officer and he told me to carry on and he would see to everything.

Coming into Liverpool after another convoy we were told it was VE day and to splice the mainbrace - an extra tot of rum for each man.

We had to stay on a wartime routine and escorted a ship to Gibraltar. We left Gib for the UK and half way across the Bay of Biscay the U516 surfaced and surrendered. The surrender terms had to be signed on the conning tower of the U-boat. There wasn't an officer who could speak German, but eventually a young A.B. was found who could speak a little, so he was taken over to the U-boat with the First Lieutenant to take part in the surrender. I bet that did his career the world of good.

We handed the U-boat over to a trawler that came out to meet us. We then proceeded to Devonport dockyard for a refit and were told that we were to join the Pacific fleet at Sydney.

We were now in peace time routine and our first stop was Gibraltar, which now had calm seas and warm weather. The next stop was Malta. There was no shore leave but we were allowed to swim at the ship's side in Valetta harbour. There were two gunners with rifles to watch for sharks.

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