大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Vijiha Bashir, at 大象传媒 Scotland on behalf of Mr Goodship and has been added to the site with the permission of Johnstone History Society. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Before joining the Royal Navy, but after the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, the L.D.V. 鈥� Land Defence Volunteer Force 鈥� was formed as a volunteer civilian force in case Adolf Hitler invaded the British Isles after the German forces had overrun France and most of Western Europe right up to the French side of the English Channel. The name L.D.V. was later changed to the Home Guard and because of the story for TV鈥檚 Dad鈥檚 Army. The force consisted of older men above conscription age, younger men who were not physically fit enough for the armed forces or were in a reserved occupation and young lads like myself who were not old enough to be called into the armed services. All younger men if fit were liable to be conscripted into the forces but were not given the option of which branch of services they wished to enter. I was not really old enough to join the L.D.V. as I was only about 17 years old, but questions were not asked and on joining I was given an arm band with L.D.V. printed on it an a cudgel. During the early days following the Dunkirk evacuation the unit had to be formed at very short notice and uniforms and rifles were not available.

Our headquarters were in the Courts at Holt 鈥� a large manor house and estate in the village which now belongs to the National Trust. The group which I belonged to were on duty each Friday night through until Saturday morning and our duties were to patrol the area around Holt village on the lookout for signs of an invasion which was fully expected at any time, but which we now know never happened. We were gradually allocated equipment to eventually include a complete army uniform, rifle and 5 rounds of ammunition. How we would have fared against trained and well equipped German parachutists I shudder to think. I was among several younger members who formed a signals group to communicate with L.D.V. groups from other areas using the Morse code and radio telegraphy and Aldis hand signalling lamps. General training took place each Saturday morning and it was jus as well we were not invaded because the unit contained similar characters to Captain Mannerings, Sergeant Wilson, Corporal Jones and Private Pike of Dad鈥檚 Army fame. Forming a signal group was one way of keeping clear of the doddery old men.

My friends, most of whom were just older than me were called up for war service in the Army in late 1941 and I realised that I would soon be called up too. However, I did not want to serve in the Army or the Royal Air Force so I volunteered to join the Royal Navy before reaching conscription age so that I could join the service of my choice. Those who were conscripted did not have a choice. I was accepted and reported to HMS 鈥淩aleigh鈥� in Cornwall, just across the river Tamar opposite Plymouth, right at the beginning of 1942. In the recruiting office in Prewett Street, Bristol I was given 2 shillings 鈥� now 10 new pence 鈥� and told to get to Cornwall by train. I spent 3 months at HMS Raleigh in Torpoint, Cornwall for my initial training and then trained to be a torpedoman on HMS Defiance in Plymouth Sound. This was a very old wooden ship crawling with cockroaches and must have been resting on the bottom, otherwise it would have sunk.

Following training I served on a minesweeper and on board the duties o f a crew of 4 torpedomen were to maintain all electrical equipment, giro compasses, light explosives and operate depth charges in the event of an attack by enemy submarines, we were not equipped with torpedo tubes. The minesweeper was only a small boat of 900 tons and the ships company consisted of a crew of 5 officers and 90 men. The ship HMS Octavia was built in Toronto, Canada and commissioned in St. John, New Brunswick. We stayed in Canada for about 5 months carrying out trials and proving equipment and visited Newfoundland on the way home. Most of the places we visited was to sweep and clear mines and carry out some convoy work escorting merchant ships carrying supplies to Britain. We spent one year in Iceland before transferring to the Mediterranean area for about 2 years minesweeping around the coast of Gibraltar, Southern France, Italy, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Greece and numerous Greek Islands, Malta, Egypt and North Africa, not forgetting Ireland and the Outer Hebrides. My memories of the war years are still very vivid.

During my service in the Royal Navy I made one life long friend 鈥� Bill Hodges from Shrewsbury in Shropshire who for may years managed a care home with his wife in Uphill, near Weston Super Mare, we visited each other often but since writing this story he has unfortunately died. He was my only ex naval contact.

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