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I was first on the Cardiff Cruiser, and then on the Norfolk. Then we were in action with the Bismarck, in fact we were trailing behind it, waiting for the big ships to come up such as HMS Hood, which was one of our top ships.

The action started and it lasted for about six minutes. It was just before six in the morning, and at five past six we saw a great black cloud and the Hood had blown up. There were only three survivors from the Hood. At that time I was a leading signalman, like a sergeant. My action station was on the bridge so we could see what was going on.

We were attacked by a submarine — we didn’t know anything about it. I read about this in the library, in Churchill’s books about the law. There was a big explosion at the rear of the ship and we all thought it was aircraft — we were all looking for aircraft, but it wasn’t. It was a submarine that had just missed us but had exploded in the wake of the ship.

The submarine must have dived down again because we didn’t see anything on the surface. They claimed that it had sunk us a story that is in the library, about the damage they’d done to us, whereas they hadn’t done any damage at all. We were attacked by aircraft in Scarpoflow, and hit by bombs, which fell in the officers’ quarters.

It blew a hole in the side, and of course in action all the doors are shut, so water can’t flood the whole of the ship.

We were attacked by aircraft and submarines, and then attacked by the Bismarck, but the Rodney with its sixteen inch guns, blasted it to pieces. My son is now called Rodney.

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