大象传媒

I joined the navy as soon as I could in January 1941. I was sent to a shore based camp named HMS Collingwood, which was on the south coast near to Portsmouth. Along with other young lads my age I was taught how to march and carry a rifle by some Petty Officer who seemed to do nothing but bawl and shout all day long.

I was then sent further along the coast to Belmont Park Camp, which was still part of the Royal Naval Barracks, to learn all about seamanship. There I learned how to splice ropes and wires together. I really enjoyed that part of my training. After training along with the others I was drafted onboard the cruiser HMS Frobisher. We had hardly settled in when the ship was ordered to sail up to Greenock on the east coast of Scotland where we found out that we were to be part of the escort to a convoy of troops and material bound for Durban in South Africa. As we mde our way to Durban we were called to action stations at dawn and dusk but we got there without any mishaps.

We were supposed to be scheduled to return to the UK as soon as the convoy reached South Africa but instead we were detailed to go to the assistance of a French destroyer that had been badly damaged in a typhoon. On the instructions of the powers that be, we ended up towing the destroyer 1200 miles to Diego Suarez in India.

After that the ship was detailed to stay in the area of the Indian Ocean for the next two years. We sailed as escort to lots of other convoys sailing between India and Ceylon.

We were sent back to the UK in February 1944. We were told that we were getting ready for something big; this turned out to be the D-Day landings. I have never seen so many ships and men I one place in my life. Once the landings started we were on continuous watch so when you weren鈥檛 shooting at targets called up for you by the Command Ship you slept fully clothes at your action station which in my case was the 4.5鈥� gun. The ship was sent back to Portsmouth with some of the troops who had been injured while landing on the beaches. Once they had been loaded into the waiting ambulances we were sent straight back to our D-Day station defending the landings. We were soon back on station off the D-Day beaches shooting at targets called up for by the army intelligence. The ship was used as bait to help pinpoint the German battery positions and it was reported in the newspapers at the time. Shortly after this incident the ship was hit by a torpedo in the bow so we were withdrawn from the action and sent back to Chatham dockyard for repairs. Whilst we were waiting for a decision to be made about the ship, an officer came round and told us that because the D-Day landings had been a success the Army needed more men to help with the battle. As a consequence of this half of the ship鈥檚 company would be immediately transferred to the army. There were no volunteers asked for, just a list of names fo the persons to be transferred and mine was one of those on the list! I was sent up to Carlisle in Cumbria for further training, army style, and spent until 1946 serving with the Lincolnshire Regiment in Germany. I later found out that my best mate who stopped on the ship was demobbed 18 months earlier than me. Now that鈥檚 what I call a green rub!!

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