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This is Abby Hughes from Southmoor School, Sunderland entering Robert Claytons story onto the website and they fully understand the website terms and conditions of use.

January 1943
We sailed from Oban in Scotland, in convoy which stretched for miles as there would be about 80 ships in the convoy and there were also the escort ships to help protect the ships. We sailed the Atlantic Ocean for about 10 days without any trouble until we sailed through the straits of Gibraltar. I went on watch about 7:45 in the evening. Everything was nice and peaceful and then there was an explosion and it was a German aircraft dropping bombs on the convoys so we sounded the alarm and we were attacked by them for about three hours and it wasn鈥檛 until midnight that everything was back to normal. At this point I came off watch and went below for a bite to eat, a cup of tea and a chat with some of my mates. After this I said goodnight and went through to the sleeping quarters and went to sleep. Just as I was dozing off there was a huge bang, so we rushed up on to the deck to see what was happening and to our horror the after part of our quarters had been torpedoed by a German J. Boat. All I had on was a vest and underpants. The captain ordered the lifeboats to be lowered into the water and all members of the crew to get in to them as soon as possible. This was proving to be a bit difficult as we had to climb over tanks that were going to be taken to Algiers for the British Army. I got along side the lifeboat but we had to slide down the ropes which were new. My fingers were burning and I found out my finger ends were burnt raw. So as you can guess we had a traumatic night. While we were in the lifeboat about three in the morning, the J. Boat put another torpedo in the engine room and she sank in two minutes. We were safe and the next day was taken to the base in Algiers where my fingers were dressed. One thing I have always said was that I was lucky I came back as some of my mates, who joined at the same time did not. This is my story of that fateful night on January 7th.

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