大象传媒

LADY LUCK Part two When I returned off leave, I reported to the Master - At- arms, who allocated me to mess 24, the lowest mess deck there was, below the water line.
When we went to sea, all the hatches were closed, and a small one was left open, just big enough for one person at a time to get through. If you had a collision, hit a mine, or had a torpedo come inboard you did not stand a chance. Many of the lads only came down for their meals.
When not on duty they spent most of their spare time in the games room, on the upper deck, playing cards etc. One day I was sitting in the mess, with my back against the ships port side, when over the tannoy system came the warning 鈥渕ine about to hit the port side鈥�.
Before I could move the ships side bulged in, right were I was sitting pushing me forward, I heard the mine clang its way right down the length of the ship with out exploding, it must have been an old mine corroded and filled up with sea water.
Lady luck was certainly smiling at me that day.
We left Portsmouth in early June, we sailed through the English Channel, steamed up the Irish Sea, and around the outer Hebrides to Scotland then to Scapa Flow, to start our two months working up period, I was glad to see it was flat calm all the way up there, it took us just over two days. We anchored at Scapa Flow, a bleak place, nothing but green hills and sheep, not a tree anywhere, because of the high winds.
The next day we went out on manoeuvres, in a force eight gale, and for the next three days, I was seasick, and I just wanted to lay down and die, I found myself a nice warm place next to the funnel, and did not move.
I could here my name called out on the tannoy, but I just did not care, I had nothing to eat for three days. On the third day I was feeling a bit better, so I reported to the Master-At -Arms, he gave me a right telling off for not reporting and said 鈥渆verybody had thought I had fallen over board鈥�, from that day on I was never sick again.
I was starving hungry, I went down on the mess-deck and ate the biggest meal I鈥檝e ever had, I was still hungry, so I went to the N,A.A.F.I and bought a tin of peaches, that鈥檚 all they had, and ate the lot.
The working up period consisted of going to action stations, anytime, day or night. Loading and unloading magazines, clearing misfires until you had it off to a fine art, firing hundreds of rounds of tracer, and high explosive shells at moving targets, launching lifeboats, test firing all guns, firing dummy torpedoes, checking the radar system, boxing the compass. Speed trails, fire drill, damage control drill, and streaming Para vanes.
This consisted of running out two wire cables, one each side of the ship, with a torpedo shaped object on each cable, which had wire cutters attached.
The Idea being, if you was in a mine field the wire on the mine ran up the wire on the Para vane away from the ship, the cutters nipped the wire, and up popped the mine, then you could fire at it and sink it.
You should be so lucky!
One day over the tannoy system came the order,鈥� number 16 Oerlikon, open fire on mine on starboard bow,鈥� up on deck came everybody not on watch, there were cooks, sick bay attendants, stokers, writers, stewards, and Officers.
Now imagine this, you have a target about four feet in diameter, 400 yards away. The ship is going up and down, rolling from side to side, you have to calculate the wind speed, the speed of the ship, the speed of the tide, plus the fact that the mine is rising and falling about thirty foot on the waves.
In addition, you have a fine spray of ice-cold seawater hitting you in the face like thousands of pins and needles.
I watched the tracer heading straight for the mine, at the last few seconds the mine went down in a trough, and the tracer missed by about fifty yards; sometimes the tracer hit the waves before the mine and ricocheted up in the air. Everybody gave an Ironic cheer, some wit shouted out,鈥� lets surrender now we haven鈥檛 got a chance鈥�, I am glad it was not me firing that gun.
Sitting on top of 鈥淴鈥漷urret, manning the twenty-millimeter Oerlikon, I was to experience the firing of the twin 8鈥� inch guns. It was the most horrendous experiences I have ever had; first the turret starts slowly revolving, then, both barrels started elevating, if there was no wind, you could hear the orders being given inside the turret by the marine gun crew.
As soon as you heard the order 鈥渇ire鈥�, you held on to something, and you tensed yourself, your whole body shook from top to toe, like some giant picking you up and giving you a good shaking.
Next, a big wave of hot air came over you, you think you are going to be roasted alive, in the last few seconds it clears away, and then a big cloud of ash, burnt cordite, and pieces of hot rag descend on you, covering you in a layer of white ash.
After the firing of about twenty rounds, we both looked like a couple of snowmen, and you were glad to get off the turret. We had anti-flash gear and ear pads, but it is a wonder I am not stone deaf, mind you, I had a first class view of the depth charges going off when we were attaching U-boats.
After completing our working up period, we went across the Atlantic Ocean to Akureyri in Iceland to escort a convoy from Russia back to Scotland, in the distance, you could see German reconnaissance planes circling around, but they never came to close.
Twice I went ashore in Reykjavik; it was not a pleasant experience. The Icelanders hated ours guts, they were all pro German, and they wouldn鈥檛 serve you in the shops, if you spoke to them they turned there backs, a few of our lads got into fights with them. We were eventually banned from going into the town, and could only go ashore to our own canteen; it was not worth the effort to get ready to go ashore.
After escort duty we returned to Iceland, this time we went to Akureyri, waiting for another convoy, the crew were getting fed up as nothing much was happening. Having returned from Scotland once again, this time we returned to Seydisjordur in Iceland..
Every time we went to one of these Fiords, my duty watch was, Harbour Defence, these Fiords were very narrow, with mountains either side, a plane could quite easily, come in drop its bombs and be gone in a matter of minutes, so we always manned some machines guns, fully cocked and loaded.
On top of the turret at night, we had a beautiful view of the northern lights, and the Aurora boalasis, all the colours of the rainbow zigzagging all over the sky, mind you, even that鈥檚 gets boring after a few weeks, the nights were bitter cold.
August 25th, 1943.
We had our first death on board to-day; leading Seaman James Flynn broke his neck practicing on the parallel bars. I saw them carry him down in a cane straight jacket; the ship dedicated this poem to him.
A Burial at sea.

No sight so rare and majestical,
Than a burial at sea.
On the quarterdeck our shipmate lay,
We there, our respects to pay.
Sewn in his hammock, a funeral pall.
At his feet a cannon ball
Upon him was the ensign spread,
Tribute to him, who lay dead,
Whilst the prayers we said, we thought of him,
Our eyes grew moist and dim.
Of him, we knew a man so brave,
We cast down to an ocean grave,
And the Captains voice so reverent deep,
"I appoint you in gods keep".

Written specially to the memory of
Our shipmate, the late JAMES FLYNN
Died on active service August 25th, 1943.

I still have the original poem in my possession, buts it is getting a bit faded now.
Little did I know that before the year was out, a few more members of our crew were to be buried at sea?
Early September we sailed from Scotland. We escorted a aircraft carrier up the coast of Norway to bomb the German battle-ship Tirpitz in Alten fjord. When we got there, the weather was quite calm, so the planes took off, while we patrolled up and down outside the Fjord, but before they got back a bit of a swell got up.
How some of those Fleet air arm pilots landed those planes, I do not know, what with the carrier pitching and rolling. I saw one plane coming in nice and steady, then the ship rose up on a wave, the plane crashed into the rear of the ship, killing the pilot and a couple of the gun crew on the stern.
One plane managed to land bounced up and down along the deck, missed all the arresting wires, and went straight over the bows, he was pushed along by the carrier then disappeared, never to be seen again, you didn鈥檛 live long in those freezing waters.
We did about three raids up the Norwegian coast to bomb the Tirpitz, once with two carriers and a destroyer escort, one carrier was H.M.S.Illustrious.
After Norway, we did our first Russian convoy to Murmansk, we had a few U-boat scares and saw some German aircraft, we dropped a few depth charges and fired some 4鈥� rounds, and that kept them away.
We had to sail through Bear Island Passage, a narrow stretch of water between Spitsbergen and Norway, where the U-boats used to wait for the convoys to go through.
We had to stay on watch for three days and nights when the ship went through the passage. At meal times you were given twenty minutes to go to the galley, grab a mug of hot soup and some corned beef sandwiches, you were also given a sealed tin of concentrated tablets that consisted of Horlicks, chocolate, barley sugars, chewing gum, and a few other strange things.
At night, you got permission to go to the galley for a cup of kye (cocoa), this was made from big bars of dark brown chocolate, and you could stand your spoon up in it, delicious on a freezing cold night. After three days of not washing and shaving the ships company looked more like a bunch of pirates than members of the Royal Navy. You dozed where you could.
We were about two days steaming out from Murmansk.
In a big storm, I started getting these terrific pains in my right jaw, I went to the sick bay, they sent for the dentist he took one look and said, 鈥� you鈥檝e got an abscess on your back tooth, I don鈥檛 usually pull teeth in a storm, but this has to come out straight away鈥�.
He gave me an injection and told me to come back in ten minutes; I was due on watch so it just gave me time to arrange for a relief.
Going back to the dentist surgery, he told me to sit down and proceeded to strap me in the chair, to stop me falling out. The ship was tossing and rolling like a bucking bronco, I could see the waves rushing past the starboard porthole, the surgeon went to the door of the surgery and gave two knocks.
In came two burly stokers, they went behind me, one put both his arms around me and pinned both my arms to my side, the other got me in a head lock. The dentist got his knee and shoved it in my stomach; there was the four of us rolling around like wrestlers in a tag match.
The dentist put his arm around my neck, he jammed a wedge in my mouth, with the pliers in his other hand he said, 鈥淚鈥檓 afraid this is going to hurt, but it's got to come out鈥�.
He extracted the tooth, it did not hurt all that much. The dentist said, 鈥渨hat ever you do don鈥檛 swallow or the poison will go into your stomach. So I went on watch with a bottle of water, and for the next couple of hours I was rinsing my mouth and spitting blood over the lee side of the ship.
When we got to Murmansk, we went ashore for four hours. That is all you needed, as there was nothing there, no pubs, no shops, and no servicemen clubs, the only thing to do was skiing and tobogganing. We saw these children on a high slope and decided to see if we could borrow a sledge.
My pal and I started to walk up the hill, we had on all our artic clothing, sheep skin coat, hat, gloves, boots, thick woolen jersey, two pairs of trousers, two pairs of socks, it was freezing.
By the time we got half way up the hill, we were sweating; we came upon a large pile of logs and thought we would have a rest, all of a sudden, Swish! Swish! Somebody was talking to us in Russian.
We looked behind us and there was two Russian solders on ski鈥檚 all dressed in white armed with spargen,s, Russian type Tommy guns, beckoning us to put our hands up, which we did promptly.
After a few sign language鈥檚 and showing them our Identification papers, they apologized and went on their way. It turned out that the wood belonged to the community and any one caught taking it was shot on sight. There was a shortage of everything especially wood for heating.
We visited the community hall where everybody had their meals, for dinner they were having black bread and soup, we offered the children some chocolate but they would not eat it, they had never seen chocolate before and were a bit suspicious.
We escorted another convoy back to Scotland, and we went to Scapa Flow, to pick up provisions, fuel and ammunition. My mate smithy and I decided to go ashore to see the film. Scapa Flow was a bleak place not a tree or a woman to be seen anywhere, sailors only, very windy.
On a small Island they had built a cinema, caf茅, and canteen, first you saw the film, then you had something to eat, and then you went to the beer canteen, on entering, if you fancied ten pints you bought ten tickets.
Going into this massive room, there was a long bar full up with hundreds of pints of beer, you grabbed a tray then took ten pints, and sat down with your own ships company, once everyone had their beer they closed the bar, there was only one kind of beer and no spirits.
There were three to four hundred sailors from every ship in the fleet, from trawlers, destroyers, cruisers, battleships, every man thought his ship was the best, and woe betide anyone that disagreed, there were fights all over the place, it was bedlam.
Smithy and I were waiting for the drifter (small boat) to go ashore, there was a storm blowing, when it came along side, smithy misjudged the rise and fall of the boat, fell about fifteen feet twisted his ankle slipped on the wet deck and broke his leg.
We got him back on board, they radioed for a boat, and in the meantime, I went down and got all his gear and hammock. We loaded Smithy and his gear onto the boat, I waved him goodbye.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.