大象传媒

From a Midshipman`s Journal
(March 1940)

This describes some of my experiences in H.M.S.Acheron, a destroyer, in Portsmouth at the beginning of the Second World War. I was seventeen years old at the time.

On Friday 15th March 1940 , after three and a half months alternately spent in Number Two Basin and Eleven dock we eventually moved or were moved to South West Wall Tidal Basin alongside the Hereward and Velox. In spite of the leave we had been having and although very few people admitted it I think we were all glad to be out again to normal routine. We had been heartily fed up with the dirt and squalor of the dockyard in winter and we forgot about the hard work ahead of us again.
Once we were out things moved fast. On Monday we turned to at 0740 instead of 0800 which seemed like hard work and we re-ammunitioned. It took us a long time, partly because the lighter was stowed wrongly, with depth charges, war heads and cordite all in one lighter but we were finished by 1400 in time to carry out basin trials in the afternoon. No defects were discovered so in all but minor respects we were ready for sea. Never-the-less we were surprised to find that we should have to be completely ready for full speed by noon on the next day, Tuesday. We worked hard that morning rigging lifelines and screens and the like but there were still odd jobs to do in the afternoon. One of them was to exercise Action Stations and Abandon ship which both took some time. We also exercised Aircraft Defense Stations and I wondered at the time whether we should ever need to know how to repel aircraft; the idea of an aircraft attacking anything as small as a destroyer seemed ridiculous to me. I did not know what was in store for us a few months later.
On Wednesday 20th March we went to sea for the first time since December 11th ! We corrected compasses in the morning and did our full power trials in the afternoon. It was a little choppy outside the boom and a number of people were seasick, including myself also an ordinary seaman named Henson,who refused all food but made no complaint. On re-entering harbour we went to our old destroyer billet, North West Wall alongside the ? and night leave was given of which I availed myself, returning on board after midnight to find that Henson had died earlier in the evening of fulminating pneumonia. He had only been in the Navy for six weeks having been called up. His gear was auctioned and the results were very gratifying.
The next two days were spent doing odd jobs that were discovered at sea, drilling guns crews and getting accustomed to the new routine. On Saturday 23rd we ran our first convoy out to Le Havre with three troopships with some more of the B.E.F. We slipped at 0100 and arrived there at 0700 with no adventures on the way. Coming back we carried out a few exercises, flag hoisting in which Kay and I took a part and some A.A. firing at a balloon which the Arrow who was senior ship let off. Just outside the boom a trawler asked us to take a wounded man in for her, so we picked him up and arrived alongside at 1300. We can now say that we have started work in earnest. We ran two more of these convoys then discovered that we should have to go into dock, or, rather, under a crane to repair the extractor pump. The dockyard officials told us that it would take at least a week and that we should have to de-ammunition which we did in three hours fifty five minutes, a record. The next day, Tuesday 26th March 1940 we were told that after all it would only take two or three days and that we need not have de-ammnitioned! The Captain arranged that we had seventy-two hours leave each. Kay went first. In the evening of that day, while I was ashore there was a small fire in the charthouse which did very little damage and was quickly dealt with by the fire party. It was started by a curtain being blown across an electric radiator which had been left on.
The next day we had the task of ammunitioning with only one watch on board. It had to be done before noon because the Shikari was coming alongside us then! We turned to at 0630 and at 0745 a party from Anthony arrived to give us a hand. After quite herculean efforts, in which even the Captain lent a hand we were finished at 1120!
After we had all had our leave we started running again on Tuesday 2nd April 1940 by doing a days gunnery firing for Whale Island. On the ensuing two days we did various exercises off Portland with the Malcolm including towing forward which went off well. When these were completed we ran some more Channel convoys, mostly to LeHavre or Cherbourg which terminated after one slow one to Breste on Tuesday 9th April 1940.
This date marked the beginning of the first bit of excitement we had had so far. A few days previously Germany had protected Norway in the usual manner by invading her. As a result the British Fleet had had several successful engagements with the enemy and when we received instructions that we were going up north to Rosyth we thought that perhaps we might share the fun. We sailed on Wednesday 10th April, escorting the submarine Cachelot to Dover where we were to pick up a merchantman, the Cedarbank of about 7,000 tons and convoy her to Leith after which we were under the orders of C in C Rosyth. The trip went very satisfactorily with no delay at Dover. I was amazed to see so many wrecks in the Straits. I counted 34 with masts or funnels showing! Another thing that surprised me was to see a convoy of over sixty ships with only one destroyer as escort.
On Friday morning we started up the east coast at what seemed a very slow ten knots. There was no zig zagging to be done as we were in the swept channel and we saw nothing but a few minesweepers until the first watch when another huge convoy passed us heading for Sheerness I believe. Saturday turned out foggy and we had to stick close to the Cedarbank for fear of losing her. During the forenoon, while we were feeling our way along very cautiously the lookout reported a ship right ahead. We altered slightly to starboard and the Impulsive passed us doing twenty knots at least. Later in the afternoon the fog lifted slightly and we passed the Kelvin and Kashmir and at about 1800 we passed Bass Rock which is a bird sanctuary. The Cedarbank left us at 1920 and we proceeded up the Firth of Forth just as it was getting dark. We had a little trouble negotiating the many boom defences but eventually we tied up at the oiler without mishap. The next day we went inside the harbour in Rosyth alongside the Arrow and Whitby.
On Sunday 14th the captain called all the officers together in his cabin and told us that we were to escort a surprise convoy of troops in the Orient Line ship,Orion with three cruisers to Namsos. He explained that it was a highly dangerous task because the enemy held Trondheim aerodrome only twenty miles south of Namsos and that the fjord through which we would have to pass was like all other Norwegian fjords very narrow with high mountains on either side so that as it would prove impossible to manoevre the Orion alongside she would anchor in mid stream and we, together with the Arrow and Griffin would have to run ferry trips between her and the shore, or, if that was not possible she would have to be run aground and abandoned. The cruisers who were also carrying troops were to act as A.A. defence. The whole operation, so the captain stressed, depended on surprise and secrecy; if we could get some of the troops ashore before the enemy realised it, that would help no end. He doubted whether the Orion would survive the terrific bombing she was expected to receive so speed was also very necessary. When we had heard this we were highly delighted, I was at any rate. I had not so much as seen an enemy plane up until then and the chance for a pot at them or even watching other people doing the potting was most desirable.
That afternoon we embarked all sorts of curious things, planks in large quantities, bits of wood and also a pair of twin Lewis guns to be mounted on the S.L platform. We then came to immediate notice and expected to sail early on Monday morning. Monday morning arrived and nothing happened except an order to reduce to one hours notice for steam. So Monday passed and Tuesday also. By Tuesday we had given up hope of going because in the morning papers there was a map of Norway with Namsos underlined and an inscription against it saying 鈥淕reat Naval Battle expected here!鈥� We did not think we would go with all that advertisement. Nor did we. On Wednesday 17th April 1940, after having embarked fifty soldiers and two officers we set sail in company with four cruisers and two other destroyers for Aandalsnes. The sea was fairly calm and the soldiers who were all militiamen of the Leicestershire Regiment seemed to be settling down comfortably. However, in the afternoon the wind freshened and a swell came up which totally upset the soldiers. They lay on the upper deck being drenched by each cloud of spray and longing to die. The two officers retired to the Captain`s cabin and we heard no more from them until we entered the smooth waters of the fjord. I felt very sorry for those soldiers because, unlike us who have only to land them and rush out they had to land and establish themselves and probably put up with intense bombing after being as seasick as they were. The landing went without incident except for three enemy planes which took no notice of us.
I had always imagined that the Norwegian coastline would be easily distinguishable, that we should be able to find landmarks with little difficulty but when we arrived there we discovered that any part of the coast was the same as any otherpart and that all the mountains were more or less the same height and shape! The fjords themselves were very deceiving, they looked less than half their actual width. The soldiers were disembarked without mishap on the night of Thursday 18th April and on Friday morning, after a slight delay to pass a message to the force at Molde we proceeded out of the fjord back to Rosyth by way of the Orkneys.
We spent the remainder of that day in Rosyth and in the evening of the next day Sunday 21st we went up to Scapa Flow where we arrived at 8 o`clock the next morning. Scapa Flow in itself is about the dullest, most uninteresting place it is possible to imagine. Flat grassland or peat bog mostly with one or two small naval establishments scattered around. What did make it interesting were the number of ships of all kinds anchored there. There were two or three aircraft carriers, some cruisers and battleships including the wreck of the Iron Duke which was torpedoed earlier in the war by an enemy submarine which managed to enter the harbour.
In the afternoon we were sent out with several other destroyers to escort the Glorious while she did some flying exercises. One of the planes when landing on caught the wind under his wing and crashed into the sea. As we were 鈥榮tand by鈥� for such occurrences we made our best speed to the scene and managed to pick up the pilot but his observer and plane were lost. After the exercise we returned to Scapa Flow and thence down to Rosyth again. When we got there we were put at four hours notice for steam so leave was given. I went for a walk in the dockyard and went on board the Belfast which was in dry dock after being torpedoed by an enemy submarine. There was really very little apparent damage except that most of the decks seemed to have folds in them! The hole in the bottom of the ship had by then been repaired.
That night we sailed for Norway again with more troops on board. They were regulars this time of the Green Howards regiment and were not so seasick as the last. When we arrived in Aandalsnes we had to ferry soldiers and their gear between the Birmingham which was one of the cruisers with us and the shore. When we got alongside the jetty the Arrow came alongside us; so we had to wait for her to unload and also the Griffen before we could get away. This took all night and we sailed again in the morning. On the way back Arrow, who had gone on ahead sighted and investigated a suspicious-looking trawler which made as if to come alongside then turned and rammed her after which all the crew shouted 鈥淗eil Hitler鈥� and jumped over the side and sank since there were no survivors. the Arrow then set to and sank it by gun fire. The Griffin also sighted one which was much more docile and as it proved to be a German submarine supply ship she took the crew prisoner and the ship as a prize. We were told on our return to harbour that we were to say nothing about this incident as the trawler contained the secret of some torpedoes which we had been trying to solve for years so we did not want the enemy to know that we had solved it.
We had not been back in port long before we were told to proceed down to the Clyde. It was a very enjoyable trip because the weather was perfect, warm and calm and the coast was new to me, at least and very beautiful. We passed near enough to be able to see the little farmers鈥� cottages nestling among the hills and sometimes we saw a shepherd with his flock of sheep. The journey was really marred by a thick fog which set in the next day, causing us to slow right down to eight knots. Eventually it became so thick that we had to anchor and wait for it to lift which it did soon after midday and we continued our journey. As usual we went alongside an oiler, the most battered old thing imaginable, named the San ? There was no mail waiting for us at Greenock as we had expected and consequently the place looked 50% worse in our eyes. Even so, it was a very beautiful anchorage with the green hills of Dumbartonshire on one side and the smoky factory chimneys of Greenock and Clydebank outlined against more hills on the other.

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