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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Sarah Housden of Norfolk Adult Education’s reminiscence team on behalf of George Smith and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I was born in 1913 so was about 26 when the Second World War started. I lived in Coltishall. My father had been in France in World War I.

I was called up in 1942, but as I was working on Admiralty contracts as a boat builder this was deferred until early 1943. There I was, with little experience, going to London alone for the first time. I had to get to Chatham which housed 15 000 in the barracks. I got to London Liverpool Street, and wandered around with no idea how to get to London Bridge Station. In the end I asked a policeman and he stopped a bus for me which was going that way, and asked the driver to take me there.

I arrived in Chatham and the next morning was sent to HMS Robertson in Kent. When we got there we were assigned to combined operations for six months. We were doing the maintenance work on the LSVP (Landing Ship Vehicle Personnel) and the LST’s (Landing Ship Tanks) which were the crafts they used for D-Day.

A B17 (American Flying Fortress) crashed on the marshes right opposite the river where we were working. We went round to have a look at it, but weren’t allowed on board.

For about 2 ½ years I was on a mine sweeper operating from Liverpool across to Holyhead. We were sweeping our own minefields twenty-five miles off Liverpool. We weren’t exploding the mines, but sinking them. One day I could see a mine in the water and was looking at it. An officer came and asked me if I knew what it was and I said I did. He told me to get up on the bridge quick because if it exploded I would end up in the water.

We dropped a depth charge one day to kill some fish, and ended up with so many that we had fish for every meal!

Later we went down to Falmouth, and the ship was refitted. We had Bofors guns fitted, and then the ship went to the Malaga Straits, but I didn’t go with her. I was sent back to Chatham, and than on seven night’s foreign service draught leave. When I got back I found the ship had gone without me. I was then assigned to HMS Liverpool, and sent on another seven days leave — but the same thing happened again and she left without me!

I then got a draught to Harwich on a floating dock. While I was there a regatta took place at Shotley with all the sailing boats. One of the boys got stuck on the mud near the floating dock. They weren’t meant to get any help, so I just happened to throw a rope into the water which then just happened to be taken towards him by the tide. He was able to grab hold of the rope and pull himself clear, and I was able to maintain that I hadn’t helped him!

I was demobbed at Sparrow’s Nest in Lowestoft in late 1947. My time in the Navy was good and I had been with some good crews. Despite the fact that I wasn’t in for long I had the rank of Shipwright, because of my experience in boat building. I didn’t like telling people what to do, which came with the rank, but it was part of the job.

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