大象传媒

During the war, from January 1941 鈥� December 1945 I was working in the Navy. I was first gunner on an Armed Merchant Cruiser, taking RAF personnel over to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to be trained as pilots. The Atlantic then was patrolled by German U鈥攂oats and tens of thousands of tons of Merchant Shipping was sunk with a tremendous loss of lives.
I was then on board a minesweeper, HMS Clacton, and we were engaged in many invasions including Dieppe, when 5, 000 Canadian soldiers were killed. We also took part in North African and Italian landings including Sicily and Salerno. That was until the ship went down somewhere off Corsica on the last day of 1943, taking with it a third of the ship鈥檚 company. Before it went down I put a fellow shipmate over the side of the ship and I never saw him again until 45 years later. When the ship hit a mine, the ship keeled over and this fellow yelled out that his leg had gone. A steel bar had gone through his leg and I helped him up on to the upper deck, put a lifejacket on him and then put him over the side of the ship. He went into hospital in Gibraltar, then in this country and then he went into Fire Service Administration.
When we weren鈥檛 sweeping, we were on convoy work from Casablanca, Gibraltar, Algiers, Oran, and up towards Malta, sometimes being chased by enemy submarines and planes.
On board the Clacton sixty-five men were living together at close quarters on a small ship for 18 months, in sometimes quite horrendous circumstances, and often at 鈥楢ction Stations鈥�. I was then a quartermaster (a helmsman in the Navy).
When the Clacton went down on the last day of December, it was very cold. It was hailing, and the sea was covered with fuel oil. There were ships around but they were afraid of coming too close because of mines. I was able to get part of my body on a Carly float. I couldn鈥檛 get completely on it because it was so cold and eventually, after some hours, I was picked up. We went to an island between Corsica and Sardinia on that boat. We were there for a few days, then we were taken back to the UK to Chatham Barracks. I remember Vera Lynn singing 鈥榃e鈥檒l meet again鈥ne sunny day鈥� but for some of my chums the sunny day never came.
Then I was on HMS Warspite, on D-Day when the greatest Armada of ships, planes and a million men made their way to the Normandy beaches. I was able to go on the upper deck and I saw a sight then that I had never seen before and never will again. The sea was covered with 67,000 ships and the sky from one horizon to the other was filled with planes and gliders. That was on the 6th June 1944.
We were firing from the ship鈥檚 15 inch guns. Some years ago I went to a meeting of Normandy veterans and met a man who said, 鈥業 was on land, directing your salvoes鈥�.
I finished my naval career in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) at a naval base. I was drafting officer in Colombo. Men were drafted to various parts of India. I was there until 1945, and was demobbed in December. Then I trained for the ministry.
On large ships like the Warspite we could go to the galley and food would be all ready for you. On a small ship like the Clacton each man was allowed so much money for meals and two of you were delegated to get the meal for the rest of the group in your part of the ship (port or starboard). It was virtually all tinned food. At one time we had no potatoes so we had hard biscuits instead. We slept in hammocks which we taken down after we got up. We had a locker for belongings. I lost everything when the ship went down.
We were on watches 鈥� I was at the wheel for the middle watch 12 鈥� 4 a.m. Afternoon watches were 4 鈥� 6 p.m., 6 鈥� 8p.m.
A little incident - those who were going on the afternoon watch from 12.30 鈥� 4.00 would have their dinner and they would put on plates the dinner for those who were coming off. There was a heater on board on the port side. Before opening the door of the heater you had to check which side the ship was rolling and it had to be on starboard side. Unfortunately one fellow didn鈥檛 think and opened the door and out came a dozen plates and contents.
We ate together at long tables-it gave a sense of companionship.
Another Christmas 1942 we were at Oran, not able to go ashore because the French Admiral had been assassinated. The cook had prepared Christmas dinner but no鈥攐ne sat down because so many were drunk 鈥� they had saved their rum issue (tots for a couple of weeks). You got 3 pence if you didn鈥檛 have a tot of rum. Those who were responsible for getting the rum issue considered it a very important and delicate operation. None must be spilt. When they eventually brought it into the mess and poured it out in glasses they had to be very careful that they all had equal amounts. This was at 11 a.m. We had cocoa at night.
We wore duffle coats, raincoats, long socks, and boots. The people of Clacton sent us knitted items.
In 1943 when in Malta I went with another naval fellow to a meeting at Salvation Army and after that we were hoping to spend Christmas at Malta then we had a signal to leave and joined a convoy because one of the escort ships had been sunk. And then we ourselves hit a mine, The interesting part of this is in 1984 my wife and I acted as host and hostess at Methodist Hotels and that year we were at Bournemouth. We went early in order to welcome the guests and on the list of those going to stay was a major and his wife of the Salvation Army. My wife said to him You鈥檒l have to meet my husband: he knows a number of people connected with the Army. He mentioned he had been in the Navy 鈥� 鈥淵ou鈥檒l have a lot to talk about,鈥� said my wife. During course of conversation he said to me 鈥� Did you know a young naval fellow called Reg Taylor?鈥� I said, 鈥淵ou鈥檙e looking at him.鈥� And putting his hands on my shoulder there were tears in his years. He said 鈥� I鈥檝e been telling people that you were dead and you鈥檝e been in heaven for the last 40 years鈥�.

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