大象传媒

This story has been added to the 大象传媒 People's War site by CSV Storygatherer Coralie on behalf of Ronald Bannister. The story has been added with his permission and Ronald fully understands the terms and conditions of the site.

In 1936 at the age of 18 years and 4 months I joined the Royal Navy as a stoker and after training was drafted to the H.M.S. DELHI, a light cruiser, and subsequently went to the Mediterranean for 10 months based at Malta.

The Spanish Civil War was in progress and periodically we were dispatched to Palma to carry out rescue duties of the civilians there. These were mostly the dignitaries. We would lie off Palma till dark then send in a ship's boat to pick up the evacuees and take them to Marseilles in the South of France. Once during the daytime we were straddled by bombs from one of Franco's bombers and another time we were in line of fire from Franco's cruiser, The Canarius, but luckily we received no hits.

World War Two was declared at 11 o'clock on the 3rd September 1939. I was on the H.M.S. REPULSE and at Scapa Flow an island off SCOTLAND; it was to be the base for most of our ships. In October 1939, whilst we were at sea, aboard the H.M.S. REPULSE, a German submarine that had managed to get through the boom defence and get out again sank the largest battleship, the ROYAL OAK. There were many casualties.

My four brothers during this time joined the services. My youngest brother was a demes gunner (defensively Equipped Merchant Ship)in the Royal Navy, but attached to merchant ships. My other brother was with the Army in Burma fighting the Japanese, another in the Army and one in the Air Force, and then my sister volunteered for the Wrens.

In the year 1941, I was drafted off the H.M.S. REPULSE. She was then dispatched to the Far East where sadly she was sunk by the Japanese with a great loss of men's lives and many of them being taken prisoner. There were about 2000 men aboard this ship, and she had 48 boilers on board with 240 stokers to look after them, so a great many of these men who perished were men I had served with. I was drafted to the R.N. Barracks at Devonport, which was my hometown, for 3 months to qualify for Petty Officer. During this time I was able to go home and see my family.

During the Spring of 1941, Plymouth was severely bombed by the Luftwaffe and being watch ashore, the next evening I decided to go into Plymouth to see the extent of the damage. Whilst in the town I met a shipmate who persuaded me to go to the cinema. It was called the Regent in Cornwall Street. That was about 8 o'clock, but at 9 o'clock the film was stopped, the lights came on and the manager appeared on stage to tell us there was an air raid in progress and for safety's sake the patrons were asked to leave and proceed to various air raid shelters. These were surface shelters, brick buildings in the middle of the roads, with seats for 30 to 40 people. But the raid was becoming so heavy that people were afraid to leave the foyer. Incendiary bombs were dropping right opposite the cinema onto a very beautiful, large old Co-op building, which was literally covered in this type of bombs and there were fires everywhere. We remained in the foyer for about another hour as these bombs were still falling all over Plymouth. We had heard a murmur that Devonport had been bombed and was on fire, and as my mate was from the same area, we decided to try and get back as we were very concerned about our families.

We had no tin helmets so we had to use the shelters as the bombs were still falling. We went out to help the air raid wardens put out the sandbags, but because we were not wearing the tin helmets we were not allowed to. It had taken us an hour to reach the top and make our way to the steps leading to Victoria Park. We finally reached the air raid shelter in the park safely and after a while we made our way out to the Brickfields in Devonport, pausing to look back over Plymouth, which by this time was well and truly ablaze. I finally got to Morice Square, where my parents were sheltering, at about 12.30 a.m. My Mum had told me they had not had any bombs or incendiaries that night, everything had fallen in Plymouth; this was quite a relief to me. My uniform was filthy and covered in dust.

I completed my course for Petty Officer and volunteered for Coastal Forces, M.T.B'S and M.G.B's, which was accepted. Then I was sent to Cobham, Surrey for a 14-day engineers course, but on the 13th day I received a telegram saying "House bombed and Sadie killed"; that was our dog. I was immediately given a long weekend leave and put on a train for Devonport, arriving at Devonport Southern at about 10.15 p.m.

As I left the station, buildings were still smouldering and fires still burning from the previous night's air raid. There was a red light and a notice saying there were unexploded bombs nearby. I had to detour, finally getting to the top of Fore Street where I lived, where everything was still burning and smouldering. There was a large rope across the road, I presume to discourage people from going down there, but I had to find my family. I went to duck under the rope when a very deep voice said "Don't go down there as there are more unexploded bombs and many buildings in a state of collapse". I told him I lived down there and was looking for my family. He said "Not any more, son. There is nothing left, go to the Police Station and find out where they have gone". The police had no whereabouts for them, but I knew I had an Aunty who lived somewhere in Pembroke Street, so I went down there and eventually found my mother, father, sister and family safe and well. Luckily for them, they had gone to the air raid shelter when the warning came, but all they had left was the clothes they stood up in, but they were alive.

I went back off leave and was immediately drafted to M.G.B. 314, a gunboat. We did various channel patrols from Weymouth to Dover, then we would escort two cross-channel ferries. These vessels were commandeered for the war to carry the commando barges for raids in France. They would lie off the coast and we would tow the commando barges in to the French coast and wait for them to do their jobs and then bring them out again. Sometimes they all came out, or some were wounded but sometimes none ever made it back at all. When we came out sometimes the large cross-channel ferries were gone, as they were such big targets, and then we would tow the barges back to Portsmouth.

We were then put on clandestine missions dropping off secret agents on the French coast, and bringing back those who had completed their missions. There were sometimes women amongst them, French and English. One night we were late getting to our dropping point and the First Lieutenant decided to take these five agents in to the French coast; the dinghy they were taken in was only very small. After a very long wait he had not returned, so the Captain sent the coxswain in, in another dinghy, to see what had happened. He came back to say they had found the First Lieutenant's dinghy which had capsized in the heavy surf. The occupants were on the shore, but the coxswain could not get in to bring them out as the sea was too rough. It was now getting near daylight and the Captain had no alternative but to leave. We did hear about 6 months later that the First Lieutenant had been captured and was now a prisoner of war. We did about eight more trips after that.

We were then told there was to be a big commando raid on at ST. NAZAIRE DOCKS in France and we were to take part. There was a very large dry dock there that could dock the biggest German warships plus the U-boat pens. The idea was to run an old warship of ours full of explosives into the dock gate and render the dock useless for the rest of the war. Before the raid we went into Devonport Dockyard for a practise raid. There were about 18 Motor Launches, 1 Gun boat and 1 Torpedo boat. We would be the leader, and headquarters boat. We were all told to make a will; unbeknown to us they were not expecting any survivors.

Earl Mountbatten was associated with this raid, which became known as THE GREATEST RAID OF ALL, and OPERATION CHARIOT. On 27th March 1942 the force of 18 motor launches, 1 M.G.B. and 1 M.T.B., plus 2 destroyers, left Falmouth with an old American destroyer packed with explosives. This was the CAMPLETOWN. One destroyer towed M.T.B. 314 because we could not carry enough fuel to get us there and back. On the way we sited two French trawlers and not knowing whether they were Vichy French or Free French, it was decided to take the crews off and sink the trawlers as we could not take any chances. So we slipped our tow, went alongside the trawlers, took off the men and put them on the destroyers, which finally sunk them with gunfire and we carried on our way. This was midday, but luckily for us we had not met any enemy at all.

Late that evening we entered ST. NAZAIRE harbour. M.T.B. 314 was the headquarters boat so we led the way. The destroyer was able to enter so they slipped our tow and with our Gunboat in the lead we steamed up the harbour to our objective. We had a rating onboard who could speak German and as we were challenged going up the harbour he was able to answer until, finally not knowing the correct answer, all hell broke out. Some of the commandos were landed and we went alongside and landed LT. COL. NEWMAN and his men. Then we moved to the centre of the harbour as the CAMPLETOWN proceeded to the dock gates and hit them fair and square. A large proportion of her bow was embedded in the gate, but did not penetrate it. There was all hell let loose in the harbour and after about 30 minutes, we went alongside the jetty to embark any commandos who had done their jobs; many of these were wounded.

Motor launches were being sunk and blown up right, left and centre and bodies blown everywhere. There were commandos all over our boat, we even packed them down in the engine room along each side of the engines. As we made our full speed escape our guns were firing constantly, and just before we left harbour the gun layer on the forhead pom pom, BILLY SAVAGE, was shot and killed. We then left the harbour, joined up with the two destroyers and went alongside, put the surviving commandos and Bill Savage's body on board and then proceeded home. We were badly damaged and in a sinking condition so after about one and a half hours it was decided to take the crew off and sink the gunboat, as we were slowing down the escape and the destroyers had had a signal to say three German destroyers were in pursuit. This we did and with just the clothes we stood in, boarded the destroyer and watched them sink the gunboat. Then at full speed we made our getaway to Falmouth, where we arrived during the forenoon. We were given a meal and were able to bath, were kitted out with new uniforms and sent on 14 days survivor's leave. We learnt later on that the CAMPLETOWN had been blown up killing heaps of Germans, and that the docks would be out of action for the rest of the war. After the raid we were told that our shipmate Billy Savage, Commander Ryder and Lt. Col. Newman had all been awarded the Victoria Cross.

I returned from leave to be given a draft to M.T.B. 35, which was based at Dover, nicknamed "Hell's Corner" because of the frequent skirmishes with the German E boats. On patrol one night we met a couple of German E boats and after a sharp skirmish we were badly shot up so we withdrew and managed to limp into Dover Harbour. We were lucky that night as there were no casualties. The boat was taken out of service and the crew sent back to Portland to await other drafts. Whilst waiting I was promoted to Stoker Petty Officer, which meant I would have to go back to steam warships as the coastal forces did not carry S.P.O.'s.

I was now back at Devonport Dockyard where I received my draft to a Hunt Class destroyer, H.M.S. BADSWORTH. She had already been damaged by a mine and had just completed her repairs in North Shields, where I was for three weeks before we were sent on convoy duties to the Mediterranean. Having taken a convoy down to Alexandria, we were on our way back to Gibraltar when we hit a mine which bent the shaft and almost severed the quarterdeck. The Captain had no alternative but to beach the ship or we would have sunk. There were a few casualties. We had beached at a little place called Bone in North Africa. After a couple of days it was decided to have just a skeleton crew aboard. This was done and the rest of the crew were distributed around the Mediterranean Fleet. I was one of those kept aboard because we kept one boiler going for electrics, guns and cooking. After three weeks the ship was patched up enough to be towed to Algiers where they cleverly put a shell around the whole of the quarterdeck. We were now ready to be towed back to ENGLAND in convoy. There were lots of U boats in the Atlantic and it took us 17 days dodging these U boat packs, and with the order that if we were attacked we were to "save the tug", before we arrived home to Liverpool safe and sound.

I was eventually drafted to a fast minelayer H.M.S. ARIADNE. She was brand new and built in Glasgow where I joined her. She carried 4-inch guns and, when loaded, 168 mines. After laying lots of mines in the North Sea, we were ordered to the Far East, the Pacific Ocean, to join the American Task Force, as they did not have a minelayer of our status. This was in 1943. We went through the Panama Canal and down to Honolulu, then to Geelong in Australia to pick up mines to be laid around the various islands north of Australia. We did this for about eight trips, but in 1944 the Americans advanced so fast in the Pacific Ocean that they found they did not need a minelayer. However, instead of returning home to the UK they retained us and equipped us out to carry their commanders, who were known as Rangers. We used to drop them as each island was captured and we did this until early in 1945 when they released us and we sailed home to the UK.

I was drafted off the ship when we arrived back and after Foreign Service leave, was drafted to a minesweeper until the end of the war, no doubt sweeping up some of the mines that we had laid. I then left the Royal Navy in 1948 after 12 years service.

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