大象传媒

I knew my father only for the first six years of my life before WW2 commenced and changed,along with so many other families,the course that our lives would take.
I was the second youngest of four children ( my eldest brother Flying Officer Charles Geoffrey Kennerley was killedin Januay 1943 )and as such I imagine I was protectedfrom much of the horror which was taking place at that time.
Early in 2004, at the age of 70,I decided to try and document my father's naval career in order that there would be some record within the family which might be of interest to my two daughters and three grandchildren. Strangely enough, or perhaps not,once this project was underway, I realised that there were numerous isolated facts locked away in my memory which I did not think I knew until they were revealed and confirmed by my research.
The following is not so much a story,but rather a list of facts and dates with which someone reading it might make a connection. Perhaps a particular ship, or action,details of which would help to flesh-out the rather bare information which I already have. I suppose it is too much to imagine that there is still someone out there who served alongside him. His career went as follows:-
WW1
Probaby in 1914, aged 14, he was employed as a Telegraph Boy at the General Post Office in Altrincham,Cheshire. I have a photo showing the uniform worn at that time.Later,in the 1930's when he was on Reserve he was again working for the Royal Mail and I have a newspaper cutting of a Staff photograph (circa 1936) taken to celebrate the introduction of a new cut-rate Sixpenny Telegram service where 9 words cost sixpence! Able Seaman J.44874 Charles Edwaed Kennerley(known as Charlie) enlisted in the Royal Navy at Devonport on the 1st September 1915, at the tender age of 15 years and 10 months. Before he was 16 1/2 he was serving on HMS CONQUEROR(Orion class battleship) at the Battle of Jutland which took place on 31st May 1916 and he remained with her until April 1920. In November 1917 he had reached his 18th birthday and was then allowed to 'sign on' for 12 years.
The war had been over since 1918 and the period up to Nov.1926 was spent on HMS COLUMBINE(WOLVERINE) a modified W class destroyer, and HMS REVENGE a Royal Sovereign class battleship. I have the details of these ships but have not found out what they were doing at that time. Between and after these two postings he was at "Defiance" the Torpedo School at Devonport and "Osprey" an Anti Submarine Training School at Portland.
In Nov.1926 he was assigned to HMS DURBAN (Light cruiser), setting off on a world cruise (showing the Flag I presume), a trip which was to last 2 years and 4 months. I have an interesting copy of a world map of the journey which shows the dates and all the ports which the ship visited.
On returning to the UK in March 1929 he was discharged, having done his 12 years (plus 2) and transferred to the Royal Fleet Reserve.
WW2
In August 1939, with WW2 imminent, he was recalled for service. Approaching his 40th birthday, somewhat different timing might have resulted in him not being recalled.
His first ship was HMS GRIFFIN (H31)from 25/8/1939 to 19/9/1941. She was one of ten G class destroyers and, I believe, the only one of this class to survive the war. In 1943 she was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy being renamed HMS Ottawa. Her skipper,greatly revered by his crew, was Lieutenant Commander J.Lee-Barber later to become Rear Admiral who died in 1995 aged 90.His obituary apparently records that he disregarded every rule of good health, smoking 40 cigarettes a day into old age and enjoying copious glasses of gin. The notable events in which this ship was involved appear to be as follows:-
April 1940
Patrolling off Norway she boarded a German armed trawler posing as a Dutch fishing vessel. This resulted in the capture of Enigma Code documents and cypher pads and was the beginning of the quest to find a means of cracking the enemy coded messages.
August 1940
Acting as escort to the troopship ss Mohamed Ali El Kabir, bound for Gibraltar, she picked up several hundred survivors after this military transport ship had been torpedoed by the German submarine U-38, 250 miles to the west of Co.Donegal,Ireland.
October 1940
Together with HMS Hotspur and HMS Gallant she sank the Italian submarine Lafole off Alboran Island in the Mediterranean.
November 1940
Took part in the Battle of Cape Teulada / Spartivento (Sardinia) against the Italian Fleet.
March 1941
The Battle of Matapan(Tainaron) Greece. Another punch-up with the Italian Navy.
May 1941
The Battles for Crete. Following the withdrawal of allied troops from mainland Greece to Crete, the island eventually fell and a further evacuation to Alexandria(Egypt) was necessary.
September 1941
Although HMS GRIFFIN appears to have remained in the Mediterranean,for some reason there seems to have been a change of crew. My father was transferred to HMS PHOEBE (29th Sept to 6th Dec.) and I think Griffin's skipper went to HMS OPPORTUNE.
The PHOEBE was at this time in Alexandria(Egypt) undergoing temporary repair having been hit by aerial torpedoes some 3 or 4 weeks earlier. She subsequently sailed for New York and arrived in Brooklyn Dockyard on the 21st November, where more extensive repairs,taking several months, were carried out.
My father must have quickly become bored with Broadway and Madison Square,for on 7th December he hitched a lift back to the UK on HMS FORMIDABLE . The latter was an aircraft carrier which had also been under repair and she arrived in the UK just in time for Christmas, before moving on to the Indian Ocean. Having first thanked the captain roundly for getting him home for Christmas, he was granted a few days leave after first being booked into the HMS "Drake" hotel in Devonport.
This brief home leave would be the last time I would see my father.
February 1942
His next, and last ship was HMS BRAMBLE a minesweeper,which operated on the Arctic Convoys to Russia. She was lost on the 31st December 1942 while accompanying Convoy JW51B. I probably have much of the available information concerning the Battle of the Barents Sea and the Attack on Convoy JW51B but would like to find out what Bramble was doing between 25th February 1942 and her fateful last voyage. Which other convoys "outward" and "inward" did she operate with ? Was she part of the ill-fated convoy PQ17 ?
If I could fill in this ten month period with some detail, I could then bring to a conclusion this history of ONE SAILOR and his TWO WARS.

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