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Two days before Christmas 1944 we entered Taranto harbour in southern Italy. We moored at midday and there was an excited buzz among the crew at the prospect of time ashore for the holiday. That was soon dampened by the engine Room Rating who informed us that we were to remain at half-hour seaming readiness. Normal duties for the rest of the crew meant rope and wire hawsers being repaired and stowed away, gun barrels cleaned and ammunition racked up. The ship was ordered to be cleaned up thoroughly. We looked very smart, but for what reason we knew not why, until in the early hours of the morning a convoy of vehicles drew up alongside us on the jetty. It consisted of 2 motorcycles, 3 jeeps and a staff car. Our skipper and the duty Officer were on the gangway to receive Field Marshall Alexander and 3 other officers who came aboard about 1 am. Shortly afterwards the tannoy rang out: ‘Duty watch close up. Close all X and Y doors. Secure ship for sea. Batten down all hatches.’

At 01.25am we slipped mooring and headed out to sea, into a force 10 gale, destination the port of Pireus, Athens. It was a rough journey and we eventually entered the harbour on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, running alongside my old ship HMS Orion. A gangplank was laid between us, then the Wilton’s crew stood to attention as on the Orion’s quarterdeck we saw Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Stafford Cripps and three others greet Alexander. Once he had disembarked we moved off from Orion to anchor alongside 3 other destroyers in the harbour, with no shore leave for security reasons. Christmas Day 1944 consisted of normal harbour deck watch and a day off for the rest of the crew to enjoy Christmas dinner, the film ‘Tall in the Saddle’ starring John Wayne, and a ‘Sod’s Opera’ in the stokers’ mess where a good time was had by all with a lot of letting-off steam as the crew’s singers, guitarists (one of them was very good) and monologue artists entertained the crew. The Christmas holiday ended for us at midnight, and just over 24 hours later, at dawn on December 27th, we sailed.

With us went every other ship. Orion and three destroyers turned east on their way to Yalta to meet Roosevelt and Stalin. We turned west for a two-and-a- half day journey to Gibraltar. To our surprise we were told we were going to Plymouth and home. We were going to take passengers with us — 20 Wrens and two female officers. The stokers’ mess deck was turned over to them and the starboard showers and toilets were out of bounds for the day and a half it took to get home. Sailing through Trafalgar through the Bay of Biscay in January can be a rough month,

Once we reached home we received 14 days shore leave — from the Mediterranean to the snows of an English winter — but all too soon we were back on duty escorting a troop ship to Ostend, then in February 1945 we were ordered back to Plymouth the around into the Irish Channel where we joined a convoy of 5 troop ships bound for the Far East via the Mediterranean. We escorted them as far as Gibraltar, leaving them to continue on their way east as we joined a task force of French, colonial troops and both French and Royal Marine commandos. We were bound for the French colonies of Dakar and Pointe Noir under the command of Admiral Vinan. Dakar surrendered within 2 days, and Pointe Noir had the white flags flying when we arrived.

That job over we sailed south to the former German African territory of Walvis Bay where we encountered no resistance, and then we moved on to Simonstown Naval Base in Cape Town, South Africa. Today you would have to pay a fortune for such a cruise.

We sailed from Simonstown out to Port Stanley in the Falklands, taking with us a crew who were to bring back to Cape Town a wireless control ship for maintenance and overhaul. This may sound like an easy trip, but in winter in the South Atlantic was like being back in the Russian convoys, thankfully without the trouble of fighting off enemy ships. As we sailed past the ice floes some of the inhabitants turned out in dinner suits to watch us — King penguins of course!

Back at Simonstown, along with another destroyer, we were dry-docked for 10 days. The ship’s hull was scraped and painted, and working party hours were increased to get the job done on time. One interesting fact is that every ship which has ever dry-docked in Simonstown has its badge painted on the side of the dock, and as far as I know the badge of HMS Wilton is still there to this day.

The war in Europe was now over, and the skipper told us that we would be sailing to the Far East, but without married men. They were sent to the shore base at HMS Afrikaans to await demo, and the rest of us single men watched them go, then headed out to sea to take on more ammunition, before sailing on to Durban.

As related to Steve Lamb Gateshead Council@Blaydon

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