大象传媒

This story has been submitted to the People's War website by Sharon Lambert of the Lancshomeguard on behalf of Charlie Adams and added to the site with his permission.
In 1937 I joined the Navy, after being made redundant from Seward鈥檚 Heating Engineers on Market Street in Lancaster. I did nine years active service and three years reserve. After training at Chatham I was drafted to HMS Imogen. The Spanish Civil War was on and the Imogen, in company with HMS Hood, patrolled the east coast of Spain. We looked after the interests of British nationals in Spain, giving them protection and, when necessary, we evacuated them and took them down to Gibraltar.

Then World War II broke out on 3rd September 1939 and for the next six months I was out in the Atlantic hunting U Boats. In that six months the Imogen sunk two submarines. In 1940 I changed ships and joined HMS Sheffield. Together with HMS Glasgow we went to Norway because the Norwegian campaign had started. Then the Sheffield, with Ark Royal and HMS Renown, joined Force H at Gibraltar. We were coming back from Malta and we got word to deploy to the UK with all dispatch because the Bismarck had got out of the Baltic Sea. We had to come up from Gibraltar through the Bay of Biscay in terrible weather, and as we were on our way up we heard the bad news that HMS Hood had been blown to bits by Bismarck. Everybody was shattered because the Hood was the pride of the British Navy. The Sheffield was sent to find the Bismarck but keep well out of her way because we were only 10,000 tons, she would have made a meal of us. We found her but we were nearly all killed by a strike force of torpedo bomber planes from the Ark Royal who mistook us for the Bismarck. Fortunately the Sheffield was not hit before they realised who we were. They loaded up a second time and this time they got two hits on the Bismarck, damaging the rudder so she couldn鈥檛 steer. We were sending signals back and ships within a thousand miles were racing. The next thing we heard from the admiral was 鈥淪heffield keep out of the way: the big lads are coming.鈥� And they got in a certain position to the west and they all fired on her. The destroyers picked about a hundred survivors up but they had to get out when a signal came that U boats were coming to help the Bismarck. Nearly two thousand died that morning. Churchill was delighted that we鈥檇 sunk the Bismarck.

The war finished in August 1945 and I came out of the Navy. You all had a number, a demob number. I came out of active service at the beginning of 1946. I couldn鈥檛 wait to get down to the Giant Axe to watch football again鈥ent to work for the council in Marton Street yard, where the Magistrate鈥檚 Court is now, as a store keeper. My dad said 鈥淕et yourself a job because they鈥檒l all be coming home now 鈥fter about fifteen years I transferred to the water department, the Lune Valley Water Board which became the North West Water Board. I got a desk job there as a technical clerk and I was there till I retired in 1982.

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