大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War website by Marie on behalf of David and has been added to the site with his permission. David fully understand the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

When on operations in Queen Elizabeth my Cruising station was with the visual air defence watch. Only my Action Station was with the 15鈥� main armament. My boss for this was a strange man, Lt Cdr Priddy RNVR. He was a rich bachelor who in peacetime spent three months of the year as a steward in a liner and another three months as a passenger in a liner. When we were going into action he would be dressed in immaculate white uniform with long trousers and button up tunic. It was actually very sensible as most of his skin was protected by his uniform and we all wore anti-flash gear over our heads and shoulders - just rather expensive in laundry.

All I remember about this duty is long hours searching the sky with binoculars. On one occasion we picked up what looked like a distant parachute (perhaps hanging a bit on one side) which seemed to remain airborne rather longer than might be expected - it was Venus! If Venus is visible by day it means one is looking across sun and that means that only half of the planet is illuminated, like the Moon half way from full to crescent. It looks parachute-shaped although usually tipped a bit on one side.
(At the beginning of the war as my father was bringing his sloop, HMS Leith, through the Indian Ocean they sighted what seemed to be distant starshell. At the time the German pocket battleship Graf Spee was thought to be in the area. Eventually it was suggested that the fluctuating lights must have been Venus seen in mirage conditions - sometimes visible, sometimes not.)

Not long after QE got back to Trinco it was announced that she was going home to pay off. After some dickering over which Midshipmen should go with her and which stay out in the war zone, four of us were told off to join HMS London but first we would be in HMS Cumberland. QE was leaving at the beginning of July.

Cumberland and London were County Class cruisers, 8" guns, fast and much lighter armoured than the battleships. In London I made my first and only landing in India. We were sent round the northern tip of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to Mandapam to collect a landing craft. This was an Indian Navy Combined Operations base on the chain of islands between Ceylon and India called Adam's Bridge. We landed to play hockey and that was, is my only visit to India.

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