大象传媒

This story was submitted by Gavin Lea on behalf of Alf Lea with his permission.

I had my call up papers given in February 1943 so I filled them in and within a week I got a report to go to Lowestoft. There was nowhere to stay there so we were billeted out all round different houses and had to report in every morning at nine for training and learning. I couldn't tie knots in them days so I had to get used to it by practicing for when we were on the ship. I did seven weeks there and was checked out by the doctors to see if I was healthy enough to go to war. We were then sent to Edinburgh to the HMS Loch Invar to get fit because you were like a dead duck when you join up. We got given rifles to learn on the firing range but I didn't need any practice for that with being brought up on a farm we always had guns. We had done our shooting for the mornin and our Petty Officer came round asking if anyone wanted to take him up on a five shilling shootout which was a lot of money in those days, I was the only to volunteer and take him on. It was out of five rounds and the most bullseyes wins, I got all five bulls and he coldn't believe it because he only got four which meant I got his five bob and was chuffed to hell with five bob in my pocket. We also had to learn about compasses which I could read off by heart at one time, with steering the ship. We spent seven weeks there and got a weeks break at the end of training, from there I went back to Lowestoft which is where we had another seven weeks billeted out again so then we got drafted to a mine sweeper, it was HMS Neave T427 at Portsmouth.
On the HMS Neave T427 there was 28 men all of different ages and ranks, some of the older men had done it before and knew the job like the back of their hands. We all had to line up on the deck because the Captain was coming to see who we all were, I was in the middle of the line up, most of the other men were electricians etc and he got to me and I told him I was a farmer which tickled to death in which he replied "from land lover to sea lover". The ship was split into sections depending on your role, I was in the sea men section, the stokers had there own compartment because they had different shifts to us and the leading sea men also had their own compartment. We got higher wages than what the Royal Navy men got because it was called hard layers, this was because we always had work to do getting the mine sweeping equipment ready etc. but the Royal Navy men just sat around with guns. We all got settled in and had our uniforms issued to us and the next day we were going out on our first job learn how to sweep the mines. During the first day we were all divided up into three watches, the watches kicked off at 12 til 4, then you had a dog watch which is 4 till 6 where you get a break and then you come back on at 6 till 8, the other team then comes on at 8 and does till 12. That was the cycle that went on continuously throughtout the war while you were on that ship, this gets your body used to the same routine each day. There's four of us in our flotilla and we're given an area 60 miles long by 30 miles wide that we had to sweep, where the Germans had planted mines. We were cocommand and didn't go out to deep sea until later on but the patch we had to mine sweep was in the Channel. We had 18 months to get this area free of mines because I suspect that they were planning D-Day, so for the next 18 months all we did was go in and out of the sea each day clearing the area. There were four ships to our group and the last ship every so often would lay down a flag to mark the area we had swept. After each day sweeping the Germans would come over at night because they knew we couldn't sweep at night and plant mines where we had swept and take away the markers to try and throw us off track but we kept all the co-ordinates so it did not work. Being on the ship wasn't too bad because every seven weeks we got a weeks holiday and all the men on board were a good laugh.
Everything was fine for 12 months when suddenly a mine went up, I was on look out at the time but I thought we were gone, the amouof water that exploded into the air took about five minutes to finish falling on top of the ship, the weight of it knocked you out practically. That day wasn't over yet, another two mines went up next to our ship and one went up next to another ship. We used what was called a "dog" to cut free the mines, this was a sheet of metal two inches thick with a jagged edge in the shape of a dog's mouth attached at the end of a cable. This would lock round the rope holding the mine up and as the dog moved up and down if would be cutting the mine free which would then float to the surface because it had air in it. On the ship there would be about twelve of us with rifles that would aim for the mine and one of us would always get it. When we went into shore we had to drop anchor in the bay for the night but we had to be away at two in the morning so only got a few hours sleep. We were never allowed to go ashore while we were mine sweeping either every week or two we were allowed.
We got the area clear of mines in the 18 months given and by this time it was getting towards D-Day but it was never mentioned at the time. We were in the harbour now, tied up at Portland and the Captain came to the mess deck to do the one month inspection. Everything was always spotless, it was marvellous how everyone worked together, there was never any arguments and everyone done their job. The Captain us what we were going to do, the orders were to go over to Ireland and pick up four merchant ships which were on their way over from America bringing supplies and were not armed. We had seven weeks leave and the ship had to go in to be re-fitted, at this time we were getting more technologically advanced so the ship was fitted with echo sound. The idea of this was that it could detect submarines that were wiping out most of the merchant ships that were coning across. This new design was marvellous and gave a good signal as long as the submarine had its engine running. When we got the information of a submarines location it was generally passed up to the man on the wheel, which was usually me, and I would steer it in the right direction till we were in firing range. After our leave we sailed to meet the merchant ships at Southern Ireland which took about six days because we could only do six knots. One night we puled into Haverford West in Wales for a sleep but had to leave at four in the morning to get to Ireland. Again the Captain came down to the mess deck, this time with a big brown envelope with orders to read it out to us when we got to Ireland. He opened it in front of us and the first thing said was "D-Day starts in five days", he said not one of you can leave the ship or write home you will just stay as you are now before we go over to France. In them five days we were to escort the ships to various locations to unload and then go over to France. We're escorting the ships now, there were two destroyers located at the front and rear and we're along the side with the four ships in the centre. On the way the two destroyers and a merchant ship left us and went into harbour. We had just come off watch at 12 and I just rolled into bed as I was in my overalls, come 1 or 1.15 the alarms went off which meant the submarine had located us. There were 18 of us down in my compartment who were all dashing around trying to get up to the top deck, when I got up my job was on the machine gun. As I got up on deck I saw a torpedo miss our ship by a few feet and hit the merchant ship square in the middle and the ship just split in two. the bloke on the echo sound is busy trying to pick up the location of the submarine and all of a sudden he gets it, he then sent directions to me and I steered the ship towards the submarine. By now there were people getting thrown around by the tide in the sea, I could hear a man crying out for help which was terrible to hear from a grown man, i can still remember his voice to this day. We were ploughing through these men and there was nothing we could do because we had to sink the submarine before it did any more damage. Our depth charges were dropped and we had to shut the doors for the blast and go full speed because we were above the submarine and the depth would blow us up. Not long after oil came up so we knew we had hit the submarine so the all clear went up which meant we could turn around and try and save some of the men from the sea. The men at this point were scattered all over with the tide washing them about, we ended up saving 8 men who were all quite badly injured, some worse than others. There were only two men that could climb the ladder to get on the ship; the others were carried up by a man from our ship who had jumped in to help. After about three quarters of an hour the Captain gave orders to cancel all operations that we could take the men back to the harbour to get them to hospital. they sent an army truck to pick the men up instead of an ambulance, the dockyard was very bumpy so it must have been murder for the injured men.
It was D-Day in three days which meant we had to go over to France to make sure there had been no more mines planted whilst we were in Ireland, so that when the ships came across the path was clear. On the third day they were coming, at about midnight Icould see the planes flying across the sky, there were about 1000 planes carrying 3000 men. They were all in one group, it was lovely to see and the sky had turned black with planes. The planes were landing 50 miles behind the Germans so that when the ships come over they were trapped. About one o'clock the first ships were starting to emerge, no sooner than they were getting off the ships at the shore they were getting shot at and
killed. This went on till one or two got through and could pick off the Germans that were shooting our men. We weren't allowed to shoot at all in case we killed our own men, we do our job, the army does theirs, and the airforce does theirs, we just had to pull away and drop anchor. We could see our men building the Bailey bridge to get their tanks and ships onto land without sinking. The bridge was towed across in sections ready to assemble when they got near to shore. We had to wait till the next day just to make sure that more ships could land and pick up stranded men at sea, then we got orders to go back to England. We got five weeks leave then, it was great because we had done our part of the job and got through it. They were starting to demob people from the force but I wasnt demobbed till 12 months later. After my leave I was commissioned on another ship, the HMS Goligon, this was only peaceful sailing because the war had finished and we could go in and out of shore as we pleased. One job was to sail to York and pick up a submarine which was only half finished and tow it round to Portsmouth but before we got there we got orders to drop the depth charges that were left over from the war because there was no need for them anymore. We lowered the lifeboats down with men in ready, when the charges exploded all the fish floated to the surface and were collected. I've never seen so many fish in my life, there were so many different types, we loaded up other ships and a submarine with the fish. Everyone had fish for a week but it wasn't as pleasureable skinning the fish, it took hours. That was the last bit of action I saw, watching the depth charges go up. On June 6th I got demobbed which was 12 months after the war had finished. I felt ever so happy coming home but we had such a good time even though the war was on, we took life as it was, like going to work everyday. When we got ashore I had to walk six miles to where I lived, it was two in the morning but I knew I could get in because we never locked the doors then. The last quarter of a mile was the worst part, I think I was in tears at that point. I had to go back to working on the farm because there was no work in the factories no more, it was such a dead old life. One day I decided to go to an out of town dance which is where I met my wife and I'm still wither to this day. I got asked back to the Navy but I didn't go because I wanted to be with Brenda, my wife.

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