大象传媒

I was born at Warehorne near Ashford at Parsonage Farm in 1924. At that time it was owned by Lord and Lady Oliver. I went to Simon Langton School in Canterbury, from 1935 - 1940. At the time we lived in Elham, which had a sea cadet corp, which I joined at about aged 11. I was very fond of operating morse code keys. I even won a competition in London for signalling, where I had to compete against other Sea Cadet Corps from all over England.

The Royal Navy were short of wireless telgraphists and they came up with a scheme for boy ratings (under 18), to join the Navy for war time only. We had to pass an exam at 10 words a minute to enlist. This I did and in January 1941 I went to HMS Victory, in Portsmouth, to do a course to take me up to 20 words per minute. This was the operating speed of the Royal Navy. If you didn't pass you were sent home. I passed and was sent to H.M.S. Pembroke (Chatham Barracks) in June 1941.

In August 1941 I was sent to Bermuda, travelling out there via Nova Scotia, on a Norwegian whaler as part of an Atlantic convoy. Several ships were sunk on the way and on its way home this ship was torpedoed. Thankfully,I had left it by then but a letter being taken back to England for me for my mother never arrived. It must have been sunk with the whaler, which called Sever Foir. One point of interest about the ship, was that the sea came on board from the stern (back) where they used to bring the whales in. Fortunately, I never suffered from sea sickness.

On 25th September 1941 I joined the battleship "Resolution". I did a return convoy to England. More ships were sunk on this convoy and air attacks and 'U' boat attacks happened every few days. Arriving back I went into Chatham barracks on 14th October 1941.

I volunteered to go back on H.M.S. Resolution and did so on 31st October 1941. I remained on her until August 1942, travelling again in convoys and going out to Durban, Freetown and Madagasgar. I was then transferred to H.M.S. Erebus, a bombarding ship and served on her from August 1942 to December 1943. On this ship I was the senior wireless telegraphist and so when we were bombarded I was always up on the bridge with the army captains, receiving all the messages from the army on shore as to where our shells had landed. Our biggest job was shelling Calania airfield in Sicily. On this operation we got hit by Stuka bombers that came down the side of Mount Etna and the radar could not warn us in time. Several men were killed or injured. We had to go back to Malta for repairs. Malta was a vital port for the allies and the Germans tried to bomb it every day. They could not do the job so we limped home at about 12 knots. Luckily, we arrived safely.

The H.M.S. Erebus had to go into Durban at one time for a refit. The people were so kind and the took us into their homes. I still write to some of them 50 years later.

From December 1943 until March 1944 we trained in the barracks to get ready for 'D' Day. We had been picked to become Combined Operations. We then had to wear army uniforms and operate mobile wirelesses. So sometimes we worked with the Army and at other times with the Navy. We proceeded through Belgium, France and finally into Germany. There were some very hectic moments on the way. At Caen in France, the RAF and American bombers had to come in and really force the Germans to retreat and we were too close for comfort.

I was lucky over a long period of time but others were not. I was finally discharged in June 1946, but those 5 years were unforgetable

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by BARBARA COLLINS-NEWING from 大象传媒 KENT on behalf of Mrs Vera Law and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."

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