大象传媒

鈥淚 left school at 14 and became a butcher. Whilst working as a Butcher I watched the aircraft returning to Thurleigh, I could see the damage done to the planes. I wanted to see the action so I had a medical in Northampton and signed up. I trained to be an aircraft mechanic in Warrington, Lancashire and in Hereford, Staffordshire. I was also trained in unarmed combat; I had to shoot targets and was shown how to use grenades. I was then sent to a shore station in Greenock, Scotland to work on an escort carrier aboard HMS Premier. British carriers were twice as big as escort carriers, which were made by the United States. I was there for 18 months from 1943.

The purpose of the escort carrier was to provide an aircraft landing strip aboard a ship. We would take the aircraft down on a big lift to the hanger under the deck. The escort was smaller to enable the aircraft to get off quickly and deal with the U boat situation it travelled at 15 knots. The u-boats had become a menace in the Atlantic Ocean. Most aircraft carriers were being sent to the Far East where the war was still going on. Whilst I was on board I saw one German U boat captured, but the Germans had already been arrested off the coast of Ireland.

Trainee pilots take the pilots up, my job was to inspect the planes, I would check the panels and oils etc before take off. I did do deck landings and I did a test at Carrington. The pilots used the runway to practice landings, the batman would bring them in but sometimes they crashed. If the plane was badly damaged it would be taken ashore, we only did small repairs on ship, such as small dents etc. Some planes crashed into the captain鈥檚 tower, the bridge, this caused too big a repair to do on a ship. They seldom burst into flames. Some planes went into the water; we had to be quick to retrieve the pilot because he had heavy gear on. When this did happen we quickly lowered the boat to rescue the pilot. On many occasions the planes got caught in the fire and hung over the side of the ships. I would have liked to have flown a plane but I was colour blind.

Smoking was absolutely prohibited when refuelling the ship it was too dangerous. The tanker would run alongside the ship to fill tanks at the bottom of the ship. If you were caught smoking you were slapped in jail. My friend was put in jail for smoking; he was in the toilet and did not hear the tanoy. He had to go before the Captain, who proceeded to sentence him to several days in the cells. It was such a shame because it went on his permanent record.

I did hear of one ship that blew up, it was called the HMS Dasher, I have read a book about it. Apparently petrol had been leaking for a long time until eventually a spark blew it up when an aircraft was landing on it. The United States had been making them very quickly at the time; our British carriers were much stronger because they were better made.

The atmosphere on board the ship was pretty good; I enjoyed life on the ship more than on shore. I always felt safe on the carrier. We got American cigarettes, American chocolate and tinned fruit. These products were short in Britain, but we could get them from the US. I sent the chocolate home to my family in Cranfield. We were well fed on HMS Premier; we had three meals a day. Our tray was divided into sections. We always had good wholesome food. When the chefs would shout 鈥榠ts eggs for breakfast鈥� everyone would storm the galley because they were so hard to get.

Between 500 and 600 people lived on the ship. They slept in dormitories that could accommodate up to fifty people. If there were not enough bunks you had to sleep in a hammock. I did not like this because it was such as effort to store away. The crew had their designated place to sleep, the stokers (worked on engines) slept together as did the raider people, the domestic staff and the officers.

I remember spending Christmas on board in 1944, we sang songs and watched films on a pull down screen in the hanger. I remember singing 鈥榳hen the red red robin comes bob bob bobbin鈥�. Then someone would shout 鈥渓adies only鈥� and everyone would sing in a high voice. When we were not working we held services in the hanger and played football on the deck with a rag ball, real footballs would have bounced off the ship. We patrolled the coast and visited Belfast a few times; you could get a bed for 1 or 2 shillings a night. I really liked the Guinness; we did drink a lot of it. I remember that when the time came to board the ship again many men could not climb down into the boat that was to get us there, it was very funny. The Captain knew of our exploits and instructed the returning crew to climb aboard the HMS Premier by rope ladder as opposed to the easier means. I will always remember the years I spent on HMS Premier.鈥�

Recorded by Sara Williams

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