大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Doreen Partridge of the 鈥楢ction Desk 鈥� Sheffield鈥� Team on behalf of Herbert Bunting and has been added to the site with the author鈥檚 permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Recollections of Leading Seaman Herbert Bunting Part 1
Rescue of Refugees from the Sinking of the Empire Patrol

Rescue of Refugees from the Sinking of the Empire Patrol
Recollections of Leading Seaman Herbert Bunting

I was conscripted into the Royal Navy at the beginning of 1943 and did my initial training at H.M.S. Portsmouth and then I was sent to Douglas in the Isle of Man to train to be a radar operator. My first ship was the H.M.S. Westminster, a destroyer, which was a support ship in the North Sea. She escorted ships from Rothsay to the Tyne, Humber and Thames ports and back; these ships would pick up other support ships and travel on to Russian and Baltic ports.
Buoys were placed down the North Sea to keep the convoys in line and away from the minefields. One day, I was on duty in the radar room when I got echoes that looked suspicious. I reported these to the bridge but the skipper said to ignore them because they were the buoys but to keep my eye on them. I was still very concerned because they looked too big just to be buoys, so when my watch ended I told my radar colleague to keep a very close watch on them. In fact, there were German E Boats tied up to each one of the buoys, they were waiting for the convoy with the intention of attacking as soon as all of the ships were in torpedo range. Fortunately, the Captain had become wise to their plan and the Westminster and her crew were ready to attack. I was off duty by this time so I had to go to my action station that was down in the magazine and send ammunition to battle stations. There were 36 ships in the convoy, not one was damaged but we sank five of the E Boats. The Captain was awarded the D.S.C. and five crewmembers were to receive the D.S.M. To select which of the crew was to receive the medals, when we went to collect our wages, there was a box with pieces of paper in. If you selected a blank piece, you got nothing but if you received one with the letters D.S.M., you received a medal. I was not lucky but the man who had been working with me in the magazine received one. He was the ship鈥檚 cook.
Although the seas were often rough and we were attacked by German planes many times, I was never ship wrecked or suffered any injury.

When, however, I was sent to help with the D.Day Landings, I was in a landing craft that became swamped by the sea and we were thrown into the water. I was not at all worried because I was a good swimmer and there were plenty of ships around. We were soon picked up by H.M.S. Wrestler and taken below decks to dry out. We had only been on the ship for half an hour, when it hit a mine and we were in the sea again. I never finished that lovely cup of cocoa. Shipwrecked twice in one day!!
I was sent back to England and had to go into hospital for two week because I was covered with oil like many other of my compatriot
I was later sent to Belfast to join the H.M.S. Trouncer, an Aircraft Carrier loaned from the United States. Just as our training was completed the war in Europe ended, so we were direct to sail to the Far East to help in the Pacific war.
We were travelling through the Mediterranean when we received a distress call. It was from the 鈥淓mpire Patrol鈥� a ship that was on its way to Cyprus taking Cypriot refugees from North Africa where they had been interred by the Germans. The ship was on fire and we were the closest vessel to them.
The captain turned the Trouncer to go to their aid and as we approached the burning Empire Patrol, we could see heavy smoke and flames and people swimming in the sea. I was off duty at the time and when the captain ask for anyone who was a strong swimmer to jump into the sea to help rescue the refugees, I volunteered.
We did not have time to put lifejackets on and I knew, of course, that an aircraft carrier is a big ship but until I jumped in I didn鈥檛 realise how high the flight deck is from the water. I seemed to be falling for ages and ages and then I went down and down and down and down into the sea, it was utter blackness. I, eventually, stopped sinking and started trying to swim up to the light; I thought that I would never reach the surface again. I came up gasping for air, looked around and started swimming towards the people in the water. They had lifejackets on and I and the other volunteers swam them towards the lifeboats from the Trouncer. We were swimming for quite a while and the lifeboats had become full. I saw two women holding onto some floating debris and swam towards them. I tried to swim pushing them before me but was making no headway, so I motioned them to hang on whilst I swam for help, hoping to get a line from one of the lifeboats so that they could be pulled behind the boat and to safety. I seemed to have been swimming for ages, but when I turned round to check on the ladies, I was only about 10 ft away from them.
. I was getting more and more tired and felt myself weakening very quickly. I remember sinking below the waves. I knew I was drowning and it is true; all of your life does flash before your eyes. I got angry with myself and using all of the energy I had left, I kicked my way to the surface. I cannot remember what happened after this but I do remember waking up in the sick bay. I was told that two hours after the ladies were rescued and had boarded the Trouncer, one of them gave birth. I often wonder what happened to that mother and baby.

The war in the Far East had finished before the Trouncer could arrive to help; we stopped off in India and returned to England by the way of the Cape of Good Hope and sailing up the coast of Africa. After a short while in Blighty, we had to return the ship to the Americans and we sailed across the Atlantic and the Caribbean until we delivered her to the port in Virginia. Our journey back to the U.K. was on the Queen Mary, my first and last time on a cruise ship.

Pr-BR

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.