大象传媒

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

Imagine a lovely sunny day in the Mediterranean, although in January, the 9th.to be exact, it was still a day to be enjoying the sun. Imagine also a fleet of ships consisting of Battleships, Cruisers, Destroyers and an Aircraft Carrier, all in formation and carrying out there convoy duties escorting a number of merchant ships with vital supplies to the Island of Malta.

It was January 1941, the Battleship was HMS Warspite with the Admiral aboard and the Carrier was HMS Illustrious, a happy efficient ship still glowing from the recent success of her aircraft which had inflicted serious damage to the Italian fleet in Taranto harbour.

Knowing the proximity to Sicily on that day, the Admiral had ordered that the fleet exercised their anti aircraft defences so that in the possibility of an air attack we would be fully prepared. This was for me my first experience of real gun fire being a young man!!! of 18 plus, in the ANDREW for just over a year, having done my discipline and technical training and now in theory a fully fledged Air Fitter capable of goodness knows what. But I digress, to the uninitiated the awesome spectacle of a fleet of warships putting up an umbrella of fire through which no aircraft could penetrate, surely ?? was really something and I am sure that not only me but several hundred other so called sailors thought that we were pretty nigh invincible, should an air attack occur, but time would tell.

Another brilliant dawn, January10th.1941, the ships routine went ahead as normal, the only worry was that one of or escort ships, HMS Gallant, had had her bows blown off after hitting a mine, what the injuries to her crew were we never knew, but in the meantime our aircraft were flying off and landing on, and the ships company went about their normal duties. Come about noon,Up Spirits was over, although of course I was far too young to take part in that now forgotten ritual, and I was on my way for;ard to the canteen for a goffa, soft drink, to us old salts, when action stations sounded. From that moment on life became rather hectic, guns were blazing ,aircraft taking off, everybody trying to do their job while all hell was let loose around them. Near misses from dive bombers made the ship rise up out of the water like a phoenix but then the direct hits, the flight deck had a white line running down the centre, no doubt a wonderful marker for the enemy, one bomb went right through the centre of that line through the 4inch thick flight deck, through the hanger exploding in the wardroom, killing and maiming several officers. In all we received seven direct hits, one exploded down the fore lift well just as the lift was ascending, so you can imagine the carnage that caused, our steering gear was out of use and we were going round in circles, the remainder of the fleet seemed to have deserted us , no doubt with good reason, although we didn鈥檛 think so at the time. During this hell I was doing my utmost to become invisible, as I am sure were a good many others, no aircraft could now fly so I and others had the unenviable job of trying to rescue the wounded and take them to the nearest sick bay, among them was a mate who only a short time before had shared a joke with me , his stomach was hanging out and he was crying out with pain, soon after I left him he died. This was going on all over the ship, stories of suffering and of heroism were too numerous to mention, but through it all the ship survived , a tribute to British workmanship, I doubt if a ship of similar design built in this era would survive such an ordeal.

Eventually as sunset approached we limped into Malta ,Valletta, as we entered the crowds lined the shore and cheered us in, I have often wondered since if those people would have been so eager to see us if they had known their future, as I am sure that when the Illustrious was tied up having temporary repairs, the attacks by the dive bombers on her was just the start of the terrific air onslaught that the island was to suffer during the next four years.

So there it is, the calm before the storm, and I can honestly say that before that day I was a simple youth, but that day will always remain as the day that a man was emerging, and the subsequent situations that my service in the Andrew threw at me, more convoy work in the Med. including the Pedestal convoy, and at least two convoys to Russia, I hope and believe gave me the strength and wisdom to become a fairly ordinary but quite a decent individual

S.W.MILLEN
Ex Petty Officer Air Fitter A long long time ago. THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM.

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