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My father was obviously destined for a Naval career having been born on 21st October 1913 (the Battle of Trafalgar day) and christened Alfred Caleb Nelson Pitney! Though as his father and previous generations had been in the Navy it was probably a foregone conclusion that he would go to sea.

He joined Greenwich Royal Naval College at the age of 11. Alfred saw active service in the Royal Navy until invalided out at the end of the war with TB. This was discovered when he went to enlist with the Australian Navy at the end of the war.

The following tale of heroism was reported in the Daily Mirror, this being wartime, no names of servicemen were given. However, the officer in charge in this report was my father. Alfred was mentioned in despatches on the 19th December 1944 (HMS Baynton) Petty Officer Alfred Caleb Nelson Pitney P/JX 133374 (Shoreham-by-Sea) for being in charge of blowing up the munitions at St Malo before the Germans arrived.

‘RISKED LIFE TO BLOW UP PORT’

Led by an officer who took great risks and remained amazingly cool, a British Naval party totally destroyed St Malo harbour and aerodrome in 85 minutes before the fast approaching Germans could arrive. The story of the thrilling exploit, carried out with the co-operation of the French authorities, was related to the Daily Mirror by Mr Le Marquand, owner of an auxiliary yacht, on his arrival at a Channel port.

After the troops had been evacuated, all the locks were cleared of shipping. Mr Le Marquand said. The Germans were reported to be approaching quickly.

The British Naval officer in charge of the demolition party began his work at 2pm on June 18th 1940 and fired the last charge at 3.25pm.

The British officer refused to take risks with his ratings. He stood alone to watch the work of destruction.

Once, when four charges were ignited, it was doubtful whether all four had exploded. The men were definite that three had exploded, and some of his ratings wanted to venture into the danger zone to ascertain what had happened to the fourth.

‘CHARMED LIFE’

But, the officer refused to allow any to break cover. For them it was a blessing that he issued this order.

A few seconds later there was a deafening explosion and portions of the lock gates were hurled into the air. Amid all this the officer still did not take cover, but stood alone while the debris was flying about and dropping all around him. He seemed to possess a charmed life.

There were no casualties other than one rating, who had a hand injured by a splinter.

Mr Le Marquand said the discipline of the Naval ratings was perfect during the whole of the tense period. They did their work thoroughly and rendered St Malo harbour useless to the enemy. Millions of gallons of petrol were destroyed.

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