大象传媒

Wartime memories of an Able Seaman - Part Three 鈥� Member of a special party posted to HMS Hasdrubal, North Africa in 1942. Posting to Malta and then aboard HMS Brecon patrolling the Aegean Sea. Posted to Kiel, Hamburg in 1945 and demob.

Part three of an oral history interview with Mr. Arnold Hargreaves conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum.

鈥淎fter the North Atlantic Convoys we go back to the barracks (c.1942). 鈥榃e don鈥檛 want you on these convoys now because they鈥檝e got enough chaps on the convoys 鈥� you go on a special party, you and somebody else.鈥� That鈥檚 the name of the special party I was on at H.M.S. Hasdrubal, shore base, North Africa. They put you in a special party, in code, one was called Party King, so they dressed us up in Army uniform. The reason why they did that was because you would be on a shore base and you couldn鈥檛 have white things on a shore base. So they give you all that gear, they give you a rifle, full kit. They gave you a full kit like the Army and that鈥檚 how I was dressed most of the time.

I went to North Africa, Algiers. Do you know when they landed in Algiers? (8th November 1942). You wouldn鈥檛 know when they landed, the Desert Rats and all that so we had to go and join up with them but we were shore based, Head Quarters, shore based where they had radios and all that. We were guarding the shore base while the chaps were on their phones and all that, the chaps like us with rifles and all that. We landed in Algiers and we were there for a while, we were there as the war was progressing. The war was still going on so we got on another special boat, like a landing craft boat and we used to go along the coast - Bone or Binzerte, Tunis. So we got to Algiers and this special party, there were about three of four different parties, about six different parties with so many men and we were going to occupy all different ports to keep it occupied to keep the thing going, like the Head Quarters. Then we got as far as Bone and we used to do the same there. We used to occupy it and make sure it was secure and I was out there three years and I never had any time off at all. Only for one day, I broke a bone in my foot which is another story. So I had about a week off because I broke a little bone in my foot. Anyway, we got as far as Bone, we got that occupied because you had to keep hedge hogging, jumping along. So we got from Algiers to Bone and then to Binzerte. From Binzerte and Tunis that鈥檚 where they did the landings for Italy, to Sicily and all up there. I was there quite a while. I was out there three years so I must have been up and down there quite a while.

Then after you鈥檇 been there they sent you to Malta, after Tunis and all that was secured they sent you to Malta. So that鈥檚 another base but the trouble is they were short of food as well. Well, what happened was, if you had bacon, egg for supper or something like that, the chaps didn鈥檛 want that to be thrown away so what happened the civilian workers would get that out and they would be selling that in the shops. All the gash, what was left over they鈥檇 be selling that. And most of the people there around the barracks, the thick barrack walls these Maltese were sleeping outside waiting to do some jobs or something like that. Because the Maltese docks were very busy doing repairs because a lot of ships got sunk there near Malta. I was there quite a while. While I was in Malta there we went to Naples and we went from Malta to Naples in another small boat - I forget the nationality. We got on this boat and we had to go to Naples and one of the ships that was sunk, a big pleasure steamer was on it鈥檚 side and they used that as a jetty as it was on it鈥檚 side. They used it as a jetty instead of making a new one because that got all bombed.

After we鈥檇 been to Malta they gave you another job. I goes and joins another ship, the Destroyer Brecon. The Captain used to say, 鈥榃e鈥檝e got orders to go and wake them up!鈥� All the little islands around the Greek islands and the Aegean sea, there used to be other boats with us. We used to go and wake them up, the Germans. We used to drop a few shells in there. No kidding, we used drop 鈥� big guns 鈥� phew 鈥� like that. Oh, we went so close one day we could see them turning the artillery on us, firing at us you know. The Captain puts a smoke screen up, comes out of the smoke screen, goes in again and gives them another walloping. But you could see the planes and that in the little alleyways where the folks, where they used to have the supplies, you could see the mast sticking up we used to drop the shells where they were. We used to go all round different islands. The Captain said, 鈥榃e鈥檒l just go and do a bit of reconnoitering around these islands鈥� and some of these here, our MTB boats, some of ours were out there as well, they are motor boats, British MTBs. They used to lay underneath the edges of these islands and come up like fishes, you know and have a go, they would get right close underneath an edge and hang there until they could see anybody come out. Somebody come along, 鈥榦h, we鈥檒l have him!鈥� But a lot went on in those little islands. My brother used to be based out in these little islands. You had the Slavs, Tito, he used to operate with him, my brother, he sat there on the radar, on the signals.鈥�

Then as the war was getting closer to the end, well not end, they wanted more troops and things were easing off in North Africa, I came back to the barracks in Portsmouth. Back to barracks in the base, had the same kit on and then they dish you out with going to Kiel, Hamburg and use that as a depot. But what I noticed about Kiel, you know these Jewish refugees, as we were Harbour Masters, you could go on any boat you wanted to and we went on The Admiral Scheer, the German big battleship, I walked on that upside down! Big battleship got sunk by the RAF and that was turned completely over and I said, because I had two interpreters with me and I had my rifle, and a bloke said, 鈥楪o and find out what that ship is. Take your two interpreters and ask what is he doing?鈥� I said, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 this ship I鈥檓 walking on?鈥� He said, 鈥業t鈥檚 The Admiral Scheer.鈥� We went on to one merchant ship, do you know what it was full of? Suitcases! When they had the Jews and all that they had the teeth, everything, they had hair, watches, false teeth. But in this particular one it was full up with suitcases which probably belonged to these people. They were empty. They were going to re-cycle them. They鈥檇 had all the gear, the Germans had had all the gear but they wanted to re-cycle the cardboard, to make use of it for more things. Re-cycle, like they do now with cardboard boxes. I said to the other chap, 鈥榃ell, what are all these doing?鈥� He didn鈥檛 tell me, you see, I knew what they were.

We used to go to Hamburg. The trouble is when we were in the Navy you had to take all your kit, a kit bag as high as that. We used to travel from Hamburg to Kiel, we used to have a lorry a big lorry to transport us. There鈥檚 me putting all the kit in and taking it all off, I get to Kiel, 鈥榃here鈥檚 my kit?鈥� It was still at Hamburg wasn鈥檛 it? So they had to get on the blower and get a special bloke to bring it to me and do you know it was intact, I never lost a thing. Trouble is you had to wait two or three days and you only had got what you were standing up in, so I couldn鈥檛 have a clean shirt on and all that stuff. That was coming to Kiel. That was coming to the end of war more or less.

Kiel was one of the biggest ports for the German Navy. Hamburg, Kiel was one of the biggest ports. In Kiel itself, the Germans scuttled a lot of these submarines and they were sticking up like corks in the water, as many as 20 sunk. Scuttled so that you couldn鈥檛 get hold of them. We had to go around them like that, somehow. In Kiel harbour they had one of the biggest cranes that used to lift the submarines out. It was a massive place, Kiel Canal. Kiel Canal was about - a bit wider than this road really and all the ships used to go down there. Then after a while when the WRENS came along, they opened it up as a port and see that they were behaving themselves.

I remember VE Day, I think I was at Kiel then because some of these 鈥榚re chaps and there were WRENS as well, were diving off, with nothing on, into the dock, they couldn鈥檛 care less, straight in. Then after a while we come back to the UK. I got demobbed, down in Portsmouth again. I got a brown suit, I鈥檝e still got some of the things to tell you the truth, they gave you a pair of shoes. Well you could take your pick, you could go in there you could either have a trilby or a cap. You鈥檇 get either a brown suit, pair of shoes, socks and shirt, coat and when they gave you a cardboard box about as big as that with all the stuff and when you got on the train you said, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 it!鈥� You couldn鈥檛 care less whether you chucked that or - glad to rid of that. What a wait! Do this, do that, get that, polish that, do that! That had all gone overnight! Not any Officers about! Get your money and they gave me 拢75 like when I鈥檇 finished at sea, like redundancy more or less, they gave you 拢75.鈥�

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