大象传媒

We were called up when we registered. We went away in 1940 and we went to Lloyds and they give us the king鈥檚 shilling instead of the old days when they used to take you away. We went to Greater Fields Sanden on the jetty when we left Liverpool. She wished me luck as she waved me goodbye on the jetty (on Greater Fields).

Then we went to the Isle of Man. They used to have chalets for holidaymakers, 鈥楥unningham鈥檚 Camp鈥�. They made it into 鈥楬aste house Drink Camp.鈥� I finished up on the Isle of Man. Basic training was done at the Isle of Man. I was on the HMS Cairo and we went to Portsmouth. I was at Portsmouth for about 3 months and then I went on HMS Cairo and finished up on the Atlantic convoys; Going half way to America and then coming back, escorting other ships. We did a lot of Atlantic convoys 鈥� taking them off the Americans and bringing them back to Britain.

From the Isle of Man, we finished up in Portsmouth for 6 months. There were two of us that joined up together, Bobby Jones and myself. Bobby Jones went on the Hood [ship] and I went on HMS Cairo. After that, I got a letter from my mate, Bobby Jones. I was writing a letter to him when I heard an announcement on the tannoy that HMS Hood had been sunk 鈥� so I never sent that letter.

After that, we did an Atlantic convoy from Greenock H Force. We finished up going into the Mediterranean 鈥� there were only 13 ships with us. We finished up in Gib鈥� [Gibraltor]. From there, we went to Malta. HMS Eagle was with us and the Manchester and Liverpool 鈥� all these other ships. Out of the 13 that were sunk, there was only 1 left: the Hull Highull and that was the 鈥淥iler鈥� (one big liberty ship to carry the oil into Malta). We used to carry spitfires to Malta as well. From Gib鈥� to Malta. We actually were fired on by 6 Italian war ships in the Mediterranean. When we had the Ohio with us, we saw these blotches of smoke coming up over the horizon and Captain Onslow (who was with us) went for them with the ship the Patridge, 2 destroyers (they were Lightening Class and Tribals etc). We were supposed to sink one of them, the big battleship the Otorial.

We were sunk after that (HMS Cairo). We got torpedoed and cut in half (in the Mediterranean). Then we went back on board and we took the Cairo into dock. We came back, got back on the motor and we got back with a Penelopy to Cape Bon In North Africa for the African campaign. We had to take the 8th army off. We took them into the Manchmond (big landlaid cruiser) and we had the 8th army on board that.

We went in to the harbour. The Manx Man (ship 鈥� the mine layer) was into the boot of Italy, Selano and Italian frogmen came out and sunk the Manx Man, in the harbour.

The other time we were out there, Winston Churchill came aboard, when I went back to Pompey [nickname for Portsmouth]. A KG5 ship i.e. when we abandoned the Cairo ship and went back to Corky and Portsmouth. We were going round the Bay of Biscay in circles because Rodney鈥檚 steering wheel was a bit bent. So we finished up in Pompey and I had to go and stand by the KG5 (a.k.a. big battleship King George 5th) in Glasgow we went back to the Med鈥� and Mr. Churchill came aboard and that鈥檚 when King George 6th came aboard as well (the actual king). But when we went back to the Med鈥�, we opened fire with all the big guns and I鈥檓 sitting on top on a Pom Pom 鈥� there鈥檚 4 guns and another and we鈥檙e on top i.e. sat on a gunner. That was in 1914. They were firing at anything 鈥� it was just practising but we opening into the boot of Italy. All their ships were nearly on the street there and that was in 1943/4 I think.

I came home again and finished on 鈥an鈥檛 remember there was that many! I know we had to go to D Day. We went up to Greenock and we brought all these LTC landing craft for Normandy after that {you took them down to the south of England?} Yes, all the way down, past Liverpool, and I thought 鈥業 can get home now!鈥� 鈥� I kept passing the place [Liverpool] but never got there!.

I finished up on a Trancer as well (I was on that many ships I can鈥檛 remember!). It was a Liberty Ship made into an Aircraft Carrier 鈥� in the Atlantic. {Did you see much u-boat action?}. That was those bloody little MTB Torpedo boats, when they went through the straights of Pentulria - When you鈥檙e going into Malta that鈥檚 between the Tour of Italy and Malta, and you go round into the letter.

The next time was when I finished up in Singapore 鈥� when I stood by the Thesius. That was in the same place in Sheild Hall in Glasgow. Ended up in Singapore. When went back to the Med鈥� again for the Victorious.

I was involved with the Malta convoys for quite a while, from June 6th (when they [George] made it George Cross Island). I finished up on the Thesius. We went from there to Singapore and that鈥檚 where I got transferred from there to HMS Comus in Singapore. I finished up in HMS Terror (a stone frigate 鈥� like the rest of them), HMS Terror was right next to Changy {ship}. From there, we were transferred to HMS - between boom defence depot 鈥楲oy Yang鈥�, or the Kungs.

From there I went to Loy Yang and we was clearing out Singapore harbour where all these sunken ships were, from the Japanese because they sank the Repulse [ship] and the Prince of Wales [ship]. We had to clear the fairways because we were like blowing up all these ships, making them sink to the bottom (to clear the way) to make the fairways good for ships coming in, to make a passageway. The ships that were sunk were big ones. They never had any aeroplanes; that鈥檚 why they all got sunk 鈥� it was like they did with the yanks 鈥� their air support was gone and that鈥檚 what they did there because they captured all the army that was there then and they had no air cover or anything. After all that, the Japanese were running around Singapore. I was there for a couple of years.

From there, I went on HMS Comus to Hong Kong and round the rivers and that e.g. Penang. The Mao Mao was running around and we had to keep looking for them when we was there 鈥� terrorists. We finished up in the Black Swan (ship 鈥� the one that started the Yangtse incident). When they come back, the Concorde was a ship that was captured by the Red Chinese so, being on the Comus, I had to go and get it back 鈥� that is what that Yang Sea incident was about to Hong Kong 鈥� the film). The Yangtse-Kiang is a thousand miles across, it鈥檚 like the Thames and when you get to the source it鈥檚 just like very small and narrow and there鈥檚 no tributaries. We was going down there and we was told not to open fire because the Red [Chinese] had all these 5 pounders (guns) and God knows what on the riverbank. We had to go right down to the source and when we got there the captain and the crew (there was a little hut on the opposite bank) was being interrogated. At nighttime, we had to go and unshackle the Concorde [ship] off the buoy. They probably knew we were there but we had to get the boat out, to unshackle and release it. All the lads were involved (including me). We sent HMS Belfast down there 鈥� and you know how narrow this thing is! 鈥� They opened fire on the Belfast so they had to turn back.

When we went back, we followed these big boats that ferry people from one side to the other, from Hong Kong {to the main land}. We followed one of these boats from the back because it was belching out smoke with it {using the black smoke as camouflage} and we got the Concorde [ship] out but they actually opened fire with these guns on the mouth of the Yang Sea. All Mao Zedong [Mao Tse-Tung] was swimming in the Yangtse we went ashore there, in Shanghai 鈥� it might have been alright. I.e. we were able to do that kind of thing but my purpose was to bring back the ship. It was quite nice out there and then they had that thing: the Korean War started. Then we went to Sashay Bow in Japan.

Back to the releasing the Concorde ship; we didn鈥檛 tow it, it came out on its own steam. {How did the people who had captured the Concorde react to it being released by you?} They never did a thing about it. There were people on the jetty, on shore going on to the Hood [ship] 鈥� it could have been ordinary seamen, it could have been the Captain, the Lieutenant or anybody. The Captain and the original crew, all of them, were on the ship when it was released.

Then we got back to Hong Kong. The Black Swan鈥檚 [ship] crew went home and I think they marched through London, they got a welcome in the hilltops. (i.e. the Concorde was camouflaged by the smoke and rescued but the Black Swan just went home) even the passenger boat was belching out smoke. We went ashore at Shanghai so it might have been all right in the first place 鈥� They wouldn鈥檛 have let ashore would they if there was hostilities. After that we finished up without Hong Kong because that Toury boat took over Hong Kong and gave it back to the Chinese 鈥� so that might have been, whatever.

I finished up in Australia for about 5 or 6 months when the war (in Europe) was just finishing, in 1947. The war in Japan was still going. We never saw much of that; my mate might have because he was on the Indian Ocean. Our Joan鈥檚 husband, he was on one of them, one of the sister ships for the Cairo, he was in the Indian Ocean in those days with the vice roy of India, Mountbatten, General Flynn. He was in the 14th lot in Bornio.

My rank in the Navy was Leading Seaman. In general, the conditions aboard ship were all right, when I was a boy, I used to get a tanner (sixpence a fortnight) and then it went from that to one and a tanner. An ordinary seaman it went to 30 shillings and if you were a badger, you could get an extra threepence (that鈥檚 what you call a person with a beard, a 鈥榝ree badgeman鈥�). {Did you have to have a rank to grow a beard?} No you didn鈥檛 - if you grew a beard you got threepence. When you got a first stripe, you also got threepence, two badges three [pence]. I think I had three but I finished up with a leading seaman, cross guns 鈥� a second class gunner. I didn鈥檛 have a star on it, but it was still boom boom boom! A star would have meant you were a first class gunner.

I lost everything when I went home, everything under training. When we were in the Med鈥�, we took the Italian Navy to Malta when they capitulated and that鈥檚 when I went home. The ships that were there were: the Ontorio (one of the big ships) and a few more. One of them said that the Cairo had sunk a sister ship and I am still trying to figure out how we did it because we opened fire, we had semi-armour piercing, they were for air craft only and we only had 40 rounds of that. We were firing these to sink the ships when they were for aircraft only but the Bedowin and the Patridge, the other two [ships], had 4.7 guns, we had 4.5.s.

Then when I went to Pompey, we went on party XG1, we was bringing ships from Germany from Wiluntarbon and we brought so many home from there. I finished up on one. In other words, bringing German ships to Pompey from Germany for 鈥榩rize money鈥�. We got prize money (everyone in the Navy) and that鈥檚 going back for centuries, when the Jutland and all them days. {How did prize money work?} Say you have so many tons of steel (tonnage 鈥� the name for the ships that got sunk), in fact when they had these captured ships, they made them into other things. I finished up on one of them and they were great, they were all electric. To use the starboard you just press a button and if you used the port, or whatever, you just press another one. They didn鈥檛 have a wheel, it was just buttons. {That was very advanced then wasn鈥檛 it?}. Same as the Prince Oikon, if one of their battery guns was hammered, they couldn鈥檛 use another gun because that was knocked out and there was nobody else - they wasn鈥檛 trained to do another job. So they couldn鈥檛 go from one to another. They wasn鈥檛 like us, we was trained go from one to another, to do everything, from Oerlikon Pom Pom to a 4inch or whatever [different kinds of guns]. {What were the different kinds of guns?} Bowfers. I was on a 鈥淥erlikon鈥� as well as a Pom Pom. Different guns 鈥� they had them an all but if one of their gang was bogged out, they wouldn鈥檛 know what to do with these. They couldn鈥檛 transfer to another gun. The Americans are the same (they might not be now). They learnt from that [the Americans] Englishmen that made their navy, you know, John Paul Jones. We were more advanced and versatile. When we were doing that, I finished up on one of their ships, the German ones. They use it for collecting all the mines, as a minesweeper. But they had the old things in the back, the old crane thing. We was taking them all out of the North Sea and doing all that. Picking mines up, doing quite a lot.

I finished in 1953 - I was doing continuous service. I should have signed on and done the other 10! The only trouble was boys-time doesn鈥檛 count. You start your time when you were 18 or 20 {so the 3 years I did before, as a boy, didn鈥檛 count}. I did 15 years when I left. They wouldn鈥檛 say that you could do 7, you had to do 10 鈥� I 鈥檇 have been better off. The trouble was, when you come out you come home and there was nothing, not a thing. I waited for years to get a house for the wife and myself. I went home to Scotland at first and stayed up there. I got a job in the Rrennington Rang doing typewriters and I was working there for quite a while. Then I heard that my dad had died so I came home and stayed with my mother, at home in Patricroft, Fir Street - just not far from where I was born, Mulligans in Renshaw Street. And went down Louis Street school. Down there is a side street down opposite the old Co-op on the corner. I went and lived in 14 Fir Street.

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