大象传媒

As a young teenager I read an article which stated a theory predicting major wars, responding to a mathematical formula, the details of which I have forgotten. In applying this theory to the Great War, the outcome of the formula was that the next one would be in 1937.

When WWII broke out in 1939, I was nineteen, and I was torn between staying in neutral Ireland to defend our shores and volunteering for one of the British services. I decided I should feel pretty silly if Ireland was attacked and I was defending England or Egypt or somewhere, so I put my name down for the Local Defence Force (LDF) at my local Garda station but my application was lost. I applied again a couple of months later but the whole thing was a farce.

In 1942 I joined the Maritime Inscription (The Irish Naval Reserve) at Dun Laoghaire. This was a far better organisation than the LDF and I learnt Morse Code and various other skills.

I wrote to the Royal Air Force and was offered a ground crew job. I wrote to the Royal Navy and was offered an Artificer job. My brother had since joined the RAF and was being trained as a navigator. I eventually heard in 1943 that I should travel to the Belfast Recruiting Office and if found fit I would be sent for training. I was duly successful and on the 11th May 1943 I travelled again to Belfast by train and was told to report to HMS Raleigh at Torpoint in Cornwall.

For the next three months I trained as an Ordinary Seaman and my memories are of very early mornings, around 6 or 6.30am 鈥� awake, wash, shave and dress. Our days consisted of drill, instruction class, P.T. or other such activities. I learnt all the nautical terms such as 鈥淕oing ashore鈥�, when you were leaving the camp, the kitchen was called the gallery and the mess was where you ate.

After three months of training we were all interviewed by our Divisional Officer and I was pleased when I was told I was to be made a 鈥淐.W. Candidate鈥�, a candidate for Commission or Warrant. I would be sent to sea for three months and if I received another recommendation like this I would go forward for a Commission, which was my dream.

I was posted to a vessel which I was to join at Greenock on the Clyde which took about 30hours travelling by train. When we got there our ship had not arrived at Greenock and we were told to go back to Plymouth. We eventually arrived back, almost three days later.

My next posting was to join HMS Bermuda in Plymouth docks which was a Colony class Cruiser which carried about 1000 men to man 12 6鈥漡uns, 8 anti-aircraft guns and tornado tubes. We left almost immediately and passed down the Channel where we commenced our patrol backwards and forwards along the mouth of the Bay of Biscay without sight of land for 10 or 11 days. This was in August 1943 and we were on the look out for submarines and surface raiders. As a CW candidate I had several duties: one was to activate a lever to tip another shell from the lift onto a slide to the breach of the gun, another was handling cordite and placing it in the lift as required in the Cordite Handling Room. I was also picked for any dirty jobs that were going, such as carrying sacks of potatoes or flour and carrying them up ladders to other decks and galleries across the ship. We arrived back in Plymouth but our relief ship had been diverted on another duty and so we were not granted shore leave and were sent back out to sea within half a day, after refuelling and re-watering.

My time onboard HMS Bermuda lasted three months until November 1943, and was largely uneventful. I had a further recommendation for a Commission and was told that I had to go home on leave but to travel through Portsmouth on the way to deposit my ratings gear but to keep my uniforms. I was home for a few weeks leave before receiving a telegram to report to HMS King Alfred at Hove, Sussex. This was a cadet training college where we had very concentrated courses such as torpedo attack simulations.

I was sent to Fort William where the training was specifically for Gun boats, Torpedo boats and Motor Launches. We had exercises in these boats in navigation, torpedoes, depth charges and gunnery which gave a great thrill. I was temporarily appointed to and RML, a 鈥淏鈥� Class Motor Launch converted by the addition of an on deck Sick Bay for Air Sea Rescue purposes. I was to be Third Officer. After answering one call far into the Seine Bay, we were returning home when one of our fast gun boats spotted us and thought we were a German gunboat. They came racing towards us with their guns trained on us. Luckily, we had a secret Morse code used during the day which had a secret reply; both were given correctly. My skipper told me later that if they had opened fire on us he would have returned fire.

I was then appointed as First Officer to a 60ft Pinnace No. 1344, which is a small ship used by an Admiral or other senior officer between ships at anchor or ship to shore. I was given a few weeks leave and was sent back to Gourdock in the Clyde where I boarded a merchant passenger ship bound for Egypt. There was a complete Army Hospital staff onboard as passengers and the banter was good. After five days moored. We eventually set off and all the jolly Army passengers disappeared 鈥� seasick for several days!

We eventually docked at Port Suez and disembarked after lectures on how and how not to behave in Egypt. After a dry Christmas and New Year we didn鈥檛 obey these orders and filled ourselves with Cherry Brandies and various other concoctions. We eventually arrived in Alexandria and we were booked into the Hotel Cecil.

I was allocated, as First Lieutenant, second in command, to MLGB 873, which was a motor boat converted to gun boat, of the 39th Flotilla Coastal Forces. It was very modern with radar, and ASDIC for anti-submarine detection and all this gear meant extra crew; 12 ratings and 2 officers was increased to 19 ratings and 3 officers. We spent two or three days in Alexandria and then were sent to Said, by train. We had duties maintaining ships and guns and crew but not enough to fully occupy us, so as a result there were quite a few parties.

I was offered some leave to Cairo and Luxor and I jumped at the chance. There were three of us together, and in early March 1945 we headed off by train. It was a long and tedious journey with many Arabs travelling on the roof and even bumpers! We were treated like royalty in Luxor, and were surrounded by Arabs as soon as we got off the train, all trying to carry our luggage and book us into their hotels. We eventually got away from them and booked into the 鈥淲inter Palace Hotel鈥�, overlooking the Nile. It was magnificent. We changed and went down to reception where we spotted a list of the hotel charges; it was way out of our price range. We found a more modest place near by but the porter was reluctant to accommodate us because we had sworn at hi at the train station. Eventually he conceded, and we had adequate and reasonably priced accommodation. After visiting local areas of interest, riding donkeys and generally relaxing we made our way back to Port Said, stopping off in Cairo on the way, to see the Sphinx and the Pyramids.

At Port Said I was sent back to 873 and soon we were told we were to leave for Sri Lanka in March 1944. We took in various training courses in ports along the way and eventually arrived in June, when I was given more leave for almost a month. I visited the Taj Mahal and the Himalayas. Soon after, the war in Europe was declared over.

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