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I joined His Majesty’s ship King George V on the 30th November 1943 and I sailed a good many thousand miles on her since that first day of joining. My first trip was to Gibraltar one I will never forget because a very rough trip it was. Why we were going to Gibraltar we did not know, although there was a big buzz going round the ship that it was a mission to pick Winston Churchill up and bring him back to England, but anyway we arrived in Gibraltar in December ’43, the date I do not remember, but however we stayed for five days and no Churchill came aboard. Then we sailed for England arriving in time to spend our Christmas in Scapa Flow, a terrible place, and we didn’t enjoy our Christmas at all. We stayed in Scapa until January and then we set sail for Gibraltar once again on the same mission which we found out to be the truth this time. We arrived in Gib at midnight, Churchill came aboard, and everything had to be carried out so quickly, we oiled ship and were out at sea again before daybreak sailing for England and we steamed at a very high speed all the way to Greenock and we travelled through a Jerry U Boat area without being spotted. Churchill left the ship on our arrival at Greenock and we stayed there over night, oiled ship, and then sailed for Scapa again. The weather was lovely bringing Churchill home and at night the moon was shining brightly and to stand up there on the upper deck one wouldn’t have thought there was a war on, we made a record run from Gib to England for a ship of this class. We arrived back in Scapa, the deadly hole, and stayed there for a few weeks, time passed very slow up there, and then we set sail for Liverpool and all the Lads were pleased about this because the ship was proceeding to Liverpool for a refit which she badly needed, and the Lads knew this meant leave for them lots of leave. We arrived in Liverpool in February 1944, the ship docked and paid off half the ships company, and now the other half had a great deal of work in front of them during the refit, because half of the half of ships company that were left on the ship were to proceed on their leave, but anyway we all had our leave and all work was carried out satisfactory. Now it was time for the ship to recommission, which she did in June ’44, and once again, with a full crew aboard, the ship was painted and ready for sea, and we left Liverpool in July and sailed for Scapa where the crew was trained for gunnery practice. It was action stations day in and day out for weeks until the ship was ready to go into action against the enemy and after everything was satisfactory we set sail from Scapa to Plymouth and the question was, was the ship joining the home fleet or was she going east, but each watch for three days leave in Plymouth and the ship dry docked to have the bottom scrapped, but with leave finished and the ship afloat again we were called back to Scapa in a very big hurry, and we all thought it was going to be action against the enemy but we were disappointed. We stayed in Scapa for a while and then the Skipper told us we were going east, but before we started our journey, we had to call in Greenock ammunition ship and oil ship. The King and Queen with the Princesses came aboard to inspect the ship and the men before going east. He wished us luck and good hunting and we sailed from Greenock for the Pacific on the 29th October 1944 and we arrived in Gibraltar on the 2nd November and from there to Malta arriving 4th November. We spent a few days there and left the 9th November and we sailed on to Alexandria and everyday took us miles further away from our home, our country and the ones we love. We arrived in Alex on 11th November and we set sail from there on the 13th and this was the part of the trip was what we wanted because we were going into action for the first time. We sailed for Manus, a small island, which was occupied by the Jerry and our job was to bombard it with fourteen inch and five two fives which we did and it was good to hear those guns taking hell out of the Jerry’s on the island. It was November the 14th, we bombarded and then we sailed back to Alex without a scratch, we stayed there till the 1st December and then we sailed for Port Said arriving on the 2nd and leaving on the 3rd. It was wonderful for all of us came back with some very good reports of their first run ashore in Australia, and naturally the watch that couldn’t get ashore were very disappointed about not seeing Fremantle, but they still had something to look forward to because we left there 5th February and headed straight for Sydney arriving there on Sunday the 11th. I couldn’t forget the day because I was watch ashore and I wasn’t long in stepping off when I had the chance. I found Sydney a wonderful place with a wonderful harbour and its beautiful bridge. Everything was very interesting and we found the hospitality of the Australians very good, they couldn’t do enough for us, and we enjoyed our first stay in Sydney, but all things had to come to an end, the same as our stay in Sydney did and we sailed on the 23rd February, where we were off to we didn’t know until we got well out to sea and we were told we were off to the Admiralty Islands. We arrived there on the 7th March and we found these Islands a terrible place, climate was terrible and the rain fell after coming down in bucket fulls, at the time most of us had our first taste of prickly heat and it’s a terrible complaint, your body comes out in all little spots like pimples and they itch like hell all the time, there is only one good cure for it and that’s a cold climate. We stayed at Manus until 18th November and then we sailed for Ulithi arriving there 20th, we found it much the same there, no cooler, we were only 60 miles away from the Jap bomber advance there and action stations were sounded at all different times of the day and night, and very after the guns would open up on Jap planes. The first couple of days there we saw invasions barges by the hundreds coming in, and we guessed that a big invasion was coming off by he Yanks. On the 23rd we sailed and were given all the news of what was going to happen. The Yanks were going to invade Okinawa and our job was to bombard, and we had our own carriers and cruisers with us, as well as a good many destroyers, the planes off the carriers had land on the Sakishima group of Islands and stop Jap planes there getting through to interfere with the Yanks landing, we did this from the 24th of March until the 7th April, we were doing two or three days bombing and bombarding, and then go back out of the operating area to oil ship and provisions, and all this was done whilst we were at sea. On April 12th we made a daring attack on Formosa, which is an island very close to Japan, and then on April 16th we were back doing our stuff on Sakishima until April 20th, and then we sailed for Leyto arriving 23rd and that gave us a bit of a rest, but we had to ammunition ship, provision and oil, and on the 1st May off we went again on the same job, and on the 4th we carried on our attacking until 25th May, all this time, on this operation, our carriers had suffered a good many hits by suicide planes and had to be relieved by others, all ships in the fleet, if not hit, had been very close to all practically everyday on the operations would being a number of Jap planes to attack the fleet. On the 25th May we sailed for Guam arriving on the 28th and we stayed there a couple of days and both watches went ashore and all men were given three cans of beer each by the Yanks. It was good to get a drink of beer again. We left Guam on the 30th May and we were all happy to find out we were sailing for Sydney again and we arrived the 5th June, it was good to go ashore again in a nice place, it was the first run ashore most of us had since 28th February, apart from the one at Guam. We all got four days leave in Sydney and it wasn’t any trouble to find a place to stay because the British Centre was there to give all the help wanted. Our time went quick in Sydney and we sailed again on the 28th June for Manus, and this time the skipper told us we had a big job in front of us. This time the Yanks captured Okinawa and now this meant Japan itself and our job this time was operating with the Yanky fleet. The big job we had got ahead of us was bombarding Tokyo, we didn’t mind this at all. We arrived in Manus on the 4th July and left on the 6th, heading straight for the mainland of Japan, and we carried out bombardments, with very little opposition from the Japs. There word came through that the war with Japan was near its end which we had been expecting. With all the bombing Japan was going through, she didn’t stand a chance, and the atomic bomb frightened hell out of them. So victory with Japan came and J Day, everybody celebrating, but that day we were still being attacked by Jap planes and we were chased up at action stations till midnight. On the 27th August ’46 we were at anchor in Sagami Bay and we could the great Volcano Fujiyama and a great sight it was. On the 30th August we sailed into Tokyo Bay with the greatest fleet ever to sail together in the world. While we laid in Tokyo we saw several ships loaded with Prisoners of War and we cheered them as they went out and it done something to you to see those Lads sailing to freedom after suffering the horrors of war for many years. On the 20th September we set sail for Manus and that’s another day I will never forget because of the big typhoon we sailed through, we arrived in Manus the 25th, oiled ship and left for Sydney the 26th and arrived in Sydney 1st October. we all got seven days leave this time, on the 27th October we sailed for Melbourne and arrived the 29th.

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