大象传媒

The following is an account of what we, my brother and myself, belive happened to my father in the second world war.

What did you do in the war dad?
Growing up in the immediate post war period you were surrounded by the evidence of the war itself. City centres remained scarred by bomb damage. Many of your childhood games had wartime themes, enhanced by the use of tin hats, gas masks or old pieces of uniforms gleaned from garden sheds, garages or attics. Your comics were full of fictional and real heroic war tales. There were hosts of war films showing at the local cinema. You were frequently introduced to apparently commonplace and unassuming adults who excitingly turned out to have been fighter pilots, paratroopers or daring naval commanders, but a few years previously. Consequently when the time was ripe you inevitable questioned your dad as earnestly as any Queen鈥檚 Counsel, for stories or information about the war, which you would exchange with your friends. What follows is what my dad told me about what he did in the war.

My late father Anthony Niblock (1911 鈥� 1996) served with the RNVR during World War II. He served firstly as a rating aboard one of the largest and most powerful units of the Royal Navy and subsequently as an officer aboard one of the smallest.
His basic training was at Devonport during 1940. He never mentioned anything remarkable about that period. The first ship to which he was drafted was HMS Prince of Wales the Royal Navy鈥檚 then newest and largest battleship. HMS Prince of Wales was launched at Cammel Lairds鈥� shipyard, Birkenhead on 3 May 1939. There was a family connection in that my paternal grandfather worked at Cammel Lairds鈥� and was heavily involved in the building of 鈥淭he Prince鈥�. Consequently my father had heard first hand about the ship and seen her launched long before he joined her.

The Prince of Wales had a very hurried working up period due to the outbreak of hostilities. The ship had a large complement of 1,500 men and during the working up the various characters emerged amongst the officers and crew. Among the officers my father particularly remembered the chief Gunnery Officer McMullen as an enthusiastic officer and in the mess decks a well-known pre-war boxer 鈥淛ohnny King鈥� held pride of place, to name but two. My father always spoke highly of the ship鈥檚 captain John Catterall Leach DSO, who was a fine officer in the best Royal Navy traditions.
On the very day in Scapa Flow that Captain Leach pronounced his ship ready to join the Home fleet, orders were received from the Admiralty for the newly worked up ship,
(which still had civilian technicians aboard), to intercept the Bismark, the largest German warship afloat which in company with the heavy cruiser Prince Eugen had broken out into the Atlantic

Prince of Wales set sail in company with the flagship HMS Hood and an escort of destroyers. My father described the 鈥淗ood鈥� as one of the most graceful ships he had ever seen. He remembered with affection and sadness the thrilling sight of steaming at high speed to the northwest in close company with the pride of the Royal Navy.
(The story of the pursuit of the 鈥淏ismark鈥� is well known and well documented, for those readers who wish to read a particularly well-documented account from the viewpoint of HMS Prince of Wales, may I commend King George V Class Battleships by V E Tarrant ISBN 1-85409-026-7)
Action stations had been called early in the morning of 24 May 1941. The two ships were now in the Denmark Straits. My father described the mood as tense, exhilarating and apprehensive at the same time. At 05.52am the enemy were engaged at a closing range of 25,000 yards. My father described the roar, blast and shudder of the Prince of Wales鈥檚 own salvoes as reverberating to your core, as the ten 14鈥� guns released their payload. The force was so great that the whole ship, which displaced 43,000 tons, shuddered and appeared momentarily to stop in her tracks. He also described the express train roar of air as return fire passed overhead and the colossal high columns of water displaced by enemy shells that fell short or over their target or the terrible blast and shudder of a direct hit.
Father, himself, did not witness the demise of the Hood, but was aware of the extreme lurch of the Prince of Wales as she swung in the opposite direction in order to avoid wreckage from the destroyed Hood. The two ships were in very close company less than 800 yards apart executing a turn at a speed of around 30 knots when the Hood was fatally hit. Although I have not seen it described anywhere else it was rumoured aboard the Prince of Wales that an enormous piece of debris from the explosion of the Hood presumed to be a 14鈥� gun barrel fell with such force striking the rear corner of the Prince of Wales Y turret, that it left a large dent in the armour plating that remained with the ship thereafter. Similarly it was rumoured by those who saw the last moments of the flagship, that during the final seconds before the sea engulfed the forward section, her main guns were seen to fire a final salvo.
Certainly the dramatic loss of the pride of the navy, 1,405 fellow seafarers and half their firepower in a matter of minutes was a terrible shock to all on board the Prince of Wales. Within minutes of the tragedy my father was to see all the horrors of war at even closer quarters. Now both German ships turned their fire upon the Prince of Wales. They were exceedingly accurate throughout the engagement. A direct hit upon the Prince of Wales compass platform caused terrible carnage, killing most of the occupants. My father was in a damage control party and had to attend to this scene. It was a terrible sight.
(One of the survivors from a nearby area also hit by a shell was the late Sir Esmond Knight a well-known peacetime actor who was blinded by shrapnel from the blast. After the war he recovered some sight in one eye and continued his acting career often to be seen in TV dramas in the 1950鈥檚. Indeed, I remember as a child on holiday together with my father meeting him by chance. My father introduced himself and had not seen him since the bloody incident in the war). The Prince of Wales sustained several more hits before she disengaged from the action. My father told me about some shipmates who had manhandled an unexploded shell over the side after the shell had traversed sections of the ship and spun around and around in a secondary gun turret.
The ship carried a Walrus spotter aircraft. Normally any operation involving manoeuvring the plane required great delicacy due to the fragility of the aircraft in comparison to the heavily armoured ship. Any failure to be as careful as possible met with the harsh tongue of the supervising petty officer. Consequently the crewmen stationed in this area during the battle were more than amused when commended for their brutal disposal of the plane over the side, when the plane and its fuel became a liability following direct hits in this area. Remarks such as 鈥淭here I am mollycoddling this b鈥�.. plane for months and I daren鈥檛 barely touch the b鈥�.. thing. Then they ordered me to push the b鈥�.. thing over the side鈥�, were the diet of the decks for sometime.
Another source of amusement, which again could have been a tragedy, was the eventual discovery of an unexploded 15鈥� shell. The discovery didn鈥檛 take place until the ship was undergoing repairs in dock. Those who had slept or worked nearest the resting place of this ordnance joked and bragged about how close they had been and what they had been doing in their ignorance. (This shell from the Bismark, I believe, remains to this day in the collection of the Imperial War Museum. I remember being taken as a child to see it)
The 鈥淧rince of Wales鈥� withdrew from the engagement and began to shadow the two German ships. During the early evening my father and his shipmates were undertaking
some repair work to the mainmast when the Bismarck emerged from the gloom and there was a short exchange of fire. He described his exposed grandstand view of the proceedings as quite scary. The odd thing he said was that the apparent protection you normally felt from the thinnest piece of metal could give you a false sense of security, to be totally exposed made you feel a great deal worse.
The Prince of Wales withdrew to a shadowing role until the larger British force closed in. Aboard there were mixed feelings about their role, some felt they should have pressed on alone to avenge the Hood, but the ships gunnery had done its job well and sealed the fate of Bismark, one of their shell hits had caused the German battleship to loose 1,000 tons of fuel oil, reduce her speed, break off her original mission and most significantly leave a tell tale trail of oil, for her pursuers.

On the eventual sinking of the Bismark all aboard were glad that Hood was avenged and the threat to shipping averted. But the Bismark had earned their respect as a worthy and valiant adversary. My father considered her a fine ship with a well-trained and brave crew.

Not much more than a month after the Bismarck operation under strict security the Prince of Wales become a celebrity ship entrusted with taking Prime Minister Winston Churchill safely across the Atlantic for a meeting with the President of the USA. The destination for the famous Atlantic Charter was Placentia Bay Newfoundland. On the outward journey the great man showed a keen interest in the ships running.
On arrival there was a convivial exchange with the Americans. Every crewmember of the Prince of Wales received from the US President a gift of cheese, fruit and cigarettes (Our family still retains the cigarette tin and matches bearing the insignia of USS Arkansas.)
My father was lucky enough to attend the well-documented Sunday Service on the quarterdeck of the Prince of Wales. On the return journey the Prince of Wales caught up a large eastbound convoy and at speed sailed right through the centre to the acclamation of the merchant ships and escorts who sounded their sirens and waved. It was such a stirring episode that Churchill insisted they do the whole process a second time.
So within six months, courtesy of the Prince of Wales, my father had been present at two significant events of World War II. He had encountered Germany鈥檚 most powerful battleship and his ship had been instrumental in her destruction. He had feted a British Prime Minister and US President at a historically important meeting.

The Prince of Wales鈥� next mission was to sunnier climes. The ship and my father would meet the Mediterranean for the first time. Operation Halberd was a vital supply and troop convoy to the besieged island of Malta. The presence of two further battleships and aircraft carrier, three cruisers and eighteen destroyers confirmed the importance of this convoy. There was the certainty of encountering the Italian air force, the likelihood of German and Italian submarines and the possibility of engaging units from the Italian fleet. Within three days of leaving Gibraltar Italian aircraft attacked for the first time. The large defending force put up what seemed to my father a colossal barrage. The Prince of Wales own contribution appeared most impressive. There were numerous multiple pompom AA guns, known to the crew as 鈥淐hicago Pianos鈥�. There were Bofors and oerlikon guns, additionally the ships secondary armament of sixteen 5.25鈥� guns were capable of high angle shots and appeared to add a heavy punch to the AA barrage. Although Prince of Wales successfully disposed of several Italian aircraft her AA barrage was not as effective as it appeared. There was a report that the Italian fleet was on the move. The Prince of Wales together with some cruises and destroyers set off to intercept the Italians, who in fact withdrew to their base. Apparently the chief gunnery officer McMullen was champing at the bit and was anxious to carry on in any event and shell any Italian shipping or base, but this was not to be. The convoy was successful only one merchantman was lost. The return trip was also eventful, punctuated by a number of U boat attacks. My father鈥檚 introduction to the Mediterranean was pretty action packed. He would be returning to that theatre of war but later in a very different class of ship.
Following operation Halberd Prince of Wales returned to the Home Fleet and Scapa Flow. It was now October 1941. Within two weeks orders were received to sail for Singapore. The voyage was uneventful and rather more of a cruise than anything so far experienced. There was even time for the traditional crossing the line ceremony for the newcomers.

Further stops were made at Sierra Leone and Cape Town. Prince of Wales was bound for Ceylon and then Singapore. My father had the very good fortune to receive orders to report himself back to UK to take up a commission, which meant that after Cape Town he was able to transfer ships. His shipmates were not so lucky. The infamous Force Z of Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, without adequate air cover was doomed from its inception. The great ship came to a sad end in the south China seas on the 10 December 1941 at the hands of 85 Japanese aircraft. If my father had remained on board he would probably have lost his life in the action. Many of his close friends were lost.
My father鈥檚 11th hour departure from Prince of Wales had repercussions at home. Following the sinking it was several days before my mother received a telegram from the Admiralty saying that my father had not been on board when the ship sank. It was even longer before my mother received an unexpected telephone call from him in Liverpool saying that he was safe and well. He had made his way back to UK by way of an unescorted troopship the P&O liner 鈥極tranto鈥�.
See Part 2 A7487364