[1918]

I joined the Royal Navy from Rye Hill at Newcastle and was sent down to HMS Ganges at Shotley Barracks for Boys Training. I did about six months training as a boy seaman and after all the training, was sent along with another 51 boys to Commission the HMS Dunedin at the Naval Yard, Walker-on-Tyne. The ship was to become part of the 1^st Light Cruiser Squadron. Of course I was the lucky one to live in the area, Wallsend. I asked the Captain if I could have weekend leave. I had to ask my parents for a letter to take to the Captain saying they would look after me for the weekend. That was the Navy’s rule in those days.  

Well after a fortnight, we set sail for trials off the Tyne but had to stop as there were mines laid by the Germans. So we had to go around to the Clyde for speed trials off the Isle of Arran. It seemed to me that the ship was very fast, 30 knots which was pretty good and when we had finished we had orders to sail for Kingston Harbour in Ireland, as there has been trouble with the Sinn Fein. We stayed there for a couple of days and then sailed for Chatham, Kent, which was our Depot. All the ships crew had last leave, which we looked forward to. And when we came back we sailed down the River Medway to Sheerness. We passed old warships of ours, laid up mostly for scrap. There were some German submarines. All the German big ships were up at Scapa at the bottom of the Flow, they scuttled themselves.  

Well we stored ship, oiled and ammunitioned, and sailed for the Baltic to join with the Squadron which was at Bjorka in Finland. We had a seaplane base there. And then we were all ready and sailed for Russia. There was six cruisers. We stopped outside the Island of Kronstad which was a fortress in the harbour of Leningrad. We trained our guns on the Fort and started our bombardment. While we were doing that, Motor Torpedo Boats made a raid in the harbour and sunk and destroyed a few Russian ships. Of course we lost one or two MTB’s and then we had orders to return to Bjorka as winter was coming in. Some of us went ashore and destroyed what we couldn’t save, seaplanes, petrol and stores. It was a nice big blaze so the Russians didn’t get much but cinders. The Squadron left for England, leaving us the Dunedin and a destroyer, the HMS Sirius, to patrol the Gulf of Finland until Xmas Eve and then went into the harbour at Talin, or Reval as it was then known, for Xmas and New Year 1919.

[1919]

It was a very quiet time, no shore leave but the place was snowed up and there was nothing in the town left. It did not take long before the ship was iced to the jetty. To pass the time away the Captain hired six Drosky’s each with three horses and we had races across the fields opposite the ship but had to have a guard on lookout all the time day and night. It was good sport. Most of the lads had never driven a horse, let alone three horses. Some went over going round the marking poles. This went on for days and we were getting fed up with the place, getting short on stores, salt pork out of barrels and pea soup. We asked the Russians to get their ice breakers to try and move us off the jetty. It was a big job but they got us moving and away we went. Reval is in the State of Estonia.  

While on our way to Copenhagen we ran into a storm, and what a storm it was. The seas came over the decks on one side and froze and the men on watch were kept busy breaking up the ice and throwing it over the side. This lasted for 36 hours and at daybreak we saw the destroyer, she had no funnels. So we put into Libau, Latvia, to do some repairs and while there we went ashore for a game of football. And what sights we saw, after the Bolsheviks had left the town bodies were hanging from trees and lamp posts, it was a terrible sight. We could still hear gunfire in the distance so we put back to the ship and sailed for Copenhagen. We arrived there and stopped alongside the jetty for a good few weeks. Of course the HMS Sirius carried on to England for repairs. Copenhagen is a lovely city. We had sports with the Danes. I had a game of football at the Stadium and on Sundays we all went to the English Church which was in the Tivoli Gardens.  

During our stay, in London the Lord Mayor had a Russian Relief Fund and with the money bought food, clothes and chartered a ship to take it all to Russia. It was the SS Volo and she came to Copenhagen for us to escort her to Riga in Latvia. Outside the harbour we took aboard a Russian pilot to take us up the river. He couldn’t of been much of a pilot as he ran our ship onto a sandbank. We got a French Naval Ship to come alongside and take some of our oil to lighten us a bit and off we came with a jerk. And we put alongside the jetty and the SS Volo on the other side of us. We had the marines and sailors with fixed bayonets to keep the people back from jumping onto the ship. The Captain asked the Russian in charge to get his people and unload the stores. We had to put 12 foot poles between the ships and the jetty to keep the people from jumping onboard. They were starving. They couldn’t of eaten food for weeks. The children were very thin and would take a lot of filling up. We were very glad to leave the place as the smell was terrible. 

[1920]

Well we sailed away to England, Chatham 1920, and all the ship’s company got leave, which we all looked forward to. After a good leave we returned to our ship in Chatham Dockyard. The next day we stored ship and sailed away to join the Squadron for a cruise to the Azores. We stayed for four days, it was very nice, and then went to the island on Madeira. We anchored at Funchal, which is a lovely place, went ashore and bought some things to bring home. After a week there we carried on to the Canary Islands all of which is lovely to see. We went to Palmas and then on to Tenerife. That is the place. I’ll always remember a Plantation Manager gave us a large bunch or stalk of bananas and we sat down and ate as many as we could as they were that nice. And the following day on the ship we had to sit for a full week on the toilets. We had our meals passed down the hatch and had to sleep there as well. We had to drink castor oil to dry us up inside. I’ll always remember those bananas. And after just over a week we left for Casablanca in Morocco, which was a nice little place, and back to Chatham for our summer leave. 

After that we had to go back to Copenhagen and on the way we were to call in at Harwich to pick up Prince Arthur of Connaught. We had to take him to Stockholm in Sweden to bury his sister the Crown Princess of Sweden. It was like sailing into fairyland. All the little islands were joined together by bridges nicely painted and wonderful little houses on them. Just before we saw the city we had to turn very slowly in the river and above us there was a lovely castle with a band. It played then anthem about a dozen times and then we sailed into the harbour at Stockholm and a lovely city. The next day was the Royal Funeral. Our ships company lined the road from the Royal Palace. It was a wonderful sight. I don’t think there was a dry eye in Stockholm that day. And after the funeral all the ship’s company that was there had tea in the Palace courtyard. It’s the first time I have been waited on by Royal Servants and Butlers and what food there was. I felt full for a week. We stayed in Stockholm for three days and of course had a good look around to see what the city was like, and it was wonderful. And then we sailed down the small Disneyland of islands, bridges and painted houses. I forgot to tell you the Crown Prince came on board with his children and the present Queen of Denmark was one of them, and me being on the end of the table she sat alongside of me, what a lovely girl.

[1921]

Well the ship sailed across the Gulf of Finland to Helsinki for a visit, it is a nice place to see. We stayed for three days then sailed back to England and Chatham where we left the ship for barracks and that was the last I saw of the Dunedin. I stayed in barracks for about six month.

[1922]

In January 1922 I was posted with others to HMS Marlborough, a battleship. She was in the Dockyard at Devonport. We travelled overnight from Chatham Dockyard and marched into the barracks where breakfast was already waiting for us on large tables in the Drill Shed. And what a lovely breakfast it was, already to start work. We marched down to the ship and what a dirty mess she was under the coal heap. We were told to take our bags and hammocks into the ship, we had already been told what mess we were in, and to get into any old uniform or bathing suit which I put on, and we were told to put 3,000 tons of coal into the bunkers. What a day it was. The poor stokers down in the bunkers were only new in the Navy and couldn’t trim the coal quick enough, so some of us seamen had to go down to help. And when it was all in we had a little rest and smoke and then had to sweep decks and wash down the ship, which was a big job being a large battleship, and then to bath ourselves. We came outside to look at our ship now she was washed and she looked like a ‘Lady’.  

After a few days we stored the ship and sailed away to join up with the Fleet at Malta. There were about 12 battleships or more. After a while we had to go out and do gun and torpedo practice until we were any good with them. The ships entered in a competition for 6” guns and it was our ship that won the cup. My prize money was £4-17-0. I thought I was a millionaire. After a few weeks the Fleet went to Palma Majorca and had all kinds of sailing races, and again our ship did very well. Being only a new crew you have to have plenty of practice and sailing to enter for races. We came back to our base at Malta and we went to the Rifle Range every day for a week which was a change from other duties. And then we got orders to sail for Constantinople.  

We went up through all the islands of Greece and then up through the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmara. And then we saw the lovely mosque of St Sophia in Istanbul and across the bridge, Constantinople, which is a very nice city. On the river front stood the Sultans Palace a lovely sight to see. We had shore leave and saw the sights and made friends with a few of our soldiers who were the Army of Occupation. To pass the time we had sports of all kinds. And then we got orders to go down to a place called Chanak in the narrows of the Dardanelles to dig trenches as the rebel leader Mustapha Kemal was going to try and get across from Asia and this was the easy point. Two Army officers was marking off and the sailors were digging the trenches and the marines were putting up barbed wire. We manned the trenches and stopped in them for a fortnight. During that time half of us had to come back to the ship to carry on coaling ship with another 3,000 ton when the collier came alongside. And we got recalled back to the trenches as the Turkish cavalry were coming over the hills. They got a big shock when they saw a crowd of Darkys looking at them. We stayed like that for another week, going back a few at a time for a bath. After 6 weeks we got relieved by the Army and left for Cape Hellas at the entrance to the Dardanelles. The ships were still sunk from the War. The River Clyde, a dredger, a French warship, there were shells lying in among the rocks that had not gone off. We saw men of the Pioneer Corps collecting them up. It was there looking over the battlefields that we had our first bad luck. Six men got killed when a shell they were looking at went off. We went back to Constantinople to get ready for the funeral which was at Proukipo, Turkey in Asia. And while we were there we went for a walk around Florence Nightingale’s Hospital. It was a large square building, the sides were about half a mile long. The following day one of our men was killed by an Italian Policeman in a fight and two days later back to the same cemetery. What a farce we buried the wrong chap.  

And one day six of us seamen had to go onboard a German ships armed guard. We went up to Narna in Bulgaria and then up to Constantou in Rumania. We changed over to another ship to bring back empty. When we got back we heard that the Army were leaving for home. We were the last ship to leave. The HMS Benbow and us went on a visit to Athens in Greece. We anchored at Piraeus, that is the base for Athens. We went up to Athens, nearly all the two ships’ companies for a competition with the Greeks. We went up by electric train to the Sports Arena. It was a sight to see. The arena was like a big horseshoe and on the top were about 50 flagpoles and alongside each was a Soldier of Greece in their National uniforms some had like white skirts and white stockings with shoe with the toes turned up and a pom-pom on top, but they were very smart. Nearly all the events went to one man off the Benbow. And when it was all over he was carried around the arena by the Greeks, he was treated like a king that day. We stopped in Athens for three days and off we went to Smyrna, Turkey in Asia. But did not stop for longer than 36 hours, we were told by the Turks if we did not get out by dark we would be blown out of the water. And the Admiral on the HMS Benbow thought it better that we should, and a good job we did, as it got dark all the town and harbour went up in flames.  

[1924]

We went back to Malta and after about two months went back to Sheerness in Kent and took out all ammunition and stores and all the ship’s company went into barracks in August 1924. And we were due leave after 2 ½ year. I had quite a few things to bring home. And after a nice leave, back to barracks for a while and after the usual Xmas leave I was put in the Depot Guard and stopped in Depot until the beginning of 1926.  

[1926]

And then I was drafted to HMS Verity. She was a Destroyer from the 1918 war. We ammunitioned ship and off we went down the English Channel to catch up with the Flotilla. There were nine ships, three from Chatham, three from Portsmouth, three from Devonport. And after arriving at Malta we went around to Sliema Harbour. That is the Destroyer base. We painted all ships so as to go on a cruise around the French Riviera. We went to St Tropez, Cannes and Nice and Monte Carlo and got a few presents to bring home. After a few weeks we went back to Malta for a short docking and then came out for a few exercises. And then we followed the Fleet to the islands of Greece and mind you there are some lovely islands with only a few houses and people on each. They grow fruit of all kinds.  

One day a chap came around the mess deck and said we were going to China. We chased him off the deck, we said we couldn’t go as far as that. Well within two hours we were alongside the oiler and store ships and after tea we sailed around the lines of battleships, cruisers and destroyers, we had a very big Fleet in the Mediterranean. We arrived at Port Said and through the Suez Canal. It took all the ships eight hours to get to Suez, the other end of the canal. We took turns in going alongside the store ship. We got shrapnel mats to go around the Bridge and Wing Bridges and around the guns, as the ship had no steel sheets for protection. And more tin helmets and ammunition and Lewis guns. We wondered what all this was about. The Captain then told us that Civil War in China had started and we were going there to protect the lives of British people and property. When we had finished storing ship we sailed for Aden and oiled ship. And every day at noon we had to report how much oil we had used and what was left, also fresh water. Because the trip from Aden to Colombo at a fair speed was something really think about, for the Captains of all ships.  

On arrival at Colombo we were nearly empty of everything. We were there for three days. I had a run ashore and found the place very nice and had a few games of football. Well we were ready for our next long trip to Singapore. And the same thing had to be done at noon every day. One night while I was lifebuoy sentry on the stern of the ship, all the time at sea there is one just in case someone fell over the side of the ship. While walking up the deck I was picking up flying fish that had tried to fly over the decks. I had quite a few for breakfast and they were lovely and sweet. The Fleet put in at Penang for fresh water and mail, and then left for Singapore where we filled up with oil and fresh stores, bread vegetables. And off again to Hong Kong. As we entered the harbour the sampans scattered, they were scared as there hadn’t been destroyers out there before. They called us Devil Ships and Sailors. They would not come alongside our ship to take us ashore so we had to lower our own boats. Of course it was the South China newspapers who spread that alarm. But in the end we had plenty of sampans to take us ashore to see the place, which was very interesting, and after three days all the ships sailed for different places along the coast. And on the way we had a scare with pirates. The SS Sunning was raided and looted and set on fire. Some of the passengers put off in a lifeboat so we went off after them and found them a few miles out at sea, 8 white people, 2 women and 2 Chinese crew. We dashed back to Hong Kong, passing the pirates lair at Bias Bay.  

We put them ashore at Hong Kong and then dashed on up the coast to a place called Swatow to safeguard the British people there. Other ships had gone to Amoy, Foralow, Shanghai and up the Yangtze Kiang, the river that goes 3,000 miles in the heart of China. Well we stopped a week at Swatow and then got orders to go up to Chin Kiang. We tied up to the jetty which belonged to an English Oil Co. What a time we had there. One night our section of six men and two officers had to go quietly alongside a Ferry Stage which was occupied by Chinese soldiers. They were waiting for a large British Ferry boat to come alongside so as they could steal it. But we went alongside very silent and took them by surprise. We killed 7 and drowned 17 before the ship came alongside. They didn’t know what had really taken place. We were there for a few weeks and then up the river to a place called Wu Hu. It was only a small place with a small Army Post. On Xmas Eve 1926 we were asked to play the University at football and of course we were well beaten by the Chinese students. They gave us a nice time at the University. And that same night I was walking up and down the deck, the other ones of the crew were playing Whist Drive below decks. All of a sudden I heard a bullet whiz past my ear, and I dived under the gun shield. I up and looked through the telescope, they soldiers were firing at each other. They had mutinied. We had to stand by the guns and rifles al night. And the next day, Xmas Day, the soldiers that had caused the trouble were all hanged in the field opposite the ship. We could not do a thing to stop them. Eleven men were left hanging for two days. That was to show the others what happens.  

We left after 4 days and went up to a place called Hankow which is 600 miles up from Shanghai and the sea. The first morning we were there we tied the ship at one of the ferry stages by the Town Hall and the police brought a small boy of about 12 or 14, made him kneel and tied his hands behind him and shot him in the back of the head and then pushed him into the gutter and put a notice on him stating that he had been stealing. He was lying there for three days. Martial law was I force so we couldn’t do anything. And while we were there the Northern army were retreating and setting fire to buildings. The German Embassy was the biggest fire, it was in the British legation and the British Minister gave up without a fight, a good job as we had no troops to staff them. The troops of the staff were advancing and were firing across the river but we were lucky and didn’t get hit, but next morning the roads and paths were smothered with bodies. But after a few days we were back to normal and then we were allowed ashore for recreation. We went alongside the cruiser HMS Cardiff for a day or two as we had to relieve her while she came back to England.  

[1927]

The ship stopped at Hankow until May 1927 and then came away having been relieved by the destroyer Sepoy just out from England. So away we went down to Hong Kong for repairs and dry dock, and while [there] we had all the ships sides scraped and painted with red lead. E had orders to go back to Hankow to take over from the same ship, as half of her crew were down with fever. She had lasted four weeks. You should have heard our crew who had really took the brunt of the trouble. But they could not help it and away they went back to Hong Kong. The Captain told us all we would get relieved in August. But the River Yangtze starts dropping about now for the winter, and if no ship came out to relieve us we would have to stay until the following May. And that is what happened. You see there is a large sandbank further down the river and ships who draw too much draft can’t get up or down the river, only those that are flat bottomed can get over. Ten month stretch is a long time.  

And while we were at Hankow twelve of us had to go up the river to try and rescue a captain of one of the ferries. The pirates had captures him. So with an officer and a Petty Officer and a Shipwright we went aboard a tug and two barges. The sailors had to live on the barge and eat at the same table as the Chinese. It was terrible. We went up to Shang King about 2,000 miles from Shanghai. We stopped there about two weeks opposite the pirate’s camp, but did not get the captain. We got relieved by the gunboat HMS Cockchafer. They have flat bottoms and can slide over sand banks and shallow waters. She carried a missionary and he went ashore and talked to the pirates and got the captain back. He had shot himself in the foot and poison had set in so we had to take him to Hankow to hospital. Before we were allowed onboard and into the mess decks we had to strip all our clothes off and throw them overboard as they were lousy and then into a bath of disinfectant. After a couple of days I had to go the International Hospital for about a fortnight. It was run by nuns. The Mother Superior was an Austrian woman and very nice. Before the trouble started she sent the English nuns back to Shanghai for safety. She was on the Red Cross trains during the First World War. The captain who had shot himself in the foot had it amputated. He was a bad tempered brute. None of the nuns liked him. I awoke one morning with a revolver pushing in my ear, it was the pirates who had raided the hospital. They wanted food and money but got none. By the time word had got down to the ship for a patrol they had gone.  

Well we got relieved and the ship sailed for Hong Kong. And then we finished our docking that had started months ago, before sailing for England. It took us 52 days to get home. You see we had to climatise on the way home back from the heat to he cold. Of course we had presents from Colombo, Aden and Malta for our people at home.

[1928]

And we were very glad to be back on England 1928. After nearly three years away we were given six weeks leave and it was good to be back in Wallsend. And after a poor train journey all night and was awoke by somebody kicking at the yard gate and up I got and went to find out who it was. It was a sweet little girl about nine years old. I told her not to do that to the door and away she went. And that same little girl is my sister in law, Katie Smith. Well after a good leave I returned to Chatham barracks. Well after kit muster I was asked if I would like to be barracks postman. I was taken away to find out what kind of person I was as you see I had to sign for the registered letters and had to be honest.

[1929]

It was in March 1929 that I was taken to hospital and there I nearly lost my life after an operation. I was on the danger list for about two months and then afterwards back to barracks for sick leave. And in December of that year I was put on draft to HMS Cumberland, a County Class cruiser. It was like a big hotel. As soon as we got onboard ship we were told we were going back to China, the place I had just left. But this time it should be a little better on a ship like this. On the way through the Suez Canal we passed one of the Union Castle liners and the captain wished our Captain and crew all the best wishes. It was a lovely journey across the Indian Ocean to Colombo and then Singapore and on to Hong Kong and joined up with the Eastern Fleet of which HMS Kent was the flagship. After a while at Hong Kong we were sent up to Shanghai. We went up the Wangpo River to the middle of the city and tied up head and stern to buoys. At night time I went ashore and took a ride in a rickshaw. I sat back and thought I was the emperor of India it was a lovely ride. Past all the big stores of which I later on bought quite a few presents to bring home. After a fortnight we were sent up the River Yangtse back to our old place Hankow. And of course I showed the lads around the place being there before.  

The weather there was terrible hot. It was the worst time of the year. You see the Admiral on the HMS Kent had heard a rumour that we had quite a few athletes on board our ship and when the month up at Hankow was finished in that scorching sun our strength would be sucked away and we got back a week before the Regatta and wouldn’t give us time to train our boat’s crews. But while we had been up there we had five crews trained, pulling like mad and still tied up to the boom outside the ship. You see the tide of the River Yangtze is very swift. Well the fleet went up to Wei Hai Wei every year for the Regatta and gunnery practice. Well with our crews not having any training and being new to each other we were well beaten. But the five crews who had trained won their races very easy and that made the Admiral sit up and take notice. While we were there all the fleet went to sea for gun practice and after the season had finished we had to escort the tug and target to Dairen in Manchuria. It was a fair size and nice port and the start of the Trans Siberian Railway 12 days journey to London with our mail. We stayed at Dairen for nearly a week and then went across to Chingwangto, it is a port for Peking, coal mines etc. We got leave to go up to Peking by bus and it was a very nice place. Very old. It is like three towns in one. In the old Palace it is like that the centre one is the Emperor’s and the next one is like his harem and the next like his staff etc. While we were there we had a walk on the Great Wall of China, you could run a bus on some parts. We came back to the ship to let the other part of the Ship’s Company go and see the sights. Well the ship left for Hong Kong which took about five days and on the way down before passing Shanghai we ran into a freak storm of hailstones the size of a golf ball, never saw anything like them. We had a seaplane up on the catapult and when we looked at it after the storm, only the engine and framework was left. And lying on the decks were hundreds of birds killed by the hailstones. We took photos of them a shirt stud was very small alongside. We arrived at Hong Kong and the RAF people came on board to look at the plane. They couldn’t believe it. We took out the ammunition of the ship before going into Dry Dock at Kowloon, opposite Hong Kong. We had to go back and forward to Hong Kong by ferry until the ship we finished in the dockyard and then back to the Naval Dockyard Hong Kong. We stopped about three month, in that time we had to do our training at Stone Cutters Rifle Range and had a few runs up the peak by train to see the sights of Hong Kong Harbour. It is wonderful, the ships like little dots. 

Well we got orders to go up to Shanghai as Guard Ship keeping wireless guard on the Japanese, one of our men was an expert on Japanese wireless codes, and every ship that took over as guard ship he had to change ships. We never saw him for months, and that kept him busy. The time was coming along for us to practice for the Regatta and then it happened, we got orders to proceed up the river to Hankow again. And when we got there the Captain got all the crew together and told us at the dirty trick the Admiral had done. He said they were scared of us in the Regatta and up the river in that terrible heat we could not do anything. He wanted every man on the ship to pull together and show them what we could do. The river at this time of year was running that fast our boats tied up to the ship and the men were pulling like mad and not moving. That was in the day and at night the motor boat towed them all inshore where the tide was not fast and raced against each other. And when the month was up to go back to Wei-Hai-Wei for the Regatta we were all fit and waiting for revenge. The Regatta lasts two days. But our ship had enough points to win it in one day. We were first and second in all the races, there had never been races like it before. We won every cup, we won the gunnery cup, the baking cup against the baking staff from each ship, the football shield. And when we had all the officers and crew’s photo taken from the bows of the ship and from one side of the ship to the other was cups and shields, a thing that had never been done before on the China Station. All out of Devonport.  

And the ship that won the Yokohama Bowl had to go to Japan to show it to the British people that had given money to the sailors of HMS Despatch for their bravery during the earthquake 1924. And it was our captain at that time who was the sports officer and he said it would be a good idea that a gold bowl to be won by any ship with the most points, to bring it to Yokohama for show. And the ship this time was HMS Cumberland. We called at Nagasaki for three days and went ashore to look at the town which was large. They had a nice dockyard built or laid out by English workmen. At the time we went there it was a time when there was a boycott on all Japanese goods that was flooding all markets of the world. Every dinner time the merchants came alongside the ship with all kinds of goods to sell. They were nearly starving. The captain told them to come on board. It shamed me for taking things so cheap. A pair of rubber boots 2/6 in yens, cigarette lighters 9d each, a 52 piece china tea set 7/6, lovely Kimono’s 4/6. I got two kimonos and a tea set, but where they are now I don’t know. Well we left and called at Kagoshima and then through the inland sea to Kobe and then on to Yokohama and Tokyo. In 1924 the HMS Despatch was in the harbour when the earthquake came and all the crew went ashore to help the people as much as they could. And when it was all over the people collected money and they asked the captain what he would like done with it. And that’s what happened. We had a very nice time there but it had to come to an end.  

We sailed for Hong Kong but stopped at Kelung on Formosa but did not go ashore as there was no leave. And then on to Hong Kong for the winter and while we were there all the crew had a week at Stone Cutters Island doing rifle firing at the ranges. It was a very good and restful time and a good canteen. Plenty to eat and drink for the crew. After a month or two in dockyard we took 250 soldiers of the Queens Regiment up to Wei Hai Wei for the last Regatta. Each cruiser took the same amount from different Regiments and they did enjoy themselves on the way up. They got up early in the morning to scrub the decks in nice cold water. They took part in the Regatta. They had their own races and it was a good laugh. Two boats run into each other, the soldiers stood up and started fighting each other over the side of the boats. The soldiers were enjoying themselves, they did not want to go back to the Army. They got their tot of rum every day and everything the sailors got. 

Well the time was drawing near for us to go back to England after another 3 ½ years in China and Japan. Just over 7 ½ years in two ships. We had a good send off from Hong Kong and a pleasant trip to Singapore. And while we were there the ship had to go into dry dock, the big floating dock from England, to get the ship’s bottom looked at. And this was the time of year when it was very hot, about 120 degrees in the shade, being only about 80 – 100 miles from the Equator. And the floating dock was nearly up into the swamps. No wind to keep us cool. It’s the first time I have seen sailors praying for the three days to hurry up. Then the day came when we were ready for sea and a bit of sea air. We took our time to Colombo and stayed there for five days. We did a lot of sightseeing on the island and got plenty of presents to bring home, silks and moon stones. Well we stored and oiled ship and sailed for Aden. We picked up one or two ratings from the Wireless Station there. They were only allowed to stay at Aden on account of the climate. We topped up with oil and fresh water and sailed up the Red Sea to Suez. And there we took onboard a Pilot to take us through part of the Canal to the Bitter Lakes and changed pilots to take us through to Port Said. And on the way through, the same liner as we passed about the same spot over three years before was pulled into the side of the canal to let us past and of course the Captains of both ships passed messages to each other. And then Port Said we took mail and parcels and carried on to Malta, we took a few ratings onboard for England. And sailed for Gibraltar and did the same there. It was good to sail up the Channel again to Sheerness. And the next day prepared to get out oil and ammunition, and up the river to Chatham Dockyard 1933. 

[1933]

And then it was time to pack our bags and hammocks and go into barracks, and of course it was time for our leave, 6 weeks. It soon went over and back to barracks. It wasn’t long before my name was down on the board for ship, a destroyer, HMS Brilliant and after a good clean up and a little paint she was as good as new. We left Dockyard at Chatham for Sheerness to oil and ammunition and left with the other ships of the Flotilla for Malta, which was our base. We arrived there after about a week and went into Sliema Harbour and tied up to the buoys. And every time we went out for exercise went back to the same buoy. Went out every week for gunnery and torpedo practice until we were perfect. And mind you we were and glad it was over. And went to the south of France for a cruise, it was lovely. Our ship went to St Tropez. We went ashore for three days leave. My pal and I booked a place at a nice hotel and then went off to see the place. Went by bus to Cannes which was very nice and then went to Grasse to see them making scent. All the visitors after being shown over the factory received a nice little box of four bottle of Essence of different scents. We went along to Antibes, Villefrank and lastly to Monte Carlo. And on the way back to Malta called in at Leghorn and then to Naples and down through the Straights of Messina, then to Malta where we stopped over the winter. And in the spring went to Gibraltar for docking. We lived in the huts on the dockside and while the ship was being docked and the water drained down to the bottom, with all the tins we could find to catch the fish that came in with the ship, enough for the ship’s company. Well we had a very pleasant time going up the Rock to the top and seeing a long way over the Straits to North Africa. We saw big guns all over the Rock which you can’t see from down below. Inside is like a big cave. Hospital during the war and where to keep stores and ammunition. But Gibraltar is a Garrison town and a very nice place. We went along to La Linea to see a bullfight, it was pitiful to see the bulls running around with spears stuck in their sides. And when the bull was killed and cut up and sold the little arrows pulled out and sold to tourists and that was the end of the bullfight. When we came out of dock we oiled and stored and went across to Tangiers for a visit. 

We had a look around the City. While the ship’s football team was playing a local team my two pals and I went for a ride around the countryside which was quite nice. We had three good horses with us of course. We had some food with us and sat down on some large stones and all of a sudden Arabs came running after us. We had been sitting on headstones in a cemetery. We came down to the long lovely beach and had a horse race, it was good fun. And after we had our tea, went to the Casino. I went to the roulette table and I won £17. And when the ship got back to Gibraltar we had a good night in the canteen. Next day the ship sailed for Malta and joined up with the Flotilla and after a short spell of exercises went up the Adriatic to Venice. A lovely city, all canals instead of streets it has plenty of historic building to see. After a visit to Venice our ship called at an island off the Yugoslavian coast at a place called Sussin. We had some good swimming ashore. And then the ship went down the coast to Spit to join up with the other ships. And while we were there the Reverend Tubby Clayton of the Toc H got a party up to go to Zagreb. We travelled all night by train and got up to Zagreb the next morning. We stayed in an Army barracks and made very welcome. We had two days looking around and what a lovely city and cathedral. We had a very nice send off at the railway station, got back at Split at night. And the following day sailed for Ragusa and then went on to Kotor where the Yugoslavs have a Naval Base. And while we were there we had some boat races with the Yugoslavs. They beat us every time because their boats were a little smaller than ours.  

When after a couple of days we were ordered to Cyprus, we went to Famagusta which is a nice port. And we went by railway to Larnaca and Nicosia, through the orchards laden with all kinds of fruit which we got very cheap to bring back to the ship. Well trouble started in Palestine between Arabs and Jews. So our ship being the nearest to Haifa to guard the oil tanks. Only once were we shot at but nobody killed. The trouble started every dinner time. But after a week or two the trouble died down. And the ship went down to Suda Bay on the Island of Crete, a very mountainous island. And there was an old lady came alongside the ship and asked me if I would like to buy a goose, and what a large one it was. She took a liking to me and sold it to me for 8/-. I gave her a 10/- note. We had a chap in the men who killed it and got it ready for the fridge for our Xmas dinner, and what a dinner. We left Crete for Malta and it was our time for docking for a week to get the bottom of the ship scraped and painted. And when we came out to go from the Grand Harbour to Sliema we had a message to say that a flying boat had crashed into the sea. We put on as much speed as we could but the weather was very bad. It buckled the steel plates in on our forecastle, so we had to ease down. Then we got word that the aircraft had hit a mountain in Sicily. So we turned back and straight back into dockyard to get the damage put right.  

[1935]

Just in time to join up with the flotilla and to come home for the 1935 Review at Spithead. It was a sight worth seeing. Lines of Battleships, Cruisers, Destroyers, Minesweepers, Submarines etc. And even the Germans sent one of their ships. And then came the day when the King and Queen came on the Royal Yacht up and down the lines of ships. All the crews were lined up on the Upper Decks giving three cheers as the Royal Yacht came past, it lasted quite a while because there was a lot of ships in the Navy those days. And then at night time all the ships were illuminated, it was a sight to see on a dark night. And all of a sudden there was fireworks from all ships and flares that lit up the Fleet for miles around. The front at Southsea, Bude and Cowes on the Isle of Wight, there were thousands of people there to see the sights. The following day we sailed back to Malta but had to do exercises on the way, like two Fleets attacking each other. We were not long in Malta before we were told to go to Alexandria because the Abyssinian War had started. The British troops were at Mursa Matruh on the borders of Egypt and Italian Libya. So we had to go there and ?? fresh water for them. We were only there for a few days and then returned to Malta to get ready to come home as our commission was at an end. The Flotilla left for England but a few hours before we got to Gibraltar the Spanish Civil War had started and that meant us. All the ships scattered, one went to Barcelona, one to Valencia, one to Alicante, one to Cartagena, one to Almera, we went to Malaga, one to Cadiz, one to Huelva and the Captain of the Flotilla stopped at Gibraltar. We were there to take off the British people if anything did happen, which of course it did not. At Malaga we were in the harbour. Not far from us at anchor was the old Spanish battleship the Faime. And one morning a small plane came over belonging to the rebels and dropped a bomb on the fore part of the ship. There were quite a few killed and not a shot was fired back, well we didn’t hear any and we were not far off. After a week there we went back to Gibraltar. And then we took a chap up to Huelva just up the coast. We went up the river and the captain said to him we would have to wait to go alongside but he told the captain he would give permission. And the captain laughed and said he couldn’t take orders from a civilian with no authority. But the captain got a shock when the man said ‘I am Tinto of the Rio Tinto Mines. I own all the jetty, the railway, the land and all the mines.’ And of course the captain had to apologise. We were only there for a couple of days and then back to Gibraltar. And all the other ships came down from where they were and we all sailed for England and back into barracks. And of course we had six weeks leave. And then back to barracks to await for another ship.

[1936/37]

I was sent down to HMS Vernon 1936, the Torpedo School at Portsmouth, and I was there about six months going through the Torpedo, Electrical and Mining Courses, and I passed out as a Torpedo Man. And then back to Chatham 1937 where I was drafted to another destroyer HMS Foxhound. After months of training in gunnery and torpedoes we were sent with HMS Fury to the north coast of Spain where the Civil War was still going on. We went into Bilbao Harbour which was held by the Basques but had to nip out quick when gun fire started. We went to St Jean de Luz and made that place our base with the permission from the French. It was a lovely seaside holiday resort and we made quite a lot of friends. One of the small hotels was made into a Navy Club for us. One ship was in harbour for a week, the other was on patrol along the north coast of Spain for a week to see that our ships kept away tramp steamers with food for the starving people but the Spanish cruiser Cervantes and a minesweeper was keeping a good watch on us. We were told to go to Gijon where there were five or six old tramp steamers full up with food and clothing. And mind you they were old, a little bit of bad weather and they would be down. It was a hard job keeping them out over the three mile limit. There was one old captain nicknamed ‘Spud Jones he tried about ten times a day to get in but the Spaniards there were very quick to chase them back. And then we would go alongside and tell Spud Jones to behave himself but he said he would get in, which he did in the end. The people in Gijon were starving and cold, there were people from Santander there as well. Now inside the harbour there was a destroyer, one that was bought from the British navy called HMS Wallace. Well one morning before it got proper daylight it came out and kept close inshore by the cliffs and kept firing at the cruiser and minesweeper and very nearly hitting us. Well it took the two Spanish ships away up the coast and that let Spud Jones in, all the old steamers with smoke pouring out of the funnels got into the harbour and there was thousands of people on them. Well that was our Patrol. In the meantime the HMS Fury had returned to Portsmouth. After a few days rest from patrol we got ready for a speed trial across the Bay of Biscay. We were just starting when the sky became jet black I knew what that meant. In the middle of the Bay, 36 hours riding into the waves and then it started easing up. And after rounding Ushant we started our speed trial at 9 o’clock in the morning and we tied up to the buoys in Sheerness at 8 o’clock at night. And the following day took out the ammunition and oil, and the next day went up to Chatham, and to stand by to go into barracks. Well we paid the ship off. That is the Navy term for all leaving the ship. After we had our leave and back to barracks.

[1938]

I was sent into the dockyard to a destroyer, HMS Versatile, an old ‘V’ type destroyer of the First World War. She was lying in the yard in a very dirty state and took a lot of work cleaning her up. She was a mine laying destroyer. We took her out on trials off Sheerness and she still had a very good speed for an old ship. And then there was ‘Panic’, ‘1938 Crisis’. Away we went to Portsmouth and with another eight ships we tied up to buoys in the middle of the harbour and loaded up with mines, 74 mines to each ship. Our destination was the Kiel Canal. Well zero hour was midnight on the Friday, But it did not come off. So the crisis was off and over and on Saturday we started unloading the mines. What a job it was. Everything went well until the last one, as only two of us and the officer were left onboard. The other torpedo men had gone ashore. And the last mine rolled off its sinker and jammed me against the guard rails. I had to hang on and hold it till they got help it off my back. And the officer told us to go down below and get dressed for shore and he sent for a special boat to take us ashore and gave us a night leave pass. And later on we went to a show and then stayed at the Salvation Army Home for the night. It was a good night’s rest we wanted after a day’s hard work. The following week we all sailed for our home ports, ours being Chatham, and putting the ship back in the Reserve Fleet. And then back into barracks, and wait for another ship.

[1939]  

In January 1939 I was sent down to Sheerness Dockyard and there, with others, commissioned the minesweeper HMS Hazard. There was three of us Torpedo Men, we ran all the ship’s electrical gear on the ship and of course the depth charges etc. We went down to Portland which was the Minesweeping Base and loaded up with all kinds of minesweeping equipment. And then came the time for us to go out to sea and practice, and what a time we had. Nobody had ever been on a sweeper before but we got down to it and put up a poor show. After a while we got as good as other ships at sweeping. And then I had to go to HMS Vernon to re-qualify in making mines safe. I did that course when I qualified for a Torpedo man and that was my job on board if wanted. After exercises our ship went back to Chatham and gave Easter leave. And when I came back the ship was at Sheerness and before I could get on board the 2^nd in command told me I had a new job. To take over the big Mining Flat as the seaman who had been looking after it had gone back to barracks to finish his Navy service. So I had a big job on my hands, all the mining stores to keep in order and splicing wires and ropes which I did for the six years. 

If anyone had told me I was going to stay on this little ship for six years I would of said he was off his head. Well the ship went on a visit to Bristol. The ship sailed under the Clifton Bridge which was very high. We went up into the docks for a week and every afternoon the ship was open to visitors. Half the ship’s crew went on a trip by a bus to Cheddar Gorge which was very lovely to look at. And the other day another part of the crew went for a visit to W H Wills factory at Bristol. And the next day we went for a trip to Bristol Zoo which was very nice. And at the end of the week the ship left for a visit to Cherbourg. But on the way we were ordered back to Chatham and gave leave. I thought something was funny and in the wind. After leave we went back to Portland and filled up with all sorts of stores, and I took on all sorts of minesweeping gear for sweeping. All minesweepers went out into the Channel day after day for practice. And then we set sail for Scapa Flow. On the way up we anchored off Cromer and all Captains of ships told their men to write home as perhaps this was the last time mail for a time. And then we went off to Scapa Flow and started sweeping in all direction across to Cape Wrath, Western Scotland. Of course it was good training and plenty of work for me, splicing the wires which snagged. 

The threat of war was getting very near. So it was said on the wireless, as there was no papers to read what was going on. Well all of us went out in different ways making channels and marking them on the charts. And of course this was Sunday morning and at 11 o’clock we heard we were at war. Next day, Monday morning, it was a lovely sunny day, there was only two minesweepers in Longhope harbour, which is a small inlet of Scapa Flow, and the old battleship Iron Duke who had no guns and there was no guns ashore .And up in the rays of the sun two planes were flying around so we thought we trained our guns on them and from the other side a single German plane came dropped a bomb right between us, which nearly tuned us over, being in shallow water. We started firing at the other planes which was coming down the sun’s rays. We hit one of them and the pilot baled out and he was firing at the marines and who were putting guns in and around the Flow. But the marines soon killed him. He was a very young pilot. The other plane dropped a bomb alongside the Iron Duke and opened the plates on the side. Her crew had to cut her cable and run her ashore to save her. Well this was going to be a good start, 24 hours after starting the war. Every day we had to go out sweeping channels between the minefields just in case the Germans laid mines in the channels. Every now and again we had to go down to the Firth of Forth to sweep the Big Ships in. Battleships. And when the German spotter plane came over the Big Ships scattered around the north of Scotland to the Clyde and again when they were spotted away somewhere else. Again Scotland was the best place for ships to hide, deep water lochs. Well we went back to Scapa with the Big Ships. Well the war hadn’t been on long and the boom defences at Scapa were only a makeshift till they were done proper. And that was the time when a German submarine put into the Flow under one of the ships coming in. All the Fleet was at anchor and during the night the battleship Royal Oak was torpedoes and blew up with the loss of over 1,000 lives. And the Big Ships scattered leaving behind us two minesweepers and four destroyers who was waiting for us. Sweeping the Flow up and down, we went up and down till we caught up with something on the bottom. Well we knew that no sunken ships were there. So we got in our wires and dropped a marker buoy to mark the spot. We steered away and then the four destroyers speeded over the spot and dropped depth charges and then on top of the water oil came to the top and all sorts of things, you could nearly walk on the water. And then within 48 hours the Navy diving came and sent divers down. It was a sub alright and they got the number of it. We went down to the Firth of Forth to our base at Port Edgar to fill up with minesweeping stores. The Big Ships were that side of the bridge away from the Naval Dockyards of Rosyth just in case they bombed the Forth Bridge. They have had a few tries and once again they were spotted and away they went at night to at night to another Loch. 

The Hazard and Hebe went to Invergordon. On the way into harbour I noticed six Big Ships, Merchant Navy with special sterns and the next morning we got to know that they were minelayers. Laying a mine belt four miles off the coast and about two miles wide as far as Scapa Flow to the Thames. They were laying it in sections and we had the top part to do. We got our minesweeping gear out at a special depth and we followed the minelayers at a certain distance and went over the minefield to see that they had gone down to the proper depth. We were glad when it was all over and then we went down to Grangemouth for a little docking and then back to sea again. We went around to Greenock for a couple of days. And then us and Hebe started sweeping from Gourock all the way down the Clyde making a clear channel for the safety of the big ships and at night time put into Campbeltown. And next day started back on the next channel to Gourock and that went on for a few days. From Dunoon to Gourock was a small boom defence opened and closed by a trawler. One night we were stopped going in after an all day sweeping. It was a German sub scare. From the end of the boom defence was a small space which we thought was too shallow for a sub but we were wrong. On the shore was a small lighthouse and the keeper spotted a sub getting in by the small space. He shouted out to a Naval launch and away he went at top speed dropping depth charges. We saw the German sub come to the top, turn over and sink with all hands. The Navy diving ship HMS Tedworth came and sent divers down to see and get her number. She was full of holes and left till the end of the war. The next day we had to dash back to Loch Ewe, past Oban and Tobermoray to sweep the flagship HMS Nelson into harbour, but the Admiral could not wait for us, so she hit a German mine. But she managed to put into harbour and run up the beach to see what damage which wasn’t much. It served him right for not waiting. We had not the speed to get there first. We stayed there for a couple of days rest and then went across to the Island of Lewis, Stornoway which is a nice little place. Nearly everybody was in black mourning for all their loved ones who went down in an armed liner, an old P & O liner. Her crew was made of Naval Reserves and they all came from Stornoway. She was patrolling off the south coast of Norway when the German battleship Scharnhorst came across her. She had only 6” guns against the German’s 14”. She did not last long before going down with all hands. The women folk were all in black, they had suffered a great loss. But the Royal Navy were welcomed and had a great time. Even the small picture house had changes of pictures three times a week. And every other night we were allowed in free. While we were there I sent home a box of kippers to help out with the rations. There was 48 large fish and arrived perfect.  

We carried on sweeping all around Scapa and keeping the secret channels open to Scapa. The cruiser Norfolk came in badly damaged and a destroyer came in full of survivors from another destroyer and we were told to come alongside and take off the men. But in the meantime there was a red alert and a German plane came right through the Fleet, how he got through we don’t know. He got his message back to Germany before he was shot down. And while this was going on we had to keep away and then got Orders to come and finish taking the survivors off and take them to Scrabster, a small harbour where the ferry from Kirkwall comes to and the bus takes them to Thurso and then by train south. The time was getting on and getting dark and we hadn’t got out of the Flow. The Boom Defence Vessel opened the gate and away we went. I said to the captain, who was new to the Hazard but one I knew very well, he was midshipman on the HMS Marlborough with me. I had a feeling that the Germans would come in force tonight and catch the Fleet in the Flow. He only laughed but changed his tune two hours after. It takes that time to get across the Pentland Firth, we were just going alongside the jetty, when the heavens lit up. We did not need any lights to get alongside. You see from the first day of the war starting they were putting guns ashore all around the Flow. There was over one for every day of the year, and what a barrage. What plane got in did not get out. The Germans were going around and our fighters from Wick and Dice were enjoying themselves shooting them down. They lost a lot that night, 17. Some who got away came over our ship, we could see the crosses on the sides. If they had any bombs left we would have got them. Next day we left for Scapa but it was empty, the Fleet had scattered. 

You see the Germans had only a couple of big ships and they would not come out. So our ships were only in the way more or less. Wherever they went they had to have a destroyer escort and we were short of destroyers. We lost some at Norway and had to take some of the older ones off the Atlantic convoys. We were sent out, four minesweepers. We went out to the biggest convoy I have ever seen. Right in the middle was the old Aquitania full of troops and some smaller liners with troops and on the outside of them was oil tankers and store ships and on the decks was packed with planes. And around them was 50 old American destroyers which had been lent to us for escort duties in the Atlantic. We brought them around the north of Ireland, some went up the Clyde and the others to Liverpool. We returned to Scapa. That night I had a feeling we were going to get a raid and while coming back to the ship after a couple of hours leave in our motor boat the raid started. We were nearer the shore than the ship and that’s where we went for shelter. It was only an old barn but it sheltered us from shrapnel that was dropping all around. One plane came down the searchlight beam and put it out and the crew that was around. The next day two of us went into the North Sea sweeping one of the passages in the minefield. Four miles sweep and turned around and four miles back just to see if the German subs had laid mines. We had no trouble from aircraft. The next morning we swept along the north coast to Cape Wrath and about tea time we were getting our sweeps in, a German Dornier came around and around us but we still kept getting the sweeps in. The rest of the crew closed up at Action Stations. The captain signalled to Scapa and the fighter headed him off and shot him down, And for that night we put into Loch Eribol, a deep water Loch and of course we kept watch all night. The ones on watch were fishing. I took over the fishing line of one of the chaps in our mess and caught five lovely big flat fish and by the morning had caught enough for all the mess. 

In the morning we had Orders to go to Aberdeen for a small docking and, while we were there had a good look at the city and seaside, which was very nice. We stopped in dock for about four weeks and of course while we were there I came down for a weekend leave. When I got to Aberdeen station I saw the back of the train going out the other end of the platform. I went to the office and the chap asked us if we had tickets which we had got. He told us to go away and ask for Newcastle via Perth as we would catch the same train at Edinburgh. And the journey down the centre of Scotland with Perth right in the middle of the valley with a range of mountains on both sides was a wonderful sight. And we got the same train to Newcastle and then back on the two o’clock train on Monday morning and got into Aberdeen 8 o’clock. It was only a short distance from the dockyard. We came out of dock and went alongside the fish jetty, part of which was kept nice and clean for the Royal Navy. And then we were put on alert as we got word of Invasion, and while we were there if anything happened we had to sink our ship in the middle of the river entrance. So being a Torpedo man that was one of my jobs planting a charge down in the bottom of the ship all ready when the time came, which of course did not come off. And while we were alongside there was an air raid and a bomb just missed us and landed in the river throwing some dead fish on the upper deck but the raid didn’t last long. The following week we went back to sweeping along the North of Scotland and putting into different Lochs at night. We got orders to go down to Greenock in the Clyde. It’s a very nice place and while alongside the jetty, down came the Q.E., the biggest ship afloat. She wasn’t properly finished off and they were scared she might get hit in a raid. But that night she filled up with oil and slipped down the Clyde and away across to America to be finished off, and to be used as a troop carrier with the Queen Mary and other liners. She did not need any destroyers against submarines, she was fast and zigzagged all the way across.  

Well the following week we were told to go around to Leith for docking. And while we were there only a few men stopped on the ship in Watches. They lived in a small camp up Leith Walk. Myself, I sent for the wife to come to Leith as I had a room in a boarding house. It was small for us but very nice. The landlady was Scotch but her husband was a Tynesider. Both of them worked in a small picture house, she in the pay box and him on the door. I think my wife liked the change and being with me. We were there best part of four months getting more things added to the ship to combat against the magnetic mines and acoustic mines. And when we came out of dock of course the wife had to go back home. And after filling up with oil we went out and down the Forth and started sweeping magnetic, and while we were doing that there was a small fishing boat stopped and drifting down with the tide and when she started her engines up she went leaving nothing to say a boat had been there. And then we knew the Germans had laid a new kind of mine, an acoustic vibration mine. So down in the bows of our ship on each side they had put what looked like a round patch with a motor on. And when switched on they made a terrible noise sending vibration, ripples or waves through the water and exploding the mines up to four miles in front of our ship and exploding the magnetic mines up at the back. All shipping was stopped while we were doing that. There was explosions in the front and back, nobody was allowed below decks and when we did go down what a state everything was in a state. Cups and saucers and plates all broke. As we were under the Forth Bridge we blew a mine up near the leg of the bridge. It was a magnetic laid by an aircraft by parachute and when it entered the water the mechanism starts, waiting to be vibrated. And of course after the divers went down to see if any damage had been done to the supports of the bridge there was no damage but it was a near thing. We still carried out sweeping duties with the Fleet, first one side of Scotland and then the other.  

And then we were sent over to Belfast for another change, and the crew had to live in private houses while the alterations were being done. They were very good and kind the people. So many of the crew had to stay onboard the ship at night in watches or shifts, the others living in their houses and coming down to the ship at 8 o’clock. Our landlady was very nice, at the weekend we were given our lodging money to pay the landlady and ours always gave us a £1 back, pocket money so she said, and that made some of the lads very mad as they got nothing back. While we were at Belfast all the crew got leave to go home for about five weeks, taking half of the crew at a time. We travelled to Larne and then after the customs went aboard the ferry to Stranraer and then by train to Carlisle, changing for Newcastle. I made full use of my leave going here and there with the wife and daughter and also my wonderful mother in law who I was very fond of. And at night the father in law and I went for a drink. Those leaves went over too quick and back to the ship to let the other half of the crew on leave. And it was then that we heard we were going to Russia on Convoy Duties. We did not know what lay ahead. Just as well as I Know some of them wouldn’t of come back. But when they did come back off leave and we painted the ship and then went back to Scapa Flow to wait for orders.  

The ship that should of come with us was held up so we had to go on our own which was very wrong, on our own to Scotland. On our way over we dropped a couple of charges and up came the dead fish killed by the explosion. We lowered the boats but did not stop the ship in case of subs, and when the boats were filled with fish they were called back and hoisted up on deck and away we went on our way to Iceland. The people didn’t seem pleased to see English, they were a lot of pro-Germans in Iceland. The Navy went up into a long fjord about eight miles from Reykjavik and while we were there a storm blew up and we were ordered out to look for an American lifeboat from an oil tanker. It was one of the worst seas I have been in, the waves were about 60 feet high. Of course there were swells after the storm. We stayed out all day but never saw anything and came back to harbour. Well the next day we were told to stand by for a convoy. We went alongside the store ship for winter clothing and food, and to the oil tanker to fill up with oil. 

[November 1941 PQ5]

And the day came for our adventure into the Arctic. There were quite a few ships, Americans, British, Canadian, Russian, it took about seven days to get to the Kola Inlet to Murmansk and some ships went along to the White Sea to Archangel. Our ship went alongside the jetty at Murmansk and we went ashore to see the town. And everywhere we went there was a Russian following us. They wouldn’t trust us to go round ourselves. We left the jetty and anchored under a high cliff. The next morning at 10.30 we had an air raid by stukas. You see the German front line was only a few miles away but they did not hit any ships. And at 4.30 we were told to change places with HMS Britomart [Note: actually HMS Gossamer]. The next morning at the same time we had another raid and the Britomart [Gossamer] was hit and went down in two minutes, a direct hit. There were about thirty lost. We were very lucky to have changed places. The next day we went to sea in a gale and put into a small harbour but the ships were drifting into each other and we had to go to sea again and ride out the storm. We went along to the White Sea but could not go right in as it was frozen up and the ships that came up in our convoy was stuck right in the middle, but later on they were unloaded. The Russians got the cargoes off by getting large sleds up to the ships’ sides. Of course they knew the thickness of the ice.  

[June 1942 - escort Hopemount]

Our ship and another were told to go up to Nova Zembla, two large islands right above the White Sea. We had to wait for the Russian Ice Breakers and store ships. There were three icebreakers and what a size they were, they had more guns between them than days in the year. While we were there a wire got caught around our propeller shaft. Our captain asked the Russian Admiral if he could lend us a diver to go down and take it off, which he did after about an hour. While we waited for that being done I went up on the bridge and had a look at the Base Camp ashore through the Captain’s big glasses and in the camp were hundreds of German prisoners. I’ll bet they were cold up there not that far off the North Pole. Well we were all ready for the journey along the top of the world, latitude 78, longitude 98, to a place on the map called Cape Chelyushkin, and by golly it was cold. And then us two minesweepers couldn’t go any further. We came up against cliffs of ice. Now the three ice breakers got behind each other and started pushing against the ice. Of course the ice breakers are nearly all engines and very powerful. Well after a good while of pushing they started making a passage through the ice and after the ice breakers came the little store ship SS Montcalm and lastly the big oil tanker the Hopemount. All her crew were Tynesiders. We sent them all kinds of books and papers to read on the journey across the top of the world to Vladivostok. It took them nine months to get there and back. The last we saw of them was the tops of their masts over the cliffs of ice. And off we went back to Murmansk and on the way back a German attacked us and dropped a few bombs but none hit us.  

[Mar 1942 QP8]

Arrived back safe and sound and were told to stand by and try and bring an empty convoy back to England. It wasn’t very big and away we went around the North Cape of Norway and were told to keep well out from the coast. After about four days we had word that one of the ships had broken down with engine trouble. It was a Russian ship but she said she would catch us up. After, we ran into a snow storm, it was coming down that heavy we could not see each other and then we heard some heavy guns. The Russian ship reported being attacked by the Scharnhorst and of course we altered course, the convoy put further out to sea. And in the afternoon our convoy ran through the lines of ships of the full convoy going up to Murmansk. We shouted to the Admiral in the cruiser Kenya that the German battleship was out, and both convoys altered course again. He ordered two cruisers and two destroyers to head her off, but she was away into harbour somewhere in Norway. Another two days and we were getting near to Iceland but that night we had to ease down to be guided in through the minefield around Iceland. The ships of the convoy went into harbour but we had to do a bit of sweeping. A German sub was supposed to have laid mines inside of ours but we did not find any. And then we got orders to carry on back to Scapa Flow. We passed the Faroe Islands during the night and I was wondering what was bumping against the ship’s side every so often. I went up on deck and laid down to look over the side, it being dark. I shouted up to the Bridge that we had gone into a minefield that had broken adrift in the last heavy gale. The captain told all the crew below decks to come up on deck and to batten down all doors and hatches just in case we did hit one, which as not safe. You see they were our mines and should have been safe on being adrift, but you can’t always tell.

Well we got to Scapa alright and were told to stand by to pick up a small convoy that was going down the East Coast. And the next day we picked it up just outside the Pentland Firth and carried on down close to the land within the four mile limit as our minefield stretched from Scapa to Dover. We were just passing the Tyne and getting dark, and then the air raid started. One of the bombers dropped his bombs well short of Tynemouth and nearly caught us. But anyway we still carried on. While a raid is on the Coastguards do not put a light on but we could see the dim lights on the minefield but they would not see them up in the ships. A dull yellow light every four miles flashing so many times to let the ships’ captains know where they were passing. They were marked on the ships’ charts.

[Dec 1942 - Refit]

Well the next morning we had to go up to Hull Docks for a refit and the crew to go on leave. But on the way up the River Humber we passed the HMS Bramble, her captain was in charge of the Flotilla. Well that was the last time we saw her. As she was taking up her post as scout for the convoy she was going to Russia with, she was caught by one of the German cruisers and had no chance at all. I never heard if there was anybody picked up. Well the ship went into dock in Hull for a small refit and leave for the crew. It was wonderful to be home again. And of course we had our usual air raid nearly every night of our leave. It did not take long for our leave to go over, and then back to the ship again. That night we went into the canteen for a drink and at the next table were some merchant seamen asking if we knew where we were going. At the time we did not know where we were going but had a good idea. They were scared that their ship was picked to go on the Arctic Convoy If they had known they would have bolted. When I was waiting at York Station for the Newcastle train the sirens went, well the train came in and departed on time. The train was hardly out of the station when a bomb dropped on the spot I had been waiting for the train, outside the station canteen. I saw the damage when I came back off leave. 

[May 1942 PQ16]

When I got to the ship we had orders to return to Scapa Flow, and then it came, Orders to go to Iceland and wait. And the night we got into harbour a storm blew up and our ship drifted into another sweeper and made a 6 ft hole in our ship’s side. I thought that would be the end of us going on the convoy but the next day we were told to go alongside the Repair Ship and they welded a new plate over the other one and we were ready once more. Ships were coming in from all over the place full up with planes, tanks, ammunition, food and clothes. Well the day came and away we went up the Denmark Straits right over as far as Greenland. After a few hours an Icelandic trawler went through the lines of ships and when we were out of sight we heard him getting in touch with the Germans in Norway, how many ships and how many escorts. The captain told the crew that we would have company after another two days, and we did. A German flying boat going around the whole convoy but keeping out of gun range and he would get relieved every four hours. It was no good keep on changing course, if we did he would report our position.  

After two days the raids started. High level attacks every 20 minutes. That night there was a submarine attack and the ship at the back of the convoy got a hit right in the bows where there was stored 250 ton of explosives. We heard the lookout shouting torpedo but it was too late. A ship there one minute and the next none. We had to pick up survivors, there was 28, they lost 10 men with the captain. On that day the crew requested with the captain if they could move their sleeping quarters in the bows to one in the stern as they had a queer feeling which turned out to be true. All the survivors were on a raft, some hanging on the side. One chap felt himself sinking so he drove his hand on a large nail so he wouldn’t sink.  

The next morning with another seaman went below decks to get ready. Two crew who had died, we put them each in a blanket and a heavy weight and sowed them up all ready to be buried at sea by their own crew between air raids. There was a ship in the middle of the convoy who had the latest radar gear and she could tell us when the planes were even leaving the ground bases and that gave us a good chance to be ready for them. That day they had a torpedo attack on the convoy. There were nine planes, each with three torpedoes and at the same time there was a low level attack on us. And god we were lucky to of had a good captain on board. He turned the ship to run in between the torpedoes and miss the four bombs, two dropped on either side of the ship which nearly turned us over. While all this was going on the ship with all the radar gear had an aircraft on a catapult, a hurricane fighter which could fly off but could not land again. He flew off after the torpedo bombers and shot three down and then came across the convoy which was the quickest way to get at the other ones above the convoy. But the Yanks opened up on him and shot him down. He was wounded in the leg. He came down alongside the Polish Destroyer who picked him up. And that afternoon his ship was hit quite a few times and was sinking. One of our trawlers went alongside and was taking off as many crew as she could. And while she was doing that the big ship alongside of her blew up and we all thought that was the last of the trawler and the brave men. But when it all cleared away she was alright, loaded up with men. That was our worst day. We lost five ships, one of those was ablaze from end to end. One of our subs was alongside of her shouting for the crew to jump, which a lot of them did. Their clothes was on fire but the sub picked them up. And while this was going on the bombers were still bombing the ship but the sub, the Seahorse, would not give in until it got too bad for her and she just sank and came up behind the convoy having picked up the men of the ship’s crew.  

Well during the night the cruiser left us, a signal had come through saying part of the German Navy had come out from Norway and were heading towards the convoy, but we did not see any of them. Perhaps it was just to take part of the escort away, well that was six ships we had lost. The following day during a raid a Russian ship was hit in the bows but she still carried on. We went over to her and asked if he wanted any help but he said he would be alright. His lifeboats were lowered to just above the water, there was women in them. She got into harbour OK. The next day we lost two more ships and we shot down a bomber which landed in the sea close to our ship. The German crew got out onto the wings. They were waving their arms. We just left them as one of their flying boats would pick them up. If we had stopped the American survivors would of killed them.  

After tea that day our ship got orders to carry on into Kola Harbour and put them all ashore to go to the Camp where all the other survivors were. There was hundreds of them all different nationalities. We were glad to put in and have a good nights rest after six days and nights bombing, eating and resting behind the guns. Well the next night the Russians invited us to the Pictures in their Opera House, it was very good. There was English sub titles. You were not allowed to smoke but at the interval came out into the corridors. We were made very welcome by the Russians and after a couple of days we went along to the White Sea and up the river to Archangel. It did not look much of a place and while we were there had a raid or two. And the officer in charge sent us down to the mouth of the river on guard against the dropping of mines by parachute. And during the night we heard aircraft but could not see them as the clouds were that low. But we had to get up anchor quick and get out of the way as they were dropping mines and one came right down in our path. It was drifting down on us with the down river tide. As soon as the mine entered the water it tripped a lever and started up the clock, they were magnetic mines. And that was our job the next day blowing them up as they were at the entrance of the river. The Russians had no minesweepers for use on the magnetic mines until we let them have one. Our convoy was the PQ15 [Actually PQ16] and the empty ships were getting ready for the return journey home. They were tied up to the jetty.

[17.12.41]

Our ship and HMS Hebe [Actually Speedy] were patrolling outside the White Sea when we were jumped on by two German destroyers. They were firing by radar and it was good shooting. We got hit once but not much damage. But the Hebe [Speedy]was badly hit. One of her guns was shot right out and her mast came down and she was hit in the steering compartment. All we could do was put a smoke screen around her and run for cover of the coast and signal Murmansk. The HMS Kent and two destroyers went after them. The next night Hazard and Hebe [Speedy] had to go alongside the Kent for repairs, worked during the night to put patches on the side before we could go anywhere and at daybreak we were off to the White Sea again.

And we got ordered to go back to where we had left the ice breakers months beforehand. But all we could see was cliffs of ice. We waited and I wish I could have had a camera as the cliffs opened up and out came the ice breakers, the little store ship, four Russian destroyers and the oiler, the Hopemount, from Vladivostok. We left them at their Base and carried on back to Archangel to wait for the big convoy that had left England and Iceland. We left for the entrance to the White Sea and wait.

[June 1942]

The next morning we went out to help the escort but all that was left of the convoy, PQ17, was seven ships and plenty of lifeboats sailing into harbour with survivors. There was only a couple of corvettes and a trawler guarding the ships. On one of the corvettes was the late Godfrey Wynne writing for one of the papers. I’ll bet it gave him an eye opener and a big thrill. All night long there were wireless messages about some ships running away. After they got word to scatter some got caught in the ice and we could not get to them. We went as far in the pack ice as we could but could not help them. It was pitiful. So we had to come back to Archangel.

[November 1942 QP15]

We had a few quiet days before getting ready for our return trip with an empty convoy, and what a convoy. The biggest yet to come back to Iceland, and of course the worry of bombing again. Well on the way up the bottle neck of the White Sea the sky got that black I knew we were in for a right storm. The Orders before we left to go north on Bear Island and it blew that hard the convoy split up during the night. We got lost. We couldn’t turn in case of going over. A Russian destroyer in the escort trying to turn to go back home capsized and all her crew were lost. I knew we wouldn’t see any planes in this lot. It was bad. As the sea was coming on to the deck it was freezing and the ship was getting top heavy. The crew were banging away at the ice and putting it over the side. We had been out three days and no sign of the convoy, we were lost. The captain was only a Lieutenant. He ordered to take soundings and it was very shallow. He said head to starboard as we were getting too near the North Cape, that was Norway. I went to have a look at the chart and then I spoke to the 2^nd Lieutenant and told him that the captain was wrong. If a shallow sounding was on the starboard side it could not be Norway but Spitzbergen Banks and I showed him the chart. If we carried on the way we were going the ship would be aground. So he gave Orders for the ship to steer to port and we gradually got into deeper water while the captain was in his cabin. He came running up on the bridge and him and the 2^nd had an awful row. But the captain was going off his head – he could not see what was wrong. I reported black smoke in the distance but we could not get to them till the next day. During the night the Asdic operator told the captain he had heard a ping on his instrument. But the captain ignored it. And later on I was sitting below decks listening to the wireless when there was a gurgling sound under the ship. And being a torpedo man I knew what that was, a submarine was in the area. I dashed to the bridge and reported it to the 1^st Lieutenant. We altered course to try and pick up the sound again. But later on that night we heard SOS miles astern from a ship that had come the same way as we had, and we were the only ones to have come the proper way north of Bear Island. She had been torpedoed and got a signal that two destroyers were after the submarine.  

At daybreak on the horizon I saw black smoke and said jokingly it must be the German Fleet out to the 1^st Lieut and the captain heard it. And that was the end of him. He lost control altogether and had to be put in his cabin under guard for the good of the ship’s company. When we got closer we saw it was part of the convoy with two escorts and they were pleased to see us, and later on we picked up other ships. That night which was very dark, and of course no lights on the ship, when all of a sudden star shell were bursting over the convoy. Everybody dashed to action stations, thinking we had run into the Germans as we were well off course. And then I saw some ship flashing to us, it was the HMS London out looking for us. We were well overdue and well off course. They told us the four ships and two minesweepers escorts had run on the minefield and were lost with all hands. On one of them, HMS Niger, seven days before we had put all our mail and letters for home on her, and that of course went too. Our convoy was put on the proper course through the minefield and to Iceland, but most of the empty ships carried on to America to fill up again. After a while we were told to take the remainder to England, some went to Liverpool others to the Clyde. Then we went up to Govan to dry dock for a few days and we were told we had only three days. If people could get home and back they could go, but the biggest part of the crew lived down south and could not go. Some went to London, it only gave them a few hours home. I was alright down to Carlisle and across to Newcastle. We had been told we were off the Arctic run, thank God, and had to get ready with a convoy for the Mediterranean and Africa. Well that would be a bit warmer for us.  

[May 1943]

We left the Clyde with a new captain on board. We sailed away to the entrance waiting for the convoy. Some came up from Liverpool and some from the Clyde, some troopships came with us, and went around the north of Ireland and out into the Atlantic where the troopships left us to pick up with a fast convoy with a big escort. Well we had no trouble and after four days sighted the Rock of Gibraltar. And before we went into the Med we picked up a large convoy of ships from America and Canada. We sailed along the North African coast keeping as close as possible to the land. A German sub was waiting for us lying right under the cliffs outside Algiers harbour. They got one ship just in front of us. It looked strange, all you could see of her was the top of the mast with her balloon still flying from it. But the convoy sailed on to different parts of the coast. We carried on to a place called Bone to await for Orders. We went alongside an American ship filling up with German prisoners to take to America or England. One of the Americans asked me if we leaving the next day. He said as soon as they got clear of the harbour there would be a heavy air raid on the town. Well we got orders to sail when the American sailed. We had just got clear of the harbour when it started. The town sure got a bashing and the harbour went up in flames. I am glad that I came to a Lucky Ship.  

We were on our way to take over from another minesweeper and we passed her. She had her stern blown off and lost an officer and ten men. Well we knew what to expect. We joined up with the others clearing a big minefield off Cape Bon North Africa, and what a field it was. We kept losing our cutters off the wires and the wires snapping. The Chief and I were up till nearly midnight every night splicing wires and up again next morning at daybreak. Now and again we were disturbed by a plane, German or Italian, but they were soon chased off by our fighters. Well this minefield took about three weeks to clear and then we went to Malta. The first night in we had a raid and I was glad to be away the next morning, further up the coast to St Pauls Bay which was the minesweepers base. And every night and day there were raids. There was hardly a church left standing on the island, they seemed to take a big dislike at churches. Every now and again we had to go out to a certain position and wait for one of our subs to surface and a given time was given and then we escorted her in to harbour. One day we went around to Sliema harbour where we saw a lot of activity. We stored ship and oiled. I had an idea that something big was coming off. Landing craft was getting ready. And that night we went out and down to the African coast where we picked the Invasion Fleet up. There was hundreds of ships and landing craft and escort ships and as we were passing Malta again there was other ships and landing craft.

[July 1943 Operation Husky]

The landing on Sicily we had to go in first, the minesweepers, to see if it was safe for them. But we did not have time to get our sweeps in before the landing craft was in and on the beaches. There was some firing from the shore but not much. Before we had got there the paratroopers had landed and the planes and gliders were coming all along the coast. We landed at the lighthouse of Cape Passero. Troopships were landing their men and during that first night our ship had to patrol for subs and while doing that we had a raid on the ships but none was hit. Every thing was going to plan. The British and American troops were advancing north with hardly any resistance. Within no time they were up the east coast and at Augusta the Army used that harbour for all the store ships etc. It was a very nice harbour. We had to return to Malta and then as escort to a convoy for Alexandria and Port Said. We had to go quite a way before we got air escort from Benghazi which was always welcome to see. They stayed with us about four hours going around the convoy and then they got relieved by other fighters and carried on going round and round. When we got near land we had Spitfires and Hurricanes to guard us past Derna, the Germans were still in the Island of Crete. We saw none of them and got to Alex OK. Some ships went in and we escorted the others to Port Said, and then all the escort came back to Alex. It’s a very large harbour but small ships went into the inner harbour and alongside the jetty. And away we went ashore to the canteen and pictures. There are some very nice ones here. We stayed in Alex about 10 days and then got ready to take an empty convoy back to Gibraltar.  

We picked up quite a few ships from Sicily (Augusta) and on the way got a few from Bone, Algiers and Oran. We had one or two scares of sub on the voyage. Any refuse to be thrown over the side had to be done at a certain time at night and then the convoy changed its course to hoodwink the subs. We arrived at Gibraltar and turned the ships over to another lot of escorts and we went into the dockyard and tied up to await for orders. We had a nice time going around the Rock and we went to see a bullfight at La Lenea which is just outside the boundary of Gibraltar and another day we went up the rock which is very high and looking from the top the ships looked like toys. There were rock apes running all around and there was guns sticking out all over the place. And when we came down we had a look at the inside of the Rock Hospital and shelters, everything you could wish for. Out in the harbour motor boats were going around dropping small charges to stop frogmen putting limpet mines on the ships’ sides. Well we got orders to sail with a convoy that was coming in the Straits from the Atlantic. It was a big one. Plenty of stuff for the Americans on Sicily who was advancing to the Straits of Messina. And then the next across to Italy. One or two ships dropped off at Algiers and Tunis, some went to Augusta, but we went on to Port Said. And while we had been away there had been a raid and some ships had been sunk nearly in the Canal entrance. They tried their hardest to block the Suez Canal up and that would have been bad. And then we went to Alexandria to await another convoy. Our next one is to be a short one to Augusta and Malta and back. The Army were getting ready for the next step to land on Italy from Messina across to Reggio. The paratroops went in first and then the troops of course. The had plenty of resistance from the Germans, the Italians had lost heart. We went back to Alexandria to await another convoy, an empty one for Gib, and on the way had a raid by planes from the Island of Crete, which was still held by the Germans. We picked up empty ships from Augusta and Malta and carried on to Gib. And while we were passing a place called Bougie in North Africa we saw a big black cloud just above the water coming towards us. It was about 100 bombers, American, coming back after a big raid on Germany and Northern Italy. The noise of all their engines was terrible. On passing Algiers I noticed about six halves of ships which had done their jobs in getting tanks, lorries and ammunition across from America. They were called liberty ships, one trip across full and they had paid for themselves. We arrived at Gib for a few days rest to await for another convoy. And while we were waiting we got word to say that our Army had got over the Straits of Messina.

And now have word that another convoy is ready to take to ports along the way to Alexandria. It took about a week to ten days as some ships were heavy laden and some hadn’t the same speed as others, but we made it to Port Said and then to Alex ok. Our next trip would be a short one to Malta and Augusta, the convoy was an empty one but for some troop ships, the 8^th Army from Egypt and the Canal. Away we went to Augusta. The harbour was full of ships waiting to put back for more stores etc. And we were told to go to Gibraltar with them. We had no trouble, turned them over to the escorts. Our troops were well up into Italy.  

[October 1943 Surrender of Italian Fleet]

We had orders to go back to Malta. Some of the Med Fleet had to go up to the Gulf of Taranto and await for the surrender of the Italian Fleet. They came down one channel as we went up with another sweeper, sweeping a new channel for our ships which we marked. The flagship HMS Anson tied up to one of the big buoys and all the small ships anchored round her. The transport went alongside the jetties with the soldiers. [10.9.43] One of our ships, a minelayer, the HMS Abdiel, anchored and switched off her degaussing motors and up she went with about 200 aboard. She had been sitting over a magnetic mine and as soon as the motors went off she was magnetized. The next morning the flagship thought it was better to leave. Our captain made an order to the Italian harbour police that no boats had to be in the harbour. And then we started sweeping by magnetic and acoustic and where the Anson had been up went a mine, one of the biggest I have seen. The Admiral sent a signal thanking us and to carry on the good work. We were exploding them four miles in front of the ship and a ¼ mile behind. The Germans had laid about thirty around the harbour mostly around the buoys. And then our big ships tied up to them and were allowed to switch off their motors. And we went into the inner harbour which was their naval dockyard. We went ashore to stretch our legs for a couple of hours, no longer. We could still hear the gunfire in the distance. 

We had a couple of days rest before going back to Malta for more minesweeping stores of which I was in charge, being the only one qualified on the ship. There used to be three of us when the war started, an officer and another rating. The officer had left the ship and the rating went on leave to south Ireland. After the first trip to Russia he had lost his nerve, he shook hands with me and said he couldn’t go back to the ship. He was nearly due for his pension which of course he would not get. But he said they could keep it. He belonged to Cork, Eire. All of them were not replaced so had to carry on without. Well after a few days we went to Gibraltar with a convoy and came back with a full one, and coming with us was the HMS Delhi. She had large crosses on her yardarms up the mast. I asked the captain what they were for. It seems that the battleship Warspite was shelling the coast batteries when a German plane was dropping bombs around her. No matter which way she turned the bomb followed her and hit her but did not sink her. The plane was controlling the bomb by wireless. So that was why HMS Delhi was going there to break the wireless band between the plane and bomb. A British invention which came off well.

Our troops were well up into Italy by now. So we had to go across to Bari up into the Adriatic. We had to make a channel wide and safe for our ships coming up with stores etc. We swept from Brindisi up to Manfredonia and back and came into the harbour at Bari. We were ready next morning to go out but we were well overdue for a boiler clean and the Sharpshooter and the Hebe our sister ships went out in our place. But the Hebe blew up on the way into harbour, it was she who had taken our place. So you see I was on a lucky ship and when we had finished the boiler clean we went out with the Sharpshooter and started sweeping from Bari and Brindisi and right up to Manfredonia and back to Bari.

[2nd Dec 1943 German Raid on Bari http://www.historynet.com/magazines/world_war_2/3027436.html?page=1&c=y ]

We had only got into the harbour and told to anchor. That was at 3.30 pm and at 4.00 pm we were told to go and tie up stern first to the jetty by the main dockyard gate. And after tea I got ready for a trip ashore. And while I was passing the American Radar Station I heard them say it had broken down and I said to myself hope there is no raid tonight as there was a big convoy of ships coming in to the harbour. When we came ashore it was supplies that they were waiting for the big push up into Italy. Well at 6.30 pm we went into the canteen which was part of the Railway Men’s Club and Pictures next door. The pictures were full of Italians. And then it all started. The German planes got in without being heard with the radar being broken down. I thought the world had come to an end, an explosion blew the big window in on top of me. My pals had to dig me out and on the way out of the building women and children were crying and screaming. The side of the Picture Hall had opened up about six foot gap and half the roof had come in on top of them. I said to my mate to go into the country till the raid was over, the Italians following us and then the ‘all clear’ went so I said back to the ship to see if it was still there. On the way back you have never seen anything like it. Houses with no roofs, doors and windows and bodies lying all over the place. The harbour was on fire from one end to the other, ships burning and sinking. We couldn’t find the dockyard gates for smoke and I was calling out for the Hazard when I heard a faint voice calling ‘Is that you John’. It was the second in command, Commander Crawford. He said I would have to find a plank of wood to get back on the ship as the gangway had blown away with the explosion. I went straight down below to get changed but brought my working clothes into the passageway. And while I was putting my overalls on there was another explosion. Another ammunition ship had blown up. It lifted me up against the wall about five feet and it blinded me for quite a while. The captain sent for me to slip the cables, after I had marked them by a float, and get out of the harbour a fast as we could. The HMS Sharpshooter had lost her mast. A big steel plate had chopped it off coming down through the air. It took the ship half and hour to get out instead of four minutes. The spot where we had anchored at 3.30, the ship there was on the bottom. The captain gave orders for everybody to get below the water line as the ship that was on fire, the ammunition on the bridges were exploding and the shells were shooting all over the place. Quite a few came through the side of the ship. We put out of the harbour and started patrolling up and down with the other ship, and looking ashore at the town of Bari it was an inferno. Burned for a whole week and at daybreak we were told to go into the harbour back to our old place stern on to the wall. And what a sight, 17 ships on the bottom, there were only three of us that got away with it. The other one couldn’t get out she had to stay alongside of the jetty. When we got back to the jetty the other 42 members of our crew that went ashore with us was standing there in survivor’s kit. They thought the ship had gone down. You should of heard the captain tell them what he thought of them, and told them that two members had come back to the ship to see if their shipmates were ok. He told them the first chance of getting rid of them he would and he did. We buried hundreds of dead every day for a week. And when Monty heard of all this he went mad, it was for his Big Push.  

Well we were sent back to Malta for minesweeping supplies. When we arrived we had to go alongside the big floating crane which was on the bottom of the harbour. We tied up to the upper works of the crane that was sticking up above the water. And that night we had an air raid and the harbour got a bashing. You see some of our Fleet was in, but during the raid they slipped out. I was glad the next day they we got loaded and away back to Bari. The next morning as it was getting daybreak I went below decks to lash up my hammock and when I came up on deck I saw the lighthouse at Ristola Point flashing astern of the ship, miles astern. I knew something was wrong so I went to the captain’s cabin and told him. He went dashing onto the Bridge. We had a very young officer on watch. The captain told him off, he wasn’t doing his job properly. You see when I saw the light right astern of the ship I went right up into the – of the ship and saw in the distance the Island of Corfu held by the Germans and they had 14 inch guns on there. But that wasn’t worrying the captain, it was that we were on top of the German minefield. We turned around, cleared everybody off the mess decks and stood by the lifeboats just in case anything happened. We put up a smoke screen to shield the ship until we were out of range of the guns. We carried on until the ship was right up against the lighthouse and then turned up into the swept channel until we got to Bari. The officer was relieved and was sent back to England. The captain recommended me for another decoration.  

[Dec 1943]

Well after another few days we went around to Taranto for a small docking and was there for Xmas 1944. On Christmas morning news came through that the captain had got the DSC. The second in command and myself got mentioned in Despatches for the job in clearing the big minefield off North Africa. Nearly all captains and officers in other minesweepers got rewarded. We had a celebration a few drinks and after the New Year we were sent down to Alexandria and went on a few more convoys to Augusta and back and then went to Famagusta in Cyprus with stores. And then down to Haifa where we had a little trouble between Arabs and Jews. It happened every dinner time, we had to get out and separate them with sticks. And then the ship went back to Alexandria where some of the crew, the ones who left to ship at Base, were put on different destroyers to go up to the Islands where some of the soldiers were, Rhodes, Kos and Leros. They had been left behind and of course they had no air cover and quite a few ships were lost, crews and soldiers.

[July 1944]

Well our troops were well into Germany and the Italians had given in, so we left for Haifa Dockyard to prepare for our trip home. And while we were there the repairs were done by German Jews who had escaped and come back home. And while we were doing the repairs we were sent to a rest camp and it was then that we heard our captain had been killed in a car crash above Haifa [4.8.44]. So the Second in Command was ordered to take command of HMS Hazard. He was a very nice chap Commander Crawford, nephew of the biscuit people. 

From the camp a lorry load of us went on three days leave to the Holy Land. Going through the olive groves was wonderful, fruit of all kinds was growing. We arrived in Jerusalem and stopped at the St Andrews hotel for the three days, we were well looked after. And the next day we started to tour Holy Land, it was wonderful. We went first to the Lord Allenby’s cemetery where the dead from the First World War were buried. The graves were well kept and on top of the Mount we could see the River Jordan running down from the Sea of Galilee into the Dead Sea. We saw Jericho to the north and Bethlehem to the south. The following day we went down to the Wailing Wall in part of the Old City. All different Jews had parts of the Wall for themselves, they sat and prayed for a while and got up to kiss their part of the Wall. Afterwards we went to see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with the largest dome in the world and the oldest church. It was a wonderful sight and a thrill to see. Wherever you went there were monks on the lookout to see you did no wrong. At different times of the day priests of different churches of the world went around the vaults dressed in their lovely robes swinging their incense burners. Under the large dome there was a miniature church which held about six people and right in the corner was the manger with a model of Jesus lying in it. Do you know it was life like. And next we went into a room that had chandeliers hanging made of cut glass. Their size was enormous and they said that they were priceless and next we saw the actual cross lying in a room which was of course air tight as it would crumble away if the air got to it. The wooden door was about a foot thick and the lock was a terrible size. And when we came out the head priest gave us a parchment to say we had been to the Holy Land and to his church. And when we came out we started to walk up the road the Calvary where Jesus Christ walked with the cross. And at each of his stopping places for rest they made a small miniature church in his memory. Of course you can only get about six people in each, they sell postcards of the Holy Land to tourists. With the Dead Sea ??? you see the shores of the Sea is thick salt which is taken away in trucks and sold. On the way to our Hostel we came down through the overhanging Gardens of Gethsemane, looked after once again by monks, they were lovely. I got a few flowers and cards to bring home. Well the time was drawing near for us to return to our ship at the Port of Haifa. And once again we came through the olive groves with all kinds of fruit which we couldn’t bring home, they would not last the journey.  

And when we got back to the ship it was a shambles alright. The dockyard people at dinner time tried to push you all along the table and bring their own food with them. They seemed poor kinds of specimens of Jews from Germany. And all the work that they had done for me I had to do it all over again. I was splicing wires all day long until we got back to England. We called in at Malta and picked up the mail for the UK. What a quiet trip we had to Gibraltar with an empty convoy. Had about three days in harbour, got a few things to bring home. I bought a large stalk of bananas, green ones, and by the time we got back to England they would be nice and ripe. We got a few miles out of Gib and were called back. Our captain being very junior was told we had to escort an old ship to Falmouth, England. All the other captains had turned the job down. Instead of taking three days it took us eleven days, we could of towed her faster. And of course all our bananas went bad and had to go over the side of the ship. I managed to save about four for our Sylvia our daughter. And when the weather got bad the old ship was going backwards not forward. All we could do was to circle the ship and listen for subs. We must have been lucky as all those days we never saw a thing.

[October 1944]

We saw the ship into Falmouth Harbour and away we went along the Channel and up to Harwich. The first night in harbour after supper I was walking on the upper deck when I heard a noise like a fog horn ashore at Harwich and the lights going. But I saw a light shining in our captain’s bathroom. I knocked on his door and he wanted to know what was wrong in the cabin. With him was the Navigator and his wife and friend, they were Wren officers, and they said it was a doodle bug coming over. It came very low over the ship, like a small plane with flames coming out of the back. It sure made an awful noise. They said when the flames stopped it would dive into the ground and explode, which it did miles up the river into waste ground. We saw a few of them while we were at Harwich, also saw a plane of ours run alongside a doodlebug and tip its wing around and send it back to Germany or wherever it came from. He was a very famous pilot and he was stopped going after them. After a few days rest we were sent minesweeping. A channel had had been made clear from Margate across to Ostend, and that was what we had to do, sweep the channel as it was used to ferry troops and stores to Ostend and the battlefront. It was then that I saw the big rockets being fired across to hit London. The next day we were anchored off Margate when a storm blew up and all the ships were dropping their anchors and we had to keep on shifting. I came on watch at midnight and the captain said the ship’s anchor was not holding and he was scared of bumping another ship. I asked him when the next tide was and told him the way all the ships were lying, it would be alright for a few hours before swinging around again. The captain had had no sleep for days and now was his chance for a few hours rest. He thanked me for thinking things out and to call him in his cabin if anything went wrong. And on his way off the Bridge he aid well John we will be losing you when we get back to Harwich.

I was to return to Chatham Barracks. Well when the day came I was too full to say anything. (I went to Sheerness in January to commission the HMS Hazard 1939 and never thought that I would of stayed aboard this small ship for six years, January 1945.) I saw some service and action on board her. She was a very lucky ship and a good one. Well after I had a small leave at home I went back to barracks at Chatham for a few months. It was very nice, different from a ship rolling around. And then I was sent to the HMS Ganges at Shotley Barracks, the place I started my life in the Royal Navy. I stayed there as an instructor till the end of the war and the end of my life in the Navy. And then went to the barracks at York to be fitted out with civilian clothes. And then of course I was put on the Reserve until I was 55 years old. And then the Lords of the Admiralty thanked me for my services. And now of course I sit back in my armchair and think of all those happy years with good shipmates and to think of all those wonderful places in the world I have had the honour to visit.   

Transcribed by Bill Burn from the original handwritten text. Some alterations have been made to punctuation and text for clarity. Also, text in italics and square brackets was added to establish dates and events using information from www.halcyon-class.co.uk .