Description
Object description
British telegraphist served aboard HMS Gore in North Atlantic, Western Approaches and Mediterranean, 1944-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in East London 1925-19: hop picking in Kent; social circumstances; education; interest in aircraft; outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; work in factory, 1939-1940; move to work as chemist's delivery boy in Maidenhead, 1940; training with Air Training Corps, 1940-1941; question of recruitment into RAF; work as builder's assistant; return to East London, 1941; work loading sugar onto lorries in docks; Anderson air raid shelter; German air raids; membership of social and sports club; background to recruitment into Royal Navy at Romford, 4/1943. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine at HMS Collingwood Shore Station, Fareham, 6/1943-8/1943: reception; hut accommodation; story of German bombs hitting neighbouring hut and subsequent clearing up operation.
REEL 2 Continues: guard duty; food rations; mast drill in gas mask; seamanship; hair cut; gunnery drill; visits to Fareham; relationship with recruits and instructors; discipline. Periods in Portsmouth Barracks and Havant Camp, 8/1943-9/1943: training with pikes; acting as beater for bird shooting; seamanship training; drafting procedure. Voyage aboard Queen Elizabeth to New York, 9/1943: food; seasickness. Periods at Asbury Park, New Jersey and Boston, 9/1943-10/1943: US hospitality; story of meeting cousin. Recollections of intial period aboard HMS Gore based at Boston, Charlestown and Bermuda, 11/1943: story of assisting welder during fitting out; messdeck and bunks; laundry and washing clothes; training as communications number and sightsetter on 3" gun.
REEL 3 Continues: training as communications number and sightsetter on 3" gun; stories illustrating relationship with leading Seamen, petty officers and lower deck; duties as officers' servant; opinion of officers including Lieutenant Commander Reeves-Brown, Lieutenant Anthony Terry, Sub Lieutenant Michael D'Arcy and Lieutenant Mack; preliminary sea trials prior to full sea trials at Bermuda; gunnery training; loading Hedgehog mortar; problem with Hegehog shells breaking free during storm; abandon ship exercise; duties as crow's nest and bridge lookout.
REEL 4 Voyage via Argentia, Newfoundland to GB, 12/1943: story of repatriated former POW; Christmas celebrations at St Johns, 25/12/1943. Recollections of period based at Pollock Dock, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1/1944-3/1944: passing as able seaman, 2/1944; duties on gunner's party including cleaning 6" gun, loading Oerlicken magazines, story of close escape from jammed Lewis gun; scrubbing messdeck; watch system and standing by 3" gun; recreations including 'Uckers', 'Priest of the Parish' and films; prior training on anti-aircraft simulator; reading; letter contact with family; smoking cigarettes; canteen messing system and food; story of sailor's failed attempt to sell tinned food ashore; rum ration; tobacco leaf priques. REEL 5 Continues: escorting convoy across Atlantic, ca 1/1944; joining 1st Escort Group; training on night shoot and 'creeper' massed depth charge attacks; opinion of Hedgehog; anti-submarine sweep in bay of Biscay; account of sinking of U91, 25/2/1944, including role as communications number, closing up to 3" gun, dropping depth charges, surfacing of U 91, opening fire with £2 gun, use of scrambling nets to pick up German survivors, switching off searchlights and leaving some survivors in water and treatment of survivors; co-ordinated depth charge attacks on U358 and subsequent sinking of U358 and HMS Gould. Period based at Gibraltar, 3/1944-5/1944: visits ashore; crew morale; anti-submarine patrols; escorting convoys. Recollections of period based at Pollock Dock, Belfast, 5/1944-6/1944: visits ashore and relationship with Irish civilians.
REEL 6 Continues: relationship with Irish civilians; anti-submarine training; visits ashore during period off Anglesey; operations in support of D Day landings, 6/1944, including screening role, night E Boat attacks, escorting Channel convoys and rescuing survivors; story of sinking of HMS Whittaker whilst escorting convoy, 11/1944, including rescue of survivors, towing ship back to Londonderry; acting as relief helmsman; acting as bowman on motorboat and story of storm in Milford Haven; story of fish fight on jetty; leaves in London including journey back, bomb damage to house, injury to uncle in V2 explosion, visiting mother in Bishops Stortford and subsequent death of uncle from injuries; sinking of troopship by U Boat, 24/12/1944; story of sinking of HMS Capel and Affleck, 26/12/1944.
REEL 7 Continues: story of sinking of HMS Capel and Affleck, 26/12/1944; anti-submarine sweeps; reduced role of 1st EG; Channel convoys; background to decision to refuse promotion to leading seaman; attitude to possibility of transfer to army; surrender of U Boat off Weymouth, 5/1945; failure of damaged stabilizer; decommissioning of ship at Hartlepool, 7/1945. Period in Portsmouth barracks and Havant Camp, 6/1945-3/1946. Various postings, 3/1946-9/1946: role unloading gold shipment aboard HMS Formidable; preference for small ships; posting to HMS Maidstone; missing Far East posting; posting on care and maintenance party aboard HMS Wye at Dartmouth; fishing activities; demobilisation, 9/1946. Post-war career: background career as specialist scaffolding erector; story of establishing contact with former shipmates from HMS Gore.