Description
Object description
Four unusually detailed and interesting Midshipman's Journals covering his service in the battleship HMS BARHAM (Captain J F Somerville RN), the second flagship on the Mediterranean Station (September 1928 - December 1929), including duties ashore at Haifa, Palestine following the disturbances there in August - September 1929, and then in the Atlantic Fleet (January - March 1930), and in the cruiser HMS EFFINGHAM (Captain B A Fraser RN), the flagship on the East Indies Station (April 1930 - July 1931); together with a series of seven ms Bridge Notebooks kept throughout his service as the Navigating Officer of the cruiser HMS NEWCASTLE, May 1940 - May 1945, which provide an essentially technical, but very occasionally personal, minute by minute record of the ship's movements and operations. NEWCASTLE saw service in Home waters (June - October 1940) including operations during the evacuation from Norway in June; was with Force H in the Mediterranean at the time of the action with units of the Italian Fleet off Cape Spartivento on 27 November 1940; was employed on patrol and escort duties in the South Atlantic (December 1940 - December 1941) including the interception and scuttling of a German blockade runner on 25 July; formed part of the escort for Convoy WS16 from the UK to South Africa (February - March 1942); served with the Eastern Fleet (April - May 1942); was torpedoed and damaged in the Mediterranean during Operation `Vigorous' in June 1942, an unsuccessful attempt to run a convoy from Alexandria to Malta; formed part of the escort for Convoy WS29 from the UK to South Africa (April - May 1943); and served with the Eastern Fleet (May 1943 - May 1945) including operations leading to the sinking of two German U-boat supply tankers in the Indian Ocean (February and March 1944), support of carrier-borne air attacks on targets in Japanese-occupied Sumatra (April and December 1944), and participation in amphibious operations on the Arakan coast in the vicinity of Ramree (January 1945).
Content description
Four unusually detailed and interesting Midshipman's Journals covering his service in the battleship HMS BARHAM (Captain J F Somerville RN), the second flagship on the Mediterranean Station (September 1928 - December 1929), including duties ashore at Haifa, Palestine following the disturbances there in August - September 1929, and then in the Atlantic Fleet (January - March 1930), and in the cruiser HMS EFFINGHAM (Captain B A Fraser RN), the flagship on the East Indies Station (April 1930 - July 1931); together with a series of seven ms Bridge Notebooks kept throughout his service as the Navigating Officer of the cruiser HMS NEWCASTLE, May 1940 - May 1945, which provide an essentially technical, but very occasionally personal, minute by minute record of the ship's movements and operations. NEWCASTLE saw service in Home waters (June - October 1940) including operations during the evacuation from Norway in June; was with Force H in the Mediterranean at the time of the action with units of the Italian Fleet off Cape Spartivento on 27 November 1940; was employed on patrol and escort duties in the South Atlantic (December 1940 - December 1941) including the interception and scuttling of a German blockade runner on 25 July; formed part of the escort for Convoy WS16 from the UK to South Africa (February - March 1942); served with the Eastern Fleet (April - May 1942); was torpedoed and damaged in the Mediterranean during Operation `Vigorous' in June 1942, an unsuccessful attempt to run a convoy from Alexandria to Malta; formed part of the escort for Convoy WS29 from the UK to South Africa (April - May 1943); and served with the Eastern Fleet (May 1943 - May 1945) including operations leading to the sinking of two German U-boat supply tankers in the Indian Ocean (February and March 1944), support of carrier-borne air attacks on targets in Japanese-occupied Sumatra (April and December 1944), and participation in amphibious operations on the Arakan coast in the vicinity of Ramree (January 1945).
History note
Cataloguer RWAS
History note
Catalogue date 1985-05-13