Description
Object description
A very well-written ts account (57pp), mainly compiled in 1944 but completed in 1949, covering his training at the RN Barracks, Devonport, with good descriptions of the hazards of life in Plymouth at the height of the Blitz (April - July 1941); his service as a gunnery rating in the sloop HMS BLACK SWAN which was principally employed, as the senior ship of the 37th Escort Group from November 1941 onwards, on escort duties with convoys between the United Kingdom and Gibraltar and West Africa, with interesting references to the loss of ships from the convoys and the rescue of survivors from the MV EMPIRE STAR and the corvette HMCS WEYBURN (August 1941 - June 1943); his posting to the RN Barracks, Devonport and qualification at HMS NIMROD, the ASDIC school at Campbeltown, as a submarine detector operator (July - September 1943); his passage across the Atlantic on the troopship AQUITANIA to join the newly completed Captain class frigate HMS LAWFORD in the United States (October - November 1943) and his service, as a submarine detector operator and ship's writer, in LAWFORD during her passage across the Atlantic to Liverpool, her fitting out as a combined operations headquarters ship, her preparations with Force J in the English Channel for participation in the D-Day landings and, in particular, her employment on patrol duties off the Normandy beachhead from D-Day until she was bombed and sunk on the morning of 8 June 1944, his rescue by the minesweeper HMS PIQUE and indifferent treatment by the authorities as a survivor; and his service in the shore establishment HMS OSPREY at Dunoon until his demobilisation in August 1945; together with a photograph of him in uniform, 7 mounted photographs relating to his service in BLACK SWAN and other postings, 5 mounted press cuttings including another rating's account of the loss of LAWFORD, and the badge worn by a submarine detector operator.
Content description
A very well-written ts account (57pp), mainly compiled in 1944 but completed in 1949, covering his training at the RN Barracks, Devonport, with good descriptions of the hazards of life in Plymouth at the height of the Blitz (April - July 1941); his service as a gunnery rating in the sloop HMS BLACK SWAN which was principally employed, as the senior ship of the 37th Escort Group from November 1941 onwards, on escort duties with convoys between the United Kingdom and Gibraltar and West Africa, with interesting references to the loss of ships from the convoys and the rescue of survivors from the MV EMPIRE STAR and the corvette HMCS WEYBURN (August 1941 - June 1943); his posting to the RN Barracks, Devonport and qualification at HMS NIMROD, the ASDIC school at Campbeltown, as a submarine detector operator (July - September 1943); his passage across the Atlantic on the troopship AQUITANIA to join the newly completed Captain class frigate HMS LAWFORD in the United States (October - November 1943) and his service, as a submarine detector operator and ship's writer, in LAWFORD during her passage across the Atlantic to Liverpool, her fitting out as a combined operations headquarters ship, her preparations with Force J in the English Channel for participation in the D-Day landings and, in particular, her employment on patrol duties off the Normandy beachhead from D-Day until she was bombed and sunk on the morning of 8 June 1944, his rescue by the minesweeper HMS PIQUE and indifferent treatment by the authorities as a survivor; and his service in the shore establishment HMS OSPREY at Dunoon until his demobilisation in August 1945; together with a photograph of him in uniform, 7 mounted photographs relating to his service in BLACK SWAN and other postings, 5 mounted press cuttings including another rating's account of the loss of LAWFORD, and the badge worn by a submarine detector operator.
History note
Cataloguer RWAS
History note
Catalogue date 2001-01