Description
Object description
Wordprocessed memoir (43pp), written in 2007, covering his service as a cadet in the Merchant Navy on board the cargo/passenger ship MV SILVERSANDAL (May 1938 – spring 1941) on voyages around the world and, after the outbreak of war, in the Pacific; his service as the Second Officer on a newly built Liberty ship sailing from the United States to the United Kingdom and on another Liberty ship during her passage from the United Kingdom via South Africa to Egypt with a cargo of ammunition (late 1941 – late 1942); his decision to transfer to the RNR (February 1943) and his service, eventually in the rank of Lieutenant, as the Navigating Officer of the destroyer HMS KEPPEL (July 1943 – May 1945) which was initially employed on North Atlantic convoy escort duty, including the defence of ONS 18 in September 1943 when KEPPEL rammed and sank U229 and the frigate HMS ITCHEN was sunk with heavy loss of life, and then, except for a brief deployment to escort some coastal steamers to Omaha Beach very shortly after the Normandy landings in June 1944, as the senior ship in a support group escorting convoys to North Russia, with particular reference to the passages during 1944 of JW 59, in which the sloop HMS KITE was sunk, RA 59 when KEPPEL's support group sank U 394 and a 'friendly fire' attack on KEPPEL by an Avenger aircraft during JW 58. The memoir, which includes a number of accounts of humorous episodes at sea, also contains his impressions of the bombing of Liverpool in May 1941 and of an anti-war 'Peace at any Price' demonstration which he witnessed in the city.
Content description
Wordprocessed memoir (43pp), written in 2007, covering his service as a cadet in the Merchant Navy on board the cargo/passenger ship MV SILVERSANDAL (May 1938 – spring 1941) on voyages around the world and, after the outbreak of war, in the Pacific; his service as the Second Officer on a newly built Liberty ship sailing from the United States to the United Kingdom and on another Liberty ship during her passage from the United Kingdom via South Africa to Egypt with a cargo of ammunition (late 1941 – late 1942); his decision to transfer to the RNR (February 1943) and his service, eventually in the rank of Lieutenant, as the Navigating Officer of the destroyer HMS KEPPEL (July 1943 – May 1945) which was initially employed on North Atlantic convoy escort duty, including the defence of ONS 18 in September 1943 when KEPPEL rammed and sank U229 and the frigate HMS ITCHEN was sunk with heavy loss of life, and then, except for a brief deployment to escort some coastal steamers to Omaha Beach very shortly after the Normandy landings in June 1944, as the senior ship in a support group escorting convoys to North Russia, with particular reference to the passages during 1944 of JW 59, in which the sloop HMS KITE was sunk, RA 59 when KEPPEL's support group sank U 394 and a 'friendly fire' attack on KEPPEL by an Avenger aircraft during JW 58. The memoir, which includes a number of accounts of humorous episodes at sea, also contains his impressions of the bombing of Liverpool in May 1941 and of an anti-war 'Peace at any Price' demonstration which he witnessed in the city.
History note
Cataloguer RWAS