Description
Object description
Copy of his `Memoirs of a DEMS Rating' (115pp ts), recording his call-up in to the Royal Navy in January 1940, initial training in the shore establishment HMS GLENDOWER (Pwllheli, Wales), service as a gunner with Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships (DEMS) in the eastern Mediterranean and African waters, including the Dutch cargo vessel SS ALPHERAT, Greek cargo ship SS OLGA E EMBIRICOS, and Norwegian ship SS HALBJORG (?), harbour duties at Port Said before returning to the UK in early 1943, recuperating in HMS SAFEGUARD near Southampton and undertaking further gunnery training at Leith, resuming service in the MV EL ARGENTINO in early July 1943 shortly before she was sunk by enemy action off the coast of Portugal, rescue and shipment to North Africa before being repatriated after a long interlude, posting to a Danish vessel - SS EDERN (?) – in home waters, participating in the Normandy landings in June 1944 aboard the transport ship EMPIRE FARMER, subsequent service in the Norwegian tanker MV NORHEIM to North America, posting to the freighter GYPSUM KING for cargo runs to the West Indies, returning to the UK on the cessation of hostilities in 1945.
Content description
Copy of his `Memoirs of a DEMS Rating' (115pp ts), recording his call-up in to the Royal Navy in January 1940, initial training in the shore establishment HMS GLENDOWER (Pwllheli, Wales), service as a gunner with Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships (DEMS) in the eastern Mediterranean and African waters, including the Dutch cargo vessel SS ALPHERAT, Greek cargo ship SS OLGA E EMBIRICOS, and Norwegian ship SS HALBJORG (?), harbour duties at Port Said before returning to the UK in early 1943, recuperating in HMS SAFEGUARD near Southampton and undertaking further gunnery training at Leith, resuming service in the MV EL ARGENTINO in early July 1943 shortly before she was sunk by enemy action off the coast of Portugal, rescue and shipment to North Africa before being repatriated after a long interlude, posting to a Danish vessel - SS EDERN (?) – in home waters, participating in the Normandy landings in June 1944 aboard the transport ship EMPIRE FARMER, subsequent service in the Norwegian tanker MV NORHEIM to North America, posting to the freighter GYPSUM KING for cargo runs to the West Indies, returning to the UK on the cessation of hostilities in 1945.
History note
Cataloguer SWW