Description
Object description
Printed memoir (180pp including photographs), written in 1997 in a very colloquial style, describing his decision to enlist in the Royal Navy, his basic training in the shore establishment HMS COLLINGWOOD in Hampshire (1941), his service from early 1942 as a gunnery rating in the anti-aircraft cruiser HMS CAIRO including Operation 'Harpoon' in June 1942 when she formed par tof the escort for a heavily mauled convoy from Gibraltar to Malta and the 'Pedestal' convoy to Malta in August 1942 when CAIRO was torpedoed and had to be sunk, his service in the destroyer HMS TUSCAN which was badly damaged by a mine in the Bristol Channel (? late 1942 - 1943), the transfer of her ship's company to the newly commissioned destroyer HMS SCOURGE in July 1943 and her service from October with the 23rd Destroyer Flotilla, Home Fleet, principally on Arctic convoy escort duties and supporting air strikes on enemy shipping in Norwegian waters, but also including operations with Force S off Normandy in June - July 1944 and brief visits to Norway and Denmark just after Germany's surrender, his service from (?) September - December 1945 in the frigate HMS BIGBURY BAY during her passage out to Singapore and his immediate passage home for demobilisation in an LCT from Singapore to Ceylon and then in the cruiser HMS CUMBERLAND to the United Kingdom. The main interest of the memoir lies in its record of the reactions to the demands and discipline of naval life of a young impulsive 'hostilities only' rating with little respect for authority who regularly found himself in trouble wit hthe authorities for his behavious during runs ashore and, more occasionally, for his conduct when at sea.
Content description
Printed memoir (180pp including photographs), written in 1997 in a very colloquial style, describing his decision to enlist in the Royal Navy, his basic training in the shore establishment HMS COLLINGWOOD in Hampshire (1941), his service from early 1942 as a gunnery rating in the anti-aircraft cruiser HMS CAIRO including Operation 'Harpoon' in June 1942 when she formed par tof the escort for a heavily mauled convoy from Gibraltar to Malta and the 'Pedestal' convoy to Malta in August 1942 when CAIRO was torpedoed and had to be sunk, his service in the destroyer HMS TUSCAN which was badly damaged by a mine in the Bristol Channel (? late 1942 - 1943), the transfer of her ship's company to the newly commissioned destroyer HMS SCOURGE in July 1943 and her service from October with the 23rd Destroyer Flotilla, Home Fleet, principally on Arctic convoy escort duties and supporting air strikes on enemy shipping in Norwegian waters, but also including operations with Force S off Normandy in June - July 1944 and brief visits to Norway and Denmark just after Germany's surrender, his service from (?) September - December 1945 in the frigate HMS BIGBURY BAY during her passage out to Singapore and his immediate passage home for demobilisation in an LCT from Singapore to Ceylon and then in the cruiser HMS CUMBERLAND to the United Kingdom. The main interest of the memoir lies in its record of the reactions to the demands and discipline of naval life of a young impulsive 'hostilities only' rating with little respect for authority who regularly found himself in trouble wit hthe authorities for his behavious during runs ashore and, more occasionally, for his conduct when at sea.
History note
RWAS