Willetts, Joseph Philip Giles (Oral history)

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Non-Commercial educational use for the purpose of teaching and instruction, including internal training.
Downloading audio-visual for non-commercial offline listening or viewing.
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Embed this sound recording for online use under the IWM Non-Commercial Licence
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© IWM

Accepted Non-commercial Use

Permitted use for these purposes:
Personal use for non-commercial research and private study and other uses under the UK’s exceptions to copyright and those exceptions to copyright in place where the user is located.
Use on websites that are primarily information-led, research-oriented and not behind a paywall.
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Non-Commercial educational use for the purpose of teaching and instruction, including internal training.
Downloading audio-visual for non-commercial offline listening or viewing.
Free exhibitions held in venues, which do not charge an entry fee.

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Description

Object description

British seaman served as stores assistant aboard HMS Prince of Wales in North Atlantic and Far East, 1941 including sinking off Malaya, 10/12/1941

Content description

REEL 1 Background in Stourbridge, GB, 1912-1940: family; education; employment; reasons for enlistment in Royal Navy, 1940. Recollections of operations as stores assistant aboard HMS Prince of Wales in North Atlantic, 1941: reasons for requesting drafting to ship; work as stores assistant; character of ship; composition of crew; orders to sail in pursuit of German batteship Bismarck, 5/1941 ; roughness of sea; chaplain's message; reaction to sinking of HMS Hood in Denmark Strait, 24/5/1941; conditions in cordite handling room; burial of dead at sea; physical effects of working with raw cordite. REEL 2 Continues: reaction of crew to sinking of Bismarck; estimate of HMS Prince of Wales' performance against Bismarck; handling cordite; effect of chaplain's message prior to action; location of cordite handling room; reception from public on Forth Bridge on return to GB; preparations for arrival of Prime Minister Winston Churchill on board for Atlantic Charter voyage; arrival in Newfoundland; excitement amongst crew; opinion of President Franklin D Roosevelt's presents to crew; sharing of rum with Untied States Navy personnel; attending church service on board; send off given for President Franklin D Roosevelt. REEL 3 Continues: cheers from convoy for HMS Prince of Wales and Prime Minister Winston Churchill; opinion of United States Navy; Prime Minister Winston Churchill receiving of messages aboard ship; memories of Prime Minister Winston Churchill on board. Recollections of operations as stores assistant aboard HMS Prince of Wales, Force Z in Far East, 1941 including sinking off Malaya, 10/12/1941: loading tropical stores; escorting merchant vessel carrying evacuees to United States of America; hospitality in Cape Town, South Africa on route to Singapore, Malaya; his opinion of the layout of the naval base at Singapore, Malaya; fruitless search for Imperial Japanese Navy forces off Malayan coast with Force Z; Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service attack on ships, 10/12/1941; his action station; hit on machine shop; work helping wounded; evacuation onto HMS Express; restraint of Japanese aircraft in not attacking survivors. REEL 4 Continues: his rescue work; a scalped casualty; two officers who choose to go down with the ship; marking dead with their service numbers; return to Singapore, Malaya; reception on board HMS Express; reception in Singapore, Malaya; duties on board HMS Express after sinking of ship including ferrying personnel to Singapore, Malaya; listing of ship during attacks; his action station; reaction to news of Pearl Harbor, 7/12/1941; opinion of Japanese; behaviour of civilians in Singapore, Malaya.

Object Details

Category: Sound
Related period: 1945-1989 (production), Second World War (content), Second World War (association)
Creator: IWM (Production company)
Wood, Conrad (Recorder)
Willetts, Joseph Philip Giles (Interviewee/Speaker)
Production date: 1984-06-14
Dimensions: whole: Duration 120, Number Of Items 4
Catalogue number: 8222

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Willetts, Joseph Philip Giles (Oral history)

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