Palmer, Roger Frederick (Oral history)

British NCO served as bandsman with Royal Marines aboard HMS Furious in Norway, 4/1940-5/1940; served aboard HMS Trinidad, 10th Cruiser Sqdn in Arctic, 1/1941-4/1942

REEL 1 Background in Edgbaston, Birmingham, GB, 1917-1933: family circumstances; education; employment. Aspects of period as bandsman with Royal Marines aboard HMS Berwick and HMS Courageous in GB coastal waters and Far East, 1933-1939: joining Royal Marines as bandboy; pattern of service; instrument requirements for bandsman; leaving GB for China Station, 1934; transfer from HMS Courageous to HMS Furious, 1939. Aspects of operations as NCO aboard HMS Furious in Norway, 4/1940-5/1940: role of aircraft carrier; problems of recovering Fairey Swordfish back to aircraft carrier, 22/4/1940; role of bandsmen during action; ceremonial and musical duties of bandmen in peacetime. Recollections of operations as NCO aboard HMS Trinidad, 10th Cruiser Sqdn in Arctic, 1/1942-4/1942: position of transmitting station in Colony Class cruisers; in action against German destroyers Z24, Z25 and Z26 during Convoy PQ 13, 28/4/1942; effects of defective torpedo hit on ship, 29/3/1942. REEL 2 Continues: his experiences in transmitting station after torpedo hit; his escape from below decks; efforts to get ship to reach Murmansk, Soviet Union; conditions in Murmansk, Soviet Union; story of trapped Royal Marine bandsman who died, 29/3/1942; primitive lavatory facilities in dock at Murmansk, Soviet Union; Soviet People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) security in Murmansk, Soviet Union; German shell fire aimed at Kola Inlet, Soviet Union from Finland; return to GB aboard HMS Liverpool, 4/1942; fate of HMS Trinidad, 14/5/1942-15/5/1942; condition on return to GB, 4/1942. Reflections on service as bandsman with Royal Marines, 1933-1942: question of lack of recognition for Royal Marine bandsmen's wartime service by Admiralty and Royal Marine Museum; recognition of HMS Trinidad's dead bandsmen at memorial service in 1990.