description
Object description
British seaman served as stores assistant aboard HMS Hood in GB coastal waters, Mediterranean and North Atlantic, 1938-1940; served on shore duties at HMS Victory, Royal Naval Barracks, Portsmouth, GB, 1940-1941; petty officer served aboard HMS Sirius in Mediterranean and Atlantic, 1941-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Devonport, Plymouth and Brighton, GB, 1918-1936: family; education; employment; story of his father's naval service in China, 1905. Aspects of enlistment and training with Royal Navy in GB, 1936-1938: background to enlistment, 1936; initial training with Writer and Supply Branch at HMS Victory, Royal Naval Barracks, Portsmouth; physical effects and opinion of training; work of writers and stores assistants; first voyage to Mediterranean aboard HMS Lucia. Recollections of period as stores assistant aboard HMS Hood in Mediterranean, 1938-1939: initial impressions of battlecruiser; reasons why HMS Hood was a happy ship; ship's reputation as a tubercolosis ship; allocation to mess; discipline on board; an example of discipline he was subjected to; shore leave in Parma, Spain and Marseille, France.
REEL 2 Continues: behaviour of crew ashore; explanation of term 'stripey' and other naval terms; Spanish Civil War patrols; provisioning British Consul in Barcelona; degree of interest and knowledge of political situation in Spain; contact with crew of German cruiser Deutschland, Gibraltar, autumn 1938; reputation of ship and nickname of 'The Seven Bs'. Recollections of operations as stores assistant aboard HMS Hood in GB coastal waters, North Atlantic and Mediterranean, 1939-1940: security precautions due to upsurge in Irish Republican Army (IRA) activity, early 1939; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; German Air Force attack in North Sea and subsequent repairs in Devonport, 11/11/1939-24/11/1939; recall to ship on loss of HMS Rawalpindi, 24/11/1939.
REEL 3 Continues: role as part of outer screen of fleet during Norwegian campaign, 4/1940-5/1940; joining Force H in Mediterranean, 6/1940; under fire from French battleship Dunquerque at Mers-el-Kebir Algeria, 3/7/1940; pursuit of battleship Strasbourg at Mers-el-Kebir, Algeria, 3/7/1940; reactions on board ship to attack on French Navy at Mers-el-Kebir, Algeria, 3/7/1940; escorting HMS Argus in operation to reinforce Malta with Hawker Hurricanes, 31/7/1940; opinion of Italian Navy, 1940; Italian Air Force high level attacks on ship; reasons for leaving HMS Hood, 10/1940. Aspects of period on shore duties at HMS Victory, Royal Naval Barracks, Portsmouth, GB, 11/1940-4/1942: sheltering from bombs in barracks; incendiary raid, 10/1/1941; helping evacuation of patients from Royal Hospital, 10/4/1941; damage to Royal Naval Barracks and his role with first aid party, 10/3/1941; sense of greater danger on land than sea; civilian morale; reasons for some people's dislike of air raid shelters.
REEL 4 Continues: conditions in air raid shelters; bombing of Portsmouth Guildhall, 10/1/1941; effects of bombing on attitude towards Germans; use of British Restaurants. Recollections of operations as petty officer aboard HMS Sirius in Mediterranean, South Atlantic and off Normandy France, 5/1942-12/1945: adoption of anti-aircraft cruiser by city of Portsmouth, 3/1942; characteristics and living conditions on board; working up exercises; memories of Operation Pedestal in Mediterranean, 8/1942 including loss of aircraft carrier HMS Eagle, 11/8/1942; his action station; importance of Operation Pedestal, 8/1942; patrolling South Atlantic from Simonstown, South Africa, 9/1942-10/1942; problems encountered by ship in severe weather conditions; reception from civilians in Simonstown, South Africa.
REEL 5 Continues: torpedoing of anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Phoebe off West Africa, 23/10/1942; role of ship with 12th Cruiser Sqdn during Operation Torch landings at Oran, Algeria, 11/1942; providing anti-aircraft cover between Bone and Algiers, Algeria, 11/1942; interception of Axis convoy with Force Q, 2/12/1942; reasons for not picking up survivors from Italian ship; threats from Axis torpedo bombers; use of Restribution Red paint off Tunisia, 4/1943; work of Polish destroyer ORP Blyskawica off North Africa, 3/1943-4/1943; lack of opposition during landings on Sicily, Italy, 7/1943; bombardment of coast of Sicily, Italy; escorting HMS Abdiel into harbour at Taranto, Italy and rescue of paratroopers during her subsequent mining, 9/9/1943.
REEL 6 Continues: supporting ground forces in bridgehead at Salerno, Italy, 17/9/1943; German glider bomb attacks off Salerno, Italy, 18/9/1943; work in Aegean Sea, 10/1943; bomb damage sustained during air attacks in Aegean Sea, 17/10/1943; repairs at Massawa, Eritrea, 11/1943-2/1944; shift system worked during repairs in Massawa, Eritrea, 11/1943-2/1944; recreational activities ashore in Eritrea; in advanced party to Alexandria, Egypt to wait for arrival of ship, 2/1944; return to GB, 6/1944; support for ground forces in Normandy, France, 6/1944.
REEL 7 Continues: role of ship covering landings in South of France, 23/8/1944-2/8/1944; move to Naples, Italy; visit to opera in Naples, Italy; role transporting Greek Sacred Sqdn to Diskopi Island, Greece, 27/10/1944; embarkation of German POWs at Diskopi Island, Greece, 27/10/1944; tension with Greek Communists at Mytilene, Greece, 10/1944; transfer of Gurkhas to Salonika, Greece, 11/1944; attitude of Greeks to Royal Navy personnel in Salonika, Greece; securing fish supplies in Greece, 11/1944; provisioning minesweepers sweeping approaches to Dardanelles, 11/1944; embarkation of Anthony Eden on board at Malta, 1/1945; shots fired at ship by Jewish insurgants, Palestine, 1945.
REEL 8 Continues: 'Medloc' scheme of repatriation, 12/1945; VE Day celebrations in Alexandria, Egypt, 5/1945; relations with Egyptians during Second World War.
