Freer, Douglas William Harcourt (Oral history)

British ordnance artificer served aboard HMS Fiji in Atlantic and Mediterranean, 1941 including sinking off Crete, 5/1941; served aboard HMS Petard in Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, 1942-1944; petty officer served as instructor with Gunnery School, HMS Excellent, Whale Island, GB, 1944- 1945

REEL 1 Background in Dundee and Portsmouth, GB, 1919-1939: family; education; employment with apprentice with Vospers in Portsmouth; membership of Territorial Army, 1937-1938. Aspects of enlistment and training as ordnance artificer at with Gunnery School, HMS Excellent, Whale Island in GB, 1940: background to volunteering as ordnance artificer; advantages of being an ordnance artificer; opinion of training; formation of anti-invasion platoons; public morale during German Air Force attacks on Portsmouth, 1940-1941; listening to Winston Churchill and Lord Haw Haw. Recollections of operations as ordnance artificer aboard HMS Fiji in Atlantic and Mediterranean, 1941: drafting to ship in River Clyde, 1/1941; wartime history of ship; brief patrolling in Denmark Straits, Atlantic and transfer to Freetown; escorting slow convoy in Atlantic; joining Force H in Gibraltar, 3/1941. REEL 2 Continues: abortive plan to intercept Scharnhorst and Gneisenau off French coast, spring 1941; move to eastern Mediterranean; transporting troops to Crete; naval situation off Crete, 5/1941. Aspects of sinking of HMS Fiji off Crete, 22/5/1941: role providing anti-aircraft fire for rescue of survivors of HMS Greyhound; his action station on bridge; sinking of HMS Gloucester; damage caused by bomb dropped on ship by Messerschmitt Me 109; heroism of ship's doctor and padre; behaviour of ship's officers and crew during action; attitude to abandoning ship; misfire on port pom pom; story of gunner attempting to count spent shell cases during action; abandoning ship; period in sea clinging to Carley Float. REEL 3 Continues: arrival of HMS Kingston and HMS Kandahar; rescue of survivors; his treatment aboard HMS Kandahar; how he decided to not tell the mother of sick berth attendant that her son was dead on return to GB; reasons for return to GB, summer 1941. Recollections of operations as ordnance artificer aboard HMS Petard in Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, 1942- 1944: drafting to ship at Newcastle upon Tyne, GB, 1/1942; anti-aircraft armament and problems of maintaining them; voyage from GB to Mediterranean via South Africa including reception in Durban, 8/1942; sinking of U-boat off Haifa, 30/10/1942; reasons for posthumous award of the George Cross to Lieutenant Francis Fasson and Able Seaman Colin Grazier for boarding party aboard U-boat. REEL 4 Continues: sinking of Italian submarine off Benghazi and attempt to capture it; basing on Malta during siege; obtaining rides in Bristol Blenheim at Luqa airfield on Malta, 1943; interception of Italian ammunition ship off Tunisia, spring 1943; impressions of surrendered Italian warships, 9/1943; transporting General Dwight Eisenhower from Malta to Sicilian beachheads, 7/1943; contrast between First Lieutenant Dunbar-Naismyth and General Dwight Eisenhower aboard ship, 7/1943; participation in attempts to capture Dodecanese Islands, autumn 1943. REEL 5 Continues: escorting HMS Carlise from Dodecanese to Alexandria, Egypt, autumn 1943; move to Trincomalee, Ceylon; state of ship and crew after two years of operations in Mediterranean; torpedoing of Khedive Ismail in Indian Ocean, 2/1944; subsequent attacks on Japanese submarine and forcing it to surface; ramming of submarine by HMS Paladin; problems the ship had dealing with Japanese submarine; aftermath of the action; return to GB, 8/1944. Period as petty officer ordnance artificer instructor at HMS Excellent, Whale Island, GB, 1944- 1946: background to becoming an instructor; how he kept one jump ahead of his students; VE Day celebrations in Parliament Square, London, 5/1945; method of obtaining release from Royal Navy, 1/1946. REEL 6 Continues: Question of what he was mentioned in despatches for during naval service.