Barton, Frederick George (Oral history)

British engine room artificer served aboard HMS Forth in GB coastal waters, 1939-1940; chief engine room artificer served aboard HMS Hussar, 6th Minesweeping Flotilla in North Sea, North Atlantic and Arctic, 10/1940-11/1942

REEL 1 Background in Portsmouth, GB, 1912-1927: family; education. Aspects of service as engine room artificer with Royal Navy in GB coastal waters, 1927-1939: character of training at HMS Fisgard, Portsmouth; second hand story of mutiny aboard HMS Lucia at Devonport, 1930-1931; lack of trouble at Rosyth at time of Invergordon Mutiny, 9/1931. Aspects of period as engine room artificer aboard HMS Forth in GB coastal waters, 1939-1940: reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; loss of father during Battle of Jutland, 1916; German Air Force attacks on Forth Bridge. Recollections of operations as chief engine room artificer aboard HMS Hussar, 6th Minesweeping Flotilla in North Sea, North Atlantic and Arctic, 10/1940-11/1942: reaction to joining minesweeper; loss of sailors he was escorting on London Underground; second hand story of near mutiny aboard ship before he joined. REEL 2 Continues: repair work to ship at Isle of Sheppey, 11/1940; mine sweeping duties based on Harwich, 11/1940-4/1941; character of acoustic minesweeping equipment; loss of minesweeper using 'Kango Hammers' (Sweep Acoustic) equipment; how ship was used as lightship off Harwich; E-boat danger in North Sea; German Air Force method of attacking convoys; abortive fireship attacks on French ports, 1940; convoy work based on Stornaway to Iceland; lack of Asdic; problems with observing Sabbath on Stornaway; attitude of Icelanders towards Royal Navy; encounter with cruiser during hunt for Bismarck in North Atlantic, 5/1941; character of Convoy PQ 1 to Archangel, Soviet Union, 9/1941-10/1941 coping with weather conditions; boarding American merchant vessel SS Yaka damaged by German air attack during Convoy PQ 14; taking SS Yaka on tow into Murmansk, Soviet Union, 15/5/1942. REEL 3 Continues: contact with Soviets in Murmansk, Soviet Union; taking RAF personnel to GB; failure of tug to save torpedoed cruiser HMS Edinburgh, 2/5/1942; use of smoke screen during German attacks on HMS Edinburgh, 2/5/1942; scuttling of HMS Edinburgh, 2/5/1942; loss of friend Warrant Engineer George Knight during sinking of HMS Niger off Iceland, 5/7/1942; story of having to explain George Knight's fate to his mother; precautions against German Air Force attacks; fishing with depth charges; German Air Force attacks on Murmansk, Soviet Union. REEL 4 Continues: handling survivors from bombed minesweeper HMS Gossamer in Kola Inlet, Soviet Union, 24/6/1942; discovery of dead bodies frozen standing in open boat; reasons for failure to attack German submarine in ice flow, 16/3/1942; icing up of ships in Archangel, Soviet Union; use of Soviet icebreaker Lenin; minesweeping duties with 12th Minesweeping Flotilla during Operation Torch in Mediterranean, 11/1942.