Hollinshed, Montague (Oral history)

British signaller served aboard HMT Loch Alsh in GB coastal waters, 1939-1940; officer served aboard HMS Heather in Atlantic, 1941-1942; served aboard HMS Oxlip in Atlantic, Arctic and Mediterranean, 1942-1944; served aboard HMS Evenlode in Mediterranean and Far East, 1944-1945

REEL 1 Background in Kensal Rise, London, GB, 1913-1939: family; education; employment. Aspects of period with Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in GB, 1937-1939: joining Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, 1937; story of mobilisation aboard HMS Royal Sovereign during Munich Crisis, 9/1938; mobilisation at Harwich, 8/1939; signals training, 10/1939. Recollections of operations as signaller aboard HMT Lochalsh in GB coastal waters, 1939-1940: joining minesweeping trawler at Grimsby; attitude of trawlermen to becoming minesweepers; sea skills of crew; minesweeping work; bar magnet experiment and loss of it; sister ship; attempts to deal with acoustic and magnetic mines; case of poor morale and subsequent suicide; living conditions on board; nature of signal regarding treatment of Axis personnel, 6/1940. Recollections of operations as officer aboard HMS Heather in North Atlantic, 1941-1942: drafting to ship after officer training at HMS King Alfred, Hove, 1940; participation in convoy escort duties in North Atlantic from 1/1941. REEL 2 Continues: opinion of Merchant seamen and conditions they endured; degree of attacks by German submarines encountered; contrast between regular Royal Navy personnel and trawlermen; loss of minesweeping gear off Iceland; behaviour of civilians in Reykjavik, Iceland. Recollections of operations as first lieutenant aboard HMS Oxlip in North Atlantic, Arctic and Mediterranean, 1942-1944: North Atlantic convoy escort duties; character of ship; preference for Depth Charge Mk VII rather than 'Hedgehog' anti-submarine weapon; duties as first lieutenant; attitude towards paperwork; weather conditions on Arctic convoys; sight of HMS Belfast opening fire on Scharnhorst at Battle of North Cape, 26/12/1943; problems of not receiving Home Fleet signals; ashore in Murmansk, Soviet Union; attitude of Soviets towards Allied presence and origins of war supplies. REEL 3 Continues: degree of contact with Soviets at Murmansk, Soviet Union; amount of paperwork and organisation of Operation Torch, 11/1942; question of how trawlermen would deal with paperwork; sketch of duties in Mediterranean. Aspects of operations as officer with HMS Evenlode in Mediterranean and Far East, 1944-1945: description of term 'pierhead jump', 5/1944; living conditions on board; move from Mediterranean to Far East, 1945; sight of impaled Japanese heads ashore in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya.