Caldwell, Eric Dick (Oral history)

British officer served aboard HMS Royal Oak, Home Fleet in GB coastal waters, 8/1939-10/1939 including sinking in Scapa Flow, GB, 14/10/1939; served aboard HMS Prince of Wales in North Atlantic and Far East 1941 including sinking off Malaya, 10/12/1941; served aboard HMT Johan van Oldenbarnevelt on voyage from Singapore, Malaya to GB, 2/1942-3/1942

REEL 1 Recollections of sinking of Royal Oak, Home Fleet in Scapa Flow, GB, 14/10/1939: background to joining ship as Royal Navy Surgeon, 8/1939; torpedoing of ship by German submarine U-47; period in sea; hanging onto lifeboat for survival; rescue by tender HMT Daisy II; reaction to loss of life and effects of oil in the sea; reception of survivors at Scrabster and Glasgow; lack of long-term effects of sinking; loss of personal effects; attitude towards submarine U-47's captain Gunter Prien; effect of lack of secondary lighting aboard ship. Memories of contact with French Navy personnel in Plymouth, GB, 1940. Recollections of operations as naval surgeon aboard Prince of Wales in GB coastal waters and North Atlantic, 1/1941-11/1941: background to joining battleship, 1/1941; King George VI's visit to the battleship, early 1941. REEL 2 Continues: memories of Prime Minister Winston Churchill crossing North Atlantic for Atlantic Charter signing at Placentia Bay, Dominion of Newfoundland, 8/1941; fate of Prime Minister Winston Churchill's cigar butts; hearing news of German battleship Bismarck breakout, 5/1941; sight of loss of HMS Hood, 24/5/1941; blinding of Lieutenant Esmond Knight by shrapnel during engagement with German battleship Bismarck, 24/5/1941; reception received from British sailors in Iceland after engagement; work he did for casualties. Recollections of operations as doctor aboard HMS Prince of Wales, Force Z in Far East, 12/1941 including sinking off Malaya, 10/12/1941: reasons for transfer to bridge; opinion of Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service pilots; Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service attacks on Singapore, Malaya, 8/12/1941. REEL 3 Continues: sending of ship towards Kota Bahru, Malaya; reaction to news of ship withdrawing southwards, 10/12/1941; question of degree of accuracy of ship's anti-aircraft fire and Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service attacks, 10/12/1941; reaction to sight of HMS Repulse sinking, 10/12/1941; dealing with casualties on upper deck; abandoning ship; period in sea; rescue by HMS Electra; hospitialisation for effects of taking in oil; later service as ship's doctor aboard HMT Johan van Oldenbarnevelt on voyage from Singapore, Malaya to GB; prior recollection of treatment of Prime Minister Winston Churchill aboard HMS Prince of Wales in North Atlantic, 8/1941.