Interview with Robert Henry Law

British airframe mechanic served with Fleet Air Arm aboard HMS Prince of Wales in GB coastal waters, North Atlantic and Far East, 4/1941-12/1941 including sinking off Malaya, 10/12/1941

REEL 1 Background in Manchester and Cheshire, GB, 1919-1939: family; education; employment. Aspects of enlistment and training with Fleet Air Arm in GB, 1939-1941: enlistment in Fleet Air Arm, 5/1939; story of how he was refused permission to join Fleet Air Arm aircrew; reaction to declaration of Second World War 3/9/1939; German Air Force bombing of Portsmouth, 1940-1941. Recollections of operations as airframe mechanic with Fleet Air Arm aboard HMS Prince of Wales in GB coastal waters, North Atlantic and Mediterranean, 4/1941-11/1941: joining battleship as airframe mechanic servicing Supermarine Walrus reconnaissance aircraft at HMNB Rosyth, 4/1941; opinion of character of battleship and crew; how civilians were still on board when hunt for German battleship Bismarck started, 5/1941; Bismarck action , 5/1941 including sight of explosion of HMS Hood, 24/5/1941 and casualties aboard ship; voyage from GB to Placentia Bay, Newfoundland and arrangements for evacuation in Supermarine Walrus in case of emergency; Atlantic Charter signing in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland; move to Mediterranean to join Force H to take convoy through to Malta; action station during Axis air attacks on Malta convoy. REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of operations as as airframe mechanic with Fleet Air Arm aboard HMS Prince of Wales, Force Z in Far East including sinking off Malaya, 10/12/1941: nature of voyage from GB to Singapore, Malaya, 11/1941-12/1941; Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service attack on ship, 10/12/1941; use of Supermarine Walrus dinghy to escape from sinking ship, 10/12/1941; sight of ship sinking, 10/12/1941; rescue by destroyer, 10/12/1941; kitting out in Singapore, Malaya and question of luck in being sent to Colombo, Ceylon, 12/1941. Aspects of period as airframe mechanic with 814 Naval Air Sqdn at Royal Naval Air Station China Bay, Ceylon, 1941-1942: living conditions on station; reorganisation of squadron after loss of HMS Hermes, 9/4/1942. Aspects of return journey from Ceylon to GB, 12/1942-2/1943: train journey across India. REEL 3 Continues: voyage aboard HMT Glenroy from Cape Town, South Africa to GB; torpedo scare in Bay of Biscay, 2/1943. Aspects of period as radio engineer with Fleet Air Arm in GB, Egypt and Malta, 1943-1952: training as radio engineer with South West Essex Technical College, Walthamstow and HMS Aerial, Culcheth, 1943; service with 783 Naval Air Sqdn, Fleet Air Arm at Royal Naval Air Station Arbroath, GB,1944: duties; reaction to not obtaining commission; duties in Egypt and Malta, 1945; release from Royal Navy service, 1952; attitude towards service with Royal Navy.