Interview with Cyril Joseph Thornberry

British doctor in Ireland and GB, 1939-1942; naval surgeon served aboard HMS Calpe in the English Channel during Operation Jubilee, the raid on Dieppe, France, 19/8/1942; served aboard HMS Formidable in Mediterranean, GB coastal waters and North Sea, 1942-1944

REEL 1 Background in Newry, Northern Ireland, 1918-1939: family; education; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 9/1939. Aspects of period as medical student with Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland, 1939-1941: German Air Force bombing of Dublin; attitude of Dubliners to Irish neutrality and Second World War. Aspects of period as doctor in Plymouth and Huddersfield, GB, 1941-1942: hospital work in Plymouth; life in Plymouth; medical work in Huddersfield; enlistment in Royal Navy, 1942. Recollections of operations as naval surgeon aboard HMS Calpe during Operation Jubilee, the raid on Dieppe, France, 19/8/1942: role and duties as surgeon especially aboard HMS Calpe; blowing up of landing craft; taking Canadian Army casualties aboard HMS Calpe; taking course on aviation medicine at HMS Daedalus, Royal Naval Air Station Lee-on-Solent after Operation Jubilee, GB, 9/1942. REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of operations as naval surgeon aboard HMS Formidable in Mediterranean, GB coastal waters and in North Sea, 1942-1944: joining aircraft carrier, 10/1942; execution of Operation Torch, 11/1942; character of surgeon aboard; amputation aboard ship and problems of heavy seas; morale problems of Fleet Air Arm air crews; support for seamen with home problems; problems encountered by Fleet Air Arm personnel at Salerno, Italy, 9/1943; attempts to lure Italian fleet out of port, 1942-1943; volunteering for second commission; refitting at Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1944; loss of brother Sub-Lieutenant Edward Thornberry during the Fleet Air Arm attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz, Norway, 24/8/1944. Aspects of period as naval surgeon with Royal Navy in GB and Singapore, Malaya, 1945: work at HMS Merganser, Royal Naval Air Station Rattray, Crimond, GB, 1945 including duties and high crash rate at station. REEL 3 Continues: duties as naval surgeon in Singapore, Malaya, 1945; attitude to having served in Royal Navy during Second World War; question of effects of tiredness on pilot performance.