Barker, Tom (Oral history)

British seaman served aboard HMS Duff in Atlantic and English Channel, 1943-1944; served as firefighter aboard HMS Victorious in Pacific, 1945

REEL 1 Recollections of background in Darlington area, 1924-1941: social circumstances; education; sporting activities; work at railway wagon works; outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; background to volunteering as boy seaman for Merchant Shipping Pool at Middlesborough; work as farm boy, tractor driver and labourer on farm, 1939-1943; background to enlistment despite reserved occupation status, 3/1943; medical. Period at Seamen Training Centre, HMS Raleigh, Plymouth, 3/1943-5/1943: reception; hut accommodation; stealing; morning routine; food rations; drill; rifle training; PT; ship and aircraft recognition; seamanship training including knots, rowing and visit to destroyer; relationship with recruits and question of stealing. REEL 2 Continues: relationship with petty officers; guard duties; question of kit inspections; swimming lessons; recreational visits to Plymouth; pay; canteen; passing out; journey to Gourock. Voyage aboard Queen Mary to New York, US, 5/1943: German POWs; role on anti-aircraft gun; seasickness; refusal of posting as officer's servant; cigarettes. Period at Asbury Park, New Jersey, 5/1943-7/1943: accommodation at Berkeley Hotel; hospitality of US civilians; acting as military police on New York train; question of drinking underage; deserters and escorting recaptured deserter to Toronto, Canada; training on Oerlicken gun at Boston; night spotting training. Period at Fargo Barracks, Boston, 7/1943: issue of US uniform and equipment; assault course. REEL 3 Period in barracks and joining HMS Duff at Nantusket Shipyard, Boston, 7/1943-9/1943: first impressions of HMS Duff; role on advance party; story of stealing rum; commissioning ceremony, 9/1943; question of US fittings and bunk beds; messing systems; water coolers; laundry; fights with US regular naval personnel; working up trials. Recollections of period at St George's Harbour, Bermuda, ca 9/1943-10/1943: hurricane; seasickness and ship's rolling; 3" gun drill; firing Oelicken; after mess deck; question of stealing; latrines; food; abandon ship exercise; hedgehog mortar projector; visits ashore; motorboat training; relationship with seamen, stokers and specialist ratings. REEL 4 Continues: relationship with leading seamen, petty officers and officers; opinion of various officers including Lieutenants Bell and Butcher, and Commander Tyson; crew morale and discipline. Period at Boston, 10/1943: sea and gunnery trials; dry dock and fitting of ram; running aground in fog; propeller repairs. Account of action with U Boat off Newfoundland, 4/11/1943: prior visit to Argentia, Newfoundland; Oerlicken action station; HE shell fired by 3" gun rather than intended star shell; problems with searchlight; loading Oerlicken with tracers; Asdic contact and depth charge attack after U Boat dived. Voyage to Belfast, Northern Ireland, 11/1943: watch system and clearing ship; recreations; washing clothes; sailor forced to wash. Period based at Pollock Dock, Belfast, 11/1943: anti-submarine course; paying off crew; role as messman to specialist personnel and skeleton crew engaged on depth charge tests; role as bosun's mate' selling fish killed by depth charges. REEL 5 Continues: skeleton crew during trials; duties as bosun's mate; arrival of new crew, 3/1944; relationship with new ratings; shore leave; trials and training off North Scotland; problems with compressor; sleeping above decks whilst at sea and personal morale; lookout duties; story of visiting wardroom on errand; Oerlicken gun practice; party of MPs. Period operating in English Channel whilst based at Plymouth and Portsmouth, 4/1944-7/1944: night patrols; story of coming under fire from German coastal artillery; clash with E Boats; petty officer's loss of nerve; nature of fighting; playing of 'Macnamara's Band'; operations with MTBs; story of sinking 3 E Boats, laying smokescreen and rescuing crew prior to completing sinking of MTB; view of invasion fleet in Solent, 5/6/1944; taking up position in destroyer screen off Le Havre, 7/6/1944; torpedoing of HMS Quorn; close escape from torpedo; picking up survivors from Quorn. REEL 6 Continues: sighting human torpedo as lookout and successful use of bow chaser gun; disguised human torpedoes; fatigue; clashes with E Boats; absence of air attacks; casual uniform; opinion of Lieutenant Commander Brock; inadequate officer; anchoring in Arromanches sector and visit ashore; swimming session and burial of corpses found in sea; return for boiler clean in Portsmouth; Allied aerial bombing. Period based at Harwich, 7/1944-11/1944: efforts to identify V weapons base; nature of operations; shore leave at Ostend. Account of HMS Duff being damaged by mine off Ostend, 30/11/1944: station on starboard Oerlicken; effects of explosion; question of abandoning ship; stabilisation of ship; rescue by tugboat; arrival back at Harwich; state of ship; remaining with skeleton crew; towed to dry dock, Chatham, 12/1944; visit from father; remaining crew paid off. REEL 7 Period in Drake Barracks, Plymouth, 12/1944: souvenirs of service aboard Duff; volunteering for Far East service. Voyage out aboard Dominion Monarch to Sydney, Australia, 2/1945: gambling; stories of shore leave in Panama; arrival; deserters. Period aboard HMS Victorious operating in Pacific, 3/1945-8/1945: reaction to posting; prior training as fire fighter; move to Leyte, Philippines; anti-frogman charges; mess deck conditions; lime juice; fire fighter duties; problems with aircraft landing and taking off; story of Corsair exploding and use of foam machines; anti-flash precautions; action station; move into position off Japan; view of Japanese kamikazi attack; duties as loader in 4.2" turret; end of war and leaving ship in Australia. Period as sentry on Wrens quarters in Melbourne, 9/1945-1/1946. Period aboard HMS Perseus at Sydney, and Melbourne, 1/1946: jettisoning aircraft; gold shipment. REEL 8 Continues: voyage back to GB. Demobilisation, 3/1946. Post-war career: initial work in aluminium factory; work as crisp salesman; question of effects of war service; attending HMS Duff reunions.