Description
Object description
British boy seaman served aboard HMS Penelope in GB coastal waters and Mediterranean, 1941; served on shore duties in Malta, 1941-1942; seaman served aboard HMS Beaufort and HMS Berwick in Mediterranean and Arctic, 1943-1945; civilian Family Services Officer during Falklands War in Portsmouth, GB, 1982
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Harpenden, 1923-1939: family; education; helping with evacuation of children from Harpenden. Enlistment and training as boy seaman telegraphist with Royal Navy, 1939-1941: background to joining Royal Navy; pattern of training at HMS Ganges and HMS St George on Isle of Man. Recollections of operations as boy seaman aboard HMS Penelope in Mediterranean, 1941: drafting to ship at Newcastle, 7/1941; living conditions on board; use of canteen at Scapa Flow; escorting British force to Spitzbergen; formation of Force K to operate out of Malta; incident of ship's cooks poisoning crewmen, c9/1941; interception of Axis convoy; reception in Malta after attack on convoy.
REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of period on shore duties in Malta, 1941-1942: drafting to HMS St Angelo, 11/1941; character of Axis air raids on Renella Wireless Transmitting Station; fate of HMS Penelope in dry dock; relations with Maltese civilians; reception of Pedestal convoy; sight of crew of submarine HMS Upholder relaxing in The Gut; narrow escape from sinking of submarine HMS Olympus; his evacuation by Avro Wellington; period in Egypt and Palestine after evacuation from Malta. Recollections of operations as yeoman aboard HMS Beaufort in Mediterranean, 1943-1944: drafting to ship, 2/1/1943; role as navigator's yeoman; destruction of German tanks defending Augusta harbour, 7/1943; bartering with civilians in Augusta; living conditions on board.
REEL 3 Continues: role of ship off Italian coast, 1943-1944; German Air Force attacks off Rhodes; mutual defence provided by ship and HMS Exmoor; evacuation of troops from Kos; return to GB, 6/1944. Aspects of period as seaman aboard HMS Berwick in Arctic, 1944-1945: drafting to ship, 10/1944; his duties as upper yardman; suicide amongst Russians being taken back to Russia, 1945. Reflections of naval service, 1941-1945: upper yardsman's course at HMS Raleigh, 5/1945-8/1945; his attitude to having served as radio operator; character of Renella Wireless Transmission Station in Malta; preference for serving in HMS Berwick as opposed to HMS Penelope. Recollections of period as Family Services Officer in GB during Falklands War, 1982: his duties; reaction of next-of-kin to news that their loved ones had become casualties; personal visits by chaplains and Wrens.
REEL 4 Continues: behaviour of newspaper reporters in trying to obtain stories from wives of HMS Sheffield's crew; contrast between treatment of next-of-kin during Falklands War and Second World War.