Description
Object description
British ordnance artificer served aboard HMS Hood, Home Fleet in North Atlantic, North Sea and Mediterranean, 1/1939-1/1941; served aboard HMS Barham, Mediterranean Fleet in Mediterranean, 2/1941-11/1941 including sinking 25/11/1941; served as ordnance officer and chief ordnance officer aboard HMS Glasgow, 10th Cruiser Sqdn, Home Fleet in North and South Atlantic, Arctic and English Channel during Normandy Landings, 3/1942-9/1944; served as chief ordnance officer aboard HMS Liverpool, 10th Cruiser Sqdn, Mediterranean Fleet in Mediterranean, 1947-1949; served as ordnance officer with 3rd Destroyer Flotilla in Mediterranean, 1949; served with Reserve Fleet at Portsmouth, GB, 1956-1957; served as staff ordnance officer with Mediterranean Fleet on Malta, 1957-1959; served as torpedo specialist at HMS Vernon, Portsmouth, GB, 1959-1963; served as warship weapons overseer (Southern area) at Southampton, GB, 1963-1967; served at HMS Collingwood, Fareham, GB, 1967-1968
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Portsmouth, GB, 1918-1934: death of father, 1919; health problems; education; social circumstances; receiving accidental fractured skull; passing entrance examination for HMS Fisgard. Recollections of training as boy artificer at HMS Fisgard, HMNB Chatham, GB, 1/1934-7/1938: 'fagging' system; uniform; organisation of classes and assignment as ordnance artificer; dormitory accommodation; role of petty officer apprentices; rations; daily training at Mechanical Training Establishment, St Mary's Island; hammer, chisel and file work; trade tests as fitter; use of drill; technical education and naval history classes; physical training; sporting activities; drill; relations with instructors and question of their attitude towards artificers; question of bullying by senior classes; visits into Chatham; ban on smoking and punishment.
REEL 2 Continues: kit inspections; church parades; lathe training; work on milling, shaping, boring and grinding metal; use of micrometer and callipers; lectures at Royal Naval Gunnery School, Chatham; visit to HMS Marshal Soult; layout and operation of 15 Inch Naval Gun turret; flash precautions; routine gun maintenance, inspection and lubrication; work on ships in Chatham Dockyard; examination and passing out as Artificer (5th Class) with accelerated promotion. Recollections of training as ordnance artificer at Royal Navy Gunnery School, HMS Excellent, Whale Island, GB, 7/1938-12/1938: drill; lectures in workshop; co-incidence and stereoscopic rangefinders; telescopic sights; operation of director firing system equipment and transmitting station; examination.
REEL 3 Continues: Recollections of period as ordnance artificer aboard HMS Hood, Home Fleet in North Atlantic, North Sea and Mediterranean, 1/1939-1/1941: initial impressions on joining battlecruiser at Portsmouth; seagoing characteristics; question of armour protection; nature of Ordnance Artificers Mess; hammocks; relations with chief ordnance artificer and his advice on swearing and brothels; role assisting in 'B' Turret; composition of turret and working chamber crew and interlocking nature of turret mechanisms; effects of 15 Inch Naval Gun firing; problems with radial flash proof dome on cage and hydraulic leaks; promotion to ordnance artificer of 'B' Turret; operation of various 'firms' in 'B' Turret space; duplicate turret hydraulic systems and story of repairing pipes with ordnance assistant; relations with warrant ordnance officer and Commander (G) Edward Gregson; working up exercises; daily routine in harbour including duties, rum ration, rations and sleeping ashore whilst in Portsmouth, GB.
REEL 4 Continues: exercises and working up with Home Fleet; tool kit; question of using hammer and chisel instead of spanner on nuts; ordnance artificer workshop and equipment; size of ship and crew; opinion of Captain Irvine Glennie and officers; crew morale; visits ashore and drinking habits at Gibraltar; movements prior to rejoining Home Fleet; warnings of approach of war and preparations, 2/9/1939; types of shell and fuses; personal morale; Northern Patrol in Denmark Strait, North Atlantic; seagoing nature of ships and question of leaking hatches; false alarm of German ship; patrols with French Navy battleship Strasbourg; cruising stations and watches; actions stations and bugle calls; anti-flash hoods and gloves; visits to Flota Canteen at Scapa Flow, GB; fishing; seagulls; recreational and fencing activities; composition of 15 Inch Naval Gun barrel.
REEL 5 Continues: cruising station; escorting convoy to Gibraltar; formation of Force H at Gibraltar; action with French Navy battleships Strasbourg and Dunkerque at Mers-el-Kébir, French Algeria, 3/7/1940; Italian Air Force raids; return to GB, 8/1940; period on Northern Patrol in North Atlantic; circumstances of drafting to battleship HMS Barham; question of battlecruiser status of HMS Hood and question of hits subsequently achieved on German battleship Bismarck. Recollections of operations as ordnance artificer of 'X' Turret aboard HMS Barham, Mediterranean Fleet in Mediterranean, 2/1941-11/1941: voyage aboard HMS Southampton from GB to Egypt including involvement in Battle of Cape Spartovento; joining HMS Barham at Alexandria, Egypt; comparison of Mark I and II 15 Inch Naval Guns; canteen messing system; Ordnance Artificers' Mess; patrolling; Battle of Matapan, 28/3/1941; bombardment of Bardia and Tripoli, Libya; evacuation of Crete, Greece, 5/1941; damage in German Air Force Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bomber attack; visits ashore during repairs at Durban, South Africa; reaction to apartheid system in South Africa; return to Mediterranean; daily routine. Recollections of sinking of HMS Barham, Mediterranean Fleet in Mediterranean, 25/11/1941: situation in bathroom on hit by torpedo fired by German submarine U-331; ship heeling over; surfacing; getting onto Carley Float.
REEL 6 Continues: rescue by HMAS Nizam, 25/11/1941; effects of oil; treatment; return to Alexandria, Egypt and kitting out; subsequent psychological effects of sinking experienced in 1949; return to GB, 1/1942; delayed announcement of sinking of HMS Barham and story of mother's premonition. Recollections of period as ordnance artificer and chief ordnance artificer aboard HMS Glasgow in North and South Atlantic, Arctic and English Channel during Normandy Landings, 3/1942-9/1944: presence of triple 6 Inch Naval Gun turret on board cruiser; mess; Arctic convoys; problems with ice in gun barrels; German Air Force attacks; patrols in Denmark Strait, North Atlantic; story of intercepting and sinking the German blockade runner Regensberg and reaction to refusal of some crew members to assist in rescue of German crew, 30/3/1943; visits to Iceland; marriage, 12/1942; North Atlantic convoys and escorting the HMT Queen Mary; move to Gibraltar; patrols in South Atlantic; successful tactics employed in action with 12 German Navy destroyers in Bay of Biscay, North Atlantic, 25/12/1943; problems with seals in recoil chambers and melted cordite in barrels due to rate of firing; accidental bombing by American aircraft and return for refit to Plymouth.
REEL 7 Continues: promotion to chief ordnance artificer; movements; operations supporting American forces' landing at Omaha Beach, Normandy, France, D-Day, 6/6/1944, including inadequacy of American policy of saturation bombardment and use of spotter aircraft to eliminate German coastal batteries; bombardment of Cherbourg, France; paying off, 9/1944; crew morale; question of commission; attending chief ordnance artificer's course at Royal Naval Gunnery School, HMS Excellent, Whale Island, 1944-1945. Aspects of period as chief ordnance artificer with ordnance stores at HMS Tana, Kilindini, near Mombasa, Kenya, 1945-1946: different treatment of British, Asian and African staff; problem with learning Swahili language; snake incident. Aspects of period as chief ordnance artificer aboard HMS Liverpool, 10th Cruiser Sqdn, Mediterranean Fleet in Mediterranean, 1947-1949: role and duties; opinion of Lord Louis Mountbatten; background to promotion to warrant officer, 1949. Aspects of period as ordnance officer of 3rd Destroyer Flotilla in Mediterranean, 1949 including hospitalisation with nervous breakdown, 1949-1950. Aspects of period as ordnance officer aboard HMS Bermuda, Mediterranean Fleet in Mediterranean, 1952-1954: improvements made to gunnery control systems; return to GB and death of wife. Aspects of period as ordnance officer with Reserve Fleet at Portsmouth, 1956-1957: protection of gun mountings; remarrying, 1955.
REEL 8 Continues: promotion to ordnance lieutenant; wardroom and drinking habits; role as quarterdeck officer of watch. Aspects of period as staff ordnance officer with Mediterranean Fleet at Malta, 1957-1959: decision to specialise in underwater weapons; question of lack of consistent terminology used in underwater and air weaponry; torpedo analysis; suggestion of using turret style interlock system on submarines. Aspects of period as torpedo specialist at HMS Vernon, Portsmouth, GB, 1959-1963: successful modification to extend working life of acoustic mine sweep; role examining and maintaining weaponry; question of use of rubber or leather seals; story illustrating lack of engineering training of designer. Aspects of period as warship weapons overseer (Southern Area) at Southampton, GB, 1963-1967: role ensuring manufacture of weapons to Admiralty specifications; prior promotion to lieutenant commander, 11/1962; question of bribes; question of promotion to commander; work establishing ordnance training programme at HMS Collingwood, Fareham, GB, 1967-1968; post-service career and movements.
