Interview with William Wilkinson

British seaman served aboard HMS Carlisle, 1st Anti-Aircraft Sqdn, Home Fleet in GB coastal waters, Mediterranean and Norway, 1/1940-5/1940; served aboard HMS Carlisle, 4th Cruiser Sqdn in Red Sea, Indian Ocean and Mediterranean, 6/1940-9/1941; served aboard HMS Phoebe, 7th Cruiser Sqdn in Mediterranean and United States of America, 9/1941-12/1941; served aboard HMS Penn, 3rd, 14th and 7th Destroyer Flotillas in GB coastal waters and Mediterranean, 2/1942-12/1943; served aboard HMS Penn, 11th Destroyer Flotilla, Eastern Fleet in Indian Ocean, 1/1944-8/1945

REEL 1 Background in Kingston upon Hull, GB, 1920-1939: family; education; law and order in Kingston upon Hull during 1930s; employment in printing industry. Aspects of period with Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve at HMNB Chatham, GB, 1939: background to enlistment in Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, 6/1939; training on anti-aircraft guns; technique of 'rollocking' floor; evacuating patients from St Bartholomew's Hospital, Rochester; luck at playing cards. Recollections of operations as seaman aboard HMS Carlisle, 1st Anti-Aircraft Sqdn, Home Fleet in Mediterranean, Norway and Red Sea, 1940-1941: drafting to cruiser at Plymouth, 1/1940; arrangement of mess tables; his action station; working up in Mediterranean, 1/1940; relaxation ashore and on board; character of Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve divisions in Kingston upon Hull; arrival of degaussing equipment at Plymouth; carrying troops and supplies to Åndalsnes and Namsos during Norwegian Campaign, 4/1940-5/1940; casualties on board. REEL 2 Continues: opinion of Scapa Flow, GB. Aspects of operations as seaman aboard HMS Carlisle, 4th Cruiser Sqdn in Red Sea, Indian Ocean and Mediterranean, 6/1940-9/1941: move to Red Sea, 5/1940-6/1940; sleeping on deck; duties in Red Sea; loss of Royal Air Force pilot in Red Sea; refitting in Colombo, Ceylon; evacuation of troops from British Somaliland; mining of Suez Canal, Egypt; conditions during convoy duties to Greece; German Air Force bomb hit on number two gun during evacuation off Crete, Greece, 22/5/1941; loss of ship's Captain Thomas Hampton in German Air Force attack off Crete, Greece, 22/5/1941; seaman who lost his life for false theory about safest place on ship during an air raid; in action off Beirut, Lebanon during campaign in French Syria. Aspects of operations as seaman aboard HMS Phoebe in Mediterranean and United States of America, 9/1941-12/1941: drafting to anti-aircraft cruiser at Alexandria, Egypt, 9/1941; damage sustained to ship prior to his drafting; entrance to harbour in Simonstown, South Africa; comparison of anti-aircraft turrets on board HMS Carlisle and HMS Phoebe. REEL 3 Continues: prior recollection of method of clearing shell cases in HMS Carlisle; docking in Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York, United States of America and contact with New Yorkers, 11/1941; return to GB aboard HMS Formidable and collision with HMS Illustrious, 12/1941. Recollections of operations as seaman aboard HMS Penn, 3rd, 14th and 7th Destroyer Flotillas in GB coastal waters and Mediterranean, 2/1942-12/1943: job as petty officers' messman at HMNB Chatham prior to drafting to ship at Newcastle upon Tyne, GB; damage to bows after ramming HMS Tyne; general and canteen messing including character of meat and fruit supplies; retrieving practice torpedoes; painting one side of ship for review by King George VI; character of Operation Pedestal in Mediterranean, 3/8/1942-15/8/1942; role of fire and repair parties, 8/1942; attempt of ship to aid tanker SS Ohio, 8/1942; his boarding tanker SS Ohio. REEL 4 Continues: condition of Grand Harbour, Valletta, Malta; lack of security in Gibraltar; nature of strike on board ship at Plymouth, GB, 10/1942; role of ship during landings at Oran, French Algeria, 11/1942; rescue of survivors from HMS Partridge; attacks against German forces on coast of Italy, 8/1943; operations in Dodecanese Islands, Greece, 11/1943-12/1943; Italian Army artillery hit on ship. Aspects of operations aboard HMS Penn, 11th Destroyer Flotilla, Eastern Fleet in Indian Ocean, 1/1944-8/1945: move to Ceylon, 2/1944; abortive mission to pick up agent from Sumatra, Dutch East Indies; victory parade in Penang, Malaya, 8/1945; attitude to having served in Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in Second World War; return to GB aboard HMS Stalker, 1945. Aspects of German Air Force and V1 Flying Bomb in GB, 1941-1944: devastated condition of Kingston upon Hull, 12/1941; sound of German V1 Flying Bomb over Sheffield, 1945; stoicism of civilians in Camberwell, London under German Air Force bombing.