Description
Object description
British telegraphist served aboard HMS Blanche, 19th Destroyer Flotilla in English Channel, 8/1939-11/1939 including mining and sinking off Margate, GB, 13/11/1939; served aboard HMS Keith, 22nd Destroyer Flotilla in English Channel, in English Channel and North Sea, 12/1939-6/1940 including sinking off La Panne, Belgium, 1/6/1940; served aboard HMS Cyclops in GB coastal waters, 1940; served aboard HMS Baldur and ashore at Iceland, 1940-1941; served with on shore duties at Brooklyn Naval Yard, New York, United States of America, 1941-1942; served as signaller aboard HMT Aquitania in North and South Atlantic, Indian Ocean and Pacific, 4/1942-2/1943; served with instructor at HMS Mercury, East Meon, GB, 1943-1944; served with 333rd Support Flotilla in English Channel during Normandy Landings and in Indian Ocean, 1944-1945; served on shore duties in Singapore, Malaya, 1945-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Brixton, London, GB, 1921-1937: family theatrical background; education; sporting and recreational activities. Recollections of period as boy telegraphist at HMS Vincent, Gosport, GB, 1937-1939: enlistment as boy telegraphist in Royal Navy, 1937; relations with fellow boy recruits; boxing activities; barrack accommodation; uniform; pay; scrubbing out; cocoa; rations; drill; swimming lessons; masthead drill; field gun training; rowing cutters in Portsmouth Harbour; instructors use of corporal punishment; learning Morse Code; basic electrical training; lectures in naval communications system; absence of weapons training.
REEL 2 Continues: sporting activities; relations with boy recruits, instructors and officers; kit inspections; leave. Recollections of period as boy telegraphist aboard HMS Sheffield, 2nd Cruiser Sqdn, Home Fleet in GB coastal waters, North Atlantic and Mediterranean, 1/1939-3/1939: initial impressions of cruiser; boys' mess; hammocks; wireless duties receiving Admiralty orders and question of decoding; cleaning brass work; voice pipes; wireless equipment; role rotating aerial during trials of prototype radar set; seasickness during Home Fleet manoeuvres in Bay of Biscay, 1/1939-2/1939; move to Lisbon, Portugal, 3/2/1939-8/2/1939; status as boy telegraphist; routine duties on watch in wireless office; danger of obtaining electrical shock from wireless transmitter; general messing system and rations; question of visits ashore at Gibraltar, 2/1939; drinking habits; cruise into Mediterranean, 2/1939-3/1939; return to Portsmouth, 3/1939; hospitalisation with German measles.
REEL 3 Continues: Aspects of period as telegraphist in Royal Naval Barracks, HMS Pembroke, Chatham, 7/1939-8/1939: crowded conditions; air raid practice; recreational activities; drafting procedure. Recollections of operations as telegraphist aboard HMS Blanche, 19th Destroyer Flotilla in English Channel, 8/1939-11/1939: joining destroyer at Dover; character of destroyer; wireless office equipment and personnel; bumping against drifting British mines on patrol; reaction to news of declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; patrols in English Channel; canteen messing system and role of 'cook of mess'; inexperience of telegraphists with transmitting set; question of wireless silence. Aspects of mining and sinking of HMS Blanche, 19th Destroyer Flotilla in off Margate in English Channel, 13/11/1939: position on messdeck on explosion of magnetic mine under ship's stern; reaction to mining and escape through hatch; state of ship; abandoning ship and getting onto Carley Float; abandoning Carley Float after discovering wire attached to ship; swimming; clothes and life jacket worn; effects of diesel fuel; question of casualties; rescue by trawler.
REEL 4 Continues: state on landing at Margate; survivor's leave in London, 11/1939 including ballroom dancing at Streatham Locarno and affair with Violet Szabo. Aspects of period as telegraphist at Royal Naval Barracks, HMS Pembroke, Chatham, GB, 11/1939-12/1939: different methods of getting to London; air raid alarm and first German Air Force raid. Recollections of operations as telegraphist aboard HMS Keith, 22nd Destroyer Flotilla in English Channel, 12/1939-5/1940: nature of destroyer; wireless equipment; tea; food; fatigue caused by watch system during patrols in English Channel; incident of Bofors Gun being fired accidentally in harbour; harbour routine; visits to public houses and drinking habits; relations with telegraphists, seamen and stokers.
REEL 5 Continues: nature of naval discipline; non-specialised signals officer; importance of captain and commander in maintaining crew morale; shake down period; escorting ships evacuating Dutch Royal Family and bullion from Hook of Holland, Netherlands, 13/5/1940; German parachute mines; abortive attempt to torpedo mole at Ijmuiden, Netherlands; role landing naval personnel at Boulogne, France, 21/5/1940; evacuation of military personnel and civilians under shore fire at Boulogne, France, 23/5/1940; assisting wounded during voyage back to Dover, GB; minimal Royal Air Force support over Dunkirk, France; sight of Dunkirk Evacuation; German Air Force Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bomber attacks during Dunkirk Evacuation; picking up survivors from small boats off La Panne, Belgium; personal morale; wireless reports. Recollections of bombing and sinking of HMS Keith, 22nd Destroyer Flotilla La Panne, Belgium, 1/6/1940: direct hit by German Air Force bomb down funnel; throwing weighted code books overboard; orders to abandon ship; keeping afloat with buoy.
REEL 6 Continues: situation; rescue by tug; straffing by German Air Force fighter aircraft; landing at Dover; subsequent survivor's leave and question of timing of affair with Violet Szabo. Aspects of training at HMS Dolphin, Gosport, GB, 7/1940: background to volunteering for special training; submarine escape tank test; rejection due to ear defect. Aspects of period as telegraphist aboard HMS Cyclops at Rothesey, Isle of Bute, GB, 1940: acting as submarine depot ship; role maintaining submarine asdic and electrical equipment; story of repairing ship's masthead aerial; visits ashore. Recollections of period as telegraphist at HMS Baldur, Iceland, 1940-1941: communications role; landing at Reykjavik; situation; relations with Icelandic civilians and story of relationship with spiritualist woman; equipment and special clothing for expedition to establish minefield at Hvalfjord; lack of experience and nature of trek using skis and skates; hutted accommodation at Hvalfjord.
REEL 7 Continues: story of accident following visit to British Army camp; operation of controlled minefield; return to HMS Baldur; explosion of steam bomb thrower on neighbouring ship; story of detachment in rough weather aboard trawler searching for survivors from HMS Hood, 5/1941; detachment to wireless station in Reykjavik; return to Royal Naval Barracks, HMS Pembroke, Chatham, GB, 1941. Aspect of period as telegraphist on shore duties at Brooklyn Naval Yard, New York, United States of America, 1941-1942: voyage aboard HMT Queen Mary from GB to United States of America; hospital treatment for crabs; nature of 'gambling game 'Fraz'; naval communications liaison duties with United States Navy; theatrical contacts and social life. Aspect of period as signaller aboard HMT Aquitania in North and South Atlantic, Indian Ocean and Pacific, 4/1942-2/1943: role as signaller; conditions on board; troopship role; carrying American service personnel to Middle East; carrying Australian and New Zealand military personnel back to Australia and New Zealand; nature of gambling game 'Shoot'; trouble between American and Australian troops in Sydney, Australia; nature of gambling game, 'Two-Up'; return to GB. Aspect of period as petty officer instructor at HMS Mercury, East Meon, GB, 1943-1944: instructing in navigational aids.
REEL 8 Continues: instructing in navigational aids; preparations for D-Day; cricket activities; marriage, 1944. Aspects of period as petty officer with 333rd Support Flotilla at Southampton, 1944: nature of Landing Craft Gun (LCG); role maintaining communications equipment; training for D-Day landings and secrecy involved. Aspects of operations as petty officer telegraphist with 333rd Support Flotilla during landings at Juno Beach, Normandy, France, D-Day, 6/6/1944: role aboard flotilla command boat; personal morale; composition of naval bombardment; sight of landings on Juno Beach; return to Southampton, GB. Recollections of operations as petty officer telegraphist with 333rd Support Flotilla in GB coastal waters and Indian Ocean, 11/1944-1945: preparations for voyage out to Indian Ocean at Belfast, Northern Ireland, 11/1944-12/1944; voyage to Gibraltar, 12/1944; Christmas celebrations, 25/12/1944; route to Red Sea; shark fishing; base at Mandapam, India; living conditions including accommodation, insect problems and climate; initial impressions of India; operations patrolling River Salween in Burma.
REEL 9 Continues: lack of Japanese opposition to landings at Rangoon, Burma, 5/1945; story of cancellation of landings due to Japanese surrender during Operation Zipper, Malaya, 15/8/1945. Aspects of period as petty officer telegraphist on shore duties in Singapore, Malaya, 1945-1946: state of former British prisoners of war and treatment of Japanese prisoners of war; stripping out equipment from wireless station at Changi; cases of stealing and racketeering; visit to former Imperial Japanese Army camp in Malaya; train journey across India prior to voyage back to GB, 1946. Aspects of period as petty officer with Royal Navy in GB and Hong Kong, 1946-1952: attending course for radar electrical artificer at HMS Mercury, East Meon, GB, 1946-1947; duties lecturing on radar at HMS Collingwood, Fareham, GB, 1947-1950: visit from Lord Louis Mountbatten; passing degree course in electronics; period at small ships maintenance base at Hong Kong, 1950-1952; leaving Royal Navy, 1952. Post-war life and employment: period as telecommunications officer in Hong Kong; effects of wartime service; break up of wartime marriage.
