Description
Object description
British seaman served aboard HMS Calder, 4th Escort Group in GB coastal waters, North Atlantic and Mediterranean, 9/1943-5/1945; served aboard HMS St Kitts in GB coastal waters, North Sea and Mediterranean, 1945-1947
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Hebburn, GB, 1925-1943: social circumstances; father's hobby repairing cars; selling firewood and collecting horse manure for allotments; education; work filling sandbags, 7/1939-8/1939; employment as milkman, 8/1939-12/1939; background to painting and decorating apprenticeship, 12/1939; air raid shelters; declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; employment as apprentice painter and decorator including blacking out windows and effects of shortages of wallpaper and paint; rationing and keeping poultry in garden.
REEL 2 Continues: grocery errands; question of brother's military service; German Air Force raids including role replacing windows and flooded air raids shelters; recreational activities; background to volunteering for Royal Air Force; medical; call-up to Royal Navy, 1/1943. Recollections of training as seaman at HMS Glendower, Pwllheli, GB, 1/1943-3/1943: train journey and reception; chalet accommodation; morning routine; rations.
REEL 3 Continues: physical training; lectures; canteen; pay; drill; punishment drill; seamanship; jumping into water tower with lifebelt; masthead drill; question of inability to swim; gas mask training; rowing cutters; assault course carrying Lewis Gun; rifle training; question of adequacy of training; relations with instructors and recruits; attitude of recruits towards sea service.
REEL 4 Continues: recreational activities; pay; drafting to Royal Naval Barracks, HMS Pembroke, Chatham, 3/1943. Aspects of period as seaman with HMS Wildfire, Royal Naval Gunnery School, Sheerness, GB, 4/1943-8/1943: training on various naval anti-aircraft guns; aircraft recognition; story of guard accidentally firing Lanchester Submachine Gun on guard duty; personal morale. Recollections of operations as seaman aboard HMS Calder, 4th Escort Group in GB coastal waters, North Atlantic and Mediterranean, 9/1943-5/1945: seasickness on ferry out to Belfast, Northern Ireland; initial impression of Captain Class frigate; mess decks including bunk beds and lockers; washing laundry in bucket and drying; uniforms and kit; question of stealing and consequent night searches of mess deck.
REEL 5 Continues: cleaning ship; fire practice drill; general messing system and rations; rum ration; cocoa; watch system; lookout duty in crows nest and upper deck; action station as loader on QF 2 Pounder Naval Gun; Oerlikon 20mm Cannon and Bofors Guns on board; loading ammunition into ship's magazine; initial difficulty in understanding regional accents.
REEL 6 Continues: regional characteristics on lower deck; gambling activities; reading and use of library; story of ex-printer's activities removing leave stamps from pay book; barber; hobbies; relations with lower deck influenced by regional origins; relations with leading seamen, petty officers and officers; crew morale.
REEL 7 Continues: removal of American manufactured fittings to be replaced with ammunition lockers; anti-submarine trials including use of rifle fire to detonate mines, fending off mines with oars and use of depth charges and Hedgehog Mortar; ship's role escorting Convoy SL 139 in Bay of Biscay, 11/1943 including ship's rolling, question of seasickness and glider bomb attack from German Air Force Heinkel He 177 aircraft, depth charge attacks on submarines, collecting evidence of possible submarine kill, propeller problems, move to action stations on Bofors Gun and concentration on anti-submarine role; question of effects of cigarette smoking on fatigue and personal morale; participation in KMF Convoys through Mediterranean to Naples, Italy, 12/1943-10/1944; role assisting depth charge crews; question of responsibility for damage control.
REEL 8 Continues: first aid training; ruses employed in trading with Arab boats; recreational activities and relations with Italian civilians ashore at Naples, Italy; use of cigarettes on black market; poor performance of ship in naval regatta at Naples, Italy; leave arrangements and staying with family of Irish girlfriend; relations with Irish civilians; question of attacks on crew members in Agnes Street, Belfast, Northern Ireland; question of Irish sectarian divisions in Northern Ireland.
REEL 9 Continues: conversion to hunter-killer role and patrols off coasts of Ireland and Northern Scotland, 12/1944-5/1945; question of assistance given to German submarines by Ireland; misleading asdic contacts with shoals of fish and using depth charges for fishing activities; German use of debris to feign destruction under depth charge attack; effects of differing sea conditions; story of bringing German submarine U-1051 to surface with pattern of Hedgehog Mortar bombs and reaction to her sinking by being rammed by HMS Aylmer in Irish Sea, 26/1/1945; method of operating with 4th Escort Group; story of human remains brought to surface on sinking of German submarine U-774 with HMS Bentinck in North Atlantic, 8/4/1945; situation, 4/1945; surrender of German submarines, 5/1945; refit for potential service in Far East; victory parade and celebrations, 5/1945. Aspects of voyage from GB for decommissioning at Brooklyn Naval Yard, New York, United States of America, 10/1945: ship's sweepstake; American hospitality.
REEL 10 Continues: story of collecting autographs of American celebrities; necessity of stripping out British equipment; story of party organised by American civilians and receiving proposal of marriage; decommissioning ceremony; return voyage aboard HMT Queen Mary from United States of America, to GB, 10/1945; story of obtaining cheap cigarettes and silk stockings prior to decommissioning HMS Calder in United States of America.
REEL 11 Continues: attending advanced gunnery course at Royal Naval Gunnery School at HMS Wildfire, Sheerness on return to GB; question of next draft. Recollections of period as seaman aboard HMS Kitts in GB coastal waters, North Sea and Mediterranean, 1945-1947: role with advance party liaising with dockyard personnel at Newcastle upon Tyne; living at home and story of buying cheap food from canteen manager; funeral gun carriage drill; commissioning ship; sea trials; opinion of gyroscopic Bofors Gun mountings and sights; problem docking in River Tyne; visit to Narvik, Norway.
REEL 12 Continues: role boosting Norwegian civilian morale after German occupation; period based at Kiel as Kiel Canal guardship, Germany; working parties of German youths cleaning ship; canteen messing system; duties supervising German working parties; visits ashore at Kiel, Germany; stories illustrating nature of black market activities; return to Portland, GB; stories of civilian visitors aboard ship during summer cruise round GB coastal towns; stories of assisting ship's doctor during sick parades and nature of medical treatment provided.
REEL 13 Continues: question of appendicitis case; role escorting HMS Vanguard to rendezvous with Mediterranean Fleet prior to Royal Family's South African cruise including consequent delay in demobilisation, role picking up ditched pilots from accompanying aircraft carrier, accident whilst oiling ship, cleaning and painting ship to remove oil stains, newsreel films of exercises, story of accident with wet paint during King George VI visit aboard ship, subsequent punishment and sight of Royal Family members; visit to French Morocco.
REEL 14 Continues: story of liberty boat capsizing during visit to French Morocco; summer cruise in Mediterranean; demobilisation, 1947. Post-war life and employment: recommencing apprenticeship as painter and decorator; difficulty in acclimatising to civilian lifestyle; effects of service with Royal Navy.