Description
Object description
British ordinary seaman served aboard HMS Bullen in Atlantic and Western Approaches, 1943-1944. Sunk off Cape Wrath, 6/12/1944. Served aboard HMS Ocean in Mediterranean, ca 1945-1947
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Leyton, London, 1924-1942: social circumstances; education; work with electrical manufacturer; outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; German air raids; use of partially built tube tunnels as shelter; story of close escape from shrapnel during German air raid; work repairing wirelesses; food rationing; call up for Royal Navy, 1942. Period on basic training at HMNS Glendower Shore Station, Pwhelwhi, 1942: gunnery; seamanship; relationship with instructors and recruits; recreations. Perido at Chatham Barracks, 1942: naval number; attending torpedo course and qualification as torpedoman; circumstances of draft into submarine service. Period training as submariner, ca 1942: swimming and escape hatch tests.
REEL 2 Continues: escape hatch and pressure chamber tests; personal morale. Period at Submarine base in South Shields area, ca 1942-1943: failing engineering tests; cheering party on return home of submarines. Period as abse seaman torpedoman aaboard HMS Bullen based at Gladstone Docks, Liverpool, ca 3/1944-12/1944: conditions aboard ship; escort duties on Atlantic convoys; duties on stern depth charges; rolling of ship; electrical duties; lookout duty in crow's nest; attitude to merchant seamen; escorting ships to Iceland; visits ashore at Reykavik and Liverpool; opinion of officers and crew morale; visits ashore at Londonderry. REEL 3 Continues: story of homosexual sailor; story of signalling to unidentified battleship in Atlantic; church services in harbour. Account of being sunk by U 775 off Cape Wrath, 6/12/1944: situation; preparing for Captain's ammunition rounds on portside of ship; effects of torpedo explosion; period unconscious; friend's loss of legs; question of defusing depth charges; jumping into sea near Carley float; situation and decision to swim for HMS Hesperus; reception aboard HMS Hesperus. Period on hospital ship and hospital prior to survivors leave, 12/1944-1/1945. Period aboard 3041 Landing Ship Tank in Far East, 1945: carrying Landing Craft Tank on deck.
REEL 4 Continues: loading LCT on deck; route and visits ashore; unloading LCT at Bombay, India; voyage and operations off Malaysia; use of Japanese POWs to load cargo of rice for transport to Bankok, Thailand; visit ashore at Bankok; storm in Mediterranean during voyage back to GB, Demobilisation, 1946. Post war career: return to work at electrical manufacturers; effects of war service.