Description
Object description
British seamen served aboard HMS Renown in Atlantic, Mediterranean and Arctic Sea, 1939-1943; served aboard HMS Duff in English Channel, 1944; served aboard HMS Black Prince in Pacific, 1945-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Edgehill, Liverpool, 1921-1939: social circumstances; education; football boys club activities; death of father, 1933; various jobs; background to volunteering to join Royal navy, 5/1939; recruitment procedure. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine during training at HMS Ganges Shore Station, Shotley, ca 7/1939-9/1939: kitting out; hut accommodation; cleaning room and preparing for kit inspection; masthead drill; boat drill on river; drill; food rations; seamanship classes including knots and splices, compass work and rules of road.
REEL 2 Continues: seamanship classes including rules of road; weapons training including rifle, bayonet, revolver and hand grenade; PT; education classes; canteen; visits to Ipswich; relationship with recruits, instructors and divisional officer; reactions to outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; 6" gun drill; signal training. Recollections of period aboard HMS Renown, 10/1939-12/1943: journey to join ship with Home Fleet as Scapa Flow; reception as boy seaman and pride in ship; boys' messdecks; hammocks and stowage; washrooms and heads; breakfast; general messing system; watch system; cleaning ship; action stations on pom-pom.
REEL 3 Continues: action stations and gun drill on pom-pom; recreations; canteen; watch system at sea; football activities and Flota canteen ashore; men's messdecks; relationship with seamen, leading seamen, petty officers and officers; pay and savings scheme; question of seasickness; action with Scharnhorst, 9/4/1940; leave; period with Force H based at Gibraltar; escort duty on convoys to Malta; role in 4.5" gun transmitting station; personal morale.
REEL 4 Continues: visits ashore at Gibraltar; issue of rum ration; model making 'firms'; operation of laundry 'dhobying firm'; story of being caught doing laundry in boys' bathroom and subsequent punishment; cold conditions during Arctic convoy; story of firing pom-poms during German air attacks during convoys to Malta; success of 4.5" guns in bringing down German aircraft; qualification as able seaman; crew morale; opinion of Commander Edward Ranier-Conver; story of leaving Scapa Flow with Home Fleet and news of North African landings, 12/1942; bombardment of Algiers, Algeria, 12/1942; supplying destroyer with bread; story of carrying Churchill aboard ship.
REEL 5 Continues: return to join HF at Scapa Flow; gunnery exercises; attending anti-aircraft gunnery school at Flotta; rum ration; cold conditions and German attacks while escorting Russian convoys; escorting Malta convoys; sinking of HMS Martin and damage to HMS Marne; story of sailor attempting to bring beer aboard at Gibraltar; story of accidental firing on Spanish fishing boat. Period at HMS Drake Barracks, Devonport, 12/1943-4/1944: reception procedure; anti-aircraft gunnery course at Breakwater Fort; move into camp; assessment of gunnery course; fire fighting course; leading seaman seamanship course. Recollections of service aboard HMS Duff, 5/1944-11/1944: joining as able seamen; impressions of ship including bunkbeds, bulkhead doors, all welded construction and lack of portholes.
REEL 6 Continues: impressions of spacious nature of ship; prior role of ship training engine room personnel; playing of 'Macnamara's Band' record on leaving port; test firing of new pom-pom; move to Harwich; anti-E-Boat patrols off Cherbourg coast including use of star shells, cooperation with MTBs, ineffective fire of German shore batteries, German spotter aircraft, identification code sign for Allied aircraft, attack by RAF aircraft and view of German aircraft firing rockets; move to Ryde, Isle of White, 5/1944; story of giving assistance to wounded sailor from MTB and subsequent delay in getting him ashore; promotion to leading seaman in charge of port side mess; messing system and food; rum ration; splicing mainbrace on HMS Renown; daily routine; training young sailors in firing pom-pom; routine on arriving back to Ryde; lack of sleep.
REEL 7 Continues: lack of sleep and consequent fatigue; captain's insistence on manning pom-poms all night; story of rescuing two Germans from sunken E-Boat; question of communication with bridge; testing guns on leaving harbour; use of star shell and communication with gunnery officer; sinking German floating crane with 3" gun; move to Portsmouth, 6/1944; testing diving equipment; issue of condoms as part of preparations for D Day; anti-E-Boat role; mines dropped by German aircraft; sinking of minesweepers; use of motorboat to clear debris and intercept human torpedoes; story of sighting torpedo and close escape caused by problem encountered in launching motorboat; story of failed attempt to salvage abandoned MTB; story of sinking human torpedo with pom-pom and depth charge, 8/7/1944.
REEL 8 Continues: anti E-Boat role patrolling off Hook of Holland. Account of mining of HMS Duff off Hook of Holland, 30/11/1944: effects of explosion; jammed bulkhead door and difficulties in escaping through forward hatch; steering in circles; emergency steering from aft; question of removing corpses from engine room; assessment of damage and consequent decommissioning at Harwich; story of keeping money in condom. Period in Drake Barracks, Devonport, 1/1945-2/1945: question of leave; personal morale and nightmares; drafting procedure. Voyage aboard Empress of Scotland to Sydney, Australia, 1/1945-2/1945: personnel aboard; role on 6" gun; conditions; passing through Panama Canal; passing international dateline. P3eriod at HMS Golden Hind Shore Station, Warwick Racetrack, Sydney, 2/1945-5/1945: food; racehorses.
REEL 9 Continues: dock working parties; visits to Sydney; advertising on commercial wireless. Recollections of service as leading hand aboard HMS Black Prince with Pacific Fleet, 5/1945-5/1946: nature of ship; cruising station duties in anti-aircraft transmitting station; action stations on pom-pom; composition of Pacific Fleet; supply ships and oiling ship; bombardments of Japanese coast; water shortage; fitting of escape portholes and smoking ban on messdecks; camouflage and jungle warfare infantry course; news of VE Day, 8/5/1945; visit to uncle on Mauretania; duties as quartermaster in wheelhouse and on gangway in port; news of Japanese surrender, 8/1945; move to Hong Kong; role with shore detachment preventing looting of dockyards at Kowloon.
REEL 10 Chinese civilian's attempts to bribe dockyard guards; stories illustrating period guarding Japanese POWs and collaborators with Japanese at Kowloon; hotel accommodation; speech from captain; move to Shanghai, China, 12/1945; shore patrols and fights with US naval personnel; football activities; duties in charge of ship's paintwork; question of unblocking galley rubbish shutes; duties in charge of incinerator; football match against French Army; return to Hong Kong, ca 3/1946.
REEL 11 Continues: Chinese women working parties painting ship in return for ship's rubbish; fatal accident in experimental shoot with US ammunition; visit to New Guinea during return to Sydney, Australia, ca 3/1946; story of unjust arrest by Australian police while on shore patrol duty during ship's dance; tour of New Zealand; handover of ship to New Zealand Navy, 5/1946. Voyage back to GB, 5/1946-6/1946. Period at Drake Barracks, Devonport, ca 6/1946. Period attached to 827 Sqdn, Fleet Air Arm at Lee on Solent, Eglington, Northern Ireland, 7/1946-10/1946: composition of draft; duties. Period attached to 827 Sqdn, FAA aboard HMS Triumph, 10/1946-12/1947: duties in charge of medddecks; dutioes on pom-pom; demobilisation, 12/1947. Post-war career: work on dredgers, liners and as factory inspector; membership of Royal Naval Association.
