Description
Object description
British seaman served aboard HMS Ulster Monarch in GB coastal waters and Mediterranean, 9/1942-10/1942; served aboard HMS Bentinck, 4th Escort Group operating in North Atlantic, GB coastal waters, Mediterranean and Arctic, 10/1943-5/1945; served as crane driver and instructor with Royal Air Force in GB and Egypt, 1947-1954
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Walsall, GB, 1923-1940: social circumstances; education; interest in car engines; emplyment as apprentice electrician, 1937-1938; employment as garage fitter, 1938-1940; declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; background to volunteering for Royal Navy, 1/1940; call-up for service with Royal Navy, 6/1940; attitude to rationing; use of Anderson Shelter. Recollections of training at HMS Collingwood, Fareham, 6/1940-9/1940: journey to Fareham; question of assignment as stoker; kitting out; hutted accommodation; morning routine; rations; cleaning huts; physical training; drill; climbing masthead; seamanship training, including darning.
REEL 2 Continues: seamanship training, including knots and splices and boxing compass; rifle and bayonet raining; assault course; rowing training; relations with instructors, officers and recruits; boxing activities; canteen; gambling at cards; pay; kit inspections; reaction to naval discipline; story of football match; passing out parade, 9/1940; background to reclassification from stoker to gunner. Aspects of period as seaman at Royal Naval Barracks, HMS Victory Barracks, Portsmouth, GB, 9/1940-10/1940: nature of crowded barrack rooms; hammocks; duties as motorcycle despatch rider; effect of venereal warnings; lack of contact with Women's Royal Naval Service personnel; story of punishment for allowing member of Women's Royal Naval Service to leave camp whilst on guard duty.
REEL 3 Continues: punishment of being confined to barracks; drafting. Recollections of attending anti-aircraft course at Royal Naval Gunnery School, HMS Excellent, Whale Island, GB, 11/1940-2/1941: nature of discipline; lecture including procedure on gun misfiring; small arms weapons training; Oerlikon 20mm Cannon drill and use of dome aircraft simulator; problems with aircraft recognition; assault course; types of guns trained on; exercise in rowing boats across straits; story of fainting after punishment drill. Aspects of periods as seaman at Royal Naval Barracks, HMS Victory Barracks, Portsmouth and Belmont Camp, Bedhampton, GB, 2/1941-9/1942: administrative duties confusion over postings; dockyard duties and acting as cook of day; story of raiding lorries and selling uniforms in public house with seaman from London; question of sea posting.
REEL 4 Continues: Recollections of operations as seaman gunner aboard HMS Ulster Monarch in GB coastal waters and Mediterranean, 9/1942-10/1942: joining landing ship infantry; voyage in convoy from GB to Mediterranean; manual lowering of assault landing craft; relations with United States Army troops; messdecks and rations; running aground on sandbanks during Operation Torch landings at Algiers, French Algeria, 10/1942; leg injury. Aspects of period of hospitalisation in Glasgow, GB, 10/1942-1/1943: nature of leg injury; operation and circumcision; confusion over name; story of visit to public house in wheelchair. Aspects of period as seaman at Royal Naval Barracks, HMS Victory Barracks, Portsmouth, GB, 1/1943-4/1943: leave; aircraft recognition course. Aspects of period as seaman in Fargo Barracks, Boston, United States of America, 4/1943-5/1943: voyage aboard HMT Andes from GB to United States of America; initial impressions of Boston; rooms; rations.
REEL 5 Continues: standing by during construction of HMS Bentinck at Bethlehem Hingham Shipyard, Boston; duties and courses; pay; relations with American civilians; story of visit to girls' school. Recollections of period as gunner aboard HMS Bentinck at Boston, United States of America and Bermuda, 5/1943-6/1943: duties in gunner's party; open heads; messdeck and bunk beds; laundry; replacement of cafeteria with general messing system; rations; canteen; reaction to welded construction and story of ruse employed to delay completion of ship; armament; comparison with American Buckley Class destroyers; commissioning ceremony and origins of name; sea trials at Cape Cod, United States of America and Bermuda.
REEL 6 Continues: escorting convoy from United States of America to GB via Freetown, Sierra Leone. Recollections of operations as gunner abaord HMS Bentinck, 4th Escort Group in GB coastal waters, North Atlantic, Mediterranean and Arctic, 10/1943-5/1945: opinion of captain Commander Evelyn Chavasse; effects of refit on crew facilities and increased depth charge provision; ship's rolling and question of seasickness; opinion of various officers and crew members including captain, Commander Evelyn Chavasse; question of composition of 4th Escort Group; escort role with convoys in North Atlantic; clashes with German submarines and recovery of human remains; bridge and crows nest lookout duty.
REEL 7 Continues: action stations on port twin Oerlikon 20mm Cannon; seasickness suffered by Able Seaman Ronald Crags; instances of firing Oerlikon 20mm Cannon at German Air Force Focke Wulf Fw 200 Condor aircraft and floating mine; depth charges; watch system; cleaning and painting ship; recreational activities; letter contact with GB; relations with fellow seamen; seaman's photographs; sleeveless shirts; washing clothes; story of theft of socks; rum ration and collection for bartering; crew morale and influence of officers.
REEL 8 Continues: German Air Force glider bomb attack and narrow escape from acoustic torpedo during operations in Bay of Biscay, North Atlantic, 12/1943; personal morale and fatigue; problems with Portuguese fishing vessels and lack of action during convoy escort duties to Naples, Italy; collecting fruit; problem with propeller shaft vibration; sailing regatta; shore leave in Naples, Italy, including story of seamens' reaction to case of animal cruelty, relations with Italian civilians and black market activities; story of accidentally firing at Allied aircraft and airship; disappearance of unpopular bosun; harbour routine and painting ship; visits to Paradise Dance Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland; relations with civilians in Northern Ireland; drinking habits; relations with crews of ships of 4th Escort Group.
REEL 9 Continues: stories of leave in Walsall, London, Doncaster and Nairn; opinion of captain, Commander Robert Garwood and story of photographs taken of crew; searching for German submarines inside Irish waters; question of unnecessary ramming of German submarine U-1051 by HMS Alymer in Irish Sea, 26/1/1945; success in sinking German submarines U-774 and U-636, 4/1945; Arctic convoy to Polyarno, Soviet Union, 5/1945; impressions of visit ashore at Polyarno, Soviet Union; VE Day at sea, 8/5/1945; drafting of seamen into British Army; painting ship; leave; period in Royal Naval Barracks, HMS Victory, Portsmouth, 5/1945-7/1945; demobilisation, 7/1945. Aspects of period as civilian in Walsall, GB, 1945-1946: difficulty in acclimatising to civilian lifestyle.
REEL 10 Continues: decision not to return to garage work; work as sports goods sales representative; background to failed attempt to rejoin Royal Navy and enlistment in Royal Air Force, 12/1946. Aspects of period as aircraftman at No 2 Recruit Centre, RAF at RAF Cardington, GB, 12/1946-1/1947: status as recruit; uniform; basic training; compulsory wearing of medal ribbons and reaction of drill sergeant; story of helping repair officer's car; duties as officer's driver; attending crane driving course at Garstang, 1947. Aspects of period as NCO crane driver with bomb disposal team at RAF Ashbourne, GB, 1947-1948: duties loading dangerous bombs into lorries and accompanying convoy for sea dumping; promotion to corporal. Recollections of period as instructor with No 51 Mechanical Transport Coy, RAF at RAF El Hamra, Egypt, 1948-1953: flying out to take course at Basra, Iraq; organisation of crane driving school; responsibility for classroom lessons and teaching driving; living conditions of service; story of meeting wife and marriage, 1951; relations with Egyptian civilians.
REEL 11 Continues: visits to Cairo and Pyramids; swimming in Suez Canal; question of effects of tensions in Egypt and consequent extension of service; flight back to GB; demobilisation, 1953. Post-service life and employment: work as crane operator and as lorry driver with General Post Office engineers; attending reunion of HMS Calder Association, 1997; question of formation of a 4th Escort Group Association; role as vice-chairman and organising museum of Captain Class Frigate Association, 1998-2003.
