Description
Object description
British cadet with Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, GB, 1940-1941; midshipman served aboard HMS King George V in GB coastal waters and North Atlantic, 1940-1941; served aboard HMS Prince of Wales in GB coastal waters, North Atlantic, Mediterranean and Far East, 1941, including sinking off Malaya, 10/12/1941; served aboard HMS Exeter in Indian Ocean, 12/1941-3/1942, including sinking 1/3/1942; prisoner of war in Makassar and Poemalla Camp, Celebes Island, Bicycle Camp, Batavia and Bandoeng Camp, Java, Dutch East Indies, 3/1942-8/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background on Jersey, Channel Islands, 1922-1940: family; education; decision to leave Jersey, 1940. Aspects of period as cadet at Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, GB, 1940: status as special entry cadet with Royal Indian Navy; question of how to salute; arrival at college; origin of cadets; pattern of training; character of petty officer instructors; graduating from Royal Naval College, 12/1940; loss of brother in law flying with Coastal Command, RAF. Aspects of period as midshipman aboard HMS King George V in GB coastal waters and North Atlantic, 1/1940-2/1941: appointment to battleship at Scapa Flow; presence of Prime Minister Winston Churchill on board; navigation training on board; messing arrangements; entertaining United States Navy personnel on board during visit to United States of America. Aspects of operations as midshipman aboard HMS Prince of Wales in GB coastal waters, North Atlantic, Mediterranean and Far East, 2/1941-12/1941: joining battleship at HMNB Rosyth; character of ship.
REEL 2 Continues: problems during working up period; attitude to participating in hunt for German battleship Bismarck, 5/1941; description of ship's plot; duties in plotting room; effects of shell hit on bridge; reaction to shelling received from German battleship Bismarck; design fault with ship's fuel capacity; burial of casualties from Bismarck action; move to Iceland; sight of damage to ship witnessed in dry dock at HMNB Rosyth; leave in London; facilities at Scapa Flow; duties with ship's boats and launches; problems of negotiating jetty at Queensferry; escorting Malta convoy in Mediterranean, 9/1941; question of defending ship against torpedo bomber attack and engaging enemy more closely.
REEL 3 Continues: arrangements for carrying Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his staff to Newfoundland for Atlantic Charter signing, 8/1941; visit to gun room by Prime Minister Winston Churchill to meet midshipmen; opinion of Prime Minister Winston Churchill; arrival of President Franklin D Roosevelt on board; Prime Minister Winston Churchill's watching films on board; steaming through convoy on return voyage to GB; ashore at Cape Town, South Africa; arrival in Singapore, Malaya, 12/1941; relations between Captain John Leach and Admiral Tom Phillips; reasons for lack of air cover for ships; ashore in Singapore, Malaya; change in his action station.
REEL 4 Continues: Aspects of sinking of HMS Prince of Wales, Force Z off Malaya, 10/12/1941: attack by Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service aircraft and loss of power to ship's anti-aircraft guns; sight of HMS Repulse sinking; abandoning ship and rescue by destoyer HMS Express; reaction to sight of HMS Prince of Wales turning over in water; arrival of Royal Air Force Brewster Buffalo aircraft overhead; number of midshipmen lost; reaction to sinking of HMS Prince of Wales. Aspects of period as midshipman aboard HMS Exeter in Indian Ocean, 1/1942-3/1942, including sinking 1/3/1942: joining ship for transfer to Ceylon; reaction to appointment to ship; joining scratch force of Allied warships, 2/1942; description of Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service attack on ship, 13/2/1942; use of BL 8 Inch Naval Guns in anti-aircraft role; role during First Battle of the Java Sea, 25/2/1942; Imperial Japanese Navy attacks on ship during Second Battle of the Java Sea, 1/3/1942.
REEL 5 Continues: abandoning ship and rescue by Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer, 1/3/1942. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Makassar and Poemalla Camps, Celebes Island, Bicycle Camp, Batavia and Bandoeng Camp, Java, Dutch East Indies, 3/1942-8/1945: conditions on board captured Royal Netherlands Navy hospital ship, HNLMS Op Ten Noort; Japanese captors' attitude to prisoners; arrival at Makassar Camp on Celebes Island; latrines and ablution facilities; behaviour of Imperial Japanese Army camp commandant; treatment and execution of Dutch escapees; contrast between British and Dutch prisoner of war morale; opinion of senior camp officer; transfer to Poemalla Camp, 1/1943; organisation of work; long delays in parent's receiving news; rations; Japanese captors' order to shave of facial hair and hair on head; return to Mackassar Camp; presence of Japanese women near camp; Imperial Japanese Army guards failure to kill buffalo.
REEL 6 Continues: conditions in Poemalla Camp, 1/1943-9/1943; Japanese commandant's reaction to return of prisoners of war to Makassar Camp, 9/1943; transfer to Bicycle Camp, Batavia, 10/1943; behaviour of Imperial Japanese Army commandant at Bicycle Camp, Batavia; use of illicit radio; hearing news of progress of war; origins of Imperial Japanese Army guards; question of number of prisoner of war deaths; weight loss; move to Bandoeng Camp, 10/1944; receiving beating from Imperia Japanese guard; change in attitude of Australian prisoners of war towards him after beating.
REEL 7 Continues: poor conditions in Bandoeng Camp, 1945; planning for end of war; awareness of Japanese surrender; behaviour of Japanese after end of war; return to Bicycle Camp Batavia, 8/1945; impressions of Laurence van der Post; story of missing draft to ship that was sunk, 1944; arrival of Red Cross parcels; question of survival in and escape from camp; nature of prisoner of war entertainments during early captivity; Imperial Japanese Army orders to kill all prisoners of war; attitude to incarceration; lack of homosexuality in camp.
REEL 8 Continues: arrival of small Royal Navy force, 8/1945; reception on board Royal Navy minesweeper; attitude towards Japanese; voyage from Java, Dutch East Indies to Singapore, Malaya in landing craft; sight of Japanese prisoners or war unloading cargo on docks at Singapore, Malaya; speech from Lord Louis Mountbatten; return to GB and reunion with parents on Jersey, Channel Islands; medical inspection; question of treatment in Japanese prisoner of war camps. Post-war life aand employment: leaving Royal Indian Navy, 1947; return to civilian employment; attitude to service with Royal Navy.
