Interview with George Burridge

British seaman served as radar operator aboard HMS Belfast, 10th Cruiser Sqdn, Home Fleet in GB coastal waters, Arctic and English Channel during Normandy Landings, 9/1942-8/1944

REEL 1 Background in Haslemere, GB, 1923-1939: family; education; family home; hobbies; employment with General Post Office; membership of 13th (Haslemere) Bn Surrey Home Guard; attitude towards Second World War. Aspects of enlistment and training with Royal Navy in GB, 1942: call up for basic training at HMS Glendower, Pwllheli; radar training at HMS Valkyrie, Douglas Head, Isle of Man; adjusting to naval life. Recollections of operations as radar operator aboard HMS Belfast, 10th Cruiser Sqdn, Home Fleet in GB coastal waters, Arctic and English Channel during Normandy Landings, 9/1942-8/1944: joining ship at Devonport, 9/1942; character of mess deck arrangements; effects of rough seas, 2/1943; messing arrangements; laundry facilities and importance of personal hygiene; role as radar operator on board ship. REEL 2 Continues: seaman duties; watch keeping duties; organisation of radar branch; operating different types of radar; action stations; shore leave in Iceland and Scapa Flow, GB; use of spare time; entertainment in Soviet Union; use of Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI); religious service and Sunday divisions; degree of disciplinary problems; make and mend; contact with home; reasons why HMS Belfast was a happy ship; impressions of Captain Frederick Parham and Admiral Robert Burnett; role fitting radar in Devonport, 9/1942; adjusting to naval life on board ship; start of convoy duties from Loch Ewe; damage caused by storm in North Atlantic, 2/1943. REEL 3 Continues: threat of being washed overboard; conditions on board mess deck; weather conditions and de-icing ship in Arctic; number of trips made to Soviet Union; effect of ship being flag ship of squadron; presence of German Air Force reconnaissance aircraft over convoy; start of Battle of North Cape, 25/12/1943; reaction to having to engage German battleship Scharnhorst alone after hit on HMS Norfolk; role recording position of ships on radar plot; blowing off of armoured doors of plot room by firing of ship's own guns; sight of German battleship Scharnhorst on fire and sinking, 26/12/1943; atmosphere aboard ship during action; sight of German battleship Scharnhorst's continuing to fire although sinking, 26/12/1943; reaction to sinking of German battleship Scharnhorst; role of ship conducting shore bombardment of Normandy, France, 6/1944; work in plotting room and sight of landing ships, English Channel, D-Day, 6/6/1944; routine nature of shore bombardment off Normandy, France, 6/1944-7/1944; reaction to drafting away from HMS Belfast. REEL 4 Continues: Aspects of period as seaman with Royal Navy in Far East, 1944-1945: voyage from GB to Ceylon; duties in Ceylon; conditions aboard destroyer HMS Volage; encounter with whale; dental work at sea; contrast in discipline aboard small and larger ships; return to GB and demobilisation, 1945; adjusting to civilian life and employment with General Post Office after service with Royal Navy.