Bonner, Alec (Oral history)

British wireless operator served aboard HMS Belfast, 10th Cruiser Sqdn in North Atlantic, Arctic and North Sea, 1942-1943

REEL 1 Recollections of background in Croydon and Crystal Palace, GB, 1924-1939: period in children's' home in Crystal Palace; education; Boy Scout Movement activities; employment; living with foster mother. Aspects of period as civilian in Crystal Palace, GB, 1939-1941: declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; air raid precautions; effect of German Air Force raids; work as clerk, 1940-1941; rationing. Aspects of enlistment and training with Royal Navy in GB and Isle of Man, 2/1941-11/1942: background to volunteering for service with Royal Navy, 2/1941; basic training at Onchan Head Camp, Isle of Man, 2/1941-4/1941; reception and kitting out; use of chalets for accommodation; drill; physical training; prevalence of cigarette smoking; selection for signal training at . HMS St George, Douglas, Isle of Man, 11/1941-10/1942; learning Morse Code; wireless training; period on draft at Devonport, 1942. Aspects of period as signalman aboard HMS Belfast, 10th Cruiser Sqdn in GB coastal waters, North Atlantic and Arctic, 11/1942-6/1943: initial impressions on joining cruiser at Devonport, GB, 11/1942; seasickness and rough weather during voyage to Scapa Flow, GB; reasons for flooded mess decks; nature of mess deck including hammocks and locker. REEL 2 Continues: wireless and decoding duties in main wireless office; visits ashore at Reykjavik, Iceland; relations with lower deck; story of man overboard; opinion of Admiral Robert Burnett and Captain Frederick Parham; working up trials; action stations in forward director control tower; regatta in fjord; role shadowing convoys as protection against emergence of German battleship Tirpitz; visit ashore at Murmansk, Soviet Union; visits to canteen at Scapa Flow, GB; leaving ship, 6/1943. Aspects of period as wireless operator with Naval Party 1105 in India, Burma and Malaya, 1943-1945: voyage out; living conditions; detachment aboard radar barge; detachment to motor launch patrol; establishing wireless station at Akyab Island, Burma; relations with American service personnel. REEL 3 Continues: landing at Port Swettenham, Malaya; establishing wireless station; return to GB, 12/1945. Aspects of career with Royal Navy, 1946-1950: destruction of aircraft dumped from HMS Premier into North Sea; period on Landing Ship Tank (LST); question of demobilisation, 1950; post-service civilian career.