Description
Object description
British seaman served as radar operator aboard HMS Pylades in North Atlantic and English Channel, 1943-1944 including sinking by human torpedo off Normandy, 8/7/1945; served as butcher aboard HMS Zodiac in GB coastal waters and Arctic, 1944-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Watford, 1925-1943: family background and social circumstances; education; work as butcher's delivery boy, 1939; recreations; reactions to outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; food rationing; recruitment and training with Home Guard, 1940-1943, including training, use of rifle grenade, story of route march and guard duties; Anderson air raid shelter; German air raids; fire watching and putting out incendiary bombs; medical and rejection as butcher on call up into Royal Navy, 3/1943.
REEL 2 Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine during training at HMS Glendower Shore Station, Pwhelwhi, 3/1943-6/1943: prior train journey; reception and kitting out; chalet accommodation; food rations; drill and weapons training; gun turret simulation; PT; swimming test; seamanship training including heaving lead, boxing compass, knots and splices, rowing whalers, seasickness and signal flags; pillbox night guard duty; relationship with recruits; recreational visits to Pwhelwhi and relationship with civilians; relationship with instructors.
REEL 3 Continues: preparing for kit inspections. Period at Portsmouth Barracks, 7/1943-10/1943: discipline; volunteering for dockyard working parties; butchery course and qualification as naval butcher; meat rations packs; hammocks. Voyage aboard Aquitania to Halifax, Novia Scotia, Canada, 10/1943. Period at Asbury park, New Jersey, US, 10/1943-11/1943: prior train journey; hotel accommodation; attending US civic parade; minimal duties and recreations; relationship with US civilians and personnel. Recollections of period as radar operator aboard HMS Pylades, 12/1943-7/1944: joining ship on completion at Savannah, Georgia, 12/1943; rejection as ship's butcher and posting as radar operator; training on PPI radarscope; nature of ship as minesweeper; question of welded construction; messdeck.
REEL 4 action stations in radar room; minesweeping training at Bermuda; methods of sweeping varying types of mines; duties setting fuses on 3" gun; degaussing; abandon ship exercise; opinion of Lieutenant Harris; general messing system and food; cocoa; question of seasickness; move to Argentia, Newfoundland, 2/1944; escort role, shortage of water and U Boat alarms on convoy to GB; period at Leith; story of radar contact with E Boat whilst acting as escort to East Coast convoy to Portsmouth, 6/1944.
REEL 5 Continues: leave in Watford; minesweeping off Normandy coast and night role forming protective 'Trout Line' off Sword Beach. Account of being sunk by German human torpedoes off Normandy, 8/7/1944: situation; action stations in wireless room; effects of explosion; move onto quarterdeck; getting blankets; 2nd explosion; abandoning ship; situation in water; watching ship sink; rescue by HMS Cockatrice; personal morale; transfer to deport ship HMS Southern Prince; treatment; difficulties during return to Portsmouth. Period in Portsmouth Barracks, 7/1944-9/1944: reception as survivor and privilege of walking across parade ground; survivor's leave and question of reaction to sinking; subsequent discovery of cause of sinking; volunteering for dockyard working parties; draft to HMS Zodiac in Southampton.
REEL 6 Recollections of period as butcher aboard HMS Zodiac, 9/1944-7/1946: sleeping ashore whilst storing ship at Southampton; initial lack of main armament; role as orderly 'gash' boat at Scapa Flow; equipment with 4.7" guns at Southampton, 12/1944; canteen messing system; role as butcher defrosting, cutting up and issuing frozen meat; role assisting in issue of general food rations and rum rations; mess deck; nature of convoy to Murmansk, Soviet Union, ca 4/1945, including escorts, weather conditions, situation in Kola Bay and use of smoke screen and depth charges against U Boat threat; period at Polyarnoe; question of contacts with Soviet civilians.
REEL 7 Continues: sinking of HMS Goodall and U Boat contacts in Kola Bay during return convoy, 4/1945; detachment from convoy; loading stores and role taking food supplies to Copenhagen, Denmark, 5/1945; news of VE Day, 8/5/1945; surrender of Prinz Eugen and Nuremberg on entry into Copenhagen harbour; situation in Copenhagen; move to Kiel, Germany; surrender of U Boats; visits ashore; passing through Kiel Canal and question of bomb damage; damage suffered in running aground; repairs at Wilhelmshaven; escorting German destroyer to Hull; opinion of Lieutenant Commander Beatty; 'showing the flag' tour of GB coastal towns; leaving ship, 7/1946. Period in camp at Portsmouth, 7/1946-9/1946. Demobilisation, 9/1946. Post-war career: various jobs; marriage, 1949; question of effects of war service.