Description
Object description
British telegraphist served aboard HMS Goodall in Atlantic and Arctic, 1944-1945 including sinking, 29/4/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Bethnal Green and Stepney, London 1926-1940: social circumstances; education; sporting activities; installation of Anderson shelter; issue of gas masks; blackout; reactions to outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; work at coffee and tea merchant; camping; BBC radio reports; fire watching at plywood factory; service with Local Defence Volunteers/Home Guard at Mile End Drill Hall, 1940-1942, including reasons for joining, story of misfire with spigot mortar, uniform, guard duties, close escape in rifle accident, training, story of acting as sniper in street fighting exercise, weapons training, slit trenches prepared on Hackney Marshes; acting as runner for anti-aircraft battery; effects of German air raids.
REEL 2 Continues: bomb damage to workplace and homes; father's role as chief ARP warden; close escape from bombs; effects of German incendiary air raid; volunteering for boy service with Royal Navy, 1942. Recollections of period training at Royal Arthur Shore Station, Skegness, 1943: reception; chalet accommodation; morning routine; food rations; drill; PT and route marches; absence of weapons training; knots. Period training as Telegraphist at HMS Shrapnel, Glasgow, 1943-1944: prior experience in Morse code; aptitude tests; training in Morse code; changing wireless coils and batteries; relationship with recruits and instructors; question of refusal to nominate religion in pay book. Period at Chatham Barracks, 5/1944. Recollections of service as ordinary Telegraphist aboard HMS Goodall based largely at Gladstone Dock, Liverpool, 6/1944-4/1945: first impressions of ship; communications mess; presence of bunks and assignment to hammock.
REEL 3 Continues: laundry; nature of wireless office; story of Lieutenant Delaway receiving shock from transmitting wireless; role receiving coded messages; wireless silence; watch system; role as cook of mess; question of cleaning duties as Telegraphist; recreations; relationship with ratings and arrangement of various messes; opinion of Petty Officer Finlay, Signals Officer 'Knocker' White, Lieutenant Delaway and Lieutenant Commander James Fulton; question of all welded construction; shore leave in Litherland and Liverpool; anti-submarine patrols off Northern Ireland, 6/1944; seasickness and ship's rolling characteristic; trips to Iceland; U-Boat alarms and failed attempt to rescue victims from sinking ferry; operations with HMS Vindex; procedure on Asdic contact.
REEL 4 Continues: nature of routine; recreations; personal morale; sinking of HMS Bullen, 6/12/1944, including reaction to subsequent sinking of U 297 and loss of ship's rescue whaler due to HMS Hesperus; reactions to wireless reports of sinking of HMS Affleck and HMS Capel, 26/12/1944; question of wireless broadcasts through tannoy; anti-submarine sweeps and inshore work. Recollections of escorting Convoy, JW66 to Pollyanna, Soviet Union, 4/1945: prior rumours; question of cold conditions; change of action station to emergency wireless station and role in event of destruction of main wireless office; quiet voyage out; attitude of Soviet troops and children during shore leave in Pollyanna; role screening minelaying of Operation Trammel; story of being propositioned by female Soviet signaller. Recollections of being torpedoed by U 968 while escorting Convoy RA66 through Kola Inlet, 29/4/1945: situation; floating mines; view of sinking of U 307; Asdic contact; effects of torpedo strike, ca 19.30; story of being trapped in emergency wireless cabin; escape; attempt to help Telegraphist Fry; failed attempt to reach wireless office and state of burning ship.
REEL 5 Continues: state of bridge are and focsle; corpses; orders from Lieutenant Delaway to move to stern; corpses; question of removal of fuses from depth charges; move forward on starboard side to look for survivors; explosion of Oerlicken ammunition and inability to reach Telegraphist Fenwick; rescue of wounded stoker from engine room; burning oil on sea; abandoning ship; holding on to cork float net; effects of cold; death of wounded stoker; clothes; effects of oil on eyes; escaping form encircling flames; question of other survivors; question of Carley floats on port side of ship; sea conditions; question of losing consciousness; effect of depth charge detonations; losing consciousness; rescue with assistance by rope thrown from HMS Honeysuckle; treatment; issue of survivors kit; transfer to HMS Vindex; coincidental meeting with neighbour in civilian life; reactions to noise of aircraft taking off; personal morale and reaction to heavy casualties; surviving signallers; treatment on arrival in London on VE Day, 8/5/1945; story of telephoning parents. Period at Chatham Barracks, 5/1945: kitting out; de-briefing over fate of confidential codebooks; compensation payment for lost personal possessions.
REEL 6 Continues: reactions of petty officer to death of his son; inadequate treatment as survivors and story of wearing red star in protest; kitting out; recall early from survivors leave; reactions to Far East posting. Aspects of period aboard HMS Derby Haven at Singapore, 6/1945-11/1946: voyage out; role as motor launch depot ship; motor launch coastal anti-smuggling patrols; impressions of Singapore; story of boxing match to supplement pay; increasing mental problems and unwillingness to consult doctors; story of cutting down attempted suicide. Voyage aboard Landing Ship Tank 304 to GB, ca 11/1946: effect of storms; story of developing nervous shakes. Demobilisation at Chatham Barracks, 11/1946: lack of prior knowledge and failed attempt to stay in Royal Navy; question of strain of subsequently meeting families of victims aboard HMS Goodall. Post-war career: initial work for electrical contractors; panic attacks; acceptance for work as plumber and then housing officer with Stepney Council despite medical report indicating nervous disability.
REEL 7 Continues: doctor's medical report diagnosing anxiety neurosis; developing symptoms of agoraphobia and question of treatment; work as housing officer with Greater London Council, 1950-1978; symptoms of agoraphobia and eventual early retirement, 1978; diagnosis with agoraphobia and claustrophobia; assistance from British Legion in successful application for disability pension from War Pension Board, 1993; attitude to taking disability pension; question of contacts with old comrades, membership of naval associations, contacts with members of crew of U-968 crew and attitude to Germans.