Description
Object description
British signaller served aboard HMS Sunflower on Atlantic convoys, 1942-1943; served aboard HMS Mendip on East Coast convoys and in Mediterranean, 1943; served with Royal Navy Headquarters in Algeria, 1943; served with Allied Headquarters in Italy, 1943-1944; served with Royal Naval Headquarters at Whitehall, London, 1945-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Holborn, London, 1924-1942: father's military background; social circumstances and family background; education and sporting activities; wok as office boy, 1938-1939; call up of father and air raid alarm on outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; work as messenger boy with Press Liaison Office, Ministry of Information, mallet Street, 1939-1941; Boy and Sea Scouts activities; training with Home Guard based at MOI including guard duties, instructors and training exercises; work as clerk with Censors Dept, MOI, 1940-1941; work as trainee journalist with Universal Press Service, Fleet Street, 1941-1942; air raid shelters and German air raids.
REEL 2 Continues: air raid shelters and effects of German air raids; opinion of IWM air raid shelter exhibition; Boy Scouts role assisting evacuated Gibraltar civilians accommodated in hotels; personal morale; temporary evacuation from home sue to nearby fire; background to volunteering to join Royal Navy, 3/1942; call up, 4/1942. Recollections of conditions of service and lifestyle at HMS Royal Arthur Shore Station, Skegness, 4/1942-10/1942: kitting out; colour vision test; vaccinations; chalet accommodation; food rations; drill; fire piquet duty; training as signaller; minimal seamanship training; competitive swimming; relationship with recruits and instructors.
REEL 3 Continues: recreations and PT; passing examinations as ordinary signaller. Period at detached signal camp at Borstal, 10/1942. Recollections of period as ordinary signaller aboard HMS Sunflower based at Londonderry, Northern Ireland, 10/1942-2/1943: first impressions on joining ship; nature of communications mess deck; hammocks and bunks; nature of Atlantic convoy to St Johns, Newfoundland, 10/1942, including weather conditions, seasickness, ship's rolling, U Boat attacks and depth charges; watch system; duties as signaller on bridge; cold conditions and kapok suit; cleaning mess; messing system and food; relationship with ratings, leading signaller and officers; visits ashore at Londonderry and question of threat from IRA; Atlantic convoy, 12/1942, including loss of escorts.
REEL 4 Continues: Atlantic convoy, 12/1942, including story of rescue of survivors from torpedoed HMS Firedrake, 17/12/1943, delays, RAF Coastal Command escorts and return voyage; leaving ship due to refit, 2/1943. Period aboard HMS Mendip escorting East Coast convoys and based at Sheerness, 3/1943-6/1943: nature of E boat threat; nature of ship; crowded mess deck; canteen messing system and food; washing and maintaining uniform; two watch system; visits ashore at Sheerness; nature of convoys including destroyer and MTB escorts, duties on bridge, E Boat tactics, German air attacks, German shore battery fire in Dover area, barrage balloon defences and RAF support; story of naked WRENS swimming; sailor's tattoos; refit at Chatham; escorting convoy to Gibraltar, 4/1943.
REEL 5 Recollections of operating in Mediterranean based at Algiers, 6/1943-1/1944: close escape from bomb during convoy to Malta; opinion of Captain Parry; visits to North African ports; invasion of Sicily, 7/1943; German bombing attacks on Malta and Algiers; landings at Salerno, Italy, 9/1943, including damage during German bombing attacks, casualties amongst landing troops and fire from German tanks on beach; duties in after wireless station; move to Naples; attending Thanksgiving dinner on US ship; shore bombardments in River Garigliano sector; rest period at Malta and Tripoli; refit at Gibraltar; attempts to interfere with wireless control of German glider bombs; escorting convoys to Italy; Christmas celebrations, 25/12/1943; story of accidental injury to knee, 31/12/1943. Period in hospital at Algiers, 1/1944-4/1944.
REEL 6 Continues: Period at HMS Hannibal Shore Station, Algiers, 4/1944-7/1944: duties in wireless office of naval staff Headquarters; question of returning to HMS Mendip. Period at Allied Headquarters at Casserta, Italy, 7/1944-7/1945: conditions of service; presence of WREN personnel and dances; relationship with Italian civilian staff; hospitalisation with appendicitis and convalescence; leave in Rome; VE Day, 8/5/1945; return voyage aboard Georgic to GB, 7/1945. Period based at Chatham, 7/1945-11/1945. Period at Wireless Signal Station, The Citadel, Whitehall, 11/1945-4/1946: nature of underground HQ and tunnels; role logging signals from Australia; VJ Day celebrations, 8/1945; use of teleprinters; continuation of knee problems. Demobilisation, 6/1946. Post-war career: work at MOI and Central Office of Information.
REEL 7 Continues: continuation of knee problems, medical operations and question of disability pension; membership of various veterans associations including British Legion, Royal Naval Association, HMS Royal Arthur Association and Flower Class Corvettes Association.
