Description
Object description
British signalman served aboard HMS Belfast in GB coastal waters, Arctic and during Normandy landings, 1943-1944; served on shore duties with Signal Station, Beachy Head, GB, 1944-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Leyton and Hastings, GB, 1924- 1942: family; education. Aspects of period as private with 5th Bn Northamptonshire Regt, Home Guard in Naseby, GB, 1940-1942: joining Home Guard; attitude to service in Home Guard; story of hospitality received from army. Aspects of enlistment and training as signalman with Royal Navy in GB, 1942-1943: enlistment, 12/1942; friction with instructor; story of post-war exercise with Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve; pattern of signal training; degree of general naval training at HMS Collingwood, Fareham. Recollections of operations as signalman aboard HMS Belfast in GB coastal waters, Arctic and during Normandy landings, 1943-1944: playing golf with Admiral Robert Burnett; opinion of Captain Frederick Parham.
REEL 2 Continues: fate of ship's white ensign after Battle of North Cape; further details of Admiral Robert Burnett's games of golf; joining ship in dock; 'land sickness'; location of mess; ship's cat; issue of sheepskin coats; watch system; signal practice ashore in Iceland; discipline on board; relations between officers and other ranks; story of relieving signalman whilst officer on board ship in later service; command structure on board and his place within it.
REEL 3 Continues: leave; consumption of alcohol and tobacco; degree of contact with naval members of his family during war; convoy escort duties in Arctic; his abandon ship station; lack of contact with U- boats; role during Battle of North Cape, 12/1943; story of narrow escape during post-war target towing; fate of Scharnhorst survivors; second hand story of German reconnaissance aircraft circling convoy; story of receiving amusing signal during post war trip on submarine.
REEL 4 Continues: visit by King George V at Scapa Flow; leave after Battle of North Cape; secondment to HMS Diadem; narrow escape from torpedoing during convoy escort aboard HMS Diadem in Arctic; conditions in Arctic; Admiral Robert Burnett talk in hangar; participation in D-Day landings, 6/6/1944; sinking of HMS Swift, 6/1944. Aspects of period as signalman with Signal Station, Beachy Head, GB, 1944-1946: drafting to station after compassionate leave; meteorological work; duties at station.
REEL 5 Continues: Reflections on service with Royal Navy and Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, 1942-1972: reasons for HMS Belfast being a happy ship; period with Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve; story of visit to New Scotland Yard; commissioning as Sea Cadet officer with Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve; attitude to having served with Royal Navy during Second World War; story of post war signalling from ship on exercise with Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve; attitude to serving during Second World War; explanation of term 'backwards biffa'.