Interview with Oscar Harold Godfrey De Ville

British seaman served aboard HMS Belfast, 18th Cruiser Sqdn, Home Fleet in GB coastal waters and Arctic, 1943-1944; officer served with Coastal Forces in English Channel and North Sea, 1944-1945

REEL 1 Background in GB, 1925-1942: family; education. Aspects of enlistment and training as seaman at HMS Ganges, Shotley in GB, 1942-1943: attitude to war service with Royal Navy; background to volunteering for Royal Navy; pattern of training; importance of discipline; lack of recreational time; weapons training. Recollections of operations as seaman aboard HMS Belfast, 18th Cruiser Sqdn, Home Fleet in GB coastal water and Arctic, 1943-1944: drafting to cruiser; arrival on board ship; messing arrangements; problems of moving through ship during heavy gale; address by Rear Admiral Robert Burnett before service in Arctic; nature of first Arctic convoy to Kola Inlet, Soviet Union; ashore in Soviet Union; work on board; cruising and action stations on board. REEL 2 Continues: action station duties in shell room of B Turret; attitude to being battened down; lack of recreational activities; opinion of officers and petty officers; contrast to discipline in army and navy; weather conditions during Battle of North Cape, 26/12/1943; importance of radar during first encounter with German battleship Scharnhorst; description of Battle of North Cape, 26/12/1943; duties with hospital party and reaction to burial at sea; role of Royal Marines; aftermath of action; attitude towards Germans and Japanese; treatment of German Navy prisoner of war after Battle of North Cape, 26/12/1943; conditions in shell room during action; fate of reindeer given to ship by Soviet Navy; leaving ship in Rosyth. REEL 3 Continues: parent's concern about his being in action. Aspects of training as officer cadet at HMS King Alfred, Hove in GB, 1944: pattern of training; value of training. Recollections of period as officer with Coastal Forces in English Channel and North Sea, 1944-1945: move to Normandy, France; threats off beachhead; move to Antwerp, Belgium to aid navigation of River Schledt, 11/1944; sight of German V2 Rocket being fired; duties on board motor torpedo boat off beachhead in Normandy, France; conditions on board smaller vessels and contrast with larger ships; handling motor torpedo boats; attitude of Germans at Cuxhaven, Germany, 5/1945. Recollections of period as officer aboard minesweeper in Indian Ocean, 1945-1946: minesweeping duties; character of minesweeper; taking command; relations with United States Navy. REEL 4 Continues: state of Singapore, Malaya on arrival, 9/1945; reaction to sight of former internees in Singapore, Malaya; ashore in British Borneo; effects of service in tropics; question of staying on in Royal Navy. Reflections on service with Royal Navy in Second World War: question of gradual post-war decline in standard of managers who lacked wartime service; attitude to service in Second World War; attitude towards Japanese; opinion of present state of armed forces and society; question of presence of bromide in tea.