Hogben, George Lawrence (Oral history)

New Zealand officer served as Instructor Officer aboard HMS Sussex and HMS Sheffield in Atlantic, Mediterranean and Arctic, 1940-1943; served with Royal Navy as member of Admiralty meteorological team in London during Normandy landings, 6/Jun/1944

REEL 1: Aspects of period in New Zealand, 1916-1939: family background and education; story of applying for Rhodes Scholarship, 1938-1938; story of working passage to GB as assistant steward aboard MV Essex, 1939. Aspects of period in GB, 1939-1940: studied mathematics at Oxford University; sporting activities including hockey; story of trip to St Petersburg, Russia, 1939; reaction to Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact; story about hearing news of outbreak of war while at British Embassy in Moscow, 9/1939; story of selling suit to pay for flight to; in Stockholm; description of journey back to GB via Norway. Aspects of training with Royal Navy in GB, 1939-1940: story of applying for post with Royal Navy Instructor Branch; description of training and exams at Royal Naval College, Greenwich; drafted to cruiser HMS Sussex as Instructor Officer, 1940. Aspects of operations with Royal Navy as Instructor Officer aboard HMS Sussex in Atlantic, 1940: story of losing personal possessions when bomb hit ship while on leave, 1940; duties as Instructor Officer including plotting and position of ship; description of plotting table and charts; liaison with navigating officer and plotting officer; scale of maps; role of Instructor Officer controlling radar and interpreting radar signals and other duties including plotting aircraft and surface vessels REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of operations with Royal Navy as Instructor Officer aboard HMS Sheffield in Mediterranean, Atlantic and Arctic, 1940-1943 location of HQ in Gibraltar; role escorting Malta convoys; problem of Italian air attacks; reaction to seeing MV Essex in Malta; description of bombardment of Genoa; story of carrying US troops to Algiers; role as sports officer; daily routine and duties aboard ship; played piano in officers’ mess and for crew; opinion of captain and commander; story of failing to intercept French convoy due to captain’s incompetence; opinion of Capt A. W. Clarke and Commander Searle; role on selection board for candidates to be commissioned; story of pursuing German battleship Bismarck with Force H in Atlantic, 1941; further comments on playing hockey player; role of midshipman and rating in plotting; attitude to Bismarck being at large; reaction to loss of HMS Hood; story of formation of Force H; use of radar to locate Bismarck. REEL 3 Continues: further comments on use of radar to locate Bismarck; weather conditions; story of HMS Sheffield being mistaken for Bismarck and fired on by HMS Ark Royal; description of navigational error while shadowing Bismarck and coming within firing range; description of shell from Bismarck hitting radar room and death of five crew; opinion of Captain Larkin’s orders to continue shadowing Bismarck; assigned to protect HMS Ark Royal from aircraft fire; further comments on Captain Larkin’s competence and subsequent award of DSO; role of commander aboard ship; sailed to Gibraltar to sink German supply ships; attitude to flying as navigator in Supermarine Walrus; description of sailing in Arctic convoys to Murmansk; weather conditions and forecasts; role of HMS Sheffield in Battle of Barents Sea; story of engaging German ships in darkness; duties working on radar plots for guns; story of challenging Admiral Burnett’s plot and subsequent award of DSC; further comments on Cpt. Larkin REEL 4 Continues: further comments on Cpt. A W Clarke; opinion of training for senior naval officers; opinion of Admiral Burnett and Commander Searle. Aspects of period with Royal Navy in GB, 1943-1945: story of being selected for Admiralty meteorological team in London, 1943; duties preparing weather forecasts; selected as meteorological officer for D-Day as part of six man team; method of analysing data; opinion of accuracy of US five day weather forecasts; story of advising to postpone invasion from 5th to 6th June 1944; further duties as meteorological officer providing weather forecasts including intended invasion of Japan, 1945; demobilized, 1946. Aspects of post-war life and career: worked as commercial weather forecaster and with ICI; story of taking PhD in meteorology at Imperial College London, 1950.