tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80246739646507312592024-03-13T03:17:33.324-07:00My Dad's War.NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-22166703110022373302017-01-02T12:07:00.000-08:002017-01-02T12:07:02.573-08:00The End is nigh.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Dad’s Demob papers.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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At the end of the war there were 5
million in uniform so it can be recognised that the ‘system’ may not have been
running as smoothly as it should on paper. As I understand it men and women
went to a dispersal centre where their papers were issued, S1587A in Dad’s
case. If my theory is correct Dad may well have gone to the dispersal centre at
Hilsea which was the centre for Portsmouth. Here all the checks were made on
time served etc. They were given a medical and picked up their ‘demob’ clothes.
They apparently had a choice of a double breasted pin stripe suit, single
breasted jacket with flannel trousers or a three piece suit. To go with this
they could have a felt trilby or flat cap, a shirt with two collars, a tie, a pair
of shoes, two pairs of socks and a rain coat. Dad took a blue pin stripe suit
and in fact got married in it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Mum tells me that after 12<sup>th</sup>
July Dad’s Mum and Dad were going on holiday somewhere and asked if Dad could
go and work at Uncle Cyril and Aunty May’s farm in Preston for the harvest. I
assume that this is the time that Mum and Dad got together. Mum was telling me
their first date was a trip to Aldborough on Dad’s motorbike. They couldn’t go
on the beach as it was still mined and strewn with barbed wire. The bike had a
puncture in the rear tyre and Dad said that as he wasn’t pushing it all the way
back they rode home on the rim. Mum said her bum ached for ages afterwards. Mum
also says that Dad didn’t return to Hollis’s as he felt it was a dead end job
and he was just the office boy there. I suppose after being away at war he
wanted something better than before. <o:p></o:p></div>
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After the harvest he was asked to
join his Uncle down near London in a market gardening enterprise. It seemed
that his Uncle and another partner would take him on a for a trial period with
a view to making him a partner too. They had bought an ex-army lorry and Dad’s
job was to deliver the produce to Spittlefields Market. This meant Dad often working
through the night and often sleeping on a camp bed in the market or in the
lorry. He didn’t stick it very long and by Christmas was back home. Mum says he
was then out of work until around the June 1947. He was too proud to sign on
for unemployment benefit and had several ideas of things to do. One was to join
the Police Force, another was to make things out of Bakerlite. Things might
have been very different! Mum got a job with Fenners and Dad decided that he
would try there too. He was taken on and went over to the West Riding to work
up from the bottom in the pulley department, and the rest is history.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This wasn’t actually the complete
end to Dad’s Naval career as we was still in the reserve and there is a letter
dated 8<sup>th</sup> September 1947 confirming his enrollment as Temporary Sub
Lieutenant (SP). The Korean War started on 25<sup>th</sup> June 1950 and in his
records is a note that Dad attended a five day course at HMS Eaglet in
Liverpool 15<sup>th</sup> January 1951.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Dad even got a promotion as he was
given the rank of Acting Lieutenant (Sp) in the permanent RNVR on 30<sup>th</sup>
October 1953. The records seem to also show that Dad attended HMS Galatea for
cypher duties 12<sup>th</sup> April to 22<sup>nd</sup> April 1954. HMS Galatea
at this time was the RNVR Base in Hull that was situated on Earles Road, off
Hedon Road, which leads down to the area between Alexandra Dock and Victoria
Dock. Mind you, at this time Dad and Mum (and David and Robert) were living in
Nottingham. However it seems that Dad’s promotion was rescinded and he returned
to Sub Lieutenant and left the permanent reserve and back to the Supplementary
Reserve on 17<sup>th</sup> June 1954. I wonder if that was the general run down
of the forces after the Korean War ended in July 1953 or Dad was stripped for
other reasons, or simply resigned from the RNVR. I haven’t seen anything with
regard to this yet.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p> </o:p><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zemv97J_EDc/WGqw-rySAEI/AAAAAAAAMgE/M0_5t6PSa1onkYH_PL762aSvo7dtapJTQCLcB/s1600/118.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="382" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zemv97J_EDc/WGqw-rySAEI/AAAAAAAAMgE/M0_5t6PSa1onkYH_PL762aSvo7dtapJTQCLcB/s640/118.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Dad’s medals from left to right. 1935-45
Star, Atlantic Star with France and Germany clasp, Africa Star with North
Africa 1942-43 clasp, Pacific Star, Italy Star, War medal 1939-45.</i><i> </i></div>
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The 1939-45 Star was awarded for 6
months Service and at least on voyage through an operational area.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Atlantic Star was awarded for
6 months service afloat in the Atlantic or Home Waters. The France and Germany
Clasp was awarded instead of the France and Germany Star Medal that was awarded
for service from D Day onward.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The Africa Star only required one
days service between Suez and Gibraltar. The North Africa 1942-43 clasp was for
shore service between 15-Feb-42 to 12-Feb-43.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The Pacific Star was awarded for
any service in the theatre between 2-Dec-41 and 2-Sep-45.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Italy Star would have been
awarded to dad for the Sicily Landings.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The War Medal 1939-45 was given
for at least 28 days service during the war. It is sometimes called the Victory
medal.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Therefore if you include the
France and Germany Star that Dad had as a clasp on his Atlantic Star medal he
earned six campaign medals. He certainly got around a bit. The medals sold
individually would be worth less than £100. If they were sold together with
some corroboration they would get more, but I hope they stay in the family for
a long time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This biography has taken quite a
long time to accomplish, mainly due to being easily side tracked when spotting
some tit bit of information about other matters. (Such as experiments were made
to construct vessels made of ice in the Great Lakes to load with equipment and bring
to the UK on a once only use. Apparently the experiments to construct the
vessel were successful but all in all were too expensive!). I have tried to
stay faithful to the records and give a true account of what he did and what he
saw. This was much easier when he was a rating as he went from ship to ship. As
an officer it is much more difficult to track him and I have had to make some
suppositions as to where he went and what he did. I hope I have made these
clear throughout the text. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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It shows that from February 1941
to July 1946 Dad was at or near the centre of many of the momentous occasions
of the war. It can be entirely understood why he and many of his fellow
participants didn’t talk about those years in later life. It is also quite
surprising that there wasn’t many more cases of mental problems in the
following years. Mum does say that for many years afterwards Dad had nightmares
about his friend being decapitated next to him on a ship. I only wish that I
had thought to ask him about those days in the later years when he may have
been more willing to tell me about it and I could have added more anecdotes and
been more certain of the chronology of events.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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I hope you have found it
interesting and if you have any questions or suggestions please let me know.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-75462464555509449322016-12-19T11:57:00.004-08:002016-12-19T11:57:59.358-08:00Homeward bound.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br /></div>
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<i>Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser in 1943.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Admiral Fraser joined the
Royal Navy in 1902 and was at Galipolli. After the war he volunteered to assist
the White Russian Fleet in the Caspian but was arrested in Baku and imprisoned
for several months. We had several appointments as gunnery officer so will have
been well pleased with the accuracy of the shooting during the battle with the
Sharnhorst when he was Commander of the Duke of York when his unit intercepted
the German vessel as it tried to destroy an Arctic convoy. Around 75 salvos
were fired and around 30 were said to be straddles of hits.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Duke of York arrived in
Hong Kong on June 7<sup>th</sup> 1946 and Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser boarded the
vessel. I have no proof that Dad joined the vessel at this, or any time, but
the subsequent dates fit in so well that bit is hard not to draw that
conclusion. Mum also recognises the name so maybe it is the route he came home.
If this is the case there is another mystery as there are two reports on Dad
that were written for the termination of his appointment in Hong Kong and they
are dated 6<sup>th</sup> and 8<sup>th</sup> March 1946. One was the
confidential report that Dad would not see and a short one that was given to
the seaman to take to his next posting.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The first, and confidential
report, is written by Lieutenant Commander Wilfred John Parker. At this time he
had been with Rear Admiral Harcourt as his Signal Officer and went ashore when
Harcourt became the military Governor of Hong to ‘free prisoners, keep law and
order, re-open hospitals and organise children's parties, dances and cricket
matches’, as one of his obituaries puts it. Parker must have been a bit of a
‘go getter’ as he was aboard HMS Edinburgh when she was torpedoed carrying
Russian gold to the UK from Murmansk. They fought bravely to return to Murmansk
but were torpedoed a second time and the ship sank. After a couple of weeks
waiting in port he was posted to HMS Trinidad. They sailed for the UK and
straight away suffered a severe air attack. Fires were started by near misses
and the strong wind fanned the flames so much that the ship was abandoned and
later sunk by their own ships. Latter in the war he was mined on HMS Sheffield
and torpedoed on HMS Newfoundland, each time managing to return to port for
repairs. He had served with Admiral Cunningham and helped to organise the
landings on Sicily and now was the personal assistant to Harcourt in Hong Kong.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Dads report states ‘ <i>Has worked well both on A.C. 11’s staff and
on the staff of the Commander in Chief, Hong Kong, particularly in the latter appointment,
where he was working much more on his own. Has plenty of initiative which at
times was misdirected, but which was normally used with common sense. He has a
lazy manner and appearance, which is against him and which he should correct.
Of good physique and health</i>’. I wish I had seen this when he was at us when
we were a lot younger! I sense that there must have been at least one incident
that caused some of these comments, and would love to know what they were. The
report is counter signed by Vice Admiral Cecil Harcourt, Commander in Chief,
Hong Kong. Wilfred Parker went on to be a Vice Admiral in 1967 and Knighted in
1969 on his retirement.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The other short report, seen
by Dad, states the Dad ‘<i>had conducted
himself to my entire satisfaction. A good officer who has worked hard and well</i>’.
This one has been signed by Air Commodore Brian V. Reynolds who was actually
appointed the Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief, Hong Kong <o:p></o:p></div>
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10-Oct-45. We was promoted to
Air Commodore on the job, 1-Jan-46. Reynolds went on to be Knighted on 1-Jan-55
and promoted to Air Marshall 1-Jan-56. Maybe the report was better as Dad had
to see it (it was in Granny P’s records) or maybe as Reynolds had less direct
contact with Dad than the Signals Officer Parker.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The mystery is what did Dad
do between the end of this appointment in March 1946 and my idea that he got home
via the Duke of York in June? Mum seems to think that Dad had been to Singapore
for a while but there is no evidence of this so far. Did he commence his journey
home some other way? Actually the Duke of York called at Singapore so he could
have completed his repatriation on her anyway. For the purposes of the story I
will believe that he did sail on the Duke of York as there is no way I will be
able to track his route any other way.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Admiral Fraser, The Commander
in Chief of the British Pacific Fleet (just in case you had lost track of all
the Admirals) hoisted his flag on the Duke of York again and they sailed for
Singapore. I believe that Dad was onboard too. They arrived in Singapore on 11<sup>th</sup>
June. Here Admiral Fraser was relieved of Command of the British Pacific Fleet
by Admiral Sir Dennis Boyd. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This is the only time I can
find that Dad was in Singapore and I expect that he was there a few days. Mum says
that he saw POW’s from Changi camp and was there at the relief of the prison. I
suspect that there has been confusion of the story somewhere down the line as
he could well have been at the opening up of the Hong Kong prison camps as the
inmates stayed where they were until the Navy arrived. When Dad was in
Singapore on the Duke of York it was ten months after the surrender. There
could have been some severe cases that had been recuperating before transport
home that joined the vessel, but I somehow doubt it. The story must have been
regarding Hong Kong.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Admiral Fraser remained
aboard Duke of York when they sailed for Colombo. They then passed through the
Suez Canal and left Port Said 28<sup>th</sup> June and stopped off in Malta and
Gibraltar. They left Gib. On 8<sup>th</sup> July and arrived in Plymouth 11<sup>th</sup>
July. Dad has in the Portsmouth Division so if my guess is correct he would
have travelled to Portsmouth the following day as he received Order For Release
From Naval Service (Class A) (Officers) on 12-July-1946. It states that he has
been granted leave, none for foreign service leave as this had been completed,
(so that accounts for some of the missing time between March and June), 56 days
resettlement leave (that everybody had) and 9 days for special overseas service
leave. Dad would be free to take civilian employment at any time, may wear
civilian clothes but keep his uniform intact in case of recall and that
following his release he would remain in the reserve.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-50794365249340452482016-12-04T09:17:00.001-08:002016-12-04T09:17:14.537-08:00Waiting for De-Mob.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Prior to the Japanese Occupation
Hong Kong was governed on the usual Empire lines with the expatriate British
ruling and using certain ‘classes’ of locals to support them, but a strict
segregation was maintained. There were separate clubs, strict segregation of
living areas and similar governance as India and Africa. David McDougal as
Chief of Civilian Affairs was very forward thinking and he and his team were
determined to rebuild the administration on new lines where the local Chinese
were given much more say in their own governance and day to day life. The fact
that this started under a Military Administration may well have helped
enormously as the Foreign and Colonial Office in London, who may well have
tried to prevent changes along these lines, were side lined. As it was Admiral
Harcourt was also keen to ensure that a new system was introduced and as he and
McDougal had the high regard for each other Harcourt was able to rubber stamp
many new measures that may not have so easily passed the scrutiny of the
Government in London.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Duncan Macintosh and his civilian
team had done such a good job of setting Hong Kong on its new road that on 1<sup>st</sup>
May 1946 the Military governance of Hong Kong was ceased and control handed to
a civilian governor. The new man was Sir Mark Young. He had been the governor
at the fall of Hong Kong and had been detained in the prison camps on the
island. After the Japanese surrender he had returned to the UK to recuperate,
and then eventually come back to take over from Admiral Sir Harcourt. Young was
also in the mould of Macintosh and wanted reform. He had tried to have the
Territory ruled by a 30 man council with no Governor veto. This was finally quashed
when there was fear of Communist insurrection after he had left the post in
1947.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Hong Kong Waterfront 1945.(From photos
Dad brought back with him).<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4YMR-7Wn03k/WERPKXcaYSI/AAAAAAAAMbo/9Jqj6i30daE3Ro5kRVZCZnkYFYgK0APFQCLcB/s1600/114.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4YMR-7Wn03k/WERPKXcaYSI/AAAAAAAAMbo/9Jqj6i30daE3Ro5kRVZCZnkYFYgK0APFQCLcB/s640/114.jpg" width="514" /></a></i></div>
<br />
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<i>Hong Kong street scene 1945/46. (From photos
brought back by Dad).<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Demobilisation of the British
Armed Services actually started 18<sup>th</sup> June 1945. The first men to
return to civilian life where those with talents that were required quickly at
home to help win the new peace. These men were designated as Class B. The vast
majority of men, 90%, were Class A and to make things as fair and visible and
open to all the plan had been published well before it had commenced. The
criteria were basically your age and the length of your service. You entered a
table with these values and you could read off where you were in the pecking
order. Dad would have been in group 37 which is just about half way as the
groups went from 1 to 75. Mind you there was no dates attached to this and the
plan ran as and when it was possible. In the Far East the priority for
transportation had been to return prisoners of war and other displaced people.
Obviously there was a shortage of ships to move large numbers of personnel
about and actually the aircraft carriers that had fought the Kamikazes were
pressed into acting as troop ships. I can find no indication of how Dad got
from Hong Kong to home as there are no troop ships listed as sailing at the
appropriate time with a credible arrival in the UK. However it turns out that Dad
may well have travelled home in a war ship, HMS Duke of York.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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HMS Duke of York was the flag ship
of Admiral Sir Bruce Austin Fraser who was the Commander in Chief of the
British Pacific Fleet from December 1944. This was a shore based job from
Australia but in August 1945, the day the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima,
he joined the Duke of York that had just joined the fleet. Admiral was no
stranger to the Duke of York as he had carried his flag on her when the
Scharnhorst was sunk on Boxing Day 1943 off the North Cape of Norway. This duel
between the Battleships Duke of York and Scharnhorst was the last ever between
capital ships. For this action Admiral Fraser was honoured and was honoured
with the Order of the Bath.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PslhojO6q7g/WERPU5COvXI/AAAAAAAAMbs/vzU4R8yN-04AjOUdSLaV-1mniB3J6ywEACLcB/s1600/115.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="470" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PslhojO6q7g/WERPU5COvXI/AAAAAAAAMbs/vzU4R8yN-04AjOUdSLaV-1mniB3J6ywEACLcB/s640/115.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>HMS Duke of York at anchor in Tokyo Bay
2<sup>nd</sup> September 1945 for the signing of the official Japanese
Surrender.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Duke of York was built at
Clydebank launched in February 1940 and commissioned in November 1941. She was
745’ long, 103’ beam and depth of 29’. She was driven by 4 steam turbines
driving 4 shafts and with 8 3 drum oil fired admiralty boilers. This gave her a
top speed of 28 kts. In wartime her crew was 1511. She could steam for 2540’ at
27 kts. She had 10 x 14” guns that had a range of almost 22 miles, 16 x 5.25”
guns (13.2’ range), 32 x 1.5” guns (2.8’), 16 x 0.5” machine guns (800 yds) and
three aircraft.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<o:p></o:p></div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-86599410123374196782016-11-21T08:53:00.002-08:002016-11-21T08:53:39.979-08:00HMS Tamar.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>HMS TAMAR 1<sup>st</sup>
October 1945 to <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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HMS Tamar had been an iron screw
troop ship built in 1863. She had visited Hong Kong a couple of times with reliefs
and stores for the garrison in 1878 and 1886. On her last trip she arrived on
11<sup>th</sup> April 1897 and was made the base vessel. She remained afloat in
Hong Kong until December 1941 when she was scuttled before the Japanese took
over the City on Christmas Day 1941. She was finally raised in December 1947
and scrapped.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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HMS Tamar in Hong Kong 1930’s.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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After the Japanese surrendered a
River Class Frigate was temporarily made base ship for Hong Kong March 6<sup>th</sup> 1946 until 20<sup>th</sup>
November 1946 when it was condemned. It had its name changed from HMS Aire to
HMS Tamar. It was lost on Bombay Shoal in the South China Sea as it was been
taken to scrap.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7JmhG7isoT0/WDMl5XaZPiI/AAAAAAAAMbE/1xkhUkeBPmQF9HAvjdvOMVMHYjz9OzIlACLcB/s1600/109.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="446" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7JmhG7isoT0/WDMl5XaZPiI/AAAAAAAAMbE/1xkhUkeBPmQF9HAvjdvOMVMHYjz9OzIlACLcB/s640/109.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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By this time things were getting
back to normal and the Army no longer required Wellington Barracks in Hong Kong
and they were taken over by the Royal Navy and became the ‘new’ HMS Tamar.
Wellington Barracks were built in the 1850’s on the site of an old military
hospital that was destroyed in 1841.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dkIp4bjmwlU/WDMmHAvjHTI/AAAAAAAAMbI/D3zxcHa5fHU-RLVqBpNpfrLidKvzWx_vgCLcB/s1600/110.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="440" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dkIp4bjmwlU/WDMmHAvjHTI/AAAAAAAAMbI/D3zxcHa5fHU-RLVqBpNpfrLidKvzWx_vgCLcB/s640/110.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>HMS Tamar 1949. Ex Wellington Barracks.</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mum says that when they had been
to Hong Kong Dad wanted to find the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank building as
that was where he was based after the war. I wonder if this is where he
worked? His appointment was to HMS Tamar
as staff Cypher Officer to the Commander in Chief, Hong Kong, so maybe he lived
at HMS Tamar and worked at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank building. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XpFpS8rbI0I/WDMmUD9jk6I/AAAAAAAAMbM/Ywo3_Fb3LgsfxuRjewg7b3_e5Gk8SStZACLcB/s1600/111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="412" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XpFpS8rbI0I/WDMmUD9jk6I/AAAAAAAAMbM/Ywo3_Fb3LgsfxuRjewg7b3_e5Gk8SStZACLcB/s640/111.jpg" width="640" /></a></i></div>
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<i>Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Building, Hong
Kong. Completed 1936.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0cg3hdtyV4E/WDMmcRT-z2I/AAAAAAAAMbQ/TW_layKIkVoFBaOji6Uaf6yY5BBidYP2wCLcB/s1600/112.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="542" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0cg3hdtyV4E/WDMmcRT-z2I/AAAAAAAAMbQ/TW_layKIkVoFBaOji6Uaf6yY5BBidYP2wCLcB/s640/112.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i> </i><i>Armed guard from HMS Indomitable on 15<sup>th</sup>
September for the official surrender. The photograph states that this is
Governement House but is in fact the HSBC Building.</i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank
was where Admiral Harcourt had his Military Administration Headquarters. This
was soon amalgamated with the Civilian Administration. The Administration
of Hong Kong was under Military Rule but in fact Admiral Harcourt trusted the
civilian administration that was quickly put in place and mainly left them to
get on with it. On 7<sup>th</sup> September David McDougal was appointed the
Chief of Civilian Affairs. He quickly got on with the job and electricity was
restored to Urban areas on 10<sup>th</sup> September. From September to
December the colony only had about 10 days supply of food at any one time.
These problems were exacerbated by the fact that the population swelled from
600,000 (reduced due to the forced repatriation of Chinese to the mainland to
make administration and feeding Hong Kong easier for the Japanese) to 1,000,000
in December. At first the Territories were mainly policed by the Japanese. As
these troops were repatriated locals were used to assist the armed forces
personnel. These also included some Guerrilla groups that had been formed
against the Japanese Occupation. As they were well armed negotiations with them
took a long time when they were no longer required to assist, and in many cases
large amounts of money were paid to disarm them and bring stability to the
area. It took time for the Hong Kong Police Force took to reorganise and train
up as many of the expatriate officers had been interred during the occupation
and were suffering ill health. Many of the Chinese officers had fled to China
and returned in drips and drabs. It was only with the appointment of Duncan
Macintosh in 1946 that the real job of recreating a very efficient police force
and civilian administration was started. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-40149604814549766212016-11-10T06:58:00.001-08:002016-11-10T06:58:40.247-08:00The Relief of Hong Kong.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rear Admiral Harcourt transferred
from HMS Vengence to HMS Swiftsure. The fleet anchored in the Bay but the Royal
Canadian Navy Prince Robert, after carefully scanning the Kowloon jetties, went
alongside Holt’s Wharf, the only vessel to do so. They were to provide a shore
party to bring order to the process of taking over the administration of the
Colony.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Prior to the event there had been
much political debate about what would happen in the event of surrender, that
was becoming inevitable, about the role of the British Government in Hong Kong
and who should accept the surrender. At this stage the leader of the Chinese
Nationalist Party KMT or Kuomintang was Chiang Kei Shek. He was trying to exert
authority over <st1:country-region w:st="on">China</st1:country-region> but
within a few years the resumption of the Chinese Civil War was to drive him to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Taiwan</st1:country-region>. In the
end it was the British Admiral (later Sir) Cecil Harcourt who took the
surrender on behalf of Britain and the Commonwealth and the Chinese on board
HMS Anson. On 1<sup>st</sup> September <st1:place w:st="on">Hong Kong</st1:place>
was declared a Military Administration and Admiral Harcourt was the Governor.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When the fleet arrived the
Japanese were still free and were trying to keep order. There had been much
looting despite the Japanese efforts. The shore party from HMCS Prince Robert
were among the first ashore and immediately came across a troop of Japanese
soldiers emptying a godown (warehouse) in to a small coaster. The Canadians
only had 6 bullets each and they had no idea what the situation was ashore.
There was a face off resulting in the Japanese laying down their weapons and
going to leave the jetty in some vehicles. It was made clear to them that they
could not take the vehicles and so they left with out them. There was no plan
of what to do with them so they could not be taken in custody at that stage. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was to be a week or so before
all the Japanese had been rounded up, and longer out in the New Territories. A
pilot from carrier HMS Vengeance recalls that once in custody some of them were
still committing ritual suicide rather than admit defeat. All Japanese gear had
to be searched several times to find weapons and despite this some found
inventive ways of ending their lives. The only people available for policing
the Colony were the Marines and men from the naval ships and a team of RAF
airfield repair guys who had been on the way to Okinawa to build an airfield
for the British to bomb <st1:place w:st="on">Japan</st1:place>
from.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are other reports from this
time that there were regular sounds of shooting etc. I have found no reports of
Japanese resistance but it could have been trying to prevent looting. It seems
that the locals did a great job of clearing out unoccupied premises stripping
every wooden item and taking the wiring too. Very slowly over the first few
days more food became available and life started to get back to normal in Hong
Kong. There was a curfew at 2100 every evening. This was extended to 2200 on 7<sup>th</sup>
September. The curfew was dropped altogether on 16<sup>th</sup> September.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e27Q-mJBkXk/WCSKyn0YJ_I/AAAAAAAAMa0/c1fO15lqDowx4XBdfgo2IqMU_cW3zmh_ACLcB/s1600/108.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e27Q-mJBkXk/WCSKyn0YJ_I/AAAAAAAAMa0/c1fO15lqDowx4XBdfgo2IqMU_cW3zmh_ACLcB/s640/108.jpg" width="476" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Collecting Japanese weapons after the
surrender. Japanese troops were used for this task as there were very few
Allied troops available.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On 14<sup>th</sup> September
Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser arrived. He was the CinC of the British Pacific Fleet and
he had his flag aboard the Battleship HMS Duke of York. Admiral Harcourt had
been the Commander of this vessel earlier in the war. On 16<sup>th</sup>
September the official surrender of the Japanese in <st1:place w:st="on">Hong
Kong</st1:place> took place at Government House. Admiral Harcourt as the CinC
and Military Governor of <st1:place w:st="on">Hong Kong</st1:place> signed the
document and Admiral Fraser as CinC BPF was an observer. Admiral Harcourt
accepted two samurai swords at the surrender, one from Vice Admiral Fujita
Ruitaro and one from Major General Okada Umekichi.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dad remains on the Indomitable
until 30<sup>th</sup> September. This would fit in with the fact that it would
have taken them about a month to set up headquarters communications etc that
were on a par with the ship. Great strides were made with the civil administration
with the trams and ferries running and a new <st1:place w:st="on">Hong Kong</st1:place>
currency reintroduced by 14<sup>th</sup> September. The Yen was compulsory
during the Japanese occupation. The new currency was cleverly introduced by partly
paying the 40000 Chinese who had been taken on to clean up the city with it and
also with goods and food. Dad is down as on the staff of A.C. II which I think
is Aircraft Carrier 11<sup>th</sup> Group. Up until this time Dad had been on
the staff of Admiral Sir Cecil Harcourt as Flag Officer Commanding the 11<sup>th</sup>
Aircraft Squadron which included the carriers Colossus, Venerable, Vengeance
and Glory. After this he was employed on the Staff of the Commander in Chief
Hong Kong, which was still Admiral Sir Cecil Harcourt but now ashore as the
Military Ruler and Governor of Hong Kong.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-72976113306863259612016-10-18T06:57:00.000-07:002016-10-18T06:57:19.109-07:00The Last Action.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>HMS INDOMITABLE 12th AUGUST 1945 to 30th SEPTEMBER 1945</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8024673964650731259" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When the Japanese Emperor had
surrendered on 15<sup>th</sup> August the Senior British Government Official in
Stanley Prison Camp in <st1:place w:st="on">Hong Kong</st1:place> was Franklin
Gimson. He had been the Colonial Secretary prior to the war. He went straight
to the Commandant of the Camp and told him that he would be taking over the
administration of Hong Kong and asked that they be provided with suitable
accommodation from which to run the colony. He also demanded that Japanese
troops continue to keep order there. The Commandant agreed. By 23<sup>rd</sup> official
word reached Gimson via Hong Kong Guerrilla forces that the UK Government also
wanted him to set up a government there. He got the old Chief Justice still in
the camp to swear him in. He was therefore Governor of Hong Kong before The BPF
arrived in <st1:place w:st="on">Hong Kong</st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On 27<sup>th</sup> August the Fleet
left <st1:place w:st="on">Subic Bay</st1:place> and now the Task Group 111.2
consisted of aircraft carriers Indomitable and Vengeance, cruisers Euryalus,
Swiftsure, Black Prince, and RCN A/A cruiser Prince Robert, destroyers
Kempenfelt, Ursa, Quadrant and Whirlwind. There were eight RAN corvettes,
Mildura, Castlemaine, <st1:city w:st="on">Bathurst</st1:city>,
Broome, Freemantle, Strahan, Wagga and Stawell.
There was the 8<sup>th</sup> Submarine Flotilla and depot ship <st1:place w:st="on">Maidstone</st1:place>. There were several minesweepers of the
Australian Navy that were to clear the channels ahead of the main force. When
they arrived at a position off the <st1:place w:st="on">Islands</st1:place>
they were also met by the battleship Anson and aircraft carrier Vengeance. The
Fleet waited about twelve miles off shore, around <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Kam</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Tan</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Island</st1:placetype></st1:place>, for the minesweepers to clear
the channels. At this time boats brought out representatives of the Imperial
Japanese Army to discuss the peaceful handover of power to the British Fleet.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At 1200 on 30<sup>th</sup> August
1945 the Fleet assembled and as word had been received of possible suicide
attacks by explosive motor boats, all the ships were at Action Station and
commenced their passage into <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Hong
Kong</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Harbour</st1:placetype></st1:place>.
Some motor boats were spotted crossing the channel and as the entire fleet were
in an extremely vulnerable position the Admiral ordered the aircraft from
Indomitable and Vengeance to fly off and intercept. The Avenger torpedo bombers
and Hellcat fighters bombed and strafed the boats and their base on <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Lamma</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Island</st1:placetype></st1:place>
and most of the boats were destroyed and several Japanese were killed two weeks
after the surrender of the Japanese forces.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dad has a copy of a signal from
the Commander of the Task Group 111.2, Rear Admiral Harcourt, at 1510Z on 30<sup>th</sup>
August, stating that;<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2. <i>‘A
large number of suicide boats were observed in Picnic Bay. Three of these were
seen to leave the bay and attacked by aircraft with score of one sunk, one
beached and one returned to harbour. These boats were then well bombed and most
of them are now ashore.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3.
<i>Venerable is remaining at sea for
the present and keeping continuous air patrol over Hong Kong.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
4.
<i>Japanese appear quite docile and
Chinese populace are beginning to handle them rather roughly. Japanese state
they have no mail from Japan for six months.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
5.
<i>Am meeting Japanese Commander
tomorrow to discuss arrangements for maintaining law and order and eventual
surrender.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
6.
<i>Gimson and Administration Council
appear to have the situation well in hand except for the ability to maintain
law and order and the shortage of supplies. Japanese are still endeavouring to
remove food and other stores but this is being stopped.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
7.
<i>This afternoon I visited all the
Prisoner of War and Internment camps and also British Hospitals. We received a
tumultuous welcome and it was magnificent to see the high state of morale
despite the obvious effects of malnutrition. Altogether a most moving
afternoon.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
8.
<i>Hope to start transference of
patients to Hospital Ship Oxfordshire tomorrow.’</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Explosive Motor Boats EMB’s
were called Shinyo by the Japanese which meant ‘Sea Quake’. They were suicide
boats in essence. The first few were built of steel but in 1944 the shortage of
materials meant they were all wooden from then. The Type 1 was an 18m single
man boat. They were capable of 23kts, which is not that fast and the speed
reduced to 18kts when the warhead was loaded in the bow. The idea was that they
directed the boat to the target and either jumped at the last minute or drove
it straight in to the target.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JGxgn-MYY-Y/WAYobQXEDFI/AAAAAAAAMYg/0TDDhuVc-UMQJXVMUcrxfQ15nNh6Z9WPwCLcB/s1600/105.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="524" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JGxgn-MYY-Y/WAYobQXEDFI/AAAAAAAAMYg/0TDDhuVc-UMQJXVMUcrxfQ15nNh6Z9WPwCLcB/s640/105.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Shinyo Type 1 Explosive Motor Boat (EMB).<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Type 5 boat was two man and
fitted with twin automobile engines and 13.2 heavy machine guns and RT radio.
They were used as command vessels. Both Type 1 and 5 were fitted with two 120mm
rockets. These were intended to increase the speed of the boat on the final run
in and to give some power if the main engine(s) should fail. Approximately 6200
were constructed. Most were retained for use in the defence of the homeland but
of those sent abroad most went to the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Philippines</st1:country-region>
and <st1:place w:st="on">Okinawa</st1:place>. The ‘pilots’ were mainly flying
cadets about 17 years old. As the war had progressed there were no aircraft for
them to fly so 400 of them were transferred. They were given the choice to
train for conventional torpedo boats, special attack boats (Shinyo’s) or to be
suicide frogmen. About 150 chose to train for the Shinyo. The official three
month course for them started in October/November 1944. The Imperial Japanese
Navy hoped that a success rate of 10% was a good target. In effect they did not
achieve close to this rate. They claimed a handful of landing craft sunk and
damaged and no major assets were lost to them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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style='width:465.75pt;height:223.5pt'>
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o:title="Type5 shinyo"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pfc8SiA03uM/WAYowxb1ylI/AAAAAAAAMYk/xmqxl57vF70gYs5QN6xlNWEDSZ_65GWeQCLcB/s1600/106.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="306" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pfc8SiA03uM/WAYowxb1ylI/AAAAAAAAMYk/xmqxl57vF70gYs5QN6xlNWEDSZ_65GWeQCLcB/s640/106.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Type 5 Shinyo EMB.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the 30th August Sub Lieutenant
Awamura of the 35<sup>th</sup> Special Attack Shinyo Squadron based on Lamma
Island set out from there to the travel to the Imperial Japanese Navy HQ to
inform them that all the warheads had been removed form the EMB’s. The only
transport available was one of the attack boats, minus it explosives. He was
spotted crossing the channel and this sparked the alert. The Sub Lieutenant’s
boat was destroyed and the base was put out of action for good.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<o:p><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2qPse9_WXnk/WAYo0kbPiXI/AAAAAAAAMYo/yBQ5pGv8eA06JPE8WeXrwEsgQSmjQuInACLcB/s1600/107.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="510" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2qPse9_WXnk/WAYo0kbPiXI/AAAAAAAAMYo/yBQ5pGv8eA06JPE8WeXrwEsgQSmjQuInACLcB/s640/107.jpg" width="640" /></a> </o:p><i>Type 1 Shinyo EMB’s in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Picnic</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Bay</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Lamma</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Island</st1:placetype></st1:place>
1945.</i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
</div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-42224738659216582482016-10-15T06:01:00.002-07:002016-10-15T06:01:37.535-07:00War is over, for some.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<b>HMS INDOMITABLE 12<sup>th</sup> AUGUST 45 to
30<sup>th</sup> SEPTEMBER 45<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
Indomitable
was an aircraft carrier built by Vickers Armstrong in Barrow in Furness. She
was supposed to be the fourth of the ‘Invincible Class’ but she was heightened
by 14’ to fit in another hanger deck. The flight deck was also lengthened. This
along with other changes allowed her to carry 56 planes. She retained the 3”
armour plate on the flight deck. She was launched 26-Mar-40 and completed and
commissioned 10-Oct-41. She was 754’ (230m) long. 95.5’ (29.2m) beam and 29’
(8.8m) depth. She was driven by Parsons geared steam turbines supplied with
steam by 6 boilers and turning three shafts and propellers with 111000 shaft
horse power. This gave her a speed of 30.5kts. She had a complement of 1392
that was increased to 2100.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: center;">
<img alt="Image result for hms indomitable" src="http://www.asisbiz.com/usn/HMS-Indomitable/images/HMS-Indomitable-at-the-Norfolk-Naval-Shipyard-Portsmouth-Virginia-for-repairs-Nov-21-1941-02.jpg" height="500" width="640" /></div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i>HMS Indomitable 21-Nov-41. Norfolk ship yard
USA for repair.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She was well armed by the end of
the war with 16 x 4.5”, 48 x 2lb’ers, 36 x 20mm and various other calibre anti
aircraft guns. During the final stage of the war she had American Hellcat and
Avenger aircraft squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm aboard.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dad had seen her during Operation
Ironclad, the invasion of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Madagascar</st1:country-region>,
and Operation Pedestal, the resupply of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Malta</st1:country-region> (The Ohio convoy). During
this operation she was hit by bombs with several near misses. Although still
operational she was sent to the <st1:country-region w:st="on">USA</st1:country-region>
for repair. On completion she was back in company with Dad at Operation Husky,
the invasion of <st1:state w:st="on">Sicily</st1:state>.
How ever she was bombed and torpedoed and again withdrew to the <st1:place w:st="on">USA</st1:place>
for repair.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Following this she was moved to
the Eastern Fleet and based in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Sri
Lanka</st1:country-region>. After the end of the war in Europe,
for political reasons, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region>
was keen to participate in the war against <st1:country-region w:st="on">Japan</st1:country-region>. The Americans were a bit
resentful, as by now they were the senior partner in the Allies and most
definitely in the Pacific. There was friction in the US Navy too as some felt
that they had done the hard miles all but alone and now <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region> was
trying to get in at the kill. However it was agreed that the British Pacific
Fleet (BPF) would be created early in 1944. After several years of hard
fighting Britain was not able to supply all the ships required herself so heavy
demands was placed on the Empire and other Allies to help. Australia was
engaged in heavily supporting the American effort and again much effort was
expended to convince them to supply bases and logistics to support the BPF. A
further problem was that British equipment was not largely equivalent to US
standards and as the US Navy were pretty well stretched with their supply lines
anyway the BFP had to ensure they could supply their own equipment using their
own ships. In the Atlantic, Mediterranean and <st1:place w:st="on">Indian Ocean</st1:place>
the British Navy had utilised bases for resupply. The distances involved in the
Pacific meant that this was not practical so the Fleet Train came into being.
Around fifty merchant Navy ships were able to keep the Navy supplied with all
they required through out the remainder of the war. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<o:p><img alt="Image result for hms indomitable 1945" src="http://www.maritimequest.com/misc_pages/frank_a_stockwell_collection/photos/drydock/1945_07_18_capt_cook_dd_b.jpg" height="500" width="640" /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i>HMS Indomitable leaving Captain Cook Drydock Sydney 18th July 1945.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Eventually the BPF was taken under
control of Admiral Nimitz as Task force 57. Their first task was Operation
Iceberg, the landings on <st1:place w:st="on">Okinawa</st1:place>, which began
26<sup>th</sup> March 1945. Here the Indomitable’s aircraft attacked airbases
on the islands in the chain, shipping, and provided airborne cover for the
fleet of vessels. During this operation many kamikaze attacks occurred and most
of the larger ships were hit at least once. The American carriers were rendered
useless following a successful attack as they had wooden flight decks. With
their armoured flight decks the British carriers, although hit, never had to
leave the line and were ready for flight operations with in three hours. They
were directed to attack Japanese bases on <st1:country-region w:st="on">Formosa</st1:country-region>
(<st1:country-region w:st="on">Taiwan</st1:country-region>)
to try to stem the flow of attacks and these raids were very successful. During
Operation Iceberg the BPF had been on operations for 32 days which had been the
longest continuous period on operations since the days of sail. Indomitable was
hit three times by kamikaze attacks. One crashed on the deck at a shallow angle
and luckily slid right over the side. Indomitable was also involved in a
collision with destroyer HMS Quilliam in fog. Quilliam was quite badly damaged
and took no further part in the war. In June Indomitable was replaced by
Implacable and sailed to <st1:city w:st="on">Sydney</st1:city>
to make good repairs. The effort of the BPF at Okinawa had won the respect of
the US Navy and if the invasion of <st1:place w:st="on">Japan</st1:place> had taken place a greater
understanding between the fleets would have been guaranteed. As it was they had
overcome the difficulties of different codes, methods, tactics etc to become an
effective unit of the <st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place>
5<sup>th</sup> Fleet.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="Image result for hms indomitable okinawa" height="307" 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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></b><i>HMS Indomitable following kamikaze attack 1<sup>st</sup>
April 1945 off <st1:place w:st="on">Okinawa</st1:place>. The vessel was back in
action in 1 hour. (Identification may indicate that this was actually HMS Formidable).</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Indomitable was relieved by HMS
Implacable in June and returned to <st1:city w:st="on">Sydney</st1:city>
for repairs. On completion she remained in <st1:city w:st="on">Sydney</st1:city> through out as the plans for the
invasion of the Japanese mainland were finalised. Dad joined Indomitable six
days after the ‘Little Boy’ atomic bomb had been dropped on <st1:city w:st="on">Hiroshima</st1:city>
on 6<sup>th</sup> August, and only three days after the ‘Fat Man’ bomb had been
dropped on <st1:city w:st="on">Nagasaki</st1:city>
on 9<sup>th</sup> August. On 15<sup>th</sup> August the Emperor of Japan made a
broadcast announcing the unconditional surrender of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Japan</st1:country-region>. The same day the American
control of the Indomitable and other members of the task force were
relinquished and passed back to <st1:place w:st="on">Britain</st1:place>. She immediately sailed to Subic Bay in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Philippines</st1:country-region>
along with aircraft carrier Venerable, cruisers Euryalus and Swiftsure and 3
destroyers. Other ships were arriving and plans were being drawn up for the
re-occupation of <st1:place w:st="on">Hong Kong</st1:place>. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-62362264671749001962016-10-07T11:38:00.001-07:002016-10-07T11:38:21.087-07:00Pacific Bound.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<b>HMS BEACONSFIELD 1<sup>st</sup> July 1944 to
11<sup>th</sup> August 1945<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
HMS Beaconsfield
is the RN shore establishment in Port Melbourne, Australia. Dad had been sent
to fight the Pacific war!! His papers say that his is ‘<i>addl for displ. by VA.(Q) BPF</i>’ I understand this to mean that he
was on the books of HMS Beaconsfield for dispersal by the Vice Admiral (Q) that
was the designation for Vice Admiral J.W. Rivett-Carnac who was responsible for
the enter logistical support of the British Pacific Fleet ashore and afloat. He
was based in <st1:city w:st="on">Melbourne</st1:city>
and I think this is just an order to get Dad to the Pacific Fleet and once
there it would be decided where he was to end up.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
Percy
Porter had written in the photograph album of Dad’s war time exploits that he
had sailed on the RMS Mauretania. I found this very difficult to confirm as in
July 1945 the European war was over and a fast ship such as Mauretania would be
sailing independently and so not in convoy records. I finally discovered a
memoir of a Naval Petty Officer sailing on her. I had a date and could
therefore track her down more easily. Dad must have still been on the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">South</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Coast</st1:placetype></st1:place>
with the Support Squadron and I can’t find anything to show that he had leave.
His posting was starting on 1<sup>st</sup> July and the Mauretania sailed from <st1:place w:st="on">Liverpool</st1:place> on 3<sup>rd</sup> July. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: center;">
<img alt="Image result for rms mauretania 1939" height="280" src="https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRxTtZLSBwR-TKZ63NiyJpThXkGcL1VcvZA3H_APTubdlaDKoFkjg" width="400" /></div>
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</div>
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<i>RMS Mauretania in early 1939.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
RMS Mauretania
was launched 28<sup>th</sup> July 1938 at Cammell Laird’s Birkenhead for the
Cunard White Star Line and was the first ship of the amalgamated company. She
was completed in May 1939. She was 35674 gross tons and 19654 net tons, length
739ft (235m) and beam 89ft (27m). She had 2 sets of Parson’s steam turbines,
42000 shaft horse power, driving two propellers and a service speed of 23kts
(max. 26kts).She was designed for 1360 passengers and 810 crew.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
She only
managed three round trips to <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state>
before the War intervened. She was painted grey and fitted with 2 x 3” and 1 x
6” guns and then sailed to <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state>
to be out of harms way. She was laid up there with the liners Queen Elizabeth,
Queen Mary and the French Normandie. She was there for three months when she
started her trooping working. In April she was in Sydney NSW and had further
alterations carried out to increase the capacity of her passenger numbers and
make better protective armaments with 2 x 6”, 3 x 12lb guns, 3 x 40mm and 22 x
20mm Anti Aircraft guns along with 2 rocket launchers. Throughout the war she
traveled over 540,000 miles and carried over 340,000 troops. In one round the
world trip she covered 28622 miles in 82 days.</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<i></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KsDIwRFcT90/V_fpvxVoLTI/AAAAAAAAMXg/8QIgW2qUtMsRPiFG5AS06OaIeCN-nDE8gCLcB/s1600/99.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="436" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KsDIwRFcT90/V_fpvxVoLTI/AAAAAAAAMXg/8QIgW2qUtMsRPiFG5AS06OaIeCN-nDE8gCLcB/s640/99.jpg" width="640" /></a></i></div>
<i>Sleeping on RM</i><i>S
Mauretania</i><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hNJIDFeNpkA/V_fp_WTKgnI/AAAAAAAAMXk/4q7m4IlXrjkl37NMErgIj295o-FquLJbACLcB/s1600/100.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="458" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hNJIDFeNpkA/V_fp_WTKgnI/AAAAAAAAMXk/4q7m4IlXrjkl37NMErgIj295o-FquLJbACLcB/s640/100.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
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<v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\Tony\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image005.jpg"
o:title="Mauretania Mess"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<i>Officers dining
RMS Mauretania</i><i> </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
On 3<sup>rd</sup>
July 1945 they did sail independently as she had done for much of the war as vessel
over 14.5kts were thought fast enough to be able to avoid danger. Now we know
that the Allies were able to read German Naval signals it seems that they would
be fairly certain that they would be able to give fast important ships
sufficient warning for their speed to move them clear of danger. The memoir I
found was from a Kenneth Tratthen, a RN Petty Officer Engine Room Artificer who
was going out to join the BPF. The majority of the passengers were Australian
and New Zealand released from German POW camps and troops. There were also a
small number of wives and children, mainly of New Zealand RAF blokes.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
The first
stop was the Panama Canal, and they passed through Cristobal on 12<sup>th</sup>
July, and then headed to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Pearl</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Harbour</st1:placetype></st1:place> for provisions.
To get to their berth they had to pass very close to the sunken battleship
Oklahoma with a thousand bodies still in her following being sunk by the
Japanese. They arrived on 25<sup>th</sup> July. After taking stores etc they
left on 27<sup>th</sup> July, however 186 people missed the ship. When they
arrived in <st1:city w:st="on">Wellington</st1:city>
they were all there waiting for them as the Americans had flown them over. I
wonder what the repercussions were though.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
They
arrived in <st1:city w:st="on">Wellington</st1:city>
on 4<sup>th</sup> August at 0900 to be met by a rapturous civic reception with
military band and all the waiting loved ones. There were a few tears shed
though for those that would not return. They left on 7<sup>th</sup> August and
headed for <st1:city w:st="on">Sydney</st1:city>.
They had to anchor outside the harbour briefly on arrival on the 8<sup>th</sup>
August to allow the boom to be opened. A launch came out with the CinC of
Australian Army aboard. He tried to make a speech by loud speaker whilst
alongside but was drowned out by the boos. He had a military band with him and
they also soon gave up playing as they were pelted by hundreds of coins thrown
by the troops! When they finally passed through the Harbour every horn and
whistle was sounding. Once fast alongside the disembarking troops were bussed
to the cricket ground where radio announcements had been directing all the
locals to go as well. The soldiers greeting was equally as rapturous as in <st1:city w:st="on">Wellington</st1:city>. PO Tratthen
also disembarked and was sent to HMS
Golden Hind. HMS Golden Hind was an accounting base and transit barracks
in bell tents on Warwick Road Race Course. The Officers were housed in the
Grand stand. Dad may well have been here for a short time as his accounting
base was <st1:city w:st="on">Beaconsfield</st1:city> in <st1:city w:st="on">Melbourne</st1:city>. He is down as leaving the books
for HMS Beaconsfield on 11<sup>th</sup> August 1945. The atom bomb Little Boy
was dropped on Hiroshima on 6<sup>th</sup> August and Fat Man on Nagasaki on 9<sup>th</sup>
August! Mum tells me that Dad recounted that he spent the passage playing one
type of cards in the morning and another in the afternoon, each time with a
stilton cheese in the middle of the table that they just helped themselves to.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RXl6C9b5EAo/V_fqN01CxlI/AAAAAAAAMXo/q4EnrG06D8YUC_aTacim_wXWKn8OhkmrgCLcB/s1600/101.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="407" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RXl6C9b5EAo/V_fqN01CxlI/AAAAAAAAMXo/q4EnrG06D8YUC_aTacim_wXWKn8OhkmrgCLcB/s640/101.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Mauretania in Sydney Harbour 19<sup>th</sup>
August 1945. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i>(She left for Liverpool, via South Africa 22<sup>nd</sup>
August 1945)<o:p></o:p></i></div>
</div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-48143506269814601002015-05-16T02:22:00.004-07:002015-05-16T02:22:36.070-07:00Walcheren aftermath.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
In the
end the losses and damage were;<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
Sunk or
sinking:- LCG(L) 1 & 2, LCF 37, LCG(M) 101 &
102. On
fire and abandoned:- LCF 38.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Damaged and out of action:- LCG(L) 11 & 17, LCT(R) 334 &
363, LCM 42 & 36, LCS(L) 260<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Damaged but continuing:- LCG(L) 10, LCF 35 & 32, LCH 98.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
The five
hour battle saw 172 killed and 236 wounded out of the little force. That their
sacrifice was not in vain was very evident as Operation Calendar got underway
on 3<sup>rd</sup> November, even before the island was fully taken. This was
the sweeping of the <st1:place w:st="on">Scheldt</st1:place> for mines. In the
end 269 mines were removed and the navigation was declared open 25<sup>th</sup>
November. The first large ship to discharge in <st1:city w:st="on">Antwerp</st1:city>
was the ‘<st1:placetype w:st="on">Fort</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Cataraqui</st1:placename>’,
and soon the port was discharging 22000 tons of cargo a day which speeded the
run to the Rhine and ultimate victory in <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
There
were plenty of Honours handed out too. Commander Pugsley was awarded an OBE.
Commander K. Sellars was awarded a DSO. Two Royal Marine and twenty two Royal
Navy Officers were awarded the DSC and twenty seven RM and RN NCO’s were
awarded DSM’s.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
After
the withdrawal at 1230 the majority of the SSEF withdrew to <st1:city w:st="on">Ostend</st1:city>. HMS Kingsmill and LCH 269 remained
anchored 5 miles off the beach. Apparently the vessels that were anchored
received intelligence that they would be attacked by mini submarines and
frogmen so the order was given to drop explosives over the side every three
minutes. This could have been the incident that I remember Dad talking about,
rather than off the Normandy Beaches, until around 1345 when they too left the
field. The Warspite, Robert and Erebus withdrew for the night but were able to
offer further support the following day before leaving the area. It was to be
Warspite’s last action. She had fired 350 rounds of 15” shells between 0800 and
1800 on the 1<sup>st</sup> November, which is said by some to be the highest
number fired of any vessel. LCH 269 and a hospital craft were thought seaworthy
enough to continue to Poole. However the weather blew up and as the landing
craft were flat bottomed and high sided they made a lot off leeway. LCH 269
could also only steam at slow speed due to the hole in her bow. Unfortunately
the two vessels ended up in the English defensive mine field and they didn’t
have charts. The hospital vessel was struck amidships by a mine, lifted bodily
out of the water amidships and came down in two pieces and sank in seconds.
There were no survivors.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
The LCH
269 was the only vessel to return to Poole unscathed. It was very sad to see
all the beds that would not be filled again. They were also very upset as some
of their personal possessions had been stolen. The vessels of the SSEF were
repaired over the next day before wending there way back to Poole. One of the
landing craft had 47 plugs in the hull to keep the water out.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
Once the
survivors had returned to <st1:place w:st="on">Poole</st1:place> and carried
out full repairs and maintenance and prepared the vessels for the next task
they were on stand by. Dad remained with the SSEF until 30<sup>th</sup> June
1945 but the small ships were not called to fight again. Dad must have been
billeted ashore around Poole or <st1:city w:st="on">Portsmouth</st1:city>
but I have no way of knowing where. Earlier in 1945 the small fleet were told
to prepare their craft for the <st1:place w:st="on">Far East</st1:place> as the
tide of conflict moved to the Pacific. They were never to go there though In
June and July the fleet of vessel were moved round to Appledore where they were
laid up for the long term and the remaining crews dispersed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
The only
vessel to return to <st1:place w:st="on">Poole</st1:place> unscathed was LCH
269 and the 16 crew in the next few days decided to raise a fund for a memorial
for their fallen friends. Commander Sellars also chipped in a large amount. A
wooden plaque was erected outside St Michaels Church, Hamworthy, as the closest
to their base, until such time as material and money were available. The plan
was to build a lych-gate to the churchyard. It was not until early 1952 that
the Admiralty contacted the church and Commander Sellars visited with plans.
There was a scheme to enlarge the churchyard so the lych-gate would be
incorporated in this. The fund was still too small so the church agreed to fund
the base, brick pillars and curved wall whilst the Navy and Marines would find
the oak for the woodwork and pay for the two memorial stones that were to be
carved by local craftsmen. It was on 5<sup>th</sup> July that the Bishop of
Salisbury blessed the new churchyard and gate and the Royal Marine Band marched
up the road. Admiral Philip Vian and Commander Sellars were among the speech
makers and then over 200 enjoyed tea on the Rectory lawn. As far as I know it
should still be there.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mP90dd5Dsqc/VVcLFfdGc6I/AAAAAAAAHK8/UtcFFli2VC8/s1600/93.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mP90dd5Dsqc/VVcLFfdGc6I/AAAAAAAAHK8/UtcFFli2VC8/s640/93.jpg" width="450" /></a></div>
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<i>Memorial Lych-Gate at St Michaels Church
Hamworthy<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oBiRvgbyhUg/VVcLHqVznEI/AAAAAAAAHLE/ABXTJzYyjHM/s1600/94.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="516" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oBiRvgbyhUg/VVcLHqVznEI/AAAAAAAAHLE/ABXTJzYyjHM/s640/94.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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o:title="lychgate plaque"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Memorial Plaque sited 5<sup>th</sup> July
1952<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
There
are two S206 personal report forms from his time in the SSEF. The first is
dated 30<sup>th</sup> April 1945 and so several months after the action at <st1:place w:st="on">Walcheren</st1:place>. It is for recommendation for accelerated
promotion (Admiralty Fleet Order
4067/44). It states his position as Cypher and C.B. Officer. (I think that CB
is Confidential Books and were the codes of the day, orders and secret maps etc
that were for restricted viewing and were supposed to be kept in a weighted
pouch when not in use. It would have been Dad’s duty in a sinking or capture to
ensure that the pouch got thrown overboard to prevent them falling in to the
hands of the enemy). His general conduct is given as satisfactory (the only
other choice is unsatisfactory!). His habit is given as temperate. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
Professional
Ability 7, Personal Qualities 6, Leadership 6, Intellectual Ability 6,
Administrative Ability 7. The general opinion of the Officer is ‘<i>This young Officer has served for a
considerable period (as a rating) on various Admiral’s staffs and has knowledge
of procedure and customs of the service are wider than is usually found in the
Special Cypher Officers. His usefulness in the Squadron has been manifest in
many ways, and his willingness and ability to undertake duties not normally
expected of his branch, has been marked. He has good organising ability and, as
a cypherer, is in the first grade’.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
He is
recommended for immediate promotion to Special Cypher, and it is signed by his
reporting officer Commander L.C.A. Leefe, RN, on 13<sup>th</sup> May 1945. Commander
Leefe was the Deputy Senior Commander of the Support Squadron, Eastern Flank. His
Senior Officer, Captain A.F. Pugsley, RN writes Forwarded, concurring and
signed 30<sup>th</sup> April 1945. Unless Captain Pugsley has made a mistake it
seems that he has originated the report as he dated his part prior to the
reporting Officer? This is a much better report than his previous one by a long
way so Dad must have acquitted himself well during the Battle or at least
during the reorganisation following.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
There is
then a little mystery as only two weeks later, on 22<sup>nd</sup> May there is
almost the same report but this time his position is given as Squadron Cypher
and CB Officer. It seems that he got a sort of promotion as he is now looking
after the whole squadron. However this one is dated 22<sup>nd</sup> May by
Commander Leefe and 30<sup>th</sup> May by Capt. Pugsley. There is a further
mystery as the previous merits points have been crossed out and each lowered by
one and added in by hand. He is still recommended for immediate promotion
though. I wonder if they have reconsidered, or Dad has got bored after almost 6
months of doing not very much and got into trouble, or Commander Leefe liked him
less than Capt. Pugsley. We will never know now. I have also found a very short
report also written Commander Leefe which states Dad had conducted himself ‘to
my entire satisfaction. A keen, zealous and hardworking Officer. Always
cheerful and ready to undertake and duty asked of him’. I think this is a much
better report as it was shown to the Officer to which it was about rather than
the S206 form which was a confidential report and sent to the Admiralty.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ahCXR9VT0pA/VVcLK1yMVGI/AAAAAAAAHLM/-dVBScZXEzY/s1600/95.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="264" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ahCXR9VT0pA/VVcLK1yMVGI/AAAAAAAAHLM/-dVBScZXEzY/s640/95.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
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style='width:552pt;height:207.75pt'>
<v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\Tony\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image005.jpg"
o:title="Staff Officers East Flank squadron 001" croptop="7233f"
cropbottom="4603f" cropleft="3540f" cropright="2905f"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Staff Officers, Support Squadron, Eastern
Flank. Probably taken in May 1945. (Dad 6<sup>th</sup> from left).<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;">Left to Right; Sub. Lt. Robinson, C.O.C.O., Capt. Hiley-Jones
B.L.O., Lt. Taylor, S.R.M.O. Admin., Lt. Steel, Squadron Secretary, 2<sup>nd</sup>.
Off. Summer, Asst. Sec., Sub. Lt. Porter, S.C.Y.O., Lt. Comm. Leefe, D.S.C. S.S.E.F., Mr.
Hatfield, Bosun, Commander Sellar, C/O., S.S.E.F., Lt. McCormick, S.O.A., Capt.
Fisher RM, S.O.R.M., Lt. Legard, S.O.O., Lt. Eastwood, S.O.N., Lt. Thompson,
C.O.C.O., Sub. Lt. Douglas, Asst. S.C.Y.O.,
Mr. Toll, Gunner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h5yS13Ks-pM/VVcLQk6X6cI/AAAAAAAAHLU/O7EpHhGqdac/s1600/96.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="264" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h5yS13Ks-pM/VVcLQk6X6cI/AAAAAAAAHLU/O7EpHhGqdac/s640/96.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1028"
type="#_x0000_t75" style='width:534.75pt;height:174.75pt'>
<v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\Tony\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image007.jpg"
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cropleft="867f" cropright="964f"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Officers of the Support Squadron, Eastern
Flank. Dad is at the far right on back row.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QAszCUfZdBc/VVcLVJpS0PI/AAAAAAAAHLc/wpaTkzo5zV8/s1600/97.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QAszCUfZdBc/VVcLVJpS0PI/AAAAAAAAHLc/wpaTkzo5zV8/s640/97.jpg" width="640" /></a><i> </i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
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style='width:523.5pt;height:178.5pt'>
<v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\Tony\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image009.jpg"
o:title="Support Squad East Flank Inspection May 45 001" croptop="9263f"
cropbottom="3242f" cropleft="481f" cropright="481f"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<i>Inspection of
Support Squadron, Eastern Flank by Vice Admiral Sir Harold Burrough at Poole in
May 1945. Admiral Burrough was the Allied Naval Commander in Chief,
Expeditionary Force until July 1945.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
The
above three photographs were taken by the Bournmouth Times. Some sources state
that the lower photograph was taken prior to the Walcheren Raid. Somebody has
written on the back of Dad’s photograph that it was taken in May 1945. The vessels
in the background are, from left to right, LCT(Flax)36, LCT(Gun) 536 (very
difficult to read but I have not been able to trace a number like this to the
Battle of Walcheren), LCT(Headquarters)269, ( I thought Dad may have been on this
vessel as it was the close-in HQ vessel with Commander Sellars aboard but on
balance as Dad was the Squadron Cypher Officer he was probably on the
Kingsmill). It is interesting to note though that he had an assistant, Sub. Lt
Douglas.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
It looks
like the Support Squadron Eastern Flank was disbanded in June 1945 as the Officers that I can trace all
seemed to change postings at this time.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<o:p></o:p></div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-71199242955537878892015-05-03T10:36:00.001-07:002015-05-03T10:36:09.268-07:00Walcheren landings.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: center;">
<o:p> </o:p><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x-m5OmHe1aA/VUZZ6mdSuMI/AAAAAAAAHBw/Ac4p6BNMwy8/s1600/84.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x-m5OmHe1aA/VUZZ6mdSuMI/AAAAAAAAHBw/Ac4p6BNMwy8/s1600/84.jpg" height="460" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
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<v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\Tony\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.jpg"
o:title="41RM landing from LCI small on west kapelle dyke" croptop="9221f"
cropbottom="10060f"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i>41 RM Commando landing from LCI(S) to the
north of the gap.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<i> </i><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8grMvkdQcGk/VUZZ8qZMhPI/AAAAAAAAHB4/r_n1sOkQT7U/s1600/85.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8grMvkdQcGk/VUZZ8qZMhPI/AAAAAAAAHB4/r_n1sOkQT7U/s1600/85.jpg" height="456" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
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style='width:507.75pt;height:361.5pt'>
<v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\Tony\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image003.jpg"
o:title="41RM landing fm LCT north of gap"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i>The second wave of 41 RM Commando landing
from LCT. She has just been hit by a shell. The small tracked vehicle is a
Weasel and the large a Buffalo.</i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JuSv4WMitgw/VUZaH3V5hpI/AAAAAAAAHCA/srOZPIdIce0/s1600/86.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JuSv4WMitgw/VUZaH3V5hpI/AAAAAAAAHCA/srOZPIdIce0/s1600/86.jpg" height="468" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
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style='width:489.75pt;height:325.5pt'>
<v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\Tony\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image005.jpg"
o:title="41RM advancing thro West Kapelle to tower (lighthouse)"
cropbottom="6060f"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i>41 RM Commandos advancing through
Westkapelle with the lighthouse in the back ground. Later used as a radar
station by the British.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s3a8KiQ8zvg/VUZaKHCBulI/AAAAAAAAHCI/Ag1QTNLDMsI/s1600/87.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s3a8KiQ8zvg/VUZaKHCBulI/AAAAAAAAHCI/Ag1QTNLDMsI/s1600/87.jpg" height="462" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
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style='width:499.5pt;height:251.25pt'>
<v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\Tony\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image007.jpg"
o:title="Flail tank from LCT 737" croptop="13053f" cropbottom="6707f"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i>A flail tank landing from an LCT in the
foreground and a buffalo in the background.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
The
first landings were made by 41 Commando to the north of the gap. They were
25mins later than the planned landing time due to the heavy fire and the need
for the SSEF to draw the fire before letting the troops approach the landing.
The vessels of the SSEF were sailing up and down the coast engaging the heavy
gun positions and machine gun posts. They sustained heavy damage and vessels
were sunk and caught fire. The first vessel had been hit at 0920 whilst they
were still out of range for their own guns to bear. The LCG(M)’s took the brunt
at first as they were able to get the closest to the beach LCG(M) 102 was hit
in the stern and was starting to sink. Another craft tried to tow here clear
but was hit or caught a mine and had to look after her self. LCG(M) 101 was hit
on the beach and suffered great loss of life. The remaining guns continued to
fire into the enemy until the vessel had to be abandoned completely.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mW2XvlSQJCM/VUZaTWRJOHI/AAAAAAAAHCg/7BQFP7NbBKM/s1600/90.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mW2XvlSQJCM/VUZaTWRJOHI/AAAAAAAAHCg/7BQFP7NbBKM/s1600/90.jpg" height="640" width="610" /></a></div>
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<v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\Tony\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image009.jpg"
o:title="LCG(M)101 starting to sink"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i>LCG(M)102 starting to sink.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LOBnkS3b9Vs/VUZaO6mcpRI/AAAAAAAAHCY/xbuXe3MuutI/s1600/89.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LOBnkS3b9Vs/VUZaO6mcpRI/AAAAAAAAHCY/xbuXe3MuutI/s1600/89.jpg" height="476" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
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style='width:472.5pt;height:189.75pt'>
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o:title="LCG (M) 101 sinking by stern" croptop="17437f" cropbottom="14308f"
cropleft="1461f" cropright="1514f"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i>LCG(M)102 sinking off the beach at
Westkapelle.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AF5Oent-ikQ/VUZaMPm3xfI/AAAAAAAAHCQ/nTNrfjSjPzo/s1600/88.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AF5Oent-ikQ/VUZaMPm3xfI/AAAAAAAAHCQ/nTNrfjSjPzo/s1600/88.jpg" height="280" width="400" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
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style='width:338.25pt;height:277.5pt'>
<v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\Tony\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image013.jpg"
o:title="rescued from LCG(M)101 2" croptop="12072f" cropbottom="1954f"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Survivors from LCG(M) being rescued.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
However
the landings were proceeding well and the second wave beached and disembarked
in their Buffaloes and Weasels. Some of them were able to drive right through
the gap in the dyke and others were lost on the beach. 41 Commando moved north
from the landing beach at the gap and were able to capture the gun emplacement
W15 and the town of <st1:city w:st="on">Westkapelle</st1:city>
just around midday. The troops fighting to the south took the radar station
there very quickly but there had a bitter battle to take position W13, finally
taking it in the evening. The island was fully taken on 7<sup>th</sup> November
after the Canadians had forced their way over the causeway too. Instead of the
expected 4000 German troops over 8000 surrendered. From the land forces of
Infatuate 103 lost their lives, 325 were wounded and 68 were missing. Despite
the great loss of live and the hardships the local population had suffered they
came out in the streets when ever the Marines arrived. In fact the locals put
themselves at risk by travelling through the floods to pass on information to
the troops. When the Marines were finally left due to leave the islanders
arrived at a hall bringing a bottle of what ever they had available. It was all
poured into a big tub and everybody just dipped in their mugs. There were some
very ill people the next day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
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style='width:397.5pt;height:267pt'>
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o:title="destroyed german gun near west kapelle" cropbottom="20067f"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<o:p> </o:p><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_KkFKmZrYNg/VUZaV5e3fqI/AAAAAAAAHCo/rlEdq83egcU/s1600/91.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_KkFKmZrYNg/VUZaV5e3fqI/AAAAAAAAHCo/rlEdq83egcU/s1600/91.jpg" height="388" width="400" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ybTFgGyGSvo/VUZaZC6loxI/AAAAAAAAHCw/eY4KNosfrs8/s1600/92.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ybTFgGyGSvo/VUZaZC6loxI/AAAAAAAAHCw/eY4KNosfrs8/s1600/92.jpg" height="384" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
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id="_x0000_i1033" type="#_x0000_t75" style='width:429pt;height:183pt'>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Destroyed gun emplacements on Walcheren.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
In the
best traditions of the Royal Navy they had sacrificed much to protect the
troops in their care. The final tally saw only 7 craft that were fully fit to
fight out of the 27 that had started the battle for the SSEF. They had faced a
fierce wall of fire from 0900 to 1230 when Commander ‘Monkey’ Sellars advised
Commander Pugsley, the Commander of the operation on the Kingsmill that he was
withdrawing his ships and it was up to the large vessels offshore to provide
support from then.</div>
<o:p></o:p></div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-33643419886238783562015-04-29T10:32:00.005-07:002015-04-29T10:32:38.805-07:00Dangerous Times<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
The
Landings on <st1:place w:st="on">Walcheren</st1:place> were called Operation
Infatuate. The landings at <st1:place w:st="on">Flushing</st1:place> were
Infatuate I and at Westkapelle Infatuate II. The Operation was scheduled for 1<sup>st</sup>
November 1944. The first landings were to be at <st1:place w:st="on">Flushing</st1:place>.
The 4<sup>th</sup> Royal Marine Commandos were to be the troops used. They
consisted of the 4<sup>th</sup> Commando. They left Breskens on the east bank
of the <st1:place w:st="on">Scheldt</st1:place> at 0440 just as the artillery bombardment
of 300 guns started up from the Breskens pocket to subdue the landing site. At
0620 the first landing craft hit the beach to little opposition and moved in
land. A second wave landed shortly afterwards. Although the landing was lightly
opposed there was heavy fighting in the town with numerous snipers hidden in
the gantries and cranes of the port and dock yard. The town was finally taken
on 4<sup>th</sup> November.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
Infatuate
II was to have the jump off port of Ostend. The code for the Naval group was
Force T with Commander Pugsley RN in command. Force T consisted of the
bombardment craft of HMS Warsprite with monitors Erebus and Robert. The HQ
vessel was HMS Kingsmill (K484), a Captain Class escort destroyer. She had her
keel laid in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Boston</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">USA</st1:country-region></st1:place>, on 9<sup>th</sup> July 1943.
She was launched and fitted out on 13<sup>th</sup> August 1943, a very speedy
35 days. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 29<sup>th</sup> October ’43.
She was 289’ long and 35’ beam with a draft of 11’. Four General Motors engines
driving two shafts moved the vessel at 19kts. She had a compliment of 156 men.
Her armaments were 3 x 3” guns, 4 x 20mm AA guns, and 4 depth charge
projectors. She was scrapped 17-Feb-47 so only had a life of 3.3 years!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i>HMS Kingsmill K848 Captain Class Escort
Destroyer<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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o:title="Kingsmill Portsmouth DD Dec 44 tall mast as HQ"/>
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<i>HMS Kingsmill in Portsmouth Dry Dock
December 1944<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
Dad was
probably aboard the Kingsmill as he was a staff Officer, and this was the
Headquarters vessel, but it was Force T Headquarters ship. The rest of Force T
consisted of 27 vessels of the SSEF which were commanded by Commander K.A.
Sellar, and the transport craft used to land the Commandos. The Support
Squadron Eastern Flank Headquarters vessel was LCT269 with Commander Sellar
aboard. I have a photograph of Dad as a Staff Officer of Support Squadron Eastern
Flank. To my mind that could mean that he would be with the C/O of that unit
rather than Force T. In this case Dad would have been right in the thick of the
action as we will see. However there is a report that after the battle the crew
of LCT(H)269 was 18 men. I think the normal complement was about this number so
it sounds as though extra hands, as in staff officers were not aboard. However
Mum tells me that Dad suffered nightmares after the war as he had witnessed a
crew mate next to him being hit in the head. Apparently it was somebody that he
had done training with previously. He had come aboard with a Senior Officer for
a quick up date of orders. Whilst waiting and chatting at the ship’s rail the
other bloke was hit in the head and died. Mum says that dad volunteered to take
his place and go back with the Senior Officer. She felt sure that this had been at Walcheren.
This could have been when Dad was on the Kingsmill and returned to one of the
close support squadron landing craft, or maybe when he was on the LCH 269 and
then went aboard one of the other landing craft. Mum thinks that it was a
contemporary of Dad’s so looking in the lists of Temp. Act. Sub Lieutenants
lost on 1<sup>st</sup> November there are none for Kingsmill or LCH 269 but
there are plenty from other vessels. We will never know I suppose.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
Force T
assembled at Ostend and then left there approx 0030 1<sup>st</sup> November
1944. There were great worries that a big shore battery at Knokke on the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Belgium</st1:country-region> coast would
be a real problem to the fleet. It was supposed to have 4 x 11” guns which
could have played havoc with the small vessels. In the end nothing happened. It
was latter found that Canadian Forces over ran the fortifications a few hours
before the landings. It was also found that the 11” guns had never been fitted.
It was a lucky escape for the flotilla. During the night there was a scare when
LCH 269 picked targets moving at speed on her radar. They could only be E Boats
and Actions Stations were called. They could have caused severe casualties if
they had got amongst the fleet. As it was a British destroyer had also seen
them and her larger guns drove them off and caused some damage to the Germans. The
Commander of the Destroyer just happened to be the old commander of LCH 269 who
had been replaced by Commander Sellar! Another lucky escape!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Convoy to Walcheren morning of 1<sup>st</sup>
November 1944.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
Onboard
the Kingsmill with Commander Pugsley was Brigadier B.W. Leicester who was the
Commander of the 4<sup>th</sup> Royal Marine Special Service Brigade, which
consisted of Nos 41, 47 and 48 Commandos. These two had to make the final
decision as to whether the landing should take place. It was known that the
aerial bombing would not take place as the French and Belgium airfields were
shut due to low cloud (although Walcheren was clear) and the damage already
caused to the fortifications was unknown. The War Office, despite knowing how
desperately important the lifting of the blockade of the Scheldt was, had given the last word to the field
commanders. Their orders stated that they should not attack if it was felt that
the German defences were ‘ more than very weak’. The sea state was calm, which
may not occur again for along time at that time of the year, and with the
possibility that the low cloud would lift and air support would be available
later, and being fully aware of the urgency of getting supplies to the front
lines, they gave the code for the commencement which was ‘Nelson’. They must
have had great anguish knowing that the odds against the SSEF escaping with
light casualties were small.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<o:p><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HoOPf34a_P8/VUEVGW1KZmI/AAAAAAAAG-I/KIC8XS7tYJ8/s1600/82.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HoOPf34a_P8/VUEVGW1KZmI/AAAAAAAAG-I/KIC8XS7tYJ8/s1600/82.jpg" height="410" width="640" /></a> </o:p></div>
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o:title="German gun position Walcheren"/>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<i>One of the German
fortifications on <st1:place w:st="on">Walcheren</st1:place>.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
The
shore guns opened fire on the motor launch that was marking the anchorage spot
for the Kingsmill at 0809. This was about 5 miles west from the beaches and was
also where the hospital craft would wait. At 0820 the Warspite and the Roberts
opened fire as they were easily in range. The Erebus had developed a problem
with her turret so was unable to join in until later. As the Warspite had had
one of her turrets put out of action when damaged in the <st1:place w:st="on">Mediterranean</st1:place>
there were salvos of 10 15” shells going over. Afterwards it was found that due
to the lack of air spotting due to the weather the accuracy wasn’t very good
compared to later in the day when trained spotter planes were able to direct
the guns. It was found later that the naval bombardment had knocked out two of
the guns, at W15 (location on the map above).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
The SSEF
were to go closer to the beach and protect the convoy of landing craft that
were to land the Marines. The plan was for 47 and 48 Royal Marine Commandos to
land to the north of the gap and the 41<sup>st</sup> RM Commando with the 10<sup>th</sup>
International Allies Commando consisting of Norwegian and <st1:country-region w:st="on">Belgium</st1:country-region> troops,
to land south of the breach. The first few troops ashore would land directly
from LC(I)’s, landing craft Infantry, and those following would go ashore in
tracked vehicles called Buffaloes and Weasels. There would also be some tanks,
all landing from LC(T)’s., landing craft Tank.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-28-9sa-3gxw/VUEVIaFG-gI/AAAAAAAAG-U/qK88ldBCX-U/s1600/83.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-28-9sa-3gxw/VUEVIaFG-gI/AAAAAAAAG-U/qK88ldBCX-U/s1600/83.jpg" height="460" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<i>Part of 47
Commando Royal Marines on LCT4 that was hit on the beach later. The large
tracked vehicles on the right are Buffaloes and the smaller one on the right a
weasel.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
On the
run in to the beach the artillery from the Breskens side of the river was to
lay down a barrage and just as the first craft were approaching. The SSEF were
to close the beach and offer support for the actual landings. At 4000 yards out
the vessels of the SSEF were taking heavy hits. One of the rockets ships was
hit and there was a premature detonation of the missiles. It is variously
reported that they caused destruction on their own forces but from other
reports it sounds as though there were several very close calls and a very real
scare to many of the other landing craft. Even before the first landing craft
had beached some of the SSEF vessels had been rendered useless. As they closed
the beach they could see that their guns were just bouncing off the concrete
embrasures. Commander ‘Monkey’ Sellars ordered them to get even closer to the
shore to fire directly into the slits. It had been noticed on previous landings
that the German guns were very likely to concentrate their fire on the vessels that
were actually attacking them, rather than the ships carrying the men or
material that was to be landed. Thus drawing the German fire they allowed the
troop carrying craft to close the beach with few casualties. They also found
that they were so close that many of the guns could not depress low enough to
fire at them. However the 88mm guns were deadly. Just as the first troops were about to land
12 rocket firing Typhoon fighters from No.183 Squadron that had managed to get
air borne despite the low cloud and arrived to add their weight to the safety
of the landings by picking targets close to the beach.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
A team
of war correspondents went with the troops so recording some remarkable
photographs and film of the Support Squadron’s actions and battle.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
Movietone
film of the Battle <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doq8s68Xoo8">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doq8s68Xoo8</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
Norwegian movie newsreel <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIber1VFkn4">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIber1VFkn4</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
Dutch Newsreel showing flooding
and repair of dykes <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg7zGo9Wy08">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg7zGo9Wy08</a></div>
</div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-39251874593292764172015-04-12T09:03:00.005-07:002015-04-12T09:03:56.465-07:00The next Battle.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<b>SUPPORT SQUADRON, EASTERN FLANK. 7-Jul-1944 to
30-Jun-1945<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
Dad
wasn’t to be away from the action too long it seems. Again it is extremely
difficult to track him down to specific places and times as he was not on any
particular vessels books that we can track. He is still down as an additional
to HMS Odyssey the ‘hotel in Ilfracombe’. His duty is written as special
service for cipher duties on the staff of the Supports Squadron Eastern Flank. This
is also the time that he was again promoted to the dizzy rank of Temporary Sub
Lieutenant. If you remember he was only ‘Acting’ previously. He is Temporary
due to the fact he was RNVR, hostilities only, draft. He actually is recorded as going back on the
Secret list on 25<sup>th</sup> July 1944. This may indicate that this was when
he went aboard a vessel and not ashore. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
Dad’s
final report for this phase in his career is signed by Commander Anthony F.
Pugsley RN. This chap was the commanding officer of the support squadron so
once again Dad was at the centre of things. I cannot find much about Commander
Pugsley, or for that matter the Support Squadron, Eastern Flank SSEF. It seems
that the SSEF was formed after the Normandy Landings and was the follow up to
the ‘Trout Line’ that was established on the eastern side of Sword beach. This
utilised the smaller assault ships that had participated in the landings. At
night they were anchored in a long line around the large units, very close to
each other to provide a barrier against the attack of E Boats (Called E boats
as it was ‘Enemy’! The Germans called them Schnell S Boats), unmanned explosive
boats, human torpedoes and drifting mines. The earliest reference to the SSEF I
can find is about 5 days after D Day. The vessels had been used to support the
landings but as the battle had moved in land they had become redundant for
their primary role. Dad had spoken of being involved in throwing hand grenades
over the side and patrolling all night to protect the ships from human topedoes
and I had always assumed this would be in the <st1:place w:st="on">Mediterranean</st1:place>
as I didn’t know that the Germans had them. He also spoke of driving DUKWs so I
assume that this was when he was with the SSEF.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
The SSEF
was made up mainly of LCG (L) and (M)’s (Landing Craft Gun, large and Medium),
LCF (Landing Craft Flak) and LCT(R) (Landing Craft Tank (Rocket). As an aside
the LCF’s were the only RN vessels to have a German name as Flak is German for
anti aircraft fire! All these craft were landing craft for tanks that had the
deck space plated over and magazines and accommodation put under. The LCG’s had
two 4.3” guns and some machine guns mounted and a crew of 40, 24 of whom were
Royal Marines to man the guns. The LCF’s had Oerlikons and Pom Pom guns. The
LCT(R) had 1080 6” rockets fitted in ranks that were fired off by a 12v
battery, They were fired off in salvos at the beaches to clear obstacles etc.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YxvnyPlllkE/VSqVs4-ohEI/AAAAAAAAGyM/5l_zCAUC1fA/s1600/73.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YxvnyPlllkE/VSqVs4-ohEI/AAAAAAAAGyM/5l_zCAUC1fA/s1600/73.jpg" height="434" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>LCF 37 at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Portsmouth</st1:city></st1:place> before D Day.
Note PLUTO reel in background.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i>LCG(L) 2 before Operation Infatuate<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rstcHdP7-Wo/VSqV0Y-wC0I/AAAAAAAAGyc/xKStxS1WFbw/s1600/75.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rstcHdP7-Wo/VSqV0Y-wC0I/AAAAAAAAGyc/xKStxS1WFbw/s1600/75.jpg" height="374" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape
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<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i>LCT(R) showing details of rocket launch
apparatus.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yG73yoo-5-g/VSqV4OKUDFI/AAAAAAAAGyk/puqlDhDCkbI/s1600/76.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yG73yoo-5-g/VSqV4OKUDFI/AAAAAAAAGyk/puqlDhDCkbI/s1600/76.jpg" height="230" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Another photo of the deck of an LCF.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
There
were also LCH’s Landing Craft Headquarters and landing craft used for hospital
first aid stations. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
Dad was
specifically on the staff of the Support Squadron. I am not sure whether this
means he was attached to a particular vessel or moved with the Commanding
Officer or not.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
The Support
Squadron, Eastern Flank’s big battle was one of the bloodiest and funnily
enough one of the least known of the Second World War. It was also in a place
where British Forces had been humbled previously whilst trying to open up a second
front. On 30-Jul-1809 during the Napoleonic wars 300 ships landed 42000 men on
the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">island</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Walcheren</st1:placename></st1:place>. Their task was to open up a
second front, to capture a French fleet in <st1:city w:st="on">Holland</st1:city>,
to capture the arsenal at <st1:city w:st="on">Antwerp</st1:city> and deny the
use of the <st1:place w:st="on">Scheldt</st1:place> to the French. They never
left the island as they were literally bogged down as the French had flooded
the place. The troops suffered a terrible disease that became known as
Walcheren Fever. 8000 died and 10’s of thousands were too sick to do anything.
They eventually withdrew to lick there wounds.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
The same
island was to be the site of a decisive battle once again as the tide of war
again broke on the beaches of the <st1:place w:st="on">Scheldt</st1:place>.
Following the D Day landings the fighting had moved from the beaches and the
supply lines were getting ever more stretched. Eventually the French Channel
ports were taken but these were already far from the lines. <st1:city w:st="on">Montgomery</st1:city>
was urged to move on <st1:city w:st="on">Antwerp</st1:city> and the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Belgium</st1:country-region> and Dutch ports but he waited until his
supplies had built up but finally took <st1:city w:st="on">Antwerp</st1:city>
in early September. However it could not be used as a port as the river access
to it was protected by very heavy gun emplacements on the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">island</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Walcheren</st1:placename></st1:place>.
Polish and Canadian troops were ordered to take the ground between <st1:city w:st="on">Antwerp</st1:city> and <st1:place w:st="on">Walcheren</st1:place> and
then storm the island. The island had a causeway to the mainland that was about
30yds wide and dead straight for nearly a mile. Either side were marsh and mud
flats. The Canadians fought their way to the causeway over the next weeks and
continued to try to cross the causeway. It was decided that a three pronged attack
should take place to speed up the taking of the island. The island had perhaps
the most heavily fortified coastline in the world. It had 30 batteries in
various types of fortifications. There were 50 to 60 guns of 75 to 220mm
calibre. The guns were manned by Lieutenant General Dasser’s 70<sup>th</sup>
Infantry Division. They were known as the ‘white bread men’ as most of them had
gastric complaints so were not fit of front line infantry. It was thought there
were approximately 4000 German troops.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VceYkkfv7IE/VSqV7pi309I/AAAAAAAAGys/jARPahG0f6E/s1600/77.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VceYkkfv7IE/VSqV7pi309I/AAAAAAAAGys/jARPahG0f6E/s1600/77.png" height="572" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
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style='width:393pt;height:351.75pt'>
<v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\Tony\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image009.png"
o:title="Walcheren map"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Map showing the German defences of Walcheren
and the landings of the Allies.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
After
much soul searching and discussion it was decided that to try to disable the
guns the dykes surrounding the island should be breeched which would mean most
of the island would be inundated. It was obvious that there would be loss of
life amongst the inhabitants so on 2<sup>nd</sup> October they were warned by
radio, and by pamphlets dropped by planes. Most chose to stay. Between 3<sup>rd</sup>
and 11<sup>th</sup> October the dykes were pounded with 2378t of explosives and
4 large breaks were created. The fields were completely flooded and at certain
states of the tide a 6kt current flew in and out of the breeches. However there
was little damage caused to the gun emplacements as they were either built on
the dykes them selves, or were sufficiently elevated to avoid been flooded.
Communications between them and the ease of supply were severely disrupted
though. In Westkapelle only 50 house were left habitable.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3oEArCHXqfg/VSqWHOBhd6I/AAAAAAAAGy0/cUOc5tp3ZBU/s1600/78.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3oEArCHXqfg/VSqWHOBhd6I/AAAAAAAAGy0/cUOc5tp3ZBU/s1600/78.jpg" height="486" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1030" type="#_x0000_t75"
style='width:387.75pt;height:292.5pt'>
<v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\Tony\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image011.jpg"
o:title="breech in dyke west kapelle" cropbottom="1805f" cropleft="1319f"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<i>Air reconnaissance
photograph showing the breech at Westkapelle and the damage to the town.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
There
were<i> </i>further air raids in the run up
to the invasion for which the date had been set when there were the first
favourable tides, 1<sup>st</sup> November 1944. It was decided that heavy
bombardment by airplanes would be required to ‘soften up’ the opposition
despite the belief that only direct hits would have any effect on the
fortifications. On 28<sup>th</sup> October 261 bombers dropped 1189t, on the 29<sup>th</sup>
327 planes dropped 1562t and on the 30<sup>th</sup> 89 planes dropped 555t of
explosives. Six aircraft were lost during these operations. Further
bombardments were to have taken place just prior to the landings but there was
much political to’ing and fro’ing about the priorities of Bomber Command, and
in the end the weather was not good enough for the planes to take off any way.<o:p></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">The three pronged attack was for the Canadians
to the east, who were fighting to establish a bridgehead on the island end of
the Causeway, to continue their attempt. The second prong was for a force of
Royal Marine Commandos to go ashore from Landing Craft in the area of Flushing
to the south and the third would be a landing from the sea at Westkapelle to
the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">north west</st1:state></st1:place>.
Dad and the SSEF were to be the protection for the third Prong to Westkapelle.</span></div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-89135334679029426452015-04-05T09:31:00.000-07:002015-04-05T09:31:40.110-07:00After the Landings.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<b>AFTER THE LANDINGS.</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
In the
early hours of D Day +1 the code for the
approach of enemy E Boats was given (Influenza) nothing came of it but all
would have been tense and I suppose that it would have just added to the
tiredness of those aboard. About this time a low flying plane was shot down and
crashed near the Largs. It was later found that it was actually carrying
paratroops. I wonder if this was felt as a disaster for the Combined Ops on the
HQ Ship as there job was to try and prevent this sort of thing happening. The
person nominally in charge was put on a charge but exonerated at the hearing. The
shore glowed with an incandescent light as the rockets from the landing craft
had phosphorus warheads. The noise was added to when HMS Rodney was blazing
away with her 16” guns right over head of the Largs from 500ft away. The
vibration and noise were shattering. During the day the enemy batteries around <st1:city w:st="on">Le Havre</st1:city> and the rest of
the coast would range in on the ships anchored off the beaches. When they got a
bit close to Largs they picked up the anchor and just steamed around in circles
around their allocated spot. ‘Action stations’ were called in the second day as
there were warnings of glider bombs being directed at them. Through out the
first week the signallers were doing four hour watches, watch and watch about,
so they would have been extremely tired as the noise would have made sleep
difficult at the best of times.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
The
early morning of D Day +2 saw the Largs called to action stations as there had
been a warning of glider bombs being aimed towards them but nothing came of it.
During the day Rodney and Ramilies were still finding targets ashore. The crew
of Largs were witnesses to 100’s of bombers going over head and the air war got
a little too close to them when a pair of FW109’s broke through in the
afternoon and attacked. One of them was shot down and the pilot was picked up
and taken aboard the Largs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
From D
Day +3 things started to quieten down but on D+6 dive bombers again attacked
the ship which came through unscathed. A few days later they managed to
detonate a mine but only minor damage was caused to the hull. They had lived a
charmed life until a German battery that was still active around Honfleur
managed to find their range and they sustained a 4 foot hole just above the
waterline. This was quickly repaired at sea by a small repair ship coming
alongside and drilling holes and holding a plate up to the hole and bolting or
riveting it into place! This was fortunately the last damage done to the ship.
As the beachhead was extended, and the frontline got further from the beaches,
the ships standing off were released. On D Day +24 HMS Largs sailed back to <st1:country-region w:st="on">England</st1:country-region>. I
suspect that Dad stayed with the vessel until it went up to Greenock on the <st1:place w:st="on">Clyde</st1:place>. Here it was repaired and updated and made ready
for it’s next landing which was to be the invasion of <st1:place w:st="on">Southern
France</st1:place>. Dad’s file says that he left the Staff of the Naval Force
Commander Force S on 6<sup>th</sup> July, a month to the day after the landing.
HMS Largs sailed from Greenock on 18<sup>th</sup> July for the trip to the <st1:place w:st="on">Mediterranean</st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
Dad won
no awards or medals for his part in the <st1:state w:st="on">Normandy</st1:state>.
He won no Mention in Dispatches, but like the vast number of other participants
he got the grateful thanks from a whole nation and the high appreciation of his
Admiral.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VVTNJAVT6cI/VRwLJjqzjqI/AAAAAAAAGoQ/IakvFcWslFw/s1600/72.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VVTNJAVT6cI/VRwLJjqzjqI/AAAAAAAAGoQ/IakvFcWslFw/s1600/72.jpg" height="640" width="638" /></a></div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<i>Citation presented
to Dad following D Day, signed by Rear Admiral A.G. Talbot.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
There is
a personal report S206 for dad for the period of his appointment with Staff of
Flag Officer Commanding Force ‘’S’’. 15<sup>th</sup> Feb 44 to 6<sup>th</sup>
July 44. The reporting Officer is Captain A. Duckworth for Rear Admiral
Commanding Force ‘S’. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
He is
reported as having satisfactory general conduct (rather than unsatisfactory)
and to be of temperate habit.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
His
Professional Ability is 5, Personal Qualities 4, Leadership 4, Intellectual
Ability 5, and Administrative Ability 4. (Out of 10).<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
The
general Opinion of the Officer is ‘<i>A hard
working officer who pulled his weight in the Cypher organisation of H.M.S.
Largs during Operation <st1:place w:st="on">Neptune</st1:place>’. </i>He is
recommended for promotion in the ordinary course! Not exactly a glowing
report!!<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-18477546449701575992015-03-29T07:16:00.001-07:002015-03-29T07:16:38.664-07:00D Day begins.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
The
bombardment warships for <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Sword</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Beach</st1:placetype></st1:place> started up around
0500’ish. These vessels were HMS Warspite, Ramilies and the monitor Roberts.
The Warspite alone fired over 300 15” shells in two days. In less than a week
she had to withdraw to have new gun barrels fitted and re-ammunition! There
were also waves of bombers and gliders going over to drop paratroops to secure
vital areas ahead of the main landings. Destroyers and landing craft close
inshore were making a smoke screen to conceal the build up of the fleets of
landing craft. From out of this smoke came a number of German E boats. They
dashed in and fired off eighteen torpedoes in all. Two were aiming at the Largs
but a fast thinking Officer of the watch rang ‘Full Astern’ and this meant the
torpedoes just passed a few feet ahead
of the vessel. Unfortunately the Norwegian destroyer Svenner was not so lucky
and at least one of the torpedoes struck her amidships. She was no more than
200yds on the Largs port side. The Svenner immediately broke her back and
folded in half forming a ‘V’. She sank until she was sitting on the bottom with
her bow and stern still showing above the water. There was high loss of life
due to the speed of the sinking. Just after the sinking of the Svenner HMS Wrestler
struck a mine again very close to the Largs. She sustained major damage and had
to be towed back to <st1:place w:st="on">Portsmouth</st1:place>
and was never repaired.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lKmKNs8-fBo/VRgHqFNbPaI/AAAAAAAAGnA/1GK4IUUyNQc/s1600/DDay%2BBeach%2BMore%2Bclear.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lKmKNs8-fBo/VRgHqFNbPaI/AAAAAAAAGnA/1GK4IUUyNQc/s1600/DDay%2BBeach%2BMore%2Bclear.jpg" height="444" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: center;">
<i>The Normandy Landing beaches and positions
of major Naval units on D Day.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
Actual H
Hour for Sword beach was 0725, (the different beaches had different H Hours as
the tide time was different for each of them) and by 0600 the Landing ships
were embarking their troops into the smaller craft and assembling them ready
for the assault. At about 0800 the Midget Submarine X23 was alongside the
Largs. She had been laying just off the beaches for more than 48 hours to mark
the way for the incoming vessels. The sight of the small landing craft
streaming towards the beaches must have been a fantastic sight. There were over
2000 of these boats built during the war and 371 lost, 267 in 1944. They were
made of teak hardwood with some armour plating. They were 12.6m long and 3m wide
and a draft of only 1.5m. They could carry 36 men, a platoon plus, with a crew
of 4 at a speed of 7kts. The troops had benches to sit astride and could exit
in minutes through the bow doors. One was blown up by a mine just a hundred
yards from HMS Largs.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XeviWdvfYk4/VRgISTAt8OI/AAAAAAAAGnI/LQFa2hlAAgo/s1600/69.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XeviWdvfYk4/VRgISTAt8OI/AAAAAAAAGnI/LQFa2hlAAgo/s1600/69.jpg" height="640" width="516" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: center;">
<i>An early model LCA the turret is the Bren
gun position. The Coxwain’s position was on the st’bd side. One of the two
steel doors, that were just inside the bow ramp can be seen open. The ramp was
operated from aft where the Stoker sat between the two V 8 petrol engines.</i></div>
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o:title="Warspite and ramillies off sword D Day"/>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gdSzIjDtXdc/VRgIddPqjUI/AAAAAAAAGnQ/X5hJMZ7B4kg/s1600/70.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gdSzIjDtXdc/VRgIddPqjUI/AAAAAAAAGnQ/X5hJMZ7B4kg/s1600/70.jpg" height="408" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<i>HMS Warspite and
Ramilies off Sword Beach June 1944.</i><i> </i></div>
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<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on"><i>Sword</i></st1:placename><i> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Beach</st1:placetype></i></st1:place><i> after D Day. .</i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
At 0900
the Largs moved closer inshore to be able to more easily fulfill its role as HQ
Ship for <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Sword</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Beach</st1:placetype></st1:place> and the Commanding Officer of the 3rd
Battalion went ashore. Throughout the day gunfire from the German heavy guns
around <st1:city w:st="on">Le Havre</st1:city>
would land around the Largs. The bombardment Naval Vessels would then respond
to shut them up. HMS Rodney and assorted cruisers joined in. There were regular
sorties from planes going in to <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region>
on bombing raids and Landing Craft (Rockets) would shoot off their 100 rocket
salvo in minutes. The beaches had the benefit of constant fighter cover and
later in the evening there were several waves of bombers and then bombers with
their gliders, maybe 300 of each. They were very low and the German flak was
bursting around the gliders as after they were released they circled losing
height and tracer was running up to them. One of the tow aircraft, a Sterling
bomber, was ditching with its engines on fire and finally crashed about 100yds
from HMS Largs. That first night there was an air raid warning and they made
smoke. One bomb landed close to the st’bd side. The noise of the battle must
have been deafening and when the air raid was in place the sound and sights
must have increased. The tracer crossing the skies with flares being dropped
and the gleam of action ashore and flash of the capital ships gun salvos must
have made sight not to be forgotten.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-42187408587583316342015-03-29T06:59:00.001-07:002015-03-29T06:59:22.575-07:00The last few days.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
Force S was the force that was
designated to take <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Sword</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Beach</st1:placetype></st1:place>. This was the most
eastern of the landing beaches and could be the most crucial as this would be
where the Panzer tank reinforcements would first make an impact on the battle
to create a bridgehead. The Sword landings were to take place along a front of
5 miles. The Eastern Task Force covered Sword (British), Juno (Canadian) and
Gold (British) Beaches, east to west.
Apparently these beaches were to be called Swordfish, Goldfish and Jellyfish,
but Winston Churchill said that if men were to give their lives on the beaches
they shouldn’t be named after <i>fish</i>.
The western Task force was American and the beaches were called <st1:city w:st="on">Omaha</st1:city> and <st1:state w:st="on">Utah</st1:state>
(east to west).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
It is well known that the invasion
was supposed to take place on 5<sup>th</sup> June but had to be postponed due
to a summer storm in the Channel. Even the following day the soldiers in the
flat bottomed landing craft suffered badly from seasickness, and no doubt some were
extremely glad to see the land, no matter what reception awaited them. The
majority of the invasion fleet were embarked on the night of the 4<sup>th</sup>
June. They eventually left on the 5<sup>th</sup>. All ships passed through area
Z (called Piccadilly) from where they made for their separate beaches down
buoyed and lit channels through the German minefield. These had been cleared by
minesweepers just ahead of them. Ten channels of 600 feet wide were swept
through the minefield and marked with small light buoys for the following
ships. Two midget submarines, the X20 and X 23 were used as light vessels to
mark the way with green lights.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I haven’t found any evidence of
how Dad spent the build up to D Day, but he was allocated to the Staff of the
Flag Officer Commanding Force S from the middle of February 1944, which I take
to mean working for Rear Admiral Arthur Talbot above. He would have been
practising on his equipment for codes and cypers and more than likely being
involved in the various scenarios that were envisaged. For D Day Rear Admiral
Talbot was to be aboard one of the HQ ships, to be stationed off <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Sword</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Beach</st1:placetype></st1:place>.
The role of the HQ ship had evolved from bitter experience of past raids and
landings. It was found that there was greater need of coordination of the army,
air force and navy at these crucial chaotic times. It was essential that each
could talk to the other and that each understood the needs of the other. This
was one reason why Combined Operations Command was set up by Winston Churchill
in 1940. Admiral of the Fleet Roger Keyes was it’s first head until Lord Louis
Mountbatten took over in 1941. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
A Combined Operations Command team
for communicators were placed on an HQ ship so each would be able to direct
their own forces but could easily interact with the others to enable plans to
be quickly changed when things went wrong and to quickly take advantage of a
situation when things went right, or targets of opportunity presented
themselves. To this end they were linked with observers ashore and the actual
ships and planes. They could tell landing craft to move further up the beach,
or naval bombardment vessels to direct fire to a particular fortification, or
receive signals from spotter aircraft etc. They were of course also linked back
to the Flag Ship of the Task Force and back to the <st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region>. One of the HQ ships recorded
2300 messages a day! That is one or two every minute of the day. Therefore it
can be seen that Dad would have to learn quite a lot of new things as well as
get very proficient at his job.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wM4g3pqhshA/VRgEl4Wr0UI/AAAAAAAAGm0/65_tatfw0ew/s1600/largs%2Bat%2Blargs%2B2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wM4g3pqhshA/VRgEl4Wr0UI/AAAAAAAAGm0/65_tatfw0ew/s1600/largs%2Bat%2Blargs%2B2.gif" height="462" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>HMS Largs in Largs Bay Jan/Feb 1943.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
Rear Admiral Talbot’s HQ ship was to be HMS Largs. Largs started out
as the Charles Plumier (named after a French Botanist), built at Port du Bouc
near Marseille, as a fruit carrier. At the outbreak of the war she was
requisitioned by the French Government for duty as an armed auxiliary cruiser
(X-11). With the invasion of France by the Nazis and the setting up of the
Vichy Government the Charles Plumier was seized by HMS’s Faulknor and Forester
110’ off Gibraltar. She was then converted into an HQ vessel. She was
re-launched using a bottle of rum. I think she was in dry dock at Birkenhead at
the end of April Beginning of May and then moved to <st1:city w:st="on">Portsmouth</st1:city> where she spent most of the next
five weeks alongside the Railway Pier.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I can’t be sure when Dad joined
her, but if he joined at the same time as the Rear Admiral it is likely to have
been fairly close to the time of departure. However it could have been that the
lesser staff were aboard much earlier so as to integrate with each department
and to set up the systems etc. If this was the case there is every chance that
Dad was aboard on 25<sup>th</sup> May 1944. HMS Largs moved out into the <st1:place w:st="on">Solent</st1:place> to anchor and there they had some VIP visitors in
the shape of King George VI, with Admirals’ Ramsay, Vian and Talbot. Before sailing
Winston Churchill, Field Marshal Smutts and Aneurin Bevin (Foreign Secretary)
also came aboard. As Churchill stepped on to the wharf after the visit he
turned back to the ship and doffed his hat in salute to the crew</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--OtlXBwbgww/VOdk6MOIw2I/AAAAAAAAGjY/mzkAmwJLaN8/s1600/67.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--OtlXBwbgww/VOdk6MOIw2I/AAAAAAAAGjY/mzkAmwJLaN8/s1600/67.jpg" height="452" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>King George VI visiting HMS Largs in the <st1:place w:st="on">Solent</st1:place> 25<sup>th</sup> May 1944.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
The next time that HMS Largs moved
from Portsmouth was on Monday 5<sup>th</sup> June 1944. This was the start of
the ‘Longest Day’ and Dad was seeing it at first hand. They were anchored in
the <st1:place w:st="on">Solent</st1:place> as slower ships passed out to sea.
They weighed anchor and moved out at 2130 along with a couple of Landing Ship
Infantry vessel. These were ex cross channel ferries that had been converted to
carry troops close to the beaches and then lower them in their landing craft to
directly assault the beaches. They were escorted by destroyers and MTB’s (Motor
Torpedo Boats). Their first objective was ‘Piccadilly Circus’ which was the
assembling area for the convoys to set up and head up the ‘spout’ for their
individual beaches and through their designated swept and buoyed channel. (See <i>The Routes to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Normandy</st1:state></st1:place></i> map in previous blog). There were at
‘action stations’ from 2300 on 5<sup>th </sup>June.<o:p></o:p></div>
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NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-16149774974010690412015-03-09T08:41:00.000-07:002015-03-09T08:41:58.415-07:00Force S; The build up to D Day.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>FORCE S 15-Feb-44 to
6-Jul-44</b><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dad was still on the books at HMS Odyssey but was now
working on the staff of the Naval Force Commander of Force S. As you may have
gathered from the dates this was the build up to and during the Normandy
Landings. The whole battle was called Operation Overlord and the naval part of
it was called Operation Neptune. It seems that many lessons had been learned
through the various landings and attacks that had been carried out by Allied
Forces, including the disastrous raid on <st1:city w:st="on">Dieppe</st1:city>,
and the planning and training stages were exhaustive. Part of these lessons was
that the three branches, army, air force and navy, must work together and be
well coordinated for success to be assured. This was achieved by forming the
Combined Operations. I think Dad was now part of the Combined Operations team.
I remember seeing the Combined Ops Badge in a drawer at home. Each member
retained their usual structure within their branch though so this does not
appear in Dad’s record.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After his posting to Cameron Barracks in Inverness it
becomes very difficult to follow what Dad actually did in the run up to D-Day.
By the way, the hour of the landings was called H-Hour. Not too imaginative
really. The North European landings were so secret that they invented a further
category of secret beyond the highest ‘Top Secret’. This was ‘Bigot’ and
apparently was the backward form of ‘To Gib’ which was written on personnel’s
orders when being posted for the North African Landings, Operation Torch, which
Dad took part in. Mind you there was a
real panic about security in May 1944 as the very popular Daily Telegraph
crossword had the answers of <st1:state w:st="on">Utah</st1:state> and <st1:city w:st="on">Omaha</st1:city> in them and these were of course the names of the
American Landing beaches in <st1:state w:st="on">Normandy</st1:state>.
On 2<sup>nd</sup> June 1944 two more suspicious answers appeared, Overlord and
Neptune, which of course were the code for the whole operation and the landings.
The same compiler was involved, and MI5 very quickly interviewed him. It was
found to be sheer coincidence. He was a 54 year old teacher and frequently
asked his 6<sup>th</sup> Form pupils for words to include and as the school had
been evacuated to an area that was full of Americans they gave him words that
they had heard them saying.<br />
<br /></div>
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Dad’s records show that he was admitted to the secret list
on 10-Feb-44. I can not find what this specifically meant but must assume that
as a Cipher Officer he had a raised level of clearance to use higher codes so
he would have had to be ultra careful and would be more closely scrutinised
than someone not on the secret list. In his parent’s photograph album of the
war years it states that Dad ‘came south via the North of Scotland, Liverpool
and Portsmouth so this sounds as though he was on a ship rather than staying
ashore with the Admiral. The ship was probably HMS Largs, more of which later.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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The D-Day landings have been portrayed in many films and
still are the largest amphibious landings ever carried out. Though maybe
telling you something you may already know I feel I should give some background
to the whole battle. Operation Overlord was the code for the <st1:city w:st="on">Battle</st1:city>
for <st1:state w:st="on">Normandy</st1:state>.
Operation Neptune was the initial part of the <st1:city w:st="on">Battle</st1:city>
for <st1:state w:st="on">Normandy</st1:state>,
the transport of the troops, the landings and the establishing a bridgehead and
the first month. The landing was to be over a 50 mile stretch of <st1:state w:st="on">Normandy</st1:state>’s northern
beaches. The 50 miles was to be divided into the Western and Eastern Sectors.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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<i>The Routes to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Normandy</st1:state></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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The Supreme Allied Commander was Dwight Eisenhower. The
Deputy Supreme Commander was actually Air Chief Marshal Arthur Tedder. The
Allied Commander of Ground forces was General Bernard Montgomery and of the air
Air Chief Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory. In charge of Naval Forces was Admiral
Sir Bertram Ramsay and in charge of the western task force Naval forces was
Rear Admiral Alan G. Kirk and Eastern Forces Admiral Philip Vian. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Admiral Ramsay had actually resigned from the Royal Naval in
1938 but was coaxed back by Winston Churchill to help in the coming war. He was
in charge of Operation Dynamo which was the retreat from <st1:place w:st="on">Dunkirk</st1:place> where he masterminded the saving of a
third of a million allied troops from the beaches. He was knighted for this
work in 1940. Following this he was in charge of defending the coast from the
threat of invasion and then was Deputy Commander of the North African Landings
and Naval Commander of the Eastern Task force for the invasion of <st1:place w:st="on">Sicily</st1:place>. This gave him
plenty of experience for his job as Naval Commander for Operation Neptune.
Unfortunately he was killed when his plane crashed on 2<sup>nd</sup> Jan 1945
leaving an airport SW of Paris to attend a meeting with General Montgomery in
Brussels.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<i>Standing L to R; Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, Admiral Sir Bertram
Ramsay, Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh Mallory, Lieutenant General Bedell
Smith<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Seated L to R; Air Chief Marshal Arthur Tedder, General Dwight
Eisenhower, General Sir Bernard Montgomery. The Operation Overlord team.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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Rear Admiral Philip Vian had been a gunnery expert and had
won the Distinguished Service Medal for his actions early in the war off the then
neutral Norway, aboard the ‘Cossack’ when he safely took the German ship
‘Altmark’ that held 300 British Merchant Seamen that had been captured by the
German raider ‘Admiral Graff Spee’. He was nominated as the Naval Commander of
the Eastern Naval Forces for Overlord.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Rear Admiral for <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Sword</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Beach</st1:placetype></st1:place>
was Arthur George Talbot. I can’t find out too much about Admiral Talbot. He had
a nickname of ‘Noisy’ for some reason. Just prior to D-Day there was a send off
do in the gymnasium of HMS Victory. When a destroyer Captain said he had to
sail with in the hour so had to leave ‘Noisy’ Talbot said ‘Goodbye Cox, and
good luck. I don’t suppose we will see you again’. Not the big confidence boost
the assembled throng were looking for on this particular day. However he did do
better with a missive distributed to all under his commander that is shown
below.</div>
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<i>Rear Admiral Philip
Vian Commander Eastern Naval Task Force.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a4plGgP203c/VOIcZFECofI/AAAAAAAAGiQ/fYGQGNeZQnk/s1600/64.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a4plGgP203c/VOIcZFECofI/AAAAAAAAGiQ/fYGQGNeZQnk/s1600/64.jpg" height="483" width="640" /></a><i style="text-align: left;"> </i></i></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><i style="text-align: left;"> Rear Admiral Arthur
George Talbot,</i></i><i> Naval Commander Force S.</i></div>
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<br />
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<i>D Day Message from Rear Admiral A.G. Talbot Naval Commander Force S,
June 1944. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
</div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-67585850459476471482015-02-19T12:50:00.000-08:002015-02-19T12:50:13.430-08:00HMS Odyssey.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>HMS ODYSSEY 15-Feb-1944 to
30-Jun-1944<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Dad’s next posting was to another shore establishment, but
this one was a little different. HMS Odyssey was in actual fact the Collingwood
Hotel in Ilfracombe! The hotel was taken over by the Royal Navy in 1943 and
handed back to civilian life in 1946. It was another accounting base, and we
can be sure that Dad wasn’t working in the actual hotel as in his records it
again says ‘additional’ meaning it was just an accounting base for his records.
This base was a little different as it was specifically for naval parties and
other small units. A Navy Party (NP) was a group of officers and men that were
formed for a specific task. When I was on the Lycaon during the <st1:place w:st="on">Falklands</st1:place> conflict the forces personnel were NP 1900 and
on the Salvageman NP1760. This was on the address for your mail. <o:p></o:p></div>
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As of June 2011 the fate of the Collingwood Hotel was
undecided as it was now owned by Weatherspoons the pub chain. As it was in such
poor condition and required a lot of work and expense to convert it they were
trying to convince the local council to let them knock it down and rebuild a
similar building on the site. There was some opposition as it was a local land
mark for the town. (Update it was demolished 23<sup>rd</sup> January 2012).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>The Collingwood Hotel Ilfracombe in about the 1950’s ( HMS Odyssey
1943-46)<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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Dad’s work for the next few months was given in his record
as special service for cipher duties on staff of Naval Force Commander Force S.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I have found a letter sent to Dad with the orders to proceed
on this posting. It seems that he was to report to the Cameron Barracks in
Inverness as he was appointed to HMS Odyssey for cipher duties on the staff of
the Naval Force Commander Force S. I suspect that from Cameron Barracks Dad was
sent to other training places in Scotland as there were plenty of Combined
Operations Training Establishments not far from Inverness for the familiarisation
with landing craft operations and the like.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i></i></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8024673964650731259" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8024673964650731259" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8024673964650731259" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8024673964650731259" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8024673964650731259" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8024673964650731259" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SIXZUjSCJNk/VOIa4lkMJoI/AAAAAAAAGhw/UtkdyfsNQvQ/s1600/61.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SIXZUjSCJNk/VOIa4lkMJoI/AAAAAAAAGhw/UtkdyfsNQvQ/s1600/61.jpg" height="390" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Cameron Barracks, Inverness in 1970’s<br /><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-35066791166620216872015-02-13T05:04:00.000-08:002015-02-13T05:04:13.002-08:00HMS Victory.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>HMS VICTORY 24-Jan-1944 to 14-Feb-1944<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Straight after his promotion it seems that Dad was sent back
down to <st1:city w:st="on">Portsmouth</st1:city>
as it say he was two weeks additional to Victory for a Divisional Course.
Additional meant that he didn’t sign on to the establishment but it was just
for a course. As we learned when Dad was first in Victory it is not the wooden walled
ship of Nelson fame but an accounting place for people moving about. Previously
Dad was posted to Victory I and III. This time there is no number and so it
refers to an actual barracks that where on <st1:street w:st="on">Queens Street</st1:street> in <st1:city w:st="on">Portsmouth</st1:city> where matelots were housed whilst
on courses! I have found a confidential letter to Dad directing him to report
to RN Barracks, <st1:city w:st="on">Portsmouth</st1:city>
for a divisional course. I do remember seeing a short booklet with just ‘OLQ’s’
on the front and Dad told me it stood for Officer Like Qualities and was given
him during Officer training so this may have been at this time.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-10835539223240557772015-02-04T11:28:00.000-08:002015-02-04T11:28:05.754-08:00HMS Pembroke.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>HMS PEMBROKE 3-Dec-1943 to
23-Jan-1944<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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The next entry in Dad’s record has him assigned to HMS
Pembroke. This again was not a vessel but as far as I can make out it was
another shore establishment. This time it does not seem to have been a training
school or officer training place but an accountancy base. HMS Pembroke is the
name given to several barracks etc attached Royal Dockyard Chatham. Unlike HMS
Cochrane I can see no actual deport ship at Chatham so it seems it was a base
for administration. It is strange as Dad was of the Portsmouth Division (His
serial No. begins with J which indicates this) so if it was just for
convenience you would have thought that he would have been on the books in
Portsmouth. There are several possibilities of exactly which one he was
attached to;<o:p></o:p></div>
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HMS Pembroke I was a <st1:place w:st="on">Chatham</st1:place> accounting base
1940-60<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HMS Pembroke II was a <st1:city w:st="on">Chatham</st1:city>
accounting base 1940-57<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HMS Pembroke III was an accounting base at <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city> and out stations 1942-52<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HMS Pembroke IV was an accounting base at the Nore 1939-61<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(The Nore is a sandbank at the mouth of the Thames that
marks the meeting of the Thames and the <st1:place w:st="on">North Sea</st1:place>.
The world’s first lightship was moored there in 1732. It is perhaps most famous
for the Nore Mutiny in the Royal Navy. Because of the importance there was a
Commander in Chief of the Nore and ships where at one time anchored there
permanently. In 1797 around the time of the French Revolution some of the
vessels at the Nore mutinied and took over their vessels. The mutiny at
Spithead just before had been mainly about the conditions in the service, but at
the Nore it became more political and as such was not so popular and those that
continued were severely dealt with.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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The usual officer training took about six weeks and Dad was
assigned to Pembroke for over seven weeks so it doesn’t seem that this was his
officer training. However at the end of it on 24<sup>th</sup> Jan 1944 he was
promoted to Temporary Acting Sub Lieutenant. The Temporary was referring to the
type of commission. As Dad was RNVR he would not retain his rank after the
conflict was over. The Acting part maybe a clue how he could have been promoted
with out going on an Officer Training Course. I have a feeling that he may have
been given the equivalent of a ‘field commission’. It seems to me that Dad had
been dealing with coding/decoding on an
Admirals staff for along time. His actual rank is given a Temporary Acting Sub
Lieutenant (Sp.Cy) which I think stands for Special cipher as that is written
on a later report. I have found that to
read ciphers etc you had to be an officer. It would be the next logical step,
after coding and decoding, to do the ciphering as well. It may well of being a
natural progression that was pushed through by the Admiral.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-61571344458143178592015-01-28T11:42:00.000-08:002015-01-28T11:42:04.395-08:00HMS Mercury.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>HMS MERCURY 9-Nov-1942 to
2-Dec-1942<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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HMS Mercury was the fairly new signal school near
Petersfield about 20’ north of <st1:city w:st="on">Portsmouth</st1:city>.
The signal school had originally been in <st1:city w:st="on">Portsmouth</st1:city>
dockyard. After the very heavy air raid on Portsmouth dockyard in March 1941
the decision was made to move out of the yard to more safe, and quieter area.
Dad may well have been in the dock yard on the night of the raid as he was
actually in <st1:city w:st="on">Portsmouth</st1:city>
doing his initial training when it occurred. He was posted to HMS Victory! They
decided to move the school to Leydene House and the new school was to be called
HMS Mercury as Mercury was the Roman messenger of the Gods. His Greek
equivalent was Hermes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The Leydene estate was owned by Lord and Lady Peel. William
Wellesley was the grandson of the Robert Peel of founding the Police fame. Not
Sting Police, the other one! His father had been Speaker of the House of
Commons for ten years. The owner himself had been Secretary of State for <st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region> twice and
Lord Privy Seal. He was made an Earl in 1929.
He had married Eleanor (Ella) Williamson whose grandfather made a
fortune in <st1:place w:st="on">Lancashire</st1:place> from importing material
and inventing linoleum. Her father inherited and became Liberal MP for <st1:city w:st="on">Lancaster</st1:city>. He was made a
Baron in 1895. He married three times and had two daughters. The other one,
Maud, died in her thirties. Her father became reclusive and when he died he
left half his £10 million fortune to his surviving daughter and the rest to his
third wife. At Eleanor and William’s marriage he had already given them
£800,000 to start them off. That would be about £9 million in today’s money!
William and Ella bought the Leydene estate after an extensive search. The 10400
acre estate was bought from Lord Hotham in 1913. They had found the place where
there was solitude as no other property could be seen from the house yet it was
close to rail links to <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city>.
The site was astride a prehistoric road and triple banked ditches (one of only
two in the country) called Cross Dykes. They are still there. The House was
designed for them by an architect called Jupp and was started in 1914. The
First World War put paid to an early completion as all worked ceased. It was
restarted in 1919 and was finally completed in 1925. However cost cutting that
had taken place, no damp course and some single brick thickness walls, would
cause problems in later life. The stone for the building came from <st1:country-region w:st="on">Belgium</st1:country-region> and the
bricks were specially made at Rowlands Castle Brick Works a few miles to the
south. The notable features of the house were it’s staircase and the clock
tower. The clock tower was demolished in 1971.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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Once the house was completed Lord Peel preferred to spend
most of his time in <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city>
to attend to his politics. However Lady Peel stayed there and was known to be
‘careful’ and eccentric. She was known to hitch a lift on a coal truck rather
than hire a taxi. She even tried to cover the extra cost of some of her guests
being delayed leaving a house party as the council did not clear the roads of
snow! Her eccentricity manifested itself in her exercising naked on her balcony
every morning. If she saw anybody watching her they were sacked. When her
husband died in 1937 she took to wearing black and never seemed to change as
her clothes slowly turned green with mould. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>The Staircase at Leydene House<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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After Lord Peels death she bought an estate near Kelso so as
to be close to the salmon fishing. She had a house like Leydene built there.
She died in 1949 and is buried in All Saints churchyard in <st1:place w:st="on">East
Meon</st1:place> close to Leydene House. After the war the War Department
thought that the cost of restoring the building would be greater than
purchasing the place and it became the permanent signal school until 1993 when
it was closed and its activites shared out elsewhere, mainly to HMS Collingwood
south of <st1:place w:st="on">Fareham</st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The school opened on 16<sup>th</sup> April 1941 with 300
students living in bell tents. Before the winter several Nissan huts were
erected for some and it was to be many years before the wooden ends, designed
to save money and for speed of erection, were actually bricked up. By the end
of the war numbers had been as high as 1200. The main house was initially used
as the Officers mess and quarters, but later, as other buildings were put up,
it became used as offices for the administration of the base.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Early photograph of HMS Mercury 1940’s<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>Instruction on American equipment HMS Mercury WWII.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--mG3X9MxoHA/VLvbR3WS0SI/AAAAAAAAGUM/uGHy13Y0u98/s1600/59.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--mG3X9MxoHA/VLvbR3WS0SI/AAAAAAAAGUM/uGHy13Y0u98/s1600/59.png" height="492" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
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<i>Aerial View of HMS Mercury during WWII.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dad was at HMS Mercury for just over three weeks and I can
find no evidence that Mercury was also an Officer Training base. I rather
suspect that he was being up dated on the fast moving world of signals and
codes.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-70911427783796361492015-01-18T05:21:00.001-08:002015-01-18T05:21:12.179-08:00Temporary Acting Officer.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: 26.0pt;">WILLIAM KIETH PORTER<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 26.0pt;">21<sup>st</sup> June 1922<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 26.0pt;">22<sup>nd</sup> May 2004<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 26.0pt;">TEMPORARY ACTING OFFICER<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: 26.0pt;">PJX 252239<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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</div>
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<br /></div>
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In the previous part of this story we had left Dad as he
paid off the battleship HMS Nelson in Rosyth on 8<sup>th</sup> November 1943.
He had returned to the <st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region>
on her after an eventful time since he had joined in September 1942. He had
taken part in Operation Torch (the North African landings, Operation Husky (the
Sicilian landings), Operation Avalanche (the <st1:city w:st="on">Salerno</st1:city> landings) and being a witness to the
signing of the Italian Armistice aboard her on 29<sup>th</sup> September 1943. You
could say he had been in the middle of things.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had said that Dad left her to become an officer but now
I’m not so sure. In his Father’s, Percy, photo album is written that he was
home in November 1943 in HMS Nelson for his commission. I’m not sure whether
this means he was given some leave before starting his training but his records
show that he was posted to HMS Mercury next.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
</div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-64023368237926928172014-07-13T13:06:00.000-07:002014-07-13T13:06:30.024-07:00Further research.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">Further research
has lead me to think that when Dad was assigned to HMS Cochrane in October 1942
from the Nelson, whilst alongside in Rosyth, it was not for training or a shore
base but a depot ship that was alongside permanently. It seems the HMS Cochrane
I was the shore base and HMS Cochrane II was the accounting posting for spare
bods. HMS Cochrane was designated as a Base depot ship, or sometimes know as a
destroyer depot ship. She started out as the Booth Line passenger ship RMS
Ambrose. She was built on the Tyne and delivered in October 1903. Her
employment was from Liverpool to South America and especially the Amazon and
Manaus. She was built for the rubber boom and carried 149 1<sup>st</sup> Class
and 330 steerage Class. She was 375’ x 48’ x 18’ draft. 4588grt and 2490 nrt
and did 12 kts. An interesting story occurred in 1913 in the Mersey shipping
channel off Hoylake. A council dump hopper barge BETA had just dumped her cargo
of refuse when she collided with a fishing boat called FLEETWING. Beta was just
rescuing 4 men from the water when the RMS Ambrose ran into her stern when
inbound to Liverpool. If it wasn’t odd enough that there were two collisions
like that, one of the twelve who lost their lives was an AB called A. Porter!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-75PfqYezzvk/UzM7ohu84XI/AAAAAAAADNk/XsYkOHEbw3U/s1600/54.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-75PfqYezzvk/UzM7ohu84XI/AAAAAAAADNk/XsYkOHEbw3U/s1600/54.jpg" height="408" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">She was
requisitioned in December 1914 by the Navy and converted into an armed merchant
cruiser becoming AMC Ambrose. She joined the 10<sup>th</sup> Cruiser Squadron
whose task it was to guard the northern approaches from the Norwegian coast
right out into the Atlantic. She was again converted to a submarine depot ship
in 1915. Her Grt increased to 6600t and
her compliment was 238. In 1917 she was in Malta and in 1919 she was in
Portsmouth. Then in 1927 she was in China as the depot ship for the 4<sup>th</sup>
Submarine Flotilla when the submarine Poseidon was sunk in collision with a
Chinese ship and 4 men escaped using escape breathing equipment for the first
time. Some sources then say she was later converted again into a depot ship for
destroyers. 1932 found her on the reserve list and in 1936 she was not even on
that list. She was obviously reprieved and in 1938 she had her name changed to
HMS Cochrane and appears to have been the base depot ship at Rosyth throughout
the war. She was scrapped in 1946.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CkLdWrYIwhc/UzM7vNQSNZI/AAAAAAAADNs/o3M2cjF8-C0/s1600/55.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CkLdWrYIwhc/UzM7vNQSNZI/AAAAAAAADNs/o3M2cjF8-C0/s1600/55.jpg" height="376" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span lang="EN">HMS Ambrose. Submarine depot
ship.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN">NOTES<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">1. Dad’s serial number P/JX 252239. The P means
he was from the Portsmouth Division. The J signifies that he was in the seaman
or communications branch and the X means that he joined up after a big pay
review in the early 1930’s<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-52805737362191082332014-07-06T12:47:00.000-07:002014-07-06T12:47:20.779-07:00HMS Nelson, Operation Avalanche.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN">Early September
was spent planning the next step in the move on Europe in ‘Operation Avalanche’,
the Salerno Landings, a main aim of which was to secure the port of Naples for
the Allies use.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3N_I3K9mRgY/UzM6qjg29fI/AAAAAAAADNM/PxkrepKqcCU/s1600/51.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3N_I3K9mRgY/UzM6qjg29fI/AAAAAAAADNM/PxkrepKqcCU/s1600/51.jpg" height="442" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN">Operation Avalanche,
landings at Salerno.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">7-Sep-43 Neslon leaves Malta at 1530 and by
2100 25 warships assemble to protect the invasion fleet. It was announced that
Italy had surrendered but the official surrender had taken place on 3<sup>rd</sup>
September.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">9-Sep-43 Operation Avalanche starts with
landing by British Commandos and US Rangers on the northern beaches. They were
to prevent German reinforcement from Naples by holding the mountain passes.
They were largely unopposed. The fleet off shore had to suffer heavy air attack
but there was no damage done to any vessel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rgj_RNuXui8/UzM6ztTpIhI/AAAAAAAADNU/9gk00R8TmZ4/s1600/52.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rgj_RNuXui8/UzM6ztTpIhI/AAAAAAAADNU/9gk00R8TmZ4/s1600/52.jpg" height="474" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Loading 16” shell HMS Nelson. Note rope round base of shell to protect
brass casing. Landed on the bogey for moving to the magazines</i><i><span lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">There was to be
no initial bombardment to try to preserve the element of surprise. This was
wasted as the Germans had fully anticipated that the landings in the toe of
Italy by Montgomery’s 8<sup>th</sup> Army were not the main battle. The British
landings to the North were met with determined opposition and at the end of the
day the bridgehead was not very deep. To the south the American first wave was
met by loud speakers announcing ‘Come on in, and give up. We have you covered’.
It was a Texan regiment’s first combat and with the announcement that Italy had
surrendered they were expecting an easy landing, however they were badly mauled
and did not advance. Naval bombardments were needed to assist both the American
and British troops and by the end of the first day the bridgehead was about 7
miles deep. Nelson and the fleet were once again under very heavy air attack
and Nelson got all her guns to bear, including fused HE shells from the 16”
guns. The 4.7” AA guns fired 300 rounds each.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">13-Sep-43 With the Allies failure to enlarge the
beachhead and to effectively link up the British and American forces either
side of the Sele River the Germans were able to launch an attack. Throughout
the day the Germans advanced and made it to only a couple of miles from the
beach when heavy naval gunfire was able to halt the counter offensive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">14-Sep-43 By the end of the day it was obvious
that the German offensive had been halted and as Montgomery’s 8<sup>th</sup>
Army were now in contact with the Germans to the south their withdrawal
started. Nelson was no longer needed and as the vessels offshore were suffering
very heavy air attack she was withdrawn back to Malta.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">15-Sep-43 Arrive back in Malta.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">29-Sep-43 The official signing of the Italian
Armistice took place in the Admiral’s Cabin aboard HMS Nelson.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Q-15t45yJPs/UzM7EKpZMCI/AAAAAAAADNc/7qXE2FE2rPQ/s1600/53.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Q-15t45yJPs/UzM7EKpZMCI/AAAAAAAADNc/7qXE2FE2rPQ/s1600/53.jpg" height="488" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Lord Gort, Governor of Malta, Air Chief Marshal Tedder, Marshal
Badoglio, Lt. Gen Sir Noel Mason- MacFarlane, Governor of Gibraltar, General
Eisenhower, General Alexander at the signing of the Italian Armistice aboard
HMS Nelson in Malta on 29<sup>th</sup> September 1943.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">13-Oct-43 Admiral Willis strikes his flag and Rear
Admiral A.W. La Bisset moves his flag from Rodney to Nelson.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">18-Oct-43 Reassessments are made and as there is
no longer a threat from the Italian and Vichy French Fleets it is felt that
there is no longer a requirement for a
Flag Officer to be appointed to Force H and Rear Admiral Bisset strikes
his flag and Force H is disbanded.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">28-Oct-43 Nelson sails from Malta in company with
Rodney and destroyer Offa, bound for Scapa Flow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">1-Nov-43 Nelson leaves Gibraltar along with the
same vessels.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">4-Nov-43 The group arrive in Scapa and rejoin
the Home Fleet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">6-Nov-43 Nelson arrives in Rosyth for a short
refit. Only essential work can be carried out as she has to be ready for sea
quickly to counter the threat of the Scharnhorst and Tirpitz breaking out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">8-Nov-43 Dad leaves HMS Nelson to start Officer
Training.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-17945472641269307302014-06-29T13:33:00.000-07:002014-06-29T13:33:55.856-07:00HMS Nelson, Operation Husky.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">9-Jun-43 Nelson arrived in Scapa Flow and Vice
Admiral Willis again raised his flag. She then went on to exercise with
battleships Rodney, Valiant and Warspite off Cape Wrath. The new radar system
improved the accuracy of the big guns fire such that all the towed targets were
destroyed in fifteen minutes and the shoot had to cease.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">17-Jun-43 Exercises completed and crew back on
full war readiness Nelson sailed from Scapa with carrier Indomitable,
battleships Rodney Valiant and Warspite and destroyers Echo, Faulknor, Fury,
Inglefield, Intrepid, Offa, Panther, Pathfinder, Quail, Queenborough, Quilliam
and Polish vessel Piorun.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">23-Jun-43 Group arrives in Gibraltar, after a very
rough passage, ready to take part in Operation Husky.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Na4gBOp86fU/UzM50TNfCUI/AAAAAAAADM4/gY2sw5jou08/s1600/49.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Na4gBOp86fU/UzM50TNfCUI/AAAAAAAADM4/gY2sw5jou08/s1600/49.jpg" height="432" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN">Landings for Operation
Husky, The Invasion of Sicily.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">9-Jul-43 Nelson rendezvoused with 27 other
naval vessels to protect the convoys assembling for the start of Operation Husky.
The landings were to be in two main areas. The Western Force was to be all
American and the Eastern force, landing in the South East of Sicily was to be
British and Canadian. Nelson’s group were sent to the east to guide in the
convoys for the eastern landings and protect them from interruption by the
Italian Fleet. During the night of the 10<sup>th</sup> landings by American and
British paratroopers and glider forces took place. Strong winds meant that the
forces were scattered and delivered to the wrong places. However they did
disrupt the enemy arriving at the beaches and took some of their strategic
targets.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">10-Jul-43 The Amphibious landings took place and
the strong winds caused delays and errors in navigation. Fortunately the enemy
thought that it would be too rough for landings to take place and so there was
very little opposition. At 0730 Nelson bombards Catania with her 16” guns then
patrols the Ionian Sea<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">13-Jul-43 Escort destroyers Echo and Ilex sink an
Italian Submarine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">14-Jul-43 Under air attack from Italian torpedo
bombers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">15-Jul-43 Nelson runs to Malta to refuel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">16-Jul-43 Leaves Malta to continue with patrols.
That evening the carrier Indomitable was torpedoed by a Ju-88 and Nelson
escorted her back to the safety of Malta. Following this she returned to her
patrols and later put inshore to bombard the port of Catania in support of
ground operations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">17-Jul-43 Nelson returns to Malta<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h1K041YqMGQ/UzM59gKssYI/AAAAAAAADNE/riQ-4M7iLxA/s1600/50.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h1K041YqMGQ/UzM59gKssYI/AAAAAAAADNE/riQ-4M7iLxA/s1600/50.jpg" height="394" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN">Refueling HMS Ilex from HMS
Nelson.</span></i><span lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">20-Jul-43 Nelson was in Malta when a very heavy
air raid by 30 bombers caused severe damage and loss of life ashore. Shore
parties were sent out to assist. The evaporators aboard Nelson were playing up
and there was a severe shortage of water aboard. I expect that it got pretty
smelly aboard with the heat and 1756 crew in such a small space.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">Most of August
was spent supporting the ground forces in action in Sicily. The main forces of
German and Italian troops evacuated the island by 17<sup>th</sup> August.
Between 27<sup>th</sup> and 29<sup>th</sup> Nelson was on exercise for
Operation Hammer, the bombardment of the coastal batteries North East of Reggio
di Calabria.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">30-Aug-43 At 1900 Nelson left Malta in company with
Rodney, cruiser Orion and ten destroyers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">31-Aug-43 Firing was commenced at 1000 from
30000yds. Rodney opened fire at 1030. At 1200 all fire was stopped and the
targets were silenced permanently. By 2000 the force were all back in Malta.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024673964650731259.post-25134593375062211702014-06-22T01:33:00.001-07:002014-06-22T01:33:30.234-07:00HMS Nelson, waiting.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">Through out
December Nelson makes trip out to present a force of opposition to the Axis
Naval power and occasional use her guns in support of the advance along the
coast of North Africa into Tunisia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">26-Dec-42 Dad arrives in Gibraltar again for a late
Christmas and New Year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">2-Jan-43 Nelson gets back to the war leaving
Gibraltar to cover a troop convoy that was bound for Algiers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">3-Jan-43 Arrive Algiers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">4-Jan-43 Depart Algiers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">5-Jan-43 Dock back in Gibraltar.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">8-Jan-43 In company with Rodney, carrier
Formidable and twelve destroyers they moved to Mers-El-Kebir to offer close
support to the continuing military operations on the coast of North Africa.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">22-Jan-43 Whilst in Mers-El-Kebir with destroyer
Eskimo alongside Eskimo had a fire in her boiler room. It was soon extinguished
but caused electrical damage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">23-Jan-43 Vice Admiral Syfret was taken ill and
was found to have appendicitis. The Doctor aboard performed an operation
aboard. He tells the story that whilst waiting for him to come out of the
anesthetic he tried on his Admirals cap. True to his grumpy nature he came out
of his sleep and his first words were ‘take that off’. Despite not wanting to
leave he was transferred to the hospital ship Oxfordshire and the link between
Dad and Vice Admiral Syfret was broken.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">Throughout
February Nelson took part in sorties around the Western Mediterranean to
protect large troop and supply convoys from the Italian Fleet. In fact the
Italian fleet never took to sea as they were short of fuel and their morale was
low and the Germans, thinking them useless, would not give them air cover.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">1-Mar-43 Whilst the vessel was in Gibraltar Vice
Admiral Algernon U. Willis hoists his pennant as Officer in charge of Force H.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">7-Mar-43 Force H and Nelson held at Gibraltar to
assist in cover of a possible breakout of the Scharnhorst from the Baltic. In
the end she went north to Norway.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">14-Mar-43 Scharnhorst is trapped in a Norwegian
Fjord and so Force H is released to give further support of the ground war in
North Africa. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">April was spent
in the Western Mediterranean support the ground forces and protecting convoys.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bBfiJhw5OHc/UzM4pt9ogWI/AAAAAAAADMY/wlmfmgEby3s/s1600/45.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bBfiJhw5OHc/UzM4pt9ogWI/AAAAAAAADMY/wlmfmgEby3s/s1600/45.jpg" height="640" width="456" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN">Dad HMS Nelson April 1943.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_bAcsdLX9Zs/UzM4z64DeLI/AAAAAAAADMg/Etrf_E79h6A/s1600/46.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_bAcsdLX9Zs/UzM4z64DeLI/AAAAAAAADMg/Etrf_E79h6A/s1600/46.jpg" height="410" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN">Dad Far Left) with some of
the others on the Admirals Staff. Nelson 1942.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">4-May-43 Nelson was in Algiers and was inspected
by General Eisenhower and Admiral Cunningham. This was just a few days before the
final victory in North Africa when Tunisia fell on 12<sup>th</sup> May.
Following the inspection HMS Nelson returned to Gibraltar.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RfJeRikbMKU/UzM5C240IVI/AAAAAAAADMo/ti0jkFZgoCc/s1600/47.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RfJeRikbMKU/UzM5C240IVI/AAAAAAAADMo/ti0jkFZgoCc/s1600/47.jpg" height="640" width="432" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN">Rear Admiral A.U. Willis
(Commander Force H), General D.D. Eisenhower (Commander in Chief Operation
Torch), Admiral A. Cunningham (Naval Commander Operation Torch).<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN">Aboard HMS Nelson at anchor
off Algiers 4<sup>th</sup> May 1943.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nVraeDJJewc/UzM5NbB0nTI/AAAAAAAADMw/cDiL7MTKe-8/s1600/48.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nVraeDJJewc/UzM5NbB0nTI/AAAAAAAADMw/cDiL7MTKe-8/s1600/48.jpg" height="408" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN">Concert Party aboard HMS
Nelson in Gibraltar on 24<sup>th</sup> May 1943. Vivien Leigh was the main
attraction.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">24-May-43 A concert party was held aboard the Nelson
and the ‘star turn’ was Vivien Leigh.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">26-May-43 HMS Howe takes over as Flag ship of Force
H and Nelson leaves Gibraltar with 3 destroyers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">30-May-43 Arrived in Devonport and dry docked for
intensive work on improving her AA armaments by the addition of more pom poms Oerlikon
and Bofors guns and fitting a new radar system.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">7-Jun-43 Work
was carried out very speedily and the vessel sailed in company with destroyers
Meteor, Matchless and Panther for Scapa Flow.</span></div>
NB Holdernesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08324373079055387816noreply@blogger.com0