HMS Mercury.

HMS MERCURY     9-Nov-1942   to   2-Dec-1942

HMS Mercury was the fairly new signal school near Petersfield about 20’ north of Portsmouth. The signal school had originally been in Portsmouth 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 Portsmouth 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.

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 India twice and Lord Privy Seal. He was made an Earl in 1929.  He had married Eleanor (Ella) Williamson whose grandfather made a fortune in Lancashire from importing material and inventing linoleum. Her father inherited and became Liberal MP for Lancaster. 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 London. 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 Belgium 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.

Once the house was completed Lord Peel preferred to spend most of his time in London 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.

The Staircase at Leydene House

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 East Meon 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 Fareham.

The school opened on 16^th 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.

Early photograph of HMS Mercury 1940’s

Instruction on American equipment HMS Mercury WWII.

Aerial View of HMS Mercury during WWII.

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.

Temporary Acting Officer.

WILLIAM KIETH PORTER

21^st June 1922

22^nd May 2004

TEMPORARY ACTING OFFICER

PJX 252239

In the previous part of this story we had left Dad as he paid off the battleship HMS Nelson in Rosyth on 8^th November 1943. He had returned to the UK 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 Salerno landings) and being a witness to the signing of the Italian Armistice aboard her on 29^th September 1943. You could say he had been in the middle of things.

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.

Further research.

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^st 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!

She was requisitioned in December 1914 by the Navy and converted into an armed merchant cruiser becoming AMC Ambrose. She joined the 10^th 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^th 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.

HMS Ambrose. Submarine depot ship.

NOTES

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

HMS Nelson, Operation Avalanche.

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.

Operation Avalanche, landings at Salerno.

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^rd September.

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.

Loading 16” shell HMS Nelson. Note rope round base of shell to protect brass casing. Landed on the bogey for moving to the magazines

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^th 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.

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.

14-Sep-43        By the end of the day it was obvious that the German offensive had been halted and as Montgomery’s 8^th 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.

15-Sep-43        Arrive back in Malta.

29-Sep-43        The official signing of the Italian Armistice took place in the Admiral’s Cabin aboard HMS Nelson.

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^th September 1943.

13-Oct-43        Admiral Willis strikes his flag and Rear Admiral A.W. La Bisset moves his flag from Rodney to Nelson.

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.

28-Oct-43        Nelson sails from Malta in company with Rodney and destroyer Offa, bound for Scapa Flow.

1-Nov-43         Nelson leaves Gibraltar along with the same vessels.

4-Nov-43         The group arrive in Scapa and rejoin the Home Fleet.

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.

8-Nov-43         Dad leaves HMS Nelson to start Officer Training.

HMS Nelson, Operation Husky.

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.

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.

23-Jun-43        Group arrives in Gibraltar, after a very rough passage, ready to take part in Operation Husky.

Landings for Operation Husky, The Invasion of Sicily.

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^th 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.

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

13-Jul-43         Escort destroyers Echo and Ilex sink an Italian Submarine.

14-Jul-43         Under air attack from Italian torpedo bombers.

15-Jul-43         Nelson runs to Malta to refuel.

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.

17-Jul-43         Nelson returns to Malta

Refueling HMS Ilex from HMS Nelson.

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.

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^th August. Between 27^th and 29^th Nelson was on exercise for Operation Hammer, the bombardment of the coastal batteries North East of Reggio di Calabria.

30-Aug-43       At 1900 Nelson left Malta in company with Rodney, cruiser Orion and ten destroyers.

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.

HMS Nelson, waiting.

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.

26-Dec-42       Dad arrives in Gibraltar again for a late Christmas and New Year.

2-Jan-43          Nelson gets back to the war leaving Gibraltar to cover a troop convoy that was bound for Algiers.

3-Jan-43          Arrive Algiers.

4-Jan-43          Depart Algiers.

5-Jan-43          Dock back in Gibraltar.

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.

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.

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.

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.

1-Mar-43         Whilst the vessel was in Gibraltar Vice Admiral Algernon U. Willis hoists his pennant as Officer in charge of Force H.

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.

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.

April was spent in the Western Mediterranean support the ground forces and protecting convoys.

Dad HMS Nelson April 1943.

Dad Far Left) with some of the others on the Admirals Staff. Nelson 1942.

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^th May. Following the inspection HMS Nelson returned to Gibraltar.

Rear Admiral A.U. Willis (Commander Force H), General D.D. Eisenhower (Commander in Chief Operation Torch), Admiral A. Cunningham (Naval Commander Operation Torch).

Aboard HMS Nelson at anchor off Algiers 4^th May 1943.

Concert Party aboard HMS Nelson in Gibraltar on 24^th May 1943. Vivien Leigh was the main attraction.

24-May-43      A concert party was held aboard the Nelson and the ‘star turn’ was Vivien Leigh.

26-May-43      HMS Howe takes over as Flag ship of Force H and Nelson leaves Gibraltar with 3 destroyers.

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.

7-Jun-43          Work was carried out very speedily and the vessel sailed in company with destroyers Meteor, Matchless and Panther for Scapa Flow.

HMS Nelson, Operation Torch.

HMS NELSON   28-Oct-42   to   8-Nov-43

30-Oct-42        Vice Admiral Syfret raised his flag and Nelson left Scapa in company with battleship Duke of York, battle cruiser Renown, cruiser Argonaut and destroyers Ashanti, Eskimo, Martin, Meteor, Milne and Tartar.

31-Oct-42        Off the NW coast of Ireland they rendezvoused with carriers Formidable and Victorious and destroyers Pathfinder, Partridge, Porcupine, Quality, Quentin and HMAS Quiberon. This force now became known as Force H.

5-Nov-42         Netherlands Navy destroyer Isaac Sweers joins the force. So many ships are in the area that there is a delay for vessels requiring bunkers.

6-Nov-42         When it was Nelson’s turn they appeared to make a mess of getting alongside in Gibralatar as they collided with ‘Empire Gawain and sweepers Brixham and Bude. Only minor damage was done to their stanchions and guard rails. However it must have been a little embarrassing as Admiral Andrew Cunningham was waiting to board and raise his flag as overall Naval Commander of the operation.

7-Nov-42         It would have taken a massive effort to marshal 350 warships and 500 merchant ships and have them all in the right positions for the landings that were to take place on the following day.

Operation Torch Landing Sites.

Operation Torch was undertaken to open up a second front but allow a further build up of arms and men before taking on Fortress Europe. North Africa of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia were mainly under the control of the Vichy French Forces and it was hoped that they would surrender to the Allies. Much political maneuvering was undertaken before the landings but it was still unknown what opposition would be faced on the day of the landings.

8-Nov-42         The landings took place in three places, Western at Casablanca, Central at Oran and Eastern to take Algiers. The Eastern landing was to be mainly British but Americans were to land first and all troops wore a ‘stars and stripes’ badge as it was felt that the Vichy French were less likely to shoot on American forces. The Eastern landings were also on three beaches, two West and one East of Algiers. The western ones were unopposed despite troops being landed on wrong beaches etc. The eastern landings were carried out in fog and confusion occurred. Here they were also landed unopposed except for a few shells from coastal batteries that were soon silenced. The only real fighting took place at the port of Algiers where HMS destroyers Malcolm and Broke tried to land 600 American troops directly in the port to prevent it being put out of action. Malcolm was severely damaged as she tried to breach the boom and was hit by shore fire. She retreated at 4kts. Broke managed to get through the boom and land her troops. She was soon forced to retire though and leave the troops to fend for themselves and they were forced to surrender seven hours later.

However Algiers itself fell to superior forces by the end of the day and the port was captured intact and workable. Nelson supported the landings on the eastern flank, and for the next few days provided cover in case the Italian fleet should intervene or land targets presented.

15-Nov-42       The Vichy French Forces surrender so Admiral Cunningham strikes his flag as commander of the operation and Admiral Syfret raises his as commander of force H. Their job was to continue to cover the threat of the Italian Fleet.

21-Nov-42       Nelson left Mers-El-Kebir, the port of Oran, to cruise south of the Balearic Islands.

22-Nov-42       She returns to Gibraltar.

Admiral Syfret Inspecting HMS Nelson Crew December 1942. He is talking to Dad, 2^nd man in the Front Row.