RACM Veterans` Reunion and Medal Ceremony 2013
Transcription
RACM Veterans` Reunion and Medal Ceremony 2013
3 Contents Loch Ewe Naval Defences during WWII and Russian Arctic Convoy routes 5 John Allen 6 Bill Bannerman 7 Vic Bashford 8 Bob Brighton 9 James Brown 10 Reay Clarke 11 David Craig 12 Jock Dempster 13 Leonard Dibb-Western 14 Roy Elwood 15 John Farrow 16 Bert Glazebrook 17 George Gray 18 Gordon Grayson 19 Harold Green 20 Murray Haddow 21 Ivan Hall 22 Philip Harrison 23 Glanville Hart 24 Ernest Hodkinson 25 4 Geoff Holmes 26 Jack Humble 27 Gordon Kilner 28 James Kirk 29 George Langton 30 Francis Lee 31 Ron Leslie 32 Donald Macfarlane 33 Jim Osler 34 Robin Owen 35 Kenneth Reith 36 Mervyn Salter 37 James Simpson 38 Jack Sleigh 39 John Turvill 40 Kenneth Watson 41 James Wilkie 42 Rex Willcox 43 George Young 44 Information about Russian Arctic Convoy Museum Project 45 Loch Ewe Naval Defences during WWII and Russian Arctic Convoy routes The planned Russian Arctic Convoy Museum at Aultbea, Loch Ewe aims to be a lasting legacy for future generations to commemorate the bravery and sacrifice of the men of the convoys. Mellon Udrigle ■ Wreck 1 William H Welch sunk 26.2.44 Guard Eilean Furadh Mòr Achgarve Loop Promotive sunk 23.12.39 ✖ Glen Albyn sunk 23.12.39 Wreck 2 ✖ 6” GUNS Lifeboats Mine Loops ➋■ ➑ ✖ Cove ry ra l ina ig Or ➋ ■ o mp Te ANTI AIRCRAFT GUNS ■ LOOKOUT POST ➋ Mellon Charles Ne ➐ Ormiscaig Merchant Ships Anchorage Isle Ewe Firemore ➍ ROAD BARRIERS ➎ WRENS ➏ CINEMAS ➐ INDIAN CAMP (RIASC) ➑ PIONEER CORPS AND ROYAL ENGINEERS ➒ POLISH ARMY ➓ WELSH REGIMENT RAF t Laide ➏■ Tr ip ➊ HIGHLAND FIELDCRAFT TRAINING CENTRE ➋ NAAFI ➌ YMCA ➎ Mines laid by U-31 HMS Nelson 27.10.39 detonates mine 4.12.39 Mellangaun Many men left Loch Ewe on the convoys and made the perilous journey north to ports in Russia, and many others gave support in the form of cover from air or sea in and around the Arctic, or from landbased artillery batteries situated around Loch Ewe and in Iceland. They all played their part… Opinan Bo om ) A few weeks previously the British government had agreed to the awarding of the Arctic Star medal to the few remaining veterans of the Russian Arctic Convoys (1941-1945). This event marked the award of their medals and took place at Poolewe on the shores of Loch Ewe on 9th May 2013. LOCH EWE NAVAL DEFENCES DURING WWII le Ne t( 40 veterans who served on, or gave support to the Arctic convoys to Russia, came to Loch Ewe in May 2013 to commemorate their colleagues and friends who were no longer able to be with them at this occasion. Inverasdale Midtown Aultbea ➏➐ ➎ ➎ ➋ ➍ Pier Jetty Munitions Store Home Fleet Anchorage Jetty Naast Jetty Munitions Store Barrage Balloon Shed (Giant Nissen hut) Jetty Inverewe ❀Garde n (NTS) ➊ ➒ ➏ ➋ Poolewe ➍➌ 5 Present NATO refuelling base Royal Navy Anchorage Boor RUSSIAN ARCTIC CONVOY ROUTES MUSEUM Loch Ewe ➓ North Erradale Planned Museum Site R U SSI AN ARCTIC CONVOY ➍ John Allen John served as Able Seaman aboard the frigate HMS Bahamas. At the end of November 1944 they sailed from Londonderry to the assembly point at Loch Ewe and joined convoy JW62 with the 20th Escort Group which arrived unscathed at Kola Inlet in Russia on 7th December 1944. The return convoy RA62 left Kola Inlet on 10th December 1944. On 11th December HMS Cassandra had her bow completely blown away by a torpedo from U-boat U365, with considerable loss of life. More than a third of the ship’s company were killed in the explosion and the survivors prepared to abandon ship. Realising the sea was too rough to bring another ship alongside, they shored up the forward bulkheads. It was decided to save the Cassandra by towing her stern first. John at Buckingham Pa lace Garden Party take off the wounded en route but medical supplies, including morphine, were sent aboard by means of an overhead line from HMS Tortola. Later the tow was passed over to a Russian tug, which towed her into Kola Inlet. On arrival at Kola Inlet, some survivors stayed in Russia and others took passage aboard the HMS Bahamas back to the UK. On 13th December that U-boat - U365, was sunk with loss of all hands by depth charges from two Swordfish aircraft from 813 Squadron aboard HMS Campania. John told us: “My friend and shipmate, On 11th December 2004 John was invited to a Service of Reconciliation and Remembrance in Portsmouth concerning the events, which took place 60 years before, where he met several survivors from HMS Cassandra. Leading Seaman Alf Rising, secured a heaving line to HMS Cassandra.” HMS Cassandra was towed by HMS Bahamas back towards the Kola Inlet for emergency repairs. It remained too rough to Kola Inlet HMS Bahamas 6 Bill Bannerman Bill served on the navy destroyer HMS Verulam, and was on one northbound convoy (JW57) and three homebound convoys (RA56, RA57 and RA59) from February to May 1944. Bill had started training as an apprentice engineer and when he joined up he had hoped to use this training but was told he needed to have had three years’ experience and he had only two, and so he began naval life as a seaman, then later as a stoker working in the engine room. By the end of April 1944 there were large numbers of personnel requiring transport from North Russia, so consequently on convoy RA59 many of the empty merchant ships carried considerable numbers of Officers and ratings as passengers. There were also numbers of US navy personnel (which were in the ships of the convoy) and a number of Russians (who were in the merchant ships). HMS Verulam carried an extra 17 personnel. Atrocious weather made carrier operations on this convoy extremely hazardous with up to six inches of snow being recorded on flight decks at one point. Twelve U-boats had been stationed near Bear Island and one merchant ship was sunk on 30th April by U711, with a loss of 43 of her crew and passengers, which had totalled 235. Bill recalls: “It was bitterly cold on deck. I once saw a tanker blow up – it was gone in minutes…” After the war Bill joined the Royal Fleet Auxilliary for a while, working on supply ships and oil tankers, and then he worked in John Brown’s in Glasgow. HMS Verulam 7 Vic Bashford Vic volunteered for Royal Air Force service in December 1938. He trained as an electrical fitter, joined No 615 Squadron at RAF Kenley, equipped with Gloster ‘Gladiator’ fighters, and was deployed to France in December 1939. of a ‘Hurricane’ force, and ready to receive almost a further 3000 later sent to them by many of the convoys over the following years.” The pace of war quickened, and on 10 May 1940 the Luftwaffe attacked his airfield at Abbeville. They were evacuated over the Dunkirk beaches, and so consequently he was at Kenley at the time of the Battle of Britain. Following this came a series of postings, before he was finally sent to No 134 Squadron, at RAF Leconfield in August 1941. This was the prelude for ‘Operation Dervish’ – the very first Arctic Convoy, which left Liverpool on 12 August 1941 and delivered a full RAF ‘Hurricane’ fighter Wing to Russia (the full story of which is in the film ‘Hurricanes to Murmansk’). “We left Russia at the end of November 1941, and my trip home was aboard HMS Kenya, with a captain who enjoyed giving the Germans a bloody nose. So it was that instead of a straight passage as escort to the returning convoy (QP3), we spent some exhilarating moments bombarding the German coastal installations at Vardo. This lost us our position as escort, and there was some confusion when it was thought that a radar contact was ‘Tirpitz’. It turned out to be HMS Berwick, inbound with another convoy, and due to pick up some of my colleagues for their return journey. Never a dull moment! That’s why I joined the RAF – for a quiet life!!” Vic recalls: “I travelled out on the convoy Commodore’s vessel, the merchant ship ‘Llanstephan Castle’, with some of the Wing’s ‘Hurricanes’ as deck cargo aboard. I remember our escorts: one was HMS Active, another was HMS Electra (which, a couple of months before, picked up the only three survivors of the ‘Hood’). We arrived in Archangel on 31 August. It was on HMS Active that I was ferried across the White Sea to our operating base at Vaenga, by Murmansk (now the Russian air base Severomorsk). I was with our Squadron’s advance party of fitters and riggers, sent to be ready for the arrival of some of the Wing’s ‘Hurricanes’. Our activity at Vaenga was successful in every respect – as shown in the film – so we could feel that we had done what we’d been tasked to do when we left, leaving the Russians with the nucleus Vic was on another string of postings in the Middle East from late 1942 – Egypt, Palestine, Iraq, and Greece, until his return to UK in December 1945 for demobilisation on 05 January 1946. Vic sums it up: “…but that convoy experience is the part of my life that is truly unforgettable…” 8 Bob Brighton Bob joined the corvette HMS Bamborough Castle and completed six convoys to and from Russia from September 1944 till May 1945 – JW/RA60, JW/RA62, JW/RA63, JW/RA64, JW/RA65 and JW/RA66. The escort for RA62 sailed from Kola Inlet shortly before the main convoy so as to attack the assembled U-boats, which lay in wait at the entrance to the inlet. HMS Bamborough Castle came across and sank U-boat U387 on 9th December 1944. convoy on 11th December, HMS Cassandra was torpedoed and had to return to Murmansk for emergency repairs. The following day the Norwegian corvette Tunsberg Castle was mined and sunk. This was followed by an attack by nine Luftwaffe torpedo bombers but with no British losses and two German planes shot down. The convoy arrived at Loch Ewe on 19th December 1944. Bob recalls: “We were lucky in the ASDIC cabinet as it was usually warm there. I was always in the ASDIC cabinet until Action Stations and then I would go onto the bridge. I’d use the oscillator and compass to get an accurate bearing on the submarines. We had 3 ‘squids’ (depth charges), which we would throw ahead of the ship’s bows. If that didn’t get a sub we’d go over it and attack it again. We had to write a resume of the attack sequence of what we did and send it back to the Admiralty. They put the details into the Attack Training Machine and could tell if we’d sunk it or not. We must have, as she never returned to Germany.” Bob also remembers the sinking of HMS Lark on convoy RA64: “I remember we picked up U968 by its hydrophone effect – it was along by HMS Lark. It had just torpedoed the Lark whose stern was blown straight over onto the 4” gun. Just folded up...” Also on convoy RA64 Bob recalls: “I was called up onto the bridge by the skipper when HMS Bluebell was hit. I hadn’t far to go but when I got there, there was only steam coming from where she had sunk. It went down in under two minutes. I think only one man got off.” The convoy then left Kola Inlet on 10th December 1944. During the passage of the Bob’s last convoy was RA66, which returned to the Clyde on VE Day, 8th May 1945. e 1945 e in Dazzle Camouflag HMS Bamborough Castl Some of the crew aboard HMS Bamborough, coming through ‘The Minches’ 8th May 1945 – VE Day 9 James Brown James registered for service in the Royal Navy in October 1942, after his 18th birthday. He was sent for training at a school for Supply Branch ratings and Writers in Highgate, London. Completing this course he became Supply Assistant and he had to report to Portsmouth. He was told to check the noticeboard each day for his posting. A day or two later the board had a notice that he and another were to report to Berwick. Says James: “Great, we thought – morning! That was my first introduction to life on the Berwick!” home at weekends – me to Kelso and he to Newcastle!! We were handed our transit papers and – glory be! – it was HMS Berwick!” “I was allocated an Action Station in one of the cordite handling compartments for the 8” guns. This was down in the bowels of the ship. When all watertight doors and hatches were closed it was, at times, rather scary. Being down in the depths I never really knew was happening. I can’t say I saw a lot of action, but I heard plenty!” He joined HMS Berwick in August 1943. It was a three-funnelled County Class Cruiser, which was supposed to be at Scapa Flow, but was actually in for a re-fit at Rosyth. James recalls: “We arrived the following afternoon after lunch and the CPO Cook fixed us up with a big fry-up on the mess deck. We ate up and sat back and lit up our ‘ciggies’ and thought ‘this was the life!’ Then all hell broke loose – we shouldn’t have been smoking at that time of the day. This charming gentleman, the QM very politely brought this to our attention and threatened us with Captain’s Orders the following Apart from the Murmansk escort duties, the Berwick was, on one occasion used to transport army personnel, food and equipment to Spitzbergen. Another trip involved escorting the Queen Mary with Winston Churchill on board to Halifax, Nova Scotia for a meeting with the US President in September 1944. “Two trips to Loch Ewe, and also one out of Loch Erribol, created diversions for us. Some of us were allowed to go ashore to attend a dance at Aultbea on one occasion.” James was demobbed on 14th November 1946 after having completed a trip to Colombo and similar trips to Sydney, Australia – he recalls “these were much more pleasant than the extreme cold of the Arctic!” HMS Berwick 10 Reay Clarke Reay joined the Royal Navy in April 1942 as an Ordinary Seaman. After initial training, he joined HMS Farndale, a Hunt Class destroyer, in July 1942. The ship had just finished a refit and we were a complete new crew. They sailed to Scapa Flow for their “Working Up” training but this was suddenly interrupted and they were ordered to proceed to Loch Ewe. Says Reay: “I can well remember entering Iceland taking the convoy up to a total of 44 merchant ships. We sailed north-eastwards towards Bear Island. The attacks from submarines and aircraft were just beginning when we, along with another Hunt class destroyer, HMS Eskdale, were despatched back to Scapa Flow as escort to a merchant ship which was having trouble with its engines and unlikely to reach Archangel. We ran into another storm which swept away the whaler, damaged the motor boat and cleared all the guard rails off the starboard side of the ship.” Loch Ewe late on a fine evening at the end of August. It was a magnificent spectacle. The loch was crowded with merchant ships, the green fields of the crofts rose up from the shore and, on the eastern horizon, the mountains of Wester Ross were outlined red in the sunset. I was one of the fo’c’sle party for mooring the ship and the matelot next to me, who had never before been far from Poplar, said: “Ere, Jock, where are we? This ain’t England.” To which I was going to reply that we were in Scotland and that my home was over there beyond those mountains, when there was a sharp command from the bosun, who was standing behind me: ‘Stop talking! Silence on the upper deck!’ ” At Scapa Flow they secured alongside HMS Tyne, the destroyer depot ship, where they got hot showers, a hot meal and warm fresh white bread. A signal was awaiting Reay telling him to leave HMS Farndale and proceed to Portsmouth to start training as an engineer, for which he had applied while at the training ship. Having qualified as a motor mechanic, he spent the rest of the war with the 25th M.T.B. Flotilla, Light Coastal Forces, in the Far East. He came home in February 1946 and was demobilised in June of that year. “At 16.00hrs on the 2nd September 1942, we sailed from Loch Ewe as part of the close escort to Convoy PQ18. The convoy ran into a serious storm and we were despatched to gather some of the scattered merchant ships when a German submarine suddenly surfaced just astern of us. We attacked with gunfire, the submarine crash-dived and we followed up with depth charges. That submarine did sustain some damage but continued with her patrol, attacking the convoy again some days later.” HMS Farndale “We went in to Hvalfjord to oil and then continued north into the Greenland Strait where we were joined by more vessels from 11 David Craig David joined the Merchant Navy and found himself aboard SS Dover Hill on its way to Russia as part of convoy JW53 (known as The Forgotten Convoy). In February 1943 he sailed to North Russia. After arriving in Murmansk and having discharged their cargo, they anchored in the Kola Inlet. On 4th April Action Stations sounded and two JU88 bombers attacked the ship. Says David: “ I wrongly assumed we had beaten them off, only to be blown off my feet as their bombs exploded in the sea on either side. On getting up I noticed a few yards from me a round hole in the steel deck where a bomb had obviously penetrated our coal bunkers underneath and had not exploded.” Taken on my return from R ussia Dec 1943 (Rad io Officer) Nineteen crew members, including the Captain, formed a team of volunteers and began digging down into the coal bunkers. “We had no equipment, only the shovels borrowed from our stokehold and 19 stout hearts.” The Russians sent one of their experts but they had to get the bomb on deck first. The bombers returned while they were trying to extricate what turned out to be a 1000lb bomb. After two days and nights, and having dug down about 22 feet, they managed to get the bomb on deck, allowing the Russian expert to start unscrewing the detonator. On being informed that there were no British Bomb Disposal experts in North Russia, the crew realised it was down to them to deal with the situation for, as David says, “she was only an old battered Merchantman but she was still our home and no German was going to make us leave her while she was still afloat.” Using a small hammer to free the extractor, which had stuck, he eventually removed the detonator and primer. “I was standing beside the bomb with two of my fellow officers as our Russian friends started to unscrew the detonator using an extractor. After a few turns it stuck. He took a small hammer and a punch and tapped it. At each tap the hairs stood up on the back of my neck against the hood of my duffel coat.” The bomb was dumped overboard into the Kola Inlet, where it probably lies to this day. Five men were awarded the OBE and fourteen, the King’s Commendation for brave conduct. uise to Taken on a Cr etired) Russia 2012 (R 12 Jock Dempster Jock joined the Merchant Navy at the age of sixteen in 1944 and after basic training as a junior ordinary seaman signed on his first ship – a tanker, MV San Venancio. Jock made a couple of trips on this ship across the Atlantic, loaded with aircraft fuel. His ship joined convoy JW65 to Murmansk and he recalls the extreme cold and snow showers. “The ship’s deck was soon like a skating rink and extreme care had to be taken never to touch metal with bare hands as the skin would have been torn off. The appalling weather did have its benefits in that German U-boats and aircraft never made contact with the convoy. The usual packs of U-boats also failed to spot us. Our luck continued until we were approaching Kola Inlet, north of Murmansk, another haunt where the U-boats lay in wait. The snow blizzards prevented our carrierbased aircraft from making contact with the enemy and the inevitable happened – the U-boats struck. Ahead of us the ‘Horace Bushnell’ was torpedoed then two or three minutes later the ‘Thomas Donaldson’ was also torpedoed. As we lowered our lifeboats a periscope was sighted and all hell broke loose! The guns on the Merchant ships opened up and everyone was shouting and yelling. A corvette dropped depth charges and returned flying the ‘Sub-sunk’ pennant. The noise which followed scared the wits out of me. We all appreciated that as a tanker we would be a prime target. The thought of death didn’t frighten me but I was terrified of being badly burned, losing a limb or my sense. We all experienced the same emotions.” HMS Lapwing was torpedoed and sank. Says Jock: “Throughout this action the stench of burning metal and screeching as it was torn apart and the screams of the wounded filled the air. We had to steam rapidly away from the scene. I saw men clinging desperately to lifeboats and rafts, many because of the intense cold coupled with sodden clothing were sliding back into the sea.” The crews of HMS Savage and HMS Allington Castle rescued many from the HMS Lapwing but the loss of life was huge. Jock and his ship returned on convoy RA66 six weeks later. As they left, HMS Goodall was torpedoed at the entrance to Kola Inlet, again with huge loss of life. The convoy returned to the Clyde on VE Day, 8 May 1945. Jock (now Chairman of the Russian Arctic Convoy Club, Scotland) and some fellow veterans made a trip to Murmansk in July 2009 and as Jock says: “The day in Murmansk proved to be one of the most memorable in our lives!” The ship made a dash for the safety inside the boom which lay ahead. At the same time 13 Leonard Dibb-Western Len first went to sea in June 1941, aged 15 years. He served on a number of Norwegian merchant ships, crossing the Atlantic. He then joined the SS Fort McMurray in Barry. This was his first British ship. Len says: “I was getting less than half the guarding the cargo and the huge amount of snow. The cargo was being unloaded by political prisoners, mostly women, poor devils. The ‘Empire Carpenter’ was left there for the Russians and we brought some of her crew home as passengers. We returned to Murmansk and then back home in convoy (RA58). I do not really remember any action on the return trip. I was paid off from the ‘SS Fort McMurray’ and then I was back to sea within two weeks.” pay I had been receiving on the Norwegian ships and there were no pillow cases, bed sheets or extra blankets. In addition the food was rationed. Everybody knew where we were going because everything was marked in Russian. We went to Loch Ewe and then sailed for Russia on February 14th 1944.” This convoy (JW57) was sighted by a Condor, but luckily the weather closed in. They did lose one escort from an attack (HMS Mahratta). Len continued with trips in the North Atlantic. Len continues: “The night-time was the worst; keeping our correct position and knowing that U-Boats could be inside the convoy. We arrived at Murmansk and anchored in the Kola Inlet. From there we, and the ‘Empire Carpenter’, were sent through the White Sea. We were towed by an icebreaker and there was a man with an axe ready at all times to cut the tow free in case of an attack by aircraft. The ‘Empire Carpenter’ followed in our wake. We passed Archangel and went onto a little port called Bakaritsa. The icebreaker cleared the ice by the quayside and we were frozen in again soon after.” “I spent the next winter on the North Atlantic again and on a very slow ship. We lost our position in the convoy a couple of times and, as we neared the coast, a ship astern of us was hit. We did not stop but kept going and there were depth charges in the convoy very close to us. At night we thought we had been hit and my mate (sadly now gone) and I grabbed our clothes and rushed out onto the deck. It was snowing and I was glad to get my trousers on, but it ended up another trip made safely.” Len was in Bombay when the war finished there. He continued as a Merchant seaman until 1949. “It is hard to believe but a notice was put up in our mess rooms informing us that if we were caught associating with any woman or bartering we could get five years in the salt mines. It made us very wary, that’s all I can say! We attended some dances in the local hall where they read out the news to the Russians there. The things I remember are the soldiers marching up and down 14 Roy Elwood Roy was brought up near Manchester and was at school when war broke out. In September 1939 he joined HMS Glendower, a shore base in North Wales for basic training, followed by training as a radar operator on the Isle of Man. He was posted to HMS Zambesi, a newly built ‘Z’ class destroyer still alongside at Cammell Laird yard on Merseyside. The ship became part of the Home Fleet based at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys. As well as a seaman, Roy was a radar operator, ship’s painter and barber. The ship’s duties included convoy escort and made three winter trips to Russia from December 1944, escorting the pairs of convoys JW/RA63, JW/ RA64 & JW/RA65 - the last of these arriving at Scapa Flow on 1st April 1945. north Norway. Accordingly, the Flag Officer in JW64 detached four destroyers, including the Zambesi, to Sørøy where they embarked the starving population of just over five hundred. Roy recalls: “It was a cold clear February day and at a prearranged signal they came down the snow covered slopes to the shore and were ferried to the ships. Most were women and children and they were in a very poor condition.” Says Roy: “I was a radar operator and for some reason in charge of the paint shop. Watch keeping and my ‘action station’ involved scanning a screen to spot enemy ships or aircraft. The radar cabin was a dimly-lit, smoke-filled room, and on Arctic convoys we often spent hours at action stations. Sleep deprivation was acute so we struggled to keep awake.” They brought them to Murmansk to be distributed among homeward bound ships in the next convoy. This convoy, RA64, departed Kola Inlet on 17th February and subsequently suffered severe weather conditions, as a result of which the convoy was greatly scattered and numerous ships suffered serious damage. On 20th February further hurricane force winds scattered the convoy again and they were only able to reform in convoy formation by 23rd February. By this time German torpedo bombers had already located the merchant ship ‘Henry Bacon’ – one of the ships carrying some of the Norwegians from Sørøy Island. As the ship sank, some of the crew gave up their places in the boats to ensure the safety of the civilians. Convoy JW64 included the evacuation of Norwegians from the Island of Sørøy. News was received on 14th February 1945 that the enemy were attacking the island of Sørøy in HMS Zambesi Roy remained on HMS Zambesi until demobilisation in 1947. He now lives on Tyneside. 15 John Farrow John was born and brought up in Salford qualifying as a cabinet maker and French polisher before volunteering for the navy, aged 19. In spring 1941 he joined the newly launched HMS Trinidad at Devonport for the Arctic convoys from Scapa Flow to Murmansk via Iceland but also later served on HMS Quality running down to South Africa. John recalls: “When the Trindad left their rum ration which combined with your own full ration knocked you out cold. The choice was 3d extra per day or a ration of rum - I always took the rum!” port we were not told where we were heading but were issued with ‘Whites’ and were hopeful of going some where warm however when we sailed up past Blackpool we knew the ‘Whites’ wouldn’t be much use.” He also remembers seeing the Northern Lights night after night ~ but had no camera to record it. “This was the commissioning voyage, she wasn’t commissioned until October 1941 and we actually still had workmen aboard who were put ashore at Scapa Flow. I remember the Murmansk run because I celebrated my 21st birthday on board in 1942. Your sleeping / eating / living area contained twenty places with hammocks above and the tradition was, when celebrating a 21st birthday, that each of the other nineteen men allowed you a sip of John’s family tells that he rarely talks about the terrible things that happened. In March 1942, following the sinking of a German destroyer Z26, HMS Trinidad, due to a technical malfunction, torpedoed itself killing 32. She then limped into Murmansk for repair and he remembers her being bombed in May 1942 on the run home with the loss of 63 lives, including 20 survivors of the HMS Edinburgh. He was rescued by HMS Forester. HMS Trinidad 16 Bert Glazebrook Bert joined the Royal Navy at the age of 17 and from September 1942 was OrdinarySeaman. He was on Arctic convoy duty aboard HMS Serapis and then HMS Walker – convoys JW57, RA57, RA58 and RA59 – the last of these experienced atrocious weather conditions with U-boat attacks lasting two days. Bert was also on Convoy EZR27 in support of the Normandy landings. Says Bert: “I was not sorry to see the end of the Walker (WW1 Destroyer). I found it very old, freezing cold, sleeping where you could when you had your duty to concentrate on such as lookouts, never knowing when it was our turn for a torpedo. With the mountainous seas and the full icy killer conditions you could not put enough clothing on. I remember wearing 2 vests, long johns, pullover, 2 sets of sea boot socks, grey issued coat and duffle coat on top, 2 balaclavas and 2 pairs of gloves - all at the same time, and you would wear your clothes constantly. You could not take any chance of removing your gloves, as the cold would still take your skin off.” HMS Walker “Our duty was to knock the ice off the guardrails and the guns, which was a frequent occurrence.” “The memories I do have left is of the ship’s company photo taken on board. I often think of the lads and of the veterans that are not with us now.” 17 George Gray After being bombed out of his home in the Greenock Blitz, George Gray joined the Dutch ship SS Zaanstroom as a merchant seaman, at the age of fifteen and a half. They supplied the Army with munitions and materials for road making in the small fjords in Iceland. Following this, he served on a series of other merchant ships sailing to the USA and West Indies. George says that: “there were ferocious gales on those convoys with deck cargoes, lifeboats and gunpits lost overboard, but nevertheless it helped to keep the U-boats down”. He then signed on the MV San Venancio which was bound for the USA, then later took aviation fuel to Cherbourg – “dicey work as the Germans were going out as we were going in”. He then joined MV Ninella and proceeded to sail between the U.S.A., the Dutch West Indies, Curacao, etc, with petrol and aviation spirits, and gave support to the forces in West and North Africa as they topped up the Forces transport and planes. Convoys JW61, JW62, RA62 and RA66 saw the MV San Venancio sailing to and from Russia. George’s wartime experiences ended when he was paid off in Greenock on 9 May 1945. Another trip took him to Montreal to deliver the troop ship MV Letitia where she was converted into a hospital ship. ©Rossparry.co.uk/syndication 18 Gordon Grayson From Cambridge, Gordon joined the Royal Navy at HMS Ganges near Harwich in June 1943 and served for about 3 years. First he was posted to an anti-submarine sloop, HMS Woodpecker. His first voyage was very successful as six Gordon (left) submarines were sunk including U202, U119, and Derek Gra yson U449 and U504. They picked up a lot of survivors including those of U462 which had been sunk by aircraft. After a period of leave most of the crew of HMS Woodpecker was transferred to a new-build, HMS Lark, where he served as an ASDIC officer. Gordon sailed on his first of four convoys in October 1944. Gordon says: “These were winter disintegrated. It completely disappeared. There were only 12 survivors. The night before, HMS Lark had been out on patrol and sank U425. The following morning, at first light, a life raft was spotted and it was found to contain 4 German sailors all frozen solid. More than 15 minutes in the sea (even in a raft) led to death. The saying was that drinking a lot of gin helped!” convoys so they had to sail closer to the Norwegian coast due to the ice floes (so were more vulnerable to attack than in summer). It was very cold, so heavy clothing was needed especially for standing outside for four hours on an open deck. The first 3 convoys were fairly uneventful. But on the final convoy there was quite a pack of U-boats awaiting the convoy outside the Kola inlet. It was a right old battle. One of the escorts HMS Bluebell was within sight of HMS Lark and was torpedoed by U711. It must have been a direct hit to its magazine as the whole vessel blew up and On 17th February 1945, during preliminary assembly of the convoy, HMS Lark was hit by a torpedo fired by U968 in the Kola Inlet. The acoustic homing torpedo hit the stern, which was wrecked, and the vessel had to be abandoned. Survivors were rescued by other escorts. Gordon added: “The worse the weather was, the more difficult it was to be attacked by air or sea. The whole deck was covered in ice which every so often had to be chipped off by a working party to prevent the ship becoming top heavy and capsizing.” HMS Lark 19 Harold Green Harold attempted to enlist in the Welsh Guards early in 1941 as his brother, seven years his senior, was already a Guardsman. However, Harold was rejected due to his lack of height. He remarks: “However, by 1946 I had gained another inch and a half!” Harold applied to, and was accepted by the Royal Marines and started training in Plymouth in October 1941 and become one of HO 129 Squad. Harold recalls: “Training was comprehensive and hard (not only square bashing) and training covered all types of weaponry finally up to naval 6” guns.” In August 1942 Harold was posted to make up the numbers for the detachment due to man HMS Bermuda, a Colony Class cruiser. They were attached to the 10th Cruiser Squadron for North Atlantic duties but in November were directed to join Force H (Operation Torch) for North African landings. One summer, Harold is not sure when, they paid a brief visit to Loch Ewe and the Wrens were allowed on board to visit or sightsee. Harold continues: “A friend and I were dressing to go ashore when we heard a loud crack – like a 4” gun being fired. One of the guns was being used by a seaman to demonstrate the loading and firing to a Wren, but unfortunately he was using live ammunition! I believe the shell hit the hill near a signal station. The only loss of life was a sheep (a case of friendly fire!). The Wren was discovered some time later in one of the messes shaking like a leaf!” His first trip for Russian convoy duties was in December 1942 providing cover for one northbound and two returning convoys (JW52, RA51 and RA52). In June 1943 they carried troops and equipment to Spitzbergen. Harold remembers: “It was strange to see the sun circling without going below the horizon. Fortunately the ‘Tirpitz’, based in Norway, did not put to sea. We would have been no match for her!” In August 1944 they returned to Glasgow where HMS Bermuda underwent a refit and their detachment of Marines returned to Plymouth. After some retraining, he was posted to Belfast and it was here he met his future wife. Returning to Plymouth, he trained as a signaller on landing craft between February and May 1945, ready for the Far East but fortunately VJ Day happened before they were drafted and Harold never went to sea again. After further Atlantic and Biscay patrols, they returned to convoy duties again and from November 1943 to February 1944 covered six convoys – four northbound (JW54A, JW54B, JW56A and JW56B) and two returning convoys (RA54B and RA56). Says Harold: “This was the last of our Arctic tours, I’m glad to say, because it was b….y cold! Only those who have experienced these conditions can understand what can happen when a ship gets top heavy with ice.” HMS Bermuda 20 Murray Haddow Murray Haddow joined the Royal Navy (as a conscript) straight from school at 18 and after training, was posted to HMS Caprice, a destroyer, in March 1944, just before her commissioning, and was one of the first members of the ship’s company. He was a Leading Writer. Some of my shipmate s on HMS “Caprice” Left to right: Myself, Malachy (Tony) Conroy from Ru therglen near Glasgow, Wireless Op erator and Mick Maher from Exeter, As dic Operator Murray took part in 6 Russian Convoys JW59 to Murmansk in June 1944 and the return convoy RA59A, convoy JW61A to the Kola Inlet in November 1944 with the return Convoy RA61A later that month, and then Convoy JW62 in December 1944. “After taking the convoy to Murmansk, on leaving the Kola Inlet into the Barents Sea at dawn, the Cassandra was torpedoed by a German U-boat. It blew her bows off almost as far as the bridge and 62 men were killed. We got permission to go alongside to take off survivors and then torpedo the wreck. It was too rough to get near her and all we could do was to watch the little red lights on the lads’ lifebelts as they swept by.” Murray recalls this incident: “On the eve of the outward bound convoy JW62, we were gathered at Scapa Flow waiting to pick up the merchant ships and escort them to Murmansk. It was arranged that our sister ship HMS Cassandra (whose skipper was senior to ours) should take the spearhead and we would be off the port quarter. However he fell down a companionway and broke his leg. There was no time for a replacement for him and so the First Lieutenant took command. That now made our skipper Lt Commander McKendrick, senior, so he insisted we should change places. Thus we took the spearhead.” Murray came back from Russia on the return Convoy RA62 from the Kola Inlet later that same month. HMS Caprice HMS Cassandra 21 Ivan Hall In January 1939 Ivan joined the B & S Shipping Company of Cardiff (later known as the South American Saint Line) as a sixteen year old apprentice deck officer. He made seven voyages to the east coast of South America on the SS St. Merriel before joining the SS St. Clears on the River Tyne in November 1941. At North Shields they loaded war materials and sailed for Iceland. Here they formed up with four other British and two Russian merchant ships as convoy PQ5 with a Royal Navy escort of three or four small minesweepers, two destroyers and the cruiser Sheffield. The convoy sailed north eastwards in the increasing cold and overcast weather, relying on the Royal Navy for navigation. Although continuously tracked by German reconnaissance aircraft they were not attacked and at the entrance to the White Sea the Royal Navy escort left them in the charge of two Russian icebreakers which smashed a passage through the ice until they were able to dock at Bakaritza, on the opposite bank of the River Dvina to Archangel. On July 2nd they passed the ill-fated outward-bound convoy PQ17. Says Ivan: “Blohm und Voss found us both but the Germans concentrated on the potentially more rewarding target of the outward bound convoy.” On July 2nd convoy QP13 divided off Iceland, Ivan’s being one of 16 ships which turned south for Loch Ewe. “Loch Ewe was a wonderful sight,” he says. The other 19 ships rounded Iceland heading for Reykjavik but lost position in bad weather and ran into a minefield. Five were sunk and one damaged. Released from his indentures, Ivan gained the Second Mate’s Certificate and in June 1942 joined the SS Fort a la Corne carrying war materials to North Africa. On the second voyage they were torpedoed in the Mediterranean but with no loss of life. Thence followed other ships and invasions in Sicily, Salerno and to Bari in Italy, and the south of France. After the cargo was unloaded they became frozen in with two other British ships for the duration of the Russian winter. It was not until May 1942 that the ice on the Dvina began to break up. They eventually crossed the river to load a full cargo of timber and at the end of June they were finally able to leave, picking up a contingent from Murmansk so that 35 ships formed up as convoy QP13 for the return voyage. With the end of the war Ivan retired from the Merchant Service and became a teacher. He has recounted his wartime experiences in the Merchant Navy in the book “Christmas in Archangel.” 22 Philip Harrison Philip served as Signalman aboard HMS Intrepid. He recalls that at the outset they were provided with no special clothing. Then came duffle coats followed by ‘Kapok’ lined inner suits with Russian type hats. Their convoy missions used to alternate between (i) a trip with the merchant convoy and (ii) a stand-off with the fleet waiting for enemy craft to emerge from the Norwegian fjords. Recalls Philip: “From our ship we Philip’s naval aspiratio ns began early in life and their pilots. “The Russians accepted the aircraft but sent the pilots home. One Squadron Leader pilot was a terrible sailor and spent most of the return journey lashed up in the Captain’s bunk in the day cabin. Only in a relatively calm spell, which permitted us to perform some burials at sea, did he pull through.” witnessed no surface fleet action from the fjords before March 1943 - only air activity and U-boats which was formidable. The enemy ‘Junkers 88’, a low level bomber, was used extensively against the convoys and suffered many casualties. I remember one being shot down from our ship – the crew scrambling on to the wings as we sailed past, hoping to be picked up by the large German Blom and Vosse rescue planes which followed the convoy.” “As a signalman invariably on the bridge, I realised that life could have been worse for the seamen chipping ice from the guns and superstructure. In a sea mist you could hardly see the forecastle though visibility was quite clear at higher levels. In these conditions the Swordfish aircraft would appear and signal where the convoy was. I was always impressed with the efficiency of the ‘observers’ in these aircraft who were able to operate Aldis lamps from open cockpits in adverse weather conditions.” He remembers one occasion when Intrepid had accompanied a convoy carrying a consignment of ‘Hurricane’ fighter aircraft HMS Intrepid 23 Glanville Hart Glanville Hart was born in London in 1922 and joined the Royal Navy in April 1941, aged just 18, as a Signalman. After initial training he was posted to HMS Edinburgh, which was based at the time in Scapa Flow. His first patrols were in the Denmark Strait. By Christmas 1941 he was stationed around the Kola Peninsula and was escorting convoys en-route to Murmansk (PQ6 and QP4). Glanville recalls: “The cold was beyond Glanville remembers: “My only possession (apart from my uniform) was a simple wooden spoon, which I used to eat the meagre rations provided by the Russians. This spoon now takes pride of place in my display cabinet.” belief and we had to chip the ice off the deck every morning.” In March 1942 HMS Edinburgh completed two more convoy trips (PQ 13 and QP9). She then returned to the area to carry out another convoy patrol in late April 1942 (QP11) but on the way back to the UK, the ship was torpedoed by a German submarine (U456). The cruiser’s stern was blown off but she tried to return to Murmansk, escorted by two British ships (HMS Foresight and HMS Forester). Three German vessels were ordered to seek out and attack the crippled Edinburgh. She opened up with some spirited salvos and managed to hit the ‘Schoemann’ and caused so much damage that the ‘Schoemann’ was eventually abandoned and sank. However, one of the torpedoes had hit and effectively cut HMS Edinburgh in two. Orders were given to abandon her and she was finally sunk by a torpedo from HMS Foresight). 57 crewmen were lost, but Glanville was rescued by a nearby trawler and transported to Murmansk, where he spent a few months ashore. Following his return to the UK after spending four months effectively stranded in Murmansk, Glanville was sent to HMS King Alfred for officer commissioning. He eventually left as a sub-lieutenant, had further training in Troon, Scotland, and was appointed in charge of a Landing Craft. Glanville commanded his craft (LCT1138) as it landed on Gold Beach on the first wave of D-Day. Post-war Glanville spent 30 years in the Royal Naval Reserve, retiring at the rank of Captain. He is now based very much inland in Guilsborough, Northamptonshire, where he is actively involved in village life. HMS Edinburgh Glanville in 2009 at his local Remembrance Day parade. 24 Ernest Hodkinson Ernest joined the Royal Navy in February 1943, at HMS Impregnable, Devonport. He was transferred to a radio mechanics course and after 3 months basic training was transferred to FAA FX593745. He continued training at HMS Ariel, Culcheth, Fleet Air Arm Mechanic s – ship’s company HM S Nairana. Ernest – 3rd from left, Lancashire and passed out as back row L/RM (AW) in November 1943. He was then posted to HMS Nairana, a brand new escort carrier, based at Greenock. Their first operation was in support of No 2 Escort group (led by the famous Captain Walker) on antisubmarine sweeps. Following that some convoys to Gibraltar followed. the sergeants was Thor Heyerdahl, by then famous for Kon Tiki expedition.” Towards the end of 1944 HMS Nairana was based at Scapa Flow and they did 3 convoys to Murmansk (Vayenga) - and fortunately came back. (JW61, 62 & 64 and RA61, 62 & 64). HMS Nairana made history by flying a fighter at night. Their Squadron was 835. In May 1945, at the end of the European War, Ernest was posted to Middle Wallop and kitted out in army battle dress. In August 1945, whilst on embarkation for the Far East, the Atom Bomb brought a quick end to the war. Nevertheless, he went to Singapore via NZ and Australia by troop ship, arriving on 5 Nov 1945. He was demobbed from there in June 1946. In November 1944 they transported about 100 Norwegian Army personnel to Murmansk (Operation Crofter). Five sergeants were guests in the PO’s mess. Says Ernest, “Twenty years later I met up with one through work and visited his home on Oslo Fjord. He told me that one of HMS Nairana escorting an Arctic convoy in seas so rough that the bows of the ship are hidden behind the waves 25 Geoff Holmes Geoff was born in Doncaster and could have spent the war in relatively safety working down the pits as a Bevan Boy, but he made a deliberate decision to exchange ages with a cousin who had lost a brother on HMS Hood (which was sunk by the Bismarck). No-one questioned Geoff about his age (then fifteen) although someone remarked he looked a bit on the young side for seventeen. Geoff signed up for the Merchant Navy. He served on the Samaritan and Fort Yukon and made trips to the US and Canada. Geoff’s first Arctic convoy came in November 1943 when they joined convoy JW54a and formed up off Loch Ewe, setting sail soon after for Murmansk. Many sailors found the bitter cold as bad as the enemy raids. Says Geoff: “The ice was several inches thick and the fog was came in so thick that at times you couldn’t see another crewman a few yards away. The worst thing was that you knew the enemy was out there waiting to get you.” Geoff recalls: “All the Arctic convoys were in winter because it was dark most of the time. If we had gone in summer we would have been exposed to the Germans for almost 24 hours a day. However, we were attacked by Heinkel and Dornier bombers but thankfully they all missed. The planes came so low that you could see the faces of the crew and even see that they were wearing oxygen masks. My ship was lucky but we lost a number of others along the way.” Eventually they reached Murmansk which had been devastated by almost constant aerial bombing. Geoff added: “I lost some good friends. You tried not to get too close to people because there was a fair chance you wouldn’t see some of them again.” Geoff survived three Arctic convoys and remained in the Merchant Navy until 1951. 26 Jack Humble On 25th February 1944 Jack Humble was 18 and in his bunk on the HMS Mahratta. They were just below Bear Island inside the Arctic Circle. It was 3 hours until his next watch and he was taking a well-deserved rest. Then the torpedo struck. There was panic. Men stampeded for the deck. But what Jack did next possibly saved his life. All he was wearing was his underwear, it may have been wool but it was no match for the Arctic. He put on every piece of clothing he could find; socks, gloves, boots, mitts… then he went down the passageway to get on deck. A second torpedo struck. The men were trapped. Debris blocked the stairs. After what seemed an age, they managed to clear the debris and the sailors rushed on to the deck. The scene that greeted them was of panic and chaos. just thought that was the end”. Jack recalled: “People were throwing “He saved me but he didn’t save himself. I remember thinking why do I have to die so young? I don’t remember much after that”. themselves overboard because the ship was sinking. They were shouting for their wives and their mothers. It was terrible.” Jack was covered in oil from the ship. It was in his eyes so he couldn’t see. Then he heard a voice. Another sailor was alive. The voice shouted that there was a ship in the distance. Jack, through his oil-smeared eyes could barely make out an outline but they started to swim towards it. The other sailor had been in the water longer than Jack - he could go no further. Jack never knew his name. The crew of HMS Impulsive saw him in the water and threw him a line. He started to climb but He saw a friend, Alec Jones. Alec asked for his he was numb from the cold and fell back into gloves so Jack gave him his mitts. Alec put them the water. Life expectancy in the water was five on his feet. They both knew their prospects that minutes and Jack had been there for at least stormy Arctic night were bleak. The ship was at twenty. He knew the end was close. But it was the back of the convoy, it would be some time those same atrocious conditions that saved him. before another ship came and jumping into the He was being thrown about in the water and it sea was just another way to death. Jack and was a huge wave which pushed him level to the Alec tried to release the rafts which lined the deck. “I was being thrown about. The next thing deck but they were frozen solid. They linked I knew a wave took me up the side of the ship arms but, before they could jump, a huge wave to the level of the deck. They pulled me by the washed them both into the sea. Jack never saw hair and pulled me in”. Jack was carried below Alec again. and the crew worked on him, putting him on a Jack recalls: “I was getting sucked under with table, rubbing his hands and feet, trying to get the ship. I remember getting pushed round and his circulation going. A petty officer, who was put round under the water. But with a little bit of beside Jack, died as the crew worked on him. luck I suppose I came to the top and managed to swim away from the ship. Everybody around The next day Jack awoke and was told seventeen survivors had been pulled from the sea. The me was dead. I tried speaking to people. Nobody answered. I couldn’t find anybody alive. Mahratta had a crew of 246. “I lost all my pals, They had been in the water longer than I had. I really,” he whispers. 27 Gordon Kilner Gordon’s service in the Royal Navy began in December 1942. His participation in the Arctic Convoy Operations took place during the autumn and winter of 1943-44 and during the spring of 1944. In the autumn of 1943 he served in HMS Anson - a new battleship in the Home Fleet, based at Scapa Flow, which was part of the long-range support group for the Convoys to Russia (Convoys RA54A and RA54B) From January to May 1944 he served in HMS Rattlesnake, a Fleet Minesweeper/ Escort of the 18th Flotilla, as part of a close support group for convoys sailing from Loch Ewe past Iceland and Jan Mayen Island en route to Russia, especially during February and March of that year (Convoys RA56 and JW58). HMS Anson was also involved in activities aimed at enticing German capital ships to put to sea e.g. Operation Leader in October 1943, which attacked German shipping along the coast of northwest Norway. In May 1944 Gordon was transferred to Combined Operations and remained there until he was demobilised in October 1946. Gordon says, “This was something I remember well as I was down in the shell room of B Turret at action stations.” HMS Anson 28 James Kirk James volunteered for the Royal Navy, aged 17, on 10th November 1943. Being born and brought up in the fishing village of Carsethorn, near Kirkbean, on the Solway coast of Scotland it was a natural choice. He did his basic training as an ordinary seaman at HMS Raleigh in Devonport from November 1943 until January 1944, then spent two months on HMS Valkyrie in the Isle of Man, training as a radar operator, cutting edge technology of its day. In early May 1944 he crossed the Atlantic on board the Queen Elizabeth liner, by then converted to war service. Says James: “My family asked recently Inlet where a Russian naval tug took over.” Two days later the U-boat was destroyed, with all hands lost, by a Fairey Swordfish aircraft launched from HMS Campania. if the QE had been escorted by a convoy. I had to laugh – for she didn’t need a convoy! She was so fast nothing could catch her! On this voyage I was thrilled to meet and get the autograph of Jimmy Cagney, a famous film star of the 1930s and 40s.” James was transferred to HMS Drake in September 1945 and then HMS Newcastle, both in Devonport, where they were kept busy working on various other ships, awaiting demobilisation which came in May 1947, when he was aged 21 years. Next James was on convoys on HMS Bahamas from Londonderry to Gibraltar until it joined a convoy (JW62) at Loch Ewe in November 1944 and headed for Polyarno near Murmansk. The outward journey was uneventful, other than cold, but on the return journey, Convoy RA62 was attacked by U-boat 365 on 11th December 1944. HMS Cassandra, a destroyer, sailing just ahead of HMS Bahamas, was torpedoed, her bows blown off with 62 men losing their lives. Says James: “Ropes were thrown over her and our ship towed her back to the Kola Postscript from Jim’s family: Like many men who served in WW2, Jim has said very little over the years about his war service, other than he had it easy compared to the men in the Merchant Navy. Now aged 87 years, it is only in the last two years that we have discovered that he saw action during his Royal Navy Service. HMS Casssandra HMS Bahamas 29 George Langton George was on six Arctic convoys – northbound convoys JW60, JW63, JW65 and returning convoys RA60, RA63 and RA65, serving on the cruiser HMS Diadem as leading cook, later promoted to P.O.Cook. Says George: “Although my memories leaving harbour we soon found out. The captain cleared the lower deck and told us that three German destroyers had been trying to find our convoy, missed it and our Admiral had been ordered to intercept them. We succeeded just off the coast of Norway, where a battle was fought in which they sustained quite a lot of damage but escaped up a fjord. We were being fired on by shore batteries and we received slight damage but sadly one rating was killed and three others were injured.” of the convoys are getting dim, what does stick in my mind are the memories of bitter cold, darkness and mountainous seas. Of course, as well as being on watch or at action stations, we did get a break now and again, which relieved the stress a little and gave us a chance for pastimes. I used to pull my long johns free of wool, for they were Arctic issue and consisted of pure wool. I dyed the wool with Condies crystals [Permanganate of potash crystals which give an intensely pink or purple colour] and green vegetable dye, and made rugs, slippers, soft toys, etc. or did tapestries. Others would get their heads down where possible, or play Uckers (which is like Ludo) and was a very popular game in the Navy.” “It was a quiet journey back except for sighting three German aircraft but no action took place. Later we were sent to dock for repairs in Hepburn on Tyne, getting a well earned rest!” On convoy RA63, the Diadem safely reached Scapa Flow, but was later sent out to engage German destroyers off the Norwegian coast, forcing them to return to port. HMS Diadem sustained some minor damage. The Christmas menu on board the ship with some signatures from fellow shipmates George recalls it: “There was one convoy I remember quite well. As far as convoys went it wasn’t too bad except for rough seas and cold winds, for it was nearing the end of the war, or so we thought, but we wouldn’t been so placid if we’d have known what was coming.” “On reaching Scapa, all of us who were off watch were getting ready for shore, a pint and a meal at the NAAFI which would be a nice break but, ‘hands to sea station’ came over the tannoy - we all moaned and wondered what was happening. On HMS Diadem 30 Francis Lee Francis joined the Merchant Navy in January 1943, at the age of 16. The first ship he was supposed to join was hit by a mine on its way in to the port and all the crew was lost. He was given gunnery training and then the first leg of his trip took him from the Tyne to Loch Ewe. He was then sent to join the Empire Ploughman as a cabin boy. Francis recalls: “The cargo consisted pick up any survivors, as a safety measure for our ship.” of aeroplanes and ammunition which was all boxed up and stored in the hold. There were also tanks which were fully assembled and stored on deck. The ship then sailed from Loch Ewe. When sailing on to Murmansk we encountered a storm which caused the convoy to hove to in Akureyrie, in Iceland. We were held up in Akureyrie or one or two days. “ “Our ship survived the attack and finally arrived in Murmansk and onward to Archangel. We then sailed up the estuary from Archangel to Bacaritsa. As we entered the estuary the river was completely frozen. We had to be escorted by an Ice Breaker. The traffic was crossing the frozen river in front of us. The policemen on duty then stopped the traffic. The Ice Breaker then crushed the ice and we were able to sail through. I was situated at the stern and was amazed to see that within 15 minutes the ice was re-frozen and traffic was again crossing the frozen river behind us” “Whilst at sea I was required to practise my skills using the Oerlikon gun. One of the shells hit the mast stay because of the previous damage, which had occurred whilst loading one of the tanks. The guide rail of the gun turret had suffered damage and as a result the gun was able to move past the safety stop position. The skipper was on the bridge and witnessed this damage to the mast stay. I was then taken before the Master and told that I would have to pay for the damage out of my wages. This scared me witless!” “Whilst ashore, outside a dance hall I was hustled by a group of young local lads, who took my pass book. I was then approached by a young individual who said he could get my pass book back at a cost of about 200 roubles. I paid the money and got my pass book back. I knew that I should get this back as quickly as possible because rumours were that if I was found to be without a pass book by the authorities I could be imprisoned and never heard of again.” The convoy then sailed on to Murmansk and at Bear Island the convoy came under attack by 10 U-Boats. “The Commodore ship was sunk and I was on the Vice Commodore ship. I witnessed the attack on this ship and could see small lights moving down the side of the ship which looked “The return journey was quite uneventful. The whole round trip took approximately 3 like fireflies. This was the crew climbing months.” down the scramble nets, abandoning the sinking ship. We were not allowed to stop to 31 Ron Leslie Ron was a member of the Fleet Air Arm, the branch of the Royal Navy responsible for the operation of naval aircraft. During the Second World War, the Fleet Air Arm operated both aircraft on ships and land-based aircraft (fighters, torpedo bombers and reconnaissance aircraft). Members of the Fleet Air Arm moved to different ships and bases as required. Ron served on board the aircraft carriers HMS Vindex, HMS Campania and HMS Nairana and made various trips in support of a number of Arctic convoys from late 1943 onwards. He had responsibility for the safety equipment, among other things. Ron recalls: “We were based under the flight deck, not in the messes like the other crew members. I slept under the table used for packing the parachutes. We had no proper gear for the cold. We were sent gloves knitted by folk back home and distributed by charities. We also had woollen long johns – but I never wore mine till I was back in Greenock!” HMS Campania HMS Nairana HMS Vindex 32 Donald Macfarlane Donald first went to Aultbea in 1941 when he was posted to 25th Medium and Heavy Training regiment RA308 Coast Battery. He was there for nine months and he, and about a hundred other gunners and officers, were responsible for putting in the Heavy Coast Battery. He tells us: “it took 76 men to pull the 6” Following that, Donald was posted to 1st Maritime Regiment RA aboard SS Nassarius from April 1944 to March 1945 and went on some Atlantic convoys from America to North Africa. He was with five Navy gunners and four Maritime Artillery men. He recalls that on some transatlantic crossings they were forced to go north in to the Arctic Circle near Iceland and Greenland, and then some ships would carry on to Russia, while others, like his, would peel off and head south. mark 11 gun up to the cliff. It took nine men in each crew to work this gun.” He recalls there was a barrier put across at Achnasheen and that it took such a long time for the Navy, or whoever, to bring the rations that the locals would arrive with creels of fish for them. He also remembers some of his fellow soldiers who were with him. “There was Joe Macfealy who couldn’t read or write so I read all his letters from his wife to him, and replied on his behalf. There was also John Nicolson, and a Ruairidh MacRae from Kyleakin who had the second sight and predicted many things that actually happened.” After leaving active service he was a gamekeeper in the Cairngorms and worked for Col. Haig at Inchrory for 25 years, until he retired with the Colmans at Tarvie. Coastal gun battery Convoy ships in Loch Ewe 33 Jim Osler Convoy PQ17 departed Reykjavik in June 1942. Following air attacks on 4th July having been repelled with relatively slight losses, the Admiralty gave the order to scatter based on faulty intelligence and information about enemy movements. The destroyers were unable to keep close to the merchant ships, which were now all spread out. What followed was undoubtedly a disaster as many merchant ships were attacked and sunk at leisure by enemy aircraft and U-boats. Jim was a radio operator, aboard the Royal Naval tanker RFA Aldersdale on the illfated convoy PQ17. Between the 5th and 10th July 1942 his ship was first bombed, and then torpedoed by U457 and sunk in the Barents Sea north of Norway. The crew was rescued by the minesweeper HMS Salamander and taken to Archangel. It was Jim who sent the distress signal from Norway to Scotland regarding up to five hundred Norwegian civilians who were stranded in freezing conditions on Sørøy Island, cut off by the Germans. The merchant ship ‘Henry Bacon’, which was part of convoy RA64, picked up some of the Norwegians but it was subsequently attacked by German torpedo bombers. As the ship sank, some of the crew gave up their places in the boats to ensure the safety of the civilians. He was held for about 3 months in Russia before being sent to England where his radio skills led to a posting to what became, GCHQ at Bletchley Park (where staff were working on the breaking of the Enigma codes). He was subsequently sent to Norway where he worked with the Norwegian resistance. Escorts and merch ant ships at Hvalfjo rd before the sailin of Convoy PQ 17. g Image shows RFA Bishopsdale, sistership of the Aldersdale. 34 Robin Owen Robin joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1936. Robin retired as Commander in 1972. In 1942/43 he was Navigating Officer on board HMS Ledbury on several Arctic Convoys, including PQ17. The air attacks of the 4 July on PQ17, having been repelled with relatively slight loss, the convoy was in good spirits and perfect order so the order to scatter came as somewhat of a shock. Robin writes about the scattering of PQ17: “The convoy was ordered to scatter and its ships to “proceed independently to their destinations”. At the time, on Ledbury’s bridge, we knew only that we were to reverse course, abandon our station as one of the close escorts and join the cruiser squadron some miles distant. Our designed maximum speed was 24 knots, several knots slower than the cruisers and fleet destroyers we were supposed to rejoin but now rapidly receding to the west. At any moment we expected to see the masts of the Tirpitz appear over the eastern horizon, followed by salvos of fifteeninch shells. The telegraphs were put to Full Ahead, the captain sent below for the Chief and urged him to squeeze all the revs he could. The boiler fans roared, the funnel paint began to blister and in the flat calm sea, low sea temperature and a high barometer, he actually got one and a half knots more than had been obtained on our acceptance trials in the Solent six months earlier. But the rest of the fleet was still getting away from us.” often preceded by a German reconnaissance plane, a large amphibian Blohm & Voss BV138, nicknamed the “shad”, that persistently circled the convoy just above the horizon transmitting radio homing signals to guide the approaching high level and torpedo bombing force. The convoy and escorts’ air defence guns attempted to shoot down this “shad” and after several attempts, it was seen to catch fire and crash. This was later confirmed by German Records which reported this aircraft missing at relevant date/time. In the meantime an attack by Heinkel torpedo bombers had been pressed home, one flying close enough for us to get a shot at it with our 20mm Oerlikon before it too crashed. ‘Ledbury’ then went Full Speed in the flat calm sea to try to rescue any survivors. As we came up with them, the plane had sunk and the four crewmen were in their inflatable dinghy. As Roger Hill manoeuvered the ship as close to them as possible, most of our crew gathered on deck to watch this oftenrehearsed Survivors Drill being done for real. To our sailors’ encouraging shouts of “Pull Up My Hearties”, “Give Way Together” and a few of a more ribald nature, the Germans were hauled up the scrambling nets and dumped in wet oily heaps on the iron deck. They were then turned over to the Sick Bay crew to wash them down, put them in dry survivors clothing and provide one of our crew as a “minder”. They were fed and given camp beds on the messdecks. As befitted his commissioned rank the pilot was accommodated in the wardroom.” What followed was a disaster with 21 merchant ships sunk at leisure by aircraft and U-boats with little or no convoy cover. As Robin says: “The German Navy did not appear but the convoy was almost totally destroyed.” Robin tells of a rescue of some German airmen: “At this time of Arctic midsummer there was continuous daylight and as PQ 17 approached the vicinity of Bear Island, German air attacks intensified. They were 35 Kenneth Reith Kenneth was born in 1927 and joined the Royal Navy in 1943 at the age of 15. Kenneth was 17 when he was on the Russian Convoys, serving on HMS Diadem, a light AA cruiser from 1944-1945 as a Signalman. This was a particularly important job as all manoeuvres and administrative messages had to be sent by flags or Morse light as radio signals could be picked up by the enemy. Ken recalls: “I participated in four were waiting for us off the entrance to the Kola inlet but we managed to avoid them by the subterfuge of sending four destroyers firing pyrotechnics to simulate the convoy going by the normal route, while we got away through a channel in the minefield which the Russian minesweepers had cleared. The ruse was successful as we got away without any casualties.” convoys. We were lucky for the first two convoys as we had no casualties, possibly because the atrocious weather conditions were unsuitable for the enemy to attack but our luck ran out on the third convoy, JW 65, when we were attacked by 6 U-boats. The corvette ‘Lapwing’ and two American merchant ships ‘ Horace Bushnell’ and ‘Thomas Donaldson’ were sunk. On the next convoy nine U-boats HMS Diadem 36 Mervyn Salter Mervyn served from 1942 to 1946. Having trained at HMS Raleigh and HMS Drake, in June 1943 he joined HMS Saumarez, an ‘S’ class Destroyer. He was on a series of Arctic convoys from 12th November 1943 to 2nd November 1944. The most notable of these might be said to be JW55B, which sailed from Kola Inlet on 22nd December 1943 and engaged in the Battle of North Cape. HMS Saumarez was providing cover to the Home Fleet. On Christmas Day 1943 the Scharnhorst sailed to intercept this convoy. Early on the 26th December, knowing that Scharnhorst was in the vicinity, the Commander-in-Chief ordered his own force and the cruiser cover to close up in anticipation of imminent action. At the same time the Scharnhorst became detached from her destroyers. Throughout that day various cruisers and destroyers sighted the Scharnhorst and engaged in action with her. Eventually a torpedo attack in poor weather and visibility brought about her end. She sank in the Arctic gloom and in spite of a search, only 35 survivors were picked up. Following his time in the Arctic, Mervyn, aboard HMS Saumarez, took part in supporting landings and patrolling Juno, Gold and Sword beaches on D Day (6th June 1944). In 1945 Mervyn found himself variously in Trincomalee, the Andaman Seas and Nicobar Islands, taking part in ‘Operation Dracula’ – invasion of Rangoon, when he celebrated his 21st birthday and notes “no tot!” Then on to Durban, Singapore, Malta, Gibraltar and finally demobilisation in May 1946. HMS Saumarez Scharnhorst 37 James Simpson James joined the HMS Devonshire in November 1942 and remained on her until 1945. HMS Devonshire provided cover for air operations by HM Aircraft Carriers against the German battleship ‘Tirpitz’ lying in Altenfjord, Norway. There were at least fifty ships in the convoys in the North Atlantic, round Iceland, Northern Norway into the Barents Sea and the Russian ports. The convoys were frequently attacked by planes and U-boats firing torpedoes at the ships night and day. James says: “We were fortunate to have overshot and crashed into the sea. There was no time to rescue them as there were other planes coming in to land. It was horrendous for all concerned.” a brilliant captain – Captain Bain, who could dodge the torpedoes and the mines. He could turn the ship on a sixpence.” “We slept in our clothes, as we were at Action Stations most of the time. We were four hours on and four hours off, but we had to be ready at all times, and we crashed down wherever we could. The waves were huge and it snowed constantly in the winter. It was bitterly cold and even the moisture on our noses froze. When ships were sunk there was great loss of life as no-one could survive in the frozen seas.” “The ‘Devonshire’ led three aircraft carriers and five destroyers. We fired 8” guns at the German batteries that were guarding the heavy water installation site in Norway, where they were experimenting with an Atomic bomb. If the Germans had been successful they would have used it to flatten Britain. On the last day of the European war we captured two German battleships that were in Copenhagen harbour. We also rounded up U-boats that were in the Atlantic. They were happy – their war was over. I was demobbed in November 1946. I was proud to have been involved in saving our country, but I wouldn’t like to do it again!” “We were thirteen times at the ‘Tirpitz’ when she was holed up in Altenfjord. Our job was to keep her in the harbour, while the aircraft carriers sent off their planes to bomb her. Some of the planes didn’t make it back; some HMS Devonshire 38 Jack Sleigh Jack joined the Royal Navy aged 18 in January 1943. From December 1943 until August 1944 he was on HMS Anson with the home fleet at Scapa Flow. Says Jack: “We (on HMS Anson) were with the Home Fleet providing distant cover. We were guarding the convoys and provided cover for them between Greenland and Iceland. At other times we patrolled between the Norway coast and the convoys. In November 1944 we heard a buzz that the Tirpitz might be coming out and we looked forward to finding her – but thank goodness! - it was just as well we didn’t for she was a formidable vessel!” “We provided the escort force for the aircraft carriers – on board were the planes that were to try to attack the Tirpitz. By then so much damage had been inflicted on the Tirpitz that she had to get back to Germany for repairs. As she neared Tromso she came within flying distance of the land-based planes - Hurricane bombers from Lossiemouth - which hit her with their huge bombs to penetrate the ship’s heavy armour. She turned turtle and we heard afterwards that knocking had been heard on her hull for some time and some German sailors were rescued through the hull.” “We had to stay there (north of Bear Island) till the weather improved and we could move down the Norway coast to attack. As we went down the Norway coast there were no signs of any German aircraft. I was sent up to the bridge to answer the phone and I counted in excess of 60 vessels, mainly British. The weather could be very rough – even on a huge battleship we suffered damage on the upper deck from the waves.” HMS Anson 39 John Turvill John joined the Merchant Navy in March 1941 as a deck apprentice and stayed at sea until 1955 with various companies, working his way up as 2nd Mate, 1st Mate and then gaining his Master Foreign-going Certificates by 1953. After losing the SS Nailsea Meadow through torpedoing off the South African coast in May 1943, John was back home by August 1943. In London he joined the SS Fort Hall, a Canadian government cargo ship on loan to the UK government, in September/October 1943. Says John: “There were four operation that had to be done throughout the trip once we had got into the heavy and bad weather.” apprentices all together. We sailed to Hull where we loaded a full cargo of military equipment, bound we knew not where, and it was only when we were issued with heavy duty clothing for inside and outside use, we thought we must be going to Russia on an Arctic convoy.” “Immediately on anchoring in Kola inlet, four destroyers of the Fleet escort were alongside us opening up the No. 2 and 4 hatches and dragging or carrying sections of depth charges for their return trip back to UK. I think we were the one convoy ahead of the one that lured out the ‘Scharnhorst’ from the North Cape for combat over Christmas and Boxing Day 1943.” The ‘Fort Hall’ was appointed Commodore Ship for their first trip to Russia on JW55A in November 1943. “We boys, aged nineteen and twenty, were on lookout watches and when on standby, we were engaged in removing the ice which formed on handrails, decks and deck machinery with a flexible steam hose and hammers. It was a pretty cold John returned to the UK on convoy RA56 (with the Vice Commodore on board), then did a further two trips to Russia and back on convoys (JW58 and RA59) on SS Fort Hall. SS Fort Hall 40 Kenneth Watson Ken joined HMS Vindex as an Ordinary Seaman aged 18 in July 1944. On 4th August 1944 Ken departed Greenock on his first convoy mission with HMS Vindex under Captain Bayliss. Ken undertook sentry duties in four-hour watches (except the dog watches, which were two-hour stints, 4-6pm and 6-8pm) and was allocated to P1 pompoms. In the lead up to the departure of Convoy JW59 Ken can remember practising on the pom-pom guns against the rocks along the Clyde. Convoy JW59 gathered at Scapa Flow. After this the ships journeyed northwards and it was Ken’s job to keep watch (180 degrees observation) and look out for enemy submarines in particular (on one occasion a whale was mistaken for a u-boat). Behind him, on the flight deck, Swordfish aircraft took off and landed. Ken recalls: “As part of my uniform and tipping up into the sea. On one occasion Ken found himself volunteering to climb over the side of the ship in a tricky manoeuvre above the sea to secure an Oerlikon gun that had come loose. I was kitted out with sea boots and furs to help counteract the cold weather. On board ship, I slept in quarters on the port forehead. Here I slept in a hammock, which had to be lashed up and stowed away when not in use. I have never slept so well as in that hammock. I was allocated to mess room 13 where we ate meals (the food was sufficient and quite good, often home made split pea soup and bacon knuckle). Here I was served a cup of rum at lunchtime (1200 hours) and played card games.” In October 1944, Ken was promoted to Able Seaman. Ken’s biggest memory of the convoys is of the severe weather conditions encountered on the return trip in January 1945 when the Vindex found itself in a hurricane. Ken says: “Everything had to be secured down and it became necessary to seal off the fresh air intakes as water came across the decks and onto the catwalks and flight deck. To this day, I have memories of the frightening mountainous seas and remain incredulous of how the Vindex managed to come through this great storm despite the heavy swell and extreme angles of tilt.” Ken returned with Convoy RA59, which departed Murmansk in August 1944. Fog and snowstorms were commonplace on the convoys; also Ken remembers witnessing the Northern Lights, which were an amazing sight with their vivid colours but added to the danger as they lit up the sky. During the winter months, the convoys travelled in darkness most of the time. Ken made three more return trips to Murmansk with the convoys JW/RA 61, JW/RA63 and JW/RA66. Ken can remember a Swordfish aircraft from the Vindex crashing into the sea with loss of life, also aircraft crashing into the barriers, coming loose or getting snagged on the wire ©Rossparry.co.uk/syndication 41 James Wilkie James joined the Royal Navy in June 1943. He trained as a telegraphist at HMS Scotia in Ayr and in HMS Valkiri in the Isle of Man. He served on HMS Duckworth, a Captain’s Class frigate on the American Lease herd project, from early 1944 for a year. James says: “Our home port was “We sank seven U-boats – two off Land’s End, one off Lizard Point, one in the Bay of Biscay, one off the Channel Islands, one off the Isle of Man and one in the Irish Sea. We sailed from Loch Ewe for Polyarno in Russia on 19th October 1944 and returned to Belfast late November 1944.” Belfast. We sailed south to the English Channel searching for U-boats. Our search pattern took in the Bay of Biscay, Eastern Atlantic, Land’s End, the Channel Islands, Western France and Northern Spain.” “We sailed for three weeks, then came in for oil for one day. This we did four times (12 weeks) after which we returned to Belfast when half the ship’s company got home leave, the other half shore leave. This we did every three months, alternating home and shore leave, for a whole year.” “After leaving HMS Duckworth in early 1945 I joined HMS Stevenstone in spring 1945. I served on this ship for a whole year, having joined her in St Catherine’s Dock, London. I received the instructions myself on the transmitter. I enjoyed my time in the Royal Navy.” “Our skipper was Captain Mills, who was senior officer of all the escort vessels.” HMS Duckworth 42 Rex Willcox Rex was on Convoy JW57 aboard the tanker Daphnella. They had been on a run from Liverpool to New York and then were loaded with a full cargo of pure grain alcohol for their trip to Russia. He was given string vests, a sheepskin waistcoat, a warm fur-collar coat, etc. Rex says: “On the way back to the UK 6 ships that went down in the White Sea. We had two icebreakers, the Stalin and the Lenin, mostly manned by some very tough / strong-looking Russian women! Due to some mishaps the pipe line we were discharging on broke, and the alcohol melted the ice which was about 3 feet thick!” we broke down in mid-Atlantic due to the white metal shoes on the thrust block of the propeller shaft melting, which I think was put down to sabotage whilst we were in New York. Sand in the lube oil? We were hove to for several hours in very bad weather, but got home safely on our own.” “Happily we had an easier trip home in April (Convoy RA58), but it was a very cold and very rough experience. I’ve nothing but admiration for those small Navy ships that protected us; many of them escorted several of the Convoys. We only went once and I can assure you that was more than enough!” They left Loch Ewe on 20th February 1944. Rex tells of his memories of that trip: “Fortunately we didn’t suffer the same fate as HMS Mahratta, thanks to all those Navy ships that protected us and the extreme weather conditions which discouraged the German aircraft in Norway taking off.” “From what I can remember of the night the Mahratta was torpedoed, several of us, (I was then a just-18-year-old Deck Apprentice) were standing in the alleyway outside the ‘Sparks’ room listening to the distress calls and description of what was happening on his radio, just listening was frightening enough! We knew the convoy was under attack by U-boats and had no idea how close they may have got. We too were aware of the time one might survive in the icy water. We figured that if we got hit, with our cargo we’d more likely go up than down!!” “It was indeed very cold and a very rough sea for most of the way. I think there were 43 George Young George (far left) and sh ipmates George Young was in 811 Squadron on HMS Vindex between 29th Sept 1944 and 9th Dec 1944. George recalls: “We did one convoy from Greenock. We were supposed to be going into Murmansk but this was not allowed as on the previous convoy one of our sailors was killed in Murmansk (we were told this happened whilst fighting with a Russian in a pub). As far as I can remember we then went back to Iceland before going back to Russia, where we stayed with three destroyers in the danger area to protect the convoys.” allowed to talk to the sailors but one soldier grabbed George and showed him a knife. Says George: “I thought that he was going to attack me but he wanted my jersey in exchange for the knife which had a really fancy handle. We did an exchange and I had the knife for years before my young son thought it would be a good idea to take the handle to bits!!!!” When in Russia they were at a transit camp where there were Russian families living in Nissan huts. George thinks this was like a rest camp for soldiers coming from the front. The Russian soldiers were not George’s role was that of deck hand and one time when they were on standby to receive aircraft he says: “I came up on the wrong side of the flight deck and had to crawl along the deck on hands and knees holding onto the trip wire as the deck was so icy.” HMS Vindex Approaching 44 the deck of th e carrier RU SSI AN ARCTIC CONVOY MUSEUM RUSSIAN ARCTIC CONVOY MUSEUM PROJECT WESTER ROSS The importance of highlighting the legacy of the World War II Russian Arctic Convoys is central to the project plans for a Russian Arctic Convoy Museum on the shores of Loch Ewe, in Aultbea, Wester Ross. Loch Ewe was where almost half of the convoys to Russia began their perilous journeys between 1941 and 1945. Over 3000 men lost their lives on the convoys and 104 ships were sunk. The Arctic Convoys of World War II were Britain’s means of sending vital supplies and war materials to Northern Russia (then part of the Soviet Union). Protected by Royal Navy warships, merchant vessels sailed from British ports to the harbours of Archangel and Murmansk. Although hazardous, this was the shortest route by which Britain could supply Russia. Keeping as far north as possible to keep out of range of the German U-boats and aircraft, the convoys hugged the limit of the ice. Because of this necessity, most of the convoys ran throughout the coldest winter months when poor visibility would give them as much cover as possible. For Prime Minister Winston Churchill, these supplies were a vital demonstration of Allied solidarity. He called the Arctic Convoys ‘the worst journey in the world’. The museum Project is a key part in the Aultbea Regeneration Plan, together with a new Community Centre, to help bring much needed employment and income potential to the area whose community gave so much to the war effort in this North West Highland anchorage for the Arctic Convoys. The aim of the project is to create a lasting legacy to all those who took part in the acts of heroism and extreme physical endurance that were the World War II Arctic Convoys. We hope to achieve this within the lifetime of the few remaining veterans. For more information about the project and how to donate to the project, go to www.russianarcticconvoymuseum.co.uk Picture copyright IWM and RACM. Edited by Leona Thomas on behalf of RACM. All images not IWM/RACM and text content used in good faith. 45