Mediterranean and European waters

A Seaman's War

The U Boat surfaced after the Fabian had sunk and assisted with medical aid giving them some food and...

Emille Baudot Part III

Other than that, we had three two-day stops at sea to do repairs to the boilers before we reached Bombay...

My War at Sea

The captain called this a 'spoof'. With the shorter days we resumed convoy work, but at night time...

HMS Barham - Scapa Flow: August 21st-24th, 1940

Before joining Vice Admiral Somerville's “H” Force in the Western Mediterranean in late...

A Night at the Opera: Life Onboard Landing Craft LST237

"First of all I sailed on The Empress of Scotland to America and by train to pick the ship up at the...

D-Day and The Gooseberry, 6th June 1944

As a coxswain of minor landing craft, the coxswain was in charge of the craft and crew which consisted...

"HMS Jason" comes under friendly fire after the D-Day landings by Thomas Jackson

Sixty years ago on August 27th 1944, I was 22 years of age, on board His Majesty's Royal Navy Ship...

HMS Barham - Back in the Mediterranean

HMS Barham — Back in the Mediterranean. After two months undergoing repairs in Durban, South Africa,...

Airborne: Memories of an RAF Navigator/Radio Operator

We had been airborne at extremely low level over the North Sea for 1.5-2 hours with the pigeon in a...

The Calm Before the Storm

Imagine also a fleet of ships consisting of Battleships, Cruisers, Destroyers and an Aircraft Carrier, all...

HMS Hardy, Torpedoed On My Birthday

A Norwegian destroyer cut the u boat that attacked us in half. The Norwegian destroyer came with us into...

EYE WITNESS ON FIREDRAKE, THE BOARDING AND CAPTURE OF A DUTCH TRADER (SALLY MERSK) AND THE PASSENGER SHIP “ CHANTILLY “ A FREN

The Chantilly was carrying some French troops we subsequently found out and the Dutch trader was carrying...

Minna 1942-45

At the beginning of the war I had joined the R.N.V.R. and when in 1942 the “Dunnottar Castle”...

HMS Barham - Bombardment of Bardia, 1941

The Italians are being hammered now in the Western desert as well as in Albania, and it seems that the...

Travelling to and from East Africa in Wartime

In the second World War I travelled twice by sea as a civilian to and from East Africa where my husband was...

Three Ex-Servicemen Reminisce

He was to take it to Brize Norton into RAF service and was being towed by a Sterling bomber... It grew dark...

David Ritchie of HMS Baraham

At the beginning of World War II, David Ritchie's ship HMS Barham was recalled from the Mediterranean...

James Glew, Sapper, 1st Division, Pantalleria

JAMES GLEW, Sapper, 248 Field Company, Royal Engineers Pantelleria Now that the whole of North Africa was...

Maritime Royal Artillery Gunner

I joined the Maritime Royal Artillery as a gunner on August 28 1943....

My Life Story as Told to Pupils at Longford Primary School

I then joined the Gloucester city to Canada and back this was not too bad we watched ships being towed into...

Dunkirk 1940

At the time of Dunkirk my father, Fred Wilkinson ERA, MX48140, was under training at H.M.S. Dolphin, the...

My Naval War in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean

My first ship was the HMS Carinthia, which I joined in Plymouth in1939 my rank was Petty Officer. We landed...

Aboard L.C.G.(M) 1944/1945

Two of us from signals were chosen to become part of a 22 man crew for a major landing craft built at...

Hell Fire Corner

Suddenly a light blinked from the cliffs and a message came from the Vice Admiral at Dover telling us we...

Bill Sanderson's Wartime Experiences -Part 5 - The End of the War

When we got back to Naples the troopship that took us back was the Caernarfon Castle, one of the...

EYE WITNESS ON FIREDRAKE, BATTLE OF SPARTIVENTO—OPERATION COLLAR

The events unfolded in a planned way and involved Battleships, Cruisers, Destroyers, the Ark Royal aircraft...