Wartime experiences of John Leslie Carter - from schoolboy to sailor. Part 5

On 7th May we received sailing orders to proceed North, We left Great Yarmouth on the morning of
the 8th May, VE day and arrived at Immingham a few hours later, the King had ordered the Navy to “splice the main brace” so we enjoyed an extra tot of rum. Unfortunately I was duty watch so I never made it ashore that day to celebrate. The next day we left for Blyth in Northumberland, it being my 21st
birthday I was determined to celebrate which I did. Our next stop was Aberdeen and from there it was on to Lerwick in the Shetlands. During the war a Norwegian MTB flotilla had been based there making
frequent trips to the Norwegian fiords. We along with several other boats from our flotilla were to accompany the Norwegian boats to Norway on a liberation mission. Because there would be no
opportunity of refuelling in Norway we had to carry an extra 1000 gallons of high octane fuel on deck in jerricans, it would have made a spectacular sight had we caught fire!. As we crossed the North Sea the fuel was emptied into the tanks and the jerricans ditched overboard leaving a trail behind us. We arrived off the Norwegian coast just before dawn an awe inspiring sight and not a little scary as we had no idea whether the German forts were still manned and hostile. Travelling the fiords we met several German barges still going about their business and who dipped their ensigns in salute as we passed. Arriving at Bergen we found several more British vessels including a cruiser and several destroyers. A large number of released Russian prisoners of war were in the city who insisted on saluting us despite our non commissioned status! The people of Bergen could not do enough for us taking us into their homes and plying us with drinks despite the severe privations they were suffering. Three days later we set off back to Lerwick in company with two Norwegian boats whose crews wanted to put into a village a few miles from Bergen presumably to visit relatives of some of the crew. It was a sunny day and we were allowed ashore. I and some shipmates walked along a path close to the shore when suddenly there was a loud explosion and looking back we saw two bodies being blown into the air. We immediately returned to our boat where a roll call was made revealing two missing. Four of us together with the 1st Lieutenant made our way to the scene of the explosion and recovered the two bodies. There were notices about saying “achtung minen” but it appeared the two had gone up to a building which may have been booby trapped, a complete waste of young lives when the war in Europe was over. What had been previously a happy trip changed completely as we carried our two shipmates on deck back to Lerwick. We remained there a few more days burying the two men at the cemetery overlooking the Bressay Sound.
Returning to Great Yarmouth we remained there a short while but the base was being rapidly run down so we left for Hornet at Gosport. Early in June we took on board the local press and proceeded into the Solent to meet three “E” Boats still manned by German crews and escorted by six 70ft MTBs. The German boats were considerably faster than our boat being powered by three 3000 HP diesel engines.
We had the opportunity of going aboard one of them, although they were fast, in excess of 40 knots, they were much more lightly armed and the crews slept ashore as there was no sleeping accommodation.
The war in Europe had been over for more than a month and people were starting to take holidays by the sea for the first time in nearly six years and it was decided that our boat and a sister boat would visit various holiday resorts to show the flag. We made our way first to the Channel Islands which had only been liberated about six weeks. St Peter Port, Guernsey was our first call where it was almost impossible to find a pint of beer. Next to St Helier, Jersey where unfortunately young women who had allegedly been friendly with German servicemen were having their heads shaved. Our last call was to Sark where we could only get our bows into the harbour but the Dame managed to come on board. Next we went to Poole which had been a coastal force base, whilst there we sailed round to Bournemouth and anchored off the pier allowing the public to visit us by coming out in boats. After leaving Poole we called in at Lulworth Cove, it was a hot sunny day, the water in the cove was clear blue and some of us took the opportunity to swim, meanwhile the public were ferried out by boat. On our way west we called at Weymouth and Falmouth finally reaching St Mary’s in the Scilly Isles. A visit to Tresco was arranged with a tour of the beautiful gardens. On our return trip we called at Penzance and then Dartmouth, a number of us went ashore and ended up in Torquay. After an evening in a pub we got news that the war in the Far East was ending and that the following day would be VJ day. We met up with some locals and adjourned to a house where we partied all night, returning to Dartmouth on the first train in the morning. From Dartmouth we returned to HMS Hornet at Gosport our summer cruise over. During this time many countries in Western Europe were suffering terrible privation and in Far East war was still raging but I don’t think we realised how much other people were suffering. Life on board was very insular. We rarely saw a newspaper or heard the news since there were no radios on aboard. Even when we were in Ostend and not that far from the Battle of the Bulge I do not remember hearing anything about it.
Once back in Gosport there was not much for us to do and life settled into a rather dull routine except that when we went ashore we used to take over the back room at a pub for a really vocal evening! One of my shipmates who lived in Maldon in Essex arranged to meet me in London to show me round the bright spots, We met up in the West End and first went to see Phylis Dixie in “Peek a Boo” a rather saucy striptease revue, this was followed by lunch at Gennaros restaurant in Soho then on to the Windmill Theatre for more striptease! We finished the day visiting a very dubious club in Soho. My education had been considerably advanced although by today’s standards it was pretty innocuous.
In October 1945 we paid off 2011, by and large she had been a happy ship and certainly the time spent aboard her had been the happiest of my time in the Navy. For the next three and half months we were based ashore in Hornet, I have no recollection of what we did during this period though I remember most of us were longing for demob, we were all allocated numbers according to our length of service, my number was 48 so clearly I had quite a time to wait.
At the end of January 1946 what was left of the old 2011 crew commissioned a new Camper & Nicholson boat HMMTB 2016 with a new skipper, but it was not the same as our last boat, many of us were anticipating demob and spent some of our time attending a course in Portsmouth to prepare us for return to civvy street. Finally on 29th March 1946 I left the boat for good, went on leave for a few days before returning to a base in Portsmouth which was being used for demobilisation, there we were issued with a civvy suit, an overcoat, a trilby hat and shoes and a railway pass home. I was a civilian once more with a £50 gratuity and three war service medals to show for my three and a half years service in the Royal Navy. The war was over for me, when it started I was a 15 year old schoolboy, by the time I left the Navy I was a few weeks short of my 22nd birthday. Like many others must I wonder what differences in my life there might have been if the war had not have happened. One thing I did learn was how to adapt to changed circumstances from life in a public school to that on the lower deck in the Navy. Two of my cousins who were brothers and members of RAF Bomber Command were killed in raids over Germany and one of my best friends at school was killed along with 118 others when a V1flying bomb fell on the Guards Chapel during a service in June 1944.
As postscript in the summer of 1947 along with five friends I went for a holiday to the Carlyon Bay Hotel, which had returned to its former status. In 2004 I returned to Lerwick to visit the graves of the two shipmates killed in Norway. After which I crossed to Bergen and there met an old boatman who remembered the Royal Navy’s liberation of their city in 1945 and who showed me the German “U” Boat pens which still remain.

Footnote:- At the commencement of the war the Royal Navy had only 18 MTBs in its light coastal forces. By the end of the war 3200 boats had been built comprising, motor torpedo boats, motor gunboats, motor launches and steam gunboats and a total of 290 boats were lost. Apart from the seven steam gunboats all the boats were of wooden construction, mostly mahogany and many were converted into houseboats when the war ended. Coastal Force craft served in every theatre of war.

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