As a child, I'd been nurtured on tales of German atrocities in Belgium and the glories of Jutland, the...
We who had arrived the night before were still in our ‘civvies '. The dining hall was hung with...
So I and my chum Roy Lockwood from Denby Dale were duly elected. We, the condemned, wore gym shoes,...
We wore khaki gaiters over the ankles, Khaki webbing belts and sometimes, the Khaki bandoleers peculiar to...
We didn't know it then, but it was goodbye forever for they were to die not long after when HMS...
The "Gut", was one of the streets falling steeply down to Grand harbour where we were anchored,...
My first impression of the boiler room was of its size, six great Babcox and Wilcox water tube boilers back...
France had surrendered after being stabbed in the back by Italy, and now it posed problems for us, a...
Ramillies sailed as force D, comprising the heavy cruisers HMS Berwick, mounting 8" guns, HMS Newcastle...
No one had said anything about an air raid and I'd listened to no news, but as I made my way to...
His little office was situated right in the centre amid ships a bit aft of the stokers' mess deck and a...
Now we were to spend long weeks at sea, long grey weeks, grey seas, grey skies and heaving monotonous...
Being a stoker I could imagine the feelings of dread, being down below in the boiler room and engine room...
Down on the mess deck seemed a different world from the darkness ashore, the radio playing and the hubbub...
It was used in condensers and evaporators to produce a supply of distilled water, for re-use in the boilers...
At stand easy I popped up to the upper deck with my "cuppa" and a seaman standing near, having a...
But it was really a home for girls from out of the town, whose work was in Durban... I'd much rather...
The old “Hermes” carrier lay there, along with cruisers and destroyers. The loss of the...
April 4th, 1942 and news had come through of an enemy carrier foresighted by a Cataliner flying boat, four...
You can shut the b****** now the pump's under water, so it's no use,” I told him, whereupon I...
A notice on the ships notice board gave a list of places in Natal where we could choose to go, so I...
That was when I danced with Alec's wife and I was glad I had gone. Most of my off duty hours were...
I'd sailed in the Ramillies in the North and South Atlantic, the Mediterranean, been in the Battle of...
It meant plenty of the blue label down the hatch as well, and all those Geordie birds Jack said took a...
The steel ladder from the seamen's mess deck above had a steel chain as a steadying agent - important...
We had to answer the alarm rattlers by an immediate response, gun crews closed up, damage control and fire...
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