North Atlantic and Arctic

A Slice of Autobiography (1939 to 1946) — Part 4

The foc'sle hands were standing in the bows, with heaving lines; the Petty Officer was by the steam...

Tukey's Story

Another incident was when we were doing repairs that were needed; we were in the open ended hangers and a...

Dad's Diary -Part 1 of 2

Eventually however Glasgow was reached, across to Central Station and down via Caledonian to East Kilbride....

Malta Convoy - Chapter 7

In sunny spells Coates and I, with others from the fo'c'sle messes on the Manchester, would...

War Diary of John Dolphin JUNE 1942 - SEPT 1943 on HMS QUEENBOROUGH

In ” John Brown's Docks after 4 days on Depot Ship “CARRICK”. I was drafted on board...

George and William Acton, Merchant Seamen with the SS Empire Leopard

George and Billy Acton's parents were John and Evelyn Acton and they lived at 93 George Street,...

Wartime Memories

Our only serious loss was the destroyer “HMS Matabele”, she was hit by a torpedo fired from a...

The Old Dunstablian Who Never Became An Admiral

Finally reaching HMS Pembroke i.e. Chatham, the first sailors I met were the survivors from HMS Goodall...

Ronald Edgar Remfry in Canada, 1941-43

This was ascribed to the fact that we came from places much nearer to sea-level than where we were in...

Corvette commander on North Atlantic anti submarine duty - part 4

"Whilst in command of HMS Kenilworth Castle the ship was attached to a group commanded by Commander D....

Some Christmas's Remembered - 1942, 43, 44 and 45

Christmas 1943 out ship, a 10,000 ton merchantman named "The Empire Spartan" had come into London...

Angus Bannerman Robertson and the Battle of the Atlantic

The war at sea, especially in the Atlantic, was just beginning to take its terrible toll on our merchant...

Corvette commander on North Atlantic anti submarine duty - part 3

The first of the two submarines sunk by the groups to which Kenilworth Castle was attached was in the North...

The Russian Convoys - Part 2

Christmas Day, the German Battlecruiser Scharnhorst was at her anchorage in Lang Fjord, an offshoot of...

War Year Memoirs -Part 3

The rest period at H.M.S. Asbury was soon negated by the poor conditions and rough weather, so it was with...

PQ16 - Chapter 1

Consequently three ships were constructed which were fitted with special heavy-lift derricks, and these...

PQ16 - Chapter 2

'Jerry' now thought it was time to visit this place, and for the first time since the beginning of...

PQ16 - Chapter 3

We left Murmansk to go down the river to the jetty near to the aerodrome and naval base on the evening of...

PQ16 - Chapter 4

This was also the day that the Chief Officer was suspended from duty by the Ministry of War Transport, and...

The Memoirs of Walter Douglas Thain 1918-2001 Part 2 of 4

They used to combine high level bombing by the Italians with low-level dive-bombing by the Germans... It...

Memoirs of Lieutenant IGN Lindsay 1939-1940

It seems he was either 1 of the 2 silhouettes shown on the well-known bit of footage of a boat approaching...

A Diary of a Russian Convoy

The Aircraft Carrier releases some Hurricane's and they speed away to intercept the Germans but...

My Dad's War

Malcolm MacAskill and Willie MacKay saw the boat coming to the sands. The submarine that torpedoed the...

The Russian Convoys - Part 1

I was third Radio Officer; it was my second vessel since joining the Merchant Navy. It was made up of...

Memories of a Lovely Lady

This was the first use of the new German radio controlled bomb and with hits on one battleship and one...

A Slice of Autobiography (1939 to 1946) — Part 5

Turnkey hamstrung". Not long afterwards: "Turnkey staggered". I think someone on the Bridge...

Sinking of the Bismarck

Rodney turned away and came round to the Southward of the enemy, closing in as time went on to 1500 yards...

War Year Memoirs -Part 4

A group of us were standing by the Starboard Depth charge thrower and looking down saw a young seaman...