North Atlantic and Arctic

Naval Service, "E-Boat Alley"

I was called up to Naval Service from my teaching post with Essex evacuees in the Forest of Dean. I was...

His Majesty's Rescue Tug: Mr Bray

I viewed a documentary on Channel 4 concerning lease-lend ships built in USA by KHISER Shipyards and...

Convoys to Murmansk

They had the dive bombers on the Norwegian coast, and they had the submarine packs at the exit of the...

War Memories of Frederick Oliver of Hull

War Memories of Frederick Oliver of Hull...

Human Flotsam

Icy water having quickly neutralised leg muscle tone, the only things sustaining blood pressure were...

Sinking of a U-boat

The Pilot I was assigned to had already sunk a U-boat, when I joined the crew in Iceland. We got there and...

Imperial Airways & Naval Tour of Duty

Len Kitchen haslived in Hinckley for the past 25 years but during the war years he spent time in the South...

Swept Overboard

I was resident ‘Sparks’ on board His Majesty's Escort Trawler ‘BRIMNES’....

The Loss of a Ship: Ramming of HMS Curacao by the Queen Mary

The date was the 2nd October 1942,I was serving on the H.M.S.Saladin,one of the very old British destroyers...

Sailor's Odyssey

On completion of training I joined the Royal Naval Patrol Service base at H.M.S. Europa, and then in...

From Schoolboy to Sailor!

I then did a gunnery course at HMS Excellent and my first ship was a newly-built corvette, HMS Banborough...

Evacuee's Letter Home

The 2 boys are now in bed, eight o'clock, having wandered round the deck ship etc. By the bicycles that...

Saved by a Pigeon: The Story of White Vision

Part of RAF Coastal Command operated from the Shetland Islands, using Catalinas to patrol the northern sea...

Fred Bailey-From Teacher to Mine Sweeper.

Fred Bailey-From Teacher to Mine Sweeper. From Teacher to Mine Sweeper....

Torpedoed twice in a row - Just our luck!

Three of us managed to get out of the cabin. We got Tom to the boats, then the second torpedo hit... We...

Endeavour and Glorious

PoW" and "HMS Repulse" were sunk by the Japanese airforce as the two great warships steamed to...

Russian Convoy Horrors

The corvette was maneuvering frantically to rescue drowning Russian seamen from the freezing ocean while...

Contraband Control and Minesweepers.

This consisted of a small drifter which carried two officers out to ships coming into Liverpool, Holyhead...

The Perils of the Gibraltar Convoy Route

At 8.00am on 27th September Captain Klemp and Mr Woodhouse, Chief Officer of the SS Lapwing, decided that...

The Other Navy

Despite suffering great hardships, and frequently coming under fire, ex-merchant Navy men can join the...

My Career and the "Head" Line

Each and every ship that the Head Line had, they went round the coast, and if you went round the coast you...

Tribute to an Unknown Shipmate.

I then joined HMS Lagan in Londonderry to do a minimum of 3 months sea time before going to HMS King Arthur...

Worldwide Cadetship

We were in a "fast convoy", 12 knots, Halifax to U.K. There were 100 ships in the convoy and one...

My Father the Hero

The badly damaged Wyvern was towed for more than 12 hours from the Mediterranean to Gibraltar where my...

My wartime service in the Merchant Navy and the Royal Navy by William McGregor

I signed up in the Navy as a T124 rating for two years in an ardent merchant cruiser, "HMS...

Lost at Sea

Dave Castle- Lost at Sea. When I reached the gun deck, Dave Castle was sitting on the seat behind the gun...