Minesweeping in the Med and subs surrender in Derry

James McClarence
This story is taken from an interview with James McClarence, and has been added to the site with their permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interview was by Deirdre Donnelly, and transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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I was on a Canadian-built minesweeper.
We were out in the Med, sweeping up mines long after the war. It took 6 months to sweep 1 minefield between Cape Horn and Bezerta.
There was a ship behind, and when we brought up the mine they shot with an armour-piercing shell. You had fish for dinner!

It took 2 hours to do a sweep, then come round. There were 6 ships in a flotilla. The ship in front laid buoys down.

There were over 100 boats in derry at one time. So many troops here. When I arrived it was unbelievable. That was on HMS ferret. HMS Sea Eagle was later, after the war ended.

I joined in 43. I arrived in Warrington, mid-Lancashire, at 4am.
“Excuse me, could you tell me where HMS Gosling is?”
I got on the bus, he told me “stay on the bus and I’ll fix you”.
There were 4 camps in the county. I had to find my way to the right one.

It took me half an hour to find the mess. It was a maze.

There was a camp called St Butto, on top of a hill with no hot water
I enjoyed it. Make a man of you. They should have kept National Service on!
I must have been here 9-10 months.

I was on a farm. A barn was taken over for a cold storage barn, where all frozen food was kept for all the ships. I left there, on to Malta.
I didn’t go direct, I took a banana boat — a merchant ship with a flight deck on it. In the Bay of Biscay there were 50 brand new planes on the deck. We shoved them overboard. They were American. They weren’t going to be used again.

There’s a dump here. The Americans and Canadians had huge supplies here. A tank went up and down and destroyed everything. Thousands of pounds of stuff at the end of the war. Bikes, cars …

I was on the jetty when the first sub came up to lisahally in Derry. RN frigate, then a sub, a USN frigate, a sub, a Dutch one … They kept the POWs here. It was unbelievable.

There’s another story about Londonderry. There were 12 hi-speed launches coming here from USA, manned by Russians. The oil was contaminated with water, so we had to take the stuff off. Raw fish and vodka. Lt Cmdr Dick Burn was in charge. He said “ look what you’re doing” — I bent down, was knocked on my face, drunk.

I went to Malta. It was very interesting.

I went to a pub called Tommy Donnellys. It shut at 10pm.
The wife went into the pub with us. “That’s me ma outside!”

On our way home it was Medlock Draft — Army, RN, RAF combined.
Travelling through France for 24 hours, 8 to a carriage, fed twice by German POWs.
At Calais it went over the tannoy, “Anybody caught with weapons and contraband will be searched.”
You never saw as many guns and bayonets thrown over the side! We weren’t even searched.

There was one story abut a sliding door at the dance hall. Yer man tried to keep the door shut, so they hit him. The father-in-law got the Patrol. They made him pick the man out who hit him. The father-in-law hit him such a thump.

Every Saturday night, when I wasn’t on duty I went across the border. There was no bother at all.
There was a pub in Londonderry. Tommy Dolan’s, where the wife lived in the Bogside.We got married after the war.I’ve been here since 1948, I have no regrets!

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