IN AT THE BIRTH...........IN AT THE DEATH

Article submitted to the BBC.co.uk/ww2 website in May/June 2004 by Bryan Bayley of 19, Ivybridge Road, Coventry CV3 5PF (Phone 02476 412109) (e-mail bbayley@supanet.com)

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IN AT THE BIRTH… …IN AT THE DEATH

Bill Moss, who lives in Middlewich, is my half brother and he served as a Stoker on HMS Prince of Wales, the last battleship to join His Majesty’s fleet. Bill’s life has been greatly influenced by his love of football, his family, and the comradeship he found with the surviving members of the crew of ‘his ship’.

The first time he boarded the Prince of Wales was when she was being built and fitted out in the dockyard at Birkenhead, but was not yet launched and commissioned. As a Stoker, Bill was proud to have been assigned to such a great ship and boarding her before it was launched was like being IN AT THE BIRTH OF THE SHIP ITSELF.

KEY MAN
Bill had been selected to be a “key man” member of the crew. This meant he was to board and take a detailed tour of the ship and thoroughly familiarise himself with its general layout. This was a special assignment, and an opportunity to get to know the total layout of the ship. Later, in the heat of battle, this proved to be a Godsend, and no doubt saved Bill’s life.

The following narrative is a brief story told in Bill’s own words as he told it to his brothers nearly sixty years after it happened. It is a story he had never before related, but he still has clear memories of that time.

Bill has approved this record, and its submission is as requested in a recent BBC/television programme dealing with the naval involvement during the war in the Mediterranean Sea.

BILL’S STORY

“As a boy and later as a young man of 21, I believed I would never drown because I was born with a veil (or thin membrane) covering my face. This was a belief held by sailors in particular, and they would pay a lot of money just to own one of these veils. I had mine with me when I went into the navy and kept it in a small pouch, but lost it with all my other possessions when the Prince of Wales went down. Nevertheless, I remained quite confident I would never drown, and that was one thought I always clung to during my service in His Majesty’s Royal Navy.
THE Z FORCE

“In December 1941 a flotilla of six ships, which became known as the Z FORCE, had been assigned to duty in the Far East to help bolster British forces in that sphere. Z FORCE consisted of the battleship flagship of the flotilla H.M.S. PRINCE OF WALES, H.M.S. REPULSE a battle cruiser, and four supporting destroyers, His Majesty’s Ships ELECTRA, EXPRESS, TENEDOS and H.M.Australian Ship VAMPIRE.

“When we arrived in Singapore things seemed fairly quiet, but when the Japanese came into the war things changed dramatically for us. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour took place when we were on boiler cleaning duty, and suddenly everything had to be put back and we had orders to proceed up the eastern side of the Malay peninsular into the Bay of Siam (Thailand) to support our land forces there. It was rumoured that the Japanese army had commenced a landing further down the coast south of their main invading army, but this later turned out to be false information. Nevertheless, our Captain decided to turn back towards Singapore, even though we had no proper aircraft cover, which we should have had. We realise today it was foolhardy to go without such cover to spot for us and help protect us from the air. It was a lesson we should have learned in the Falklands war.

THE JAPANESE AIR ATTACK.

“Our Walrus amphibious spotter plane had been sent up but had found nothing, but as history tells, the planes of the Japanese air force spotted us, and without any prior warning, a great number of Japanese planes suddenly appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and attacked the ships in our flotilla. The Japanese planes started to bomb us, but as we soon discovered, they also had many torpedo-bombers and they hit us with quite a few of their torpedoes, just as they had done to the American fleet at Pearl Harbour three days before. They hit the Prince of Wales and slowed us down, and then they turned to finish off the damaged Repulse. As they sank the Repulse, we slowed down a bit more, a thing that we never should have done. But anyway, we did, and that was a thing in war that should never have been contemplated. It is generally acknowledged you don’t slow down to pick up anyone if there is immediate danger to your own ship.

“I was below decks when one torpedo hit on the port side and it seemed as though it flooded the engine room on that side. I was below the armoured decking and of course, eventually all the communications got knocked out. Chief Mech. Matthews who was in charge of us in Damage Control decided to send a couple of us up on to the upper deck to see what was going on. We were below an armoured deck, which had to be wound up by a winch, which meant one seaman could not get out single-handed. So my mate Di Exeter and myself wound up this winch and crawled through. Di, who was a footballer as well as me, and was on Charlton Athletic’s books, went up with me onto the upper deck where there was a great deal of commotion, I think it was then that we saw that a shell or a bomb had gone right through the boat deck and ruined it. I was not sure what hit us, but it certainly had made a bit of a mess.

“So, we went down below decks again and reported. Later, Chief Mech. Matthews asked us to go up again and report what was happening. “I’ll see that you lads are recommended for this”, he said. So we went up again, but this time, it was different altogether. When we got up there, everything was at panic stations. We were amid-ships, by the hanger of the Walrus spotter plane and the point where the Walrus took off by the flight deck. Suddenly, one of the crew came running across and shouted a warning the Japanese were coming again. So I said to Di “Come on, let us get below quick!”, but he wouldn’t come with me. Perhaps he was reluctant to go below in case he got caught beneath the armour deck if the ship went down.
“So, I then went down below alone, and he made for shelter in the Walrus’s hanger. Just as he did, a stick of bombs dropped right on the catapult deck. I think poor old Di must have got the direct blast from them, and he must have got killed there and then. When I got down below I found all was chaotic, because there were clouds of what seemed like sulphurous dust filling the air and you couldn’t see a thing. Everyone there was at panic stations trying to get up onto the upper deck, and in this panic I got knocked flying by a Chief Stoker. When I got my wind back, I decided to go to the other side of the ship. I knew the ship pretty well from my training as a key man as I was on the ship before it was fully built, and it was then that I got to know my way about. But now, I couldn’t see anything because of all this sulphur-like dust, and although I had a torch, I couldn’t see more than two yards. As I really couldn’t see anything at all, I threw the torch away as it wasn’t a bit of good to me. Then I thought I had reached the other side. But what it was, the upper deck had split open and there was about a 10inch gap through which I could see what I thought was the upper deck. I had to make a bit more progress, but was hindered by one of the large green marine lockers, which were in the passageway. One had fallen down so I picked it up with strength, which I didn’t really know I had. So I crawled underneath the locker and went across to the other side, but I still couldn’t see a thing. I was like a blind man actually. However, I eventually got to the other side and then found out there are two archways there, and turning to the left, I felt this rail, and I thought “Oh, my word, this is the marine mess deck”, because this was the rail in which the marines stowed all their hammocks. So I turned round and found my way to the other archway, and when I looked up I saw the ladder which I was hoping to go up was broken and was dangling loose. I thought, “My God, how am I going to get up there?”. But of course, I was pretty athletic and only young, being only 21 and an active sort of person, and I managed to jump up and hold on to this ladder and climb up. I don’t know how I got through really, but eventually I got to the top and got out. I stood there for a minute or two then went to the “Abandon Ship” Station as the ship was pretty well under water at the back end by this time. Whilst I stood there by this 5.25 gun turret, I said to a nearby sailor “I think they are going to abandon ship”. “Oh,” he said, “We’ll be alright here” and I thought, “That is no use to me”. Then I saw this hand come up through the crack, which I had thought, was the other side. So I went down and I shouted through this split where I’d come up. But I never saw anybody else come through nor heard any response to my shout.

INTO THE SEA — PRIOR TO RESCUE

“So I went back on the gun turret, and I saw there was a commotion at the back on the quarterdeck, and I decided to go down there. As I started to make my way, a sailor ran past me, and it was as though the skin on his back was peeled right off. He had been hit and was running with shock. I did not know where he was going and I don’t think he knew either — he just vanished.

“Any way I went on the Quarterdeck and a Lieutenant Wildish and three or four seamen were trying to lift one of the Carley Floats into the water to carry this sailor who had been hit and who had blown up like a balloon. I had never seen anyone swell so much. So the Lieutenant said to me “Come over and give us a hand”, which I did. But unfortunately, when we had lifted the float over the side, the ship continued going along in the water - which we had not realised because it didn’t look as though it was moving. And as the Carley Float shot away he yelled “Hold it back!” and I went straight over the side, never having thought a thing about it, and was swept away. I eventually reached the Carley Float and Lt. Wildish and the other sailors came after me. When we eventually got on the Float, which was pretty big and would hold about a dozen sailors, one end of it was sinking a bit and within five minutes, Lt Wildish was organising water rations. The float must have got punctured as it was sinking a little at one end and he said, “Well, all of us can’t stop on this.” So me and another lad went over the side and hung on to the float. Then he said “There’s a cork mattress floating down, can you try and get to it?” We saw this mattress, which was quite a distance away and without more thought I started to swim after it. I had been swimming quite a lot in the baths at Singapore before we left port and it never occurred to me now that my feet could not reach the bottom!

“But anyway I swam over to the mattress and eventually managed to get on it, which was a bit awkward. There was no paddle with the mattress, so any paddling that was needed had to be done with bare hands.

IN AT THE DEATH OF A MIGHTY BATTLESHIP

“By this time the ship was about a mile away, as it was still afloat and had continued going away from us. Then I saw the Prince of Wales going down - stern first. I had a good side view of it and the bow seemed to have a massive hole right through the middle and it seemed to be as clean as a whistle as though a torpedo had smashed clean through. And then, of course, I saw the Prince of Wales sink right down and it was as though I was in at the death of this mighty ship.

“As I observed all that was happening to the ship, time was passing and I eventually swam over to the Carley float and tied it to the mattress. One or two of us stayed on this mattress, and after what seemed an eternity, a rescue boat from the Electra came and picked us up.

“While some of the men got into the boat the rest of us automatically got onto the Carley float from the cork mattress. The coxswain tied the float to the rescue boat and started to tow it along. This was OK but as it was being pulled along, the cork mattress kept shooting up into the air, and the coxswain said, “Can somebody get on to the mattress and hold it down”. So, I jumped on it, but I was being propelled up and down all the time as I was being towed along.

A SOAKING IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE

“We eventually got alongside the Electra, but the steps on Electra were covered with fuel oil, and as I was climbing them, I slipped back into the drink again. But this time I came up absolutely covered with fuel oil and really was in a terrible mess. One of the sailors helping us up said “Come on, mate” and we were taken into one of the mess decks, where they dished out a good ration of rum to each of us who had been saved from the sea.

“By this time I was absolutely exhausted so I lifted the cover off one of the Electra’s lifeboats and climbed in. As I had had so much rum, I straightway fell fast asleep.

When I woke up, there wasn’t a soul about and we were tied up. So I walked down the gangplank and came to a building where there was a crowd of sailors. As I went towards them, one of my pals, Steve, called out my name “Willy!!”. (He always called me that) and he put his arm round me and said, “Come on Willy". Have you had any rum?” and I replied, “No, I’ve had nothing”, and he said he would get me some.
“And he brought me another large ration of rum which meant another good soaking !
I remember asking Steve if he had seen Reg Whittingham, because Reg and I grew up together and I believed he was on the Prince of Wales. I knew his family would ask about him if I got home before him, but it’s a funny thing, I cannot remember ever seeing him on the ship. But Steve told me he was OK.

HELP FROM AN UNEXPECTED SOURCE.

“But going back to what happened on the ship itself, there was something I once mentioned to Bryan my youngest brother, but which I had never before mentioned to anybody else. And that was when I got into difficulties lifting up the heavy locker I mentioned above, even then I wasn’t frightened, but I was bothered. But I didn’t ask for God to save me, but I asked for help from my Mother, who was a strong and cheerful character. But my silent cry for help was unusual because I was never brought up with my Mother but was brought up with my grandparents.

“Like many others before me, when I was so desperately in need of help, I asked for my Mother. And it was though over the miles, she lent me her added strength to help lift the locker, which was blocking my path. To this day, I don’t know what made me say what I said, but it has always stuck in my mind.

CONCLUSION.
“ Well, eventually we got back to Singapore and we had to go through the procedures of giving our names and so forth, and there, they gave us another good ration of rum! So by the time that procedure was over, we were again “well soaked”.

But now I felt safe — at least for the time being”.

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