91�ȱ�

A WAR TIME LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVE

I was born in 1916, and served my time as a Machine Tool Fitter at Archdale’s in Worcester. When the war started, my work was classified as a ‘reserved occupation’, so I wasn’t called up.

I remember coming home from work about the middle of 1942, and I saw a terrific glow in the sky to the North-East — it was Coventry being blitzed. I really felt “I wasn’t doing my bit”, so I volunteered, and joined the Royal Navy as an E.R.A. (Engine Room Artificer). We trained at HMS Drake, a shore station at Plymouth. I was then made up to a P.O (Petty Officer), and subsequently C.P.O. (Chief Petty Officer).

For some time I was based on the repair ship H.M.S. Lancashire and then transferred to Liverpool.

A big fleet was mustering — this was some time in 1943, and we learnt that we were sailing for Gibraltar. We were allocated hammocks. The ship was very crowded, and the sea was choppy. The Master at Arms (equivalent to a Sergeant Major), told me to eat two breakfasts. “Why?” I asked “Well” he said “With this sort of weather, a lot of chaps won’t want anything!” My word, they were lining up at the ship’s rail, heaving away!

From Gibraltar, we went to Port Said, and down the Suez Canal. We knew we were being watched because the Arabs chased us all the way down the canal. After refuelling at Aden, we sailed for Bombay. I had a few days leave at Minah Camp and on the way back to the docks, saw elephants walking in the streets. What a surprise that was, and then we moved on to Sydney via Colombo.

There were 3 or 4 weeks training at the shore based repair centre. ‘The Golden Hind” in Sydney, then onto the destroyer ‘Norma’ and H.M.S. ‘Artifex’ — which was a floating workshop.

With the war in its last year we steamed up to the Admiralty Islands on H.M.S. ‘Chaser’ — a back-up Aircraft Carrier. We repaired lots of ships — H.M.S. ‘Corsair’, ‘Firefly’, ‘Speaker’ and ‘Arbiter’.

The next big job was to make good the damage to a floating repair dock. What a job that was — it took us 14 hours. We had to clean the valve ports and the engines — Petter engines they were called — and they had to be kept up to scratch. Men had to go into the bowels of the ship to do this
It was so hot down there, that they could only work 20 minutes at a time, dressed in shorts and vests.

Once we were resting on the deck, and we saw a Japanese Kamikaze aeroplane coming towards us, so we all jumped into the sea. Didn’t we get a roasting! The Commander said we could all have been eaten by sharks!

Back to Sydney we went, and then steamed to the Philippines — until we were 20 miles off the Japan. One day we saw bits flying in the air and a huge mushroom cloud — it was the Atom Bomb.

At the end we were transferred to Hong Kong to help to repair things like generators and the like, and the Hong Kong Tramway system.

I finished up at the shore station, ‘Tamar’, and was demobilized in 1947.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by June Woodhouse of the CSV Action Desk at 91�ȱ� Hereford and Worcester on behalf of John Hewlett and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions

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