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Sailor:
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Able Seaman
Ray Daniel |
Date:
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June
6th 1944 |
Location:
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Coast
of Normandy, France |
Unit: |
Royal Navy H.M.S. Rodney |
I remember when my school-days ended and I left
Wick Road Senior Boys' School in July 1939, 'War' was imminent and
I was so disappointed that the 'Exhibition Of School Work' had been
cancelled. I was fourteen years old; some of my schoolwork had been
due to be on show at the exhibition and this could have helped me
find a good employer. War with Germany was declared on September
3rd. 1939. The B.B.C. were moving a lot of staff to Bristol from
London as they thought it would be safer to make radio broadcasts
from mere. They had a vacancy for a 'Page Boy' so I was sent along
for an interview and got the job.
The boys worked under the control of the Commissionaires
in the entrance hall of the building, so I saw many of the stars
of the radio programmes. To name a few. Jack Train who was in 'ITMA'
(It's That Man Again) with Tommy Handley (a comedian). Billy Tement
the bandleader and Deborah Ken- who later became a famous film star'
I had applied to join the Post Office as a Boy Messenger (Telegram
Boy); their job was delivering messages sent from Post Offices to
Post Office's over the telephone and teleprinter network. I was
successful and so left the B.B.C. and started working for the Post
Office and continued to do so (except between October 6th. 1943,
and April 3rd. 1947) until retiring in June 1985. Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth II awarded me the Imperial Service Medal for my service
for the Post Office. The first great air raid by the Nazis started
on November 24th. 1940, at about 6.30pm.
Flares were dropped lighting up the City and in
the first hour 70 fires were reported in the centre of the City.
From the position of our house, being higher than the centre of
the City, what I saw is best described by this extract from "BRISTOL
UNDER BLITZ", published for the Lord Mayor's War Services Council
by J.W. Arrowsmith Ltd. Bristol. "The 24th. Was a typical November
day of dull leaden skies with a light mist towards sunset. As darkness
fell, the alert was given (air raid siren) and by 6.30pm.,the skies
over the centre of the City were brightly lit by flares dropped
from enemy 'planes. Then the fiery attack was let loose with utter
nithlessness. Showers of incendiary bombs kindled Bristol ablaze
and spread the conflagration. High explosive bombs whistled and
screamed to earth. Many were of extremely high calibre and spread
the raging fires from building to building until whole streets were
ablaze. The flames appeared as one huge fiery furnace leaping high
into the air and giving an intensity of daylight over a great part
of the City.
The scene presented a veritable volcanic cataclysm.
Crashes of high buildings and the volumes of flames, as castellated
church towers earned the fires to greater heights, added a touch
of grandeur to this inferno of terrorism. Men, afar off, scores
of miles distant, gazed with wonder upon the illuminated skies as
though peering into a mirror to learn the fate of the blitzed city".
In our back garden we had an 'Anderson Shelter', this consisted
of a hole in the ground approximately 8 feet long, by 6 feet wide
and 3 feet deep, which had walls and a roof of corrugated metal
in the shape of an inverted U and was covered with earth and sandbags
for the 3 feet which was above ground level.
During one of the raids, while my mother, father, brother, three
neighbours and myself were in the shelter, a explosive bomb fell
onto the road in the front of our house and made a crater 15 feet
across and 10 feet deep. It blew all the windows in the house out.
We were lucky that it fell in the front of the house and not the
back onto our shelter. There were 29 air raids, the final one being
on July 5th. 1941. During the raids on Bristol 2,250 houses were
destroyed and 46,000 damaged and 18 churches destroyed in an area
of 40 square miles.
As a Post Office Messenger I was stationed at
an office on the edge of the City. Telegrams were telephoned to
staff at die office and I had to deliver them in the local area,
riding a bicycle. One type of telegram was labelled "Government
Priority" they had to be delivered before any others and contained
news of Service personnel who had been, wounded, taken prisoner
of war or had died or been killed on active service. Tills was a
very sad part of the job. Usually, you were always seen when on
delivery and neighbours were on hand to console the recipients of
the bad news. I eventually returned to the main Post Office and
took the driving test to ride a motorcycle to deliver telegrams.
We went to night school and took an exam to see
what jobs we would move on to when we reached the age of eighteen,
either as Postmen, Sorting Clerks or Telegraphists. 1 became a Sorting
Clerk and moved into the Sorting Office; sorting letters on twelve
hour shifts four days a week. This only lasted a few months as I
was eighteen on June 21st. 1943 and was called up to join the Royal
Navy. The alternative was to go to work in the coal mine's as a
'Bevin Boy', as they were short of miners. They did not need any
more recruits for the Army or Royal Air Force at that time. So on
October 6th. 1943, onto the train to Plymouth and by Naval lorry
to H.M.S. Raleigh at Torpoint, over the river Tamar in Cornwall
for our training. The new recruits were split up into groups of
24 and allocated to a hut. We drew our uniforms, tin hats and gasmasks
from the stores and from then on were responsible for our own kit.
In charge of our class at Raleigh was a man that I will always remember;
Chief Petty Officer Barratt, probably recalled to train new recruits.
He was like a father to us, strict when necessary, but most helpful.
Obviously knowing what could lie ahead of us when we had finished
our training. So from being a Sorting Clerk with the Post Office;
1 was now Ordinary Seaman Daniel D/JX 650272 (D. = Devonport ).
I had volunteered to go on a Radar Course, so
on December 7th. 1943 I was transferred to H.M.S. Drake at Devonport.
I don't know what happened to the Radar Course, but I found myself
in the Barrack Guard. One of our duties was to form the Guard for
the Commodore's Gunnery School Divisions (Inspection). This meant
we had to march behind the band of the Royal Marines down to the
Drill Hall where the Gunnery School were assembled for inspection.
It is surprising how well you can march with a band as good as the
Royal Marines. We were lucky; we marched straight through the Drill
Hall and back to the Guard Room; while the Gunnery School had to
drill for the Commodore. I was able to able to come home to Bristol
on leave for Christmas 1943. My next transfer was on February 15th.
1944 to H.M.S. RODNEY, a battleship, which was in dry-dock at Rosyth
in Scotland. It took us two days by train, via London, to get to
the ship.
What a size this monster
was!
Building completed in 1925
Costs: £7,000,000
Weight:38,000 tons
Crew: 1,400
Size: 711 feet x 106feet x 31.5feet. (216.8m
x 32.4m x 9.6m)
Range: 16,500 miles (30,574km..) at 12
knots
Powerplant: Twin Screw Turbines
Performance: 23.5 knots
Armament: 9, 16inch; 12,6inch and 6,4.7inch
Guns. Multiple machine guns, 2, 24.5inch Torpedo tubes
The ship had been in dry-dock for repairs and
painting; this was soon completed and we put to sea. We steamed
up to the Naval Base at Scapa Flow, in the Orkney Islands to the
north of Scotland On the way, we started our sea training. One of
the duties was, 'look outs', watching for any lights (during darkness),
or objects, ships, mines, periscopes of submarines etc. The seaman
crew were split into three 'Divisions', Foc'sle (forecastle). Top,
Quarter-deck and each had their own Mess-deck. The Stokers- Royal
Marines and Communications sections also had their own Mess-decks.
We each had our own hammocks for sleeping in; these were very comfortable
and had to be 'slung' (sling your hammock or mick) for sleeping
and 'stowed' when not sleeping.
The work which Seamen had to do, apart from manning
guns etc.(the fighting side of things) was very varied. Keeping
the ship clean etc. chipping paint and repainting; boats crew (whalers;
motor boats); fetching meals from the Galley. You also had to do
your own dhobi'ing (washing your own clothes). If you were caught
with dirty overalls or uniform, you were on report and had to be
brought before your Divisional Officer, who decided what punishment
you got (commonly known as 'jankers'); which meant extra work, or
running around the upper deck carrying a rifle, when the 'pipe',
"Men under punishment to muster", was sounded over the
ship's tannoy system.
One of the most unusual jobs, the H.M.S. RODNEY
which could be done at any time and would be called for over the
tannoy system by the 'pipe' "Duty Watch, man the main derrick".
The main derrick was used to lift the ships boats on and off the
boat deck. The boat deck was aft of the funnel and although a winch
lifted boats, the derrick had to be swung out by manpower. This
meant that the duty watch of the three divisions of seaman and the
Royal Marines had to pull, or slacken off, on four separate ropes
to move the derrick from over the boat deck to over the sea and
vice versa. This needed at least twenty persons on each rope which
was connected to the derrick by a system of pulleys.
The ship being so big, tended to roll and pitch at a very slow rate
and gave me a headache at first; but I soon got used to it. We had
two types of main duties 'Cruising Watch' and 'Action Stations'.
For 'Cruising' I was a 'A/A Look Out', which meant we had to climb
up through the foremast to a platform at the top. Here we had powerful
binoculars to scan the horizons for any aircraft. The only crew
higher than us were in a 'direction finder', which controlled the
anti-aircraft guns. For 'Action' I was at a Pompom gun and had to
load the ammunition. I was never at 'Action Stations' when we had
to fire in anger. The ship was not put in danger unnecessarily at
this period of the war, ie. 1944. We put to sea for 'working up';
training to the highest standard.
The 'Watch' system works
as follows:
2000-0000 (8 pm - Midnight) First Watch.
0000-0400 (Midnight - 4 am) Middle Watch.
0400-0800 (4 am - 8 am) Morning Watch.
0800-1200 (8 am - Noon) Forenoon Watch.
1200-1600 (Noon - 4 pm) Afternoon Watch.
1600-1800 (4 pm - 6 pm) First Dog-Watch.
1800-2000 (6 pm - 8 pm) Second Dog-Watch.
The two dog-watches, make an odd number of watches
in twenty four hours; so a system of 'one on-one off or 'one on-two
off gives you different watches each day. While we were anchored
at Scapa Flow, we had a visit from Field Marshall Bernard L. Montgomery.
The Ship's Company were mustered on deck and he told us that we
would soon be working with him again (the ship had been in the Med.
when he had been in North Africa). We knew this could mean only
one tiling; the invasion of Europe. This was what everyone had been
waiting for since the evacuation from Dunkirk.
In May 1944 we left Scapa Flow and went down to
Greenock. We put to sea again and steamed south; on Sunday June
4th.a signal was received delaying the operation for twenty four
hours and we were ordered to reduce speed and return north. Not
only did this affect us but one hundred and thirty six other warships,
including six other battleships (three British and three American).
Sailing south again we arrived off the coast of Normandy on the
morning of Tuesday June 6th. 1944. There were three other ships
bombarding targets on the land; H.M. Ships, Nelson (our sister ship),
Warspite (another battleship) and Roberts (a monitor; a small ship
with heavy guns). We discovered that we were being held in reserve
and were sent back to Portsmouth overnight.
We were soon back off the coast of Normandy again,
and our 16inch guns were bombarding in support of the 3rd Canadian
Infantry Division. There were some Canadian photographers onboard,
who took some photos of our guns in action. They had wanted to take
photos from underneath the guns, but as you will see in the photo,
it would not have been safe to do so; the blast churns up the sea
and the noise would have damaged their eardrums. Eventually we use
up all our 16inch shells, and we sailed back to Milford Haven on
the West Coast of Wales to re-ammunition. This we completed in record
time and we were soon on our way back to Normandy. We returned back
across the channel later, and bombarded the town of Caen, which
was some 15 miles inland. A large number Lancaster Bombers flew
over us to bomb Caen. The town was finally captured on 9th July
1944. During all this action we were lucky, as at no time, did we
come under enemy fire. At the ned of Juy we returned to Portland
Harbour..
Ray Daniel
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Personal Photographs

Ray Daniel is the second on the left in the
middle row.

Monty speaks to the crew, notice Field Marshall
Montgomery standing in the lower left part of the picture.

H.M.S. Rodney bombarding the coast of Normandy.

One of the 16 inch shells being hoisted aboard
H.M.S. Rodney.

H.M.S. Rodney, Ray's ship.
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