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| The
RAF Plotting Room in Western Approaches |
"We
went from Liverpool to Canada, it was called HMS Burnham. We’d been
in a real rough convoy. We had about 144 survivors onboard the ship.
We’d spent that much time chasing about, looking for U-boats, that
we had very little fuel left.
We
got a signal that the Bismark was attacking the Hood. Our First
Lieutenant sent a signal to the Hood; "Stand by, Burnham coming
to your assistance." Then the Captain came up and said; "How
the hell can we go to their assistance? We’ve got no oil left and
all these survivors on board."
A piddling
destroyer like this against a battle ship like the Bismark? We carried
on to Iceland to refuel. Then we went back out to where this engagement
had taken place and all we found was one spare canister."
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"There
was an almighty bang, and a bulkhead came crashing down. When we
got on deck, all the midship was gone. Billy Swinton said to me;
"Come on Joe, over the side. We’re going to go down with this."
We just lost one another."
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| Report
sheets were filled in and used to transfer information around
the building. |
"He
swam and got onto a raft and just drifted and lost all track of
time. He woke up to the smell of onions. He was aboard, of all things,
a German submarine. The German Commander could speak very good English
and asked him the name of his ship. He came back and said; "Little
Englander, you have been adrift 75 days."
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"Everybody
on the bridge was killed, bar in the QM. The life boats were all
blown away. The funnel was like a colander."
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"Work
and life in Derby House was not easy. The average working week was
fifty hours and often included night duty. I had to sleep on a bukn
in the stationary store - not that there was much chance of sleep
with the rustling among the paper sounding so like mice!.
Every so often we were assembled by Second Officer George for drill
on the roof, much to the amusement of the office workers on the
upper floors of what was then Martin's Bank Building."
Muriel Litchfield.
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