William Byer's career reads like a good book
of fiction. He's seen and done so many things, from
sailing up the Yellow River in China, to seeing the
surrender of the Italian Grand Fleet during World War
II, to having Sir Barnes Wallace sit on the edge of
his desk for a chat.
When you visit Bill Byers at his home overlooking the
sea at Knockinelder on the Ards Peninsula, you feel
it must have been fated that he should spend a large
proportion of his working life at sea. Bill joined the
Navy in February 1935 at 18 years of age. He briefly
came out of the Navy for 6 months at the end of World
War II, but poor wages at home (just enough to buy the
bare essentials) encouraged him to join up again and
he served until 1958.
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HMS
Vivian, Devonport 1935 |
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After training at HMS Vivian, Devonport, Plymouth,
the first ship Bill was assigned to was HMS Vidette
(a V & W class destroyer) and in 1936 his first trip
was to Gibraltar. However, it wasn't long before he
was travelling much further afield. In 1937, on board
the cruiser HMS Capetown, he set off for China. His
ship had been detailed to join the China Fleet. Britain
had maintained a fleet in this region since the Boxer
Rebellion and at this time it was a substantial size,
with aircraft carriers, cruisers and destroyers.
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And
now for my next trick...!
Crew of HMS Capetown in Colombo, 1937 |
Their route to Hong Kong took them via Gibraltar,
Malta, Port Said through the Suez Canal to Aden
and across the Indian Ocean to Colombo, in Ceylon
(now known as Sri Lanka). There they were obviously
entertained in style judging by this photo from
Bill's collection. Next stop was Singapore
and Bill recalls one young crew member having
a close encounter with a shark while painting
the bows of the ship in the harbour there. As
the shark circled round and around, the lad hung
on like grim death to a rope, hoping it wouldn't
part, while other members of the crew took pot
shots at the shark with rifles. |
1937 - 1938: China
When HMS Capetown arrived in Chinese waters, China
was under attack from the Japanese. Wherever the Capetown
went Japanese cruisers or destroyers would shadow them.
If they anchored, the Japanese would anchor close by
and watch them from their bridge with binoculars. Before
the Japanese bombed Nan King a signal was sent to Bill's
ship to move out and he remembers watching the bombing
from 8 miles away, up the Yangtze river.
Audio
clip 1:
Bill describes the Yangtze river.
When they had been up river a number of months the
Japanese threw a barrier across, near the mouth of the
Yangtze, and the Capetown couldn't move back down to
the coast. Heading further up river, they abandoned
ship at Han Kow, leaving only key personnel aboard.
A barge took the rest of the crew ashore, where a train
was waiting to take them south. The journey to Hong
Kong took 3 days, with only hard wooden benches to sit
on and a few basic rations to eat. However, Bill says
the countryside they travelled through was very beautiful
- high cliffs on both sides and narrow rivers. At one
point in the journey they came to a bridge which the
Japanese had been attempting to destroy. Bombing had
weakened its structure and it couldn't take the weight
of the train, so they all had to get out and walk to
another train waiting on the other side.
On arrival at Hong Kong Bill was assigned to the naval
police until 6 months later, after successful negotiations,
HMS Capetown was let through the Japanese barricades.
During his time out in China Bill's ship visited Wei
Hai Wei a number of times, which is situated on the
north coast of China. In the summer the Royal Navy's
China Fleet held their regatta there, but in the wintertime
conditions were very different. You could walk ashore
over the ice and crews were allowed to stop work at
lunchtime because it was too cold to continue on. Bill
remembers how he and another bloke used to jog round
the perimeter of the island at Wei Hai Wei and then
come aboard to have a cold bath!!!
World War II
From 1938 - 1939 Bill served in the Home Fleet and
they were on a general state of alert as war loomed.
Bill was on board the destroyer HMS Fame at Invergordon
in Scotland when war broke out.
Audio
clip 2:
War is declared on 3rd September 1939
Just a few hours later they put to sea and by evening
they were at the Faroe Islands patrolling for enemy
submarines. They hadn't been patrolling long when they
were sent off to pick up survivors from the passenger
liner Athena, which had been torpedoed off north west
Donegal. The Athena had been making her way from Liverpool
to New York with school children who were being evacuated.
Sadly around 100 people lost their lives jumping ship.
The HMS Fame picked up 30 to 40 survivors, who needless
to say were in a shocked state, and took them to Greenock.
Norway
In the late spring of 1940 Bill found himself patrolling
the fijords of northern Norway in an area close to Tromsø,
Narvik and Harstad. There was nearly continual daylight
with no darkness to hide them from the bombers overhead.
The bombing went on throughout the day, every day and
many allied ships were lost. HMS Fame kept on the move
all the time, because if you stopped at all it left
you an easy target to German aircraft.
Audio
clip 3:
The constant bombing was bad for the nerves
Inside the Arctic Circle, these waters round Norway
were not somewhere you would choose to take a dip. One
day they recovered 3 men from the sea after their ship
had been attacked. Wrapped in blankets, smoking cigarettes,
sipping rum - they seemed to be well on the road to
recovery. However, Bill will never forget what happened
next. One minute the survivors were chatting and laughing
and the next minute they were all dead! A reaction to
the cold had set in.
HMS Fame had quite a few near misses during Bill's
time with the ship. On one occasion they had gone to
the aid of a damaged submarine when they came under
attack themselves and a bomb slid off their upper deck
and exploded going down the side. Seven men were killed
and 50 injured.
North Atlantic
By 1941 Bill had been made up to leading seaman and
was aboard the destroyer HMS Hesperus on convoy duty
in the North Atlantic. They were away from Liverpool
for around a month at a time, taking about a week to
reach Newfoundland and then a week on the return journey.
A convoy travelled at the speed of the slowest ship
and could stretch out over a distance of 30 miles. It
was quite a task trying to watch over all the ships,
particularly at night when they could stray away. Often
you wouldn't even know if a ship had been lost from
another part of the convoy.
Audio
clip 4:
Friendly fire is nothing new - accidents occurred between
Allied ships
Just before arriving in Newfoundland occasionally their
captain would say he fancied some fresh fish to eat
and they would drop depth charges. Then it would be
cod for breakfast, lunch and tea! When they finally
reached the American military base at Argentia in Newfoundland
they would moor up alongside the American navy. You
could purchase anything you wanted when you went on
board the US ships. Bill remembers buying up cartons
of cigarettes, which he then swapped for eggs when they
called in at Londonderry. There was a proper barter
rate set of a dozen eggs for a packet of 20 cigarettes.
In return the Americans came on board the British ships
thinking a ready supply of rum was to be had!
HMS Fame's service with the British navy came to an
abrupt end early one morning when they were en route
to Newcastle. During the night a young sub lieutenant
made an error when changing course and brought the ship
3 miles closer into shore than they should have been
and onto rocks called the Black Steels. The Fame's bottom
was ruptured and there was an explosion in the boiler
room. A nearby holiday camp was commandeered while the
crew went on board every day to salvage as much as possible.
It was dangerous work. Bill was on the upper deck when
a wire rope snapped and threw him across the deck. After
6 weeks in hospital he was left with a scarred back,
but he'd had a lucky escape. Another bloke died the
same day in a different incident on board.
Mediterranean
The next ship Bill was assigned to was the destroyer
HMS Raider and soon they were on their way, via the
Cape of Good Hope and the Suez Canal, to join the Allied
forces at the Italian battle in the Mediterranean. When
they arrived the invasion of Sicily was beginning and
Raider's role was to protect the battleships from enemy
submarines. Bill remembers the night sky lit up red
with tracer shells and the noise of them passing overhead
as the shoreline was bombarded. The Americans were landing
troops, but unfortunately the soldiers were disembarked
too far out and sadly many of them drowned.
Over the coming months, as the battle against the Italians
progressed, HMS Raider moved further and further up
the east coast of Italy. Rations were very scarce, they
were allocated 2 slices of bread a day, and they were
hungry a lot of the time. Bill recalls an occasion when
they seized a cargo of onions, which then featured regularly
on the menu for quite a while! Before Italy surrendered
they had reached as far up the coast as Brindisi and
Bari. At night they would pop across to Albania to shell
German e-boats and ammunition ships. Sometimes they
would capture an e-boat, bring it back and help themselves
to its cargo, which could even include British corned
beef!
When Italy at last threw in the towel, HMS Raider was
detailed to escort the Italian fleet from the assembly
point off the coast of North Africa at Cape Bon (near
Tripoli) to the surrender point at Malta. Bill will
never forget the vision of dozens of dozens of ships
all sailing in the same direction.
Audio
clip 5:
The surrender of the Italian Fleet was a sight to behold
Burma
Not long after the surrender of the Italian fleet HMS
Raider was then sent to join the Allied Fleet out in
Burma. They were based at Trincomalee on the east coast
of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Along with other destroyers,
cruisers and aircraft carriers the Raider would cross
the Bay of Bengal to carry out raids on Japanese jetties
and depots on the Andaman islands near Sumatra and further
north along the coast of Burma and in the Brahmaputra
delta.
On one occasion HMS Raider was sent to the aid of a
submarine called the Shakespeare. She'd been attacked
by Japanese aircraft and was adrift in enemy waters
and leaking badly. The Raider was to take her in tow
the next morning, but in the meantime she needed to
be kept afloat. Bill was in charge of a chain of 8 men
who spent the night in near darkness filling and empyting
buckets over the side.
This is not the only time Bill found himself adrift
at sea. A new crew were sent out to take over HMS Raider
and Bill and his fellow crew members found themselves
being sent back to Britain. On the journey home the
corvette (HMS Linaria) that Bill was travelling on broke
down in the middle of the Indian Ocean and was at the
mercy of Japanese submarines. Noise travels quite a
distance over water and with lots of loud hammering
emanating from the engine room it seemed much longer
than 24 hours before the problem was finally fixed and
they were underway again.
Bill finally arrived back in Portsmouth on the day
war ended. At first they weren't going to be given leave.
When they eventually did get ashore the celebrations
were well underway and there wasn't a drink to be had.
Bill remembers that the people of Portsmouth were tearing
doors off their hinges to make celebratory bonfires.
When Bill reached Plymouth the following day there wasn't
a drop to drink there either - not even a lemonade!
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(left
to right) 1939-45 Star; N. Atlantic Star; Burma
Star; Italian Star;
Defence Medal; Victory Medal; Blue Peter Medal
View
enlargement |
1945 - 1958
| Nearly
a year after the war in Europe was over, Bill's
war had finally come to an end and soon after
he left the navy.
Audio
clip 6:
Work was hard to get when he returned home.
Maybe life in the navy wasn't so bad after all.
Six months after returning home Bill signed up
again. Within weeks he was drafted to HMS Nelson,
flagship of the Home Fleet, where a very strict
regime was followed. He was with the Nelson from
1946 to 1949 until she was decommissioned and
taken to the breaker's yard in Scotland.
Bill was then moved to a shore post in Malta
to work on the Admiral of the Mediterranean Fleet's
staff. He was Chief Boswain's Mate at Camarata
Barracks between 1949 - 1951. This was also an
embarkation barracks for crew being transported
home. Malta was a very social place and Bill was
Vice President of the Petty Officers mess. At
Christmas time he made sure there was enough rum
to give the Christmas pudding that extra kick! |
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 |
Don't forget to add
the rum!
Stirring the Christmas pud.
Camarata Barracks, Malta 1949 |
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Life outside the navy
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Bill with 10 ton and
5 ton bombs,
designed by
Barnes Wallace. |
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Bill finally said goodbye to
the navy in 1958, having served 14 years as a
petty officer. He then undertook a number of jobs,
such as painting and decorating and working for
the submarine engineers C. B. Gormans, before
joining Vickers Armstrong (now British Aerospace)
in 1963. He was a policeman in their works police
at Weybridge. Security was of great importance
because of the nature of the work being undertaken
by the company. When Bill started with the firm
they were building the TSR2. Bill says some of
the technology that was developed in the creation
of this fighter bomber then went into Concorde.
Dr Barnes Wallace was working in the Research
and Development department of the company at that
time. Despite being well known for his work on
the bouncing bomb, Bill found Barnes Wallace very
down to earth with a great sense of humour. Bill
said it was typical of the man that he turned
down 2 knighthoods before accepting one. He would
often come and sit on the edge of Bill's desk
and have a good chat.
Audio
clip 7:
Sir Barnes Wallace worked long hours.
Barnes Wallace was responsible for designing
the two World War II bombs featured in this photograph.
The 10 ton bomb was carried by Lancasters and
was used early on in the war during an attack
on German sub pens at St Nazaire on the French
coast, when 28 submarines were destroyed. Bill
recalls that the 5 ton bomb was used in an attack
on a pocket German battleship in the Norwegian
fijords, when it pierced through the ship causing
it to turn upside down. The lower window in the
picture belongs to Barnes Wallace's office and
Bill's desk was situated just outside it. |
Now Bill is retired and living back in Northern Ireland
he only has to gaze out from one of his windows at the
sea view to be reminded of his eventful and varied career
with the navy.
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