Sub hero had to wait hours for ambulance
John, 97, suffered broken hip pain
every half- hour to let us know the ambulance situation, which effectively remained unchanged.
“They also advised us that if the pain increased we should phone 999. The pain did and we subsequently phoned 999 and the ambulance arrived within about a quarter of an hour.
“The ambulance crew were brilliant and got Dad to hospital with minimum fuss and at high speed.
“When he arrived at hospital on Saturday afternoon he was X- rayed, diagnosed with a broken hip and was subsequently operated on on Sunday morning.
“He now has a new hip, aged 97, and is on the road to recovery.
“The ambulance service and the staff at Ayr University Hospital have been absolutely exemplary and my father, myself, my sister and the rest of his family and friends are eternally grateful to them.”
When Mr Lorimer, who has two children and three grandchildren, was 21 he was part of the 12th Submarine Flotilla, also known as the midget submariners. They carried out Operation Source, a successful attack on the German battleship Tirpitz in September 1943, saving the lives of tens of thousands of merchant seamen.
John told of his exploits in WW2 at the Boswell Book Festival.
He and his fellow submariners launched an attack in primitive midget submarines on the Tirpitz, which was anchored in a Norwegian fjord.
They had trained for two years for the mission, which was crucial to the Allies’ war efforts as the Tirpitz posed a severe threat to the Arctic convoys.
The plan was to attach mines to the hull of the ship but things went horribly wrong when Mr Lorimer’s midget submarine hit a rock.
Undaunted, they planted the explosives on the seabed beneath the battleship and then surfaced to a hail of bullets.
Captured and taken aboard, Mr Lorimer and his fellow submariners were lined up to be shot, all the time knowing that the vessel was also about to be blown up by their very own explosives.
Their mines disabled the ship for the rest of the war but did not sink it.
John was awarded a DSO for his incredible courage. His exploits also featured in the 1955 film ‘ Above Us the Waves’, in which Donald Sinden played him.
He had spent the night with the pain and it was getting worse. They were slow.