The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - The Telegraph Magazine

‘I was there’

After nearly six hard-fought years of war, everyone who lived through VE Day will recall the relief and jubilation. Here, Joe Shute talks to surviving veterans, munitions workers and evacuees to find out how they celebrated

-

From RAF pilots and munitions workers to evacuees, Joe Shute collects memories of VE Day from those who saw it first-hand

‘Crowds lined the dockside and the merchant navy ships berthed there blasted their horns’

On VE Day I was aboard the corvette [small warship] HMS Farnham Castle, returning to Greenock in Scotland. Crowds lined the dockside and the merchant navy ships blasted their horns. As we drew closer, I noticed a couple of them had effigies of Adolf Hitler strung up on their decks.

It was hard to accept that it was really over. It had been three long years since I had joined the Royal Navy, aged 17. I was put on the cruiser HMS Emerald, manning a sixinch gun, and after a spell in the Atlantic we sailed across the Mediterran­ean and Indian Oceans to become part of the Eastern Fleet. At the end of 1943 we returned to the UK and the ship was refitted to take part in the D-day landings the following June.

We were sent to Gold Beach and I remember looking out across this huge fleet of landing craft, hospital ships and troop carriers. The noise was tremendous. I was on a gun firing towards the shore but the enemy guns were so well camouflage­d we couldn’t fire until they started firing themselves.

For weeks afterwards we remained anchored off the coast. One morning, one of the lookouts shouted ‘enemy aircraft’ and I saw this German bomber coming across. It flew over so low that I could see the face of the front gunner. I was saying my prayers then. They dropped three bombs – one went down each side of the ship and one hit the ammunition hoist, skidded across the deck through the guard rail to the deck below and into the sea, whereupon all three bombs exploded, causing such a blast that it felt like being lifted out of the water. Amazingly we were all right. The ship went back to Portsmouth for repairs, and in late 1944 I was moved to the Farnham Castle as quartermas­ter and sent to Murmansk in Russia to protect the Arctic convoys.

We were paid six pence a day and given neat rum – which was a special treat because the conditions were so tough. The corvettes were at the front, rear and side of the convoy and we navigated sleet showers and temperatur­es as cold as minus 40C. If you went in the sea you couldn’t last more than three minutes.

Out of the blue one day we received an order that any U-boats on the surface were not to be attacked. Then on the return home we encountere­d a U-boat, which travelled with us until we got to the coast of Norway. The captain was quite close and stood to attention and gave a naval salute and a wave of his left hand.

When we arrived at Greenock we cleaned the ship up, washed ourselves and stepped off into the throng. I went to a pub nearby and there were people everywhere waving flags. It was amazing. When we got ashore I met a young Wren. She was based at a shore station in Greenock and said she had plotted our route back.

Later in the evening we were both exhausted and needed to take the train back to London. She fell asleep on my shoulder and we both slept all night. We got to Euston in the early hours of the morning and said goodbye. We said we would meet up when we both had leave but never saw each other again.

 ??  ?? SEYMOUR TAYLOR / 95 / ABLE SEAMAN (RTD), ROYAL NAVY
SEYMOUR TAYLOR / 95 / ABLE SEAMAN (RTD), ROYAL NAVY

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom