“Christmas 1942, I spent a four hours on, four hours off duty, in a pill box at Fort Gomer, overlooking the Solent, Isle of Wight. It had been terrible weather and there was over a foot deep of snow inside the pill box. 4.7-inch guns were used by the Army/ATS on their Ack-ack gun batteries, which were situated in parks, open spaces, etc., during the war for antiaircraft use and also used on merchant ships and all Royal Navy warships. They were also used in south-east England during the Blitz, as mobile guns in the streets, roads, etc. When they were firing outside your front door, the noise was terrific.”
At Fort Gomer, there were such gun emplacements at each side of the pill box in which John was on a spell of duty on Christmas Eve, 1942, which lasted four days and four nights. The only guns that could be fired from a pill box were a .303 rifle, .303 Bren or Sten Guns, or a PIAT antitank gun, if you had a lot of room for recoil.
“It was a soul-destroying place to be, Fort Gomer, and in early 1943 we left to go to Southsea where some of us were in the guest houses on South Parade, which had all been taken over by the Royal Marines. Whilst there we marched to Eastney Barracks to be kitted out with our tropical kit. It was then we knew we were not staying for summer sun-bathing on the beach and seafront, but heading for hotter climates. In a few days, we joined the LCFs and LCGs.
“After the Sicily/Salerno invasions, half the craft had to return to this country so we could prepare for Normandy, 1944. We came back to Southsea after leaving the craft in Scotland and were again at South Parade and in occupation of rooms above the Cumberland Arms public house in Eastney Road, not so far from the barracks at that time. As there were so many Royal Marines in the area, we were put into civilian billets. I and five others were in one bedroom of a family in Albert Road. There were also at least five in the family, so meals were taken in relays.”
The iron bunk bed with which each of the men was supplied were from barrack stores. John describes them as “so uncomfortable you were almost glad to get up at 5.30 a.m. and have breakfast, then to parade on Southsea seafront!”
“About two months before D-Day, many of us were taken by lorries to fields near Hythe, overlooking Southampton water. In the fields, many large tents had been erected. There was eight of us to a tent, we only had dry rations, tins of what was going. To have a mug of tea, we had small blocks like Oxo cubes, which contained tea, sugar and milk. We had an oil-stove on which we were able to boil the water, which was brought by lorry every day. There were no toilets anywhere so you had to make do, and the water was for making tea, washing and shaving only. One cupful per man, daily. All was going well until one day the rains - or should I say the monsoons? - came.”
The field was on a hill, sloping down to the sea, John recalls, and his tent was at the top, with all equipment being on the ground. Everything was washed out of the tent and down the field.
“All the tea cubes just disappeared. Water became polluted, which did not matter as we were not allowed to light the stoves after dark, in case of air raids, which we did have. After rations and water delivery the next day, we were able to have a mug of tea. Towards the end of May 1944 we were all moved out to Southampton Docks, where we became part of the crews of LCFs or LCGs. I went onto LCF 30 and away to Normandy for months to come. I was also at the Royal Hotel, Hayling Island. As to Fort Gomer, I was only 17. It was a hard life but that was all right for me, because I had lost my parents in the Blitz, so no home, but it did become easier after Gomer.”
John Frayn Turner describes, in his book Service Most Silent, the oyster mine, which was kept by the Germans as a final “secret weapon” when invasion was expected. The Royal Navy had oyster mines too, but had not used them because they were considered unsweepable. Oyster mines reacted to the change in pressure on the sea bed when a ship’s bow wave passed over them. This effect was used with a trigger that reacted to the sound of a ship or to its magnetic field (in acoustic or magnetic oysters respectively). It was especially difficult to sweep mines which lay on the sea bed among ships.
Allied supply ships vital to the continued assault on Europe began to be sunk shortly after D-Day. The Allies had sent experienced naval officers with the invasion force to look out for mines. Luckily a German mine-laying plane, in a gale and under fire, accidentally jettisoned his load of oyster mines over land at Luc sur Mer, and part of one exploded. SubLieutenant Young, RNVR, recognised the remaining part as a mine, with a mechanism he knew, but with an extra fitting which he did not recognise. He recommended to his CO that it should be looked at by Vernon, and it was taken back to Thorney Island by a Spitfire, where a team from Vernon examined it. It was recognised as an oyster by its external rubber fitting which indicated it was a pressure mine. They examined it, taking every precaution not to blow themselves up in the process. It was found that acoustic sweepers with vibrating hammers (see description below of work with a Kango Hammer) would detonate the remaining oysters, which had been spoiled by the high swell, for the latter triggered the pressure device without a ship being present. Similarly, a magnetic Oyster could be spoilt by swell, as ships at reduced speed caused a drop in the magnetic field they produced and so failed to fire the magnetic side of the mine.
By July 3rd 1944, almost 500 mines had been swept and further vital supply ships were saved from Oyster mines.
For all the weird and wonderful devices of the “boffins” however, there was still the more traditional experience of Naval warfare, as shown in the recollections of John Murray, Royal Navy, born 14th June 1921. John was in Hampshire from October 1938 and in a Portsmouth naval ship until 1947.
“I joined the Iron Duke as a boy seaman in 1938. Having trained in Scotland, I was a First Class Boy. In October, I went to Portsmouth and to HMS Berwick in December 1938. We sailed from 5 January and went to the West Indies for Bermuda where we took over the flag ship HMS York. We toured the east coast of the USA and Canada. This flotilla was later in the Battle of the River Plate. But by that time, we had already been and escorted King George VI and Queen Elizabeth when they visited in the Empress of Britain. Before they left us, they came on board and met the crew.
“We did an ice patrol for them because at that time of the year the icebergs moved south. We continued from New York up to Canada, Newfoundland. At the outbreak of war we were at Bar Harbour, Maine, but we had to get out of there because we were in the USA.” As the USA was at that time a neutral country, British warships could not use their harbours.
“From there we took a convoy from Trinidad and we were damaged on the way back in a hurricane, so back to Portsmouth for repairs. It was the first time we had seen the blackout, and there was also snow on the ground, which we weren’t used to. I was eighteen, I had my eighteenth birthday in Canada.
“We joined the Home Fleet and did service in Norway, Denmark Strait patrol and Iceland. Actually, we participated in the taking over of Iceland in May of that year, returning to this country with 100 German nationals from Iceland - embassy people and families - and brought them back to Liverpool where our ship went into repairs. I left it and came back to RN Portsmouth in time for the end of Dunkirk. Everything was chaotic. They sent us over with a tug and lifeboats to near St Valerie, to where the 51st Highland Division were lined up. Unfortunately the Germans had got there before we were, so we had to turn back.”
Back to gunnery school, HMS Excellent, Whale Island, Portsmouth went John and his colleagues: “And we had another scare. We were detailed to take over the French fleet. About 4.00 a.m. and all the ships were boarded and taken over by the British navy. Our crew from Whale Island took over the French warship Paris.
“I did my gunnery course and after about a month I was drafted to Ack-Ack 1 Guard on merchant ships for Channel convoys. We plied between Southend on Sea and the Bristol Channel. We set our guns up on ships and we were in the Channel opposite the Isle of Wight when they shot down 175 German planes.” A score reported in 24 hours at the height of the Battle of Britain. “They were attacked in our convoy. I did this job from July 1940 to September 1941. Back via Victory to HMS Berwick for a number of years, mainly on the Russian convoys.