From Doodlebugs to Devon - by Sarah Shaw

From Doodlebugs to Devon cover (author's photo)

Sarah Shaw's latest book "From Doodlebugs to Devon" is subtitled "one war...one woman...one year..." and is very much a personal journey for the author, for the "one woman" mentioned in the title happens to be Sarah's mother, Yvonne Shaw, whose letters to her husband form the basis of this book.

I have to declare an interest in this book now because during the various Covid lockdowns and the periods in between, I assisted Sarah in a very small way by checking and verifying the various BC4 Bomb Census reports for some of the V-1 and V-2 incidents that are referred to in this book, both in Yvonne's letters and in the narrative that the author skilfully weaves around them, which help provide context to the letters and help the reader get a real idea of what was happening in the wider world of the British "Home Front" at this later stage of the Second World War.

Yvonne Shaw and her four-year-old son, Oliver begin the period covered in this book living in Foxley Lodge, a Victorian detached house in the outer London suburb of Purley, to the south of Croydon and at that time, still in the county of Surrey. Yvonne is almost 33 and her husband Clem, is an army officer stationed in Scotland. His work is something of a mystery to Yvonne but we soon learn in the author's narrative that he is actually working with the Home Guard in Scotland.

The first letter to him we read is dated 1st April 1944 and apart from mention of an air raid late in the preceding month (one of the last such raids by manned Luftwaffe aircraft), most of these early letters cover the relatively mundane life of a young wife with a husband serving in the armed forces, somewhat struggling to make ends meet and finding life in wartime London fairly boring.

It is when the Doodlebugs mentioned in the book title start falling that the tone of the letters suddenly change. As most people know, "Doodlebug" was one of the nicknames given by the British people to the V-1, the first of Hitler's so-called "Vengeance Weapons", a pilotless aircraft as they were somewhat quaintly called initially by the British Civil Defence service, before they were given the name of "FLY" for "Flying Bomb", which is essentially what these weapons were - an early form of cruise missile.

Croydon was to become the most "Doodlebugged" borough in London. This was not due to any particular singling out of the citizens of the south London suburbs but more due to subterfuge on the part of the British, who had double agents on the ground whom the Germans were convinced were providing them with accurate information regarding the fall of shot of the V-1s. Whereas in fact most of them were initially falling as intended on the central area of the capital, false information fed to them by one agent in particular, Juan Pujol Garcia, better known as Agent Garbo, persuaded the Germans to adjust the targeting of these devices downwards, so that they would fall on what in 1944, were the much more lightly populated areas of outer suburban London, rather than the densely packed inner London.

It was a terrible decision by the authorities to have to take, for whichever option ensured that people would die. In the end, it was just about numbers and sadly, Croydon became the recipient of 141 these weapons. 

Yvonne's growing anxiety is reflected in her letters to Clem and she reports some very close calls nearby which although they do not directly impact the family home, happen to be far too close for comfort and it is clear from the tone of her writing that the mental strain is growing, as well as concern for the well-being of young Oliver.

As a result of this and a phone call from her uncle in Exmouth, Yvonne and Oliver decamp to Devon, at first staying with her Uncle Dudley and family but later moving to Budleigh Salterton and enduring something of an odyssey of moves and re-locations to various parts of that delightful seaside town, although doubtless in 1944, it was somewhat different to the Budleigh Salterton that I am quite familiar with today.

The letters home, which sometimes cover seemingly quite mundane matters, actually provide an interesting window of this important period of British history and the author's accompanying commentary and explanations, provide a fascinating context.

The book ends with a chapter which tells us about the family from 1945-1973, which sadly doesn't provide us with a particularly happy ending to the story - but there will be no further spoilers from this reviewer!

Sarah Shaw has produced a delightful social history of wartime Britain which I would thoroughly recommend to you.

Available from www.amazon.co.uk

RRP: £11.99

softback, pp 227 (also available as an e-book)

Book Review: Streatham's 41

Cover of Streatham's 41 (author's image)

In mid-June 1944, Londoners could perhaps have been forgiven for thinking that the days of attacks on them from the air were a thing of the past but on 13 June, a new threat to their safety appeared in the form of the V-1, the first of Hitler’s Vergeltungswaffen or “Vengeance Weapons”. In excess of 2,400 of these early cruise missiles were to fall upon London in a campaign that was to last until early September 1944, in which the various neighbourhoods of south and southeast London bore the brunt,

The original edition of this account was written by Kenneth Bryant, Senior District Air Raid Warden of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth and appeared in 1946 as a basic record of the forty-one flying bombs that fell upon the south London suburb of Streatham. In 2019 an updated and expanded edition was produced by the Streatham Society to mark the 75th anniversary of the campaign and which has recently been re-issued once again.

This attractive A4 softback booklet provides a detailed analysis of each of “Streatham’s 41” flying bombs, each one accompanied by a map, as well as personal accounts from those affected by each incident and where available, contemporary photographs of the aftermath of each bomb.

In addition, there are useful and informative chapters on the organisation of the ARP (Air Raid Precautions), later the Civil Defence Service in general and in particular within the Borough of Wandsworth. There is also a brief history and timeline of the V-1 offensive and the counter-measures put in place, as well as an interesting chapter covering the human cost of the campaign and financial cost of rebuilding in Streatham, most notably the “pre-fabs” that sprung up across London as a temporary solution to re-housing those who had been rendered homeless.

There is also a chapter on the design of the V-1, which leads to my only minor gripe with the book, in so far that the authors describe the propulsion system as a ram jet, whereas in fact the V-1s were propelled by a pulse jet system, which gave rise to the peculiar rasping sound made by the engine.

Overall though, this is an excellent local history publication which should be of interest to Home Front historians as well as those with a love of our capital city’s history.

Streatham's 41: The V-1 Flying Bomb Offensive as experienced in Streatham

Author: Kenneth Bryant (updated edition prepared by John W Brown)

Published by The Streatham Society (www.streathamsociety.org.uk)

RRP £11.00

Softback, pp 90

Another local hero in Greenwich

The CWGC Memorial at Greenwich Cemetery (Author's Photo)

In the history of this blog, which is now in its twelfth year of existence, the post which seems to have prompted the most feedback is one that first appeared in December 2012 and which in itself was a rehash of a post that was originally written as a guest piece for another blog. The post concerned my own locality of Charlton in southeast London and the immediate surrounding area.

Back in February in the midst of the latest lockdown, I received another comment on this piece, this time from Martin Short, whose grandfather Lance Bombardier Henry W Short was killed whilst serving with 303 Battery, 26 Searchlight Regiment at the Maze Hill Searchlight Site on the edge of Blackheath on 23 June 1944 when a V-1 flying bomb exploded there.

Blackheath, in common with most of the other large parks and open spaces in London was the home to anti-aircraft and searchlight batteries, as well as a barrage balloon site. Similar locations at Woolwich Common, Plumstead Marshes, Southwark Park, Peckham Rye and just across the Thames on the Isle of Dogs and at Beckton were all home to heavy and light anti-aircraft batteries, as well as the accompanying searchlights. The heavy batteries, which were all part of the London Inner Artillery Zone (IAZ) would consist of 3.7", 4.5" or 5.25" guns which would concentrate on the higher flying aircraft, whilst the light batteries were concentrated on the 40mm rapid firing Bofors guns, which could deal with any incursions by lower flying fighter bomber types. Searchlights were an essential in illuminating the raiders at night, especially in the early days of the war before the introduction of gun-laying radar and the proximity fuze.

During the Blitz of 1940-41, the guns had had little impact, other than by perhaps boosting the morale of those on the ground, who did at least feel that the raiders were not dropping their bombs totally without challenge. By the time of Little Blitz in 1943 however, London boasted formidable anti-aircraft defences and these, combined with the night fighter force, took a heavy toll of the raiders.

Henry Short (back row, furthest right) and his colleagues from 303 Battery (Martin Short)

The onset of the flying bomb campaign on 13 June 1944 was something of a game-changer for the British anti-aircraft defences, for whilst the guns which were by now aided by gun-laying radar and equipped with proximity fuzes for their ammunition, could bring down the V-1s, shooting down a one tonne warhead over a heavily populated area was totally counter-productive and as a result, the guns and searchlights of the IAZ, as well as those elsewhere in southeast England, were relocated to the south coast some two weeks after the first of the missiles fell on England. Any V-1s shot down here could explode over open countryside and any of the missiles that evaded the guns and the barrage balloons (which had also been relocated), could then be left to Fighter Command's "anti-diver" patrols to deal with. So effective were these counter measures, that of the almost 10,500 V-1s launched towards Great Britain, only some 2,400 reached the Greater London area, although it must be stressed that these still caused great damage and loss of life.

One of those that did reach came before the redeployment of the guns and searchlights from the London IAZ and ironically, fell upon the Searchlight Site at Maze Hill, where Henry Short and his colleagues from 303 Battery were attempting to defend London from these very weapons.

Henry Short remembered on the Greenwich CWGC Memorial (Author's photo)

The War Diary for 26 Searchlight Regiment times the incident vaguely as being between 05:42 on 22 June and 05:42 the following day but the Civil Defence Incident Log for the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich gives us a precise time of 02:05 on the 23 June 1944. The incident log reports five fatal casualties, all military, whilst the War Diary reports "Lt. A Jullien and Lt. F.A.G. Smith wounded - 3 OR (other ranks) killed and 9 OR wounded. Lt Jullien died of wounds shortly after admission to hospital." The War Diary goes on to report, somewhat superfluously, "There was also severe damage to equipment."

These logs and diaries were written in the heat of the moment based on the information available but in reality, seven men were killed here:

Lieutenant Alfred Jullien
Serjeant Frank Lockwood
Gunner Albert Mason
Gunner Albert Rideout
Lance Bombardier Henry Short

Gunner Joseph Stevens
Serjeant John Travers

Henry Short was born in Basingstoke on 7 July 1905 and had moved to the Tooting area of London in 1909. Henry's father, who shared the same Christian name as his son, was described in the 1939 Register as a "Journeyman Tailor" and Henry junior followed in his father's footsteps to become part of the same profession. He had married Catherine Sparks in 1928 and had a son, Kenneth a year later.

Like many who saw that war was perhaps inevitable, Henry enlisted as a Territorial at Duke of York's HQ in Chelsea on 28 February 1939 and was mobilised shortly before the actual declaration. His trade as described in his Army Service Book was Driver Mechanic.

Serjeant Frank Lockwood remembered on the Greenwich CWGC Memorial (Author's photo)

Martin has kindly shared a photograph of his grandfather, who we see in the back row, top right of the image but sadly none of the other men are captioned, so it is quite possible that some of the other casualties are within this group.

Henry Short rests at Greenwich Cemetery in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission plot and is also commemorated on the screen wall of the 1939 - 1945 Memorial there, along with his colleague Frank Lockwood.

Unpublished Sources

26 Searchlight Regiment RA - Regimental War Diary - UK National Archives Kew WO 166/14864
Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich Civil Defence Incident Log

Martin Short family reminiscences

Book Review: The Thames at War, Saving London from The Blitz by Gustav Milne

The Blitz remains a defining moment in the more recent history of our capital city, a time when Londoners found themselves under almost nightly attack from September 1940 to May 1941 and following a welcome intermission in the second half of 1941 and 1942, were once again under fire during the Little Blitz of late 1943 to early 1944 and rounded off by Hitler's so-called "Vengeance Weapons" from June 1944 right up until late March 1945, barely six weeks before the Nazi capitulation signalled the end of the war in Europe.

This new book by Gustav Milne and the Thames Discovery Programme, a community based archaeological project that surveys the Thames and it's foreshore, tells the story of the London County Council's Thames-Flood Prevention Emergency Repairs Service, or "T-F" for short, one of the lesser known facets of London's Civil Defence organisation during those wartime years, which was largely the creation of Sir Thomas Pierson Frank, the LCC's Chief Engineer from 1930 to 1946 - a classic case of "Cometh the hour, cometh the man" if ever there was one.

The River Thames is London's raison d'etre and then as now, feeds a major port, which during the Second World War was the largest and busiest in the world. But whilst acting as London's life blood, an enemy bomb, doodlebug or rocket could breach the river's embankments at high tide, or fracture one of the many tunnels running beneath it and instantly turn the Thames into a terrifying monster which could kill thousands, paralyse the capital's services and cripple a major part of the British war effort.

As we learn from this book, the embankments were breached on numerous occasions, as were at least two of the tunnels running beneath the Thames but thanks to the superb work of the T-F teams, coupled with a certain amount of good fortune, a major flood disaster in the capital never followed.

The book begins by telling us something of the history of the various floods to affect London in the years prior to the Second World War and of the establishment of the T-F Service. A detailed summary of the works undertaken by the various Rapid Response Teams of the T-F Service then follows, which explains how their work was undertaken of necessity always with one eye on the clock and the state of the ever changing tides. We then learn something of the other emergency services on the river, such as the Auxiliary Fire Service and the Thames Division of the Metropolitan Police, as well as the efforts to keep London's river crossings open throughout the Blitz and the running repairs that were frequently required following heavy raids. We also learn of the work of the various engineers and labourers who worked for the T-F Service, many of whom remain anonymous to this day. Of course, the Port of London would be meaningless without the shipping that served it and the book finishes up with a section devoted to the ships lost on the river and in it's estuary, as well as examining the role played by the Thames during two pivotal operations of the war, DYNAMO and OVERLORD, both of which were crucial to the ultimate Allied victory.

I have one very minor complaint - the author insists on calling the V-1 Buzz Bombs "Rockets" - this is not correct, they were "Flying Bombs" which were not rocket powered (they were propelled by a pulse-jet engine) and I suspect that he has perhaps got them slightly confused with the subsequent V-2 weapons, which were indeed rockets designed by one Wernher von Braun and his team.

However, this is a minor gripe which did not detract from my overall enjoyment of this well-written, profusely illustrated and meticulously researched book and I have no hesitation in commending it to you, whether you are a guide like me, or have a more general interest in London's wartime history.

THE THAMES AT WAR: Saving London from the Blitz
By Gustav Milne

Published by Pen & Sword

RRP: £19.99

Hardback, pp208

Book Review: City of London at War 1939 - 45 by Stephen Wynn

The latest in Pen & Sword Military's excellent series of "Your Towns & Cities in World War Two" covers the City of London, the "Square Mile" that was and remains the financial and business heart of the United Kingdom and comes from the author Stephen Wynn, who has contributed many books to this series.

Several books have been written on the subject of the City of London during the Blitz, concentrating on specific raids, more usually the great fire raid of 29 December 1940, which became known as "The Second Great Fire of London" but in this new offering, Mr Wynn has sensibly decided to look at all aspects of the Square Mile during the conflict and does so in a chronological, year-by-year basis and covers such events as the establishment and organisation of the Civil Defence Services in the City and the Home Guard, as well as Parliamentary and local authority representation. The book also looks at how various establishments and institutions fared during the war, such as the Tower of London and St Bartholomew's Hospital.

As we travel through the years to 1940 and 1941, the focus inevitably shifts to the Blitz and it is with this aspect of the book that I have some issues. For example, in several of the larger raids, the author details the casualties but rather than just providing us with a list of those who lost their lives and perhaps their ages, Mr Wynn feels the need to attempt to provide details of each person; this is fine where the individual has an interesting past or has an intriguing story behind them but merely repeating "the author has been unable to confirm exactly where he/she was buried" becomes tedious in the extreme after in excess of fifty repetitions. Surely it would have been better just to list the names in an appendix and just mention some of those individuals in the main text whenever they had an interesting story to tell.

Another gripe - and one that suggests more than a little laziness in the author's research process - concerns the terrible incident at Bank Station, when he mentions a casualty who was serving with the Women''s Voluntary Service which warrants the comment from the author "This also suggests that the Bank Underground Station was being used as an air raid shelter at this time." This statement beggars belief as even a cursory check with the London Transport Museum or of the official London Transport wartime history would have revealed this to be a fact and indeed, it was the fact that the station was being used as a shelter which accounted for the high casualty figures.

A fault in the research process is also suggested when the author mentions another casualty, this time at Cannon Street, when he mentions "William worked as a fireman and in the circumstances, it was more likely that he was at Cannon Street working rather than just passing through at the time." Once again, this shows a lack of proper research, as an inspection of the London Fire Brigade Roll of Honour, which is readily and easily accessible, reveals that the person in question was indeed on duty. Incidentally, the author speculates over this particular fireman - William Frederick Knight - but then completely overlooks his colleague Stanley Thomas Conniff - who died with him at the same location on that same night. At least one other London fireman who died in the Square Mile on the same night, albeit at a different location completely fails to warrant a mention, so one has to wonder at the completeness of the casualty lists that the author provides.

My final complaint concerns one of the photographs, which is captioned incorrectly; a photo that purports to be The Guildhall is clearly the Mansion House and should be corrected.

Notwithstanding these shortcomings, the author relates many interesting anecdotes and facts during the narrative, which leads us through the slightly quieter years of 1942 and 1943, before we reach the momentous events of 1944 and 1945 which set the country firmly on the road to victory, against a home backdrop of the Vengeance Weapons campaign of those years, both of which affected the Square Mile, although curiously, the author fails to mention the V-2 attack on the City of London Corporation owned Smithfield Market of 8 March 1945, which caused heavy loss of life.

This book is an interesting resource which should appeal to the general reader but which in this reviewer's opinion, requires a carefully revised and updated second edition.

Published Sources:

London Fire Region Deaths on Duty During the Second World War - WF Hickin, The Watchroom 2006

London Transport at War 1939 - 1945 - Charles Graves, London Transport 1974

The Shelter of The Tubes - John Gregg, Capital Transport, 2001

The Auxiliary Fire Service: From Army Dodgers to Heroes with Grimy Faces

A group of AFS firemen (and cab) at Gordonbrock Road School (author's collection)

The Auxiliary Fire Service or AFS was formed in 1938 at the time of the Munich Crisis and on its formation, there were many who doubted the motives of those who volunteered for firefighting duties. An explanation for this early hostility could perhaps have been due to the fact that volunteers for the Fire Service were automatically exempted from the call-up to military service. As a result, a fair number of conscientious objectors were attracted to the AFS and although attitudes towards these principled individuals were more enlightened than during the Great War, there were still many small-minded citizens who could not bring themselves to show any sympathy towards this attitude.

As a result of this, aided and abetted by some of the more hysterical sections of the press, both local and national, there was still some lingering hostility towards the AFS during the dying days of peace and during the so-called "Phoney War" period immediately after the declaration of war in September 1939. "£3 a week Army Dodgers"  and "£3 a week to play darts" were just two of the insults directed towards these volunteers. There was also some hostility towards the Auxiliaries from the regular firemen themselves; some of this was aimed at the conscientious objectors from a minority of firemen who had previously served in the armed forces themselves and harboured outdated views. Sadly though, some was racially motivated, especially towards the considerable Jewish contingent who volunteered for service in the AFS. Some of this was the casual anti-Semitism which pervaded (and which sadly sometimes still pervades) society, whilst some of the more overt hostility came from members of Mosley's British Union of Fascists, some of whom served within the Fire Services.

Firemen in Cheapside on the morning of 30 December 1940 (author's collection)

Fortunately, once the bombs began to fall, it was clear to the public at large that the firemen (and women) were not "Army Dodgers" at all and had in fact, volunteered for the most dangerous role within the Civil Defence and the prejudice aimed at them rapidly evaporated. The truth of the matter was that the newly formed Civil Defence service, of which the Auxiliary Fire Service was a major part, was essentially a citizen army of local people and tended to reflect the ethnicity of the local recruits. For example, in the Aldgate and Whitechapel areas of East London, some 85-90 per cent of the Civil Defence was Jewish - simply local people playing their part in helping to defend their own neighbourhood.

The London Fire Brigade in 1939 was under the control of the London County Council and across the whole of the United Kingdom, the Auxiliaries were similarly held under municipal control. Such a vast expansion of the Fire Services required a similar increase in the number of accommodation and equipment. The former was easily solved by invariably using school premises, newly vacated as a result of the evacuation of school children and which with their catering facilities and ample space for parking, were ideal for use as makeshift fire stations. More of a problem was the provision of sufficient vehicles to act as fire engines. In the capital, the London Taxi came to the fore, towing a trailer pump and with a ladder strapped to the roof rack. Their drivers also went to war and their encyclopedic knowledge of the streets made them an invaluable weapon in the fight against the fires lit by Hitler's bombs.

A London Taxi in attendance at All Hallows-by-the-Tower on 30 December 1940 (author's collection via LMA)

As the word 'auxiliary' suggests, the AFS provided additional or extra capacity to the regular fire brigades and was designed to supplement them by acting as a sort of mobile reserve which could be deployed from city to city in times of great need. The fragility of this plan became evident on the first day of the Blitz, when AFS units arrived from outside the capital only to find that their equipment was not always compatible. For example, hydrant connections were of differing gauges and the standards of training often differed from region to region, so whilst the provincial volunteers were certainly willing, they were not always able to assist. There were also sometimes petty arguments between the various local authorities who controlled the country's fire services. which sometimes prevented the rapid movement of the AFS volunteers from one municipality to another.

Notwithstanding these difficulties, the men and women of the AFS performed heroically during the Blitz. Despite their intensive training, most of the firemen of the AFS had never tackled a 'normal' fire prior to the commencement of the Blitz on 7 September 1940, let alone the sort of fires caused by incendiary and high explosive bombs but during the first twenty two days of the bombing of London, they had fought almost 10,000 fires across London. The Firewomen (the use of the word 'Firefighter' didn't begin until the 1980s) didn't actually tackle fires during the Second World War but instead performed equally vital duties such as Fire Watchers, Drivers and managing the communications network and by 1943, over 70,000 women had volunteered for the Fire Service across the United Kingdom. As a result of their work during the Blitz, the firefighters found themselves feted as "Heroes with grimy faces" a phrase originally coined by Winston Churchill but one which caught the imagination of a grateful public.

Firemen Remembered plaque at Invicta Road School (author's photograph)

However, as a result of the experience gained during the Blitz, it was clear that coordinated action was required, not only to ensure commonality of equipment and training but also to ensure that the petty regional jealousies were overcome. Therefore, on 18 August 1941 the 1,400 separate fire services in Britain were nationalised and a new body, the National Fire Service or NFS was formed in their place. This new service quickly set about tackling the problems caused by the differences in organisation and equipment thrown up by the huge number of former municipal brigades. There were some frictions at first as old habits died hard but it was quickly realised that the nationalisation was for the greater good and the new NFS under the command of the former head of the London Fire Brigade, Sir Aylmer Firebrace, was soon to prove itself more than equal to the challenges thrown up by the Baedeker Raids of 1942-3 and the Little Blitz of 1943-4 as well as the greater problems caused by the V-1s and V-2s of 1944 and 1945.

After the War, the NFS was eventually disbanded in 1948 and the regional fire brigades were taken back under municipal control. However, the standardised procedures and equipment remained in place and thus it is fair to say that the National Fire Service formed the template for today's modern fire services that we all take for granted in their efficiency and dedication to duty.

The National Firefighters' Memorial (author's photograph)

In London alone, 327 firefighters - male and female - were killed during the war but thanks to the work of the charity Firemen Remembered, many memorial plaques have been places at locations where firefighters lost their lives. The National Firefighters Memorial, opposite St Paul's Cathedral was originally commissioned in 1991 following a campaign led by Cyril Demarne OBE, a former senior officer in the NFS and later the London Fire Brigade. Originally designed solely as a tribute to those London firefighters who gave their lives during the Blitz, in 2003 the monument was expanded into a national memorial with the names of a further 1,192 firefighters from across the country who have died in both peace and war being added. Today, this memorial with its evocative image of three firefighters tackling the fires of the City of London and also protecting the Cathedral serves as a lasting and fitting memorial to those men and women of the country's fire brigades who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

Published Sources:

Jewish Participation in the Fire Service in the Second World War - Stephanie Maltman & Martin Sugarman, Valentine Mitchell 2016
London at War - Philip Ziegler, Sinclair Stevenson 1995
The London Blitz, A Fireman's Tale - Cyril Demarne OBE, After The Battle 1991

Exploring Wartime Woolwich

LCC Bomb Damage Map for the area of the walk (author's image)

Last month, we looked at the classic British war movie Battle of Britain, in advance of the special open-air screening of this film as part of the 2017 Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival. The evening was a great success and although it has to be said that the weather was not particularly kind to us, some quick thinking on the part of the organisers, coupled with some judicious examination of on-line weather forecasts, ensured that the hardy souls who did brave the rain were able to sit under cover in order to enjoy the film.

One of the supporting events for the film was a short guided walk of the local area to give people a taste of what the people of Woolwich had to endure not only during the Battle of Britain/Blitz period but during the whole of the Second World War. As this walk is unlikely to be repeated in the immediate future, it seems a good idea to give readers the chance to undertake a 'virtual' walk of Wartime Woolwich without having to get wet!

Postcard view of a Church Parade in Victorian times (author's collection)

Needless to say, the walk started and finished at the event venue, the Royal Garrison Church of St George, which as it's name suggests was originally built for the soldiers of the adjacent Royal Artillery Barracks. The church was built between 1862-63 on the orders of Lord Herbert, the Secretary of State for War in order to provide "moral well-being for soldiers of the Royal Artillery" and which was part of a more general response to the criticism aimed at the government of the day following the Crimean War, when the lack of modern facilities for the British Army was brought to the attention of the public. The church was designed in an Italo-Romanesque style and was very similar to Lord Herbert's own parish church in Wilton, Wiltshire, although built on a much larger scale. The church was the work of the architect Thomas Wyatt, assisted by his brother, Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt.

Pre-WW2 postcard view of the Garrison Church (author's collection)

The church served the Royal Artillery faithfully for many years, with Sunday church parades becoming a regular feature of Woolwich life. The building suffered blast damage from a Zeppelin raid in the First World War and in the following conflict, was initially damaged on the night of 9 March 1941, when a High Explosive bomb caused damage to the north-western corner of the church and left shrapnel damage to the marble entrance pillars that can still be seen to this day. This was one of no fewer than seven bombs that fell in the immediate area on that night but the real killer blow came some three years later when the church was struck by a V-1 Flying Bomb on Thursday 13 July 1944, causing the building to lose it's roof and upper levels. The church can be seen on the extract from the LCC Bomb Damage Maps above, at the bottom right-hand corner of the page. The church is coloured in light red, which indicates that it was thought that repairs were possible but as will be seen below, this proved not to be the case.

Shrapnel damage still visible (author's photo)

The Garrison Church as it is today (author's photo)

Once the rubble was cleared, the church remained in limited use, with occasional open-air services. A rebuilding was mooted in the early 1950s but a road widening scheme, coupled with the general shortage of funds for defence-related matters put paid to that plan. The ruins were further stabilised in the 1970s, with the remnants of the upper walls removed and more recently, a modern canopy was erected over the altar area to replace the unsightly corrugated iron structure previously installed there. This permitted restoration and stabilising works to be undertaken to the fine mosaics at the altar and which should ensure the future of the building going forward. In 2011, the ownership of the church was transferred from the Ministry of Defence to a Trust and today, the building seems to have an assured future as a venue for a variety of events.

From the Garrison Church, the group crossed the strangely quiet South Circular Road and began to walk along the footpath which traverses Woolwich Common adjacent to the magnificent frontage of the Royal Artillery Barracks, built between 1776 and 1802 which at 329 metres, represents the longest continuous architectural frontage in London and which today is Grade 2* Listed. This pathway can be seen running across the bottom of the map reproduced above but perhaps because the barracks were still a relatively secret establishment during the wartime years, no bomb damage is recorded on the map. The Luftwaffe had scant respect for historic buildings however, and the barracks suffered serious blast damage from the seven High Explosive bombs dropped on 9 March 1941 mentioned above as well as receiving fire damage from German incendiaries dropped on 19 April 1944, in what proved to be the final Luftwaffe raid (as opposed to V-Weapon attack) on the borough of the entire war.

Pointing out bomb damage to the group at the RA Barracks (Paul Chapman)

The rain was by now beginning to fall more heavily as the group continued across the footpath and turned right into Repository Road, which is shown on the LCC map as running to the immediate left of the main barrack block. Finding shelter beneath some trees, the group next paused adjacent to the main gate of the modern Woolwich Barracks, now home to the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, where we discovered a simple memorial to one of Churchill's 'Few' from the Battle of Britain. Given that we were walking on 15 September, Battle of Britain Day and given the subject matter of the film that we were about to watch, this was the most poignant moment of the walk and this fact was not lost upon the group.

Memorial to Robin McGregor 'Bubble' Waterston (author's photo)

The memorial is one of several placed by the excellent Shoreham Aircraft Museum in Kent, commemorating members of 'The Few' who lost their lives within a short radius of the museum. The airman in question on this particular memorial is Flying Officer Robin McGregor 'Bubble' Waterston, aged just 23 in 1940 and whose Spitfire X4273 was shot down in a dogfight over the streets of Southeast London during the early evening of 31 August 1940. As his name might suggest, Robin was a Scot, who served with 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron based at RAF Hornchurch in Essex. The squadron had only moved down from Dyce, Scotland on 27 August as part of the ongoing rotation of squadrons in order to reinforce those defending London and the Southeast during the Battle of Britain. Robin had gained his nickname due to his reputed likeness as a youngster to the young boy who was the subject matter of Millais' still life painting which was later used as an advert for Pears Soap. Robin was a very well-liked personality within his squadron who would think nothing of rolling his sleeves up during his off-duty periods in order to help his ground-crew service his aircraft.

Robin Waterston (right) holding a beer (Photo supplied to me by John Duncan www.newbattleatwar.com - also David Ross collection)

Robin became one of the victims of a major air battle that took place above Woolwich during that early evening and was still inside his Spitfire when it crashed opposite to where the memorial is now placed, close to the junction of Repository Road and Hillreach. During the same battle, a Messerschmitt Bf109 flown by Oberleutnant Walter Binder of 4.KG76 was also shot down. This aircraft crashed in nearby Ann Street in Plumstead and like Robin, the German pilot was also killed in his aircraft. It was thought that he was shot down by Sergeant Stokoe, also from 603 Squadron but it is not known whether the German officer was the pilot responsible for shooting down 'Bubble' Waterston.

The rain was now falling steadily as the group turned sharp right into Artillery Place and proceeded along this road, which can be seen on the map running from left to right almost at the dead centre of the image. We paused briefly opposite the garage and car dealership, which amazingly in 1940 also served as a garage and which saw some drama on the night of 17 October 1940 when it was the scene of an unexploded bomb, which was successfully dealt with by the Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal Squad and in the rain, we talked briefly of the work undertaken by these extremely brave men.

Moving along Artillery Place, we next paused on the corner as the road bears left opposite a small side street named Belford Place, which can be seen on the LCC map as a plethora of dark shades, indicating total destruction of buildings and those damaged beyond repair. Four houses in Belford Place were destroyed on the night of 19 March 1941 by a Parachute Mine, which also caused severe damage to Mulgrave Place School, then in use as Auxiliary Fire Station 42W. Seven lives were lost from amongst the residents of the destroyed houses, including a 6 year old boy named Peter Harding, who was killed along with his father. The school, already heavily damaged, was then almost completely destroyed on the night of 20 April 1941 when a High Explosive Bomb detonated, causing the deaths of three AFS Firefighters, including Auxiliary Firewoman Lillian Baker, as well as an 18 year old AFS Messenger, Francis McDonough and Station Officer Charles Burden. This raid coincided with Adolf Hitler's birthday and was thought at the time be some sort of bizarre birthday gift for the Fuhrer.

The War Artist Bernard Hailstone was a member of the AFS who was stationed at Mulgrave Place for a while and his painting of the ruined school buildings now forms part of the collection of the Greenwich Heritage Trust. Not surprisingly, the ruins were demolished and replaced by a new school building post-war.

Bernard Hailstone's painting of Mulgrave Place School (author's photo from original at Greenwich Heritage Centre)

The group now headed down the gentle slope to the junction of John Wilson Street, which in 1940 did not exist and was then a narrow footpath called St John's Passage which can be faintly seen on the right of the LCC map running immediately to the right of the main Barrack block. The junction of this pathway with Artillery Place was in 1940 the location of St John's Church, which had already closed as redundant in 1939. The empty building was damaged by incendiary bombs on the night of 11 September 1940 and further damaged by the blast from the V-1 that caused such heavy damage to the Garrison Church on 13 July 1944. The ruins were demolished in 1948 and any trace of the footprint of the church was subsequently lost beneath the newly constructed John Wilson Street in the late 1960s so that today no trace of it's existence can be discovered.

St John's Church Woolwich (author's collection)

A now distinctly damp group now headed back to the relative dryness of the Garrison Church to take on some liquid refreshments before settling down for the main event of the evening. Despite the efforts of the weather, the evening was a great success and thanks are due to all of those who braved the rain and attended the film and the walk beforehand, the re-enactors who came along, Neil from the London Beer Factory who supplied us with light refreshments as well as to the Garrison Church Trust who permitted us to use their wonderful venue once again. Hopefully the weather will smile on us for next year's events at the Garrison Church!

Out of the Ruins

The 1950 Ordnance Survey Map of Greenwich Town Centre (Dave Wood)

Regular readers of this blog may remember that back in February of this year, we looked at a fascinating photograph that had been provided by Dave Wood @liverpoolimages of Enderby's Wharf, taken immediately post-war in 1946 and how we were able to compare the photograph with the LCC Bomb Damage Map as well as the same view today.

Dave has now posted another image, this time of an Ordnance Survey Map of Greenwich Town Centre dating from 1950, which regularly features the slightly enigmatic description "ruin" on the map. Given the date of the map, it is apparent that the ruins are in fact, bomb damaged buildings and following on from the Enderby Wharf exercise, it might be interesting to compare Dave's OS Map image with the ARP Incident Log, photos of the bomb damage and how it compares to the Bomb Damage Maps for the area.

Aerial view of Greenwich Town Centre immediately post-war, almost certainly taken from the Town Hall clocktower (Author's collection)

What is just as significant as the ruins marked on the OS Map is perhaps what isn't shown; in 1950 there are large areas of emptiness in what was before the war and what is today a thriving built up area. These empty spaces are bomb sites, of which there were plenty in London in the immediate post-war years, some even surviving into the 1970s and 80s. The LCC Bomb Damage Maps for the area are held at the Greenwich Heritage Centre along with the Civil Defence Incident Logs that this author spent many hours transcribing some years ago. These resources are invaluable in translating the basic information on the Ordance Survey Maps into showing exactly which buildings were damaged and at what level of damage.

Greenwich Town Centre Bomb Map (Author's image from original at Greenwich Heritage Centre)

Luckily, as Greenwich has been well photographed over the years, we are able to compare the maps with photographs taken immediately after the war which graphically show the amount of damage incurred by German bombs during the Blitz of 1940-41 and subsequent V-Weapons Campaigns of 1944-45.

Therefore, if we start just below the centre of the two maps, we can see Nicholas Hawksmoor's St Alfege Church of 1718 clearly marked on the OS Map and at first glance all seems well. Compare this however with the Bomb Damage Map and we see that the church is marked in light red, signifying "Seriously Damaged, Repairable at Cost." An examination of the photograph, in which the roof of the church can be seen (unfortunately the spire is out of shot) towards the top left of the image, shows that the roof of the church is still showing signs of wartime damage, with repairs still at an early stage. The church was damaged on several occasions during the Blitz but the killer blow came on the night of 19 March 1941 when the church was gutted by Incendiary Bombs which lodged in the roof timbers, eventually causing the entire roof to plummet into the church itself where the fire burned out of control for some time. There was also an Oil Bomb reported exploding in the Churchyard on the night of 10/11 May 1941 but this seems to have done little if any damage. Happily, the church was rebuilt under the direction of Sir Albert Richardson and re-consecrated in 1953 and continues today to be an important spiritual centre of the community.

Looking at Dave's OS Map, we can see that directly opposite the church, the only building shown is a bank, in 1946 the Westminster Bank but today a Natwest branch. There is a large fallow area either side of the bank and this can be confirmed by looking at the Bomb Map, which shows many buildings coloured in black, which indicates "Total Destruction." This is interesting, because closer examination of the 1946 photograph shows that the bank building is actually still standing, although there is obvious damage both to it and to pretty much everything else left standing in the surrounding area. The cause of this almost total destruction was caused by a V-2, or as described at the time in the Incident Log, a "Long Range Rocket" which was reported at 16:19 on 24 January 1945, causing four fatal casualties, seventeen serious injuries and another ninety two walking wounded. Thanks to the excellent V2 Rocket website, we know that this missile was lauched some five minutes previously in the Den Haag area of The Netherlands. The V-2 Rockets caused widespread damage, mainly in London but also in liberated cities such as Antwerp and Brussels but which mercifully came too late to alter the outcome of the war, with the final British bound example falling at Orpington, Kent on 27 March 1945, less than six weeks before the final German surrender.

If we look again at the photograph and come slightly nearer to the camera, we can see on this side of the church The Mitre public house, which still stands today on the three-way junction with Roan Street, Straightsmouth and Greenwich High Road. Once again, there are some anomalies between the OS Map, the Bomb Damage Map and the photographic evidence, which shows the pub looking somewhat the worse for wear but probably still open for business, whilst the OS Map shows "ruins" on both sides of it. A closer look at the photograph confirms what looks like a bombed out building next door to the pub in Roan Street (which today seems to form part of the pub itself), whilst the Bomb Damage Map makes no mention of any bomb damage whatsoever at this end of Roan Street.  The only bomb damage recorded in the Incident Log for Straightsmouth is a V-1 Flying Bomb further along the road, which caused severe damage to the railway embankment on 1 July 1944 and caused seven serious casualties but thankfully no fatalities. There are some further buildings marked in purple, meaning "Damaged Beyond Repair" at the junction of Straightsmouth and Roan Street but the cause of this damage is unknown as there is no mention of this in the Incident Log, although there is a corresponding fallow area on the OS Map. Despite all of this visual evidence, the bomb that caused the damage to the pub and which caused the adjacent buildings to be described as ruins, is still something of a mystery as it does not appear to have been accurately recorded. The only possible explanation is blast damage caused either by the V-2 that destroyed the area opposite St Alfege Church, or by the V-1 in Straightsmouth described above, or perhaps a combination of both.

The clearing up operation after the V-1 of 1 July 1944 (Greenwich Heritage Centre)

A further look at the photograph adjacent to the tram nearer to the foreground shows some obvious bomb damage, which on the Bomb Damage Map is indeed marked in purple, as "Damaged Beyond Repair." It is hard to pinpoint exactly when this damage was caused as there were so many incidents recorded but it was probably caused on 18 September 1940 when incendiary bombs fell in the area and were reported as having destroyed number 277 and adjacent buildings on the opposite side of the road (again marked in purple on the Bomb Damage Maps), so it would seem a fair assumption. The photograph bears out the level of damage as there is a fairly large extent of cleared land on the left hand side of the road as we see it in the foreground.

On the right hand side of the photograph, to the rear of Greenwich High Road, there is almost total destruction still evident in 1946. This is almost certainly the legacy of another V-1 Flying Bomb which fell on Burney Street on 27 June 1944, causing many houses to be destroyed as well as causing widespread blast damage to the already battered area. Many of the houses were damaged beyond repair and subsequently demolished. Today, the abrupt ending of the surviving terrace gives away the location. In one of those strange post-war twists of fate, the land was later used as the site of the new Greenwich Police Station, which ironically replaced the original Police Station in Park Row, itself destroyed by a Flying Bomb in July 1944.

Damage to Burney Street after the V-1 incident of 27 June 1944 (Greenwich Heritage Centre)

As a matter of interest, the nearest Air Raid Wardens' Post was 'West 5', located in the Town Hall further along Greenwich High Road, which also housed the Borough Civil Defence Control Room. The new Town Hall, completed in 1939, is an impressive Art Deco structure which with it's tall clock tower (from which the aerial photo was taken) dominates the immediate area. It houses a substantial reinforced basement, which apart from the Wardens' Post and Borough Control Room, was also the location of a large public air raid shelter, capable of housing some seven hundred people. This, together with the other public shelters in the vicinity, would have been in frequent use during most of the incidents mentioned above.

Moving further away from the camera nearer to the Thames and almost entirely out of shot behind the church, is another area shown on the Bomb Damage Map as having incurred severe damage. Unfortunately, this area is just off the top of the page for the OS Map, so we are unable to compare the two maps on this occasion but it does make interesting viewing. This area close to the entrance to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel, is shown in a combination of colours, mainly black for "Total Destruction" but with large areas of purple "Damaged Beyond Repair" and crimson "Seriously Damaged - Doubtful if Repairable" showing on the map. There is also a large area shown in green, which indicates a "Clearance Area" which in other words is an area already reduced to rubble and which has already been cleared for redevelopment. The bulk of this devastation was caused by yet another V-1 Flying Bomb that was reported at 06:24 on 3 August 1944 and which killed one person. Had the weapon fallen a few hours later, the casualties would doubtless have been higher as this was a busy area of shops and small businesses, as well as a pedestrian thoroughfare to the Foot Tunnel. Almost the whole block, including the gutted remains of the old 'Ship Hotel', which had already largely been destroyed by a HE Bomb in November 1940, was subsequently cleared to allow the building of the dry dock to house the Cutty Sark in 1954.

As always, the photographs and the two maps make fascinating reading, showing as they do an area that is familiar today to residents and visitors alike, in a completely different light. The documents also show the difficulties that sometimes arise when researching an area's wartime history and the dangers of becoming over reliant on one particular document or source of information. The LCC Bomb Damage Maps are an excellent resource and are invariably correct but one has to remember that these were produced by fallible human beings, often in the heat of the moment. What appeared beyond repair to one local authority building surveyor was sometimes actually very repairable in reality. Likewise, the Civil Defence Incident Logs were written very much in the heat of the moment and therefore sometimes get locations muddled or wrongly named. What always helps are the photographs of any bomb damaged area as these provide incontrovertible visual evidence, even though they do sometimes throw up more questions!

However, the use of all of these sources together will usually allow the determined researcher to get to the bottom of most mysteries as well as providing hours of harmless fun in the process!

As this is likely to be the final blog post for 2016, I'd like to thank everyone for reading and commenting upon the various articles, as well as wishing all of our readers the compliments of the season and also a happy and healthy 2017. We will be back in January with further reports on our wartime history.

Unpublished Sources:

LCC Bomb Damage Maps for Greenwich - held at Greenwich Heritage Centre
Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich Civil Defence Incident Logs - held at Greenwich Heritage Centre 
Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich Public Air Raid Shelter locations - held at Greenwich Heritage Centre
Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich Air Raid Wardens' Post locations - held at Greenwich Heritage Centre

An Ordinary Hero

Ordinary Seaman Jack Dorrington (Dorrington family collection)

On this Remembrance Day, it is fitting to publish the story of one of the many hundreds of thousands of ordinary men and women who served their country during the Second World War. Happily, Jack Dorrington, the subject of this article survived the war to lead a long and happy life in peacetime but we should also remember the many thousands who were not so lucky and who made the ultimate sacrifice. The piece below is the result of the sort of typical family history research that we are able to undertake. If you're interested in learning more about one of your wartime ancestors, please contact me either via the main website or by leaving a comment below.

Jack Dorrington’s story in the Royal Navy is similar to many of those citizen sailors, soldiers and airmen who served in the Second World War. Reginald Jack Dorrington was born in Southwark in 1924 and was a young man who like many others found himself suddenly transplanted from civilian life into something that must have seemed very alien to him – a new life of training, obeying orders and overseas travel into a war zone. What is remarkable about Jack and all of these reluctant warriors is that they so readily adapted and to paraphrase a contemporary saying “kept calm and carried on” with their lives.

His introduction to the Royal Navy would be familiar to any new entry to the Service, then or now, as it began at HMS Raleigh, a Shore Establishment or ‘Stone Frigate’ at Torpoint in Cornwall. This establishment was commissioned in 1940 to provide basic training to new entries into the Navy, a role which continues to this day. Jack was a member of Class 93 from 16 June 1943 and due to the exigencies of wartime, he received a very basic fourteen days training, in which he would have been given aptitude tests, learned drill, weapon training and basic aspects of seamanship as well as something of the structure of the Royal Navy. It is interesting to note that today, in peacetime, the equivalent induction into the Service and basic training takes ten weeks, so Jack and his wartime shipmates had ten weeks’ worth of training crammed into fourteen days!

On arrival at HMS Raleigh, Jack was allocated a Service Number, which like everything in HM Forces, has a meaning and is not just a random collection of letters and numbers. He was given the number JX 566902. The letter ‘J’ signified that he was to be trained as a member of the Seaman & Communication Branch (as opposed to Fleet Air Arm, Stoker, or Cooks & Stewards Branch), meaning that he would be involved either as a Signalman, Radar Operator, Gunner, or any seaman’s duty ‘above decks’ rather than in the Engine Room, for example. The letter ‘X’ signified that he was on the post-1925 basic pay scale, which at that time amounted to the princely sum of 2 Shillings (10 pence) per day for an Ordinary Seaman, rising to 4/3 (about 22 pence) per day for an Able Seaman with six years’ service. Even the number itself told a story; by 1943, the original six-figure sequence of numbers begun in 1925 at 125001 was beginning to run out due to the massive wartime expansion of the service, so from 1 April 1943, a new sequence starting at 500000 was instigated, which instantly told administrators and paymasters that a rating in this sequence of numbers was a ‘Hostilities Only’ engagement, or ‘Hostile Ordinary’ as the regulars nicknamed them. This service number would remain with the serviceman for his entire career and would be used for pay, welfare and disciplinary records. It was probably during his time at Torpoint that Jack acquired a nickname and being a six footer, it was almost inevitable that he would become known as ‘Lofty’ from this point onwards during his Royal Navy service.

Jack (top, second from right) and HMS Raleigh shipmates (Dorrington family collection)

His basic training completed, Ordinary Seaman Dorrington as he was now officially known, was allocated a Port Division, effectively a home barracks, which in his case was Chatham. The letter ‘C’ was therefore added as a prefix to his service number which now read C/JX 566902. Other prefixes regularly in use were ‘D’ for Devonport, ‘P’ for Portsmouth and ’L’ for Lee-on-Solent Fleet Air Arm ratings. Upon arrival at Chatham, Jack was based at HMS Pembroke, the name for the barracks at the Naval Base, where he would doubtless have received further training before being drafted to his first ship, the frigate HMS Lawford, then building at the Boston Navy Yard, USA. It hasn’t been possible to ascertain from his Service Record exactly what Jack’s specialization was but given his service number and looking at the types of vessels he served in, it is highly likely that he was either a Radar or a Sonar (at that time in the RN called ASDIC – an acronym for the fictitious Anti-Submarine Division Indication Committee) Operator, or perhaps a lookout – all extremely responsible positions for a young lad straight out of basic training.

Reaching the USA could be a nightmare journey for many servicemen, often being allocated to a slow and overcrowded troop ship in an equally slow moving convoy through U-Boat infested waters. Jack however, was one of the more fortunate individuals, being transported across the Atlantic in the Cunard liner RMS Queen Mary, converted into a troop ship and therefore with fairly basic accommodation but which had the saving grace of being fast – too fast in fact for a submerged U-Boat to touch – so that any discomfort and overcrowding would be short-lived. Jack was on Voyage TA66, which sailed from the Clyde on the evening of 29 September 1943 and arrived at New York City just over five days later, on the morning of 5 October 1943. Upon arrival in New York, a welcome sight would have been that of a US Navy Paymaster on the quayside, whose job was to present ten dollars to each British sailor arriving in the USA. The exchange rate at this time was around four dollars to the pound, so this would have represented a small fortune to the poorly paid British servicemen. The reason for this generous act was that the cost of living in the USA was higher in comparison to the UK, so it was designed to make life easier for the lads when buying drinks and food ashore, which would have been difficult, if not impossible on their low Royal Navy rates of pay.

RMS Queen Mary in her wartime guise as a troopship (IWM)

An overnight train journey from New York to Boston then beckoned for the young sailors. Upon arrival in Boston, the next stop was at Fargo Barracks, where the seamen would be accommodated until such time as their ship was ready for them. Fargo Barracks was a vast complex in the centre of Boston that had begun life as a wool warehouse but which had now been requisitioned by the US Navy as their Induction Centre for the crews destined for the many frigates being built at the nearby Boston Navy Yard at Charlestown. The barracks had a reputation for plentiful supplies of excellent quality food, which was in sharp contrast to the rationing back home in England. Some of the young sailors were able to lodge with local Boston families rather than stay in the huge barracks. Jack was one of those selected to do so and recalled being fussed over by a kindly local family anxious to do their bit for the war effort. The lads also had free access to cinema and theatre tickets, with every effort made to ensure that these youngsters, most of whom were on their first ever overseas trip, felt welcome in their new surroundings far away from home. Of course, the British sailor enjoys his beer and there were plenty of bars for them to sample, although some of these were deemed strictly ‘off limits’ to the British, being considered home territory to US Navy men. Some fierce fights between the sailors of the two allied nations were recorded as a result of unsuspecting (or foolhardy) British tars entering an 'American' bar. One of Jack's tasks at this time was to be part of a squad that collected a member of Lawford's crew that had drunk too much in order to return him to his ship.

Whilst here, the ratings and junior officers would receive further training from US Navy instructors in connection with the layout and equipment of their new ships. This training was of a high standard and during his time in Boston, Jack learned how to drive, although whether this was part of his official training, or something done to relieve the boredom is not clear.

The Ship's Company moved aboard HMS Lawford at the Navy Yard on 30 October 1943 shortly before she was commissioned on 4 November, after which the new frigate would have conducted further trials and training. Some minor defects must have come to light during these trials, as Lawford was back in shipyard hands from 7 to 12 November 1943, with the crew back in shore accommodation.  The men finally moved on board permanently on 13 November and following further trials and a basic working-up exercise, HMS Lawford sailed at 14:30 on 5 December 1943, in company with her sister ship HMS Kingsmill, on passage to Liverpool. The Commanding Officer of the Lawford, Lieutenant Commander Sydney Ayles RNR, was the Senior Officer and therefore had overall responsibility for the two ships.

HMS Lawford at Liverpool in 1944 (IWM)

Both ships were ‘Captain’ Class Frigates, designed primarily for anti-submarine convoy escort work but these two vessels had been earmarked for conversion into Headquarters Ships for the forthcoming Normandy invasion, so their usual anti-submarine training at Bermuda was omitted, which was to have repercussions later on the voyage to the UK. All ships of the class were named after famous Captains and Admirals of the Royal Navy, mostly from the Nelson era and HMS Lawford was no exception, being named after Captain John Lawford, commander of HMS Polyphemus at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801.

It is hard to imagine a tougher initiation for the embryonic sailors as that which befell those aboard HMS Lawford, for two days after sailing she ran into a Force Nine gale and by 22:30 on 7th December, she was 'hove to' with the ship’s bows heading into the wind at reduced speed in order for the frigate to ride out the storm without causing serious damage to the ship or endangering it’s safety. The conditions on board at this time do not bear thinking about and many of the men would have been wishing for the warmth and comfort of their Boston lodgings once again!

The ship resumed passage at 08:10 the following morning but there was some further excitement on the 10th December when a radar contact was reported at 20:11 at a range of six and a half nautical miles. Four minutes after initial radar contact, a German U-Boat was then sighted on the surface ahead of the two frigates. The submarine spotted the two ships closing in and dived at 20:22, by which time the range had reduced to around two miles. The Sonar crews were obviously well trained as contact was held despite the poor weather but the depth charge attacks can only be described as shambolic, with the poorly trained novice depth charge supply teams only managing a sporadic supply of depth charges up to the decks. At this point, Ayles the CO of Lawford, decided on a ‘Hedgehog’ attack. The Hedgehog was a forward throwing weapon which fired charges ahead of the ship designed to explode on contact with a submarine’s submerged hull. However, just as Ayles was about to open fire, sister ship HMS Kingsmill crossed the bows of the Lawford, inadvertently placing herself in range of the Hedgehog projectiles, thus forcing the attack to be aborted. By this stage, at 22:41 on the 10th, the weather was closing in again and the decision was taken to abort the attack for fear of the two frigates having to 'heave to' once more and thus leaving them potentially sitting targets for the submarine. The decision to proceed was vindicated because by 00:45 on 11th December, the gale had increased to Force Ten with the ships 'hove to' once again and Ayles was unable to follow orders received from C in C Western Approaches instructing him to return to the search for the submarine. The weather began to moderate by 07:20 on the 12th and following amended orders from Western Approaches Command, the two frigates resumed their passage to England.

The two ships arrived off the Liverpool Bar Light Vessel at 08:00 on 14th December and were alongside at Gladstone Dock a few hours later, from whence they were immediately sent to the Cammell Laird Shipyard in Birkenhead for conversion into their Normandy role. Christmas Leave was given and most of the ship’s companies were paid off to be transferred to other vessels. Jack was one of those selected to remain with the ship, which suggests that he had acquitted himself well in his duties and was someone who would be required in the ship’s new role. This lends further credence to the theory that he was a radar or sonar operator, some of the few people to have come out of the U-Boat debacle with credit. The conversion entailed fitting additional accommodation for the extra staff officers to be carried, an enhanced radar outfit and additional radio communications, with the close-range anti-aircraft armament being considerably strengthened by fitting an extra sixteen 20mm Oerlikon cannons at the expense of one of the three inch guns, which were of limited value in any event.

Whilst undergoing her post-refit trials, two merchant ships collided in the River Mersey during thick fog and caught fire. HMS Lawford approached to give assistance and her motor boat crew did what was described as “magnificent” work in rescuing some of the crews of the two ships, including going right into a patch of burning oil to pick up men from the water. A proper work-up programme then ensued which was completed by the end of May 1944, at which time it would be fair to say that the crew of Lawford were an efficient and fully trained unit. The work-up complete and her ship’s company at the peak of training, HMS Lawford sailed from Portsmouth for the Normandy invasion beaches on 6 June 1944, under the command of Lieutenant Commander MC Morris RN. She was escorting ten former ferries carrying Canadian assault troops for ‘Gold’ Beach.

Her role on D-Day was that of the Command Ship of Captain AF Pugsley RN, initially co-ordinating the landing of the troops on J1 Sector of ‘Gold’ Beach but who was also nominated to be in command of all patrol activity off Normandy following the invasion. All went well at first but on D+2, disaster struck when she was hit by an Hs 293 Glider Bomb dropped by a Ju88 aircraft, which seemed to appear as if from nowhere, thus demonstrating that even with the enhanced radar protection on offer, the fleet was still vulnerable to attack from low flying aircraft penetrating beneath the radar.

Hs293 Glider Bomb (Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin)

The ship broke in two and sank inside ten minutes, with 26 men being killed, who were mainly engine room ratings trapped below when the missile struck. A total of 8 officers (including her CO) and 210 ratings were rescued by two minesweepers and returned to the UK. Royal Navy records rather confusingly refer to these glider bombs as ‘aerial torpedoes’ and the records for HMS Lawford are no exception but the Hs293 was actually a radio controlled ‘ship busting’ bomb – an early form of guided missile with a warhead of over 1,000 kilograms. Not surprisingly, most vessels hit by these weapons were either sunk or damaged so severely as to be beyond repair.

Jack was above decks when the missile struck and was thus able to quickly comply with the ‘Abandon Ship’ order but being a non-swimmer, his troubles were just beginning. Wearing heavy sea boots, greatcoat and steel helmet, he was hardly equipped for buoyancy and soon found himself struggling to remain afloat. Jack recalled trying to grab hold of shipmates, being told to “Let go of me, Lofty” on numerous occasions before eventually being hauled into a small boat, probably from one of the rescuing minesweepers. Jack was unceremoniously dumped into the bottom of the boat and soon found himself underneath a pile of men as fellow survivors were thrown into the boat on top of him. Jack had swallowed a lot of seawater but the weight of the other men on top of him forced him to be sick, thus probably speeding his recovery.

Royal Navy ratings repairing buildings in London damaged by V-1 attacks (IWM)

In common with all shipwrecked Royal Navy personnel, Jack was given seven days survivor’s leave and arrived home in the clothes he was wearing when he jumped into the sea, plus a blanket wrapped around him for good measure. On his return to barracks at HMS Pembroke on 16 June 1944, Jack was promoted to Able Seaman, which is another indication that he had done good work aboard HMS Lawford. He was based at barracks until 4 September 1944 after which time he was allocated as a member of the ‘London War Party’ from 5-13 September. London had been under attack from V-1 Flying Bombs from 13 June until early September 1944 and it had been decided to deploy members of the services, including many of those whose peacetime jobs had been in the building trade, to assist in repairing some of the worst of the bomb damage. It hasn’t been possible to find out exactly what work Jack was doing at this time but the IWM has documented some of the work in a series of photographs which give us a fair idea.

Destroyer Depot Ship HMS Wolfe (IWM)

Following the end of this work, Jack was drafted to HMS Dolphin at Gosport on 16 September 1944. This was another shore establishment and was until 1999 the home of the Royal Navy Submarine Service. Jack’s Service Record shows that he underwent submarine training here, which would have included escape training. The current Submarine Escape Training Tank dates from 1954 but similar training was given in wartime, designed to simulate escaping from a submerged submarine using breathing apparatus and other life-saving equipment. On completion of his submarine training, Jack was drafted on 29 October 1944 to HMS Adamant, the submarine Depot Ship for the 4th Submarine Flotilla, based at Trincomalee, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). So far, it has not been possible to ascertain how Jack reached Trincomalee from the UK, but he would almost certainly have taken passage in a troop ship, or perhaps on board another Royal Navy ship taking up position on that station.

Jack (second from left) and shipmates aboard HMS Wolfe (Dorrington family collection)

Jack was based aboard Adamant only until the end of 1944, being transferred on 1 January 1945 to HMS Wolfe, another submarine Depot Ship, this time for the 2nd Flotilla, also based at Trincomalee. The role of the Depot Ship was basically to provide port, repair and rest facilities for submarines and their crews whilst serving away from normal port facilities – in other words a home away from home. The life on board a Depot Ship would have been quite routine for most of the time, probably not a bad thing considering the fate of Jack’s previous ship but just occasionally there does seem to have been some excitement, as the log of HMS Wolfe records several air raid warnings as well as a loud explosion outside the harbour entrance in January 1945.

On 10 September, with the war against Japan over, Jack was assigned as part of the passage crew of the submarine HMS Torbay which was returning home to the UK to be placed in reserve and eventually scrapped. Torbay was a ‘T’ Class submarine commissioned in January 1941 and had fought a distinguished war, firstly in the Mediterranean, where her CO, Lieutenant Commander Anthony Miers had won the Victoria Cross for his actions in sinking enemy troop transports. Miers was later transferred from Torbay following allegations from fellow officers and crew members that he had ordered them to machine gun enemy survivors in the water. Whilst Miers never attempted to deny the allegations, no further action was ever taken against him.

HMS Torbay (IWM)

Torbay had enjoyed continued success against the Japanese in the Far East and had sunk several transport vessels as well as a patrol boat. The battle weary submarine sailed for the UK on 10 September 1945 via the Suez Canal and arrived at Gosport on 22 October following an uneventful passage. She was later moved to Briton Ferry in South Wales and it appears that Jack formed part of the crew which delivered the submarine to the scrapyard located there on 16 December 1945. He was once again drafted to HMS Pembroke at Chatham from the following day, when he would no doubt have been granted Christmas leave at home for the first time since 1943.

On 14 February 1946, Jack was drafted to HMS Vigilant, a ‘V’ Class Destroyer at that time serving as an Anti-Submarine Warfare training vessel based at Londonderry in Northern Ireland. His service in the Royal Navy was by now drawing to a close and he was only on board Vigilant until 3 April 1946, when he was once again based at Chatham for a few weeks. Jack’s final draft was to HMS Lynx, a shore establishment for Coastal Forces at Dover, where he was based from 25 April to 17 September 1946.

Jack Dorrington was demobbed back to civilian life on 17 September 1946 but old habits formed during his service in the Royal Navy appear to have died hard, as he continued to enjoy a daily tot of rum for the rest of his life. In later years, Jack and his wife Elsie also became regular devotees of cruises aboard liners such as the Canberra and Oriana, so the nautical life must have held a lasting appeal. Jack passed away in 2015 aged 91, one of the many 'ordinary heroes' who helped defeat Hitler as well as Japanese tyranny and to whom we owe so much.

I am indebted to the Dorrington family and especially his grandson and close friend of mine, Sam, for allowing access to Jack’s photographs and for providing many personal anecdotes.


Published Sources:

The Captain Class Frigates in the Second World War - Donald Collingwood, Leo Cooper - 1998


Unpublished Sources:

Dorrington family reminiscences
RMS Queen Mary log extracts - National Archives BT 380/1202
HMS Lawford log extracts December 1943 - National Archives ADM 217/313
HMS Lawford report on sinking 8 June 1944 - National Archives ADM 267/117
HMS Wolfe log extracts January-July 1945 - National Archives ADM 53/122516-122522
HMS Torbay log extracts September-October 1945 - National Archives ADM 173/19946-47