Welcome to Les Burrill's HMS GANGES TO TERROR website Comprehensive illustrated records and recollections of ship's exploits that include Arctic Convoys, battles, landings, earthquake relief, royal escorts as well as Barracks, Dockyards and Singapore Naval Base that supported the ships. What became of them? Click on the index or name.
HMS GANGES. Everyone - Boys and Staff - still hotly debate the 'Shotley' regime but almost unanimously agree that this training establishment shaped their lives. Look again at Shotley then and now and add your own memories if you want to. 2012 Jan: NEW - 1945 Boy Prigmore. 12 JAN 2012 NEW MEMORIAL FOR 'BOYS' PLANNED - More on the GANGES page.
HMS BERMUDA.A day-by-day account of the history of the ship includes an Engineer Officer's illustrated account of his war years in this new 1942 cruiser and continues its life through to the breakers yard. (NEW June 2011 Alan Broughton's journey from Arctic to Pacific in the ship)
HMS ECHO. Visited by tragedy in the Thames Estuary in 1964 this inshore survey vessel's RN life, Marine Society training role and move to Egypt is recorded here together with her sister ships ENTERPRISE AND EGERIA.
NEW Sept. 2011 - EGERIA. New owner's tragic death near vessel brings stop to restoration.
HMS JAGUAR. This new in 1959 diesel-engined frigate came out of Denny's in Dumbarton as their long and distinguished shipbuilding history was coming to an end and was still in use in Bangladesh in 2001.
HMS OBDURATE. (2011/12 - New/Revised pages being added) A major player in the Battle of the Barents Sea she became my (and many others) GANGES 'Sea-day' ship and subsequently my first seagoing draft. First-hand accounts recount the life of this mine-laying destroyer.
HMS PEMBROKE the home of the Chatham Port Division and HM DOCKYARD CHATHAM always seemed so welcoming and secure and I cannot remember anyone ever 'dripping' about the place but I could just be a bit forgetful! HMD SHEERNESS AND WILDFIRE were no less welcoming but there was and still is an explosive possibility there. Recount your memories and their history here. NEW July 2011: John Gillham's Chatham 1950-88. NEW April 2011: RAF (MHQ) Staff are you in the picture? - See PEMBROKE 2 page.
HMS SKIPJACK, GAVINTON, VERNON & EXCELLENT took me in at one time or another and must not go unmentioned. Of these EXCELLENT alone survives but must be sinking under the weight of the many Navy Departments now (2006) housed on Whale Island.
HMS TERROR, SINGAPORE NAVAL BASE and DOCKYARD became home to many RN, RAN, RNZN & others including Dockyard Staff but did you know the background? The answers, the ships and the way of life is remembered and revisited in this section with 21stC comparisons. 2012 Jan: NEW - Singapore 1947 aep (Prigmore).
ROYAL NAVAL PATROL SERVICE. The memories of Reg Brearey's wartime 'Hostilities Only' life in RNPS trawlers and minesweepers during WW2 and its aftermath include his 'Mentioned in Despatches'.
DUNKIRK REMEMBERED. Some of the 'Little Ships' at Ramsgate on the 60th Anniversary in 2000.
THANK YOU AND VERY BEST WISHES TO ALL WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED OR LOOKED IN TO THE SITE DURING 2011. I HOPE YOU WILL RETURN IN 2012.
Les Burrill (Webmaster)
This replaces original Contents Page with Counter at 29304 + 10000. New published 30/11/2007 | 
