HMS GANGES TO TERROR WEBSITE Comprehensive illustrated records and recollections of ship's exploits including 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.
19 December 2012
UK GOVERNMENT ACCEDE TO ARCTIC CONVOY VETERAN'S BATTLE FOR A MEDAL.
Although most of those forced to endure Russian Convoys and patrols have since died the few that are left have, led by Commander Eddie Grenfell, fought and won another long battle, this time to get service in Arctic waters and Barents Sea recognised as deserving of a medal.
They will, at long last, be rightly pleased and justifiably proud not just for themselves but for all their shipmates who were there but upwards of 70 years later are unable to wear the new medal. NB. 26 Feb 2013 - Medals made & issue forecast is March. 19 March 2013 - Prime Minister (David Cameron) presents medals to some veterans at 10 Downing Street.
Cdr Eddie Grenfell (with stick) leads his Russian Convoy Club, UK Southern Branch members and relatives of deceased members at the laying-up of their flag at Portsmouth Anglican Cathedral in September 2008.
HMS GANGES.Boys and Staff - now scattered widely around the world - still hotly debate the 'Shotley' regime but almost unanimously they agree it shaped their lives for the better. Look again at Shotley then and now and add your own memories if you want to. (Pic. The gateway to the navy circa 1954 - 'The Annexe')
2012 Jan - New page - New entrant joins in 1945 before 'Boys' training resumes.
2012 Jan - NEW MEMORIAL to 'BOYS' - More on the GANGES page.
HMS BERMUDA. A history of this Colony Class cruiser from shipyard to scrapyard. It has first-hand illustrated recollections of Arctic Convoys, North Africa Landings and Pacific operations as well as post-war journeying that suprisingly didn't include the Colony of Bermuda before 1958.
2013 - ZANTE EARTHQUAKE - 60th Anniversary - Please see Guestbook entries 13-14 January 2013 for information.
2013 - Peter Camis recalls storm damage and the hospitality of Southend-on-Sea on the 1961 page!
HMS ECHO. Visited by tragedy in the Thames Estuary in 1964 this RN inshore survey vessel was, with her sisters ENTERPRISE AND EGERIA, familiar for 25 years around the East Coast of England before going to the Marine Society in a training role. In 2012 they remain afloat in private use. Also here is the WW2 destroyer HMS ECHO
which was loaned to Greece and renamed NAVARINON.
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. Later sold to Bangladesh it survived into the 21st century.
HMS OBDURATE. A major player in the Battle of the Barents Sea the ship took me (and many others) on a 'sea-day' from GANGES and soon afterwards became my first seagoing draft. The complete day-by-day life of this mine-laying destroyer, supported with first-hand accounts, is here.
2013 May - The last pages of OBDURATE added - her life story is complete
2012 Nov - New page(s) - 1955 with a Recollections page link.
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 in the pages in this Section of the website.
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 hitherto London-based Navy Departments now (2006) housed on Whale Island.
HMS TERROR, SINGAPORE NAVAL BASE and DOCKYARD became home to many RN, RAN, RNZN sailors as well as crucial Dockyard Staff but did you know the background? The answers, the ships and the way of life are here in words and pictures with some 21st century comparisons.
ROYAL NAVAL PATROL SERVICE. The written memories of Reg Brearey's wartime 'Hostilities Only' life in RNPS trawlers and minesweepers during WW2 and its aftermath including his 'Mentioned in Despatches' will take you closer to those times.
DUNKIRK REMEMBERED. It was the 800 plus 'Little ships'' that made possible the evacuation of more than one third of a million men from the beaches there in June 1940. Very few of those vessels survive but here are some I photographed at Ramsgate in 2000 as they returned from 60th Anniversary commemorations in Dunkirk.
This replaces original Contents Page with Counter at 29304 + 10000. New published 30/11/2007. New + pix added 4/2/12.
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