Ray's story of his WW2 days in the Royal Navy.

      Ray in March 2007                                                                       A view from the air of 

                Aged 82                                                     HMS Ganges at Shotley, Nr Harwich.

Enlisting and HMS Lightfoot

When WW2 broke out, Ray was still a 14 year old schoolboy living at his family home at 

Springwood, Chesterton, in North Staffordshire. Ray's first job after leaving school was as 

a machinist at the BSA factory in Newcastle, but as the almost certain arrival of his call up papers drew nearer, he decided to enlist in the service of his own choice. 

So at the age of 17, Ray applied to join the Royal Navy.

He took and passed his medical examination on the 13th  February 1943, but it was not until the 27th September that he received his enlistment notice. He was instructed to present himself on Monday 4th October at HMS Ganges, the onshore naval training base on the Shotley peninsular in Essex.

              (click on them to see them in detail)  

            Ray's enlistment notice                                                          His medical card

His training at HMS Ganges lasted for 3 months and included such joys as been taken out to sea to learn how to swim, only being allowed back on shore after completing enough strokes to satisfy his instructor. Ray also remembers having to climb the famous wooden mast.

After completing his naval training he was ordered to report to the drill hall at HMS Pembroke, the naval base at Chatham.  This was to be Ray's home base for the duration of his naval service.

The posting to his first ship was short lived, for soon after he'd  received  instructions to

join his ship, it's mission to protect a Baltic convoy was cancelled. Ray can't recall the ship's

name but he remembers that some time later that year, this particular ship was lost with all hands while on convoy duty in the Baltic.

Within days he was re-assigned to another ship, the mine sweeper HMS Lightfoot, and was told to make his way immediately to Leith in Scotland to join the ship. He was on the Lightfoot in Leith for only 10 to 14 days while the ships crew was assembled after which she sailed for 

Tobermory on the Isle of Mull. Local people in Tobermory vividly remember the large amount

of ships moored out in the bay, the majority of them were on some sort of training, anti-submarine, mine sweeping and so on. Even the commandoes who were training nearby made mock raids on the port. It was here that Lightfoot and her crew underwent mine sweeping training before going on active duty.  

                    HMS Lightfoot was returned during 1946 - it is seen here  in 1948 under the Greek flag

HMS Lightfoot was just one of many ex-US and Canadian Algerine class mine sweepers used by the Royal Navy during the war. After being transferred to Britain on the 14th December 1942,  Lightfoot was joined by four other ships on mine sweeping duties. 

Ray can't recall the names of the other ships at the moment but we will add them if we get the information.

They operated five abreast with chains between each ship, attempting to sever the contact mines anchor chains on the sea bed. The mines would then be released and float to the surface where they were shot at in an attempt to hole them below water level, allowing sea water to enter and render the explosives safe. Ray recalls the times that he had to arm depth charges prior to firing, another method of disposing with the mines.

These operations took place between the West Coast, Pentland Firth and the upper regions

of the North Sea, and were to continue for several months during early 1944.

 The last duty that the Lightfoot performed before she left this area was to escort a stricken 

 submarine from the North Sea into Dundee.

D-Day was fast approaching, so the Lightfoot was ordered south to join the flotilla of ships 

gathering in the Solent in preparation for the Normandy landings. The sight of so many ships 

gathered  in one place was an 'incredible experience' says Ray.

As the preparations continued for the D-Day landings on the 6th June 1944, Ray had to be

taken ashore to undergo an operation in Portsmouth hospital. After only two or three days, 

he was transferred to Winchester hospital and then on to the Queen Elizabeth hospital in 

Birmingham. Ray's short stay in these south coast hospitals was because of the freeing up of

as many beds as possible in preparation for expected D-Day casualties. After ten days in the 

QE hospital, he was on his way home to Chesterton for a spell of leave.

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