I Sank The Bismarck by John Moffat Read Free Book Online Page A

Flow in
October and a battleship, Royal Oak, was torpedoed and
sunk, again with a great loss of life – over eight hundred men.
This incident was particularly galling as Scapa Flow was
meant to be a very secure base for the Home Fleet, but of
course they had grown complacent during peacetime. The
anti-submarine defences were strengthened, but it was a case
of bolting the stable door. There were also daily losses of
cargo ships to U-boat attack, and British ships were falling
victim to German raiders, warships calledpocket battleships
that were very fast and could travel great distances without
refuelling. Three of these were active in the South Atlantic and
the Indian Ocean, preying on ships travelling outside the
convoy system that had quickly been set up. So we young lads
of eighteen and nineteen were studying away to join a service
that was already seeing serious action, and not necessarily
coming out on top.
    We were trying to complete a condensed course in just three
months and the original group of forty or so chaps in St
Vincent was whittled down by around a third as a result of
tests and examinations. After two and a half months the navy
assumed that we had learned all we needed to know, or at
least all we were capable of absorbing, and we were sent off
on the next and most important part of our training – ourinitial flying instruction.
    Half of those remaining on the course went to Elmdon in
the Midlands while the other half went to Belfast. The odd
part of this selection was that the men who, like me, were
keen rugby players were all sent to Belfast. After about two
weeks my friendGlan 'Taff' Evans and I organized a moderately
good fifteen and played many of the local teams, with
me hooking and my new Welsh pal as scrum-half. We had
some wonderful matches, but one in particular sticks out in
my mind. Taff was penalized three times in a row for the way
he put the ball in. Frustrated, he picked it up and took it to
the referee, saying, 'What bloody rules are you playing –
Cardiff or Swansea?' He wasn't penalized again during the
game.
    We had a great time and the locals were extremely hospitable.
We were billeted in private houses near to Sydenham
airfield, which is now Belfast City airport. Living off the base
and able to come and go after our day's training was a great
improvement on St Vincent, and I made the most of it.
    I met a girl, a petite blonde, and we arranged one night to
meet outside the Plaza ballroom in the middle of Belfast. I had
unfortunately not told her that the navy had decided we
should wear civilian clothes when on leave in Belfast. My
mother had sent my best kilt and sporran, so I wore these for
my date. I arrived at the Plaza and saw my girlfriend on the
other side of the road, so I waved and shouted. When she saw
me she ran off as hard as she could in the other direction. It
must have been my good luck after that to meet up with
another young girl.
    We had been invited to a Christmas dance sponsored by the
Gallagher's tobacco factory at the Plaza, and after a few
dances I was singled out by a very peroxide blonde who was
a brilliant dancer. She asked me if I could 'jitterbug', a
popular dance at the time, but something that I had never
done. After half an hour in a nearby room she had showed me
all the moves. So, accompanied by enormous amusement
from my friends, we entered a dance competition. We managed
to make it to the last four and then came second, so we
ended with the prize of a well-stocked Christmas hamper.
Then I met a lady called Ruby and we started going out
together. She was great company and very attractive.
    But learning to fly was the reason I had joined the navy and
I would have been happy to be here, Ruby or no Ruby, despite
the fact that the airfield itself was not particularly attractive.
It was part of the shipbuilding companyHarland and Wolff,
whose massive mobile crane was visible from all over Belfast.
Most of the base had been built on land reclaimed from
Belfast