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War and the forces

SILENT SERVICE

In August 1941, the Royal Navy, in the eastern Mediterranean, continued transporting tonnes of assorted stores, ammunition and light guns from Alexandria in Egypt to the besieged garrison at Tobruk in north Africa, approximately 365 miles away.

My destroyer, HMS Jervis, and HMS Kingston, two modern ships, left the port each with 25 tonnes of stores stowed on our iron decks. We left at noon and arrived, subject to the weather, shortly after midnight. We closed to the African coast about a mile off Tobruk harbour.

There was a mixture of tension and apprehension among our crew as the coastline came into view in the distance and our speed reduced on this dark, moonless night. From the shoreside we observed flares inland, faintly illuminating the coastal region, followed by gun flashes and spasmodic bursts of small arms firing which echoed through the still of the night. No doubt night activity on the perimeter of this besieged garrison.

It appeared very eerie as we neared the harbour entrance and as we passed the boom we could smell the slight scent of the desert air and realised how close we were to Rommel's Afrika Korps.

Wrecks were numerous in this mortuary of sunken ships. Then we stopped engines and anchored in the harbour.

We held our breath as the silence of the harbour was shattered by the anchor cable rattling down the hawsepipe and we thought surely this would be a giveaway of our presence. Nevertheless, all was well and immediately two lighters were alongside.

Using wooden ramps, we com-menced unloading the stores, which included some 3.7in anti-aircraft gun barrels, at high speed into the lighters manned by Australian Desert Rats. Our unloading time limit was 30 minutes but we finished with three minutes to spare.

While unloading we took on board 20 wounded soldiers, mostly Aus-tralian, then we weighed anchor and headed out to sea. Throughout the following months, on moonless nights, destroyers in twos or threes supplied Tobruk with supplies and stores but not without the loss of some destroyers, mainly due to air attacks by the Luftwaffe.

Later we carried over 6,000 of our gallant allies, young Polish soldiers eager to engage Rommel's troops in battle, and brought back from Tobruk the same number of Australian troops.

I often wonder how many of those Polish troops survived the war and eventually settled in England. They were very serious indeed and well disciplined.

As a regular in the navy a few years later, in January 1951, I was serving on HMS Fierce, a fleet minesweeper, when our flotilla called in Tobruk harbour. Apparently an Italian salvage firm had just completed clearing the harbour of all the wrecks.

The next day our flotilla padre organised a tour which included a visit to Knightsbridge war cemetery. Many British, Australian, New Zealand, Polish and Allied soldiers are laid to rest in this area of north Africa.

I can assure all British and Allied Desert Rats, especially the Royal Sussex Regiment who are now senior citizens like myself, that the war graves of all your comrades who fell in battle are well looked after and maintained in this quiet, desolate expanse of the western desert.

Also to the senior citizens who lost a husband, or perhaps an uncle, or grand-father, God bless you all.

I have many heartfelt memories of those days which took place 60 years ago.

by Mr F S Gardner, Lewes