Family History

stutterdog · Post by **stutterdog** » Fri 13 Nov, 2009 11:57 am

Cardiarms wrote: Thanks - I'm having problems with links from the site as well.It's not helped by my grandfather-in-law using three different birthdays. He was underage the first two time he went to sea. His story is incredible. After being sunk twice he joined the navey so he could fire back. The assigned him to an armed merchant man with a pop gun on the front. he spent 6 months in murmansk working on the unloading of the ships. My sister in law's father was torpedoed 3 times during ww2 and survived! He died about 8 yrs ago now. My brother in law called him Jonah! He took it in good part. Incidently, there are some great stories on the bbc peoples war site concerning peoples experiences in ww2 including the Russian and Arctic convoys. What these people suffered to take fuel and arms to Murmansk, Archangel and also Malta too is unimaginable!.

Cardiarms · Post by **Cardiarms** » Fri 13 Nov, 2009 12:12 pm

He was about 15 never left South Wales, was torpedoed and spent 19 days (i think) in the boat before being taken to Brazil. In Brazil the British consulate gave them £5 and told them to make their own way home. his pay was stopped the day the ship went down and they were now unemployed civvies. An odyssey of a journey through south America, The Caribbean and the USA got them to Baltimore where he got a job on a ship back to the UK. That was torpedoed off Ireland. He was one of two survivors and burned his barefeet on the burning deck before jumping in the sea. He told me things before he died that he'd never told his family. He cracked on one murmansk run when he saw dozens of men burning alive in the water. The shore job was part recuperation.

stutterdog · Post by **stutterdog** » Fri 13 Nov, 2009 1:30 pm

Cardiarms wrote: He was about 15 never left South Wales, was torpedoed and spent 19 days (i think) in the boat before being taken to Brazil. In Brazil the British consulate gave them £5 and told them to make their own way home. his pay was stopped the day the ship went down and they were now unemployed civvies. An odyssey of a journey through south America, The Caribbean and the USA got them to Baltimore where he got a job on a ship back to the UK. That was torpedoed off Ireland. He was one of two survivors and burned his barefeet on the burning deck before jumping in the sea. He told me things before he died that he'd never told his family. He cracked on one murmansk run when he saw dozens of men burning alive in the water. The shore job was part recuperation. What an ordeal for a young lad and , these merchant navy lads received very little recognition for their sacrifice, in fact its only within the last 10yrs I think, that a medal was struck in recognition! Did he write his memoirs down, if not it's a pity?

Hannibal69 · Post by **Hannibal69** » Fri 13 Nov, 2009 3:26 pm

stutterdog wrote: Hannibal69 wrote: I also just found this on the net, hope that it is of some use to you.www.iwm.org.uk/upload/pdf/famhistory_merchant2007.pdf Night,Han. Good morning Han and cardiarms,a slight problem has occured.I am trying to up load both of your links in your last posts but my pointer changes to like an end elavation of a girder( forgive my technical ignorance). Is someone sabotaging the thread? Did your joky retort re my last post go some thing like this? "why, is she coming apart?"lol Hi stutterdog,Sorry that you are having problems with the links. Have you tried to copy and paste them? I've just checked them again using that method and they worked fine. Please let me know if you require any further help with this. Hope that this helps.Best wishes,Han.

Si · Post by Si » Sat 14 Nov, 2009 12:22 pm

stutterdog wrote: Cardiarms wrote: He was about 15 never left South Wales, was torpedoed and spent 19 days (i think) in the boat before being taken to Brazil. In Brazil the British consulate gave them £5 and told them to make their own way home. his pay was stopped the day the ship went down and they were now unemployed civvies. An odyssey of a journey through south America, The Caribbean and the USA got them to Baltimore where he got a job on a ship back to the UK. That was torpedoed off Ireland. He was one of two survivors and burned his barefeet on the burning deck before jumping in the sea. He told me things before he died that he'd never told his family. He cracked on one murmansk run when he saw dozens of men burning alive in the water. The shore job was part recuperation. What an ordeal for a young lad and , these merchant navy lads received very little recognition for their sacrifice, in fact its only within the last 10yrs I think, that a medal was struck in recognition! Did he write his memoirs down, if not it's a pity? Hi Cardiarms and Stutterdog. My uncle was in the Royal Navy during the war, and was also sunk several times. He was the sole survivor of the cruiser HMNZS Neptune, sunk by mines off Tripoli. He did eighteen months as a POW in Italy before being repatriated. They gave him two weeks leave and sent him on the Arctic convoys.Luckily, in later life he passed on his story to his daughter (my cousin) who had a book published about him.

stutterdog · Post by **stutterdog** » Sat 14 Nov, 2009 1:14 pm

Si wrote: stutterdog wrote: Cardiarms wrote: He was about 15 never left South Wales, was torpedoed and spent 19 days (i think) in the boat before being taken to Brazil. In Brazil the British consulate gave them £5 and told them to make their own way home. his pay was stopped the day the ship went down and they were now unemployed civvies. An odyssey of a journey through south America, The Caribbean and the USA got them to Baltimore where he got a job on a ship back to the UK. That was torpedoed off Ireland. He was one of two survivors and burned his barefeet on the burning deck before jumping in the sea. He told me things before he died that he'd never told his family. He cracked on one murmansk run when he saw dozens of men burning alive in the water. The shore job was part recuperation. What an ordeal for a young lad and , these merchant navy lads received very little recognition for their sacrifice, in fact its only within the last 10yrs I think, that a medal was struck in recognition! Did he write his memoirs down, if not it's a pity? Hi Cardiarms and Stutterdog. My uncle was in the Royal Navy during the war, and was also sunk several times. He was the sole survivor of the cruiser HMNZS Neptune, sunk by mines off Tripoli. He did eighteen months as a POW in Italy before being repatriated. They gave him two weeks leave and sent him on the Arctic convoys.Luckily, in later life he passed on his story to his daughter (my cousin) who had a book published about him. Nowadays he'd receive councelling and all sorts off help but in those days they just had to get on with it.Did he contribute his story to the site I mentioned earlier? BBc the peoples war? If so I'll have a look for it.

Trojan · Post by **Trojan** » Sat 14 Nov, 2009 1:24 pm

Cardiarms wrote: He was about 15 never left South Wales, was torpedoed and spent 19 days (i think) in the boat before being taken to Brazil. In Brazil the British consulate gave them £5 and told them to make their own way home. his pay was stopped the day the ship went down and they were now unemployed civvies. An odyssey of a journey through south America, The Caribbean and the USA got them to Baltimore where he got a job on a ship back to the UK. That was torpedoed off Ireland. He was one of two survivors and burned his barefeet on the burning deck before jumping in the sea. He told me things before he died that he'd never told his family. He cracked on one murmansk run when he saw dozens of men burning alive in the water. The shore job was part recuperation. Stuff like that is gold dust to anyone researching their family. My father died when I was 17 and at that age I wasn't really interested in family history -he'd been in Italy in WWII and that's about as much as I know. I've got interested now but as far as my father, mother and their brothers and sisters go I'm too late. I would urge anyone interested to get the info from the horses mouth. Once they've gone the first hand info goes with them.

Si · Post by Si » Sat 14 Nov, 2009 4:25 pm

stutterdog wrote: Si wrote: stutterdog wrote: Cardiarms wrote: He was about 15 never left South Wales, was torpedoed and spent 19 days (i think) in the boat before being taken to Brazil. In Brazil the British consulate gave them £5 and told them to make their own way home. his pay was stopped the day the ship went down and they were now unemployed civvies. An odyssey of a journey through south America, The Caribbean and the USA got them to Baltimore where he got a job on a ship back to the UK. That was torpedoed off Ireland. He was one of two survivors and burned his barefeet on the burning deck before jumping in the sea. He told me things before he died that he'd never told his family. He cracked on one murmansk run when he saw dozens of men burning alive in the water. The shore job was part recuperation. What an ordeal for a young lad and , these merchant navy lads received very little recognition for their sacrifice, in fact its only within the last 10yrs I think, that a medal was struck in recognition! Did he write his memoirs down, if not it's a pity? Hi Cardiarms and Stutterdog. My uncle was in the Royal Navy during the war, and was also sunk several times. He was the sole survivor of the cruiser HMNZS Neptune, sunk by mines off Tripoli. He did eighteen months as a POW in Italy before being repatriated. They gave him two weeks leave and sent him on the Arctic convoys.Luckily, in later life he passed on his story to his daughter (my cousin) who had a book published about him. Nowadays he'd receive councelling and all sorts off help but in those days they just had to get on with it.Did he contribute his story to the site I mentioned earlier? BBc the peoples war? If so I'll have a look for it. I'm not sure, Stutterdog. He did a stint on a Radio 4 programme hosted by John Peel a few years ago, though. Family Values or something similar? However, he was a Geordie (married my mother's oldest sister) but lived in Pudsey since the late 50s/early 60s. He also fought in the Korean War, and was a professional boxer. Bit of a character.

stutterdog · Post by **stutterdog** » Sat 14 Nov, 2009 10:11 pm

Si wrote: stutterdog wrote: Si wrote: stutterdog wrote: Cardiarms wrote: He was about 15 never left South Wales, was torpedoed and spent 19 days (i think) in the boat before being taken to Brazil. In Brazil the British consulate gave them £5 and told them to make their own way home. his pay was stopped the day the ship went down and they were now unemployed civvies. An odyssey of a journey through south America, The Caribbean and the USA got them to Baltimore where he got a job on a ship back to the UK. That was torpedoed off Ireland. He was one of two survivors and burned his barefeet on the burning deck before jumping in the sea. He told me things before he died that he'd never told his family. He cracked on one murmansk run when he saw dozens of men burning alive in the water. The shore job was part recuperation. What an ordeal for a young lad and , these merchant navy lads received very little recognition for their sacrifice, in fact its only within the last 10yrs I think, that a medal was struck in recognition! Did he write his memoirs down, if not it's a pity? Hi Cardiarms and Stutterdog. My uncle was in the Royal Navy during the war, and was also sunk several times. He was the sole survivor of the cruiser HMNZS Neptune, sunk by mines off Tripoli. He did eighteen months as a POW in Italy before being repatriated. They gave him two weeks leave and sent him on the Arctic convoys.Luckily, in later life he passed on his story to his daughter (my cousin) who had a book published about him. Nowadays he'd receive councelling and all sorts off help but in those days they just had to get on with it.Did he contribute his story to the site I mentioned earlier? BBc the peoples war? If so I'll have a look for it. I'm not sure, Stutterdog. He did a stint on a Radio 4 programme hosted by John Peel a few years ago, though. Family Values or something similar? However, he was a Geordie (married my mother's oldest sister) but lived in Pudsey since the late 50s/early 60s. He also fought in the Korean War, and was a professional boxer. Bit of a character. Just been looking on t'internet and found a website about hms Neptune and it mentions your Uncle being the only survivor of 758 officers and men.The ship ran into a minefield and was struck by 4 mines.He must have been a tough old sod to survive that lot.I had a look on BBc the peoples war but his story is n't on, but there are quite a few accounts of the sinking by the relatives of lost crew members.

Si · Post by Si » Sun 15 Nov, 2009 10:25 am

That's him, Stutterdog. He put his remarkable survival (despite suffering a broken leg and temporary blindness caused by oil) down to being very fit. He played football and water polo for his ship, and I think he was Navy boxing champion in his weight. Surprisingly, after a diet of macaroni every day while a POW, he still loved the stuff!