Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length.

[steveancc]

hi
i'm new to this .i'm looking for help with my dads naval records from the war . he told us very little about his time in the navy and it has only been recently that i managed to obtain records . this has caused me all kinds of confusion .he seems to have moved around a lot seldom in 1 plaice for more than a couple of months . but all the "ships" he was on appear to be land based and there is frankly little or no information on them .so any help would be much appreciated.

HMS GANGES 7/12/42 TO 18/2/43
HMS PEMBROKE 19/2/43 TO 12/3/43
HMS ASSEGAI 13/3/43 TO 20/5/43
HMS SPHINX 21/5/43 TO28/7/43
HMS SAGITTA 29/7/43 TO 6/12/43
HMS SAGGITA 7/12/43 TO 7/9/44
HMS SPHINX 8/9/44 TO 8/9/44
HMS SAGGITA 10/9/44 TO 25/3/45
HMS CANOPUS 26/3/45 TO 26/3/45
HMSW SPHINX 27/3/45 TO 2/4/45
HMS PEMBROKE 3/4/45 TO 1/6/45
TRAVELLING 2/6/45 TO 4/6/45
HMS NIMROD 5/6/45 TO 11/8/45
HMS OSPREY 12/8/45 TO 2/9/45
DUTY 3/9/45 TO 3/9/45
HMS COCHRANE 4/9/45 TO 27/12/45
HMS PEMBROKE 28/12/45 TO 8/1/46
LENT BRAINTREE W.PARTY 9/1/46 TO 6/3/46
HMS PEMBROKE 7/3/46 TO 11/5/46 RELEASED TO SHORE

HE was trained as a ASDIC operator but that dose not appear on any paperwork .i know he was injured as he had a metal plate in his chest . but there is also no record of that either. He caught malaria but no record . hi record only shows 4 lines

ganges 7th dec 42 ord smn
TR 20 MAY 43 S161 ASSEGAI
AB 7 DEC S161 STAG
SD.11.8.45 S161 NIMROD

That's it no other information .for a service that records everything this is little to nothing ,so any help would be appreciated
thanks
steve

[PhiloNauticus]

GANGES – training establishment, Shotley, Suffolk
PEMBROKE – naval barracks/base, Chatham
ASSEGAI – training establishment, Durban, South Africa
SPHINX  - holding camp, Alexandria, Egypt
SAGITTA – Armed Boarding Vessel [former 756-ton private steam yacht, purchased 1941]
CANOPUS – naval base, Alexandria, Egypt
NIMROD – anti-sub training base, Campbeltown, Scotland
OSPREY – anti-sub training base, Dunoon, Scotland
COCHRANE – naval base, Rosyth, Scotland

S. 161 is a Form for changes in rating

 

[steveancc]

hi
thanks for that .so s161 is when you get promoted but according to the sheet i was sent ,he was only promoted once on 7/12/43 and that when he was posted to hms sagitta ,but the written record say stag . that according to the time line he never went to ?if they where not promotions but for achievements like training again nothing appears on his record.in fact that whole page is blank nothing no height or anything that would tell you what he looked like .there are no medals or achievements listed .the s161 for nimrod was when he left .so i can only guess that he passed a course before going to osprey . but i have looked it up and they say that those particular bases were for NCO or officers he was neither according to the records he was an able seaman .i get more confused the more i look . any help on HMS SAGITTA as i can find very little just the name crops up .according to the official record it was out of service in 1918 but then says may have been in ww2 .not helpful at all . only found 1 picture.

thanks

[PhiloNauticus]

Re: STAG  - this was the name of the base at Port Said, Egypt.    I would suggest that Sagitta was  based there – STAG was probably responsible for administering pay and paperwork.  All the reference means is that Sagitta had raised a Form S161 advising that he had been promoted, so his pay would have to be adjusted accordingly.

SD –  Unsure, but could mean Submarine Detector Instructor – i.e. he had qualified to train people. This would fit with his time at NIMROD.    I would imagine that with the war coming to an end, the courses would have been brought an end.

SAGITTA – was built in 1908 and did indeed see service in WW1 but was again brought back into naval use in WW2

[steveancc]

hi
thanks for that .unfortunately dad died in 1998 so not around to ask and he spoke little about his time in the war . his record's do not seem to tally in some plaices with what he told me and the pictures that we have at home from that time . so its difficult to join the 2 together. i knew he was trained initially at hms Ganges . but then it changes as he told me he then went to Scotland to train on acdics .from there he  went to africa . went by train across africa to meet his ship. He caught malaria .that kind of fits .but then it changes he was on a sub that sank .he was injured had a plate put in his chest .then spent remainder on a cargo ship transporting cattle around the med .on the surface .but was actually moving gold to pay the locals for supplies .idea being a cattle ship was a low priority target and would be left alone. have picture of the ship with him standing at the one gun on board that it had for defence.so its the sagitta bit that dose not really tally and having looked at other written records his contains nothing .they all seem to list each time they change ship . his nothing basically 3 pay or ratings changes .that's it not even a description of what he looked like or any medals he received even though we have them at home .I've waited 25 years to be able to look at his records and know have more questions than when i started .but thanks for the help