Dorset Girl
02-10-2008, 3:35 AM
This is a (reasonably long) tale of the mystery of the death of my mother's brother in 1942. He was killed during the war and whilst my grandparents had a picture of his grave there was a lot of speculation as to where he was killed.
According to his wife's second husband (long tale as my grandmother did not even attend her son's wedding,) my Uncle was supposedly lost in the Bay of Biscay and was serving aboard HMS Egret sloop at the time of his death. She was struck by a glider bomb on 27th April 1943 which exploded her magazine. There were no survivors.
This did not agree with the War Graves Commission records, according to them he died on the HMS Zetland, so I have been hunting for the answer for over 40 years.
I wrote to the Royal Navy History Museum as there was a diary kept by one of the officers on board, they kindly searched the diary for me but couldn't find a reference to my Uncle.
I had since googled Egret and Zetland into oblivion and found nothing of any consequence. One day I came across a reference to a book which detailed the mustard gas attack on the HMS Zetland and other ships on 2 Dec 1943. At the bottom of the piece the author said "I am a member of the RBL and Poppy Appeal, Organiser for Scarborough, a member of the RNA, George Cross Island Ass. and an Honorary Citizen of Valletta."
Nothing ventures - nothing gained - I took a punt checked the UK telephone directory and there was someone with the same name as the author living in Scarborough! So I rang him - as we all do!! I ascertained he was the gentleman who wrote the book and advised him I was trying to unravel a mystery concerning the death of my Uncle George. After some discussion he felt that my Uncle was the person who was killed by schrapnel from a shell that exploded when it emerged from the gun turret.
He could not remember the incident thoroughly but offered to contact a friend of his in Wales to see if he could remember. Long and tall of it - I got in contact with Bob in Wales who gave me all of the details concerning my Uncle. He even sent me a photograph of the ship as well.
(It seems there were two turrets at the rear(stern) of the ship - the Y turret on the lower deck and the X turret on the upper deck. A shell exploded from the Y turret and the schrapnel hit some of the seamen but it struck my Uncle in his head. From his memory he could see him lying in the galley? way and he did not stand a chance/did not last long.)
So for those of you who keep |banghead||banghead| - NEVER give up! Sooner or later there will be a glimmer of light - it may not be this week or even this year - and it may not be a train at the end of the tunnel - but if you keep on |banghead| against the brick wall eventually you will make a hole in it!
Marion
(Sorry if this is so long - one of my problems is verbosity apart from a very sore head!)
Marion
According to his wife's second husband (long tale as my grandmother did not even attend her son's wedding,) my Uncle was supposedly lost in the Bay of Biscay and was serving aboard HMS Egret sloop at the time of his death. She was struck by a glider bomb on 27th April 1943 which exploded her magazine. There were no survivors.
This did not agree with the War Graves Commission records, according to them he died on the HMS Zetland, so I have been hunting for the answer for over 40 years.
I wrote to the Royal Navy History Museum as there was a diary kept by one of the officers on board, they kindly searched the diary for me but couldn't find a reference to my Uncle.
I had since googled Egret and Zetland into oblivion and found nothing of any consequence. One day I came across a reference to a book which detailed the mustard gas attack on the HMS Zetland and other ships on 2 Dec 1943. At the bottom of the piece the author said "I am a member of the RBL and Poppy Appeal, Organiser for Scarborough, a member of the RNA, George Cross Island Ass. and an Honorary Citizen of Valletta."
Nothing ventures - nothing gained - I took a punt checked the UK telephone directory and there was someone with the same name as the author living in Scarborough! So I rang him - as we all do!! I ascertained he was the gentleman who wrote the book and advised him I was trying to unravel a mystery concerning the death of my Uncle George. After some discussion he felt that my Uncle was the person who was killed by schrapnel from a shell that exploded when it emerged from the gun turret.
He could not remember the incident thoroughly but offered to contact a friend of his in Wales to see if he could remember. Long and tall of it - I got in contact with Bob in Wales who gave me all of the details concerning my Uncle. He even sent me a photograph of the ship as well.
(It seems there were two turrets at the rear(stern) of the ship - the Y turret on the lower deck and the X turret on the upper deck. A shell exploded from the Y turret and the schrapnel hit some of the seamen but it struck my Uncle in his head. From his memory he could see him lying in the galley? way and he did not stand a chance/did not last long.)
So for those of you who keep |banghead||banghead| - NEVER give up! Sooner or later there will be a glimmer of light - it may not be this week or even this year - and it may not be a train at the end of the tunnel - but if you keep on |banghead| against the brick wall eventually you will make a hole in it!
Marion
(Sorry if this is so long - one of my problems is verbosity apart from a very sore head!)
Marion