HMS Ashanti

[tim lewin]

My father served as gunner officer in this destroyer for most of the war; here are some pictures, if anyone remembers him I would love to hear from them.

[tim lewin]

more pictures of Ashanti

[tim lewin]

more of Ashanti

[twordsworth]

My grandfather, William Burgess RNVR, served as a Lieutenant on Ashanti from July 1941. I have reviewed you photgraphs on this post and there is an officer pictured in the mess (far left of picture) that resembles him very closely - do you know who this is?

[tim lewin]

According to the pencilled note on the back this is indeed your grandfather, the picture would be in about 1942 soon after my father joined; I have looked at the silver cigarette box the wardroom gave my parents when they married in 1944 your grandfather's signature is not on it. I know they were friends. Do you have any pictures?
All very best
tim

[lowater]

Do any 'old salts' remember when the ship was docked in ADEN durring the 67 crisis. I think it was June and there was a possibility that Aden might be under air attack. Anyway in SHEBA was a detachment of RMP who were ordered to take refuge on ASHANTI. Well we were made very welcome. I think Cmdr Sloane was CO of SHEBA at that time.

[jbryce1437]

Pleased to hear that the hospitality was good. No doubt you were all victualled in for your tot too:D

[Tom Mann]

This is my first time or a training run attaching pictures so since they were I believe taken of my dad AB George. W. Mann with other members of the crew of the HMS Ashanti or HMS Mashona I will post them here. Unfortunately other than me and "Chums" there are no names written on the back. Perhaps someone will be able to pick a relative out. Cheers Tom

[Tom Mann]

Attached is an HMS Ashanti Christmas New Years Card Sorry about the front of the card but there was an address on it.
Cheers Tom

[Phil Reeder]

Does anyone have any info on the complex five-colour camouflage pattern used on the above vessel in 1941-42?
There is a well-known photo of her starboard side,travelling at speed,with ,what appears to be an Icelandic mountain in the background.
Any help greatly appreicated,thanks ,Phil

[Dreadnought]

Hi Phil,

Merged you thread with an existing thread regarding Ashanti, just to keep everything together.

Cheers

[alanbenn]

Phil, there are a series of books covering camo patterns which show the various patterns in use at the time.

Warship Perspectives
Camouflage volume one
Royal Navy 1939 -1941
By: Alan Raven

The 5-colour pattern adopted at the time consisted of the following colours
507a, MS2, B5, B6 and MS4a. The turret tops were A-Turret 507c, B-Turret B5, X & Y Turrets 507c.

Hope this helps.

I don't have the photo you mention but do have another one taken at the same time showing her Port-side.

Regards
Alan

[astraltrader]

Does anyone have any info on the complex five-colour camouflage pattern used on the above vessel in 1941-42?
There is a well-known photo of her starboard side,travelling at speed,with ,what appears to be an Icelandic mountain in the background.
Any help greatly appreicated,thanks ,Phil

I have this one Phil as well as the one Alan mentions.

[MelQuick]

Terry

Interesting picture. Thanks for sharing it.

Mel

[Phil Reeder]

Phil, there are a series of books covering camo patterns which show the various patterns in use at the time.

Warship Perspectives
Camouflage volume one
Royal Navy 1939 -1941
By: Alan Raven

The 5-colour pattern adopted at the time consisted of the following colours
507a, MS2, B5, B6 and MS4a. The turret tops were A-Turret 507c, B-Turret B5, X & Y Turrets 507c.

Hope this helps.

I don't have the photo you mention but do have another one taken at the same time showing her Port-side.

Regards
Alan

Hi Alan ,
Many thanks for that ,I have that series of books ,and I think I looked in vol.2,which didn`t show this colour scheme,so I`ll have a look in Vol 1.I found a port side view of her in "Afridi to Nazim",although ,this wasn`t as good quality,but still useful.
Thanks to all
Cheers ,Phil

[twordsworth]

I don't know much about my grandfather's service. He did not talk about it. Only once, did he describe being pulled from the water by his hair when Mashona went down.

[tim lewin]

Dear All,
I found these pics over the weekend in an envelope inside a book; they are done-at-the-time drawings of the Norway campaign and i thought deeply poignant; ironically my father was not yet in Ashanti, he was still in Valiant, so there with them (poss why he was sent to pics)

I also include the best poss picture of Ashanti and Tartar, in distance, standing by the just mortally wounded Somali, torpedoed in the engine/gearing room. the extent of the damage is clear from the differing angles of the funnels, this was Sept 1942, returning with empty QP14 after successfully fighting through to Russia PQ18.
All best
tim

The mashonas were drafted almost to a man into Ashanti in late 1941 after poor Mashona was lost at the end of the Bismark hunt, they made a wonderful and professional ship's company and were still with her when Somali was lost during the Long Tow, about which i have written in the past

[Dick]

Re Phil Reeder's old post,

Here is another in the series of photos of Ashanti and other Tribals taken at Iceland in October 1941.

And for Tim, have you ever looked at this film? 25 June 1942 and although most of the time the focus is on Fury, just behind her is Ashanti. Camera ship would have been Faulknor.

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=52041

The non-preview quality of the film must be very high as a number of excellent stills have been taken from this film some of which have been posted elsewhere on this site.

Best wishes

[tim lewin]

many thanks for that splendid clip; i had not seen it before but do have some of the stills, see attached, which you can see are contemporary with the clip. This film would have been made just before PQ17 in July, for which Ashanti and several of the others were included. For Ashanti it was deep distant cover for HMS Belfast so not part of the escort. It was a busy year as PQ17 was followed in August by Pedestal and then in September by PQ18.
tim

[astraltrader]

Just to follow on Tims post - a picture of convoy PQ18.

[tim lewin]

thanks Terry, this is a very well known pic, the museum in HMS Belfast uses it as a backdrop to their convoy spread. It was actually taken from the bridge of Ashanti and shows a large bomb exploding in the sea between Eskimo, nearest, and Wheatland (Hunt) as they run up the screen of the convoy. The contemporary print, photo, i still have from the time, has been retouched in the edges of the explosion with "snopake" to further dramatise the effect, think if i had been there i would have found it more than sufficiently dramatic!
it deserves to be a famous pic, it really captures the random dangers of just being there in those days.
tim