any help/advice greatly appreciated

[scotia123]

I recently came across my father,s naval records for the period 1941 to 1946 unfortunately portions of them are unreadable, I will provide as much detail as as can and any help would be much appreciated. ie were the below mentioned ships or shore establishments

europa 22 july1941- 15 aug 1941
paris(lady rosemary) 16 aug-30 nov 1941
saker11 14 feb1942-31feb 1942
gnu(lady rosemary) 1st nov 1942-14 april 1943
gnu(norwich city) 15th april- 1943-16 july1943
16th july-7th nov unreadable
8th unreadable1943-2nd dec 1943
kongani(hertfordshire)3d dec 1943-19th dec 1943
yana??? dec1943-july 1944
europa july 1944-nov 1945
nov1945-march 1946 unreadable
europ march 1946- june 1946

if anyone here can help with any or all of the above it would be much appreciated, finally, can someone tell me what the letters gnu stand for

[John Brown]

Hi Scotia

Straight away I can tell you that Saker was a shore establishment in/around New York. It was used to house British servicemen either waiting to commission ships built in US yards or waiting to crew British ships repairing in US yards. Saker eventually came to cover all establishments for British personnel in the US.

As mentioned in an earlier post, my father did a stint in Saker whilst waiting to commission the liberty ship that became HMS Assistance. He said he had a great time there as there were few of the hardships and shortages suffered by the population in wartime Britain.

HMS Europa was a Royal Naval Patrol Service Base during WW2

HMS Paris was a base ship for minesweepers operating out of Plymouth

I suspect the Kongani one might turn out to be one of the bases in Africa although I'm not sure where the
Hertfordshire bit ties in.

The only references to gnu I have found relate to software licenses so that is not much help I'm afraid.

Will post anything I find on the others.

Regards....Bob

[Batstiger]

Scotia, if you have a look here there is a small picture of HMS Norwich city which had picked up survivors from this tanker.

http://www.nc-wreckdiving.com/WRECKS/FAREAST/FAREAST.HTML


I suspect HMS Lady Rosemary was something similar as there is mention of her attempting a tow in the channel.

Regards, another Bob.

[tonclass]

GNU was a Naval Base in Capetown, commissioned on 1/11/1942. Lady Rosmary & Norwich City were both on loan to the USN until October 1942. Perhaps your father was part of the transit crew that brought both trawlers back from the US to Capetown.
Similarly he could have been transit crew for Lady Rosmary taking her from Plymouth to the US, as she went on loan in March 1942. PARIS was a captured French Battleship used as accommodation at Plymouth at the time.
KONGONI was another Naval Base in Durban, & Hertfordshire anothor trawler on loan to the USN until Oct 1942
Rik

[John Brown]

Scotia

Ton looks to be spot on re the trawlers. Info on Lady Rosemary, Norwich City and Hertfordshire can be found on this site.

http://uboat.net/allies/warships/class.html?ID=332

Regards..John

[romft1945]

Norwich City was an asw trawler launched 1937 commissioned 1939 lent to USN 1942 she was scrapped in 1964 Cheers Rom:eek: