EARLY CORVETTE v UBOAT SUCCESS

[jainso31]

88413 88414 88415

Copies of ADM/199/178 (3) which is a precis of the Attack by ANEMONE.

This is my first attempt at posting attachments and instead of previewing; I have posted in error-there is a postscript to the Thumbnails, which I will do when I see how this goes-"adeptness certainly is not improved by advancing years".

jainso31

[jainso31]

POSTSCRIPT

My father C/X7145 AB J Ainslie.Ex RNR & RN (D.1966) served in HMS Anemone K48 a FC corvette from July 1940-42.He was a 3 badger aged 35yrs.His normal ACTION STATION was the 2pdr pompom abaft the funnel.

Over 4 decades after his death I joined the FCC Assoc.as an assoc.member.
The Hon Sec.kindly gave me three names of surviving crewmenbers of Anemone-one of whom was a C&W OS John Arthur*. He and I corresponded via email and telephone and having told him about my father;John asked me for a photo of him, along with a copy of his S459-such was the man.

Cutting a long story short he told me he recognised my father-who he knew as Jock-we come from Berwick on Tweed. He said that Jock Ainslie was the
gunlayer on the forrard 4" main armament-due ,he said to the regular gunlayer.a 3 badge killick being "sick" on the morning of the 7th of January 1941.I said that sounded incredible; but he was adamant that he was right.
Indeed we all but fell out about it, so I let it rest.
When I got my father's RNR service record -I found that he had taken a gunnery course when at HMS Pembroke and he was part of B guns crew aboard HMS Chitral in the early months of the war on the Northern Patrol.

My father and I never spoke of the war-he being disinclined and me,a mere lad -disinterested-I was 14 when he was released from naval service in Nov.1945.We both saw The Cruel Sea,the movie together and he did not rubbish it!It stuck in my mind then (I was in my twenties then)so that is what it was like!

I still think that John Arthur's story was apocryphal; but i suppose ,on reflection; stranger things have happened at sea.

*John Arthur late Lt RNVR finished the war as 1st Lieut. on HMS Tamar
He has subscribed to the The Royal Naval Museum book "THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC" and the last I heard of him was BBC4 TODAY programme
"I miss the warmth of company" if he is still in the land of the liel-he will be
90 yrs of age.I SALUTE YOU JOHN!
Your comments are sincerely invited.

jainso31

Always on the Lookout!

[jainso31]

I quote from Martin Middlebrook's book CONVOY p180: " Anemone was one of the early wartime corvettes (built July1940) and had sunk an Italian submarine.the NANI, back in January 1941;one of the first corvette successes of the war,"



jainso31

Always on the Lookout

[nigelweysom]

Jainso31 i found that your attachments didn't come out very well, but your second post was OK , the story of your Father is very similar to mine , he didn't say much and i didn't ask , my father also trained as a gunner at Pembroke however unlike you i have yet to find any one who remembers my Dad, one thing i did recently that you might consider is i joined Forces reunited, there are in fact a number of children and even widows who have joined you can join as a civilian and then you can list the ships you father was on and you can then look at the profile of any one who was also on the same ship or is like you looking for info on their Father
Nigel

[jainso31]

Thanks for the comment-yes it was a shame about the "uploads"-it was my first attempt and as I said,instead of previewing them, I made a post in error
and no way could I remove them. Fortunately they were just legible-will do better next time.
Had you ever heard of John Arthur-I think he's on a website-proper Navy-a
crusty old salt!

jainso31

Always on the Lookout!

[jainso31]

The sinking of the NANI took between 5 and 6 hours, before her echo faded away; in a sea where the depth was just under 1mile. Remember this was a single corvette against a much bigger adversary and tenacity won the day!

jainso31

[Andy H]

88413 88414 88415

Copies of ADM/199/178 (3) which is a precis of the Attack by ANEMONE.

This is my first attempt at posting attachments and instead of previewing; I have posted in error-there is a postscript to the Thumbnails, which I will do when I see how this goes-"adeptness certainly is not improved by advancing years".

jainso31

Hi there

They attachments were great for me, now pinted and filed, thanks fo posting them

Regards

[jainso31]

THANK YOU ANDY
Would care to comment on the ACTION-it would be nice to have somebody say something about the competence of the attack or otherwise.Captain was
awarded a second DSO.

jainso31

[jainso31]

Herewith photo of Marcello Class Submarine



92632