HMS Gloucester - movements 1939/40

Discussion in 'The War at Sea' started by GreenTree, Mar 7, 2015.

  1. GreenTree

    GreenTree Active Member

    My granddad's service record (Athur E S Green M.36228) shows he served on HMS Gloucester as follows:

    Gloucester: 28 Jan 1939 CEA 2
    Gloucester: 11 April 1940 CEA 3
    Drake 2: 6 Nov 1940

    Why would there have been a break between the first two postings? According to Wikipaedia: "On 7th April 1939 Gloucester left Malta to take over the East Indies station...she spent much of that year patrolling the Indian ocean. In December she was moved to Simonstown. She was transferred again in May 1940 this time to the Mediterranean... the second half of 1940 was spent in the eastern Mediterranean."
    I don't see how my granddad could have got back in November 1940 to HMS Drake, a shore based establishment.
    Can anyone help me to interpret his record correctly?

    Many thanks
    John
     
  2. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Hi John

    http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-06CL-Gloucester.htm

    TD

    edited to add:

    I am not a naval man, but have found that HMS Drake was a shore establishment, however I note in your comment it refers to 'Drake 2" which could be something completely different, perhaps another shore establishment other than in the UK.
     
    Buteman likes this.
  3. GreenTree

    GreenTree Active Member

    Hi TD, thanks.
    It looks like granddad saw some action in the months he was with Gloucester. I'm still puzzled as to how he got to HMS Drake in Devonport on 6 Nov 1940 when this detailed log shows Gloucester was in Alexandria then. I would have thought that all crew stayed with a ship until it finished its deployment and went back to its home port, or did certain crew members get taken off and transported to other duties as and when required? Odd. Gloucester never did get home - it was sunk on 22nd May 1941 off Crete. There's no family history that I know of saying granddad was wounded and taken back to Plymouth, which is all I can think of to explain his being home in Nov 1940.

    John
     
  4. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Hi John

    As I mentioned in my edit - HMS Drake appears to be a shore establishment in Devonport, however in your initial post the detail talks of a Drake 2 - ?? - maybe one of our naval specialists will elucidate

    TD
     
  5. GreenTree

    GreenTree Active Member

    My research shows Drake 2 to be the RN Barracks at Devonport. His record doesn't say what he did there, just the dates.
     
  6. chrisy49

    chrisy49 Member

    Hi John,
    Not sure if I can help but can offer my opinion.
    First of all is there nothing written in his doc's between the two Gloucester postings. Usually if a man went ashore, say while the ship was having repairs etc, the base he was sent to was recorded. For example say Gloucester was in the UK and had a maintenance period in Devonport and he was ashore in HMS Drake his docs would say something like Drake (HMS Gloucester).
    Secondly his rate seems to go backwards. He goes from CEA2 in 1939 to CEA3 in 1940. It's a technical rate but CEA2 is the higher of the two.
    Lastly, and this could well be a load of bunkum for 1940 but when I joined my first ship I flew out to Singapore along with around 25 other men in what was know as 'trickle drafting'. In other words part of the crew was changed; the idea being the ship didn't lose all of it's fully trained men in one go.
    Best of luck with your research,
    Regards,
    Chris.
     
  7. Hugh MacLean

    Hugh MacLean Senior Member

  8. GreenTree

    GreenTree Active Member

    Thanks guys, I'll put up a scan of this part of his record tomorrow morning.
    Chris, you may have hit on something, i.e. that the 11th April 1940 entry was not a posting or transfer like I thought but just a note in the record of a grade change and its date. Why a downgrade though, who knows! There's nothing in his record indicating anything other than perfect behaviour.

    Thanks.

    John
     
  9. Bernard85

    Bernard85 WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    good day green tree.m.yesterday.04:22pm.re:H.M.S.GLOUCESTER-MOVEMENTS.1939/40if you go to gogle it has the sinking.the crew list and other information you are looking for.hope its what you wanted regards bernard85
     
  10. GreenTree

    GreenTree Active Member

    Here's a scan of granddad's service record showing the posting to HMS Gloucester and the odd return to Devonport (HMS Drake2) '6 Nov 1940'.
    http://www.theskylineband.com/GranddadServiceRecord2.jpg
    Thanks in advance for any further help!

    John

    PS: Bernard, I can't find any crew lists via Google. Do you have a link to any you've found at all?
    PPS: Chris, is EA 'Electrical Artificer'? and CEA a 'Control Electrical Artificer'?
     
  11. chrisy49

    chrisy49 Member

  12. Hugh MacLean

    Hugh MacLean Senior Member

    I don't think there is any backward step in his rating. He joins as an EA.2 then EA.1 then A/CEA2 then what looks like substantive rate of CEA2. Then he goes from CEA2 to CEA (I think it says 3 years not CEA3)
    CEA = Chief Electrical Artificer.

    Regards
    Hugh
     
  13. chrisy49

    chrisy49 Member

    Hugh,
    I've looked through those docs again and you're spot on; it does say CEA 3years and not CEA3. And of course if he had been an Engineering 'Tiff' he would have been an ERA.
    That should set John straight regarding his rate.
    Regards,
    Chris.
     
  14. GreenTree

    GreenTree Active Member

    Thanks chaps. So it looks like:
    28 Jan 39 - Joined HMS Gloucester
    11 Apr 40 - still with HMS Gloucester but uprated from CEA2 to CEA
    6 Nov 40 - back in Devonport, at Dake2. So must have disembarked (part crew swap?) at Alexandria where the ship stopped 2nd November, leaving on the 5th.

    A truly fortuitous transfer given what happened a few months later.

    Regards
    John
     
  15. Joss

    Joss Member

    Interested to hear this John. My Great Uncle went down with the ship. I have a bundle of letters sent from him while he was aboard, until the tragedy. In the letters he mentions his colleague, Chief Stoke William Waldron who was promoted and moved on to another ship only a few weeks before the sinking.

    These guys were very fortunate but its hard to imagine how they must have felt, knowing that many of their friends and colleagues died later.
     
    GreenTree likes this.
  16. GreenTree

    GreenTree Active Member

    Fascinating Joss. I got your PM.
     

Share This Page