WW2 Royal Navy service record assistance req.

Hello all

A relative has asked me to find out what I can about the following.

They have given me a four page linen like document entitled 'Certificate of the Service of Kenneth HIMSWORTH in the Royal Navy', this being my relative's father. He doesn't know anything about what his father did in the War other than he received a commendation for rescuing an Officer and would love some flesh on the bones of what's in the document.

Attached are scans of the service record and commendation (which unfortunately is in poor condition and has at some time being repaired with sellotape )

From what I can work out with a bit of googling, I *think* this is where he might have gone:

HMS Collingwood 02nd March 1943 - 11th May 1943

Royal Navy Training Establishment

HMS Victory 12 May 1943 - 03rd June 1943

Portsmouth Naval Base

HMS St Christopher 04th June 1943 - 01st July 1943

HMS St Christopher was a Coastal Forces Training Base of the Royal Navy operational during the Second World War and located in and around Fort William, Scotland.

HMS Drake 02nd July 1943 - 14th August 1943

Devonport Naval Base

HMS Hornet 15th August 1943 - 10th September 1943

Gosport Naval Base

HMS Edinburgh Castle 11th September 1943 - 11th November 1943

Freetown - Sierra Leone

HMS Philoctetes 12th November 1943 - 28th June 1944

Fleet depot ship @ Freetown


HMS Eland 29th June 1944 - 23rd August 1944

Freetown naval base?

HMS Philoctetes 24th August 1944 - 24th November 1944

Freetown

HMS Hornet 25th November 1944 - 05th February 1945

Gosport Naval Base


HMS Midge 06th February 1945 - 14th June 1945

Great Yarmouth Naval Base

MTB (Motor Torpedo Boat) 763

HMS Victory 15th June 1945 - 22nd January 1946

Portsmouth Naval Base

HMS Hornet 23rd January 1946 - 07th May 1946

Gosport Naval Base

MTB (Motor Torpedo Boat) 5008

Can anyone assist in deciphering the records?

 

His service number was (I think) PJX/4288Y9

 

Additionally, what was happening at Freetown? Was it a stopping off point for the war in the east?

 

Hi Matt, I went through a similar process a while back with my ggdads and g-uncles RN service records.

Freetown is a port in Sierra Leone. Its a legacy of the Empire, needing seaports along all kinds of coasts. It was a frequent stopping off point for convoys.

HMS Hornet was specifically the Naval Base for coastal forces, inc Motor Torpedo Boats. It looks like he had quite a career in coastal forces.

If you need to do any more repairs on the document you can help of some 'non-sticky' celotape that won't damage it.

 

Freetown was one of the convoy stopping off points, both going from the UK to India and the Middle East (and vice versa), but also for convoys going across the Atlantic. My grandfather was there for a while too, at HMS Edinburgh Castle. Found this which may shed some light on what he was doing: BBC - WW2 People's War - I was There! Where? Chapter 5d - Coastal Forces (The Naval Biography of Alec Kellaway)

 

he also served on 2 motor launches, no's 263 and 270.
Also MTB 763 and MTB 5008
The names in brackets are actual ships he served on whereas the bit before is the account base/ship.
Service number is P/JX 428879

Reached able seaman and trade was Anti Aircraft rating 3rd class
Regards

james

 

Brilliant, thanks James

 

awarded 10 days in cells 8th june 1944

also looks like awarded a mention in dispatches? have you tried the london gazette?

 

Hi Matt. Hope it's ok for me to ask a question via your thread.


Reached able seaman and trade was Anti Aircraft rating 3rd class

Hi James.
Is that what the information contained in the "Substantive Rating" AB and "Non-Substantive Rating" AA3 columns means?

Do you know anymore? I'm trying to find out what the non-substantive rating of DDPR means

 

Matt.

Here's the CWGC entry for the man he tried to save from drowning, Sub-Lieutenant Herbert George WOODS, RNVR, HMS Philoctetes, 19 years of age.
CWGC :: Casualty Details

I would have expected some mention of the Commander-in-Chief's Commendation in the LG but I couldn't find anything.

Martin

 

As a consequence of him being äwarded"10 days cells his conduct assessment for 1944 dropped to Good viz the normal Very Good.
David

 

Hi Matt. Hope it's ok for me to ask a question via your thread.




Hi James.
Is that what the information contained in the "Substantive Rating" AB and "Non-Substantive Rating" AA3 columns means?

Do you know anymore? I'm trying to find out what the non-substantive rating of DDPR means

Hi In what context was he? was a an AB LS Petty officer, also what was his official number JX was seaman, KX stoker MX miscellanous.

Regards

James

 

I also have the Philoctetes in my fathers (thomas Francis Fletcher) CERT of service from 4th oct 1943 to 8th feb 1944. with a rating of A/ERA h/c what ever that is?
Looks like this was a supply ship of some kind?
http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=265&pictureid=2256

 

Hi In what context was he? was a an AB LS Petty officer, also what was his official number JX was seaman, KX stoker MX miscellanous.

Hi James. Thanks for your post. Apologies for the delay in replying. No excuses, I've no idea how I didn't see this.

His official number was preceded by "JX"
Substantive rating reads: "Rigger / PO"
NonSubstantive rating reads: "DDPR"

Someone has suggested that the first "D" is an error and possibly it should read "BDPR" for Boom Defence Petty(officer) Rigger.

I've no idea but I'd love to find out what DDPR or BDPR means for sure.

Cheers
Robert

 

I also have the Philoctetes in my fathers (thomas Francis Fletcher) CERT of service from 4th oct 1943 to 8th feb 1944. with a rating of A/ERA h/c what ever that is?
Looks like this was a supply ship of some kind?


Fletcher - Philoctetes was built in 1920 by Scotts' Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. at Greenock with a gross tonnage of 11446t.
She was launched for the China Mutual Steam Navigation Co. on 25th May 1922 for the trans-Pacific service and interestingly enough was one of two Holt vessels at Yokohama when the city was devastated by the terrible earthquake in December 1923.
Anyway here is the bit that has a bearing on your fathers service record - in August 1940 she was sold to the Admiralty for conversion into a destroyer depot ship and was renamed HMS Philoctetes.
She remained in this guise for the duration of the war and was finally broken up at Newport in Monmouthshire during I think it was 1948.

 

Dear mattfromlincs

Your relative's father is almost certainly a Coastal Forces member, who served both in West Africa—based at Freetown, Sierra Leone—and in home waters around the British Isles.

Coastal Forces (CF) was a distinct branch of the Royal Navy comprising Motor Torpedo Boats, Motor Gunboats, Motor Launches and Harbour Defence Motor Launches, and was only brought into service at the start of the Second World War as a response to attacks on British coastal shipping by the German Navy.

From only a handful of boats commissioned prior to 1940, Coastal Forces expanded rapidly to over 1,600 plus boats and some 25,000 officers and ratings by war’s end. The different types of boats were used in a variety of roles, including convoy protection and attack, anti-submarine patrol, mine laying, and clandestine operations run in conjunction with the Secret Intelligence Service.

The faster MTBs and MGBs sometimes found themselves engaged in dog fights at sea against the German equivalent of Schnellbootes or E-boats as the Royal Navy called them; actions which earned CF craft the moniker of ‘Spitfires of the Sea’.

The boats were almost exclusively crewed by Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve officers and hostilities only crew, some of who responded to adverts placed in the press requesting volunteers for this new branch of the Senior Service.

A number of the base ships mentioned in the service record, HMS St Christopher, HMS Hornet and HMS Midge are dedicated Coastal Forces bases, whilst HMS Philoctetes, HMS Edinburgh Castle and HMS Eland were all bases at Freetown, Sierra Leone.

You can learn more about Coastal Forces bases from the Coastal Forces Veterans site:
Coastal Forces Bases

Freetown was a major hub in the vital convoy route from Britain to South Africa, India, and Australia, as well as to the Middle East, via the Suez Canal, since the more direct Mediterranean route could not be used for major convoys. Freetown was an assembly point for convoys moving north and south, and home to large warships of the Royal Navy, as well as destroyer escorts and submarines. The waters off of Freetown and the West Coast of Africa, were a hunting ground for German submarines, and Coastal Forces were involved in convoy protection and anti-submarine patrols, using Fairmile B Motor Launches, employing ASDIC and armed with depth charges and guns.

Their primary task was escorting coastal shipping along the West Coast as far north as The Gambia and later Senegal, and south to Liberia, The Gold Coast and Nigeria. On occasion, some of the Freetown MLs went as far as South Africa, using long-range fuel tanks housed on deck.

You can view some photographs relating to this subject here:
Coastal Forces on Flickr

There were no dedicated Coastal Forces bases at Freetown as such, so Philoctetes, which was a former merchant ship and floating workshop servicing both MLs and submarines, and Edinburgh Castle, a cruise ship which offered accommodation facilities, often appear on the service records for Coastal Forces personnel, who served out in West Africa. HMS Eland, was a general navy shore base, constructed somewhat later in the War, and situated off of Cline Bay at Freetown, where Coastal Forces had their moorings.

MTB 763 and MTB 5008 were both Fairmile D-Class boats or ‘Dog Boats’ and were the most heavily armed of all the Coastal Forces craft, with the largest displacement, having been introduced later in the War.

ML 263 was a Fairmile B-Class Motor Launch which is known to have been part of the 17th ML Flotilla based at Freetown. Peter Rendle, a former CO of this very boat, gives an account of his involvement in the loss of the New Toronto, which was sunk by a German submarine off the Gold Coast, whilst under escort by ML 263.

ML 263 and the loss of the New Toronto

The other ML is unlikely to have been ML 270, as that was used in the famous St Nazaire raid in 1942, during which it was known to have been scuttled. So the other ML is more likely to be 271, which was part of the 26th ML Flotilla at Freetown, or possibly 272, which was also part of the 17th.

Regards

Kevin

 

Just to help give you an idea of appearance here are pictures of MTB 5008 and ML 263 as accurately explained above!

 

Wow, thanks everyone, and especially Kevin, plenty of stuff to digest there!

 

cally, I believe the second photo of 263 is actually MTB 263, an American built Elco which was given to the Royal Navy as a lend-lease in 1941 and returned to the United States Navy in 1946. The Fairmile B is as per the photos posted on Flickr (link provided above).

Kevin

 

Wow, thanks everyone, and especially Kevin, plenty of stuff to digest there!

You're welcome!

There are some more photos of Freetown here, including some of CF crew at Freetown, just in case you should happen to spot your relative.

Coastal Forces, Freetown

There was somebody else looking for information on ML 263 recently on the Coastal Forces Veterans forum.

ML 263 enquiry

It might be an idea to post a request for information on MTBs 763 and 5008 on the Veterans Forum as Mr Brian Holmes, who is a regular there, may well be able to give you more information about those two particular boats.

Kevin