Destroyers, Greyhounds of the Fleet: Memoirs of a Naval Gunner in the Second World War

216 pages

Capt Andrew Welch

This is another of those WWII wartime personal sagas. However, this is probably the best one that I’ve read.  Fred Saxton joined up in November 1940 as a Seaman Gunner. He served in an early Hunt-class destroyer, HMS Hambledon, until July 1944, when he was sent on a, never to be completed, advancement course. Against the wartime rules, he kept a diary throughout.  However, after being dutifully obedient for a short period, he, fortunately, decided to ignore this rule. As he notes in the foreword he wrote for a never-published memoir in 1989, by which many officers’ books had been published, these rules didn’t seem to have applied to the Wardroom.

He started his basic training in HMS Collingwood, thence to Chatham and finally to Whale Island, where he qualified as an AA gunner. He writes amusingly and, I think completely authentically, about the vicissitudes of wartime training – spending nights at Collingwood in a huge Anderson type shelter and the inevitable shortages of everything from clothing to equipment.

Saxton joined Hambledon in Chatham on 12 May 1941, where she was finishing her refit after hitting a mine off Boulogne on 7 Oct 1940 and losing both screws. His time onboard started with a month’s work-up based in Scapa Flow. By the end of June, she was based in Harwich and employed escorting the East Coast convoys. The main threat was E-boats and against these, Hambledon was fitted with a bow-chaser (shades of Hornblower and Aubrey!). This was a single barrelled 40mm pom-pom – mounted right up on the bow – a very wet and cold place to spend a 4-hour watch. By May 1943, the E-boat threat was much reduced and Hambledon was given a 5-week update and refit (with a proper rotating radar) in Sheerness Dockyard, before sailing to join Operation HUSKY, the invasion of Sicily. Operations in the Med continued with the Salerno landings and convoy escort duties. Destroyers were always in short supply and never unemployed. Highlights included embarking Admiral Cunningham and General Eisenhower to review the Italian Fleet on their way to surrender in Malta and a few months later, joining the ‘Hambledonians Afloat’ as they performed ‘The Trial of Aggie Weston’ for an audience that included Irving Berlin. HMS Hambledon returned to UK waters for Operation OVERLORD, the D-day landings, and shortly afterwards, Saxton left for his advancement course.

Peter Saxton truly had an interesting and lucky war. His day-to-day observations paint a wonderful picture of life onboard a wartime destroyer and the many, varied personalities present in a ship mainly manned by Hostilities Only officers and men. His son, Peter Saxton – a retired RAF officer – has lightly edited his father’s diaries. There are a couple of naval solecisms (e.g. Accosting gun for Costin gun), but otherwise this is an excellent WWII memoir from the perspective of an intelligent, observant sailor and I strongly recommend it to members.