THE CRUISE

Here we were anchored on the trot in Poole Harbour early in 1944 & I had now been promoted to leading seaman, hooky, killick or whatever anyone cared to call me. Who would want to be in charge of such a motley crew though, where threats of punishment meant nothing, as these lads took no instructions from anyone & laughed in the face of death?

The order came to cast off, it was a lovely evening & over by Brownsea Island the Lysander flying boats were anchored all in a line. The trot was full up with landing craft of all types, Landing Craft Tank, LC rocket & many other craft, so something big was about to happen soon. The fishing vessel chugged its way along the inner harbour to the boom (we could use our engines until we cleared our own minefields then we had to use our rigging). The trotboat was picking up matelots & royal marine commando's from the landing craft & taking them ashore at Poole jetty for a nights spot of leave & the pubs (lucky blighters). We made our way into the outer harbour & there all the M.T.B's were really buzzing all being laden with fuel, ammunition & warming up their engines. They were obviously on some action or other tonight & some of them wouldn't be coming back (poor bastards) whereas we were just going for a cruise along the channel.

Dusk was now falling as we made our way out past our own minefields & headed for mid channel. Than the skipper called for me, hooky he said pleasantly how does Hoppy always manage to fetch me a full cup of kye no matter what the weather is like or no matter how the craft pitches & turns. I didn't like to tell him that before Hoppy left the galley he always took a mouthful of the skippers kye out of his cup then replaced it back in the cup before entering the skippers cabin. His cabin was full up with charts & bits of paper of all kinds whereby he was able to chart our way through the British minefields & also all the latest information about the new German minefields. Tonight said skip we are going inshore to the french mainland to pick up some very important personnel that have to be brought out no matter what (gee thanks, I thought) so you will pick four men to take two dinghies ashore & pick them up. The M.T.Bs are going to cause a diversion further up the coast so that we can pull in without any problems. (Cor thanks, I thought).

We had cut our engines some way back & were now proceeding as if we were doing a nights fishing with the nets placed along the decks but all of us were keeping watch to see if there were any lose mines or any e boats in the vicinity. We could now see the French shore & we were sailing along the coast looking for a signal. Yes there it was about two miles further along. As we made our way along the shore I tapped Hoppy Lofty Brommy & Scouse on the shoulder & they all nodded in silent acknowledgement & made to get the dinghies ready. (Christ these nutters took notice of silent orders better than they obeyed verbal ones, so in future I would no how to dish them out).

We dropped anchor just offshore & the lads began busying themselves as if they were going to do a nights fishing. Then the five of us lowered the two dinghies over the side then got down into them & rowed for the shore. By now the moon was just breaking through the clouds as we pulled the dinghies up onto the beach. We lay on the beach making observation & to my constination I could see two sentries up on top of the cliff & under the cliff lay about eight blokes four of them armed to the teeth. I looked at Hoppy & Lofty then nodded toward the sentries in the dull light I could see Hoppies face break into a grin, here was one hard hearted campaigner, whereas lofty just had a glazed look on his face. I looked at Brom & Scouse & nodded toward the eight guys huddled under the cliff, they both slid along on their bellies in the direction I had indicated. Good this, a piece of cake, just nod & it was all done for you. Later the two sentries just disappeared so I thought it safe to stand up to see where the lads were. Suddenly, it was as if I had been hit by a train in the middle of my back; I had stars going round in my skull & in front of my eyes. I dropped to the ground, & pretended I was dead & as I was lying on my back managed to half open one eye to see a ten-foot guard standing over me with his rifle pointed at my stomach.

He eased his rifle away & leaned over to search my clothing to see if I had any arms in my possession. That was his mistake, my hand slid down to my knife in my seaboot, & I gently eased it out, then with one almighty thrust up under the ribs & into his heart then as I had been taught, pulled his helmet back to throttle him, but he was already dead. I was shaking, had stars before my eyes, and didn't like doing it at all. But it was he or I & these were the bastards that had made my sister a widow. (Poor Maurice hadn't wanted to kill anyone, so he joined the R.A.M.C. so that he could attend the wounded. He was stationed in Dover Castle later to be known as "Hellfire Corner" & he was killed in 1942 by German long range shelling).

Hoppy & Lofty came back grinning & the others all made haste back to the dinghies. We seated the V.I.Ps in the dinghies then with a wave to the French escorts we started to row for the fishin Nothing much happened on the return journey but there was one hell of a fight taking place further up along the coast where the M,T.Bs were operating.

When we had cleared the German minefields for some unknown reason our M.T.Bs gave us an escort although we had never had this before cos we were loners. However we started our engines & proceeded with what we thought, was undo haste across the channel, but the M.T.B.s were buzzing round us like wasps trying to make us go faster. We arrived back in Poole & anchored on the trot, think we had earnt our 1/6d (7 1/2p grandson) hard layers this last couple of days.

Later a trot boat came out with more gold braid on it than I had ever seen in my life think all the admiralty was present, & they welcomed our passengers. After things had quieted down I took my aching head & back along to give them a good wash & a change of pants. Hoppy & lofty were sitting in our mess sharpening & cleaning their knives & Brom & Scouse were playing fists, I just felt like being sick.

Later when we sitting in our mess I asked the lads "Where's Lofty" no one knew, so I went up aloft to find out. It must have been a full moon tonight because Lofty was prowling around the deck with an axe in his hand. What are you doing Lofty I asked, just then the midshipman came out of his quarters & Lofty let out a horrible yell & raising the axe in the air ran after the midshipman. I shouted out for help & with two of the other lads we tackled lofty & we all sat on him, then we had to get him down below & make him stay there. We never saw the midshipman for the rest of that night, but it must have been good training for the lad, to know that he was being well looked after by combined ops personnel.

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