Dear Minister, read this and see if convoy medals are worthless
At about 5am, the ship just ahead of us, the Horace Bushnell, was torpedoed. We went to lifeboat stations, and a few minutes later the Thomas Donaldson was torpedoed. A periscope was sighted and all hell broke loose. The guns on the merchant ships opened up — everyone was shouting and yelling. The noise, the absolute bedlam, scared the wits out of me. All of us knew that our ship, a tanker, would be the prime target on the convoy.
The thought of death didn’t frighten me. I was very religious at the time, but I was terrified of being badly burned, losing a limb, or my senses. I like to think I hid my fear from my shipmates. They certainly seemed calm enough, but, as I later learned, we all experienced the same emotions. Our ship was ordered to “run for it”. There was a natural boom ahead, which once crossed would mean safe waters. The whole ship trembled and shook as the engines went full speed ahead.
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Hide AdThe Sloop HMS Lapwing was then torpedoed. The bow shot up in the air and sank in minutes, the stern about 15 minutes later. The stench of burning metal, the screeching as it was torn apart, the screams of the wounded, filled the air. Words cannot describe the emotional havoc that racked my mind, wanting to help but unable to, as we steamed rapidly away from the scene and saw men clinging desperately to lifeboats and rafts; many, because of the intense cold and their sodden clothing, sliding back into the sea.
The crews of the destroyer HMS Savage and the corvette HMS Allington Castle rescued many from Lapwing, but 158 seamen were lost from a complement of 229. Merchant seamen always felt special sympathy for Royal Navy crews. They were packed in like sardines, and loss of life was always heavy. On our return trip six weeks later, the frigate HMS Goodall was torpedoed at the entrance to Kola Inlet and again there was heavy loss of life; 112 lost from a complement of 156.
l Veteran Jock Dempster, pictured holding his commemorative medal presented to him by the Russian Federation consul-general last year, is chairman of the Scottish Russian Convoy Club