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Letters
Chairman of the HMS Cumberland Association Mac Just a short message to introduce myself; currently I am the Chairman of the HMS Cumberland Association and have been corresponding with Chuck MacPartin on things USS Augusta and HMS Cumberland during the period 1936 to 1939. Chuck sent me a copy of your experiences alongside Cumberland and the incompetence of the two ringer loading ammunition. With your permission I will try to trace anyone that remembers the incident. If you would like any information about HM Australian Ships Canberra and Australia, please shout. Best regards
Of course you have my permission. I served in Canberra as well as in the Australia, being the Officer of the Watch on Canberra's bridge when we were clobbered. Nice to talk to you, Best wishes from Oz. Mac. Gregory.
Thank you very much for your message. I have an account of the ships lost in Iron Bottom Sound, Savo Island during the battle for Guadalcanal; Robert Ballard and his team dived on the wrecks there. I was most moved when I saw the photographs of Canberra as she lay on the seabed; many of her features identical to Cumberland and still intact. I wrote a piece on the loss of two of our County class cruisers, Dorsetshire and Cornwall, sunk by the Japanese in the Indian Ocean on April 5th 1942. A fellow artificer friend of mine, now in his 93rd year was the Chief Engine Room Artificer on Cornwall when she was sunk. He and other survivors were in the water for 28 hours before being picked up. His account of the loss of his ship is really quite enthralling; he is a wonderful old boy, bright as a button and a good conversationalist. I will be his “minder” when he meets the Queen in August, truly a great honour for me to be with him. My wife Jan and I have received an invitation to join the type 22 Frigate HMS Cumberland for the Royal Fleet Review at Spit Head as guests of her Commanding Officer, Captain Russell best OBE, he was our guest of honour at the annual reunion of the Association last month. I would be most grateful if you have any information related to the two Australian ships Australia and Canberra, particularly of your experiences on Canberra when she was lost. Best regards
I have Ballard's Lost Ships of Guadalcanal, and met him when he promoted that book in Australia in the nineties. Task at the Palace later this year will be a thrill for you. If you go to my website URL: http://ahoy.tk-jk.net you will find on my Home Page on the LH side the site for my story of Canberra being sunk, and in the search engine on the same page, put in HMAS Australia, there are a number of articles about her, including the debacle at Dakar with de Gaulle. If you have any problems give me a yell. Best wishes,
What a fantastic site, I am absolutely overwhelmed, a most splendid series of research work and writing. How do I go about “using” the odd article now and again? The members in the HMS Cumberland Association would be thrilled to read some of your work. Our quarterly newsletter The Cumberlander is only available to paid up members of the Association and is not for sale. Regards
I am happy for you to use whatever you wish from AHOY, a simple acknowledgement as to your source would be nice. May I please see a copy of your Newsletter as convenient, can I go on your mailing list? What is involved in joining your Association to qualify for your Newsletters? Having served in WW2 in all 3 of the Australian County Class cruisers, Cumberland is another of those fine heavy cruisers, that were absolute work horses in WW2. I saw the war out in Shropshire, Winston Churchill organised her gift to the RAN to replace my Canberra after Savo, and I was in her at the signing of the Japanese Surrender on the 2nd of September 1945 in Tokyo Bay. My Mother and Father were English, and I had Dad's brother living in Cumberland when Cubria was so called, and visited them in 1940 as a Midshipman in HMAS Australia. Dad was an Old Contemptible and joined the RAN in London in 1919, and came to Australia in the J Class Submarine J2, being towed from UK to Geelong near Melbourne where I was born in 1922. He served until 1945 in the RAN. So I feel in some ways quite close to your old ship which we saw from time to time during the war. Its a pleasure to have met you via the net, do keep in touch. Mac.
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