Hi,
I have just come across your interesting site.
I have been researching my late father’s (Leslie Mushins) WWII service for some time now. I started by obtaining a list of the ships in which he served, then followed up by trying to match the ships and dates with books and internet sites. This has been quite fruitful, but there still remain a quite a few blanks.
Between 13 Nov 1940 and 2 May 1944 my father was attached to the RN in the following ships/establishments:
- London Depot
- HMS Osprey
- HMS Ambuscade
- HMS Nimrod
- HMS King Alfred
- HMS Pyramus
- HMS Cape Portland
- HMS Caroline
- HMS Lusitania
I have been unable to source any information about London Depot:
- I presume it may have been an administrative posting for RAN personnel arriving/departing the UK?
- Where was it located?
I noticed on one of the letters in your forum re HMS Campbell(?) a reader queried whether having the battle honour “Arctic” satisfied the requirement for the recently approved “Arctic Star”. Both the Ambuscade and the Cape Portland have this battle honour and were involved in escorting convoys to/from Russia, however only as far as Iceland. The British MOD advised me that to qualify the vessels had to have entered the Arctic Circle (I believe 30N?).
My research suggests HMS Lusitania was formerly HMS Chanticleer and that Chanticleer was torpedoed in the Azores. I have been informed that the hulk was renamed Lusitania and used as a depot ship?
On returning to Australia my father served in:
- Penguin
- Lonsdale
- Allenwood
- Rushcutter
- Moreton
- HDML 1074
- Warrego
- Gascoyne
- USCGSS Buttonwood
- Platypus
- Lachlan
- Mulcra
- GPV 957
- Cerberus
- Sydney III
- Reserve
- Cowra
- Burdekin.
I have some quite detailed information about my father’s time in Warrego, obtained from the Warrego Association. Clearly it was a very busy time for Warrego between January and May 1945. Between 25 May and 6 September 1945 my father served in HDML 1074. I have been unable to source any information about the activities of HDML 1074 in this period and wonder whether you may be able to help?
Please excuse the length of this letter. Any assistance you are able to provide would be gratefully received.
I have a great interest in the exploits of the RAN and am myself a Naval Reservist. I am at present serving 3 days per week at HMAS Cerberus as Reserves Regional Pool Manager Victoria.
I remain,
Yours sincerely,
Eric Mushins
LCDR, RANR
Hello Eric,
London Depot may well be Australia House in the Strand, we maintained pay records for RAN personnel in UK there in WW2, and there was an RAN Liaison Officer appointed there too.
HMS Osprey was the RN anti-submarine training school at Portland Dorset.
I spent a year there in 46/47, 6 months on the staff and 6 months doing the AS side of my Long TAS Specialist course.
Did your father train as an Anti Submarine officer in WW2 in UK? ( which probably included mine sweeping, as did my course at Osprey )
HMS Ambuscade
HMS Ambuscade (D38) was a British Royal Navy destroyer which served in the Second World War. She and her Thornycroft competitor, Amazon, were prototypes designed to exploit advances in construction and machinery since World War I and formed the basis of Royal Navy destroyer evolution up to the Tribal class of 1936.
She was launched at Yarrow on 15 January 1926, served in World War II, and was broken up at Troon in 1946.
HMS Nimrod was the depot at Cambelltown in Scotland.
HMS King Alfred was the training depot in UK for training Reserve Officers from the RN and from around the world including Australians.
At the outbreak of the Second World War on September 3rd 1939 Hove Marina, Hove's new municipal swimming baths and recreation complex, was due to be partially open to the public. The site was immediately requisitioned by the Admiralty under the Naval Mobilisation Act of 1938, and the Marina opened its doors for the first time on September 11th as HMS King Alfred, a commissioned ship in the Royal Navy, under the command of Captain John Noel Pelly CBE, RN (Ret).
HMS Pyramus: [HMS PyraImus ( RN base, Kirkwall )] Kirkwall was of course in the Orkneys where Scapa Flow was the Home Fleet anchorage in WW2,
I served here as a Midshipman, in HMAS Australia in 1940 when we were part of the British Home Fleet.
HMS Cape Portland served on convoy duty, but as you note only as far as Iceland.
HMS Caroline: A radio station at Belfast Castle, HMS Caroline.
HMS Chanticleer :
H . M . S . C H A N T I C L E E R ( U 0 5 )
I have the Arctic Star from the British MOD for service in HMAS Australia when in 1940 we went up to Bear Island, well inside the Arctic circle.
I am sure you will have your Father's WW2 Certificate from this URL: http://ww2roll.gov.au
HDML 1074 : was the first HDML commissioned into the RAN on October 7, 1942.
Harbour Defence Motor Launches (HDMLs)
28 boats, HDMLs 1074, 1129, 1161, 1321 - 1329; 1340 - 1347; 1352 - 1359 (some sources add two more boats - HDMLs 1338 and 1339).
Specifications
Round-bilge wooden boats, copper sheathed, 300 hp diesel engines. Dimensions varied, depending on the builder. 1074, 1129 and 1161 were built in Britain; 1321-1329 in Australia; and the others in a variety of American yards. Australian built boats were the biggest, measuring 72 feet o/a, beam 15 feet, draft 5.5 feet max, displacing 47 tons standard, 58 tons battle-weight. Complement - 10-12. Performance - 11.5 knots at 260 BHP. Armament - extremely varied. As per the original British design they carried a 2-pounder forward and two twin machine-guns; but a common later Australian configuration was one 2-pounder or 40 mm Bofors AA gun forward, one 20 mm Oerlikon gun aft, plus sundry machine guns and depth charges.
The HDMLs were a numerous class of British-Admiralty-designed boats intended originally to patrol harbours and estuaries. As with every other type of ship, the Australian Navy stretched these possibilities to the limit. From the time the first, HDML 1074, was commissioned into Australian Service on 7th October 1942, these craft were employed on routine patrols, convoy escorts, running special forces in and out of Japanese-held areas, and a hundred other vital tasks, sometimes humdrum, sometimes exciting. Proof of the basic soundness of the design is the saga of HDML 1074. This boat survived a storm on the open sea and collision with a destroyer to join action at Morotai and - still unrepaired - re-charted the harbour after it was secured from the Japanese. HDML 1353 engaged in survey duties in Torres Strait in late 1944 as part of TU 70.5.2. 1359 took part in the surrender ceremony at South Borneo; 1343 at Sandakan; 1322, 1324 and 1329 at Timor. The Australian-built boats were retained for service in the post-1945 RAN.
Hope these notes help a little.
Best regards,
Mackenzie.
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