The Generosity of Others

I spent a long time the other night on the phone to the UK.

As an aside I find that natives of England tend to refer to their homeland as “England”. Whereas in my experience, people from the other lands in the British Isles seem to be as likely to say “I’m from the UK”. They then say as if an afterthought “I’m from…” and insert Scotland, or Wales etc. as necessary. I often wonder what causes the different approach. Surely the Union is not more beloved by the non-English subjects of Her Majesty’s domain.

I’m straying off my point. As I said I was on the phone to the UK. This is not an infrequent event, as I have a much loved brother who resides in Coventry and we talk frequently (as far as I know he was not “sent to Coventry”). On this occasion I was not chatting to my brother. Rather I was talking to a gentleman (and I use the term advisedly) by the name of Don.

Don is in his eighties and is a Royal Navy veteran of WWII vintage. I had the privilege of being introduced to Don (via telephone) by my brother.
For close to an hour Don talked to me about his war time experiences.

Don served on HMS Narborough, a Captain class frigate.

HMS Balfour a "Captain class"

Captain class frigates were built in the US and supplied to Britain under Lend-Lease. The Captain class frigates were named after captains who served in Nelson’s navy. A quick note about the photos on this post, all are available on Wikimedia Commons click on each photo for a link to its source.

Serving on HMS Narborough Don went on the perilous “Murmansk run” to Northern Russia. They went up during winter in atrocious weather and continual dark.

Arctic Noon taken on HMS Sheffield

At one point Don says the sea was so rough that he was seasick 28 times in 24 hours.

He also talked about Exercise Tiger when during a D-Day rehearsal an Allied convoy was attacked off Slapton Sands. The attack resulted in the deaths of 749 American servicemen.

The Slapton Sands Memorial

The disaster was hushed up at the time for fear of compromising the D-Day invasion. As a part of the “hush up” Narborough was dispatched to the middle of the Atlantic and spent the next weeks steaming in circles providing weather reports.

HMS Narborough returned from the Atlantic in the teeth of the gale that almost postponed D-Day. After oiling and storing they crossed to the British beaches with the invasion fleet.

50th Division landing at Gold Beach

Don described having a "ringside seat" while watching the landings.

On D+1 they were off Omaha Beach. When the USS Susan B Anthony was hit by a sea-mine The Narborough was one of the ships tasked with getting 2,689 soldiers and crew off..

Don says it is a heartbreaking experience watching a ship going down. The Susan B Anthony "reared up and then went straight down stern first. Like an arrow fired at a bullseye."
Don was relieved that on this occaision all were rescued without loss of life. However, he added the rescued soldiers were immediately transferred to landing craft and landed on Omaha Beach “without a rifle between them.”

US First Division Troops Landing on Omaha Beach D-Day

Post war Don took up a scholarship to Cambridge University and later worked as an engineer. He is articulate and concerned that his and others experiences are recorded for posterity. As a result he is a mover in the museum dedicated to the Captain class ships. He has also recorded a great deal of information for the Imperial War Museum.

It was in this spirit that he most generously shared his time with me (and offered to not only share more but also to put me in contact with other veterans).

As a fiction writer my main tool is imagination. However, that imagination is stoked and supported by research. I read personal accounts and formal histories endlessly. For WWII history I also can get access to invaluable resources such as photographs and film. Yet, for me, it is always personal accounts such as Don’s that are the most potent spurs to my imagination. Ten minutes speaking with a veteran can be worth a years’ research to me .

Over the years I have been privileged to speak to many people who lived and survived through those years. For most a lot of the experiences are still traumatic, even after all this time, and some can or will say little. In such cases the silences are often as informative as what is said. But some, like Don, are not only able to share the events but do so absolutely candidly. Of course for some the war years were a highlight in their lives, not only a time of privation but also a time of certainty, of shared purpose, of comradeship. Whichever is the case, I am enormously honoured by the generosity of others, in sharing their stories, their memories, and a portion of their lives with me.

So to Don and to all the others I have spoken to over the years, thank you.

A Slow Weekend

Well I had a boring weekend in comparison to usual. As you have gathered we spend a fair bit of our free time shooting around the back blocks and having a squiz at the local scenery.

This past weekend we didn’t. Unfortunately two things kept us relatively close to home:

• First looking for a new house. We are currently renting and our landlord has given us notice to vacate. So we went looking at houses to rent on Saturday. (We have owned before but are still tied up in knots with some property interstate and will not buy until we finally sell there).

• Also Deb has a conference in Canberra this week. She decided to drive (about 8 hours) rather than fly and so she left on Sunday. She could have flown but: you have to allow an hour and a half to get to the airport from here (it is in actual fact nothing like that time but traffic can be unpredictable); then the airlines insist you are there absurdly early to clear the new security hurdles (at least an hour before the flight); the flight takes an a bit over an hour; then you have to muck around getting a hire car at the other end; to clinch it all Deb hates flying; so she drove.
  

I could have poked around doing something, looking for something to photograph. But the weather was terrible so I stayed in and read:


I posted about buying Beevor’s book back in August but haven’t picked it up till now. So far I am enjoying it. Methinks I should post my first ever book review when I ever get round to finishing it.


On the subject of reviews I did finish Troop Leader a while ago, maybe I should review that?

Anyone interested in reviews of military history and military biography?

I know I would be. My current novel Veiled in Shadows, is set in WWII. The sequel (companion?) which I am working on begins in the war and extends into the early years of the cold war. I am quite pedantic about my research. I have to know everything I can about a historical situation in which my characters may find themselves. That includes trivialities down to what kind of footwear they might have had. So reviews of useful books like this would suit me, but what about anyone else?

The strange thing is almost none of this detail directly appears in the books. Yet I find it helps with colour if I can have my characters speak with confidence about things they would have known about, as a matter of course. I want them to step into scenes I know are as accurate as I can make them.

Hmm, I really am rambling today, just a moment more and I’ll let you go.

The final edit of Veiled in Shadows is almost complete. I have all but completed the changes to the manuscript that Cheryl suggested. Perhaps two hours work will see it completed.

Yay!

So, lest I ramble you to death, goodnight.

A Formal Outing

A quick post again this afternoon.
I have just come home from work and I have to go out this evening. My other half has a formal opening of a new building at her workplace. As one of the executive team she has to be present at such events and it is expected she brings a partner.

That would be me.

It is a suit and tie affair which is ok, except I might wear a tie, let alone a suit a couple of times a year. My workplace has a neat casual dress-code, which usually means jeans and t-shirt level for most people. Even head office doesn’t usually go past a tie. Ah well, the things we do for those we love. I should look on it as practice for looking civilised.
Seriously though, I expect it will be a fun evening I have met many of Deb’s colleagues and they seem like a nice bunch.

It was my birthday on Friday and as partial consolation for edging closer to 50 I got a couple of gift vouchers for Borders and JB Hi-Fi.
With the Borders one I got a couple of books; no fiction, I was in a history mood apparently.
The first:

I have had my eye on Beevor’s D-Day since it came out. I loved his Stalingrad and Berlin. But D-Day has had mixed reviews so I have held off, at least until it wasn’t me paying for it. Maybe I’ll review it once I have a chance to get through it.

The second:
Troop leader by Bill Bellamy is of course looking at the same period. I haven’t read any reviews of it, but it grabbed my eye. Also as I said in a post a little while ago, I am researching bits and pieces for my second novel. This account isn’t directly related to that, but I find personal accounts like this can help me get into the mind space I need to write my characters.

I bought an odd mix of DVDs.



A graphic novel brought to the screen, a study of a famous interview and a twist on a classic romance.
Coupled with the books I bought, I guess it seems I must either be well rounded or suffer hopelessly eccentric tastes.

Until Next time (at least if I don't manage to accidentally hang myself with my tie.)