Hostilities Only is the story of my father Robert Brooks’ time as a Hostilities Only rating in the Royal Navy during World War 2. Over one million people (923,000 men and 86,000 women) served in the Royal Navy during that War. Thousands of men and women enlisted after a recruitment campaign to help meet the…
Over one million people (923,000 men and 86,000 women) served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. Many volunteered after an urgent recruitment campaign to fill the demand in manpower required to meet the maritime threat of Nazi Germany. As in the 1914-18 war, the British Admiralty’s first challenge was to rebuild Britain’s naval…
Dawn, September 1939. German forces invaded Poland and hostilities began. ‘The Prime Minister asked me to visit him at Downing Street.’ Winston Churchill wrote in his memoirs. ‘I was invited to become a member of the War Cabinet.’ Two days later, 24 years after resigning as First Sea Lord, Winston Churchill returned to the Admiralty….
According to the landowner, it was ‘the finest bit of corn land in the south of England‘. Locals would call it the best snipe marsh in the country. It was certainly boggy and sea boots were compulsory wear for trainees who strayed from the paths. HMS Collingwood opened in January 1940. Built on 190 acres of marshy Hampshire land, it…
Neat handwriting, accurate spelling, good mnemonics and integrity. All were key attributes when it came to selection for The Communications Branch. Good handwriting meant messages were relaid accurately. Spelling went hand in hand with this. The ability to memorise lots of information was crucial and integrity was key due to the sensitive nature of the…
13 October 1941 – 20 January 1942 Hostilities Only Ordinary Signalman Brooks’ first draft after training was His Majesty’s Trawler (HMT) Southcoates. Built in 1918, she was christened Samuel Drake and launched from yard no.363 into the River Clyde by builders Bow McLachlan & Company of Paisley. Bow, McLachlan & Co. had entered the specialist shipbuilding market…
I often wondered why we went on holiday to Lowestoft. It was such a long way from Cumbria by car. Now it all made sense. Dad’s service number was JX272920 LT. J 272920 meant Communications Branch. The X, he was employed on a pay scale introduced in the 1930s. The LT was for Lowestoft. The…
A colourful patchwork of houses paints a peaceful portrait of Tobermory on the Scottish Isle of Mull. Once the location for the BBC children’s programme Balamory, the picturesque fishing harbour was a very different place in 1942 when Ordinary Signalman Brooks arrived. During the opening months of the ‘phoney war’, combatants in the Battle of…
Whilst training at Western Isles Signalman Brooks briefly joined HMT Tranquil (FY 920) from 23rd April 1942 to 29th April 1942 under command of Temporary Lieutenant William Postlethwaite, RNR. Launched in 1912 as the Good Luck (1497), HMT Tranquil was a converted minesweeping trawler, one of many requisitioned by the admiralty in 1939. On 2nd November 1940, T/ Ltnt. William…
Also known as HMT Ephreta, the Admiralty Steam Drifter Ephretah was built at Oulton Broad, Lowestoft in 1918 named Quicksand. She was one of the many pre-war trawlers requisitioned by The Admiralty for minesweeper or anti-submarine work. The trawler, though not an ideal anti-submarine craft, was a cheap and accessible resource for that duty. The guns they…
