Learning the dangers of serving in the navy

March ‘41, or April I guess, April ‘41, we finally got to Singapore and got our ship, first ship, HMS Turbon, and it was when it was peace time out there until December the 8th, of course, and then the party started. And we were the last ship to leave Singapore and we got bombed fairly smartly the next day leaving, we took out the last of the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders. They had been fighting all the way down the peninsula.

Interviewer: Yeah.

There weren't very many of them left. And some were killed on their, on the way.

And anyway, the ship had to go to the United States for a re-fit, and we were transferred to, the midshipmen were transferred to HMS Dorchester, and she was sunk six weeks later, I think. We met, we were, we were coming out of Ceylon to join the main eastern fleet and the Japanese were coming up from the south, they with their carriers and so on. A reconnaissance plane saw us and called, they called it in to the Japanese Admiral, Admiral Nagumo, and they sent their dive bombers and finished us off very smartly.