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- HMS Sussex during the Second World War -


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World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

HMS Sussex



26th July 1945 Air Attack


If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.



Those known to have sailed in

HMS Sussex

during the Second World War 1939-1945.

The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List

Records of HMS Sussex from other sources.



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Want to know more about HMS Sussex?


There are:0 items tagged HMS Sussex available in our Library

  These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War.


SPO. Victor Leopold Burnley HMS Pintail (d.10th Jun 1941)

My grandfather was Stoker Petty Officer (SPO) Victor Leopold Burnley, aged 34 years old in 1941. Victor was killed on HMS Pintail on the 10th June 1941. He also served on the following ships in 1939 to 1941, HMS Emerald, HMS Pembroke, HMS Sussex.

I have also been able to establish a little more detail about the events around the sinking of HMS Pintail: On 10th June 1941, the Harwich based patrol vessel HMS Pintail was escorting a convoy near 62-Bouy, some 30 miles off the Humber, when steamship Royal Scott detonated an acoustic mine, blew up and sank. Pintail immediately dashed to the scene to help in the rescue, but she was also caught by an acoustic mine close to the steamship. HMS Pintail blew up and was lost almost immediately, instantly killing her CO Lieutenant McClintoch, six officers and 48 ratings. HMS Quantock a destroyer came to the scene and managed to save 22 crew from the water. The location of the ship is 28 miles East south east off Spurn Point.

Richard Bass



Bdmn. Joseph William "Ginge" Carruthers HMS Phoebe

My Father joined as a bandboy in 1936 aged 14. He served on HMS Phoebe, HMS Sussex, HMS Gosling and HMS Queen Elizabeth during the war.

After the war he served on HMS Indefatigable, Implacable, Ceylon, Newfoundland, Triumph, Vernon and Wolfe. We lived in Singapore at HMS Terror between 1962 and 1967.

John Carruthers



James McNeil Walker HMS Sussex

My grandfather, Jimmy Walker, served on board HMS Sussex from about 1942 till the end of the war.

Jim Walker



Able Sea. George Douglas Blake HMS Warspite

George Douglas Blake and uncle Henry Gladwin

George Douglas Blake

George Blake joined the Navy in 1935 and served up to 1950. He was an Electricians Mate Class 1 and served in,
  • 12/03/35-09/01/36 HMS Ganges.
  • 10/01/36- 08/02/36 HMS Pembroke
  • 09/02/36-17/08/38 ?
  • 18/08/36-10/11/36 HMS Pembroke
  • 09/11/36-13/02/37 HMS Sussex
  • 14/02/37-31/08/37 ?
  • 01/09/37-20/10/37 HMS Ramillies
  • 21/10/37-19/11/37 HMS Pembroke
  • 20/11/37-02/07/39 HMS Sussex
  • 03/07/39-25/08/39 HMS Pembroke
  • 26/08/39-27/08/42 HMS Royal Sovereign
  • 28/08/42-27/09/44 HMS Warspite
  • 28/09/44-01/05/46 HMS Pembroke/HMS Marlborough
  • 02/05/46-31/10/49 HMS London
  • 01/11/49-06/02/50 HMS Pembroke

Jeremey



Sowden HMS Sussex

My father was in Singapore on HMS Sussex in 1945 and, after the surrender, was signed aboard the ship they had tied up in Singapore. It was known as the "hotel ship", as they had POWs come aboard. He met one guy called Frank Martin wandering the upper decks and took him down to the mess deck for some food.

Antony Sowden



Edward Vickers HMS Sussex

I'm trying to find a bit of my father-in-law's wartime history. He served on HMS Sussex in 1945 and was at the liberation of Changi in Singapore later that year. His name was Edward (Ted) Vickers and he came from Middlesbrough. He received the Burma Star. If anyone know of him or any history of the ship around that period I would love to hear from you.

Update

My father was serving on HMS Black Swan at about the same time and place. He recalled that they took some of the most seriously injured (and mentally damaged) ex-POWs from Changi to Australia for medical attention. The less serious were eventually returned to the UK so the Sussex might have been involved with that most harrowing of tasks. I might add my father in later life would walk for miles rather than buy Japanese goods as a consequence of what he saw at that time. As you might imagine, with the passage of time, that became a more and more a difficult job as he searched for his new TV etc. We owe so much to that generation of British men and women whose country we have inherited. - Chris Pownall.

Update

My father was on HMS Sussex when it left Malta in 1945 and headed for Alexandria and then Port Said then through the Suez Canal for Columbo and the base at Trincomalee. Whilst there they went out for 2-3 days at a time and bombed targets in Burma. During one of these excursions he saw HMS Squirrel (a mine sweeper) hit a mine and sink. The destroyer HMS Racehorse picked up survivors and transfered them to the Sussex. During this time the Japanese Kamakazi attacks started. One headed for the Sussex and exploded before impact, causing minor damage to the starboard quarters of the Sussex. With the end of the war declared on the 14th August 1945 the Sussex headed for Singapore and accepted the surrender of the Island on 4th September 1945 led by General Seishiro Itagaki and Vice-Admiral Shigeru Fukudome, surrendered to British forces Led by Lieutenant-General Alexander Frank Philip Christison and Vice-Admiral Cedric Swinton Holland on board the HMS Sussex in the Straits of Singapore. My father was taken ashore to signal the troop ships into Singapore with supplies and troops. He later, with another signalman Jackie Batt, went to Raffles and hoisted the Union Jack flag. The Sussex was used as a hotel ship and accepted some POWs onboard till they were shipped home. The Sussex went onto Indoniesia including Surabaya, Batavia and Semarang to drop troops and help liberate these areas as well. My dad was dropped eventually at Tanjong Priok were he stayed for a year till the Dutch came and took over. He returned to Singapore and Blakang Mati (now Sentosa) for a week before returning to the UK in 1947 on HMS Salvage Duke. He is not sure where the Sussex went after he was dropped at Tanjong Priok. - Antony

Update

Stoker Bob (Sharky) Ward served on HMS Sussex 1944-1945. Can any one help? The way I remember it was like this, after comming off the first dogwatch on Sunday evening when the captain announced that we would bombard Phucket, after that all hell broke loose when we were attacked by Kamikaze aircraft. Half the ship's company went down with food poisoning, the Captain put it down to going into action. I was on the starboard side of the upper deck at the time and saw the Kamikaze hit the ship. What I would like to know is, why wasn't I at action station? my action station was magazine B turret. - Sharky.

Roger Walker







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    The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items.

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