My grandfather, George Cowell, enlisted in the Loyal Territorial Army at Chorley, Lancashire on 16 April 1935.
On 31st October 31st 1938, he was discharged on reorganisation and on 3rd March 1939, re-enlisted in the RA Territorial Army, posted with the 437/62 Searchlight Regiment.
He was Called for actual military service on 24th August 1939, he was later posted to the 2nd Maritime Anti Aircraft Battery on 30th October 1941.
During his time with the MRA, he spent two months on the Empire Lynx as it made its way to the US and Canada with Convoy OB349 (Liverpool - Philadelphia) and SC43 (Sydney, NS - Liverpool) and seven months on the Lochnagar (March 1942 - October 1942), assisting the US base in Iceland as they supported the Arctic Convoys.
In June 1943, he boarded the SS Banfora for Port Said with convoy KMF19. For the next eleven months, this ship was home as they accompanied various convoys throughout the Middle East, visiting ports such as Casablanca, Algiers, Bizerta and Gibralta.
They were part of the escort for Operation Husky (MEF38 for the Malta-Aleaxandria leg, and also came under torpedo attack with UGF10 (Casablanca-Algiers) on the night of 1st/2nd November 1943, and again during the day of 3rd November 1943.
The SS Banfora was present when the ill-fated HMT Rohnacame under attack and was sunk on 26th November 1943 (KMF26) thus entering troopship history, by virtue of the large scale aerial attack and great loss of life, only a few miles off the coast of Algeria.
In June 1944, he joined the Empire Rosalind in Haifa, before later joining convoy TM1 (10th August 1944 - 16th August 1944), and invasion of Southern Italy - Operation Dragoon - as part of Alpha Force (Task Force 84), defending Cavaliere Bay - beaches Red and Yellow.
On 17th November 1944, his final journey was on the Orbita, with convoy MKS68 (Alexandria - Gibralter) before joining SL177 for Belfast. He officially left the Orbita on 18th December 1944, and was posted to 23 ITC on 24th March 1945.
During the past 22 years (through extensive research) I've managed to learn more and more about his service (most recently the Rohna incident) - prior to this he never spoke of his experiences and his death in 1982 meant I never had the chance to to ask "What did you do during the war, grandpa?"
Any information and help is warmly welcomed.
L-R: DAVIES, Ivor & COWELL, George William, ORKNEY 1941
