The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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231817 Stkr. Godfrey "Taffy" Williams Royal Navy HMS Dorsetshire My Grandfather Godfrey Williams served as a stoker on the , he was there when she sank. He had very fond memories of his time serving on board, he had attributes to the drinking of rum as saving his life. He said that just as the sirens started blaring, and everyone leaped and ran to their stations, he stopped back and nicked his friend's tot of rum - just ahead of him, his friend got caught in an explosion. If he hadn't stopped, he would have been killed too. He was also fond of telling me that in one of the photos of when the crew were plucking Bismarck survivors from the sea, that it was his feet that you can see in the top corner of the photo (I don't know if this is true or not, but I like to think it is)! He made friends with one of the survivors he helped pull from the sea, a gentleman named Otto, and they remained in contact after the war. He died some years ago now, but his memory and influence live on. Helen Richmond Add to this record.  Related Content: HMS Dorsetshire Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area? If so please let us know. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.

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. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.