Percy Shipperbottom was my father who served on Air Sea Rescue launches as a radio operator, initially operating out of Ramsgate on launch 120. Then in early 1943, he was posted to Calcultta/Rangoon and travelled on the Strathenden from Liverpool (I think) to Bombay via Freetown and Durban. Apparently he was 'volunteered' to take a shift at the wireless set, as he tells in the following story:
At lunch time an RAF officer came round asking for wireless operators to make themselves known. When he got to our table he asked, ‘Has anyone here any experience of working with the Navy?’ ‘Yes sir, I have’, I answered. ‘What experience have you had?’ ‘Air Sea Rescue, Sir, based at Ramsgate on a Naval Base’. ‘Good, follow me’. So I followed him, wondering what the hell I had let myself in for.
He took me up to the Holy of Holies on the ship, The Bridge. The officer approached a Merchant Navy Officer and said, 'I think I have found you someone who should be suitable, and ex Air Sea Rescue wireless operator’. The Merchant Navy Officer gave me an Aldis Lamp and pointing to a ship nearby said, ‘Call the ship, say ‘Dimpy fourth column two’. I looked at him, ‘D-I-M-P-Y?’, I asked. ‘Good lad, correct spelling is ‘D-J-Y-M-P-I’. It’s a Polish ship’. I called the ship and the message was accepted. The Merchant Navy officer turned to the RAF officer and said, ‘This chap will do fine, he has good speed’. The RAF officer then left.
The Merchant Navy officer then outlined my duties and my watches and hours. He told me the Stratheden would be the convoy commander during the voyage and all orders and signals would emanate to and from it.
The following morning the huge convoy put to sea, we went round the North of Ireland and went far out into the Atlantic, I thought we must be heading for America but then the convoy turned South on what was known as a ‘zig-zag’ course. At regular intervals, at a signal from the Stratheden, the whole convoy would change course. This course change signal was sent by a series of flags, hooked on a line and then run up for the rest of the convoy to see.
Although I was never trained on flags in the RAF, I became quite adept at running these flags up and reading the signal flags on the other ships, but my main form of signaling was with the ten-inch Aldis Lamp. The plus side to my signaling duties meant that I was excused from ‘bullshit fatigues’, which consisted of scrubbing and polishing anything and everything to keep the men occupied.
The Atlantic can be very rough, especially in winter. Most of the troops were not used to rough seas and suffered from seasickness, but this didn’t bother me after my service on the Air Sea Rescue launches. There were twelve men on our mess table, and for nearly a week I could have had twelve meals at every sitting because I was the only one who eagerly looked forward to mealtimes.
We eventually made a mostly southerly course, and when we eventually sailed into warmer climes lots of the lads tried to 'get their knees brown' and spent a lot of time sun-bathing. This meant a lot were reporting sick through sunburn (in those days people usually did not travel abroad and therefore had no idea how strong the sun can be). After nearly a week of this an order was posted up that henceforth anyone reporting sick through sunburn would be put on a charge, for 'self-inflicted injury'.
Our 'tropical wear' must have been relics of the Indian Mutiny. We looked like a lot of comic opera soldiers, but it was all we had and we had to wear it. As the weather became hotter, especially at night, it became fairly uncomfortable below decks so I would take my blanket up to the gun turret on the bridge and sleep there.
Our first port of call was Freetown, West Africa but no one was allowed ashore except for the necessary officers to arrange replenishments for the convoy. So for about a week we sweated it out there whilst little boats chugged back and forth with an assortment of supplies. Then onwards we sailed, no incidents apart from a submarine scare, but thank goodness nothing more.
