240523 Albert Edward Welsh Royal Navy HMS Mauritius My father, Albert Welch, served on HMS Mauritius from October
1941 to August 1944. As you might imagine, he had an interesting war
and was present at Sicily, Salerno, Anzio and the Normandy landings on
D-Day. I have many stories and pictures that he passed to me before he died.
I recently compiled these into a book and there are over 70 pages devoted to Mauritius describing where she went and what she did during this period, backed up by numerous pictures, many from his personal photo albums.
If anyone is researching the ship during this period, they may find some useful information in the eBook which can be found on the following link: A Sailor at War 1939-1945.
He also served on the Royal Naval warships HMS Capetown, HMS Widnes and HMS Centurion during World War 2. He shipped out to the Far East on the converted liner RMS Strathmore where he was temporarily attached to HMS Widnes based in Colombo. In October 1940 he joined the cruiser HMS Capetown patrolling the Indian Ocean and the African coast during the East African Campaign.
In 1941 the Capetown was deployed in the Red Sea and in April of that year she was torpedoed by an Italian MTB where Albert was lucky to survive. There followed a brief period in Bombay attached to the old battleship HMS Centurion, secretly disguised with wooden guns to resemble HMS Anson.
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