Jimmy Harris
Jimmy belongs to: Royal British Legion Seaman's Mess
Jimmy was born in Dulwich in London. Jimmy served in both the Royal Navy and merchant navy. He was on the Ashanti when it ran aground at Whitburn in 1940.
Jimmy was interviewed by Kylea Little on 22 November 2005. The interview took place at South Shields Royal British Legion and lasted 43 minutes and 54 seconds.
Wartime experiences in the Royal Navy part two
"Then I became a leading torpedoman"
Then I became a leading torpedoman and then I joined the Whimbrel. The second escort support group in the Atlantic with the U boat packs- Captain Walker’s group- he was a famous man, in the Starling. And I was in her until ’44 and the U Boats were beaten then and I went back to the school for a more senior rate and then I joined the Malaya, HMS Malaya, a battleship, which was waiting to get broken up. But they had encountered trouble over the other side in the invasion- they couldn’t get into the port of St Malo because there was an island off St Malo called Cézambre Island and they had large guns on it which went down, which went up and down you see- they used to go down into the ground. So they sent us across because we had armour piercing shells. We were only commissioned for one job so we went over and we flattened Cézambre Island and all the guns and everything there.
Jimmy has 13 memories in the memorynet:
Jimmy's memories with a The North East theme:
Wartime experiences in the Royal NavyJimmy's other memories:
Distinguished Service Medal
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