As three elderly men gently tease each other in an Qawra hotel suite, their minds drift back 70 years to the days and nights when death stalked them across the Mediterranean Sea.
You’d see a ship in front of you and then suddenly it would be obliterated
In Malta as part of a group of 66 former HMS Kenya and Ganges personnel for the 70th anniversary of the award of the George Cross to the island, all three men are full of admiration for the Maltese, who suffered horrific bombing raids that reduced much of the island to rubble.
These old warriors served together aboard HMS Kenya during Operation Pedestal, the legendary convoy which managed to sustain Malta in its darkest hours of World War II, with the SS Ohio famously limping into Grand Harbour carrying vital supplies on August 15, 1942, the feast of Santa Marija.
“Pedestal was absolute hell,” said 89-year-old Norman Coxall, known to his old shipmates as ‘Lofty’.
Fourteen merchant ships were loaded with vital supplies for a besieged Malta on the brink of starvation and running perilously low on fuel – required among other things for the aircraft defending the island. The ships passed the Straits of Gibraltar on August 10, 1942, guarded by 64 British warships, one of which was the Kenya.
They were met by relentless fire from bombers, E-boats, minefields, and submarines, with the loss of 10 merchant ships and four warships. Many other vessels were damaged.
“You’d see a ship in front of you and then suddenly it was obliterated. Just flames and debris would remain. It stays with you,” said Cyril Chisholm Chapman, 87.
Going through the Pantelleria Straits, Raymond ‘Ginger’ Board, 88, vividly recalls how E-boats obliterated HMS Manchester on the starboard side of the Kenya.
“We sailed straight through the survivors and they were all crying for help. I can still see them now, but we couldn’t do anything about it,” Mr Board said.
The crew of the Kenya had to work non-stop to defend themselves.
“Before we set off, the captain had told us to get plenty of sleep because for the next three days we’d get none. And he was right,” Mr Board said.
At 6 a.m. one morning, word went round the ship that they would meet the Italian fleet at 8 a.m. A message was sent from Malta to the shadowing aircraft saying a squadron of Lancaster Bombers was on its way to bomb the Italian fleet. But there was no squadron.
“When we heard the fleet was waiting for us, we thought, ‘we’ll take them on’. We wanted to have a go at them, we weren’t frightened,” Mr Coxall recollected.
We wanted to have a go at them, we weren’t frightened
The Italians fell for the rumour about the Lancasters and retreated. Mr Chisholm Chapman thinks if they hadn’t, the Kenya would certainly have been sunk, and the whole convoy may well have been wiped out.”
On August 12, the Kenya was finally torpedoed, blowing off its bow.
“It went up in the air 20 feet, hitting the petrol tank and paint store, and it came down on the A deck where I was a gunner.
“We got covered in petrol, and had to get the hoses out and swill one another down so we could fire the guns, the fumes were awful,” Mr Coxall recalled.
When the Kenya turned back forGibraltar, the enemy sensed blood.
“Going back was even worse. The Ohio was the main target, but they also tried to finish us off. One attack lasted about eight hours,” Mr Coxall said. Despite staring death in the face, they never blinked.
“When you’re young you don’t feel fear. We were mostly young lads, aged 18 and 19,” said Mr Board.
“We never had time to think about death or defeat. It was action stations all the time,” Mr Chisholm Chapman adds.
And they quickly got over the trauma. “Now they get therapy, everyone talks about stress,” Mr Coxall says with a chuckle. “We just used to get ashore and have a good night’s drinking and that was it.”
The whole party will be attending a gala buffet with live band tomorrow at the Suncrest Hotel in Qawra and they would love to be joined by any Maltese who served on HMS Ganges. Call the Suncrest Hotel on 2157 7101 between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. tomorrow and ask for Jayne Bramley.