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This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Sue Manning-Jones on behalf of Jack Heasman and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Heasman fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Malta Convoy
We set off from Gibraltar in August 1942 on HMS Nelson en route to Malta. Churchill said we鈥檝e got to save Malta because they were starving. We had 14 merchant ships to escort including the Indomitable, Indefatigable and Victorious. The Spanish had sent signals to the Germans that a big convoy had left Gibraltar so they knew that we were on our way there and of course they were waiting for us. We had to go through 鈥渂omb alley鈥�. Just astern of us was the Eagle, one of the aircraft carriers, and it was torpedoed and sunk. They lost about 800 men and all the planes.

I was in the 16inch gun magazine at the bottom of the ship. The Nelson had nine 16inch guns, as did the Rodney our sister ship. Each shell weighed a ton and had to be lifted hydraulically from the magazine into the loading tray. Our skipper was Vice Admiral Neville Syfret, a wonderful man, and he was in charge of the convoy. I鈥檒l never forget it 鈥� I鈥檓 down in the magazine with my mates, stripped to the waist because the temperature was 125掳F down there. We had iron rations, chocolate and glucose, because once you closed the hatches they were never opened until the action was over and we knew we were going to be in action for a long time.

It came over the tannoy system that the first wave of torpedo bombers were attacking us at about 500 at a time. The Admiral gave the order to elevate the guns as high as they could go and we let loose with them. You can imagine nine 16inch shells which weight a ton opening up at the planes 鈥� they scattered everywhere. Then another wave came and we lost quite a few ships and cruisers. Out of the original 14 merchant ships only five got into Malta 鈥� enough to save the island. One of those was the Ohio, a very important ship carrying kerosene and diesel for the aircraft. The way they got it into Malta harbour was very clever. Two destroyers got either side and put steel hawsers, one round the bows and one round the stern, in a sort of cradle. The men were lying dead on the upper deck.

After five days we got back to Gibraltar 鈥� at a cost, the Indomitable aircraft carrier was lost.

D-Day
On D-Day we left Devonport on HMS Nelson bound for Caen. I have never seen such a sight in all my life. There were so many ships you could hardly move on the water. It was a fantastic sight but the sea was very rough for June. After D-Day we鈥檇 done our part in protecting the landing craft so we came home. On the way back we struck a mine and messed up all the gunnery installations. She was taken to Philadelphia for a re-fit with just a skeleton crew. I was sorry to have to leave my old ship after two-and-a-half years.

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