My late father went to the Pacific War as a sparker (wireless operator) after D Day in Europe where his destroyer, HMS Orwell, had done 7 or 8 Russian convoy runs. I know that his ship, HMS Springdale, was eventually shipwrecked off the coast of Ireland as they returned to base .. but I cannot find any information about the ship, what it did in the Pacific, and it's log on returning to europe at the end of the war. I do recall that he was greeted by his employing firm in London with 'you've no job - where have you been ..' as most of them had no idea that the war had been confining and it took a considerable time for naval ratings to return home demobbed. If anyone has any more in formation about this ship, or relatives who also served in that theatre of war, I would be most interested.
Springdale started life as a civilian collier in 1937. 1,597 gross registered tons in size. In January 1940 she was requisitioned by the RN for use as a mine destructor ship, one of the earliest forms of combatting the magnetic mine. Basically they put a large 450 ton 105ft long 5.5ft wide magnet in the hold forward of the bridge and another smaller magnet on a platform hanging over the bow. They were powered by a couple of 300kW generators. Once magnetic mines became more complex the magnets were removed around 1940/41 and LL sweeps installed to be towed behind the ship to achieve the same effect. She was part of convoy OG.64 which sailed from Liverpool to Gibraltar in June 1941 and was reportedly in Singapore by Nov 1941. In 1943 she became a Deperming Vessel - a ship for demagnetising other ships too small to have permanent demagnetising equipment installed onboard. It was in that role that she ended up in the British Pacific Fleet as a member of the Fleet Train in 1945 where she carried the Pennant No B426. I don’t have any details of her movements while in the Far East but can tell you that 75 years ago today, VJ Day, she was in Sydney. She was sold by the RN in March 1947. If you do manage to find details of her movements in the Far East I’d love to hear about them. Here is a photo of her in 1941. The platform over the bow for the magnet is still there but the magnet itself is gone. Instead she has been fitted with a rig to sweep acoustic mines (the metal beam angling down from the bow platform to near the water line). HMS SPRINGDALE And one from the Australian Archives of her in May 1944. That suggests that she spent most of her war in and around the Indian Ocean and Australia. | The Australian War Memorial
Thanks very much for that fascinating information Ewan ... I imagine then that my father was on Springdale on VJ Day in Sydney .. but that must be lost in the list of time. I wish there were detailed records available somewhere of where lower deck servicemen served, but I think only Officer's records are available. I do know however that my father's ship was wrecked on rocks off the coast of Ireland when he returned, but if it was sold by the RN in 1947, it seems it was probably salvaged and hence does not appear in records of ships lost. I am an amateur at tracing records, so no way of knowing what she did in the far East - other than my father told me that they spent time after the A bombs fell moving around the Pacific Islands gathering survivors and so forth, before heading home via Hong Kong (he brought back various Chinese items which I remember well ..) and on to Ireland. Thanks again for your assistance.
Tim, go to this site, well worth exploring using HMS Springdale in the search box: Family History - Royal Navy and Naval History.Net Jack.
I pulled the Shipping Movement Card from the National Archives but it wasn't very helpful other than giving me a note of her owners pre-war and this:- Acquired by the Admiralty 17/5/40 To be released from Admiralty service as no longer required 3/12/46 Re-registered with her former owners 10/10/47 So that suggests to me that she was back in UK waters as of 3/12/46 and your father would have been moved to another ship or shore base around that time. But the name of the shipping company got me to this history of her. Screw Steamer SPRINGDALE built by Short Brothers Ltd. in 1937 for Springwell Shipping Co. Ltd., London, Cargo Springdale was lost in the Gulf of Bothnia in the Baltic between Finland and Sweden in 1959. Certainly not a loss during her time with the RN. Bit of a distance from Ireland and in time from her war service! You should be able to get your father's service records from the MoD. There is guidance somewhere on the site of how to do it. Not my area of expertise unfortunately. Or someone will be along shortly to help you. That will shed some more light on his movements for you.
A few potted locations for her: From RAN History - Vol.1, Ch.16. | The Australian War Memorial 23 February, 1942 - see fn.7 From RAN Daily Narratives - by date of entry. https://www.navy.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/DNar 01101942-27011943.pdf 0900L Friday, October 9, 1942 0900L Sunday, December 6, 1942 https://www.navy.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/DNar 28011943-30061943.pdf 0900L Saturday, 3 April, 1943 0900K Sunday, 6 June, 1943 https://www.navy.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/DNar 01071945-30091945.pdf 0900K Wednesday, 19 September, 1945
Write to the mod with death certificate and £30 and they will send you his service records you will need to fill out the form on the .gov.uk site google claiming service records also write to medal office to see what medals he was entitled to as possibly you can claim the arctic star now
Hello to all, My father served on the deperming (aka degaussing) ship HMS Springdale from May 1941 until July 1944. He sailed on convoy OG 64 from the UK to Singapore arriving November 1941. The ship hurriedly left Singapore shortly before the island was overrun by the Japanese in February 1942 - he remembered men, considered expendable, being put ashore from Springdale into certain captivity and he remembered the chaos of warehouses being broken into and relieved of all manner of goods. The ship made its way down the Java sea and through island passages pursued by the enemy, at one time running a passage too shallow for the pursuers. The ship's first port of call was Fremantle (March 1942) where it resorted to its primary function of demagnetising submarines, principally from US but also from other navies (eg Dutch). From Fremantle Springdale sailed to Adelaide across a stormy Australian Bight, Melbourne, Sydney, then Newcastle and continued up the east coast of Australia as far as Port Moresby. My father left Springdale July 1944 before returning to the UK via an R and R sojourn in Trincomalee (boredom and bully beef). In the UK he was employed in a variety of North Sea bases (eg HMS Rosyth) before finishing the war at HMS Westcliff which provided logistical support for the invasion of Europe.
I have my fathers full service record which indicates that he was a member of Springdale ships company for most of the war. The record refers to Name of Ship and Tender in brackets. Not quite sure what this indicates. I seem to recall that he once referred to leaving Singapore before the Japanese invasion and then spent a large period of time around Australia and PNG. He served well after the war up to 1969 32/33 years. Happy to put photograph of record on here (if requested) that may help with some clarification for others.
