Themes

Article highlights

• The career of a World War Two artificer

• Joining the Navy

• Sea service

• Courage under fire

• The rest of the war

Courage under fire

Artificer Simkin was mostly involved in guarding the convoys as they ferried important supplies between Allied ports. They were limited to going as slowly as the tankers and supply ships could go and were soft targets for the enemy. After several close misses and a lot of luck Simkin eventually came under attack by the German airforce -

'Half an hour after the first attack thirty-nine Stukas came in from all points of the compass and they concentrated on the Flamingo...they came down dropping bombs of all sizes including 1000 pounders. We had faced larger groups of enemy planes but this time our luck had run out, numbers 38 and 39 got us at 1647 hours on Sunday 7 December 1941.'

The Skuas dealt the ship four direct hits and a near miss that blew the ship's bottom in. Simkin recalls the aftermath -

'My back hurt like hell but I pulled myself up on my feet and looked around, I saw another two bomb holes two yards further on and number three gun deck (supporting a twin 4-inch gun) which was just above me had split - the gap was wide enough to get your leg through. At that moment I heard the gun fire, bang, bang, but it sounded so tired and the deck split a bit more.'

An example of the dangers faced whilst on convoy duties - British merchant ship Dorset straddled by explosives . (RNM)

After reporting to the Captain he went down to the engine room to survey the damage.

"The water and oil was so deep we had to wade through it. The main engines were finished, their main bearings broken and hanging on the shafts. Two generators were smashed out of three. It was only the thin sheet metal skin of the double bottoms that was preventing us plunging into the depths of the ocean. The ship's bottom had been torn open by the explosion of the near-miss bomb, thought to have been a thousand-pounder.'

Simkin and his team set to work on fixing the ship's engines through the compartments flooded with a slick of water and oil. The ship was in no fit state to continue. The Navy had Flamingo towed into Tobruk and began repairs the next day.