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In July 1940 I joined my first ship in the Merchant Navy. Coming back from New York we were bombed at 20 degrees west and sunk. It was an easy sinking, we were picked up by one of the escort destroyers.

We were in convoy off Portugal on Christmas morning in 1940 and we were attacked by the “Hipper”, a German heavy cruiser but we were lucky to escape. When we were going through the Suez Canal the RN minesweepers ahead of us blew up but we were able to reach Alexandria. We took the Australian and the New Zealanders to Greece.

Our Ship, the Settler was then in a convoy to Malta, full of explosives but we were lucky to reach Malta. The island was “Mined in” but a passage was cleared by using depth charges to blow up the mines and we were able to enter Grand Harbour.

The Royal Navy were heavily engaged in the battle for Crete so we were trapped in the island for nine weeks, living in caves with the islanders. The siege of Malta is one of the epic stories of the war.

It was decided that we should run the gauntlet, single ship to Gibraltar. We painted the hatch covers in the Italian colours and flew the Italian flag instead of the Red Ensign. As far as I am aware, this was the only occasion that a British ship sailed under the enemy colours during the war. We did not deceive the enemy and we were attacked three times by the Italian air force, twice by bombers and once by a seaplane carrying a torpedo. As our ship was not carrying any cargo, the Italian field misjudged our draught and the torpedo passed underneath us. We reached Gibraltar safely and we made a voyage to Calcutta before we returned to the UK.

I did seven Atlantic convoys and four convoys in the Mediterranean until I was seconded to the Ministry of War Transport. I served in Dakar, Senegal and later in Naples and Rome with the Director of Harbour Craft, Mediterranean. We supplied the tank landing craft for the invasion of France and the beachhead at Anjio.

I have only supplied brief details of my wartime experience, I have many more. I am making some tapes of my voyages, etc.

Yours sincerely
H J Richardson

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