Lieutenant J B Rigg RNVR

Microfilm copy of an undated ts memoir (160pp) covering his service as a Lieutenant RNVR in the destroyer HMS MOHAWK on patrol duties in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean (August - October 1939) and then briefly on convoy escort duty in Home waters until she was attacked by enemy aircraft in the Firth of Forth and badly damaged (16 October 1939); in the destroyer HMS GIPSY on patrol duties in the North Sea till she was sunk by a magnetic mine off Harwich (21 November 1939); and in the cruiser HMS DRAGON, January 1940 - June 1941, which was deployed in the Mediterranean until war with Italy was imminent, then in West African waters to give support to any Free French elements in the French Cameroons and as a unit in the Allied naval expeditionary force which unsuccessfully attacked Dakar in September 1940, and finally on convoy escort and other related duties in the South Atlantic, with useful references to another visit to the French Cameroons and to the rescue of survivors from merchant ships sunk off West Africa as the U-boat campaign intensified. The memoir highlights the effect on morale of a prolonged period of service in an elderly warship in an area rather remote from the main theatres of war which was also very hot.

Unrestricted