GUARDING THE SEAS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 232, 28 June 1944, Page 4

GUARDING THE SEAS

Experiences Of Wellington R.N.V.R. Officer Modestly and with brevity of speech, Commander F. E. Taylor, R.N., who before the war was in charge of the R.N.V.R. in Wellington, told a thrilling story of his experiences in various war zones to Wellington Rotarians yesterday He went to England with the 2nd Echelon in charge of’lB9 officers and men of the R.N.V.R. of New Zealand. Of that number, he said, 100 were now officers in the Royal Navy, and the ratings who went forward at the same time were scattered throughout the fleet. It was hoped at one time that they might keep together as a New Zealand unit, but the British Admiralty decided otherwise," ns. if disaster overtook the unit, it would have been a great biow for New Zealand. The officers of the party were detailed to proceed to Portsmouth for orders, and much to their regret had to wait some three weeks before they got jobs. He himself was appointed to one of the “tree” trawlers, boats about double the size of the trawlers sailng out of Wellington and useful ships in any weather. His first duty was patrolling a section of Ibe English Channel, as it was thought that an invasion might follow Dunkirk. His next job was mine-sweeping, which, with bad weather, the difficult tides, and enemy shelling, was no sinecure. He recalled that on one occasion in the Channel his little ship was shelled for three hours, and that, one shell landed so close that the blast broke every bit of erockcry. 'Commander Taylor's narration of the blitz of Portsmouth on March 10. 1941, was graphic. On that occasion, he said, the Luftwaffe dropped thousands of incendiaries. followed by high explosive bombs, and it seemed as though the whole city, us well as Southampton, Gosport, and other places were on tire. Though some vessels in port were hit, his vessel escaped ; but it gave them the notion that it was perhaps safer to be at sea than in port. His next mission was to proceed to Singapore to take charge of minesweeping operations, but while having a boiler-clean nt Colombo (Ceylon) news came through of the fall of Singapore. But for that boiler-dean he would have been in Singapore when the Japs came.