Please note that a new HARDBACK edition of A HARD FOUGHT SHIP: THE STORY OF HMS VENOMNOUS was published in May 2017. For details see: Bill Forster (aka Venomous Bill)
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Ron Rendle was torpedoed twice and died aged 98 on the 23 December. I recorded the interview with him in the IWM, London. Ron was aboard HMS PATROCLUS when she was torpedoed by Kretschmer in U-99. Earlier today I was sent a photograph of Kretschmer taken after U-99 was sunk by Donald Macintyre, CO of HMS WALKER, in March 1941. I have added the photograph and a link to Kretschmer's War Di
Forum: General Discussions

HMS HECLA was torpedoed 75 years ago at ten minutes to midnight on the 11 November 1942. I have been researching the story of this naval disaster and the rescue of 558 survivors by HMS VENOMOUS for twelve years. The complete story is told in Chapter 13 of A HARD FOUGHT SHIP: THE STORY OF HMS VENOMOUS published on the 9 May this year. Please get in touch before the anniversary on Armistic
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Please help me trace the families of the men in HMS VENOMOUS, the V & W Class destroyer which brought the Welsh and Irish Guards back from Boulogne on 23 May and made five trips to the beaches and North Mole at Dunkirk to bring back 4,100 troops and Generals Alexander and Percival? Their names are on the crew list which can be seen here: I want to invite them to tell their family stori
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75 years ago HMS HECLA sank on the night of 11 - 12 November 1942. The most detailed account of that tragedy is Chapter 13: THE LONGEST NIGHT in the hardback edition of: A HARD FOUGHT SHIP: THE STORY OF HMS VENOMOUS Which was published last month. For further details see: The previous edition sold out very quickly and copies were advertised on Amazon at crazy prices! This will
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94 year old Stephen Barney was one of the speakers at last week's book launch for the 480 page hardback edition of A HARD FOUGHT SHIP. A quarter of the print run has been sold and £158 was donated to TS VENOMOUS, the Sea Cadet Unit at Loughborough. The launch was held at the Royal College of Defence Studies in Belgrave Square, London, by invitation of Rear Admiral John Kingwell CBE.
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Gill Holt Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I am researching the History of My Family & my > Uncle lost his life on the HMS Hecla. He was a > Leading Sick Birth Attendant called William Brian > Coulson Shaw (known as Brian)He died before I was > born & would love to hear anything about him, the > torpedoing & the disaster in Nove
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The book I published in 2010 about HMS VENOMOUS has been out of print for several years but the good news is that a new hardback edition with 250 illustrations, 480 pages and five new chapters will be published on 9 May. Further details of the new edition of A HARD FOUGHT SHIP can be seen here: The old paper back edition has become a collector's item listed on Amazon at more than the
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The HERALD, Scotland, covered the laying of the wreath on the war memorial in Graham House, Glasgow in today's paper. See: # And the report on the web site of the V & W Destroyer Association: Bill
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Your last opportunity meet some of the veterans who served in one of the 69 V & W Class destroyers will be by attending the FINAL reunion of the V & W Destroyers Association at Derby on Friday April 7th to Monday April 10th 2017. It will cost you £5 to join as an Associate (family) member and the Association has negotiated a special rate for member with the Hallmarek Hotel. The cost -
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On the 9th January 1942 HMS VIMIERA detonated a mine in the Thames estuary and sunk with the loss of 93 lives. On Monday 9 January, the 75th anniversary of the sinking of HMS VIMIERA, Lt Cdr Frank Donald RN (Ret) will lay a wreath on behalf of the V & W Destroyer Association at the war memorial of the Clydeside Division of the RNVR in Graham House, Glasgow, formerly HMS GRAHAM. Many of
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Stuart, I would like to see this photograph. And receive further details of his time on WOOLSTON. For adding to the HMS WOOLSTON web site here: Bill Stuart Newman Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hi I am looking for any shipmates how new Ivor > Hedges. > Also have any pictures of him on board ship. > I am his Grandson. > Ch
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I have recorded interviews with the veterans at their annual reunions since 2013 and these can now be listened to online from a page on the web site of the V & W DESTROYER ASSOCIATION: This year's Reunion of the men who served on V & W Class destroyers will be held at St Ives (near Cambridge) from Friday the 15 - Sunday 17 April (leaving on the Monday). Join as an Associate Me
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Gail clor Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > My father, Robert Watson, served on the HMS > Woolston sometime during 1942-1945. He is 89 now > and doing great. He remembers protecting the > Liberty Ships. The name of his Captain was Cox. > He also served on the Glasgow before the Woolston. One of my neighbours was on HMS WOOLSTON and migh
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Ivor, One of my neighbours was on HMS WOOLSTON and might have known your father. What was your father's name and rate? When did he serve on WOOLSTON? And can you send me a photograph of him as a young man in naval uniform? See: Bill Forster
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Please note that the web site of the V&W Destroyer Association is now at this address: And the web page for HMS WOOLSTON is here: A list of all the 69 V & W Class destreoyers can be seen here: This will link to web sites for each ship. The pages are no longer on the web site of Holywell House Publishing. Bill Forster
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Ian, I would like to receive a scan of your grandfather, Alan Hodden, with the Mayor of Bergen. I could add it to my web page about HMS WOOLSTON at Bergen in May 1945. See: A neighbour of mine, Frank Witton, was on WOOLSTON then and I interviewed him. This web page is on the web site of the V & W Destroyer Association which I am slowly developing for the veterans, see: Th
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The V & W Destroyer Association has decided to create a web site for the 69 V & W Class destroyers. A DRAFT page for HMS WOOLSTON can be seen here: If you have photographs or stories to add please get in touch. I live in St Albans where Frank Whitton lives and am an Associate (family) member of the Association. Bill Forster
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Gill Holt Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I am researching the History of My Family & my > Uncle lost his life on the HMS Hecla. He was a > Leading Sick Birth Attendant called William Brian > Coulson Shaw (known as Brian)He died before I was > born & would love to hear anything about him, the > torpedoing & the disaster in Nove
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You do not need me to remind you that the first torpedo struck HMS HECLA at 11 pm on the 11 November 1942. But if you have not looked at my web site about HMS HECLA recently you will notice quite a few changes and additions. All the pages can be accessed by clicking on the links from this page: More than 500 lives were saved by HMS MARNE and HMS VENOMOUS when HECLA sank. Most of the su
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I was interested to see your posting on the U-boat Forum:- Re: SURRENDERED U-BOAT ESCORTS, MAY/JUNE 1945 Posted by: G.Hassell () Date: August 07, 2011 01:47AM I was a member of the crew of H.M.S. Loch Eck - telegraphist HUFF/DUFF and I remember escorting the u-boat from Kristiansand. I still have a photo of the u-boat in transit. My memory grows dim but as far as I remember we went straig
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Sadly, Bob Hargreaves died recently without my having a chance to speak to him but I have been contacted by his niece who put me in touch with Chris, his younger brother and carer, who posted the details of his brother's naval career on this Forum. I have been sent Bob's service record, his photographs and published what I learned from these and by speaking to his brother Chris on my
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I would like to contact any surviving crew member of the U-boats at the Marvika naval base outside Kristiansand, Norway, in May 1945 when when the British destroyers HMS VENOMOUS and HMS VALOROUS accepted the surrender of German naval forces. My father, William Revers Forster (1900-75) was present at the surrender ceremony on HMS VENOMOUS and one of the German officers surrendered to him by pr
Forum: General Discussions

The naval careers of the 138 officers who served on HMS VENOMOUS between launch in 1919 and scrapping in 1948 have been added to the unithistories.com web site. There is a direct link to their service careers from the list of names at: If any names are missing or there are errors or omissions in their service careers please contact me via the web site or a personal message. If you had a
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Don Preece LSA was a talented amateur artists whose humorous cartoons of life at sea in the Royal Navy while serving on HMS HECLA were very popular with his shipmates who sent them home with their letters from Iceland and South Africa. Sadly, he was one of the 285 who died when HECLA was torpedoed off the coast of North Africa on the 11 November 1942. He left a young widow and a daughter, Chr
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Lt Cdr H.D. Durell RN (1912-44) The grandson of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Charles C.J.B. Elliot, KCB, Henry Durell was educated at the Nautical College, Pangbourne, and commissioned as a Midshipman in the RNR before joining the New Zealand Shipping Co. He entered the Royal Navy in 1937 serving on HMS Rodney and HMS Tartar before being appointed CO of HMS Venomous in February 1943. He left i
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Do take another look at my web site on the eve of the anniversary of the sinking of HMS HECLA and the rescue of 500 survivors by HMS VENOMOUS. See WHAT'S NEW at: There is a lot more information and some wonderful new photographs of HMS HECLA provided by George Male and the grandson of Jabez Skelhorne, one of the unlucky ones who died after their rescue by VENOMOUS, and were buried at
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I quote below from: A HARD FOUGHT SHIP: THE STORY OF HMS VENOMOUS See: ---------- snip On 15th June Capt Lord Teynham came aboard Venomous to accept the surrender of the German Admiral and the commanding officers of the German U-boats berthed further up Kristiansand Fjord at Marviken, as described by Prideaux: “On the 15th of May German Officers came on-board Venomous – they had t
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The book about HMS VENOMOUS, the V & W destroyer my father. Lt(E) William R Forster RNR served on from 1944-6 was published in April as: A HARD FOUGHT SHIP: THE STORY OF HMS VENOMOUS but I have continued to receive new material, personal accounts and photographs, and am publishing this on my new web site (opened this week!) at: Take a look and if you have photographs or stories from
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I have just returned from visiting George Male who was a sick berth attendant on HECLA when it sank and is in good health. He will be 91 next month and lives with his son in Borehamwood about ten miles from where I live in St Albans. George and 500 other survivors of HMS HECLA was rescued by HMS VENOMOUS, an elderly V & W Class destroyer on which my father served later in the war, and I ha
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