Henry Cox

I was in the Navy before the war started. I was 15 when I joined up as a boy seaman. It just came into my brainbox and I wanted to join! The Royal Oak was my first ship, we had to scrub the decks and do whatever they wanted doing. We were in Germany the day war was declared. We had to up anchor and away!

We were in Scapa Flor in the Orkney Isles on The Oak, and they reckoned it was unsinkable. But this German submarine got in and torpedoed us (over 800 men died). We were storing ship at the time and thought there was a bomb in stores, but later this submarine commander said he'd done it. When it was sinking we were all scampering to get out; we all got into a panic to get out, and when I got on to the side of the ship I realised I hadn't got my bloody trousers on! So I went back. Luckily I managed to get my trousers and get out again while we were still sinking. I swam, covered in oil, to an aircraft carrier; they cleaned us up. I was just 16.

From there they put us on the Voltaire, an armed merchant cruiser, in Scapa. Then the Germans came over and machine-gunned that, so they put us on an island called Frotta, and they came and machine-gunned that! So the bloke in charge said "sod this!" And they got The Magpie to pick us up and take us to Thurso, where we stayed in people's houses. They they got us back to Portsmouth.

They fitted us out again and I went to The Manchester. We got out in the Mediterranean and that was bloody sunk! Then on to The Euralis, a cruiser, and that was bloomin' sunk in the Med as well! Luckily the fleet was always there to pick us up. Then I went on The Javelin, a destroyer. The Javelin and The Eskimo used to go over to France at night and catch the e-boats. Coming back one night, The Eskimo went straight through us!

Being under attack is just frightening. It would come over the tannoy "Clear lower deck, we're under attack!" You'd rush to action stations just hoping for the best. I was on one of the guns. I was a leading seaman AA2. Up to 30 or 40 planes could be attacking. We knocked 1 or 2 down, the ships are zig-zagging all the time to put them off. Some battles could last half a day or all day; you'd be lucky if you got a meal, somebody might bring you a sandwich. I've got to admit it, the Germans and the Japanese had us taped; he knew exactly where we were and could sink us anytime. Well, it felt like it!

In the Dunkirk evacuation we actually went to Norway to get the troops. Then we had to go to France to pick up as many troops as we could. We'd put a rope ladder over the side and pull them up. You didn't know when you were going to get hit, because you're stationary picking the squaddies up, a good target. We got as many as we could on board, it was overcrowded, you couldn't walk. We were going back and forth across the channel for about a week.

When the Japanese started, I was on The Glasgow them. When we left from Portsmouth, the Captain cleared the lower deck and said "I expect you're wondering why we're going out to the Pacific". He said "None of you will come back". He said we were going to draw the aircraft, and he felt we would be sunk by the Japanese. At the same time a request came through to the ship, saying that they were going to start the Naval Police up. I thought right; this is it! So before we got to Gibraltar I was transferred back to Portsmouth to train for the Naval Police. But on the way there peace was declared. So, I was on my way home and The Glasgow turned round and came back again.

I joined the Naval Police and was sent out to Malta for 2.5 years. My wife came out with me. It was very nice out there. We had a flat right opposite Mountbatten at Naval Headquarters. My wife Jean used to speak to Lord and Lady Mountbatten on the veranda. I was based in Valetta. We used to patrol the streets, just like the police, but we had hardly any problems.

We went up to Scapa a couple of years ago. It was the British Legion that looked after us out there. We went out to the buoy; its got a placard on it that says "Beneath this buoy lies The Royal Oak". The legion bloke said a prayer. We went to a beautiful church in the Orkneys, and they've got a remembrance book there. The caretaker opened the glass case so we could go through it. We were with our mates and I went through so far and said "No sod it!". I started crying when I got out. I knew them all.

Mrs Cox

He used to have nightmares until he went to the Orkneys. When we looked down at that water and knowing it was October when it happened, and thinking he was in that water for all that time as a boy, and what he went through, no wonder he had nightmares. But they've left him a lot.