www.tinyurl.com/hmsfiji www.tinyurl.com/hmsfijiassociation _____________________________________________________________________________ \\\\\___H.M.S. FIJI ASSOCIATION___\"-._ /////~~~ we will remember them ~~~/.-' _____________________________________________________________________________ HMS Fiji Survivor Charles William Strong _____________________________________________________________________________ The Following copy of an email was received today [Dec 11th, 2006] from Ronald Bennett, General Secretaty, HMS Fiji Association: Dave, Many thanks for your e-mail and the information contained therein re your grandfather, Charles William Strong and especially for his account of the sinking of HMS Fiji. We are always glad to hear of former crew members. I am copying this e-mail to my colleaques for their info and especially to our webmaster, Tom Lipscombe who will no doubt wish to place your grandfather's extract on to the web-site. I am sure he will be in touch with you. Kind regards Ronald Bennett ----- Original Message ----- From: Dave Strong To: ronald.bennett4@ntlworld.com Sent: Monday, December 11, 2006 5:08 AM Subject: H.M.S. Fiji Hello there, I wasn't quite sure which e-mail address to contact, so I am afraid yours was the unlucky one I picked out :) I'm a 25 yr old Brit currently living in the US, but I am contacting you because my grandfather served on the Fiji until her sinking. This morning my parents scanned in a letter my grandfather wrote after the sinking and sent it to me as I'd never seen it before. It's just a short personal account of his experiences from the bombing up to abandoning ship. My grandfather's name was Charles William Henry Strong, born 10th Feb 1920 and he passed away in 1980 not long before my birth. Electrical Artificer was his rating aboard ship, his mess number being: P/MX 68687. _____________________________________________________________________________ Charles William Strong's brief account of the Battle of Crete _____________________________________________________________________________ C.W.Strong My actions & thoughts on May 22nd Having slept at my action station, which was forward electrical repair, I was still somewhat sleepy at 6o'c when repel aircraft was sounded. My whole being was soon alive however when guns, pom poms, etc & bombs started making a hell of a noise. The actual position of the ship I do not know, but when the attack had lasted about an hour I surmised we were not far from land. My job was to wait until something was damaged & required an electrical feed, but nothing was hit so I had nothing to do. At approx 10o'c there was a "secure" sounded, so away I went to my mess & had something to eat & a smoke. I had a general look around the ship. At approx 12o'c "action stations" was sounded so away I went toolbag in my hand to the stockers mess which was my "action stations." I made myself comfortable on the deck & I commenced to read a thriller called "Policemans Evidence" although at 3o'c approx I was thrown violently across the mess with what I thought was a hit. Anyway CO2 gas was heard hissing out of the bottles in the CO2 room, & a stoker E was told off to start the exhaust fan for that room & the 20 ton pump was also started. Then I continued reading though at times i was quite 'shaky' inside at the noise of near misses. At about 10 mins past 7 we were hit & I saw that the ring main must have been hit on the port side as half the lights went out, so I grabbed a torch & picked my tool bag up, & went up on to the next deck to find out what had occurred. There was only 3 persons around Lt Le Flufy a stoker & an E.R.A. I was told the damage & told to sit tight. However we decided to clear everything forward & this was done & everything hammered & battened down tightly we then started to rig guide ropes up & was doing this when the second stick of bombs hit us. I shouted to the people in the steering compartment to come up and shut everything as they came. I then started down to the switchboard the time was 22 mins past 7. Two dynamos still running no's 3, 4 & also all the degaussing motors. As there was no one about I made my way up to the canteen flat where I entered my mess to get my wallet, then on conferring with Mr. Parrett & a seaman who had been throwing pom pom clips from the port side to the starboard side & made my up to the signal deck & found that everyone was abandoning ship while the captain was shouting "don't jump in yet the ship will stay afloat a long while yet." I quite agreed so I blew my lifebelt up as hard as I possibly could & sat down on ladder to wait for ages if neccesary. I saw the destroyers come then go & as the ship had turned a little more & I was now sitting on the armour plating. There was only a dozen of us left so I dived in & began to swim towards a large batch of people on a raft however I was only three parts of the way there when the Kandahar hove in & being quite fresh & a pretty strong swimmer I was practically the first on board. Comments on all equipment, everything seemed to go for the book & was going until the end. _____________________________________________________________________________ I'm aware that some parts aren't grammatically correct, but I wanted to transcribe it exactly as it was written. Sincerly David Strong Email: cornishrefugee@gmail.com _____________________________________________________________________________