"The Prince of sort"

Add your posts about Royal Navy ships in this section
greendragon
Posts: 179
Joined: Sat Sep 14, 2019 6:16 am

"The Prince of sort"

Unread post by greendragon »

Among hundreds of thousands HMN personnel who fought in WW2 one no doubts attracts many then and now - the Brits in particular.
I mean of course Prince Philip.
There are a lot of material in internet about his WW2 service, interviews with him etc.

Anyway I have found in the huge stock of information contained in the BBC records, called Peoples War - a memories of a lady who served in the Navy (or RAF auxiliary service) whose brother served as a Sub on HMS Wallace.
She having known her brother's ship was close to a location she was serving came over to see him.
While with him and talking by the ship she noticed a group of the ship officers chatting nearby , among them a tall (and handsome) one so she asked about him her bother.
He answered....." Ah him... one of our Subs, he claims to be a Greek Prince of sort" (from my memory).

Much more -couple of pages - I have found in a book It Wasn't All Myhem... by Harry Hargreaves who was the Yeoman on HMS Wallace from first days of war.
He met Prince Philip one day when the ship was in yard being repaired after collision with a merchant and was invited by Philp to cook a dinner for them instead of going to a nearby pub.
He saw Prince as a very good officer, positive to subordinates........and many other good words.
Anyway, the Prince being of Greek nationality forgot a lot of Greek language and once when the CO of the destroyer asked him to translate discussion with a Greek merchant master he was not able to help.
What is often forgotten is that knowing the Prince as mature man he was just 19 when on the Wallace.
It is interesting that his almost all WW2 service was on destroyer(s) which might be considered as more dangerous than on one of bigger ships.

As for the oltimer HMS Wallace (refitted to AA and later A/S work) she has solid place among the history pages of the PLN being the first HM ship Polish three destroyers sighted on the )1SEP 1939 at a RV point and being a guide to the Polish to a nearby British naval base.
She is always mentioned as "...Polish destroyers were met by HMS Wallace....." and often accompanied with a photo of the DD.

gd
User avatar
emason
Posts: 91
Joined: Sun Nov 22, 2020 7:17 pm
Location: North Yorkshire, UK

Re: "The Prince of sort"

Unread post by emason »

greendragon wrote: Wed Jun 01, 2022 9:31 am It is interesting that his almost all WW2 service was on destroyer(s) which might be considered as more dangerous than on one of bigger ships.
When only a Midshipman, he served on the battleship HMS Valient at the Battle of Matapan and was mentioned in dispatches for his work in directing the searchlights.
Best wishes
Bill
greendragon
Posts: 179
Joined: Sat Sep 14, 2019 6:16 am

Re: "The Prince of sort"

Unread post by greendragon »

That's right,

Mr. Hargreaves (who was always present on the bridge) in following pages accounts how the then the 1stLT of HMS Wallace LT Philip invented and after discussion with the ship CO, the decoy action of raft fitted with fire and smoking floats was dropped behind the destroyer .
Before the ship was attacked two times and chances of avoiding being hit in next go of the aircraft were very probable.
Wallace gained some distance from the burning raft visible in bright night and stopped engines to avoid wake and bow waves.
As expected the a/c came back and was successfully attracted by smoke and fire attacked the raft and happy with effect returned to its base and never came back.

In the W&V association destroyers page, very good and detailed as for the individual ship histories and full of interesting memories, Prince Philip is also mentioned and in particular his regular attending of the reunions of the former W&V destroyers crewmembers.

gd
Post Reply Previous topicNext topic

Return to “Royal Navy”