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1 Thread. A bit of #Hull #WW2 history for those interested. 75 years ago my grandad Alan Fellowes turned up to work on King George Dock in Hull. This was, of course, in the early days of WW2. During his shift the foreman went around asking the dockers if they would volunteer for
2 a ‘special job’ for a bit more wage. My grandad put up his hand and followed a small group towards the dock entrance. Up the Humber was a black cloud of smoke coming from a RN ship. Eventually the ship docked successfully but how was a minor miracle as it was missing its entire
3 bow. The ship was the destroyer HMS Express. The foreman said that the group needed to go aboard to ‘tidy up’ as their had been many casualties aboard. They were told that the ship had hit a mine in the North Sea but had managed to survive and steam to the nearest port (Hull).
4 The foreman stated that there were some pretty horrible sights on board and they could back out. None did, and Alan got onto the Express as wounded men got off. Whilst other dockers went below he stayed on deck. One sailor had been cut in half with only the torso and head
5 intact. Another sailor was sat upright reading a letter. My grandad shouted for a hand and went over. Although there was no apparent injury he was very dead. There were other dreadful sights aboard as many survivors had severe burns to hands, feet and faces. Once the dead had
6 been loaded onto stretchers and taken off ship. Alan helped to wash the blood off the decks. That was then job done and off they all went. My Grandad was called up not long after and served in http://N.Africa , Italy and SE Asia. But no sight he ever saw was as bad as
7 the sailor reading his letter. He often thought who that man was and probably had PTSD. He rarely talked about this but was happy to let me in as part of a GCSE project 30 years ago. Though the city was heavily bombed we should remember the work the young had to carry out as
8 my grandad was 19 when the Express came in. So I’ll raise a glass on 2.9.20, the 75th anniversary of the event. Cheers for reading (photo wiki)
