A Matelot is not born, he is made out of leftovers! God built the world and the animals and then recycled the gash to create this dastardly weapon.

It was 1945. The hostilities in Europe had just ended and we were hurrying out to help to finish off the war in the Far East. I was serving onboard HMS Devonshire a heavy cruiser, a greyhound of the ocean as cruisers were oftimes named.

Alex McCleod-Bain 1944-45.
I served on Devonshire from February 1944 till the time in 1945 when it was being sent to Australia to bring troops back home.

Drum beats of doom. Or just the fortunes of war.
Talk of HMS Devonshire and the “Curse of Drake’s Drum” leaves George Harkcom cold.

“I enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1943 and when I was 17 joined my first ship H.M.S. Devonshire in Scapa Flow. Devonshire was by then a rather long in the tooth 10,000-ton cruiser with a main armament of 8-inch guns".

Norwegian Gold Bullion Snatch – April 1940