Battleship Ramillies by Ian Johnston

Author:Ian Johnston
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781612519166
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Published: 2016-02-09T00:00:00+00:00

Note from Ken Williams’ son, Keith Williams

Although my father did keep notes of dates and places visited throughout his service, and copies of some signals, he was relying on memory. In some cases where memory had let him down, other members of the HMS Ramillies Association (for whom this document was originally written) supplied him with the correct details, which he incorporated into the text. There is, however, one passage which he was unable to amend before his death. I should like to present the document as he wrote it, but have no wish to mislead researchers, so I have decided to add the relevant part of a letter he received from Ted Greenwood of Manchester. It refers to the sinking of Cornwall and Dorsetshire, described on page 129.

I think I mentioned to you that the Royal Sovereign was ‘repeating ship’ and I was the Yeoman on watch, and actually made the signal to the Cornwall and Dorsetshire – to proceed at 15 knots steering 045° until midnight, then to steer 090° until 0400, then steer 180°. In the meantime the remainder of the fleet were to proceed at 15 knots steering due East 090° (from the time the two cruisers were given their orders) until 0400, then to alter course to steer due North 000°. If this manoeuvre had been successfully accomplished, we had hoped to have the Japanese fleet sandwiched in between us all and the cruisers Cornwall and Dorsetshire. As events have told this was not to be so, for, that same evening as the sun was setting to westward, the Japanese aircraft appeared out of the sun (and so they were not spotted) and dropped their oil bombs from stern to bow, and set the two cruisers alight from stem to stern. Of course we all know the end result which was a devastating blow to us all.

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