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Description: | Microfilm copy of an ms diary recording his service as an instructor at the Signal School in Portsmouth (July 1939 - January 1940), and then in command of the four anti-submarine trawlers ANGLE, ARAB, ASTON VILLA and GAUL, assuming command of the ASTON VILLA on 22 January 1940 and based on Aberdeen and Scapa Flow, describing routine escort and patrol duties and then on anti-submarine patrol in the North Sea during which his group was ordered to Namsos where they came under heavy attack resulting in the sinking of the ASTON VILLA and GAUL (April - May 1940), then his command of the decoy ship RANEN until the final evacuation of Norway (June 1940), after which he joined an operation to destroy the dockyard and oil installations in Brest before returning to Scotland. Together with a microfilm copy of an ms diary written during his service as the Commando's Senior Landing Officer (September 1940 - July 1941) describing his award of the DSO and remarking on the distribution of medals during wartime, his disappointment and frustration at being unable to enlist Churchill's support for a series of minor operations, the sailing of the landing craft QUEEN EMMA and PRINCESS BEATRIX to Scapa Flow and then on to a raid on the Lofotens (March 1941), his involvement in the staff planning for Operation 'Puma' (the proposed capture of the Canary Islands) and his duties in connection with Operation 'Thruster' (the proposed capture of the Azores against Portuguese opposition), and an inspection of the Commandos by Winston Churchill, while mentioning his own interest in telepathy and its possible military uses. Also held with the collection are microfilm copies (plus originals held in box P280) of a ts transcribed letter written to his father, Lieutenant General W N Congreve, giving his impressions of the Battle of Jutland while serving as a Midshipman in the battleship HMS BENBOW (4 June 1916), and a photocopied ts report (9pp, undated) on Operation 'Chess', a Commando reconnaissance of the beaches at the mouth of the River Slack in the Pas de Calais.
Cataloguer JSK
Catalogue date 2002-04-29 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Subjects: | anti-submarine trawler HMS PRINCESS BEATRIX commando troop ship (1939) HMT ASTON VILLA HMT GAUL Royal Navy HMS QUEEN EMMA battleship (1913) HMS BENBOW anti-submarine trawler (1936) HMT ARAB HMT ANGLE | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Congreve, Geoffrey | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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