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Frank-Jones

A veteran interview with

Frank Jones

Frank Jones was a Leading Seaman who gives a great account of his service on HMS Bermuda. She was involved in more than her fair share of action and fortunately for us, Frank had his camera with him.

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About Frank Jones

Credits

Interviewed by:
Martin Bisiker

Transcripts:
Please note that transcripts and closed captions in the video player are automatically generated by Vimeo.

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Home | Veterans | Frank Jones

A veteran interview with

Frank Jones

Frank-Jones

Frank Jones was a Leading Seaman who gives a great account of his service on HMS Bermuda. She was involved in more than her fair share of action and fortunately for us, Frank had his camera with him.

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Cite this interview:

MLA Style:
Jones, Frank. A Veteran Interview with Frank Jones. Interview by Martin Bisiker. Legasee, 8 Feb. 2014 https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/frank-jones/. Accessed 14 Jun. 2025.
APA Style:
Jones, F. (2014, February 8). A Veteran Interview with Frank Jones [Interview by Martin Bisiker]. Legasee. Retrieved June 14, 2025, from https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/frank-jones/
Chicago Style:
Jones, Frank. 2014. A Veteran Interview with Frank Jones. Interview by Martin Bisiker. Legasee, February 8. Accessed June 14, 2025. https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/frank-jones/
Harvard Style:
Jones, F. (2014). A Veteran Interview with Frank Jones. [Interviewed by Martin Bisiker]. Legasee, 8 February. Available at https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/frank-jones/ (Accessed: 14 June 2025)
Vancouver Style:
Jones, F. A Veteran Interview with Frank Jones [Internet]. Interview by M. Bisiker. Legasee; 2014 Feb 8 [cited 2025 Jun 14]. Available from: https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/frank-jones/
An interview with

Cornelius Snelling

Cornelius Snelling recalls his WWII naval service aboard anti-submarine patrol ships in the North Atlantic, the Arctic and the English Channel.

After serving in the Home Guard and experiencing bombing in the blitz in London, Cornelius Snelling was conscripted into the Royal Navy in 1942 and carried out his basic training on HMS Ganges at Shotley. From his port division, Chatham, he was assigned his first posting, as a Bosun’s mate, to a newly commissioned ship docked at Glasgow, HMS Wild Goose, a Black Swan-class sloop. HMS Wild Goose specialised in anti-submarine patrols in the North Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay and Snelling took part in some of the ship's most notable actions, including the renowned "six in one trip" in 1943, which saw HMS Wild Goose, alongside other Bird-class sloops, sink six German U-boats in a single patrol. Snelling’s final journey aboard HMS Wild Goose was participating in an Arctic convoy to Murmansk and he describes the extreme conditions. In 1944, Snelling transferred to HMS Tyler, an American-built frigate on loan to the Royal Navy. HMS Tyler conducted patrol and escort missions in the North Atlantic and the English Channel, where it also escorted landing craft and supply ships during the D-Day invasion of the Normandy beaches. Snelling's service concluded in October 1945 when he steamed with HMS Tyler back to the United States, where the ship was returned to the US Navy.
Photo Gallery icon 12 Photos
Service:
Interviewed by:
Martin Bisiker
An interview with

Patricia Davies

Patricia Davies was involved in Operation Mincemeat, one of the most notorious secret war events of WW2. 

Not many women would turn down a posting to Bletchley park but Patricia Davies did. It rubbed up a few noses but it ensured that she would be involved in one of the most audacious secret missions of the Second World War. Operation Mincemeat was a highly innovative and successful deception which helped to convince the German high command that the Allies planned to invade Greece and Sardinia in 1943 instead of Sicily, the actual objective.
In her interview, Patricia reflects on her role in the op and marvels at the secrecy that was part and parcel of her life during the war. She also offers opinion on the the film 'The man Who Never Was', which was made about the Operation.
Patricia passed away on the 22 July, 2014.
Service:
Interviewed by:
Martyn Cox
An interview with

Ted Verbiest

Fleet Air Arm mechanic whose squadron built the Cape Town airfield then assembled crated aircraft for use in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean.

Although Ted Verbiest had “a lovely war” in South Africa, he initially describes the chaos of recruitment and defending the beach at Littlehampton against a rumoured German invasion. More darkly, he recalls diving for cover with a WREN when German aircraft killed 32 people at RNAS Ford (18th August 1940). He then spent a year in Scotland, where one of his mates shot at a parachute, only to discover it was a parachute mine – fortunately, he missed. In Cape Town, his squadron built a new airfield so they could uncrate aircraft and prepare them for operations in the South Atlantic or Indian Ocean. He married a WREN in the airfield church, memorably spending his honeymoon on Table Mountain. Back in England, his squadron took over airfields as the Americans vacated, but they were cross to find they had been smashed up. Although he was duty Petty Officer on VE Day, his abiding memory is seeing a naked drunk man upside down in a dustbin.
Service:
Interviewed by:
Martin Bisiker