LOVE, George Samuel

LT/JX 18012, 2nd Hand, Royal Naval Patrol Service, H.M.S. Trawler Adonis

Born 01/09/1909 Grimsby

Died 15/04/1943, Age 33 at sea off Lowestoft

Son of Samuel and Sarah Edith Love

Husband of Doris Smith, married 1931 in Cleethorpes

Father of Samuel Love (born 01/04/1939)

Address at time of death: Brereton Avenue ?

Occupation (1939) – Fisherman Mate, address 43 Church Street, Grimsby

HMT Adonis  (H308) was requisitioned by the Admiralty in 1940 and was torpedoed off Lowestoft on 15/04/1943, with the loss of 17 men.

The other men killed were:

John Boardman, Engineer, Fleetwood

Ronald Malcolm Colbourne, Seaman, Stanmore

William John Cribben, Stoker, Deal

Charles Stanley Dawson, Seaman, Leicester

Henry Draper, Temp Skipper, Grimsby

Clarence Jesse Goddard, Seaman, Goring

Albert Edward Hall, Seaman, Lowestoft

Brian Ashton Johnson, Able Seaman, Manchester

Leslie John Fletcher, Leading Seaman, Cleethorpes

William Marchington, Seaman, Rochdale

James Edward Massey, Cook, Hendon

Hugh McGinty, Stoker, Crookedholm, Ayrshire

Thomas Finn McWhirter, Seaman, Campbelltown

Thomas Pinkerton, Stoker, Aberdeen

Clifford Scott, Stoker, Clayton, Lancs

Charles Robert Seago, Kent

 This detailed account of the sinking of the Adonis was written by Ken Payne, an RDF Operator on the vessel and was found on http://www.bowl6610.org.uk/history/past-officers/ken-payne/

 “On the 2nd January 1943 HMS Shropshire went to the Australian Navy and on the 13thFebruary I joined HMT Adonis – a Minesweeper as an RDF Operator. We had a cabin on the boat and we sat in this cabin turning the aerial by hand. If the beam struck a vessel, it would just be a blip on the screen. It was so simple it wasn’t true – nothing like it is now. I was only on the boat four weeks and a week of that was spent in harbour at Gaul to have the boiler cleaned.

On the 14th April 1943, I was on watch from 8 till 12. I came off watch went down, got on my bunk and at about 1am the alarm bells started to sound. The RDF Operator had seen a blip on the screen. You couldn’t get more than one person in the RDF cabin so my action station was to feed the Oerlikon Gun with Johnson. We rushed to our action stations and as soon as we got on deck, we fired a star shell that showed up three e-boats. The e-boats didn’t have any radar or anything like that – so it lit them up beautifully, but it lit us up as well. One of them just turned and torpedoed us and we were gone. I mean if we hadn’t fired the star shell – they might never have seen us.

I was amidships when the explosion occurred, I was thrown a good 30 feet to the back of the ship and I came down on my hands and knees and the water started gushing down on top of me which I think that brought me round. I was a bit stunned and the star shell hadn’t completely died and I could see where I was, but the rest of the ship had gone. Johnson was killed and the RDF Operator couldn’t get out of the RDF room so he went down with it as well. The forecastle was sticking up but the middle of the boat had gone and I just dived over the side and swum off. They always said, if the ship sinks get away as far as possible as it will take you down as well. After a few minutes I could hear people calling out and I went to where the voices were. There was a Carley float and 11 of us got on in. There were 31 on the boat – 20 were killed or missing. So I was lucky. Then we could still hear them calling out afterwards – help, help me. We were then in the water for 5 hours.

 List of signals

Telegram

After signalling that the Adonis was sunk, a high-speed launch was sent out from Lowestoft. Five hours later they found us. An RAF Air-Sea Rescue launch picked us up. These high-speed launches were located all along the East coast to pick any of the bombers that crashed into the North Sea. When they found us I couldn’t climb out – my legs were absolutely dead – I couldn’t feel them. They carried me downstairs and put me on an upper bunk. Someone said “Here you are Jack drink this”. It was a tot of rum. No sooner had I drunk it than I was sick. But they then noticed that I had a gash across the back of my head. I had to see the medics and ended up with my head swathed in bandages. I didn’t know I’d cut it open but it was a very bad cut. They took us back to Ipswich and there was the Naval base called HMS Ganges and I was in there for 3 weeks. They put us in beds with like a shield with electric light bulbs to get the circulation back.

I then came home for a fortnight – survivors leave and then went back to Portsmouth, my depot.”