From Tue Nov 11 09:08:01 1997
>Date: Tue, 11 Nov 1997 11:07:35 -0500
>From: Brooks A Rowlett
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>To: Andrew Toppan ,
> “C. Patrick Hreachmack” ,
> Mahan Naval History Mailing List
>Subject: Obituary from WW2 list
>Precendence: bulk
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>
> >
> > Subject:
> > Obituary: Captain George Blundell, CBE
> > Date:
> > Mon, 10 Nov 1997 09:49:02 +0200
> > From:
> > Cris Whetton
> >
> >
> > Captain George Blundell, who has died aged 93, had a long and successful
> > career in the torpedo branch of the Navy, but rendered his greatest service
> > to his fellow torpedomen immediately after the Second World War when he was
> > Executive Officer of HMS Vernon, the torpedo and mining school in
> > Portsmouth. It had been decided that the torpedo branch at Vernon and the
> > anti-submarine branch, at HMS Osprey at Portland, should amalgamate on Oct
> > 10 1946 to form a joint Torpedo and Anti-Submarine (TAS) branch. Both
> > branches regarded this prospect with dismay. The anti-submarine
> > specialists, whose expertise had played such a crucial part in winning the
> > Battle of the Atlantic, were particularly resentful. They considered
> > themselves a “small ship” branch, and looked on the torpedomen as mere “big
> > ship” electricians, mainly interested in volts and amps, and lacking the
> > necessary technical training and knowledge.
> > The torpedomen, for their part, were just as proud of their wartime
> > achievements and as jealous of their independence. They also faced a
> > difficult personal choice: whether to join the newly-formed electrical
> > branch, which would certainly increase chances of promotion to senior rank,
> > but would rule out sea-going command. The two branches were eventually
> > driven together by the sledge-hammer personality of Vernon’s Captain, John
> > Hughes-Hallet, but the process was greatly assisted by the good humour and
> > tact of Blundell, who as wardroom mess president provided the perfect
> > buffer between Hughes-Hallet and everybody else.
> > Blundell not only had to deal with > his Captain (who, for instance, as a
> > confirmed bachelor, strongly disapproved of Wrens in Vernon), but he also
> > had to tackle the problems of Vernon itself. The buildings were drab,
> > neglected and bomb-damaged. The roads were in disrepair, and blocked by
> > heaps of dockyard rubbish. There was wartime food rationing. The mess
> > silver, held in a safe in a warehouse which had been bombed and set on
> > fire, had melted into a single ingot. Accommodation had to be provided for
> > training classes, and for the thousands of officers and ratings returning
> > to Vernon from ships and shore establishments all over the world, and from
> > Vernon out-stations around Britain which were being closed. But under
> > Blundell’s urbane leadership matters improved. He knew he was succeeding
> > when the anti-submarine officers stopped loudly proclaiming that Osprey’s
> > wardroom was much better in every way. The new TAS branch was firmly
> > established by the late 1940s, for which much credit must go to George
> > Blundell.
> > George Collett Blundell was born on > May 25 1904 and joined the Navy as a
> > cadet in 1917, going to Osborne and Dartmouth, and then in 1921 to the
> > training ship Thunderer. After service in the destroyer Vidette, the
> > battlecruiser Hood, and the battleship Valiant (a ship he liked so much he
> > named his cocker spaniel after her), he qualified as a torpedo specialist
> > in 1930. He was Torpedo Officer of the cruisers Enterprise in the East
> > Indies, and Sheffield in the Home Fleet. In 1940, he was appointed Torpedo
> > Officer and First Lieutenant of the cruiser Kent in the Mediterranean where
> > she was hard-worked, carrying out shore bombardments, escorting convoys to
> > Malta, and beating off frequent air attacks. “Why is it,” Blundell confided
> > to the diary he kept (illegally in wartime), “that I, a naturally lazy,
> > indolent and quiet-loving fellow should be pitchforked into infernos of
> > hard work and bother?”
> > On Sept 17 1940, after the Italians > had launched their offensive in the
> > Western Desert, Kent and two destroyers were detached from the fleet to
> > carry out a midnight bombardment of the port of Sollum, near the Egyptian
> > border. Kent was bombed and machine-gunned in bright moonlight by Italian
> > aircraft, one of which dropped a torpedo which hit Kent “a tremendous blow
> > aft” wrote Blundell. “The whole ship reeled, then suddenly felt dead, and
> > we could feel on the bridge as if her tail had dropped, a sort of bending,
> > dragging feeling, and the ship wouldn’t steer.” When Blundell went aft, he
> > found there was no power or lighting, a fire raging, many compartments open
> > to the sea, and bodies lying in the passageways. The rudder was jammed 20
> > degrees to starboard. Under Blundell’s direction, power and lighting were
> > restored, bulkheads were shored up, the fire was put out, and a jury rig
> > forced the rudder amidships. Kent was taken in tow and, despite many air
> > raid alarms, reached Alexandria.
> > She had suffered 33 dead, including the Executive Officer. Some bodies
> > were buried at sea, but others, which had dropped through the huge hole in
> > the ship’s bottom, were still being washed ashore days later. The Captain
> > cleared the lower deck and announced that Blundell would now take over as
> > Executive Officer, “and it was quite wonderful and embarrassing,” Blundell
> > wrote, “the way they cheered and clapped”. He was appointed OBE for his
> > work that night.
> > In February 1941, Blundell joined the > battleship Nelson as Torpedo Officer
> > and First Lieutenant, and returned to the Mediterranean later in the year
> > when Nelson was Admiral Sir James Somerville’s flagship in Force H. On Sept
> > 27 1941, escorting the Halberd convoy to Malta, Nelson was hit forward by
> > an aerial torpedo – “there was a horrid underwater thud, the whole bow rose
> > and quivered, and the ship shook itself like a mighty animal.” Once again,
> > Blundell went into action, to restore power and lighting, stop flooding and
> > shore up bulkheads. All the food stores forward, and the cold rooms
> > containing meat, cheese and butter, were flooded. “I felt heartbroken,”
> > Blundell said, “about my 10lb Cape Town cheese, husbanded all these months
> > in the cold room, waiting for the day I go on leave.” Docking in Gibraltar
> > revealed that Nelson had a 40 ft-long hole in her hull. The compartment
> > where the torpedoes were stored had taken the full force of the explosion
> > and was a shambles.
> > Blundell had almost given up hopes of > promotion, but in June 1942 he was,
> > to everybody’s delight, promoted to Commander. In an unusual move, he was
> > reappointed to Nelson as Executive Officer. After the Pedestal convoy to
> > Malta in August 1942, he was serving in her for the Torch landings in north
> > Africa in November, the landings in Sicily in July 1943 and at Salerno in
> > September, and the signing of the Italian surrender on board the same
> > month. He was mentioned in despatches for his service in Nelson.
> > After the war, Blundell was promoted to Captain in 1947, commanded
> > Rifleman and her minesweeping flotilla from 1948 to 1950, and HMS Defiance,
> > the torpedo school in Devonport, from 1950 to 1952. His last appointment
> > before he retired in 1958 was as Director of Naval Recruiting. He was
> > appointed CBE in 1957.
> > In retirement he was an extremely > successful warden of the conference
> > centre at Goldicote House, Stratford-upon-Avon, which he ran as though it
> > were a ship, calling his office “the cuddy” (Captain’s cabin) and the
> > dining room “the wardrobe mess”.
> > In 1970, he was furious when the > local council did not empty his dustbin
> > for nine weeks, although his rates had quadrupled in six years. So he
> > deducted £14 from his rates “for inefficiency”. In court, replying to a
> > council application for a distress warrant to recover the money, he told
> > Stratford magistrates: “I don’t understand a distress warrant. Only a
> > distress signal.” He thought it disgraceful that the council should summon
> > “a harmless old man like myself”, but was ordered to pay the £14.
> > Extracts from his diaries were used > in The Imperial War Museum Book of the
> > War at Sea: the Royal Navy in the Second World War, edited by Julian
> > Thompson, and published last year. Blundell married, in 1945, Marcelle
> > Avril; they had two sons and a daughter.
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