Sunk by a U-boat, Attacked by Kamikazes

Sunk by a U-boat, Attacked by Kamikazes tells the story of one man’s experiences during the years 1939 to 1947. Aged sixteen when the war broke out, Joseph Marsden worked casual shiftwork on the Liverpool docks. Lucky to survive an air raid on the night of 4 May 1941, he lost two members of his family before the Liverpool blitz came to an end. On 9 June 1941 - his eighteenth birthday - he volunteered for service with the Royal Navy.

After completing basic training at Malvern, he was finally sent to his home town in April 1943 to join HMS Woodpecker, a sloop recently assigned to Johnny Walker’s famous Second Support Group. After seeing action in the Bay of Biscay, the Mediterranean and the North Atlantic, Woodpecker was sunk during an anti-submarine patrol in February 1944, a patrol during which Walker’s ships sank six U-boats.

After completing his two weeks of survivors’ leave he was recalled to Devonport. Demoralised by the thought of surviving on half-pay for six months, he lost his appetite for the fray and sought medical attention for an aural complaint, being prescribed a period of rest at a naval base in the Scottish highlands.

A restless soul, Marsden did not take to the isolation on the shores of Loch Ewe, and asked to be sent to sea once more. He was posted to the Firth of Clyde to join the crew of the escort carrier, HMS Empress, aboard which he sailed for Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in December 1944. Whilst in the Far East, Marsden saw action during Operation Stacey, Operation Bishop, Operation Livery and Operation Carson, witnessing Kamikaze attacks on allied warships. After the surrender of the Japanese, HMS Empress was detailed to help repatriate Australian and New Zealand troops, before embarking on her homeward journey to the UK. Before being de-mobbed he was transferred to the destroyer, HMS Zealous, then based at Keil in Germany where he witnessed the destruction inflicted upon Hamburg by the allied bombing campaign.