Harry Langford"

1940

See also 168.2 for a Board Scool photo with Harry Langford in; and 96.64 for a photo of the Jubilee referred to in the first paragraph of the article.

Henry (Harry) Cyril Langford: 1918 to 1944

A brief history of a Buckley boy who travelled the world and witnessed D Day at first hand

Some of you will remember Brunswick Road before the shopping precinct was built. The site was a bank and a row of four large terraced houses which included a grocer's and a photographer's shops. This photograph of the Jubilee passing them will help. (see 96.64)

My father lived at number 18 then 20 from his birth on 18^th April 1918 until he joined the Navy at the outbreak of war. His father and mother were Walter & Bessie Langford who owned the properties and ran the general groceries shop at number 20. He lived with two elder sisters Alice (a school teacher) and Muriel who kept house and helped in the shop. Muriel and Alice eventually lived in Mynydd Isa until their deaths.

I do not remember my father because he was killed in action when I was only a baby so it is a pleasure to try and summarise what I do know and relate it to the place where he grew up.

Fortunately three school friends, Frank Dunn, Len Williams and Billy Dolby remember being at Park Road school with him. They describe him as a tall, quiet, and well behaved lad who did not get into some of the scrapes experienced by some of his peers. He was also described as studious with an unusually wide knowledge of science and technology. This developed into a strong interest in wireless and his passion was so strong that he passed on his enthusiasm to Frank and Alan Dunn. They built wireless transmitters and became avid radio hams. I have seen his log recording contacts with stations around the world from his radio shack contained within the large outbuildings at the rear of Brunswick Road.

Harry went to work in the Radio department of the high class department store, Browns of Chester and there met my mother Eileen. He loved to go hiking in North Wales and enjoyed tennis but as the clouds of war developed he decided that he did not want to kill anybody so joined the Royal Naval Wireless Volunteer Reserve. I suspect there was also a bit of a young mans wish to spread his wings and see the world because he seems to have relished most of his experiences in the Navy.

Shortly after war was declared he was called up and posted to HMS Carthage, an armed merchant cruiser that carried out escort duties from Durban to India. Fortunately I have his letters to his parents for this period. His second love was photography and his radio shack also doubled as a darkroom. After a few months in the idyllic South African climate and having bought a good quality Ziess camera he wrote to my mother to say that he thought he was in paradise. My mother told me that he was keen to emigrate to S Africa when the war was over so it must have made a big impression.

His letters and photos are full of the sights and experiences of East African ports, Aden, Bombay and Calcutta. They would have been quite mind blowing for a young man who had spent most of his life in North Wales.

A highlight of the Indian Ocean adventure was the capture of a Vichy convoy by HMS Carthage and three other warships.

This relatively trouble free life came to an end in 1942 when he came home and was posted to a destroyer and then the aircraft carrier Victorious for action in the north Atlantic including Russian convoys. This must have been tough after the tropics and he contracted rheumatic fever twice and this seriously damaged his health. One bright note was that he got married in 1942 and I was born the following year.

On the Victorious he witnessed the invasion of Tripoli and wrote to a friend that he joined up to see the world and would not have missed the buzz and excitement of all that he had seen. He described them as "fantastic firework shows".

After a second attack of rheumatic fever he convalesced in Scotland and was then posted to the RN air-station at St Merryn in Cornwall. This quieter spell was spent as radio operator on a small aircrew rescue trawler.

This happy time living as a baby with mum and dad near Padstow must have been happy because my middle name is Merryn after the nearby small village of St Merryn where they had accommodation. I have retuned many times to the area and especially the Camel estuary and am glad we all lived in such a beautiful place.

His next posting was to Sheerness in the Thames estuary onto an old paddle steamer that had been converted into an anti-aircraft ship. My mother rented a property with another sailor's wife from the ship. Apparently, one day sleeping in my pram in the garden the surrounding area was machine gunned by a marauding German plane.

Life at that time was constantly changing; my father was posted to HMS Nith, a frigate that was being prepared as a command ship for the D Day invasion. My mother and I moved to the Southampton area and then when access to my father became impossible we moved back to Padstow.

As a HQ ship Nith would be responsible for co-ordinating landing craft close into the shore. The brigadier of 231 Brigade had his HQ aboard. Nith would join Force G for operation Neptune and take charge of landing craft on Gold beach. HMS Nith would lead the ships to the beach.

This is an extract from a letter he wrote shortly after the event.

"Today was seven days after "D" Day - I remember this time last week so vividly - the wonderment that after the initial assault, we were still alive and kicking - So much more danger seemed apparent and yet as the minutes, then hours, ticked away - I breathed again, I had time to think

"'Twas just like being reborn. - the briefing of the previous week had increased certain nervous activities and I presume the general dormant feeling prevailing three days afterwards, was due entirely to reaction; not the severe mental work of communication. - There's no doubt now that in my inner mind I would not have missed this show for anything and I'm quite sure that all on board here felt a distinct thrill as we crept right into the French coast - close enough to see the church, houses and details of the district - and being one of the very first on the scene added much to the tension

"Gee, I stood on the deck and could not believe my eyes. To have left English shores behind only the previous night, and now look on this much vaunted Western Wall: Well you can guess the rest - No panic, but everything burst and amidst the continual roar of the opening of the "D" Day - organisation was kept on top line. - I managed to hold my job down - although 'twas hectic, and now seven days after - I sit once again on the mess-deck, writing. A thing I hardly dared to think of just a week ago."

HMS Nith remained on station off the French coast co-ordinating shipping into the Mulberry harbour until 24^th June. Because merchant ships had trouble spotting Nith the funnel was painted red and this tended to attract shell fire from time to time. On the 23^rd they received a message to return to Portsmouth the next day but that evening the Germans launched a little know secret weapon to attach shipping off the coast.

First Lieutenant Peter Meryon was second in command of Nith and from his position, watched the Mistel as it approached the ship.

"My action station was on the new superstructure and in the open air, about 100 feet from the bridge. I clearly remember that moonlight night, at action stations, hearing the droning of an enemy aircraft. Then I remember being aware of it aiming itself at us and the separating of the smaller aircraft above it. The aircraft continued on a descent towards us".

It was only 40 feet above the sea, closing quickly on the Nith. This was no traditional aircraft attack. The weapon was in effect a guided missile. The Mistel weapon comprised a Junkers 88 with the nose filled with three tons of explosive and controlled by a Messersmitt 109 attached above it. The plane had flown low towards the ship and the ME 109 had at the last moment, released itself from the JU 88 that continued toward the Nith.

The plane clipped the mast and rolled over the side of the ship. The explosion nearly sank the ship and badly damaged the mess room where Harry was getting ready to go on watch. He and eight shipmates were killed and buried at sea.

Harry wrote to a friend during the war to say that he joined up to experience travel and adventure and had seen sights and "fantastic firework displays" and would not have missed the experience for the world.

His life may have been short but he certainly packed a lot into it.

Rob Langford. November 2005.

Author: Langford, Rob

Harry Langford"

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