Able Sea. Thomas "Ron" Hall
Royal Navy Gunner HMS Manchester
from:Portsmouth
Thomas (Ron) Hall was born in South Shields, Co. Durham on 11 April 1917, the family home being in Hebburn-on-Tyne. Although christened Thomas, he was always known as Ron by his RN friends and his wife's family - no-one knows why! At the age of 16 he joined the Royal Navy as a Boy Sailor. After training at the shore base HMS Ganges, he was sent for gunnery training at HMS Excellent, Portsmouth.
At the outbreak of war, he was serving on HMS Glasgow, but was transferred to HMS Barham, where he was wounded in May 1941. Barham had been assisting with the withdrawal of Allied forces from Crete, during which time she was subjected to almost constant German attacks. The gun turret in which Thomas was serving was hit, and he was the only one to emerge from the wreckage.
Posted ashore in Alexandria on 2nd July for rehabilitation, his next ship would be the Cruiser HMS Carlisle. On 9th April 1942, Thomas joined HMS Manchester, which had been assigned the role of escort to convoy WS-21S - better known as Operation Pedestal - the convoy which would save Malta from starvation and surrender. On 13th August, whilst rounding Cape Bon, Manchester was crippled by Italian torpedoes and was later scuttled off Kelibia Roads, Tunisia. Thomas survived and was taken prisoner and interned by the Vichy French at Laghouat in Algeria.
With the landing of British and American troops in Morocco and Algeria as part of Operation Torch on 8th November 1942, Thomas and his shipmates were able to return to England in December. After 8 months ashore, Thomas was assigned to the Destroyer HMS Janus, which provided artillery support for the Allied landings at Anzio on 22nd January 1944 under Operation Shingle. Janus was sunk the next day by a German air attack. Thomas was again saved, but the experience of being sunk for a third time would have a lasting effect on his nerves. He was invalided out of the Royal Navy in November 1945, and died in 1973, aged 55.
