228665 Edward Vickers Royal Navy HMS Sussex I'm trying to find a bit of my father-in-law's wartime history. He served on HMS Sussex in 1945 and was at the liberation of Changi in Singapore later that year. His name was Edward (Ted) Vickers and he came from Middlesbrough. He received the Burma Star. If anyone know of him or any history of the ship around that period I would love to hear from you.
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My father was serving on HMS Black Swan at about the same time and place. He recalled that they took some of the most seriously injured (and mentally damaged) ex-POWs from Changi to Australia for medical attention. The less serious were eventually returned to the UK so the Sussex might have been involved with that most harrowing of tasks. I might add my father in later life would walk for miles rather than buy Japanese goods as a consequence of what he saw at that time. As you might imagine, with the passage of time, that became a more and more a difficult job as he searched for his new TV etc. We owe so much to that generation of British men and women whose country we have inherited. - Chris Pownall.
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My father was on HMS Sussex when it left Malta in 1945 and headed for Alexandria and then Port Said then through the Suez Canal for Columbo and the base at Trincomalee. Whilst there they went out for 2-3 days at a time and bombed targets in Burma. During one of these excursions he saw HMS Squirrel (a mine sweeper) hit a mine and sink. The destroyer HMS Racehorse picked up survivors and transfered them to the Sussex. During this time the Japanese Kamakazi attacks started. One headed for the Sussex and exploded before impact, causing minor damage to the starboard quarters of the Sussex. With the end of the war declared on the 14th August 1945 the Sussex headed for Singapore and accepted the surrender of the Island on 4th September 1945 led by General Seishiro Itagaki and Vice-Admiral Shigeru Fukudome, surrendered to British forces Led by Lieutenant-General Alexander Frank Philip Christison and Vice-Admiral Cedric Swinton Holland on board the HMS Sussex in the Straits of Singapore. My father was taken ashore to signal the troop ships into Singapore with supplies and troops. He later, with another signalman Jackie Batt, went to Raffles and hoisted the Union Jack flag. The Sussex was used as a hotel ship and accepted some POWs onboard till they were shipped home. The Sussex went onto Indoniesia including Surabaya, Batavia and Semarang to drop troops and help liberate these areas as well. My dad was dropped eventually at Tanjong Priok were he stayed for a year till the Dutch came and took over. He returned to Singapore and Blakang Mati (now Sentosa) for a week before returning to the UK in 1947 on HMS Salvage Duke. He is not sure where the Sussex went after he was dropped at Tanjong Priok. - Antony
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Stoker Bob (Sharky) Ward served on HMS Sussex 1944-1945. Can any one help? The way I remember it was like this, after comming off the first dogwatch on Sunday evening when the captain announced that we would bombard Phucket, after that all hell broke loose when we were attacked by Kamikaze aircraft. Half the ship's company went down with food poisoning, the Captain put it down to going into action. I was on the starboard side of the upper deck at the time and saw the Kamikaze hit the ship. What I would like to know is, why wasn't I at action station? my action station was magazine B turret. - Sharky.
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