Able Sea. Claude Marriott Hunt
Royal Navy HMS Canton
from:Broughton, Brigg, N. Lincs
My Grandfather was Claude Hunt. He was born in Denver, Norfolk on 19th Jan 1915. He and one of his brothers relocated to Scunthorpe to secure work on the developing steelworks. He became a steel erector, which was a reserved occupation. However, after an argument with his charge hand his exemption papers were never submitted. Rather than the indignity of asking for the mistake to be rectified he joined the Royal Navy on 20th of February 1941.
His Service Records list the following:
- HMS Collingwood 20th February 1941 to 30th April 1941
- HMS Victory 1st May 1941 to 27th May 1941
- HMS Excellent 28th May to 23rd August 1941
- HMS Canton 24th August 1941 to 13th April 1944
- HMS Victory 14th April 1944 to 20th March 1945
- HMS Frobisher 21st March 1945 to 23rd October 1945
He was trained as a gunner, on 20mm Oerlikon cannons on HMS Canton which served as part of a battle group around Africa. HMS Canton is reported as mistakenly firing upon a British submarine, HMS Thunderbolt thinking it was a U-Boat. He also acted as the ships cobbler.
HMS Frobisher provided naval gun support to the D-Day Landings at Sword Beach and then acted as a depot ship for smaller vessels. In August 1944 she was damaged by long range torpedoes from German E Boats in Seine Bay.
He never spoke about this period of his life very much so I intend to research the activities of HMS Canton in more detail and also try to find out more about the attack on HMS Frobisher.
