The Wartime Memories Project - The Second World War

Those who Served - Surnames beginning with S.

Surnames Index


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World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

Dennis Sweetlove .     Royal Navy HMS Arthur

My grandfather Dennis Sweetlove served in the Royal Navy during WW2 training at HMS Arthur and serving on HMS Hunter.




Pilot Officer Swierzynski .     RAF




B Swift .     British Army 2nd Sqd Lothian and Border Horse

B Swift served with the 2nd Sqd Lothian and Border Horse British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch.

Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.




CF Swift .     British Army

CF Swift served with the British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch.

Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.




Capt. Cyril Charles William Swift .     Royal Marines

Charles Swift served as a Captain in the Royal Marines during the Second World War.




Private Esie Florence Swift .     A.T.S North Company East Lancashire   from Nottingham, England

My mother enrolled in the ATS ON 6.8.1941 and was Embodied 15.8.1941. she spent most of her service in Lancashire:North Company East Lancashire and on her records it shows postings in Clitheroe and Preston.l am researching my mother's whereabouts in Lancashire and her time in the A.T.S (she died in 1966)and would be graeful for anyone who could tell me their War Time experiences in the A.T.S based in Lancashire especially the social life during 1941-1943.Could anyone tell me if Allied Forces were in Lancashire :Americans and Canadians?looking forward to your reply.




G Swift .     British Army Royal Armoured Corps

G Swift served with the Royal Armoured Corps British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch.

Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.




G Swift .     British Army Kings Liverpool Regiment

G Swift served with the Kings Liverpool Regiment British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch.

Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.




AB. George Swift .     Royal Navy HMS Icarus   from Slaithwaite, Yorkshire

Naval Police, Glasgow

George Swift was my father. He served from 10 October 1940 to 21 January 1946, his only ship was HMS Icarus from 12 March 1941 to 10 February 1944 when he was transferred to Glasgow in the Royal Navy police.

Icarus was one of those little ships that rarely get a mention but it was involved in some of the major events of the war, Dunkirk, second Narvik battle, Bismarck, both Malta convoys and the raid on Spitsbergen as well as many Atlantic and Russian convoys.

He kept a dairy of the both Malta convoys, in a small note book which I've copied below, some of the descriptions of the enemy may be frowned on today but was acceptable then.

First Malta Convoy - 1942 - Operation Harpoon.

  • 1 Battle ship The Malaya
  • 2 Aircraft carriers - Eagle and Argus
  • 2 AA Cruisers - Sirius and Cairo
  • 17 Destroyers
  • 4 Corvettes
  • 1 Fast mine laying Cruiser
  • 2 Cruisers - Liverpool and Sheffield.
  • June 1st Left Scapa for Greenock arriving June 3rd. Started loading extra ammo on, so it looks like we are going places.
  • June 5th Started with 5 merchant ships for unknown destination, we think it might be Gib.
  • June 6th It seems pretty certain it's Gib. now. The force consists of 10 Destroyers 2 Cruisers,
  • June 7th Very heavy swell, dropping depth charges as this is a hot place for subs.
  • June 8th Very quiet day. Can feel it getting hotter.
  • June 9th Lovely flat sea and still hot.
  • June 10TH Just the same as previous day.
  • June 11th Arrived at Gib. 10 pm. Just oiled and came straight out. We have been told we are going to take the convoy halfway to Malta. The skipper told us we should have plenty of action.
  • June 12th Went through the straits during the dark hours. The rest of the force joined up with us.
  • June 13th Are now in the second degree of readiness. The fireworks start tomorrow. We now go the action stations every morning at dawn.
  • June 14th Just finished church when the Wops arrive. Now the fun as started. Every kind of plane attack us. Torpedo bombers, Dive bombers, High level bombers. One merchant ship goes down and the Sheffield gets hit by a torpedo. Hells let loose now and we have a very near miss. The bombs just missing the ships head. Our guns crew get wet through with the spray from the near miss. The planes from the carriers are doing great work. Got 17 of the Wops. Our 3in guns get a torpedo bomber and blow it to Hell. We leave the convoy and turn back for Gib as it gets dark. I am sorry to turn as the convoy is still being attacked.
  • June 15th Uneventful day, we are clear of the bombers now.
  • June 16th Went back to look for the Liverpool who was limping back to Gib but we didn't find her.
  • June 17th Arrived back in Gib at noon and went ashore and got the dressing gown.
  • June 18th Left for good old England with the Argus and three destroyers uneventful.
  • Arrived back in Scapa on the 24th

Second Malta Convoy 1942 - Operation Pedestal Naval

  • 2 Battle ships. Nelson and Rodney
  • 5 Aircraft Carriers. Eagle, Argus, Vic, Indom
  • 7 Cruisers
  • 32 Destroyers
  • July 30th Fitted with 2 AA guns and loaded with extra ammo. We can guess where we are going.
  • July31st Leave Scapa with 4 destroyers and the Vic. The skipper tells us are going right through to Malta. We know what to expect this time and the boys aren't too pleased.
  • August 1st On the way to Gib. again the weathers pretty cold.
  • August 2nd Sunday we have the usual prayers on the mess deck.
  • August 3rd The weather getting a bit rough. We exercise action stations during the morning.
  • August 4th The weather not to good but it's getting hotter.
  • August 5th Skipper tells us we are going to pass the Straits on the night of the 9th and 10th. Today the Vic did a mock attack on us with her aircraft. It was a fine sight, but it made you think things.
  • August 6th We met up with 2 more aircraft carriers Eagle and the Indom doing exercises with them. The force is now 10 Destroyers, 4 Carriers and 2 Cruisers.
  • August 7th. Oiled at sea from the Brown Ranger. Pretty rough. Still doing manoeuvres.
  • August 8th. Have now finished mucking about and very glad too. Let's get the job over with. Met the other ships the same night. All the force is here now with 14 Merchant ships. It's a great sight and I shall always remember it
  • August 9th. Passed through the Straits, pitch dark night. It won't be long now.
  • August 10th. Oiled at sea again. Got spotted by enemy aircraft. Same day the carrier Eagle got sunk by 4 torpedoes from sub.
  • August 11th. Got attacked for the first time this night, by torpedo bombers and dive bombers. But no damage was done.
  • August 12th. Went to action stations at dawn and attacked all day. No damage done until night came. That was when the big ships and carriers left us. We entered E boat alley.

HMS Foresight one of the boats doing a sweep with us. Then hell was let loose. Then the Manchester was hit by mine or torpedoes also the Kenya and the Cairo and two merchant men.

We received a signal from Ad Burrows congratulating us on breaking up a formation of 15 Torpedo Bombers. "Excellent gunnery of the ship", he said. Darkness fell and E boats were sighted. We got one in our searchlight and opened fire. Then the rest of the ships started and away went the E boat. That night seemed like a week,

I was never as glad to see day in all my like. As the torpedoes keep coming, we wondered if our turn would be next. We were awake all night.

  • August 13th. Came the dawn and we gave a sigh of relief. The bombers start again when it got light. But it's much better to see what you are firing at. More merchantmen get hit. I don't know how many there is left, we haven't time to count them. At about 10 o'clock that morning we saw a very welcome sight, 5 Spitfires. It's hard to tell what they are at first so we open up.
  • We still get bombed but the Spits are doing great work. We see a plane coming at us from the sun and open fire, but it's one of our fighters. The other ships open up on one and bring it down, that's one of our own planes. But they cannot be blamed we haven't got to take any chances.
  • We turned the convoy over to the local escort at 5 o'clock and turned for Gib. we were very pleased to turn for home even if we did know we were going get the attacks. We did, it was continues until we got out of the danger area. There was only 2 Cruisers and 4 Destroyers, all the others had left us, getting survivors etc. they concentrated more on the damaged cruisers coming back but it was hell all the same. But we got through alright nothing could stop us. But I was very pleased to see Gib again; at times I never thought we should.

This is only a rough outline. There was more to it than this.

Finish

Thoughts and memories of George Swift written during the time of the action.




H Swift .     British Army

H Swift served with the British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch.

Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.




JE Swift .     British Army

JE Swift served with the British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch.

Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.




John Herbert Swift .       from Royston, Hertfordshire

I have a distant relative, John Herbert Swift from Royston, Hertfordshire, who was a POW at Stalag VIIIB, but I can hardly find anything out about him. Can anyone out there help?




Capt. Peter Wilkinson Swift .     British Army Green Howards   from Scarborough

(d.22nd March 1942)

My father, Peter Swift was serving as a Captain with the Green Howards when He died in North Africa on 22nd of March 1942. The unit was travelling past a ruined area in the desert, and Peter Swift left the army vehicle he was travelling in, thought he saw movement in this area. He went on his own, with no backup apparently, and was shot dead by a sniper in the area. It reports in the Green Howards book, that "no-one else was killed that day". I was 18 months old.




Cpl. Roderick Swift .     5th Battalion   from Barnsley

(d.28th June 1942)

My uncle Roddie Swift was killed at Alamein on 28th June 1942 aged 22yrs. I know very little about the circumstances surrounding his death, nor much about any of his time in the forces. I am his sole surviving close relative and would welcome anything about him.




TA Swift .     British Army Royal Armoured Corps

TA Swift served with the Royal Armoured Corps British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch.

Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.




Harley L. Swiger .     US Army 802nd Tank Destroyer Btn.   from USA

I served with the 802nd Tank Destroyer Btn.




Samuel Swinbourne .     British Army 148th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps

Samuel Swinbourne served with the 148th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps British Army. I had his dogtags and was very happy to get them home to his family.




R Swinburn .     British Army Royal Armoured Corps

R Swinburn served with the Royal Armoured Corps British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch.

Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.




LAC James Athol Swinburne .     Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (d.18th Mar 1941)

James Swinburne was born in Jarrow in 1920. The son of James and Hilda Swinburne (nee Turnbull) of Monkton, Jarrow. He died aged 20 and is remembered at the Newcastle-upon Tyne (West Road) Crematorium. He is also commemorated on the WW2 Roll of Honour Plaque in the entrance of Jarrow Town Hall.




Pte Jesse Albert Swindell .     British Army Queens Royal West Kent   from Maidstone

(d.20th May 1940)




E Swindells .     British Army

E Swindells served with the British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch.

Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.




E Swindells .     British Army Royal Armoured Corps

E Swindells served with the Royal Armoured Corps British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch.

Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.




T Swindells .     British Army Royal Armoured Corps

T Swindells served with the Royal Armoured Corps British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch.

Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.




Flt.Lt. Kenneth Edward Swinfen MID..     Royal Air Force 44 Squadron

I have heard lots of stories as Kenneth Swinfen was a great story teller. He was always proud of the fact that he was an Englishman in a Squadron of Rhodesian flyers. Unfortunately now passed away, but he put together a book of short stores about his exploits during WW2. He was mentioned in despatches twice.




John Walter Swingle .     British Army Royal Artillery

John Swingle served with the Royal Artillery. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch.

Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.




Pte Orville Leroy Swingle .     US Army   from Mushingum County, Ohio USA

Orville L. Swingle was a Private in the Army during World War II. Orville resided in Mushingum County, Ohio before enlisting on October 9, 1943. At the time of enlistment, Orville was 19 years old, had a grammar school education and was single, without dependents. One year later, Orville was captured by the Nazis while serving in Germany, and was sent to Stalag 4B near Muhlberg, Germany where 8,412 other American POWs were held. Orville's capture was first reported to the International Committee of the Red Cross on November 29, 1944, and the last report was made on July 14, 1945. Based on these two reports, Orville was imprisoned for at least 227 days (~8 months). The average duration of imprisonment was 363 days. Ultimately, Orville was returned to military control, liberated or repatriated.




JJ Swingler .     British Army Royal Artillery

JJ Swingler served with the Royal Artillery British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch.

Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.




Sig. Geoffrey Swinnerton .     Royal Navy HMS Eaglet   from Bolton

I happened to stumble across this website during a search I conducted looking for information on my Great Grandfather's naval career during World War 2. In the group photo of Royal Arthur Class 101, sixth from the left standing in front of the concrete pillar, is my Great Grandfather Geoffrey Swinnerton. We have an old copy of this photograph at home! From Royal Arthur he was sent to HMS Eaglet in Liverpool where he appears to have been based when on dry land.

He worked on merchant ships during the war, sailing to the USA, however he spent much of his career sailing back and forth from Britain to Murmansk and Archangel in Russia as a member of the Arctic Convoys. He spent a great deal of time there and as a result developed respiratory problems, a consequence I imagine of the brutal weather conditions and the fact he spent time in the water at some point, which contributed to his death in 1967. Other than this information I am yet to fill in the gaps.....




Sgt. Henry Swinnerton .     Royal Air Force 320 Squadron (Dutch)   from England

(d.28th March 1945)

A Mitchell HD392 NO-A of 320 squadron was hit by flak but returned safely to Melsbroek. Crew survived, except for Sgt. Swinnerton (A British member of the crew). He was killed in action.

He is buried in grave X 20 4 Brussels Town Cemetery, Vlaams-Brabant, Belgium




ERA3. John Thomas Swinney .     Royal Navy HMS Dragonfly   from Jarrow

(d.14th Feb 1942)

John Swinney died aged 31. He was born in Jarrow in 1911, son of John Thomas Swinney and Mary Swinney (nee Cummings) of Jarrow.

He is remembered on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial and is commemorated on the WW2 Roll of Honour Plaque in the entrance of Jarrow Town Hall.





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