SIDNEY LITTLER 1922-1991
Petty Officer Telegraphist
Service 1938-1953
Sidney left King Edward VI Grammar School in Nuneaton, to enlist in the Royal Navy as boy telegraphist in 1938, at the age of sixteen, when he began his Signal School training at HMS Ganges in Devonport.
Within a year of entering the Royal Navy, war was declared and he had to prepare for active service.
His most memorable and widely commemorated theatre of war was the Arctic Convoys in the Battle of the Barents Sea, where he served as Leading Telegraphist aboard HMS Onslow 1941-43 and on the convoy JW5IB.
Fourteen British and American merchant ships carrying vital supplies to the Russian allies left Loch Ewe, on 22nd December 1942 on the infamous “Murmansk run” described by Churchill as “the worst journey in the world”. The convoy was guarded by five Royal Navy destroyers, commanded by Captain Robert St Vincent Sherbrooke DSO.
In the early hours of 31 December 1942, HMS Onslow was hit three times by 8 inch shells from the German destroyer, Hipper. It took out the A and B turrets, the funnel and radar and disabled communications. The Onslow was on fire, was flooding and at risk of sinking. Sidney and his fellow Telegraphists were holed up in the Wireless Room trying to radio for help.
Captain Sherbrooke was severely injured in the face and lost an eye, but refused to leave his post. He held out for two hours against the German attack until two small British cruisers, HMS Sheffield and Jamaica came to their rescue.
One third of the Onslow crew were dead or injured. Further casualties of the convoy included the minesweeper HMS Bramble, which was sunk by the Hipper with the loss of 121 crew. The destroyer HMS Achates was badly hit, killing the Captain Lt Commander Johns and 40 crew, before it subsequently capsized and sunk with the total loss of 113.
Captain Robert Sherbrooke was awarded the VC for bravery, which he magnanimously claimed was a tribute to all and not to just one man.
I am proud to know that my father, played no small part in this momentous Battle. He was twenty years of age.
Awards received:
1939-45 Star
The Atlantic Star1939-45
The Africa Star 1939-45
War Medal
Naval Palestine Medal 1945-48
The Arctic Star 2014 awarded posthumously
Written by his daughter, Barbara Littler – Petrie