Page 681 - Reading Mercury

250 to 300 m.p.h. Just try to imagine that at night. And if fighters are to go up at night
they have to take off and land in darkness. Casualties are bound to occur sometimes in
this most dangerous operation.
Even by day it is no easy matter to find one plane in the air when you too are in the
air. Remember how much sky you can see when you get up to the top of a high hill?
Well, multiply that a few times and imagine what the pilot sees, and don’t forget that
he still has to pilot his machine, doing something in the region of 300 to 350 m.p.h.,
which doesn’t give much chance for a look round. One pilot said that it was like
“looking for a gnat in the dome of St. Paul’s.”
You are advised to cut this out and keep for reference.

th
Sat 20 July
ON BOMBED PATROL YACHT
Wokingham Survivor Of The Warrior
TRIBUTE TO MEN’S BRAVERY
Among the survivors of H.M. Patrol Yacht Warrior II, which was sunk in an enemy
th
bombing attack in the English Channel on July 11 , is stoker Harold Prior, whose
parents live at 336, Barkham Road, Wokingham. During the action one rating was
killed, but the remainder of the crew were safely landed.
Stoker Prior comes from a family where there is a tradition of service. His father
who now works at the Wokingham Post Office, saw 21 years’ Army service,
including long periods abroad. Stoker Prior himself was born at Hartley Wintney 27
years ago, but spent a great deal of his childhood in Egypt, where his father was then
serving. He joined the merchant service on leaving Egypt in 1930, and among the
boats on which he has been are the Queen Mary and the Aquitania.
He transferred to the Royal Navy at the outbreak of the war. He has three brothers
who are serving in the Army. One of these considers himself extremely fortunate to
have been amongst those who returned from Dunkirk. His Uncle, Mr. J. Potter, whose
home is also at Wokingham, is in the Navy, as is his cousin.
ON PATROL WORK
On Monday Stoker Prior, who is now on leave, called at this office and described
his experiences to a representative of this paper. He stated that, his ship was on patrol
work in the Channel, when on Thursday last week they were attacked by at least 18
Junkers bombing machines, which indulged in low dive bombing.
“We brought down two of them at least, and there were two others which were so
badly damaged that I do not think they could possibly got back again,” he said.
“Although the enemy machines dropped about seventy bombs, we only lost one man,
the chief steward. The Warrior commenced to sink immediately after being hit, As
many as possible took to the boats, and the rest jumped into the sea. We were in the
boats about five hours when we were picked up by a trawler. We were very kindly
treated by the crew on our journey to a southern port.”
“When the boat started to sink all I escaped in was my trousers and singlet. Some of
the crew, many of whom were in their bunks, got away with even less than this. What
struck me more than anything was the bravery of the men. They were singing all the
time the bombing was going on, and when the ship went down, gave a rendering of
‘Rule Britannia.’ Whilst we were in the boats two of our officers went overboard in
order to make room for two of the ratings.
Despite his gruelling experience, Stoker Prior was able to dwell on the light side of
what he had been through. “Someone,” he said, “had the sauce to ask me if I would go
swimming on Sunday.”

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