By Mark Shales
AN UPPERMILL schoolboy is celebrating the heroics of Oldham’s only remaining Atlantic convoy veteran for his school project.
Elliot Jones, 9, brushed aside cyclist Bradley Wiggins and other sports stars to choose Albert Giddens as his personal hero.
Albert, 91, served aboard the doomed HMS Trinidad during the Second World War and Elliot admitted interviewing Mr Giddens was a thoroughly eye-opening experience.
“I’ve got to know him well because I’ve been to his house,” said the St Chad’s Primary School pupil.
“I’ve really enjoyed getting to interview my hero. It is really remarkable because no one else in my class has interviewed theirs.
“Albert wasn’t like I expected though because in his picture he had a different haircut and wasn’t as wrinkly.”
Nautical blood runs deep in the Giddens’ household – Albert’s son Steve served during the Falklands War aged 23, the same age his father was when he served north of the Arctic Circle.
But Giddens junior – next-door neighbour to Elliot – admits his father had it a whole lot tougher than he did.
“If you thought the Falklands were rough the Artic convoys were dreadful,” he said. “He’s a hero in my mind.
“The weather was horrendous, the seas conditions were horrendous. And of course they had U-boats and bombers because by then the Germans occupied Norway. It was so very, very dangerous.”
In March 1942 Albert, from Chadderton, was serving on HMS Trinidad – part of the fleet carrying supplies to the Soviet Union – when she came under fire from a German U-Boat in the Artic Sea.
A faulty gyro system saw a British torpedo double back on itself, leaving the stricken vessels to limp into the Russian port of Murmansk.
After six weeks patching up the ship so it could sail at half-speed, they set off for Iceland – but were dived bombed within three hours and destroyed their own ship so the Germans would not capture it.
“My Dad went back to Iceland on another ship and then a few weeks later he ended up back in Plymouth where they put him back on the convoys again,” said Steve.
“It must have been absolutely horrifying after what had happened.”
Convoy veterans were never officially recognised with a medal but Prime Minister David Cameron announced in March surviving veterans will receive special Arctic convoy awards this year.
You must be logged in to post a comment.