Crew list of Ships hit by U-boats


Maurice Francis John Dearman

RN. British

Born  21 Feb 1921Hastings
Died  12 Dec 2006(85)

Roster information listed for Maurice Francis John Dearman


ShipTypeRank / roleAttacked onBoat
HMS Somali (G 33)DestroyerLeading Seaman20 Sep 1942U-703 (1)

Personal information

Maurice Francis John (Frank) Dearman was a Killick Coder aboard HMS Somali and was one of those evacuated to safety after the destroyer was torpedoed. He later rarely spoke of it to his family and only once mentioned the horror of being below decks when she was hit and about the tragedy of so many lost trying to get her back to port. He remembered a young lieutenant who would jump down onto a vessel as part of the boarding party, his sword in his teeth. He spoke of a Petty Officer Coder whom he much admired, who perished when HMS Somali sank and of the numbing, unbelievable shock when word was received that HMS Hood had been sunk, with so few survivors. He spoke of the Russians in Murmansk and of Churchill leaping onto the torpedo tubes, urging the ships to go out and get the Bismarck. And all his life he tried to be a good man, because his friends had died and he had lived. He did that, and well. He emigrated after the war and founded a family in Canada. He had a good life, and died in his own bed, cherished in a marriage of 61 years, much loved and respected, aged 85. And he never forgot, that he stepped across from one ship to another, to safety, and other men did not.

Sources

  1. Personal communication

Crew list for Ships hit by U-boats