I always enjoy coincidences - and this is a good one!!
A couple of weeks ago there was a question in the Answers to Correspondents section of the Daily Mail which read as follows:
Quote:
How was HMS Victory protected from enemy action during World War II when Portsmouth was a high priority target for the Luftwaffe?
I knew I could send in a bit of info but other things kept getting in the way. Since nothing had been printed in reply by Tuesday I eventually got round to firing off an answer. Then on Wednesday morning a reply was printed from a guy who had obviously got his in well before mine.
In fact there was quite a similarity between my answer and his so I was quite happy with that.
Anyway this was my answer - so hope it is of some interest:
Quote:
Since the precise location of H.M.S. Victory was well known to the Germans, no serious attempt was made to hide or disguise her. The only action taken was the removal of the upper masts and most of the rigging for the duration of the war.
The ship was not open to the public but received many visitors including King George VI, other members of the royal family and all the allied leaders who came to England.
In a way Victory was once more on active service, for she was used as an accommodation ship for junior ratings from the Royal Naval Barracks, together with gunners of the anti-aircraft defences, and when Admiralty House was hit in 1941 the then Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Sir William James, moved his offices into her.
The enemy claimed to have hit her in one raid and, although untouched on that occasion, she narrowly escaped destruction in March 1941; a 500-pound high-explosive bomb fell inside the dry dock and burst just under her port bow, blowing a hole eight feet by fifteen in the ship and a twenty-foot gap in the dock masonry. Portions of her steel cradle were picked up hundreds of yards away.
In November 1945, she was reopened to visitors and in 1946 rerigged and floodlit for the victory celebrations.
MB