A Tale Of Two Barfleurs by Peter Bartlett
Updated: 6 hours ago
Peter Bartlett recently told us a story about the ‘Barfleur’ name which had a long association with his deeply missed father, WWII veteran Norrie Bartlett. We asked Peter if he might write a piece for us so that this slice of history will not be lost.
The following article, A Tale Of Two Barfleurs is written by Peter.
Barfleur, the historic French fishing village on a very familiar part of the Normandy Coast, was the launching point for the Norman Invasion of England in 1066. After a battle there between an Anglo-Dutch Fleet and the French in 1692, it gave its name to a series of British warships from 1697 onwards, many of which saw action in the battles against France, including the Battle of Toulon and the Napoleonic Wars.
On 4 September 1944 another Norman, Able Seaman Norman “Norrie” Bartlett joined the latest ship of the line, HMS Barfleur, Britain’s largest and most powerful World War II destroyer.
Norrie joined the Royal Navy at the age of 16 (lying about his age) in 1942. He had been inspired to join the Navy when, on a holiday visit to the Isle of Wight, the ferry passed through the huge armada of the Spithead Review, including HMS King George V (and the German Graf Spee!) five years earlier.
Initially trained as a Fleet Air Arm mechanic, he transferred to Gunnery, training at Whale Island Portsmouth. Spells on HMS Bulldog and HMS Duncan on the Atlantic and then (freezing) Arctic Convoys, escorting Merchant Navy ships, led to decoy shelling of Calais to confuse the Nazis about the planned landing sites as a prelude to the D-Day bombardments of Normandy in June 1944.
He was finally able to go ashore in Normandy 75 years later thanks to the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans, and this time in more comfortable conditions on the Brittany Ferries vessel! (Although he had sneaked some golfing trips to France some years earlier).
Barfleur spent her first few months in sea trials, but gave the crew a Christmas break, which Norrie used to good effect to marry Betty, with Ted Gooday as his best man. However, it was quickly back to sea, based in Gibraltar for more gunnery trials under Commander Michael Townsend DSO, OBE, DSC whose brother, Peter, became well known for his attachment to the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret.
Sea trials completed, by VE Day 1945, she was in Malta on route to Suez and the Pacific as part of the HMS Duke of York Battle Group. By June, she had reached Sydney and was designated Flagship, Rear Admiral, (Destroyers), JH Edelsten moving on to Manus in July as part of the King George V Battleship Group under Vice Admiral Rawlings (1 battleship, 4 fleet carriers, 6 cruisers and 22 destroyers).
Barfleur was designated 'picket ship' for Fleet Carrier HMS Indefatigable with a role to intercept Kamikaze fighters. A 2023 reunion in Normandy with a crew member of the carrier led to a discussion about the single Kamikaze which did get through the defences. The Group, then under the British Pacific Fleet, joined the Third Fleet (Admiral Halsey USN) which became the largest armada ever seen (23 battleships, 26 aircraft carriers, 64 escort carriers, 52 cruisers, 323 destroyers… (967 warships and around 1500 auxiliaries).
By July, they were routinely shelling the Japanese military positions on shore and Barfleur had been engaged in the bombardment of Tokyo Docks using her 4.5-inch guns when, in Norrie’s words, "the order to fire was given and the gun layer pulled the trigger. That was followed by an almighty explosion and the turret filled with cordite smoke. Needless to say, we vacated it faster than a flash of lightning to be greeted by the sight of a gaping hole in the foc'sle above our very own mess deck. Fortunately, no one was in the mess. We later discovered 3 more shells with faulty fuses which could have been disastrous." Norrie concluded with: "we all lost our hearing and mine never got better than 80% loss in both ears.”
Early next month, the crew witnessed an overflight by the B29 Enola Gay, and were told to face away from Japan as the atomic bomb was detonated. After the second bomb on Nagasaki, the Japanese surrender quickly followed, but the official ceremony was delayed two weeks by a typhoon system which caused serious damage to some ships and the fleet was prevented from entering Tokyo Bay until early September. General Yoshijiro Umezu signed the surrender in the presence of General Douglas MacArthur on board the USS Missouri with Barfleur as one of the escort ships for HMS King George V which he’d first seen in that 1937 fleet review.
On 7 September, Barfleur sailed, under the orders of the US Destroyer USS Clarence K Bronson, for Ominato in the Matsu Kaiwan at the northern tip of Honshu, arriving without incident on the 9th. Barfleur was the first British vessel to enter Ominato since the Japanese capitulation.
Reports had been received that a large number of British and American prisoners of war were in the ten camps in Hakodate, Hokkaido. PoWs were brought by train to the dockside. Norrie told, movingly, how these men, dressed in rags, emaciated and ill, still lined up on the dockside as proudly as though they were on parade in front of the King. Some kissed the deck of Barfleur to say that they were home.
Barfleur and Bronson transported the PoWs to Tokyo Bay for repatriation but those images were imprinted on Norrie’s mind. He felt deeply honoured in 2020 to deliver the POWs prayer at the Covid VJ Day commemoration at the National Arboretum to follow a speech by then Prince Charles, Prince of Wales (also becoming known as Dad’s “warm up man”). Norrie also had a brief conversation with a French Admiral about HMS Barfleur’s origins!
Four months later, Norrie represented the Royal Navy, joining six other veterans at the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance. They became friends through the support of the Taxi Charity and he joined their visits to Normandy, Arnhem and Oosterbeek. As well as the annual Christmas outing, he also enjoyed visits to Biggin Hill and Chatham Dockyard, where he was delighted to be able to go aboard HMS Cavalier as well as seeing the model of HMS
Victory.
Demobbed from HMS Victory in 1946, Norrie’s association with the Navy continued as he was involved in making the boilers for Britain’s Nuclear Submarine Fleet. He hosted a reunion for HMS Kipling survivors in the presence of Lady Mountbatten and whose Captain was the brother of the Barfleur’s First Lieutenant.
In 1997, he hitchhiked a lift from Gibraltar on HMS Invincible to Pompey as part of the RN families programme with grandson Petty Officer Nick. He wandered around the aircraft carrier, found the bridge and spent a happy afternoon swapping “dits” (naval slang for stories) with Capt Roy Clare RN! He became no stranger to the bridge of a ship.
D-Day 80 was to be Norrie’s last major commemoration, but, thanks to work by the Taxi Charity’s brilliant Chairman, Colin Mills, he was appointed Chevalier of the order of the Legion d’Honneur to go with his Three Oceans Stars. Colin supported him too on a D-Day TV interview with Dawn Neesom on GB News, and he also featured on D-Day broadcasts on BBC South, Meridian TV and the Veterans’ Foundation.
This last visit to Normandy was so very memorable and gave him strength to fight the illnesses which then took him. Before embarking for Caen, the Taxi Charity had arranged a visit to Montgomery’s D-Day operations HQ at Southwick. His great friend and choir mate, Richard Collie, grabbed the attention of a rather senior Sea Lord to say there was an RN veteran there. Dad’s demob posting was to HMS Victory and when this officer asked if there was anything he would like, he said he’d really like to visit her again. Commodore Voyce, commanding the Portsmouth RN presence stepped in and at 10am prompt the following morning, Victory’s Commanding Officer Lt Commander Smith RN and the Base Commanding Officer, Captain McLocklan RN, welcomed him and gave him the huge honour of having him piped aboard. He said after this, he could die happy.
After a smooth Brittany Ferry trip and the D-Day 80 ceremonies in Normandy there followed a quiet day at the British Normandy Memorial since all the crowds and royalty had disappeared. He recognised the name of a crew mate he had served with honoured on the memorial wall which brought tears to his eyes and he was again moved by the RN silhouette amongst the Standing With Giants installation.
But there was more to come. The Captain of the Brittany Ferries vessel on the return to Portsmouth had also captained MV Barfleur, one of their ships which had carried the Taxi Charity and their veterans to Caen on many occasions. On learning of Norrie’s association with another Barfleur, he very kindly invited him on to the bridge – he even got to sound the ship’s hooter, causing momentary panic among the crew! This kindness was typical of the way Brittany Ferries had looked after the Taxi Charity and their valuable cargo on every trip. It was sad, therefore, as it was for the warship bearing the same name in 1966, that MV Barfleur undertook her final journey out of Poole to Cherbourg on 12 October, 80 years later.
Norrie died a week before his 99th birthday and was buried with military honours escorted by the Royal British Legion and the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans who brought so much happiness, friendship and joy to his later years. He was serenaded as the “father” of Hart Male Voice Choir who he’d loved singing with for 37 years, and said goodbye to at his second and spiritual home, North Hants Golf Club, who staged a competition in his honour in recognition of what would have been his 100th birthday. He, and his beloved wife Betty, rest in peace overlooking the third fairway lake, right by the fourth tee.
If you have a story about a veteran that you would like to share, please email us at info@taxicharity.org.
