|
Called "King" by his friends, at 10 Bates built a crystal radio, and was so fascinated with radio that he joined the British Merchant Navy as a radio officer. In 1939, as his country geared up for World War II, Bates transferred to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. On Christmas Day 1943, he was the electrical officer on the flagship Duke of York when it sailed after the German battleship Scharnhorst, which was trying to sink Russian ships in the Arctic; they engaged it north of Norway. At one point an 11-inch German shell exploded near Bates' perch near the antenna mast. The explosion flipped the ship's radar antenna out of alignment -- it was pointing skyward. They were in the arctic, it was December, it was dark, and there was a force-8 gale blowing: they needed that radar. Bates climbed the mast, realigned the antenna with his bare hands, and restarted the radar. The Duke of York was able to sink the Nazi ship, and Bates was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. He was dubbed "Barehands Bates" and the radio man was a hero of the British. Since few had any idea what "radar" was at the time, Bates was depicted in the popular media holding two live electrical cables together with his bare hands, a notion which rather irritated him. As the war drew to a close, Bates was the commander of a landing party which found secret prisoner of war camps and released the allied inmates. Later, as a Royal Navy captain, he was assistant director of Naval Intelligence, and then deputy director of the Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment. He retired in 1969. Bates died in a British nursing home on May 6 at age 89.
From This is True for 7 May 2006
Suggestions for further reading:
His Majestys Ship (Fighting Sail Series)
by Alaric Bond
Amazon Price:
Ramage
by Dudley Pope
Amazon Price:
Customer Review: Talk about beginning a story in media res! Nicholas Ramage returns to consciousness on the lower deck of the frigate on which he serves as Third Lieutenant to find that his captain and the two superior lieutenants have been killed by shot from the Fr...
Ramage & the Drumbeat
by Dudley Pope
Amazon Price:
Customer Review: This is the second installment in the "Lord Nicholas Ramage" series and it begins a few days after the first one ended, with Lieut. Ramage commanding an extremely cutter west of Sardinia in the Fall of 1796, trying to convey the refugee Marquesa di V...
None But You, (Frederick Wentworth, Captain: Book 1)
by Susan Kaye
Amazon Price: $13.05
Customer Review: Quick read. I a bit slow at first, but retells a beloved story from different view point. Didn't realize it was Part one of a two book series. Would not bother with the second vook.
Man-Of-War : Stephen Biesty's Cross-Sections
by Stephen Biesty
Amazon Price:
Customer Review: I used to sit with this book in the library for hours on end. I just loved the cross sections and the "where's Waldo" type games.
Newsfeed display by CaRP |
About the HUs
About This is True
Subscribe Free
to This is True
Prev: The non-bionic Bruce A. Peterson
Next: The well pinned-up Joyce Brand
Complete Name List
|
