Egham’s Minesweeper
Egham is not normally a town you would expect to have connections to the Royal Navy, let alone to have adopted a warship, and yet in 1945 the town welcomed the crew of HMS Orestes as their adopted sons. Egham’s association with the Orestes sprang from a campaign organised by the National War Savings Committee to raise money for the Admiralty, to help build ships to replace early war loses and to expand the Royal Navy to protect the Atlantic convoys. As part of Warship Week cities were set the challenge of raising enough money to ‘adopt’ a battleship or aircraft carrier while towns and villages were to support cruisers and destroyers. Once the target was reached the town would ‘adopt’ the ship and its crew, the ship’s commanding officer would typically present plaques, other objects and photographs to the town’s representatives and, where possible, the ship’s crew would visit and a parade and entertainment put on in their honour. The total amount of money raised by this national campaign was over £955 million and a total of 8 battleships, 4 carriers, 49 cruisers, 301 destroyers, 25 submarines, 164 corvettes and frigates and 288 minesweepers, including Egham’s H.M.S Orestes, were adopted.
Orestes was an ‘Algerine’ Class minesweeper built by Lobnitz and Co. Ltd. of Renfrew, Scotland. Construction began on 27 March 1942, she was launched on 25 November 1942 and ‘completed’ and ready for service on April 1943. On entering service Orestes was attached to the 18th Minesweeping Flotilla, attached to the Orkneys and Shetland Command. As was common with minesweepers, Orestes was often on convoy escort duty, typically escorting convoys to and from North Russia. In June 1944 she was transferred to the Channel and took part in the Normandy landings, clearing an approach for the assault at Asnelles.
Mr R. G. Lamming, writing for the BBC People’s War Archive, recounted a story of the Orestes in action off the coast of France on Monday 12th June 1944.
At 8.30 we were attacked by one man torpedoes. One ship blows up and sinks, we detail H.M.S. Sockerteice to pick up survivors. We steam full ahead towards Le Harve, which is the German naval base. After ten minutes we sight our first sub. We close and fire depth charges and the four inch gun, plus all the small arms fire. We see no sign of him after this, on we go and sight number two. We give him the same treatment, he is on the surface and bales out as we see the torpedo go down. We pick him up. While on deck he stands to attention, raising his arm and at the same time shouting “Heil Hitler”. He looked about sixteen years old. No wonder it’s taking a long time to win this war.
We removed his uniform and put him in the sick bay. He could not speak a lot of English, but he kept shouting “Churchill has got a big mouth”. I took his clothes down to the engine room to dry out and then reported to the captain. After about forty minutes the captain told me to go down and get the prisoner dressed and reading for handing over. When I arrived at the engine room I found that all the badges on his uniform had been removed. I reported this to the captain who went berserk. He informed the ship’s company that all leave would be stopped until the badges were replaced. May I say that thirty minutes later all the badges had been replaced and the prisoner was handed over well dressed and in good health.
On the 24th April 1945, with the Normandy landings now well behind them, Lieutenant-Commander D.H. Coughlan DSC., RNVR. Officer Commanding, together with six of his officers, one Midshipman and about 60 Ratings visited Egham to meet the townspeople who had adopted their ship. They were met by Mr. H. Jarman (Chairman, Egham Urban District Council), Mr. H. Smith (the Town Clerk) and other local representatives. The party marched to Egham Fire Station, led by a band from the Feltham Sea Cadet Corps, and on arrival the ship’s Battle Ensign was hoisted on the fire station flagpole, where it remained throughout the visit. Entertainment for the visitors included a film show at the Savoy Cinema, a high tea at the Literary Institute and, in the evening, a dance at Great Fosters. The visitors stayed in Egham overnight and returned to their ship the following day.
In 1947 the Orestes was reduced to the Reserve Fleet, was briefly assigned to the Fishery Protection Squadron and finally, in 1963, sold to the British Iron and Steel Corporation and scrapped.