James Holland
speaker
22,142 appearances
48 recordings
7 series
first heard May 2025
last heard 4d ago
James Holland’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 45 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 10.
Appearances
Off bloody Lisbon.
The chief steward and chief engineer had broken into the bonded stores when the torpedo hit and drank as much whiskey as they could.
By the time they looked up, the lifeboats had gone.
William's response when they started screaming from the deck was to hell with them if they were so keen on spirit they could stop there.
They launched the jolly boat.
Clearly under the influence they forgot the plug.
It sank.
Cargo was cork, and as the Thurzo went down it erupted to the surface everywhere.
Fortunately, the men were rescued from the floating corpse.
The corvette that picked William up, HMS Marigold, was sunk by an Italian torpedo six months later.
The crew she rescued.
Uh lift her.
This is where the two stories connect.
In November 1942, William joined SS Fox as second officer, ferrying war supplies along the Algerian coast as part of Operation Torch.
Ammunition encased aviation petrol in containers called Flimsies.
William noted, By goodness, they were flimsy.
They would only just stand up to their own weight more or less.
At the same time, Stan's logbook has him flying daily patrols with forty three squadron over the same stretch of coastline, including repeated entries of patrol bougie.
The forty three squadron operational records confirm fuel shortages at the Ford Airstrips during exactly this period.
William was delivering the fuel stand squadron, couldn't fly without.
Showing 361–380 of 22,142 · page 19 of 1108
← Previous
Next →