HRH Prince Philip - 'Just getting on with it' under the White Ensign

[Music] [Music] two years ago yesterday at the time of this video's release the Lord High Admiral his Royal Highness Prince Phillip passed away just a couple of months shy of reaching 100 years old much of his life was spent in the public eye as husband to at first princess and then later Queen Elizabeth II that element of his long life has been well covered in various other places but what is perhaps less known is that prior to becoming in his own words the world's most experienced plaque unveil he had a remarkably successful career in the Royal Navy whilst he would attain the rank of Lord High Admiral by the Queen's Grace there were many who speculated that had he remained in Naval service in some alternate timeline he may well have attained to the rank of First Sea Lord in any case on his own merits so as we've looked at the life and careers of a number of other naval officers today we're going to have a look at his to get some idea of his Origins you actually have to wind the clock back to the 1840s although I hasten to add he was not himself quite that old his grandfather was born as the improbably titled Prince William of sches holin suberg glurg although as a younger son of an already minor Dynasty he was one of many European Royals in the mid 19th century who had a title and not much else to their name moderately well-off middleclass families lived in more luxury but sometimes a title can change things a lot in 1863 William's father became king Christian the9th of Denmark by virtue of being a distant relative of the previous and childless King Frederick iith suddenly somewhat elevated in the world in that same year one of his sisters became the Princess of Wales and diplomats from Greece rocked up and asked would young William like to try his hand at being the king of Greece other family members would go off to similarly High stations but William would find himself the compromise candidate for the still recently independent Kingdom of Greece the first attempt at having a king hadn't gone particularly well the man chosen had been a tactless idiot and and the most popular choice to replace him wasn't available due to a conflict of interest of course William wasn't a particularly Greek name so upon coronation he became King George the first of Greece instead and if you remember in late years the Greek Cruiser jores abov you realize that's a much more Greek sounding name when you're actually in Greece thanks to an enthusiastic approach to ruling his popularity was pretty much the inverse of the popularity of the general Greek governments the Greek populace going through those at a rate of about one every seven months for about 2 and a half decades he would marry a young Russian Duchess who became Queen Olga and the couple went on to have eight children the penultimate of which was a boy named Andrew for the son of a Danish prince and a Russian Duchess growing up in a palace where the Taps were as likely to dispense cockroaches as water the mobs that had gotten rid of the previous King hadn't exactly been too kind to the Palace Andrew or Andrea as he was known in Greece seemed to embrace Greek identity wholeheartedly at age 20 he became a Cavalry officer and he met Princess Alice of battenberg whom he would later marry her father was Prince Louie of Battenburg who would rise on his own merits to become an excellent First Sea Lord in the Royal Navy before being unfairly pushed out at the start of the first World War by a wave of anti-german Hysteria Andrea and Alice would first meet as guests gathered in Buckingham Palace for the coronation of Edward II In 1902 they were engaged the following year and married shortly thereafter their first child a girl named Margarita was born in 1905 false rumors spread in the Press set off a wave of anti-monarchist sentiment in the latter part of the 1900s but the situation was largely reversed by the first Vulcan war in which all the Greek princes were part of the army that headed north against the ottoman forces and indeed the oldest of them Constantine led the Army this turnaround in Fortune was helped by Alice who decided to follow her husband North and launched a one-woman crusade to get a proper field Hospital set up for the wounded soldiers whom she then tended herself by the end of the second Bulan War Greece's borders had been expanded considerably tragedy struck however in 19133 King George announced privately that he intended to abdicate and hand over to his eldest son who as the leader of the Victorious Greek campaign North was massively popular at the time but sadly King George I was assassinated that afternoon whilst on a walk through the streets of salonica the outbreak of World War I tested things further the new King's wife was Prussian but Greece had thus far had better relations with Britain Greece therefore opted to remain neutral but Andrea and Alice it was even more personal Alice was a German princess by birth but her father was as mentioned an absolutely loyal officer of the royal Navy such was the anti-german hysteria at the time though that the battenberg's changed their family name to mount baton which means exactly the same thing it just sounds more English a 14-year-old brother of Alice also named Louie vowed to make it to the same rank as his father he of course is better known to history as Lord Louis Mount baton and he will feature again in this story later on the British royal family around this time also renamed themselves creating the house of Windsor although in a typical British bureaucratic kafuffle no one could quite work out what exactly the Royal surname had been at the time nonetheless at this point Andrea and Alice had four daughters and Andrea was on a diplomatic quest to reassure Britain and France that Greece was not in fact about to declare on the side of Germany but unfortunately things continued to get worse the Greek government decided that they did actually want to join the allies and so they staged a coup declaring war on Germany from their temporary capital in salonica Constantine meanwhile tried to stay neutral but then an Allied Fleet opened fire on Athens as a result and in mid 1917 Constantine was forced to abdicate succeeded by his second son Alexander as the heir to the throne was also thought to be a little bit too closely connected to the Germans with the interconnectedness of the European Royal houses the subsequent murder of most of the Russian royal family and associated abbility in the Russian Revolution and the dissolution of much of the upper echelons of the German aristocratic and Royal order in the aftermath of World War I meant relatives and friends were dropping like flies Andrea and Alice were themselves in Exile having been seen as too close to Constantine and then in 1910 King Alexander died as well thanks to a rather unlikely incident of blood poisoning when his dog was attacked by a monkey he then tried to rescue the monkey from the dog's jaws as it turned out the monkey had picked a rather larger fight than it could win and then the King was thanked for his Troubles by another monkey from the same troop coming up and biting him and it was those wounds that became infected with his death Constantine returned and immediately got involved in another war with what was still just about the Ottoman Empire Andrea and Alice likewise were now welcome back in Greece and on the 10th of June 1921 on the island of Corfu Princess Alice gave birth to a healthy baby boy who would be registered as philippos unfortunately this period was also accompanied by an overstretch by Greek troops in Asia Minor which would ultimately lead to their defeat and the death of Prince Louis of Battenburg obviously now Mount baton who had been the only one of Philip's grandparents still alive he had at least gotten a week's Voyage board HMS repulse shortly beforehand having taken up a military role again Andrea himself had been effectively relieved of command for voicing the opinion that perhaps trying to perform a reverse version of xenon's March without much in the way of supplies and ammunition might just end badly the next year the baby Philip attended the wedding of his Uncle Lou Mount baton having been brought there by his mother along with his older sisters back in Greece Andrea's predictions came true as the now Turkish Counterattack swept Greek forces clean out of Asia Minor more extreme elements of the Greek army staged a revolution and King Constantine was once again forced to abdicate in favor of his Heir now King George II Andre was quickly rounded up by the coup leaders as a convenient scapegoat for their defeats taken to Athens ostensibly as a witness in the court marshall of others accused of leading the country to defeat Andrea was quickly imprisoned and threatened with death by a former Staff College classmate who was now leading the Witch Hunt over in the UK King George V was reportedly still deeply unhappy with having allowed pragmatism to override family loyalty in the case of his first cousin Zar Nicholas of Russia who had initially been offered sanctuary in the UK when the Soviet revolution had overtaken the country but then subsequently had that offer rescinded by political interference since British politicians had hoped that by leaving thear and his family to The Tender Mercies of the Communists it would keep Russia in the war against Germany the Soviets had of course promptly murdered them all and then signed A Separate Peace Treaty with the Germans anyway now faced with another first cousin also about to be murdered by a fanatical revolutionary Council and probably his family along with them George V seems to have determined it would not happen twice on his watch whatever the government happened to think was expedient thus the British Empire threatened to break off diplomatic relations with Greece if the courts didn't exercise clemency for those who'd been charged and Commander Gerald Tolbert was sent to figure out exactly what the heck was going on having served as Naval at AE in Greece for several years prior tolber was pretty much the perfect choice as he understood most of the political situation in Greece probably better than most of the Greeks involved in the revolution hearing that a British representative was on his way the Revolutionary Council decided to quickly execute six of the eight men that had originally been on trial but they hadn't actually gotten around to putting Andrea on trial since as mentioned he'd been brought to Athens under the pretense of being a witness for the trial of the first eight men and thus his trial was scheduled separately Tolbert went into talks with the revolutionaries and managed to agree the following which was then relayed to London the prince will be tried on Saturday and sentenced probably to penal servitude or possibly to death plas one of the leading revolutionaries will then Grant pardon and hand him over to Mr tolber for immediate removal with Princess Alice by British warship to brindy or to any other port on route to England the British warship must be at fairon I think that's how it's pronounced by midday on Sunday December 3rd and the captain should report immediately to the legation for orders but in view of the necessity for utmost secrecy the captain should be given no indication of the reason for the voyage This Promise has been obtained with greatest difficulty and Tolbert is convinced it is essential that the above Arrangement be strictly adhered to so as to save the prince's life as success of the plan depends upon absolute secrecy of the existence of this Arrangement even the prince and princess cannot be given any hint of what is coming tolber is convinced that he can rely on the word given him and I see no other possibility of saving the prince's Life 2 Days Later Andrea was tried and convicted in a very Kardashian tribunal and the day after tobook quickly snuck him down to a keyside where the cruiser hm Calypso was waiting with Princess Alice already aboard the ship set sail for Corfu at speed picking up the rest of the family and their Entourage including the young and oblivious Prince Phillip who was only 18 months old Philip spent the voyage in a converted fruit crate that the ship's officers had fashioned for him the family was then landed in Italy where Philip was noted to have spent much of the journey by train heading north licking the windows with great enthusiasm the train went via Rome and then onto France where the family settled in Paris for the moment as the politicians in the British government had kicked up a fuss again because apparently saving an innocent family's life from the hands of a bunch of murderous fanatical revolutionaries inconvenience to them at the end of the year with Parliament on a break for Christmas they managed to sneak across into the UK anyway and meet with the King but they ultimately decided to set up shop in Paris which was something of a hot spot for wandering displaced Royals in the aftermath of the various revolutions across Europe in the aftermath of World War I by 1924 the Greek revolutionary Council had decided they were going to get rid of King George II as well although he was at least allowed to leave peacefully cut off from almost all sources of income Philip ended up growing up much like his grandfather William later George I had started life we the title but not much else to show for it as he grew up Philip proved adventurous the first trip to London that he could remember although it was in fact his third in the latter part of 1924 saw him insist on riding on the upper open deck of the buses whatever the weather so that he could see London better he and his sisters would spend the Summers near Marsailles with a family of fellow Greek igr where he enjoyed getting up into Mischief but also showed a Kinder side as when the eldest daughter of his hosts was immobilized due to a fall he would sit and talk to her for hours and then try to gift her his Mega supply of toys when she was denied some on the grounds of the plaster casts on her legs apparently making her unable to play much of his life was now spent with friends family and distant relations across the safer parts of Europe in part because of increasing strain on his parents' marriage and in part because he and his sisters staying elsewhere meant that their hosts were the ones who would see to their costs of food clothing and education once in formal small schooling Philip proved industrious wishing to learn everything he could and becoming best friends with two Chinese boys the sons of the Chinese ambassador to France who taught him Chinese martial arts as he taught them the subtle Arts of mischief and yes that does mean that Prince philli did in fact know Kung Fu unfortunately the latter the 1920 saw Princess Alice spiral rapidly into some sort of mental illness and by 1930 30 she'd been committed to a sanatorium where she would remain for the better part of a decade this seemed to have quite an effect on Andrea as well who took to wandering Europe and left Phillip largely in the care of the mount batons who were of course Alice's family his sisters were all in the process of getting married but Philip was only eight and found himself displaced in the world once again from age 9 to 16 Philip grew up under the care of George Mount baton Marquis of Milford Haven and Louis Mount batton's older brother he had also been a naval officer and an extremely inventive and intelligent one at that although his attentions when making something new were as likely to be to make his own cabin more comfortable fans and various other things as they were to assist in bringing destruction to the king's enemies which he also did it is probably in this period that Philip picked up a lifelong enthusiasm for new technology ology in later years it was Notorious that when he visited the ideal home show in London he would usually rock back up at the palace with some new bit of technology or other for people to use in any case George Mount bbaton had only recently left the service to make some money in business as the Great Depression and spiraling German inflation had wiped out much of his financial assets which were of course still partially tied up in Germany in this endeavor he would also prove to be successful going on amongst other things to become the chairman of marks and Spencer which those of you outside of the UK probably have no idea what it is but it's a relatively high-end chain of stores Philip would make regular trips to Germany to visit his sisters who had all agreed to marry into what was left of the German aristocracy and so there were many weddings to attend but his schooling was now held at tabore court in Chim Sur funly enough about 5 minutes away from where I grew up many decades later here he won various prizes for both academic Pursuits and sporting Endeavors mathematics French hurdles high jump swimming diving and others but in 1933 he had to leave his immediate family in particular one of his sisters had insisted he'd be schooled in Germany which of course had recently seen Hitler come to power the school in Salem OR called Salem was run by Kurt Han a German Jew with a view that school should be a succession of difficult challenges in overcoming them a school boy would have his character shaped for the better and also hopefully find what where his real interests and goals lay failure was an option but was only a bad thing if you failed to pick yourself up learn from it and adjust your approach to ensure you got close to success the next time as both a Jew and politically opposed to Hitler Han was a little bit of an obvious Target and was soon arrested freed only by British intervention and thus forced to flee to Britain for his own safety Keen to facilitate an alliance with the British the Salem school was temporarily allowed to continue its teaching program largely free of Nazi influence however this Freedom rapidly disintegrated over the course of the Academic Year and with Philip speaking precious little German but finding the increased Goose stepping and H Hitler in a subject which he openly mocked it was decided that he should probably return to Britain taking up schooling again at gordonston in Scotland where Han had set up a school in the image of his previous Academy in Germany to be fair Han had initially welcomed the idea of the National Socialist Party restoring Germany to its former strength and Glory but by now he was thoroughly disillusioned and advocated and campaigned for their removal from power Philip was inducted into the school which was on somewhat rundown grounds this however was seen as another opportunity for character building as the boys helped to restore the school building and grounds in between lessons picking up several useful skills along the way significant physical exercise was involved in the school program including learning how to sail philp picked up a passion for Speed finding himself a bicycle to better get to the Sailing Marina and later on in life making something of a go Motorsport but the sailing lessons seemed to resonate with him and he would spend much of his free time at the marina helping and sailing with the locals as the 1930s progressed Philip could also be found sailing Cutters and other craft with his schoolmates progressively further and further from the school a slightly larger vessel owned by the school was taken by philli and the sailing Guild all the way to Norway in 193 4 whilst attending a relative's wedding Philip would unknowingly come across his future bride who was one of the Bridesmaids whilst he was a guest in 1935 after a whirlwind series of governments the Greek population voted to have the monarchy back and the next year Philip was briefly back in Greece as those of the Greek royal family who died in Exile were being reburied in the family cemetery near Athens upon his return to the UK he was determined to sit the entry exam for the Royal Navy which was just as well as the rearmament process had begun in Earnest and soon the Royal Navy would need every willing volunteer it could get in the interim in 1937 he visited his relatives in Germany again as by this point Princess Alice had made a recovery of sorts and wanted to see all her children and most of them were in Germany a family wedding was moved in time and location to London it had been planned to be held in Germany whilst they were all there due to the death of Alice's uncle but this ended up bringing tragedy as Philip's sister sesily her husband and two of their children along with much of the household and the best man for the wedding were all on their way to the UK by plane when it crashed killing all AB board this seemed to affect Philip deeply not helped by the fact that shortly thereafter George Mount baton who had been his father figure for at least half his life at this point slipped fell and broke his femur which was annoying but not necessarily terrible at the time but its failure to heal revealed a deep bone cancer that went on to kill him less than a few months later his younger brother Louie Mount baton now a captain in the Royal Navy would be left to take charge of what was left of Philip's upbringing at this stage Philip had taken to the idea of becoming a fighter pilot in line with his love of speed but Lou seems have steered him back toward the Navy which is probably just as well for us as otherwise Philip would likely have qualified just in time to become a green pilot involved in the Battle of bristen he instead passed the entry exam to Dartmouth somewhere in the middle of the class in May 1939 he finished his formal education at gordonston and took up his place as an officer Cadet at Dartmouth Naval College here he would run into Princess Elizabeth again when in July July the Royal yacht showed up with Louis Mount Batton in command and Philip was a guest aboard several times when the yacht left a number of cadets decided to take control of various small rowing craft to escort the royal family out of Dartmouth as the motorized vessel picked up speed the cadets gradually fell away until only the extremely competitive Phillip could be seen just about keeping up King George I 6 himself an ex-naval officer had to yell at him to turn back back as they were getting dangerously close to the Open Sea summer break saw Philip head down to Greece and he was there when war was declared on September the 3rd 1939 now second in line for the Greek Throne he was faced with a decision did he stay in Greece just in case tragedy moved him up to air apparent as the only person sitting between him and that position was a young baby boy who had yet to be born if he didn't then well all his surviving sisters were in Germany and they were deeply in meshed in the Nazi regime on the other hand he regarded England as his home after a quick talk with his family he made his decision and headed back to Dartmouth throwing himself into his lessons with a will and becoming the top Cadet at the college unfortunately upon graduation he was told that as a foreign citizen of a neutral country he could not serve in an active war zone and all applications for him to become a British citizen had been suspended for the duration of hostilities here connections turned out to be useful Louis Mount baton began to pull strings behind the scenes and suggested a temporary compromise he could be sent to the China Station this would allow Philip to continue his career in the Navy but serve in an area that wasn't currently a war zone Philip who wanted to get stuck into the fight was more than a little disappointed to find himself as a midshipman assigned to the battleship HMS ramales which was destined to ply the Indian Ocean escorting Australian and New Zealand troop convoys his conveyance to The Old Ship which was stationed in salon now Sri Lanka was the Australian light Cruiser hmas Hobart ramales made a voyage down to Australia and then back up to Aiden before Philip was then transferred to the Heavy Cruiser Kent in initially he didn't like this much as he was just getting used to the routine on ramales but he soon found the transfer much to his approval as the Heavy Cruiser had far better ventilation systems which made it possible to actually sleep below decks instead of in a camp bed out in the open the ship headed for India picked up a troop Convoy and led them back to Europe via South Africa which pleasingly meant he almost certainly would have encountered Abel Seaman just Nuance the mighty Great Dane of Cape Town when the Convoy paused there there Kent headed back across the Indian Ocean and Philip was moved again to the Shropshire somewhat disappointed that an enemy Raider most likely a Hil scer had been reported in the Indian Ocean but Kent had not run into her Shropshire was bound for the Red Sea to run convoys down the east coast of Africa whilst she was in the Red Sea Italy entered the war and in October of 1940 Italy invaded Greece this meant that Greece was now at war with Italy and Germany and thus on the Allied side and for Philip this meant he was now free to be assigned to a combat zone as he was no longer a foreign citizen of a neutral country but a foreign citizen of an Allied country and so in December 1940 he found himself on a train heading across Egypt bound to take up his position aboard the battleship HMS Valiant a few days into 1941 he got his first taste of action with a bombardment of bardia followed by seeing the cruiser Southampton hit repeatedly and left in a sinking condition by shukers and the Destroyer Gallant being towed home after losing her bow to a mine Valiant herself had to dodge a couple of airdrop Torpedoes and a little later on he was treated to a ringside seat of the bombing of hmes illustrious all of this occurring under the banner of operation excess Valiant was also a target of dive bombers but the closest the Germans managed to that time was to get some near misses after a short period of leave he was back aboard Valiant for convoying troop transports to Greece and on the 27th of March the fleet left Alexandria Valiant followed Admiral Cunningham aboard warspite with baram following up behind and behind that came the carrier formidable and nine destroyers as escort the next day Guided by Ultra intelligence although obviously no one knew that at the time and aerial reconnaissance the Battle of Kate Matan began this I've covered in more detail in another video that I've done link hopefully in the well definitely in the video description and hopefully up up top as well but very briefly the day engagement between British Cruisers and an Italian Force led by the battleship vitorio Veno mostly went the Italians way with the British ships forced to fall back under the cover of smoke until torpedo bomber strikes by formidable and a few other nearby swordfish damaged the Italian Battleship and crippled the cruiser po Cunningham pressed on into the night seeking his enemy via radar in a later interview Philip described the experience thus quite how information about what was going on percolated to The Gun Room is a mystery but even the midshipmen were becoming aware that the Italian fleet was thought to be at Sea and that there might be a chance of catching them there was definitely a special atmosphere of anticipation and something dramatic in Prospect when the fleet put to Sea from Alexandria during the night of the 27th of March my action station was on the bridge and at night I had control of the port search light so I managed to gather roughly what was going on by overhearing Snippets of conversation from the compass platform my impression was that an Italian battle fleet was at Sea and was engaged in a fight with our light forces of Cruisers and destroyers which were attempting to lure the Italians towards our battleships then the carrier H Miss formidable pulled out of the line to fly off a strike of swordfish torpedo bombers the general impression was that there might be the chance of catching the Italian heavy ships provided they kept up their Chase of our Cruisers later just before dusk formidable flew off another strike it then transpired that the Italians had turned away after some of their ships had been hit by Torpedoes from the Swordfish the chase went on into a still calm night although it was apparent that our Cruisers and destroyers were busy further north my recollection is that Valiant was the only capital ship fitted with what is now known as radar but was then known as rdf and was therefore stationed immediately a stern of HMS warspite Admiral Cunningham's Flagship as far as I was concerned it seemed there was little chance of our catching up with the retreating Italians and as it got dark there was a general air of anticlimax then suddenly in the quiet of the night came a report from an rdf operator that he had an echo on the port bow at about 5,000 yards of what appeared to be a stationary ship I turned my search light onto the be caring given by the rdf operator in Hope of seeing the target just then the Destroyer Greyhound turned her search light on which I think picked up an Italian Destroyer but the loom was enough for me to make out a ship on the horizon I seem to remember that I reported that I had a Target in sight and was ordered to Open Shutter the beam lit up a stationary Cruiser but we were so close by then that the beam only lit up half the ship at this point all hell broke loose as all of our 8 15in Guns Plus those of the flagship and bams started firing at the stationary Cruiser which disappeared in an explosion and a cloud of smoke I was then ordered to train left and lit up another Italian Cruiser which was given the same treatment by this time the night was full of smoke loud bangs and flashes and the dark shapes of our destroyers with their colored recognition lights appearing and disappearing that bit of the Mediterranean then became a very dangerous place there must have been some 20 British Italian warships dashing about in every direction at high speed it was at this point that the CNC ordered All Ships not engaged in Sinking The Enemy to withdraw to the Northeast bangs and flashes went on for a bit but then things gradually calmed down the next morning the battle Fleet returned to the scene of the battle whil attempts were made to pick up survivors this was rudely interrupted by an attack by German bombers fortunately they missed although Valiant was straddled diagonally from pork qu to starboard bow a royal Marine Sentry on the quarter deck was killed by a splinter but otherwise no damage was done except that the two bombs going off virtually simultaneously made the whole ship Flex along its length the only result was that some of the hatches in the armored deck took some time to be forced open the return to Alexandria was uneventful and the peace and quiet was much appreciated his skill with the search lights merited him a mention in dispatches in which Admiral Cunningham would write in part that the successful and continuous illumination of the enemy greatly contributed to the devastating results achieved in the gun action thanks to his alertness and appreciation of the situation we were able to sink in 5 minutes two 8 in gun Italian Cruisers whilst the Italian Fleet had been dealt a blow German troops soon after began to advance through Greece and swiftly moved on to attack cre a major German Seaborn Landing attempt much overshadowed by the somewhat more successful paratrooper drop was intercepted and destroyed at Sea by the Royal Navy Valiant was present off of cre and Philip wrote in his journal at the time as we came in sight of The Straits we saw naid and kalle being attacked by bombers we went right into within 10 mil of creit and then the bombing started in Earnest stukas came over but avoided the big ships and went for the crippled Cruisers and Destroyer screens Greyhound was hit right after by a large bomb first Stern blew up and she sank about 20 minutes later gluster and Fiji were sent in to help them three me 109s attacked War spiters dive bombers and she was hit just where her starboard forward mounting was when we had got about 15 mi from the land 16 stukas came out and attacked our two Cruisers Gloucester was badly hit and sank some hours later the fleet then had some more attention and we were bombed from a high level by a large number of small bombs dropped in sticks of 12 or more one darier came straight for us from the port beam and dropped 12 bombs when he was almost overhead we turned to port and ceased firing when suddenly the bombs came whistling down Landing very close all down the port side it was only sometime later that I discovered we had been hit twice on the quarter deck one bomb exploded just after of the quarter deck screen on the port side the other landed within 20 ft of it just in Board of the guard rails blowing a hole in the wardr laundry there were only four casualties one killed three injured Valiant headed back to Alexandria to patch up the damage where Philip found some of his relatives waiting the Greek royal family having mostly fled for their own safety as the Germans overran Greece unknowingly he'd actually escorted some of them part of the way as the Greek king had evacuated aboard the Destroyer HMS decoy which had then accompanied Valiant back to Egypt also nearby was Louis Mount baton on board the Destroyer HMS Kelly which he was in command of and a few days later she was sunk after having been ordered to bombard a German held Airfield in Suda Bay which he'd accomplished only to then be swarmed by Angry bombers in response and promptly sunk along with another Destroyer Philip apparently burst out laughing when his oil covered Uncle wearing an ill-fitted borrowed suit fetched back up in Alexandria a few days later shortly thereafter Philip was summoned back to the UK to take his subl tenants exams and found himself on a troop ship heading all the way around South Africa stopping by to say hello to just nuisance again before the ship headed over to Canada first to load up on Canadian troops and then made its way across the Atlantic dodging UB boats finally reaching the UK in London he received his first wartime injury uh when he and a cousin borrowed the mount batton's car and then promptly crashed into a traffic island in the middle of the London blackout the glass from the windshield doing most of the damage passing his exams with four first class grades and one second he was then posted to the old Destroyer hmes Wallace based at Rossy and responsible for esorting Coastal convoys further south in the face of determined opposition from German bombers and schelb a fast attack CFT with land on one side and minefields on the other if attack came evasion could be dangerous almost as dangerous as being hit at one point in dense fog one of the merchant ships actually turned out of line and crashed into Wallace breaching a boiler room which then saw Philip rushing down into the steam field compartment to try and rescue the trapped Sailors thanks to this and other signs of being an excellent and brave sailor he was soon made full left tenant and then in October 1942 first leftenant the ship's executive officer he was only 21 one of the youngest men to attain such a position in the Royal Navy in late December 1942 he received the news however that one of his oldest friends had been fatally injured on active duty in the desert whilst trying to unstick his tank from a gully in June 1943 Wallace was dispatched from home Waters she made a there and back Convoy escort run across the Atlantic and was then sent the Mediterranean to assist in the invasion of Sicily the ship was assigned to sh bombardment supporting Canadian troops and ironically one of the ship's targets was the German unit that one of his brothers-in-law was part of and as as such the ship attracted particular attention from the German dive bombers on the night of the 8th of July the ship was being attacked repeatedly phosphorescent sea life giving away the ship's position the ship had already been hit or possibly damaged by a near Miss once and one of the yman aboard would later recount it was obvious that we were the target for tonight and they would not stop until we had suffered a fatal hit it was for all the world like being blindfolded and trying to evade an enemy whose only problem was getting his aim right there was no doubt in anyone's mind that a direct hit was inevitable there was no question but to accept that on the next run or the one after that we had little chance of survival I'd been through so much that the feeling of anger and frustration was as great as the fear I and every one else felt it was less than 5 minutes after the aircraft had departed and if the previous space in time was approximately the same we had about 20 minutes to come up with something we couldn't steam far in that time not even far enough to make the aircraft think we'd moved the first leftenant Phillip went into a hurried conversation with the captain and the next thing we knew a wooden raft was being put together on the deck within 5 minutes they launched a raft over the side and at each end was fastened a smoke float when it hit the water the smoke floats were activated and billowing clouds of smoke interspersed with small bursts of flame gave a fairly convincing imitation of flaming debris in the water the captain ordered Full Speed Ahead and we steamed away from the raft for a good 5 minutes and then he order the engine stopped The Telltale wake subsided and we lay there quietly in the soft darkness and curse the stars or at least I did quite some time went by until we heard aircraft engines approaching the sound of the aircraft grew louder until I thought it was directly overhead and I screwed up my shoulders in anticipation of the bombs the next thing was the scream of the bombs but at some distance the ruse had worked and the aircraft was bombing the raft I suppose he was under the impression that he had hit us in his last attack and was now finishing the job we lay there waiting for him to leave which he did and in view of the solitary attack so well spaced apart we were convinced he would not return it had been marvelously quick thinking to a willing team and put into action as if rehearsed Prince philli saved our lives that night I suppose there might have been a few survivers but certainly the ship would have been sunk he was always very courageous and resourceful and thought very quickly you would say to yourself what the hell are we going to do now and Philip would come up with something once the excitement had died down Wallace was sent to refuel and rearm at Malta where Philip came into contact with Louis Mount Batton again who was now on his way to take command of the southeast Asia theater Philip wrote to him shortly thereafter with sarcastic humor what are they going to make you acting admiral of the fleet or something you'd better be careful before you know what you'll have the prospect of 40 years without promotion in front of you what a thought as a string puller of course you've practically lost all value you're so big now that it might smell of nepotism just to make sure I had the right word I looked up in the dictionary and this is what it says undue favor from holder of patronage to relatives originally from Pope to illegitimate Sons called nephews over Christmas Philip was on leave and found himself invited to the Royal pantomim performance where princess Elizabeth and Margaret were the star performers it was at this stage that Elizabeth and Philip seemed to have finally reached the same page as to their General intentions towards one another although her family were a little less enthused on account of their relatively young age at the same time King George I 6 seems to have greatly appreciated the company of another Naval man on Philip's periodic visits War however waited for no one and spring 1944 saw Philip sent to Newcastle to oversee the commissioning of the brand new destroyer HMS welp on which he was to see out the war still first leftenant one of the first things Philip found himself doing was escorting his first posting the battleship ramales on the way to aler the ship then spent a period covering the invasion of the south of France and with this done welp set sail for the Eastern Fleet in order to join the 27th Destroyer flotilla on the way whilst resupplying in Alexandria he ran into Mount baton again who was on his way back to Southeast Asia after a spell in London and the latter suggested that with the war looking like winding down it might be a good idea to start thinking about applying for British citizenship welp arrived on station in October and supported a series of strikes on various Japanese positions before being sent back to Salon Towing the submarine Shakespeare which had been damaged in late 1944 Philip's father Andrea died which afforded him some Christmas leave in Columbo but there was no question of heading back to France for the funeral in the New Year Philip and welp headed for Sumatra screening the carriers that were attacking Japanese held oil refineries there Philip was on duty when they received a distress call from a damaged Fleet air arm Avenger it had technically won a fight with a Japanese zero but its wing was now on fire and there was very little hope of it making it all the way back to the carriers let alone Landing safely Philip immediately ordered the ship to full power and headed off after the signal arriving on the scene about 20 minutes after the plane had hit the water and rapidly sunk the rear Gunner would later recall I pulled a dingy out of the aircraft but it didn't inflate Gus the pilot later Vice sir Roy Halliday had skillfully flown us back towards the fleet before we were forced to ditch but relying only on our May West to keep us afloat we were in a pretty dicey situation as the ship's boat came alongside Prince philli was at the rail looking over he welcomed us aboard and took us down to his cabin where he lent us towels and dry clothing for us to wear I remember he had a framed photograph of his sweetheart the future Queen Elizabeth II on the table in his cabin he was very well liked and set a great example to us all feeling a little sorry for the two Airmen Philip kept them aboard and when the ship put into freemantle a week later he took them on an epic bar crawl before returning them to the carrier Victorious 60 years later the three men would meet again at Buckingham Palace which immediately caused a bit of an issue as Philip promptly abandoned the order of ceremony to chat to his earthw passengers for a bit from freem manle welp made her way around VI Sydney to the British Pacific Fleet where the ship was once again assigned to the fleet screen exchanging fire with Japanese aircraft and plucking Pilots out of the water as the British Pacific bleet neutralized the sakashima islands in order to lay the groundwork for the invasion of okanawa on one occasion with the captain on the bridge and thus in command of the ship Philip decided that this meet meant he could lead a rescue mission himself and promptly disappeared over the side with some of the ship's men and one of the ship's boats to go and pick up a pilot welp was then sent on to Melbourne to refit in May escorting the damag Carri illustrious which was also in need of repairs and was back at Sea by July escorting the flagship the battleship Duke of York they reached Guam just as the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and so instead of close fire support for an invasion of the Japanese home Islands welp found itself instead the first ship into Tokyo bay escorting USS Missouri on the 2nd of September if you look closely in The Wider photos of the Japanese surrender ceremony you might be able to spot one leftenant Philip of Greece observing very closely welp remained in Japanese Waters collecting released prisoners of War arriving back home in January 1946 having accepted the surrender of Hong Kong on Route getting home gave Philip his first independent command unfortunately this was shortlived as it was to oversee welps decommissioning into the reserves a welp would actually be reactivated a couple of years later and sold to South Africa where she would serve until the 1970s Philip was then assigned to teach at a series of Naval training centers which was less to his liking than an assignment on the ship but it did afford him more time to visit Buckingham Palace or wherever it was the royal family happened to be at the time a brief tour through Europe to attend one of his sister's weddings as she'd been widowed during the war and collect what was left of his father's effects was wrapped up in under a month and then it was back to the UK by summer 1946 he was unofficially engaged this wasn't entirely a fairy tale Romance the young couple to be fair seemed quite sure about things but the stuffier upper echelons of the establishment thought that H Philip hadn't gone to the right school he didn't have refined enough manners and they said he didn't know exactly which clothes went with Which social event you in fact he probably did but the fact that when he was a guest at B moral his only pair of outdoor walking shoes had to be taken away for repair before he could join the rest of the group grous hunting probably gave some indication as to his overall means and finances these courtiers also didn't like the fact that Phillip with a lifetime of self-reliance and a wartime career Under Fire tended to approach problems simply by just doing something about them and not prevaricating about whether it was beneath one station to get in involved or what particular grade of servant you should call to attend to the matter perhaps unsurprisingly this practicality and a pesant for deliberately antagonizing the stuffiest of the quarters with small pranks that could never quite be proven to be his fault was part of his appeal to the young princess in late 1946 he was finally able to get his British citizenship application underway and on the 18th of March 1947 he was granted it although hilariously enough a few years later it turned out that due to the 1705 Act of Parliament that had naturalized Princess Sophia the mother of George I of England so that she or as it turned out her son could take the crown upon the death of Queen Anne he'd technically been British all along as he was distantly but directly descended from her and the ACT had made a very open-ended Proclamation that any and all descendants of the princess would be British on the 9th of July 1947 the engagement to princess Elizabeth was made official but of course he still had a job to do the previous winter between fuel shortages and the devastating cold of that particular season he'd been training Cadets by candl light whilst wearing a great coat but as the Royal marriage approached Philip found himself pulled from Pillar To Post as the fiance and soon to be husband of the air to the throne there was much pageantry in visiting of places for him to do but he also wished to his Naval career luckily he was moved to a post as operations officer at the admiralty a short walk from Buckingham Palace he found this job hugely boring but a six-month course at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich on the other side of London was much more interesting but with the birth of Prince Charles it was clear his public duties were eating too much into his Naval ones and Philip elected to go on half pay for the moment at least until George V 6's Health cleared up this occurred in 1949 and Philip was soon appointed as second in command of board the Destroyer HMS Checkers in the Mediterranean Fleet this ship conducted several successful patrols before he was moved onto his first proper command the frigate HMS Magpie which also came with an elevation in rank to leftenant Commander he went about set making Magpie the most efficient ship in the floella and then took it on a highly successful flag showing tour of the Mediterranean I demonstrating excellent command and seamanship skills much of it learned in those very same Waters whilst under enemy fire at one point he neatly navigated the ship out of Monte Carlo Harbor in weather that was so foul that no other ship of any flag was doing anything other than trying to hunker down with extra anchors however the king's Health went into decline once more and with Princess Elizabeth having to take on much of the duties of Monarch before she'd even been crowned Philip understood that he was now being called to a greater Duty and so although when married he could have expected another couple of Decades of good service in the Navy in 1951 he was put on indefinite leave perhaps in recognition of this sacrifice a few years later the now Queen Elizabeth II appointed him admiral of the fleet and Captain general of the Royal Marines he would retain a strong interest in the sea over the rest of his life following closely or being Direct directly involved with the recovery and repair of the SS Great Britain the preservation of the CTI Sark and HMS tring commy to name but a few he also became a patron of a great many Maritime museums and Charities these allowed him to keep a strong connection with the Navy and the Sea and thanks to both his new Rank and his social position it allowed him to actually visit even more ships than he would have done in his normal career after all you might be showing a normal dig around your brand new nuclear submarine but who exactly was going to tell Prince Phillip no if he decided he wanted to take the helm for a bit in later years he would recount some of his Naval experiences and there's a rather excellent approximately 45 minute long interview with him which I'll link in the video description below as well 60 years after he left active service having just turned 90 the queen saw fit to Grant him the title of Lord High admiral of the United Kingdom a title that for over three centuries had only been held by three people very briefly by Prince William later King William IV who had also been a naval officer prior to ascending to Royal duties the queen herself from 1964 and now Prince Phillip it was thus fitting that at his own request a decade later when he was finally laid to rest in 2022 the last music that was played was the call to action stations which to be honest was probably just as well as it gave fair warning that a man who had devoted his entire life to public service in one way or another was on his [Music] way

Channel: Drachinifel

Views: 79,325

Keywords: wows, world of warships, Royal Family, Duke of Edinburgh, HMS Valiant, HMS Ramillies, HMS Whelp, HMS Wallace, HMS Magpie, HMS Chequers, Just Nuisance, Royal Navy, WW2, King of Greece, Prince of Greece, Regia Marina, Battle of Matapan

Id: e9Gy3Mnikhg

Length: 54min 0sec (3240 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 10 2024