Honour for survivors of Battle of the Atlantic

Mar 13 2008 by Mike Chapple, Liverpool Daily Post

Honour for survivors of Battle of the Atlantic

LIVERPUDLIAN survivors of the Battle of the Atlantic, the longest and bloodiest campaign of World War II, have been honoured in a special ceremony.

The 16 men, all of whom are now in their 80s and 90s and are members of the Liverpool Retired Merchant Seafarers, received a framed facsimile of the Freedom of the City scroll at the seafarers weekly meeting at the Eldonian Village Hall in Vauxhall.

The original scroll hangs in the city centre church of St Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors.

This was initially presented at a town hall ceremony in December 2003 to honour Merchant Navy veterans from the city many of whom died in the Battle which ran the whole length of the war from 1939 to 1945.

Liverpool was the centre of operations in the campaign which pitted the U-boats and the armed merchantmen of the German Navy against allied convoy ships carrying vital supplies.

The 16 men who received the facsimile which each had their names etched on it were: Mannie Gillat, Jimmy Kavanagh, Joe Archer, William Jones, William Bell, Jimmy Burton, HT Smith, Richie Kerr, Paddy O’Connor, Eddie Murphy, Jack Brotheridge, Arthur Micklewright, John Carroll, Walter Short, Joe O’Connor and Tommy Kelly.