ALAN BERNETT
Age: 84
Born: March 30, 1926
Hometown: Wimbledon, England
Residence: Palm Desert
Military branch: British Merchant Marines
Years served: 1942-1943
Rank: Galley boy
Family: Two children, Paul Bernett of Palm Desert and Jane Hartley of Devonshire, England; two grandchildren.
About this series
Staff writer Denise Goolsby will profile desert veterans from World War II through the end of 2010 — the 65th anniversary of the end of the war. Contact her at (760) 778-4587 or via e-mail at denise.goolsby@thedesertsun.com
Coming tomorrow
U.S. Army Air Corps veteran Robert Zimmer of Rancho Mirage.
LEARN MORE: Read about other Coachella Valley residents who served in World War II at www.mydesert.com/WWII
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Less than two weeks after 16-year-old Alan Bernett fudged his age to join the British Merchant Marines, his ship, the MV (motor vessel) Waimarama was sunk in the Mediterranean Sea by German dive bombers.
His ship, traveling with a convoy as part of Operation Pedestal, was on its way to deliver desperately needed supplies to the people of Malta, an island south of Sicily.
At 8:03 a.m. on Aug. 13, 1942 — just 13 days on the job — Bernett was minutes away from staring death in the face.
Bernett, who served as a galley boy aboard the ship, was asked by the butcher to go below deck and hold the door of the refrigerator open while the butcher got some meat out. “As we were putting all of the meat on the counter of the galley, the alarm bells rang,” he said.
Stuka dive bombers were in the process of unloading their explosive payloads on the ships sailing in the convoy.
When bombs struck the Waimarama, the blasts sent Bernett flying.
“I'm on the other side of the ship face down,” when he regained his bearings, he said. “When I opened my eyes, the whole port side was aflame. Three bombs hit the ship and killed everybody on the bridge. It set everything afire.”
Drums of high-octane fuel caught fire and exploded.
“I didn't know it, but the ship was full of ammunition,” Bernett said. “The baker ran out of the starboard side, followed by the butcher. I followed them,” and another kid followed Bernett. The two men in front of Bernett “jumped straight over the side 40 feet down.”
Bernett, looking down into the sea, hesitated a moment, and then made the jump. He watched as his ship blew up.
“The whole sea was alight,” he said. “We're 80 miles from Malta. I'm swimming and my trousers keep falling down to my ankles. I look around and it looked as though we were surrounded by flames. They were enormous.”
Because of the risk, ships that were still seaworthy were ordered not to return to pick up the men who were stranded near the burning vessels. “The captain of the HMS Ledbury ignored the admiral's order and came through the blanket of flames,” Bernett said.
One of the men on board, known to be an excellent swimmer, came to the rescue. Charles Walker, a petty officer cook with the Royal Navy, dove in and saved Bernett.
Walker — with whom Bernett was reunited at a ceremony in England on the 60th Anniversary Commemoration of Operation Pedestal in 2002 — was awarded the George Cross for saving the young man's life. The George Cross is the highest civil decoration of the United Kingdom.
Bernett doesn't remember many of the details of the rescue.
“They were pulling people out of the water,” he said. “People were being burned alive within yards of me.”
More than 80 of Bernett's crew members were killed. He doesn't recall exactly what happened after being pulled to safety. He only remembers being in a hospital in Malta. “I cannot believe I lost two days,” Bernett said, frustrated at his inability to recall 48 hours of his life.
Out of the 14 merchant vessels that traveled with the convoy, only five made it to the war-ravaged island of Malta. “This was one of the most desperate areas in the whole war,” he said.
Rough road ahead
Bernett returned to England and was admitted to Sutton Emergency Hospital, where men were being treated for stress and mental anguish inflicted by the horrors of war.
“They had this idea of putting you to sleep for two weeks,” he said. Sodium amytal, a sedative used to induce sleep, was administered every four hours, Bernett said.
He said the drug may have been too powerful considering his age and his slight build.
“I was only 16 and, apparently, after five days, I was kicking the nurses, so they took me off of it,” he said.
Bernett was not thrilled about returning to sea, but the higher-ups were of the mentality, “If you fall off a horse, get back on it,” Bernett said.
“They signed me up for a ship in dry dock. It took six weeks getting to Durban (South Africa),” he said. “By that time, I am getting ready to jump out. They got rid of me because I was a mental wreck,” he said.
Bernett, who was deemed, “physically unfit for sea service,” but was honorably discharged, received, for a short time, shipwreck unemployment pay. Bernett, who was at first denied a disability pension, discovered a powerful ally.
“John Bull magazine fought to get me a pension — a 100 percent pension,” he said. “Because they were forced to do it, they said, ‘We want you to come back to the hospital.'”
Bernett immediately declined.
He said the last man to occupy the bed Bernett stayed in at the hospital “committed suicide the night before I got there.”
“They don't realize a person's mind has been blown. The explosion when the ship was hit, it was in your subconscious.”
His disability payment was knocked down to 40 percent because of his refusal to return to the hospital. The payments eventually stopped altogether.
