Stoker 1St Class D/KX 100087 Joseph Clayton

Census details:
1921 - Residing as the infant son at 15 Baxters Lane Sutton with his father Richard Clayton )Coal Miner Hewer, Lea Green Colliery. Mother Mary and siblings, Benjamin, Richard, Mary, Elizabeth and Veronica.

Notes:
HMS Orion was a Leander-class light cruiser which served with distinction in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. She received 13 battle honours, a record only exceeded by HMS Warspite and matched by two other ships. During 1940 she escorted Malta convoys and transported troops to Greece. In the early part of 1941 she was in the Crete and Aegean areas and was also at the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941.

During an attack on a German convoy headed for Crete on 22 May, she was damaged in a duel with its escort, the Italian torpedo boat Lupo. On 29 May 1941, during the evacuation of Crete, she was bombed and badly damaged while transporting 1900 evacuated troops. Around 360 people died, of whom 100 were soldiers. Orion reported damage from friendly fire as the cruisers tried to hit Lupo. After extensive damage control had been undertaken she limped to Alexandria at 12 knots for extensive repairs. Official Naval records state: Sailed with 1,900 troops and came under dive-bombing air attacks from daylight until about 100 miles from Alexandria. Sustained direct hits on A Turret and on bridge structure with many casualties (Note: 100 members of the ship's company were killed and 260 troops with 280 troops wounded.) Ship was disabled and fires caused with a loss of all services. After extensive damage control had been undertaken returned to Alexandria at 12 knots Another more detailed account states:- A near miss on the Orion caused internal damage, and the squadron cut speed yet again, down to 21 knots. A Junkers hurtled out of the sky toward Orion. The pilot kept his speed and release time past the maximum to ensure a hit- it was a suicide run. Up to that point Orion had been fairly successful in avoiding the German aircraft. Captain Back had a knack for waiting until the last minute, and then making a course change to thwart the dive-bomber. Two things were different, however: Captain Back was dying below decks, and this pilot wanted a kill. The plane could not be shot down, and Orion could not turn in time to avoid the bomb. It hit the forward 6-inch turret -"A" turret -killing the gun crew and blowing the roof off with such force that it bent the 6-inch guns of "B" turret immediately aft, rendering them useless. The plane and pilot went into the Mediterranean. A brief respite of about an hour was broken by the sighting of yet another wave of German dive- bombers. As the planes came down, one more bomb hit Orion. This was the last one and the most deadly. It probably was a 500-pounder, although some still think it was a 1,000-pounder. It hit the bridge but did not detonate immediately. It went through the compass platform and through the bridge deck, passing through deck after deck until it detonated in the 4-inch magazine just below the stokers' mess. The mess was filled to capacity with soldiers and should have been one of the safest places to be. It could not have hit a worse place- the carnage was indescribable. Hundreds of men were tom apart or vaporized. The steel decks buckled and rolled like a carpet. Fire and smoke filled the forward passageways. Damage was considerable: steering was gone; the compass was destroyed; the engine room telegraph was disabled; one fire room was down, the other in darkness; one propeller shaft was turning; and she continued to list. Orion turned out of control, her bow pointed back toward Crete, whence she had come. [pic]jeff/HMSlOrion.jpg[/pic] [pic]jeff/JosephClayton.jpg[/pic]