LOUIS MOUNTBATTEN, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, rarely spoke about May 23, 1941, when the destroyer he captained was sunk by German aircraft during the Battle of Crete.
However, in 1979 he was at the opening of a naval cadet unit at Hebburn, South Tyeside, where the destroyer HMS Kelly had been built in 1938.
HMS Kelly was nicknamed the U-boat Killer because of its daring exploits under Mountbatten’s command.
John Hobbs, now one of The Northern Echo’s correspondents, was then working for the BBC and persuaded Mountbatten to give a graphic account of the sinking, in which 130 men died. At 7.30pm tonight, John will play his recording to a meeting of Weardale Society in Wolsingham Methodist Chapel. All are welcome.
