The Association has learned of the death of S/t(A) Andrew Squire Moseley RNVR on 5 June 2021 aged 97.
From Records
Andrew served as an Observer between 1943 – 1947 mainly with the British Pacific Fleet.
By kind permission of the Goldfish Club:
ANDREW SQUIRE MOSELEY lived in Cirencester and died on the 5th June. Andrew was a Sub Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve serving as an Observer, flying Grumman Avengers on 828 Naval Air Squadron, embarked in the aircraft carrier HMS IMPLACABLE working up for the US assault on the Pacific island of Truk. On the night of the 5th June 1945, their engine failed on take-off, resulting in them hitting the water just off the bow. The pilot and gunner escaped immediately and were picked up, but Andrew’s canopy jammed, the aircraft sank, and Andrew clearly heard the ship passing overhead! In his own words, after a swift prayer he broke loose and his Mae West brought him to the surface where he floated semi-conscious until, by a minor miracle, he was spotted by one of the destroyers screening the carrier, HMS TERPSICHORE. They launched a boat, picked him up, and carried him to the ship’s Sick Bay, vomiting. He awoke, dazed and injured, to be congratulated by the Sick Bay Assistant, saying ‘you ain’t ‘alf lucky, Sir, the Doc is a pathologist who was longing to have a go at you’!
Next day, Andrew was transferred in a stretcher by rope to a Dutch hospital ship, which in turn took him to Manaus, the huge US Navy temporary port, where he was moved to the base hospital, then after a couple of days flown by a Dakota ambulance aircraft to the Royal Naval hospital in Sydney, where he remained until VJ Day.