After all the excitement of meeting the King and the Princesses, the Dorsetshire had several other adventures chasing German raiders and U-Boat supply ships and was sent to the Indian Ocean to calm things down there. Having searched for a reported Japanese attempt to infiltrate the Indian Ocean Dorsetshire and her companion HMS Cornwall were despatched to Colombo to refuel.On Easter Sunday the two ships were about 300 miles from Colombo when, according to the tattered pages of an old Illustrated magazine, the crew knew 'stood to' at dawn but knew there was 'something up' when the bugle which announced the opening of the NAAFI didn't sound at 7am. In mid morning a Japanese scout plane appeared and shdowed the ships but stayed well out of range of their guns. About 2pm Vernon saw the planes come and start to dive and bomb the ship. There were so many and they came so fast the guns had no chance, Vernon commented. Vernon was at his gun position when there was an explosion. He came to on the deck below, looking up at a gaping hole where the gun had been. His legs had no feeling and the ship started to list. He saw the steps of a companionway ladder and managed to claw his way up to the main deck. The deck was sloping and he began to slide down.A marine with one arm badly wounded and his face damaged told him he'd better get off the upslope side as the 'abandon ship' siren had gone. When Vernon pointed out he couldn't move his legs, the marine dragged him up and over the side. Vernon slid down the side bumped against the bilge keel and scraped his bum on the barnacles before slipping into the water.
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