Ron Cope, a retired Chief Petty Officer with the British Royal Navy, is in the process of writing a book about the first and second battles of Narvik, which took place on 10 and 13 April respectively in 1940, and is urging any Maltese who were involved in the first battle of Narvik to approach and contact him.

“The more information I can gather will allow me to increase the chapter with additional personal accounts from your own citizens. It is my wish to include a chapter in the book on the Maltese crew members’ brave involvement in the first battle of Narvik,” commented Mr Cope, who is temporarily residing at the Club Riza resort in Qawra and leaves Malta on 15 October.

The invasion of Norway, ordered by Hitler on 1 March 1940 led to naval battles and land battles in Ofotfjord in the mountains surrounding the north Norwegian city of Narvik.

The naval battles were fought between the British Royal Navy and the German Kriegsmarine, while Norwegian, French, British and Polish troops battled it out against German and Austrian troops.

Mr Cope contacted this newspaper, saying he was well informed that there was “a substantial number of Maltese crew members on all ships involved in the battle”, including on the HMS Hardy, which is the main focus of his book.

Mr Cope’s father was also a crew member on board the ship during the battle. He was 21-years-old at the time, and served as a torpedo man. Before passing away in 2003, he left behind a set of audio tapes of his account, which Mr Cope passed on to the Imperial War Museum in London.

The last time he had written in public inviting people to contact him, Mr Cope expressed his privilege at meeting the family of Anthony Ronayne, whose widow wrote his account of the first battle of Narvik which he took part in onboard the HMS Hardy.

Giving a brief overview of Mr Ronayne’s involvement in WWII, Mr Cope said:

“Anthony spent 25 years in the Royal Navy, joining in 1939 at the outbreak of the war and left in 1964. The latter part of his service was that of a ‘Training Instructor’ at St Angelo. He received the British Empire Medal (BEM) during the war for ‘Gallantry’ when his actions in Bari, Italy saved numerous lives.

“Although Anthony was an officer’s steward, one of his roles included that of an ammunition supplier to one of five 4.7-inch guns found on board the ship.

“During our meeting, he recalled having to swim in the icy waters of the fjord, together with the other soldier colleagues, when they had to abandon ship.

“On reaching the shore, Anthony was unable to feel his legs and his uniform was frozen. He found a hut on the beach where he tried to find materials to replace his clothing.

“In the hut he found another survivor and a crew colleague, who was just 16-years-old. Alarmingly, the young man had one of his arms decapitated and was trying to put it back together on his stump.

“Later on the beach Anthony found two of his Maltese shipmates, Giuseppe Micallef, who similar to Anthony was suffering from shrapnel wounds, and Toni Briffa, who was uninjured. All three took a route up the cliff face, with blood-stained discarded clothing. I know from my own father, Cyril Cope that nearly one hundred survivors, then all naked, re-grouped in the nearest Norwegian chalet they found, in which lived a mother and her 17-year-old daughter”.

Mr Cope adds: “The two women provided hot coffee and helped the ship’s doctor with the task of keeping some of the badly wounded sailors alive. In the meantime the survivors rummaged around the house for some form of clothing. Unfortunately there was only women’s garments and underwear. The sailors were left with no option but to wear what they found and left the chalet after a few hours to avoid the possibility of being found and taken prisoners by the Germans ‘Alpine’ troops. Anthony and the rest of the group left behind four colleagues who had died, their bodies wrapped in blankets outside the chalet in the snow.

“To avoid capture they had to walk 15 miles west to the nearest village of Ballangen, west of Narvik, which required the soldiers to cut up their life belts as makeshift footwear.

“Most of the group finally made it to Ballangen late at night, after a journey of nine hours. Anthony was attended by nurses for his leg wound and frost bite in the village’s small hospital. Subsequently, the next day he was looked after by a local family who ran their own small ‘iron ore’ mine. As they were relatively wealthy the house had a cellar where they hid Anthony from the Germans. He, like my father, was lucky. Other survivors had to do with mattresses on the cold wooden floor of the local school.

“Three days later, on 13 April 1940, the second battle of Narvik took place when the battleship HMS Warspite, accompanied by a large flotilla of cruisers and destroyers, entered the fjord to finish off what Captain Warburton-Lee and his five ships (Hardy, Hunter, Havock, Hostile and Hotspur) had begun. The Captain was mortally wounded when a shell hit the bridge killing most of the personnel in that vicinity. He died in similar circumstances to that of Admiral Nelson surrounded by some of his officers and men. He was posthumously awarded the first Victoria Cross (VC) of the Second World War”.

Anthony was later transferred, with other crew colleagues, to Scotland, and was relieved to find that two other Maltese shipmates involved in the battles of Narvik had survived.

Mr Cope is encouraging any readers to log on to submerged.co.uk should they want a more comprehensive account of the two battles of Narvik. Else they can read a book written by Captain Peter Dickens (great grandson of Charles Dickens) entitled, Narvik; Battles in the Fjords. (ISBN 0711004846).

Mr Cope can also be contacted on [email protected].