HMS IOLANTHE or Jack’s Navy ~ the story of the Broads Wartime Flotilla Part 6 ~ Poor old Mrs Pegg and the balloon goes up

War and conflict is terrible. Yet these negative actions seem entrenched in humanity and indeed nature all round. Could it be that things are easier to destroy than create... Many may 'celebrate' ~ possibly a strange word to describe 'Victory' of Allied Forces on the European arena. The continent after 1945 was forever stained with carnage, death and division, made by a very new type of technological global war. Here is the second to last part of Nigel and Sara Royall's interview of Jack Powles Jnr, nephew of Jack Powles ~ dexterous shipwright and showman of Broadland fleets, alongside Herbert Woods. Another chapter delves into the relatively secret story of HMS IOLANTHE, an unusual and eccentric battleship, named after a rectangular houseboat berthed by a once famous boat yard, just below Wroxham Bridge in Hoveton.

Map of HMS IOLANTHE Headquarters and the surrounding area, showing Wroxham Bridge and Granary Staithe, Hoveton. Drawn by Nigel Royall from the memories of Jack Powles Jnr.

After debrief the army manned the right hand MG post whilst the other men carried out drill and worked on the weapons. Often Jack and his Matlot mates would also help and though not strictly necessary they did learn an awful lot about Lewis machine guns from the armourer in charge Sgt Lawrence. Jack thought that the pill box on the Norwich side of the bridge was always fully manned, in any case a chicane made of posts and rolls of barbed wire blockaded the bridge and anyone passing over it had to show their identity pass to cross. As I understand it the chicane was not big enough for motor cars to pass through.

Early one morning just as Jack’s boat was nearing home and passing the upper entrance to Wroxham Broad they spied Youatt and Hewitt hunched in a speedboat wedged up on the bank behind a tree where they had been for some hours. They had borrowed the boat and taken a trip down river but as they returned Hewitt took the curve too wide whilst coming out of the broad at 30mph and shot up the bank. Jack’s launch pulled them stern first back into the water and next morning the crew were lined up in the office and told never to mention the incident. Manning the MG post at the yard was quite boring as very little happened so the crew would make rings and odd bits out of downed German aircraft parts. The twin mounted boatyard Lewis guns were only ever fired twice, one Tuesday lunchtime a German bomber swept across the village and dropped a bomb on the Doctors Corner, poor old Mrs Pegg was blown over a hedge and a nearby house was pretty well destroyed. The next incident concerned an escapee barrage balloon which had broken loose with a Blenheim fighter plane trying to shoot it down. Bullets were spattering dangerously about everywhere causing small spurts of water as they hit the river. The balloon’s trailing mooring wire draped across the Bridge shop roofs as the units Lewis guns and the Blenheim hammered away at it for all their worth. Pictures: Darwall, R H (Lt), 1940, IWM Text and map: Nigel and Sara Royall ©️