Well earned rest

Brilliant keep them coming geoff. How old was he here?. sal;

Great picture geoff, looks like stanley is enjoying his drink.
heres a little info about force H;

Force H was a British naval squadron during World War II. It was formed in 1940 to replace French naval power in the western Mediterranean that had been removed by the French armistice with Nazi Germany.

It occupied an odd place within the naval chain of command. Normal British practice was to have various naval stations and fleets around the world whose commanders reported to the First Sea Lord. Force H was based at Gibraltar, and there was already a flag officer at the base who commanded one of the British regional naval commands. However, the Flag Officer, Force H did not report to this officer. He reported directly to the First Sea Lord.

Force H normal operations involved general naval tasks in the western basin of the Mediterranean. Prominent amongst these tasks was fighting convoys through to Malta. The early convoys came through with relatively light losses. That changed in 1941, when the Germans sent the Luftwaffe unit Fliegerkorps X to Sicily. Its bombers took a dreadful toll of both warships and merchantmen.

Did Stanley ever mention any of these terrible attacks to you?

Superb photo
Did you can say, if this is original colour, or colorized photo?

My Dad never specifically talked to me about the Malta convoys,except to say that he would have loved to take my Mam to Malta during peacetime (which ambition he unfortunately never achieved), but he did talk to me sometimes about the landings at Salerno and Anzio in Italy, during which he witnessed Hospital ships being dive bombed by Stukas, even though they were clearly marked with the Red Cross.
For more info on Force H, read 'Under Cunningham's command'

As you can see, Derrick, my older brother has joined us, with extra information. To answer a couple of the above questions, our dad was about 25 when this picture was taken. He had sent it home to our mother, with a note pencilled on the back telling her it wasn't an alcoholic drink! To answer Polar, it is a black and white photograph that has been tinted. I actually visited Malta because of my fathers' obvious love of the island, and after communicating with the Maltese Government, managed to buy a copy medal issued for those engaged in the Islands defense. I couldn't get a formal award, as my father had already passed away.

You were very lucky to have such a brave grandad, but im sure you know that anyway. All the best webmaster

This is my Granda, a hero to me from child to adult. He would have loved to wile away the hours on this site with a tot of rum by his side and a mischevious twinkle in his eye.

It would have been great to have him here too, im sure he could have told us plenty of stories of his exploits with Force H.

Just watching a program about the defence of malta and immediately thought of Stanley and Force H.
R.I.P Stanley Lest We forget
I always also wonder where Geoff and derrick ever went to