Jack Broome - World War II

World War II

Broome was judged to be too old in 1939 to command a submarine in wartime. Instead, he was given command of the destroyer HMS Veteran recommissioned from reserve. Characteristically, Broome applied for membership of the Company of Veteran Motorists, who made the ship a life member.

HMS Veteran served in the Norwegian campaign in 1940. While there, her bridge was adorned with a huge stuffed hippopotamus head, acquired by Broome from Formby Golf Club during a spree ashore. Broome also acquired a German torpedo, which had missed its target and run onto the shore of a fjord. Suitably covered in German graffiti, it was eventually handed to the authorities in Rosyth. After the end of the Norwegian campaign, Veteran was assigned to counter a threatened German invasion, and was damaged by an acoustic mine.

With Veteran laid up for extensive repairs, Broome was then assigned as Staff Officer to Admiral Sir Percy Noble, the Commander-in-Chief of the Western Approaches Command. Broome's cartoons enlivened many drab briefing rooms and dreary routine reports.

After several months in this duty, he temporarily served as Captain (D) at the base at Londonderry Port in Derry and then commanded the First Escort Group, (EG1) in the destroyer HMS Keppel. For most of 1941 and 1942, HMS Keppel was engaged in arduous convoy duties in the Atlantic. One brief stay at Lisahally was enlivened by the capture of a German spy who was attempting to escape to the Irish Free State in a stolen motor boat.