These pictures are poignant. They show damage to Antwerp docks after a V2 Rocket attack in December 1944.
The story is told by Leading Seaman TA (Arthur) Gaunt RN who now lives in Yorkshire. "It was a day in December 1944 and Skiddaw was tied up on the Quayside in Antwerp harbour when we were ordered to move further along to make room for an escort vessel which had escorted another convoy down the Schedlt Estuary. Later that night a V2 Rocket exploded in the river opposite the said ship astern of us. She was peppered with shrapnel and blast, which penetrated the hull on the starboard side above and below the waterline. Most of her crew were in their hammocks consequently they were either killed or some with various degrees of injury. It was quite a task lifting them from the lower decks on to the Quayside so that they could be comforted and those alive could have their wounds treated It wasn't until we had a chance to relax that we realized that fortune had once again smiled on HMS Skiddaw. All in all she was a lucky ship for us and that was why I felt a touch of sadness when I learned she had been broken up."