South African Royal Naval Volunteers serving on board HMS NELSON. The group is sitting on one of the 16 inch gun barrels, 1942.

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Dittybopper: HMS Nelson had a hard go of it throughout her career. In and out of refit for one reason or another, involved in a ship-to-ship collision early in her active service, ran aground, hit mines and was torpedoed several times, once by a german U-boat that managed to hit her with three torpedos, none of them exploding. By WWII she was aging and slow compared to more modern battleships. Her main contribution to the war was acting as escort for convoys, she was present at Operation Torch and on D-day for bombardment duty.