My father was an Air Fitter in the FAA during WW2. According to his Payment & Victual records he was at HMS Asbury & HMS Saker - both west-coast USA shore establishments - up to end March 1944 and from end-April 1944. However, during April 1944 he is listed as at/on HMS Norman.
The only reference I can find suggests that HMS Norman was a destroyer loaned to the Australian Navy during the war, was at Trincomalee end-March 1944 and then in Sydney by end-April 1944 for a 2-month re-fit. As a destroyer it had no aircraft.
What would he be doing on the ship and how would he have reached Trincomalee and then make to west-coast USA from Sydney in the timescale? Or was HMS Norman something else entirely?!
