A Royal Navy veteran wants the crew of his World War Two ship to get due credit in the wake of publicity surrounding the cinema release of U-571 about the capture of a Nazi Enigma coding machine.

Queensbury pensioner Tommy Spencer, 80, was on board Tribal Class destroyer HMS Somali when it seized vital Enigma coding tables from the Nazi weather ship Muenchen in the Arctic on Friday, May 5, 1941.

The captain of the German ship threw the Enigma machine overboard, but the crew of HMS Somali was still able to capture the tables.

They were used by British intelligence up to and then after the capture of an Enigma machine from a German U-boat by HMS Aubretia, which was built with money raised by the people of Horsforth.

Mr Spencer, of Stogden Hill, said the crew had no idea at the time of the information they were about to find, and few people since have known what they did.

He said: "It just seems everyone knows about the capture of the machine from the U-boat but few people know about what our ship did, which was also a major point in the war.

"Intelligence knew exactly what was on board the ship, but as far as we were all concerned our job was to stop the ship sending valuable weather information back to Germany."

HMS Eskimo and HMS Bedouin joined the Somali under the leadership of Vice-Admiral Holland, aboard HMS Edinburgh, who died 12 days later after taking command of HMS Hood when it was sunk by the Bismarck.

Mr Spencer, who retired as a Chief Petty Officer from the Navy in 1962, said: "We were stationed in line abreast at ten-mile intervals and swept forward looking for the Muenchen.

"When our ship saw it we shot forward. The Muenchen saw us coming over the horizon and put up a smokescreen to hide itself.

"After a lot of chasing we got up alongside it and boarded their ship. The captain threw the Enigma machine overboard but we were able to get the decoding tables."

Despite Mr Spencer's request for recognition for the crew of his ship, turning their exploits into a film as has happened with HMS Aubretia does not appeal to him.

He said: "It would be funny to see it happen, but I would not really want to see it. It's not about the fame just letting people know."

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