26 NAVY NEWS, FEBRUARY 2008
A ‘first’ for
Mysteries of
Our Armed Forces
knowledge
I EVENTUALLY got round
need resources
to reading slowly the excellent
WHAT a difference a year makes. proposed, which presumably were
articles on Passchendaele and
IN last February’s Navy News, a agreed on the basis of need by the
the RN division, and the Uganda
headline read: “We won’t mothball Services.
(October)
the deep
the Fleet,” as you reported on an With the ever-increasing
It is very dangerous to say
interview with the Prime Minister. demands being placed on the
anything is the ‘first.’ I much
Of course not. Services by politicians and the
prefer it when you say ‘believed
Admiral Band was quoted as reductions being forced on them
to be...’ Thus the comment in the
saying just a few weeks ago that in both equipment and personnel,
Uganda hospital ship article that
the funds allocated for Defence it is a tribute to the resourcefulness
the Falklands campaign was the
by the Treasury would increase of those defending the realm
first time Wrens served at sea is
by a mere 1.5 per cent in real that so much is being achieved
inaccurate.
WITH reference to your
terms every year over the next for what appears to be so little
Please see your own Navy
Opinion piece about
three years. acknowledgement.
News 2003 for an item about
Navy divers (January) I
Press reports last autumn To mention just one area of
Wrens at sea in WW2. This
suggested that the “MOD fears avoidable waste we find the Armed
prompted further correspondence
became a Navy Diver £1bn shortfall for equipment”. Forces being used to destroy heroin
from other Wrens who’d served
Not only have we seen the cost poppies in Afghanistan while the
with and in similar ships in WW2,
(unqualifi ed) in 1940 when
of major current projects now in NHS is desperately seeking to
also reported in Navy News.
HMS Resolution was
– Ken and Sue Napier, torpedoed at Dakar and
development increase by well over find sites to grow them to provide
that budgeted by the Treasury, morphine supplies.
Chazarem, Beaugas, France
was towed into Freetown but the numbers being acquired – Anthony G Phillips,
Meals on
by HMS Barham.
reduced markedly from those first Salisbury
One of Resolution’s divers
relinquished his diving rate and I
keels
volunteered to help the other.
It was the best thing I ever did No reward for awards
during my time in the Navy. For
about six weeks I carried out small
I WAS most interested to read awarded, I believe, the DSO at
HERE are a few more of the diving jobs and was beginning to the letter about the Pingat Malay Buckingham Palace.
meals off Pusser’s menu to add enjoy it, so 18 months later when medal (January), it really did He took great regard in saying:
to George Sexton’s list (letters, I returned to Chatham I was able speak volumes about the way the “I was awarded this medal on
December): to qualify at the diving school at RN goes about presenting awards. behalf of us all.”
Bunny Food – salad
Gillingham Pier.
I was part of Naval Party 1810 If the DSO was for all our
Car Smash – tinned tomatoes
Once qualified I served on
serving on the Stena Seaspread efforts, when is it my turn to
Chicken Chernobyl – extremely
several ships until in 1951 I was
during the Falklands conflict, and wear it?
hot curry
due to be released, but the Korean
we spent all our time within the – Andrew Timpson, former
Cow Juice – milk
War had started, so I was drafted
exclusion zone. Chief Ordnance Artificer (CWEA
Dockyard Tortoise – Cornish
to HMS Belfast as chief diver.
For this we were awarded the in new money) Birchington, Kent
pasty
During this time I was
South Atlantic Medal, as were
Elephant’s Footprints – spam
mentioned in despatches for
many others. ... WE MURMANSK Convoy
fritters in batter
recovering a body from a crashed
The difference being that my veterans had the same trouble
Grenade – Scotch egg
RAF bomber in Singapore and for
medal was presented to me by a with the MOD re: our Russian
NAAFI Landmine – pork pie
assisting in clearing the starboard
leading writer and I was asked Commemoration medals as Jock
Spithead Pheasant – kipper
propeller of HMAS Warramunga
“sign here, Chief” to receive it. Campbell with his Pingat Jasa
Train Smash – car smash with
off the coast of North Korea.
I recall being slightly incensed Malaysia medal.
bacon.
When Belfast came back
at seeing Prince Charles awarding We wear our medals where we
– Brian Johnson, former
to Chatham in 1953 I left the
the Welsh Guards with their please. If the MOD jobsworths
RO(T) HMS Danae,
Navy and became a commercial
medals. The Army seem to set don’t like it – well hard luck.
Edgbaston, Birmingham
diver. I was then asked to join
great store by the way they hand We aren’t in the Andrew now,
the Historical Diving Society and
out their awards. so the Jaunty can’t run us!
Mr Johnson’s list ran on to 37,
carried on giving diving shows
The most irritating thing was – Maurice Cross,
so I only chose the most tasteful
throughout the country until a few
that our CO of NP1810 was Keynsham, Bristol
examples – Ed
weeks ago I hung my boots up at
Navy’s image
85 years of age.
When I started diving in the
RN, I was the youngest diver at
Walcheren remembered
IN REPLY to K Miller’s letter
17, and when I retired I was told
SINCE my letter was published in November I’ve had a number of
(January) about saluting guns
I was the oldest standard diver in
responses from veterans who took part in the Walcheren landings.
and dress and image, it’s all about
the UK and I was still diving using
One stands out as it was from a fellow I haven’t seen since that day,
health and safety and hard hats.
the standard helmet equipment.
whose craft, LCF 36, came alongside at great risk, so we were able to
But is the Royal Navy really
I have appeared on TV, diving ● Jim Hutchison in HMS Belfast in 1952 during the Korean War
carry the wounded and pass them over.
concerned about the image it
with the Historical Diving Society
on several programmes, including
personality is in order. gulley.
It was bobbing up and down like a cork – one slip and it was certain
projects to the public?
Coast, Bargain Hunt and Animals at
Lt Cdr L K P Crabb was a
death by crushing, so it was not for the faint-hearted.
Last December HMS
I went to the funeral and also
Wa r , all using the standard helmet
remarkable man, he was a patriot
I have often wondered if the ones who gave the order for the operation
Middleton came back from the
the interment of his head after
ever gave a thought to what effect it would have on us who came out
Baltic and HMS Southampton
diving equipment which causes a
and a pioneer and he was not a Requiem Mass in Portsmouth
alive.
came back from the Falklands.
great deal of interest.
short on courage.
Cathedral, he had converted a
If today’s standards had applied, heads would have rolled – though
Later that day at Portsmouth
The society does its utmost
I found that he had a pleasing
few years before to Roman
saying that, this present government is not squeaky clean as regards
Hard, some ratings were going on
to keep the diving of the Royal
personality and that he would
Catholicism.
World War 2 disabled veterans applying for pension credits.
leave with their families, dressed
Navy in the public eye as much
talk about the early days and the
He is the only person I know
– Alf Neil, Bute Wynd, Kirkcaldy
in working rig (No.8s) and foul
as it can.
Davis escape apparatus and diving
that had two ‘funerals’ and he had
weather jackets.
– Jim Hutchison, Diver 1st in ordinary bathing trunks, unlike
the last laugh on us all.
What happened to No.1s, or
Class, Gillingham, Kent the Italians who had underwater
May he rest in peace.
No.3s, red badges, silk and medal
breathing sets and rubber suiting.
– Gerald Morris, former diver,
ribbons, or civilian clothes?
I LIKE to remember the legendary He also kept in touch with some
Waverton, Chester
How could a Master-at-Arms
Buster Crabb (Navy News, of the IX Flotilla who joined his
or a coxswain let his ship’s
January) as he was in the early team.
... I WAS being drafted between
company go on leave like this?
1950s, when he was in his early He died in Portsmouth
Collingwood and Dolphin and
– E P Booker, Southsea, Hants
40s and as fi t as a butcher’s dog. Harbour in 1956, diving on
remember the football match
He had good muscle tone and oxygen in a normal dry suit, he
Belfast’s back
respiration and I do not recall had inflammation of the bronchial
against the Russians at Pitt Street.
that he smoked to excess or was tubes and green phlegm and he
When the Russian ships departed,
particularly addicted to drink. did not go deep.
rumour was rife that the Russian
HMS Belfast hit a magnetic mine He enjoyed life and he gave His head was seen twice as he
lead ship dropped her ‘hook’ to
off the Isle of May in the Firth time to explain diving to children swam away and it was a long, cold
rip up a cable laid between Vernon
of Forth, not Scapa Flow, as up in Scotland and when we were swim.
and Dolphin.
Ken Buckingham stated (letters, alongside at Woolwich. The Russians also reported to
And a ship’s signature being all-
January). He was constructive and helpful have had a glimpse of a frogman’s
important in those days it makes
She was firing 6in guns at a in the Severn Estuary when we head and shoulders.
sense, but would also imply that It’s a Doges life
towed target in November 1939. were looking for a crashed de Much of his body, preserved
Russian divers were active during
The ship was towed to Rosyth Havilland plane along with HMS in the dry suit, was found in
the ship’s stay. CAN any reader identify this photo of a City class cruiser?
Docks and when docking her Venus and several MFVs. Chichester Harbour 48 days later
It gives another thought to
The picture has an Italian stamp on it and was obviously taken in
back was broken. I am not concerned with the in June and as it was lifted into the
Crabb’s disappearance, but I
Venice outside the Doges Palace.
A cradle was fixed and she was speculative puff which continues cutter his head dropped off and it haven’t seen it referred to.
I have tried using a magnifier to read the nameplate on the
towed to Devonport in 1940. to surround him, but I think a was not until ten years later that – Keith F Willifer, former EM,
quarterdeck, but to no avail.
– George Woodley, Isle of Wight more balanced picture of his it was recovered from the same St Neots, Cambs
– Tom Hay, Turriff, Aberdeenshire
opinion
NAVY recruiting adverts tend to show drug busts in the blue made family, three meals a day, excellent training, and an
Leviathan Block, HMS Nelson, Portsmouth PO1 3HH
water of the Caribbean, rather than fishery protection duties unaccustomed sense of self-worth.
in the grey North Sea. Navy training establishments take endless trouble to
February 2008 no.643: 55th year
This is the nature of advertising, and it seems naive to engage with the families of their young recruits.
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