Michael D.Heath-Caldwell M.Arch.

HMS Illustrious

Feb - March - April 1948 Diary

This is a secret document during Hostilities. Instructions for the disposal of Journals are given in A.F.O. 405/40 paragraph 2 and A.F.O. 1039/40.

Journal for the Use of Midshipmen.

Diary of Midshipman - aged 17

HMS Illustrious From 9.2.48 to 14.6.1948

HMS Corunna

HMS Opportune

HMS Illustrious

HMS Loch Tralaig

HMS Loch Tralaig

HMS Merlin (Donibristle)

8^th February 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious. I joined the ship just before tea. After walking onboard over the forward brow and losing myself somewhere near the fo’c’sle, which I had at first expected to be the Quarter Deck, I eventually found the O.O.D (O.O.V?) and soon after, the senior midshipman.

9^th February 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious. On Monday morning I woke up literally with cold feet, mainly because I’d already forgotten the hammock technique which I learned in H.M.S. Devonshire.

After and introduction to our “nurse” in the morning we were dismissed to look for our future divisional officers. I found Lieutenant Clayden eventually, in his cabin. He was quite pleased to see me for his first information about the division’s affairs was the quite a pile of work had accumulated during the past month.

10^th February 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious. A crowd of spectators was watching an automatic deck scrubber, so I joined it. Consisting of a circular brush made of wire and coir turned by an electric motor, the machine is operated by a pair of handles very much the same as an auto-scythe and cleans the deck up very quickly compared with the usual elbow grease methods in general use. The Commander (Air) says its just another of the new-fangled gadgets which are tried out in the ship; he doesn’t think its much good. On the bridge I saw a seaman with a pneumatic paint scraper getting the paint off with apparent ease and much noise; it was a great pity they weren’t invented earlier.

Spent the greater part of the evening making out card indices for my division, managed to get all the lines drawn but none of the writing.

An M.F.V. ran on the mud on our Port Bow. When I saw her she was lying practically on her side, but the next morning she was gone greatly to my surprise, as a skipper of one told me that once on their sides on the mud M.F.V.’s are very difficult to refloat.

11^th February 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious. Lecture in the morning was given to us by Lieutenant Commander Gamble on how to keep ‘boffins’ or ‘poms.’ I think they are called here, content when onboard watching trials.  I gathered that he was a glorified hall porter seeing that his guests took all their bags away with them when they left and that sort of thing. Besides that he told us about trials in general and how the wardroom has to put up with these hordes of £800 a year spivs who seem indispensable to aircraft trials if they are only screw turners.

Lieutenant Wall paid the gunroom a visit in the evening. He has joined HMS Hornet as Navigator, Communications Officer, Radar Office and First Lieutenant of an M.T.B. flotilla. The M.T.B.’s are shortly going on a Baltic Cruise via the German ports, I presume it is because the Admiralty finds that it is the most economical way of showing many of it flags abroad.

Sir Stafford Cripps announces that the Government intends to check the present inflation spiral by freezing wages and controlling the prices of almost every commodity. Of course most people agree that something should be done and that this is one way of doing it, perhaps the best way. Those that don’t agree describe it as a totalitarian measure. The Trades Unions will have a difficult task to persuade the ignorant rank and file the reasons, as I see it, because these people never look further than the sports page of the Daily Worker or Herald and in any case are not capable of thinking beyond the weeks pay packet.

Friday 13^th February 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious. Funnily enough nothing has gone drastically wrong today despite the date. We had a talk on the Air Department of the ship and its organisation by the Commander (Air). Very soon he started talking solely about the trials themselves and what our future programme may include providing nothing very unusual happens before we have had our repairs completed.

I had the afternoon watch with Lieutenant Grayson. Nothing happened except the Captain entertained the Commodore of the R.N. Bamacho. Someone thought he was trying to wrangle more hands to bring the ships company up to a more workable minimum.

If the officers heads (?) were not on the dock there would have been very little to do indeed. As it was these officers streamed back during the ‘dogs.’ I found it was very monotonous saying “Carry on” or words to that effect when about fifty petty officers went ashore at ten minutes to four just as the last notes of (carry on [correction – secure]) and coops(?) had died away. At both watches for exercises the bugler made a very queer call which was apparently due to his instrument being blocked up, according to him. He managed to get ‘Stand Easy’ correct though, and thereafter didn’t make any mistakes. The Quartermaster spent about a half hour explaining to us how the doctors discovered that his right kidney was not working and that he had a stone there which suddenly stopped growing. He said it doesn’t affect him until the end of his forty eight hours and then it aches a bit.

[Corrections – Punctuation is very weak – signed (Squiggle) 14.2.48]

HMS Illustrious Lower Gallery Deck and Hangar Deck

Saturday 14^th February 1948

St.Valentine’s Day.

H.M.S. Illustrious. I went on Captain’s Rounds in the forenoon. Most of the Wardroom was in the rounds party as it was a mess decks inspection and the route was not definitely fixed before hand.

Read a very interesting story in Saturday Evening news called “This is my Sa” by Clarence Budlington Kelland. All other American serials seemed rather dull, anyway I never seemed to be able to read them through without skipping large and boring pages.

The Government today announces that the prices of coal, electricity and gas will be pegged, as all other commodities, in order to check, or to attempt to check, the ever spiralling cost of living. Hagannah announces that its forces will in future resist arrest by British forces, following an incident in which four Jews were killed after being set free in an Arab stronghold form an army lorry, and killed a few minutes later by armed Arabs. This incident will give the Jewish illegal army a good excuse to be more provocative in the future.

Sunday 15^th February 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious. The congregation in the Chapel this morning was very small indeed, consisting entirely of officers. It is not at all surprising that clergy these days are very dispirited.

Part of the dockyard power supply to the ship was cut off this evening and half the ship put in darkness. A lead coming aboard over the Starboard side onto the Lower Gallery deck overheated causing the rubber insulation to melt. This was reported to the O.O.W. who inspected the damage and informed the Dock Master. The latter had the power cut off, causing all the fans to stop, and making the ship very quiet for once.

Monday 16^th February 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious. The morning we were informed that four of us were to join H.M.S. Boxer P.M. today. That mucked up my fire main chasing programme, however I had decided that the only way to make a plan was to draw a large seals layout of each deck first, then put in the main and branches later. Spent at least two hours searching for pipes at the expense of a layer of oil and filth all over my hands and on my reefer.

Reached the HMS Boxer by jeep just before tea. The O.O.D. didn’t seem to know anything about our arrival or what [correction – why] we had come, in spite of the fact that it is quite usual for parties of Midshipmen to spend a week on board the ship to gain a little sea and pilotage experience. After tea we walked round the ship and paid a visit to the bridge where we were struck by its size and openness. There we also noticed that the evening was very cold, so we decided unanimously to walk back to Illustrious and muster all our warm clothing.

There are three Sub-Lieutenants onboard. One, the Sub of the ship, another, the sub of H.M.S. Cleopatra, and the third an Instructor Sub-Lieutenant. The latter two are getting sea time and seeing how their theories are put into practice.

The ship looked very clean and tidy, particularly the boats which are particularly clean and well kept on the outside.

Smith, who went ashore in the evening to see his father, saw some cadets from Dartmouth in Portsmouth who have come round here in HMS Sligo.

We drew up our watch keeping bill in the evening and decided what special duties we should have and when.

HMS Illustrious Main Deck showing Fire Main and Branches - red line

Tuesday 17^th February 1948

H.M.S. Boxer. The ship cast off at 0830. To get the stern out we went ahead on a back spring then, when clear astern and round to Port. As soon as we were clear of the harbour we started directing planes from Ford and Lea-on-Solent. The target plane was an Anson and the attackers were two Seafires.

H.M.S. Boxer was originally built as a non-expendable L.S.T. as opposed to American Lease Lend L.S.T.’s which were mass produced and could be left high and dry on beaches if it was considered too much of a bother to salvage them. She and two sister ships H.M.S. Bruiser and H.M.S. Buster were completed at Harland and Wolff’s dockyard at Belfast in 1941

After being used as an L.S.T. in the Sicily and Salerno landings she was withdrawn from service to be converted to an L.S.F. ()Landing Ship Fighter Direction). It had been decided that a ship,which could direct large numbers of planes onto shore targets and enemy planes, should be built for fighting in the Pacific. This specialised ship, a floating Fighter and Bomber Direction Unit, was to be used within about ten miles of Japanese islands to direct planes from aircraft carriers which would be about 70 miles off shore in order to be less accessible to land based planes. The reason why a special ship had to be built was because there was not enough room in cruisers and battleships, and in any case even aircraft carriers could not cope with more planes than those which they carried.

H.M.S. Boxer was passing through the Mediterranean when Japan capitulated, on her way to the Pacific. After that she was again converted, this time to a Radar Training ship, the only one of its kind in the world.

In addition to an Air Direction Room the ship is fitted out with destroyer, cruiser and aircraft carrier radar instrument layouts such as P.P.I.’s, skyrtrons and various air and surface plots. As an L.S.F. she was capable of directing 500 planes at once, now she can train 60 R.P.2’s and R.P.3’s as well as 16 officers qualifying for N.D.

Facts and Figures.

Tonnage          6,151 tons

Speed              16 knots

Length             400 ft

45 ft max. breadth.

Complement    230 ratings, excluding trainees.

Officers           14

Ballast of 300 tons pig iron to increase stability, also ballast of Oil Fuel.

Armament       12- .303

12- Lanchesters.

Radars

Fleet Carrier Set up:-

Air Warning    960

2 –                   227 Q

Ditto                293 Q

Cruisers

Air Warning    218 B.Q.

2 –                   277 P.

Ditto                293 P.

Destroyers

Two set ups-

219 and 277P

291 and 293

63 P.P.I.’s maintained by only 10 mechanicians.

Tuesday continued – In the morning I tried without success to obtain a blue print of the ship from the Engineers Office but I could only find some out of date drawings of Boxer when she was an L.S.T.  The weather was very blowy in the morning which made the ship pitch and roll, which although only very slight, disagreed with my internals. The weather became rowdier still as we steamed up to the Needles to enter the West Solent and anchor off Yarmouth. I had the First Watch and had the job of keeping an anchor watch at the bridge.

According to today’s papers H.M.S. Nigeria is to be sent to the Falkland Islands where the Argentinos and Chileans are busy setting up a military base in the Falkland Island Dependencies. The Argentine press is giving the operation much publicity. Possibly it is Peron’s idea to direct his countrymen’s thoughts from internal affairs to something more dramatic. I don’t think H.M.S. Nigeria will alter the situation when she arrives mainly because she is so heavily outnumbered and also because the distances over which the other ships would have to be send, are so great. The Argentine papers have been very insolent about the whole thing, the trouble is that they know or are pretty certain that we shall not be able to do anything decisive. The British are claimed as being offensive for the only reason that they are remaining in the islands.

Wednesday 18^th February 1948

H.M.S. Boxer. Out to sea again making good on easterly course in the teeth of a very cold East wind. We are all very glad we went back to the HMS Illustrious on Monday evening to take some more sweaters, scarves, gloves etc. Today we were directing Barracudas and an Anson, which every now and again come in on a torpedo or bombing run at us. As we entered the Solent past Nab Tower we passed the black funnelled Dutch liner Wilhelm Huys.

When being lowered, shortly after we had anchored, the Starboard Motor Cutter was nearly wrecked. The sea was very rough, there being a high short swell, and when the boat was nearly lowered to the water, instead of slipping it was pitched up on a creast of a wave and flung down again onto the falls. Eventually it was slipped and everything well.

Thursday 19^th February 1948

H.M.S. Boxer. Started to snow in the morning and the wind, as usual, was Easterly and even colder than before. In between snow showers visibility was very good. I spent all my afternoon watch running up and down between the bridge and charthouse taking radar fixes from the P.P.I. the motion of the ship no longer affects me as I’m getting quite used to it, even so I was defeated by a huge Cornish Pastie about half the size of my plate which was served up for supper.

Friday 20^th February 1948

H.M.S. Boxer.  More snow still this morning and our cabin was like an ice box last night. I spent all the morning on the bridge and obtained some very reliable fixes by radar, much more reliable than the ones I produced yesterday.

Coming in to harbour at 1500 we passed the America, there equivalent to our Queen Elizabeth, on her way to New York.

We came in to harbour very fast and went alongside H.M.S. Cleopatra without any difficulties or waste of time. The ship apparently handles very well.

A jeep was supposed to be at the jetty to bring us back at 1630. We rang up the O.O.V. on H.M.S. Illustrious who informed us that it had set out. Eventually when we were deciding to walk back our jeep turned up, only an hour adrift.

[correction from C.O. – Consider yourself jolly lucky you got one at all]

Sunday 22^nd February 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious. Church was attended by officers only as usual. Foystan played the organ, instead of the Padre. [Correction by C.O. – Does he usually play the Padre?]

The weather is as cold as it has been for the last few days, and the weather experts tell us that there is another fortnight to go yet before we have a let up.

The Sunday papers didn’t arrive at the usual time, due, I presume, to the weather so Foystan was sent off by jeep to buy some for the Wardroom and Gunroom.

The papers are full of the usual mope. Ministers are accused left, right and centre of making self-contradictory statements about the various nationalised parts of our economy. The Sunday Chronicle has a long article on the Falkland Islands incident headed “The Lions Tail,” with the Lion in rather an awkward position at present. As yet the Government has only sent notes to the Argentine and Chile Governments, it will be interesting to see what happens when H.M.S. Nigeria reaches there, which she should do in a day or two.

Monday 23^rd February 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious .Spent the whole day going in and out of compartments on the Main Deck looking for the fire main pipes. A large bomb outrage was reported from Jerusalem. 64 people were killed following an explosion in the Jewish shopping centre. A rumour was started that the British had caused the outrage, and the Jewish crowds became very hostile to our men helping in the rescue work so that after a short time all British police and troops were withdrawn. In reprisals afterwards 10 Britons were murdered.

The Arabs are keeping the Americans out of Palestine by threatening to blast the American oil pipe lines if the USA starts backing up the Partition of Palestine by force.

The Russians are starting a campaign in Czechoslovakia to bring her government into line with Moscow and all the other Eastern European states.

All the non-communist members of the Cabinet are resigning because of the Communists efforts to gain control of the police. Mr Goltwald, the Communist Prime Minister said that the Ministers should acknowledge the wishes ‘of the people.’

Tuesday 24^th February 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious. During the forenoon watch our M.F.V. disappeared. It had been towed away by a tug, but nobody knew where it had gone. In the Dogs it was returned alongside by a tug after going aground and getting stuck just off the pontoon at dead low tide.

An escort was sent off to London [correction – to catch] by 1920 train to collect two deserters picked up by the Naval Section of Scotland Yard. However, the four marines in the escort took a few minutes too long tidying themselves up before leaving and missed the train by a few minutes.

The weather is much warmer today but we still have to flush the heads out on the dock with buckets which is rather a nuisance.

The Lower Deck was cleared at 1145 this morning. The Captain made an announcement about our period in dock here and about the leave period. We shall be operational at the end of the Summer leave period. The leave for the ship’s Company is from 19^th March – 12^th April for the watches in succession. [correction by C.O. – I don’t believe you mean this]

Wednesday 25^th February 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious. At Commanders requestmen(?) this morning six men were granted afternoon leave to watch the Navy-Civil Services football match. The Commander said this would not happen again and was not to be a precedent.

The Captain had an informal talk with us before lunch.

Falkland Island Dependencies 1948

Thursday 26^th February 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious.  We were lectured about O.O.W. at sea and in Harbour today by Lieutenant Commander Yates and Lieutenant Pym. With Lt Pym we soon reached the subject of (N) and (ND) of course he says that both are quite different, and does not see why the two should be amalgamated at all.

H.M.S. Nigeria has arrived at the Falkland Islands and bother the Chilean and Argentine task forces have returned with the various Presidents and Admirals to home bases.

H.M.S. Sheffield has been ordered to Belize from Cartagena, Columbia where she was on her spring cruise. This step has been taken because of the threatening attitude of Guatemala, whose small army might take control of our small colony unless we send some forces there to intimidate the Guatemalans and safeguard our territory.

Belize 1948

Friday 27^th February 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious Czechoslovakia has fallen to the Communists. The non-communist ministers have resigned. Professors in Universities are being arrested, students, M.P.’s who have been told to declare themselves for the new Government or be arrested. The press has been gagged effectively. All papers which are still published are full of twisted truths and Communist propaganda. All papers which haven’t yet come under control have been banned. All foreign paper which used to be imported have been stopped, except of course Russian and Soviet papers.

President Benes will probably resign.

H.M.S. Devonshire has received orders today to proceed to Belize with a detachment of the Gloucester Regiment onboard.

Saturday 29^th February 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious .  H.M.S. Sheffield has arrived in Belize. H.M.S. Devonshire was ordered away because of reports that British Honduras was about to be invaded. The people of Belize expected an attack from the air by parachutes. The defence force in the colony consists of only 150 men with scanty equipment, while Guatemala has 21,700 soldiers, a few planes, but no navy.

[Correction by C.O. – rather jerky, and then punctuation is terrible]

British Honduras – Her History and the Guatamalan Claim.

Shortly after Columbus discovered the Bay of Honduras a treaty was drawn up between Spain and Portugal defining their spheres of in influence, and by this Spain monopolised Central America. After waging a war against the natives, the Spaniards gained control of the Isthmus, in which a small strip of coast, mainly jungle and swamp, about the size of Wales, is now British Honduras.

During and after Elizabeth’s reign, when English pirates, with official buccaneering licences from the British Government, were busy plundering Spanish settlements and treasure ships in the West Indies, bases were established on the islands and one, in particular, on the River Belize

Continues – two pages.

Sunday 29^th February 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - I spent the Forenoon and First Dog Watch on the Starboard after Gangway. Just before lunch an airman rating was brought up before the Officer of the Watch on a charge of disobeying his superior officer, namely by refusing to sweep out his mess when ordered to by his leading hand. The O.O.W. stood the man over for a while in order to let the Duty Lieutenant Commander hear the case, which he considered to by too serious to be dealt with by himself.

Monday 1^st March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - Two lectures were given to us today by Lieutenant Commander Lyle and Mr Harvey, the Bo’s’n about the Operation of Aircraft Carriers and the rigging of the ship respectively.

Tuesday 2^nd March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - School in the Forenoon and Rigging with Mr Harvey in the Afternoon. I was on watch again in the Afternoon and Last Dog. Nothing whatever out of routine occurred.

Wednesday 3^rd March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - Lectures on Divisional Matters and another lecture on Operation of Carriers were given by Lieutenant Commander Hamer and Lieutenant Turnbull. The latter’s lecture was mainly about carrier warfare in the Pacific and of course the accent was on flying, as Lieutenant Turnbull is a pilot.

In the evening Few, Lemon and myself went ashore mainly to have our hair cut. The first barber’s shop was shut, and later when we came back after walking along the Southsea front we passed another shop which had also closed. Lieutenant Sluman(?) says that the Town Station is the best place for a hair cut.

Thursday 4^th March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - Forenoon and First Dog watch spent pacing the Gangway lobby once again. Today we had a more interesting time than usual.

After Stand Easy a party of officers from all the services came onboard for an outing in their Photographic Interpretation course. At 1230 the Captain of the Signals School came to have lunch with the Captain. He arrived late because he didn’t know where H.M.S. Illustrious was docked.

Owing to the mist and cloud at the time of sunset we were able to see sunspots on the face of the sun through our telescopes. The clouds acted as a very efficient filter and so we were enabled to see two small black spots on the face of the sun, one at about 4 o’clock and a smaller one at 10 o’clock.

Friday 5^th March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - Lieutenant Commander Hamer gave us a very interesting lecture on the Middle East. He explained the reason why it was so important to England and the Empire was because it was on our main East-West sea route, besides being a road between North and South. Not only is this area an important link in our communications, but its oilfields supply 6% of the world’s annual output of oil, at present; when its resources are fully developed they are expected to yield as much annually as the Texas oilfields, which are expected to dry up in 15 (25 crossed out) years time because of the huge rate at which the Americans manage to extract their oil.

What will happen after May 15^th, by which date all our troops will have been evacuated from Palestine, no one knows. Jews will probably pour into Palestine, the Jewish part of which would soon be overpopulated, and then the immigrants would have no other course to take than to attempt to beat back the arabs by force of arms. The Arabs have the advantage in desert warfare, as they know their country and have all the Moslem countries from which they can expect to receive modern arms and volunteers, to help in the cause. The Jews may have a well trained and organised army but all their arms are supplied from abroad. The help that is given by the American Government depends on the political parties in power and whether elections are in the offing, in which case the candidates in the Government in power will pander to the Jewish electorate. At present, however, the Americans can either please the Jews and endanger their oil pipe lines across Arabia, or dissatisfy their Jewish electorate but safeguard their oil, or, as they are doing now, make vague and noncommittal statements about their policy which generally annoys all the parties concerned.

Trouble in our colonies has now spread to the Gold Coast where riots have broken out in Accra. There, a native party, demanding self government for the colony, has incited ex-servicemen to agitate for better living conditions. So serious was the situation that troops in Gibraltar were standing by to be flown to the scene of the trouble.

[C.O. comment – An interesting Journal. Thank you]

At 1635 I left Portsmouth Town Station in the Salisbury train. After a short visit at Salisbury I caught the Bath train which took me to my home town, Warminster. After waiting at the station for a car a little while the mist started to come down reducing visibility to about two yards. Eventually I reached home after a hair raising drive, mostly on the pavement at the right side of the road.

Saturday 6^th March 1948

Warminster - Another very fine day with clear sky and hot sun. In the evening I listened to a very good play in the Home Service called “Silent Witness” by Anthony Armstrong.

In New York Rabbi Silver, representing the Jewish Agency, has announced that the Jews in Palestine will set up a State; by force or arms if necessary, whatever the outcome of the Commission, talks and discussion of U.N.O.

At the same time it is announced from Jerusalem that the Terrorist Arab Leader, Fawzi Bey Kaukji, has crossed the border into Palestine and has set up[ his headquarters to assume the command of all Arab forces in Palestine. Both sides seem to be organising themselves for the time when British forces leave the country, in the mean time the position of our soldiers and police in Palestine becomes more insecure every day.

Sunday 7^th March 1948

Warminster – The King and Queen and Princess Margaret are to visit Australia and New Zealand in 1949. The voyage will be made in H.M.S. Vanguard, according to the official statement.

Emigration to the British Empire.

Warminster - Mr Arthur Calwell, Australian Minister of Immigration has proposed to Mr Philip Noel-Baker, Minister for Commonwealth Relations, that Britain should start emigration on a large scale.

He suggest in his letter that a fleet be built for the express purpose of carrying whole families from over populated Britain to Australia, where more people are badly needed, partly for economic reasons, and partly because the Australians fear that if their population does not increase quickly the yellow hordes from China will over-run their continent.

Up till now emigration has not been encouraged by the Government because it has tended to take away young people and leave behind the old, which in the course of years will make Britain a country of old people, like France before the Second World War. This new proposal aims at taking away a cross section of the community, young and old, because it will encourage and organise the emigration of whole families.

Monday 8^th March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – Lectures on the Quartermaster Branch and Navigation by Lieutenant Satow and Lieutenant Commander Yates.

The Commander was to have given us a lecture on organisation in the afternoon, but was unable to do so as he had had an accident in the morning with his motorcycle, crushing one of his fingers.

Mr Churchill is under the impression that the Navy is much more powerful than recent official statements made out. Once again he is under a false impression. The Navy is not as strong as it should be, and the Government has not exaggerated its state. Mr Churchill has not seen Devonport, Portsmouth and Rosythe dockyards himself, as he has not seen the hundreds of rotting ships maintained by inadequate crews; he has not seen destroyers half completed and then left to rust at buoys: and he has never seen the dockyard workers repairing our ships, even if he did visit a dockyard he would never get a true picture because everybody would be looking at him.

Even if the Government statements were bad policy, I think it is our position, otherwise news of everything will tend to become distorted to suit either government or party.

Someone discovered today what a molgogger is when he was looking at a magazine. The Commander bet the Gunroom that they would not find out, and said he would give a round of gins if we found out.

Tuesday 9^th March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - School in the morning and Organisation, a lecture by the Commander in the afternoon. Unfortunately nobody remembered the Commander’s wager.

Wednesday 10^th March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - At 8 o’clock all the Executive and Engineer midshipmen left the ship to visit H.M.S. Hornet for the day. We walked across the dockyard to King’s Steps to find that there was no boat to Hornet. Luckily we managed to take a boat to H.M.S. Dolphin after waiting about a quarter of an hour for the expected boat. After a second long walk, it seemed very long carrying a heavy grip, we arrived at Hornet.

Before Stand-Easy we were shown round the establishment, Gun Boat Yard, the two German E-boats there and several captured enemy craft, including one with a hydrophane attachment and an Italian explosive motorboat. For the rest of the morning we were scheduled for a lecture on the history of M.T.B.’s by an officer who was supposed to be back from a trip to Birmingham. The latter did not turn up, so another officer had to stand in for him at 10 minutes notice.

After lunch we went out for gunnery practice in M.T.B. 2012, a Long boat, called Dog boats by the officers on them.

As we went past the forts outside the harbour in the Solent we saw an E-boat leave the harbour behind us. We were developing full speed, but very soon we were overtaken by the other boat which, we were informed afterwards, was only developing ¾ power. The Germans went in for speed during the war and did not arm their craft, also they developed their E-boats long before the war whereas we had lost all records of our M.T.B.’s, as used in the first world war, and consequently in 1938 our boats were not a great (deal) improved on those used in 1918. The Germans did more experimental work than we did, concentrating on diesel engines which were better than our petrol engines, but made manoeuvring more difficult as engines had to be stopped altogether and restarted before going astern, also their engines took four hours to warm up before use. The engines we used at first were Rolls Royce Merlins, but it was found to our cost that not enough of these could be produced by British Manufacturers so during the war Panchards, of America, built engines for our boats to our requirements.

We were informed that building the hulls of a large fleet of M.T.B.’s would be easy because there are so many small boat builders in Britain, the difficulty comes with the engines. The M.T.B.’s laid up in Gunboat Yard are completely useless, according to our informants, so if we want a large number of M.T.B.’s at short notice we shall have to build them.

At 17.30 the Long boat flotilla left harbour for night manoeuvres. The first stage of the operation was to split up into two forces; Force Mike and Force Queenie. These two forces, let by Mike 1, leader of the Mike Force, first contacted a Controlled Target boat off the East coast of the Isle of Wight, an when this was sighted rockets were fired to illuminate the target. Then all the guns of the force opened up, 4.5”, 6 pounders and oerlikons(?). The action was very successful, the 4.5” guns being exceptionally accurate at ranges of 1,200 yards and less.

The first part of the manoeuvres over, Force Queenie make off at speed to rendezvous 14 miles south of the Needles. Our force, Mike, was to guard the Eastern approaches to the Solent, which Force Mike was to try and pass undetected. To help us we had H.M.S. Boxer, the Radar Training Ship, and one aircraft. The aircraft, a Lancaster, sent out reports at intervals of the positions of the other force, so all Force Mike had to do was to stop engines and wait till Force Mike approached.

Eventually we were directed onto a parallel course with the other force and after the aircraft had dropped some flares we were able to illuminate the ‘enemy’ with flares. A sharp action ensued, all boats engaging the enemy with aldis lamps, scoring many direct hits. Altogether the whole night’s manoeuvres were a great success, the weather, for a change, making conditions very pleasant.

H.M.S. Hornet visit - The Night Gunnery Exercise.

 H.M.S.Hornet Night Gunnery Exercise.

A 6 Pounder G.F.Gun wiht Automatic Loading Mechanism.

The Chief G.I. demonstrates.

2017 leaves Harbour

Thursday 11^th March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious  -  English lessons in the forenoon was given to us by Lieutenant Abour, on ‘which’ and ‘that.’ In the afternoon Lieutenant Clayden gave us a very interesting lecture about submarines which was very informative. He talked about the construction of submarines, their crews, the officers, living quarters and so on, in fact he did not have time to give us a lecture on submarine warfare and tactics.

The Government White Paper published yesterday puts our present economic plight down in black and white so that the ordinary man in the street can see what exactly our position is. I maintain that the man in the street must be very dumb indeed if even now he refuses to acknowledge that we are all in a very bad position despite the fact that he gets paid twice as much as he did before the war and consequently has much more pocket money than he has ever had before, to pour away on unessential industries such as pools and cinemas. [C.O. comment – He is – very dumb – but that is only to be expected. See me]

In the 1930’s we were told by some economic experts that Britain was gradually going bankrupt, admittedly only very slowly. The reason was that we were losing the markets for our goods abroad because we were no longer the only industrial country in the world, making a living by buying raw materials from abroad, processing them, and selling them abroad again to pay for our food, which we had to import as our farmers were unable to produce enough food to feed our own population. In the 19^th Century we made a fortune by exporting machinery for countries to make their own things. Of course that was only a fraction of what we sold, but it helped to make other countries more self supporting, in that they were beginning to develop their own raw materials. Lancashire supplied cotton to the rest of the world which had not yet learned or had not the means of developing its own resources; Yorkshire did the same thing with wool.

At the beginning of this century we received ¼ of our imports on the money which we had put into foreign concerns, also we received a large income from the sales of our coal abroad.

Between the two World Wars Japan started to flood the markets of the world with cheap clothes make by cheap labour; this was the beginning of our decline in trade. Germany was also a trade opponent as her industries were mass producing commodities which forced down the prices of British goods. All this time oil was beginning to be used instead of coal so that coal was no longer of first or unrivalled importance [C.O. comment – still was and still is to Us]

We are beginning to lose the American market before the war because America produced everything it wanted except oil, which it did not have in large enough quantities. Another factor to remember was that we had more colonies before the war from whence we could obtain our raw materials. Now we are rapidly losing our colonies, which are becoming self-governing countries which will take more of an interest and take more control of their own raw materials. We cannot possibly expect to continue to obtain raw materials at low prices if we surrender control of the resources.

The solution to the problem is to reduce the population of Britain so that it can support itself by its agriculture and so that it will not have to rely so much on its industries which have become top heavy and unmanageable with restrictive controls which were instituted to increase production, but have instead tended to strangle and dislocate our industries. Mr Calwell’s recent proposals should be acted on by the Government.

[C.O. comment – Try to make your writing read more evenly, Not bad. Signed Ralph Edward(?)]

Friday 12^th March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - The Bulawayo trials were described by Lieutenant E. Watson. He told us what conclusions had been reached from the navigator’s and seaman’s point of view as well as the Engineer’s. the 7” rubber flexible oil fuel hose was well proved and was a great success, but it was found that the oil fuel pipes in the receiving ships were not big enough and so limited the tonnage of oil which could be pumped across in a given time. The beam approach at speed was found to be the best method of taking up position abeam for replenishment, as, in this way, the warship avoided interaction between herself and the oiler by keeping out of the oiler’s wake. The faster the speed of the ships while refuelling, the less interaction there was between them, so that at high speeds, about 20 knots, the ships carried less helm towards each other. This was because the wake at higher speeds make a large angle with the bows. H.M.S. Bulawayo is an ex-Government oiler, and the other ships taking part in the trials were H.M.S. Duke of York, H.M.S. Superb and H.M.S. Dunkirk [crossed out - representing most types of war vessels]. It was strongly recommended that H.M.S. Illustrious should also take prat in trials with the Bulawayo to find out what methods are best suited for oiling carriers, the astern or abeam method, and whether planes can be landed on and flown off while actually oiling, this, of course, necessitating the altering of course together while oiling.

Commander Kearney gave us our current affairs lecture. This was really a discussion as the Commander (Air) did not believe in giving a lecture on one subject alone, as, he said, the subject and all the rest of the things that are happening around us tend to lose their proper perspective and proportion.

Mr Harold Wilson, the President of the Board of Trade has announced that, following a fortnights talks with Mr Eric Johnston representing Hollywood, the Government has agreed to drop the tax on American films so that we can show our films freely in America.

Saturday 13^th March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - The representatives of Great Britain, France and Benelux countries, meeting at Brussels, have agreed on a draft treaty of mutual assistance and economical co-operation. Under the terms of the treaty these countries undertake to come to the rescue of any of their number who is the victim of armed aggression in Europe. The ‘armed aggressor’ is of course Russia, and it seems as if the treaty was hurriedly concluded because of the threats of the Russian domination of Easter Europe and her recent expansion into Czechoslovakia and attempts at creating chaos in Italy and France by Communist inspired strikes.

Sunday 14^th March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - I was on watch in the afternoon and last dog. The day was very warm as there was a cloudless sky; at 5 o’clock the temperature in the Starboard after lobby was 65º.

[C.O. comment – So what?]

Monday 15^th March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - The Captain of Royal Marines talked to us about his men and their weapons, illustrating his lecture with most of the R.M. armoury which was displayed on the table in the A.I.R.

The U.S. Senate has passed the European Aid Bill by 69-17 votes. The Bill, called the Economic Co-operation Act of 1948, will now go to the House of Representatives, where it will probably be passed more quickly than in the Senate, as there the debate can have a set limit, but probably more opposition. Since the suicides of Mr Jan Masaryl the Americans have taken a more serious view of the recent events in Europe and it now seems certain that Europe will receive 1,325,000,000, in the first year, to help recovery and thus stabilise the economic chaos from which Communism seems to grow.

In Palestine the fighting between the Jews and Arabs has flared up once more. The two Jewish military organisations, Haganah and Stern Gang have been co-operating in actions against the Arabs. In the Arab area between Nablus – Jenin – Tulharm the Jews have made many raids to try to kill or capture Fawzi Kaukji, one of the leaders of the “Arab Liberation Army.”

General Sir John Crocker, C-in-C Middle East, has just returned to the Canal Zone in Egypt after conferring with General Sir Alan Cunningham, the High Commissioner.

Tuesday 16^th March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - We all spent the morning down in the dock watching the dockyard mateys riveting on new plates; chiselling away the Port forward side of the rudder which is corroded very badly and operations to do with placing a 6 ton [C.O. correction – 4 ton] 45lb plate in position.

How a 4 ton x 45lb plate was cut and placed in Position.

A fortnight ago workmen fitted wooden frames into the holes in the ship’s side, where plates have been taken out in order that the frames can be strengthened and heavier plates fitted to reduce vibration in the after end of the ship when proceeding at speed. These wooden frames were the patterns of the new 45lb plates, which are being fitted, and consequently had to be shaped very accurately and have all the holes necessary marked on them as well. The boilermakers, who cut drill and bend plates, had to take into account the temperatures of the steel, when it was cut, and of the hull, when the patterns were made as any difference between the two would have resulted in the plates not fitting properly owing to unequal expansion of the hull and plate. It is for that reason that, in hot summer months, the boilermakers have to fit their plates in the early morning as, at that time only, the plates and the hull are at the same temperature.

Because of the ship’s counter after the dock crane could not hoist the plates straight into the required positions, so three horizontal parallel baulks, with steel skids on their tops, were raised on a gantry at right angles to the ship’s side so that the crane could just lower the plates onto the ends of the skids. The plate was then pulled into a position directly underneath the hole in the ships side by G.P. tackles with the close co-operation of the crane driver.

The last stage of the plate’s journey began after two eye bolts were welded onto it, after which it was hoisted up by Western Differential Purchases and quickly bolted into position.

Wednesday 17^th March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - We had school until Stand Easy, after which I went down into the dock. The Starboard propeller’s nut is being unloosened preparatory to taking the whole propeller off. I had a talk with the overseer [C.O. comment – Inspector or Changeman probably] of the boilermakers  and the man in charge of the rivetors. The former said that the last plates in the yard were being used to patch us up, which of course was slightly exaggerated, but there must have been some ground for his statement, anyway he said that it was because of that reason that two lairs(?) of 20lb plate were being put in the ships side instead of one 40lb plate. The latter said that the riveters job was very awkward here, as the riveting team inside the ship’s hull has no freedom of movement because the inside of the ship is full up with machines, decks, watertight bulkheads etc, - quite different to riveting plates on a ship being built where there are no decks inside  the hull, - also the shops where the riveters get their equipment are the other side of the dockyard which causes another delay.

Civil Servants are to be dismissed or transferred in the future if they are Communists or have Communist connections, on security grounds. This action is entirely un-British and Ministers should realise that it is no good whatever doing this as Communism is a substitute for religion which cannot be stamped out or prevented by banishment, in fact it will only force Communism underground where it is liable to be more dangerous still. In this country where the Law  and policy are above politics there is little fear of a Communist Coup de Etat. On the other hand if we intend, or our ministers are very certain, that we shall go to war with Russia soon, then it is a wise move to keep Communists out of our research and important military organisations.

Reliable sources in Palestine state that operations are being planed with the aim of seizing certain dominating buildings in Jerusalem the moment the British troops leave or the Mandate expires, on May 15^th. [see Map]

U.N.O. has almost passed a resolution that the situation in Palestine is a threat to Peace. It has appealed to the Arabs and Jews to desist from fighting, but so far no reply from either side has been received. U.N.O. can use force, if necessary, to enforce its decision when it is agreed definitely that Palestine is a threat to Peace.

Thursday 18^th March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - President Truman yesterday in a speech to Congress denounced Russia’s policies in Europe, and elsewhere and recommended that conscription should be reintroduced in U.S.A., that the American armed forces should be brought up to a wartime footing and finally that Marshall aid must be sent to Europe quickly to forestall the Russians or Communists, particularly in Italy where the General elections will soon be coming off.

The Treaty of Brussels was signed yesterday by the Foreign Ministers of Britain, France, Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Each country is bound to take immediate action in case of aggression against any other – without referring to U.N.O.’s Security Council. But the five agree to desist as soon as the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security.

A Consultative Council shall decide on measures to be taken “with regard to any situation which might constitute a threat to peace in whatever areas that threat should arise.”

The council shall also decide on measures “with regard to any situation constituting a danger to economic stability. Steps shall be taken to promote cultural ties between the three countries.”

In the forenoon we had school where we were reminded how tides effect ships, how to look up heights of tides in the Admiralty Tide Tables, and what causes them.

In the dock a large sized Bunsen burner has been fitted up to heat the starboard propeller, in order to expand it and thus facilitate sliding it off the propeller shaft.

A Panamanian collier, alongside the coal jetty, was discharging its hold today, to the shore dump by crane and to a barge alongside by means of a Temperley transporter.

[C.O. comment – still very “scrappy.” Try to make your writing read evenly and pleasantly]

Friday 19^th March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - Our Current Affairs lecture this week was given by Lieutenant Hamer who discussed the Indian Ocean. He stressed that Britain must maintain bases round the Indian Ocean to safeguard our sea communications. Malaya and the Dutch East Indies are at present a loophole through which an enemy could enter the zone as Malaya is too far away from our other bases for easy and quick help. Australia’s sphere of responsibility should include the Dutch East Indies but her forces and resources are at the moment to small to be able to take on this large expanse of sea and islands. When Australia’s population has been increased by British and European immigrants to the size which will be able to support a larger industrialisation and an army in proportion to the size of the continent and the length of its coast line, then our position in the East will be really secure.

Saturday 20^th March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - The Commander (Air) carried out the Commanding Officer’s rounds in the morning.

The Grand National was run in the afternoon in exceptionally good weather. ‘Shielas Cottage” won, followed closely by “First of the Dandies” and “Cromwell.” “Silver Fame” was expected to get a place, but, as is quite usual in these races with large fields competing, the winners (odds were 50-1) was an outsider.

In the afternoon I took a bus to Fareham and walked up onto Portsdown Hill from the Western End. Although it was quite cool when I left the ship, by the time I reached Nelson’s monument I was very hot. Visibility was quite good so that I could see both ends of the Solent from Nab Tower to the Needles.

The U.S. Government has changed its policy in Palestine so that now it states that partition would be impracticable now.

In order to sway the Italian elections, which are to due to take place in April, the Western Powers, U.S.A., France and Great Britain, has declared that Trieste should be given back to Italy. The declaration states that the present policy of the Yugoslavs, in their occupied zone of Trieste, is making the last agreement about this area void, because Yugoslavia has practically annexed her occupied territory in Trieste.

Sunday 21^st March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - The Sunday papers are all full of the story of the murder of a young actress onboard a liner whilst on passage from South Africa to the United Kingdom. The defence is engaged in blackening the actress’s character while the prosecution is mostly based upon circumstantial evidence.

Monday 22^nd March 1948

Lieutenant Ansell gave us a talk on the control system and armament of the ship. At present we have only one director for the 4.5” guns because all the other ones have been removed to clear the flight deck of as many obstructions as possible for the trials of new and experimental aircraft. None of the 4.5” guns can be fired because we haven’t the complement to provide 4.5” B.D. gun crews.

Tuesday 23^rd March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - Lieutenant Commander Lyle gave a very interesting lecture on Anti-Submarine Warfare in the morning. He told us about the German U-boat strategy and tactics during the last war, and about the continual technical race between the submarines and the submarine destroyers; how one leads for a year or so and then how the pendulum swings from side to side. At present, he says, the pendulum is swinging over to the advantage of the submarines, because of their underwater speed which has been increased recently.

Wednesday 24^th March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - When fire was exercised in the After Bomb flat down a hatch just aft of the Main Keyboard, very few of the fireparty knew where to go so the Midshipmen in charge had to explain where the place was.

The dockyard mateys were tarring the ship’s sie this afternoon, which made an awful smell giving me a headache as well as several other midshipmen.

[C.O. comment – What did you do with them when you got them?]

Thursday 25^th March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - Lieutenant Turnbull gave us a talk on advancement and organisation of the air branch. The whole subject is very complex at present because the air branch has not yet settle down.

Good Friday 23^rd March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious - Before divisions we had a current affairs period during which we stood up in turn and gave five minute lectures on subjects which we had five minutes to prepare.

Our major faults were that we tried to go into too small details for the time at our disposal, we after said that before we began that we knew nothing whatever about the subject and lastly we, most of us, looked down at the table too much instead of looking at our audience.

At 1030 Divisions were held in ‘C’ Hangar followed by prayers.

Saturday 27^th March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – the Russians have now got 250 submarines on an operational footing.

[C.O. comment – see me]. Reports have been published today about merchantmen and planes spotting unknown submarines in the Pacific Ocean, off the Aleutians and the American coast, which are presumed to be Russian. This is a grave threat to our communications as even the Germans had only 50 submarines at the beginning of the last war, and this information shows that the Russians have learnt a lesson and are profiting from German experience in the last war.

[C.O. comment – You continue to break your writing into ‘snippets’ of good and bad news, instead of any reasoned statements. See me]

Sunday 18^th April 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – I caught the 1550 train from Maiden Newton and eventually reached Portsmouth after 6 hours travelling.

In Italy the people are voting in the General Election which will decide whether the Communists [or the Christian Democrats – crossed out] will get control of the Italian Government, and ultimately whether Russia will be able to make Italy another of her satellites.

The Western Allies, are backing the Christian Democrats and during the last few weeks the United States have been sending ship loads of gran and all sorts of food to sway the Italian people towards the West, to vote for the Christian Democrats in fact.

During the leave the Pan American Conference which was sitting in Bogota, Colombia, was badly interrupted by a so called Communist inspired revolution. This disturbed the Americans a great deal, for they thought little of the Communist minorities in South America and the American continent before the incident. They should now realise better what a world-wide threat Communism is, even on their own continent.

Sir Stafford Cripps’ budget accepted as a good one by most people whose incomes were less than £2,000 a year in 1947. The remainder, whose incomes were above that figure, have had a Capital Levy imposed upon them. This step was quite unnecessary, and many people think that he did it to appease the extreme left members of the Labour Party who are really Communists in all but name. The levy now will mean that the Government will not make so much from death duties in the future as in the past; it won’t encourage people with large incomes to invest their money, because nobody has taken the Chancellor’s promise (a “once for all” levy he called it) seriously and believe that this is only the beginning of a series of levies; it will not reduce the spending power of the population as a whole; it will encourage speculation discourage thrift and will make many put their money in banks rather than in investments because money in banks is exempt from the levy.

The Committee, which has been enquiring into the Petrol Black Market, published it findings a short time ago. The conclusions reached are that there is no organised, or big petrol black-marketeer’s, racket in the huge illegal consumption of petrol at present but it is each individual motor car owner and garage proprietor who is conducting and allowing this abuse of the ration. What this really means is that there is more petrol available in the country than the present ration allows to essential motorists, consequently the surplus has found its way to the consumer through each garage owner who wants the car owner to get as much petrol as possible as it is in the garage’s interests that the motorist should get as much petrol as possible.

The Committee has suggested that the penalties for infringing the regulations should be harsher and that a third of the old Basic Ration should be restored to all motorists in June for pleasure as well as business. This will have the effect of putting thousands more cars on the roads and will reduce the surplus left over from the petrol issued to motorists and put an end, we hope, to the black market. It will be in the interests of the garage owner in June, to ration the petrol out properly, otherwise he will find he won’t have enough to go round all his clients, and of course the more cars are on the road the more work and pay the garage owner gets.

Monday 19^th April

H.M.S. Illustrious – the dockyard have started work on the stern casting. This had been corroded away by the sea water to a depth of 1 5/8” in the metal at some places and consequently it has to be welded up. For the past month the workmen have been chiselling away the metal to the depth of the corrosion and now the whole casting is being heated up to 200º Centigrade by a very large sized Bunsen burner, which is kept going day and night. This is necessary because small electric welders would not be able to heat the casting up high enough to do a large weld. The job is expected to take about 6 days.

During the leave all the holes in the ship’s side have been plated over and now the riveters are hard at it to rivet all the plates. The After Cabin Flat is filled with fumes from coke braziers which have been put inside the hull instead of on the stages. I went down there to have a look at the work and to see how it is progressing, and was driven out again very quickly by the gas.

The P.V. chains which have been tested and adjusted in the dockyard are being fitted up on the cable deck. The Boatswain intends to have the bar shoe permanently rigged to save time when preparing to stream P.V.’s.

Tuesday 20^th April 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – The findings of the committee enquiring into the plane crash in Berlin: when a Russian fighter was in collision with a British Dakota, have been published. The expert opinion is that the blame rests on the Russian Fighter Pilot who did not obey the recognised air “Rules of the Road.” The Russian authorities did not send any Russian experts to the enquiry because their terms were that only Russian and British witnesses of the crash should be heard. We, on the other hand, were hearing all witnesses of the collision, British, German and, in fact, anybody who could possibly help the enquiry to come to a just and right conclusion by hearing all the facts of the evidence.

Wednesday 21^st April 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – Lieutenant Jolly gave us a lecture on Photographic Interpretation in the Forenoon. He told us a great many interesting discoveries with photographs which had been made during the war, for instance, the depth of water can be measured by dropping bombs in it and observing the shape and size of the plume of water.

In the Dogs I went over to Tipner Range with the rest of the officers and ratings who are going to compete in the Port Rifle Meeting. The light was good and the targets could be seen clearly from the 500yd firing point.

Thursday 22^nd April 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – Spent the forenoon completing a card index of Foretop Division giving details of advancement, seniority, badges due, education etc.

The .22 range was open during the Dogs in “C” Hanger so I had a few shots there. The rifle’s sights seemed a little out because I generally had to aim off to the left of the bull’s eye, even then I didn’t hit the centre much so it may have all been due to my sighting and aiming.

Friday 23^rd April 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – Lieutenant Commander Hamer gave us a very interesting lecture on Maritime Strategy in the Forenoon. At the end he and Misra had a good argument about Communism, in fact at lunch, afterwards, Misra asked me if I thought he had been a little tactless. My opinion on the matter was that its always a good and refreshing thing to hear two points of view at a discussion even if they are a little biased one way or another .

Saturday 24^th April 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – I intended to spend the whole Forenoon today writing up my journal; at 0930 however, Midshipman Foyston asked me if I would do a job for the Commander (L). Till stand easy I was showing three small boys around the ship who were taking a lightning tour of the ships in the dockyard; apparently they were looking over Illustrious, H.M.S. Agincourt, H.M.S. Victory and the H.M.S. Duke of York in the forenoon.

In the afternoon Lemon and I went to see “The Chiltern Hundreds” at the Kings Theatre, Southsea. The play was a comedy and was extremely well acted. Afterwards we walked back here through the dockyard from the Main Gate, passing H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth on the way which, we noticed, has had all its crests and deck plates removed already.

[C.O. comment – the way? Or H.M.S. Q.E.]

Monday 26^th April 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – Both watches of the Hands were at 0720 this morning on the flight deck, because we dressed ship overall at 0800 and the dressing lines, skid lines and downhauls had to be rigged. The flags went up without a hitch.

After breakfast we drew our rifles from the Lower Armament Store and walked to Unicorn Gate to pick up H.M.S. Warrior’s bus to Tipner Range. The practice at the range was for the 200 and 300 yards deliberate event. In the afternoon we did the snap and rapid shooting, which, though it looked very easy beforehand, was much more difficult when actually lying down and firing. [C.O. comment – participle is wrongly attached]. My magazine jammed after two rounds, so I had a good excuse for not doing very well.

At 2017 we should have undressed ship; actually we did so a few minutes before that, because the Signal Tower in the Dockyard dipped its signal too early, whereupon we hauled our dressing lines down: no sooner had we done that than the signal tower hauled its signal up again.

Tuesday 27^th April 1948

Visit to H.M.S-M Sportsman.

To reach H.M.S. Dolphin by 0730 we turned out at 0530, fetched and prepared our own breakfast by ourselves and walked to Asia Pontoon to get a picket boat to Dolphin. The Sportsman left harbour at 0800 at slack water at low tide. When we were out past Nab Tower, at 0930, we dived. As the water was not deep we had to proceed at periscope depth.

H.M.S-M Sportsman is one of the 5 submarines in the Reserve Group here. These five are maintained and taken to se by one submarine crew, which goes to sea five days each week, with a different submarine each day.

At 2 o’clock we surfaced and made for the entrance to the harbour where we had to wait for some time till the states of the tide and currents were just right for us to negotiate the harbour entrance and the bend round into Haslar Creek. While we were waiting, the Queen Elizabeth passed us, dipping as she did so, on her outward bound voyage to New York. H.M.C.S. Magnificent came in astern of us, and was coming alongside the North West Wall as we walked back later through the dockyard to H.M.S. Illustrious.

Wednesday 28^th April 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – 0530 turn out once again, only we had breakfast in the gunroom, prepared by the duty steward before we left the ship for H.M.S. Dolphin as the last notes of “Wakey, Wakey” died away.

We boarded H.M.S.M. Artemis at 0730 to find the boat almost deserted because most of the crew had not yet come down from the living quarters. By 0800 all the crew was aboard and the officers and we six midshipmen were waiting for the captain on the bridge. He arrived two minutes before we were due to cast off.

The Artemis is an ‘A’ Class submarine but is not fitted with a “Snort”. We were told that if they were to have one fitted they would have to have the 4” gun taken out; otherwise the boat would be top heavy.

The First Lieutenant showed us round the boat before we dived; the first instruction he gave us was on the Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus. During the morning each of us had a trial on the wheel. The boat was very slow in answering the wheel and till we had the feel of steering it was a difficult job to keep within 2 degrees of the course.

The Captain made a few dummy runs on merchantmen during the morning, working out all the calculations for the attacks on the “Fruit Machine.” We were allowed to use one periscope while the Captain used the other for his own practice. Whenever we reached the firing position we surfaced and flashed up the merchant ships, exchanging identities. Once we dived to 70ft by flooding ‘Q’ tank to give us negative buoyancy, and when we reached the required depth we blew the tank and restored our neutral equilibrium, keeping to the right depth with the hydroplanes.

We all enjoyed the day very much because the officers and men onboard were so friendly and helpful.

Thursday 29^th April 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – I went over to Tipner Range today to fire in the team snap shooting practice. The ground was quite dry although it had rained early in the morning. Afterwards we walked back to H.M.S. Illustrious as we did not take part in the second event of the forenoon.

When we arrived back onboard we found that the gunroom had been converted into a large bar for an R.P.C. for the Canadians who are joining H.M.S. Magnificent on Friday.

Friday 30^th April 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – We were going to go out in M.T.B.’s this afternoon, making attack on a cruiser out in the Channel. Unfortunately the excursion was cancelled because of the bad weather, I believe.

Before Stand Easy Lieutenant Hamer gave us a lecture on Public Speaking. His main point was that audiences are always with the speaker so it is very unwise to think that they are hostile and so make oneself nervous; some good advice Mr Churchill gives is always to prepare a speech before any occasion upon which one might possibly be called upon to speak impromptu.

[C.O. comment – DOA 4/5 – Grammar weak; pay particular attention to sequence of tences.]

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