Michael D.Heath-Caldwell M.Arch.

May - June - July 1948

Saturday 1st May 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – British reinforcements are being sent to Palestine to prevent the situation deteriorating any further before the British Mandate ends on May 15^th. Royal Marine Commandos from Malta and British Troops from Cyprus are being sent by corvettes, destroyers and an L.E.T. It is also announced that H.M.S. Newcastle is off the Palestine coast to help restrain the Arabs and Jews, if necessary by using a few shells against both sides. The R.A.F. is going to provide fighter escorts to protect convoys on the roads in Palestine. These aircraft will be armed with rocket projectiles and be in continual radio contact with the ground.

Sunday 2^nd May 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – I was on watch in the Forenoon and first dog watch. Nothing whatever out of the ordinary happened. The night was very fine but there was no moon and consequently the night was quite dark.

Monday 3^rd May 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – We all went to Tipner rifle range today to participate in the Port Rifle Meeting. Before lunch we fired in the 200yd, 300yd deliberate competition and, after having lunch at Whale Island , we competed in the rapid and snap event from the 200yd firing point. The weather was beautifully warm and the shooting went off without any hitches so altogether it was a very successful day enjoyed by all of us who were there.

Tuesday 4^th May 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – Today we all went to Tipner again but the weather was not at all king; it was raining and drizzling all the morning. Those of us who decided to stay on in the afternoon were rewared for our patience as the rain stopped after lunch. The main event of the day was the firing movement competition. In the competition we loaded our magazines with 10 rounds at the 600 yard firing point and when our targets came up we ran down to the 500 yard point, fired two rounds and then repeated the performance, running down to the 400 yard line firing another 2 rounds then the same sequence but kneeling or sitting at 300 yard and 200 yard and standing at 100 yard. The wind blew my rifle from side to side when I was kneeling and standing so I did not obtain a very high score.

The dockyard workers are laying railway lines under the Port and Starboard propeller shafts. When the shafts are taken out they will be lowered onto trolleys on the lines and then wheeled out aft to the end of the dock where a floating crane will lift them out of the dock.

Rex Farran, Captain Ray Farran’s brother, was killed at his home yesterday when he was opening a parcel which contained a bomb. The booby trap exploded as he was untying the parcel. Scotland Yard knows who was responsible for making the bomb and (crossed out – are co-operating with ) the French police are co-operating in looking for the man who is believed to be in France.

Wednesday 5^th May 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – Spent the forenoon doing divisional work, making out index cards for the men in Foretop Division.

I was on Watch in the afternoon and dog watches but nothing happened out of the ordinary.

Thursday 6^th May 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – I spent another day at Tipner at the Port Rifle Meeting. Prize giving was held outside the Range Office after lunch. The Captain [G]’s wife gave away most of the team prizes to the Reserve Fleet [A] team whose members fired very well in all the events of the week.

The officer’s galley was sprayed with D.D.T. this morning, and now the deck is covered with dean and dying cockroaches. The galley will not be clear for a day or two as dying cockroaches will continue to drop of the deck head onto anything below.

Friday 7^th May 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – I was on watch in the Forenoon, substituting Leman, as I have a long week and this week.

At 1624 I caught the fast London –Waterloo train which arrived in town at 1801. In the evening I went to the Old Vic to see “The Taming of the Shrew” which was extremely well acted and very amusing.

Saturday 8^th May 1948

London – The British Industries Fair was open to the general public today so my sister and I decided to go to have a look round. We visited Earl Court Stadium where all the textiles, leather , materials and plastic exhibits were on show. These struck me as being mostly very cheap looking, in fact this section disappointed me. The most interesting shows there were the vacuum cleaners which were being worked and demonstrated for the public by the firms employees concerned. One of the cleaners, consisting primarily of a circular brush rotated by an electric motor, was tried out here in the hanger on February 10^th last.

By the time we arrived at the Olympia section of the show it was on closing time so we had to dash around the place quickly. This section, or what I saw of it, interested me more than the other although I saw nothing really new. A large proportion of the foreigners there were Americans who seemed to be making many enquiries about different manufacturers: I hope they were impressed.

Monday 10^th May 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – Everybody is feverishly busy preparing exhibits and shows and cleaning up various parts of the ship for the Navy Days which come off at the end of this week. The Hangar is filled with scaffolding for demonstration hammocks, sections of aeroplane wings, pieces of bofers guns, aircraft radar and radio sets (which will emit buzzing noises and show wavering pictures on their cathode ray tubes (crossed out – ‘occilographs’) all to impress the public]

Another hurried job, which has to be completed before tomorrow night, is the scraping, scrubbing and cleaning of the Quarter Deck for the Captain’s cocktail party. To concentrate on this job all the hands on work in other parts of the ship are being put to work on the Quarterdeck.

Tuesday 11^th May 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – Before stand easy I walked over to No.6 boat shed, near the Main Dockyard gate, to enquire about 2 rudders for our sailing dinghy. I discovered where they were and that they had been ready for about a month.

In the afternoon all the midshipmen went down to Asia Pontoon to do a little boat running practice. We were allocated a 500hp twin screw 45ft picket boat. We arrived about the harbour going alongside jetties, stopping near buoys, turning round in our own length and picking up life buoys. Only once die we ram a wharf, and thereafter we realised how much momentum the boat carried after the engines had stopped.

The dockyard floating crane which will take out our shafts, was being used today to load ex-German yachts onto H.M.S. Magnificent.

H.M.S. Wolfe left harbour while we were practicing in the picket boat. Her hull is painted the Western Approaches green colour which appears to be coming into general use for all the Home Fleet ships. H.M.S. Belfast which is alongside in the basin near the floating dock is also being painted this new colour. I think it looks very smart and new, but perhaps it is only because it is newly on. The time to judge will be in a few months before these ships have another coat.

Martin and myself fetched the two rudders over from No.6 Boat Shed just before they closed at 5 o’clock. Although rudders are quite light when one picks them up, just to put them in the boat, they weigh very much more after being carried half way across the dockyard!

The Ship’s Company held a most successful dance at Kimball’s Dancing Hall. All the gunroom was invited and most of us went. We all enjoyed it.

Wednesday 12^th May 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – Visit to Admiralty Scientific Research Establishment.

A small party of officers from this ship, led by the Commander Air and Commander Bolt, caught the 0824 train for Hazelmore from Portsmouth Town Station. We arrived at our destination, soon after 9 o’clock, a country house several miles from Hazelmore.

Commander Dunsterville gave us a lecture on the establishment, its organisation and its purpose. There all the radar sets and communication wireless transmitters and receivers are designed and the prototypes built. The Admiralty gives the specific requirements to the scientists who give thought to the circuits to be used and the methods of production. The various sections of the establishment develop their inventions as far as the prototype stage and it is their job to contact the radio firms which will mass produce the sets to the specifications laid down, in the first place by the Admiralty.

One section of the establishment deals with radio direction finding of radar transmissions, another designs a special small trans-receiver which perhaps another section deals with the improvement of existing radar sets.

The general policy of the Admiralty now is to let the scientists go off on any track which may someday be useful. When the Admiralty wants a new transmitter it just sends the specifications to the scientists concerned, who work on the job without further supervision from the Admiralty.

At present the main set back is the shortage of money and secondly a great shortage of draughtsmen, who are reluctant to work for the Admiralty because they get payed better by non-government industries.

Thursday 13^th May 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – Before stand easy I had one of our 14ft sailing dinghies hoisted onto the flight deck for scraping and painting. The dinghies have not been used for a long time and are in a poor condition because of neglect.

The U.S.S. Valley Forge, which has been paying a goodwill visit to Portsmouth since 6^th May left harbour today.

Friday 14^th May 1948

Cattistock - I caught the 1220 train to Southampton where I connected with the Waterloo – Weymouth train. I finally reached home at 5 o’clock.

Soon after arriving I drove a sharp instrument into the palm of my hand so later that evening I was given an ante-tetanus injection just in case. I finished fixing up a light above the (Esse?) (Arga?) cooker in our kitchen the same evening without further mishap.

The British Mandate in Palestine ends tonight at midnight. So far the United Nations Unifo Organisation has come to no agreement about the future of the Jews and Arabs there, because the Americans keep changing their policy there, whether to back up the Arabs for the oil from the Middle East oil fields or the Jews for their vote in the coming elections in America.

Saturday 15^th May 1948

Cattistock - The Jews have set up a Jewish State in Palestine to be known as the State of Izrael. Mr David Ben Gurion has been made the first Prime Minister of the new state, with the seat of government in Tel Aviv.

Arab forces crossed the frontiers of Palestine in the North, East and South from Syria, Amman and Egypt. The Arab Legion under the command of Brigadier Glubb Pasha has been crossing over the Allenby Bridge, near Jericho and is advancing westwards towards Jerusalem where Hagannah, the Jewish National army is fighting Arab irregulars.

Sunday 16^th May 1948

Cattistock - President Truman has recognised the Jewish state in Palestine. Russia has done the same so for once the United States and Russia are agreeing over a point. However it is thought that President Truman has done this for political reasons in the United States and Russia has done the same because the Russians can now send Communist inspired Jews from the Balkans who will stir up as much trouble as is possible.

The United Nations Organisation has been discussing the situation in Palestine but no decision about what steps should be taken has been reached because none of the countries representatives will compromise. The United States thinks that we are aiding the Arabs by letting British officers continue to serve in King Abdullah’s Arab Legion which is equippe with British arms and fighting vehicles moreover the Americans claim that the Legion is financed by money loaned to us by the Americans. We are also accused of aiding the Arabs with a view to safeguarding or developing our oil interests in the Middle East which of course is quite true.

Monday 17^th May 1948

This is the last day of Princess Elizabeth’s and the Duke of Edinburgh’s visit to Paris. The Royal couple went there for their Whitsun weekend and were given a terrific welcome wherever they went. Princess Elizabeth requested a short time ago that they should have the minimum of police escorts during their stay, but since then a number of threats were made by or alleged to have been made by extremists of various organisations so security measures were very efficient. At a banquet in honour of the occasion out of 120 guests 50 were police officers.

Tuesday 18^th May 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – We all walked over to H.M.S. Vernon at 0750 to begin our 2 weeks T.A.S. Course. We arrived early after only a twenty minute walk having greatly over estimated the distance and the time required to reach the establishment.

Lieutenant Cooke, who is in charge of our course, met us at the Wardroom and took us over to see the Commander in charge of training, Commander Kempton and the First Lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander Stodert who told us the object of our course was to gain a general knowledge of the T.A.S. branch and its duties to help us in the future when we shall go into its workings more thoroughly.

We did not attend divisions the first day but watched from the side of the parade ground to see the routine. Everything was carried out smartly but with little shouting and the whole thing was quietly efficient.

In the forenoon we learned about Squid when we were shown round an instructional set up which included the bomb throwing mortars, the bomb conveyors, the bridge and the Asdic control room which is fact was the whole set up for firing Squid from the moment a submarine is detected to the time when the projectiles are automatically fuzed and fired by electricity.

In the afternoon Mr Hall, a T.A.S. Gunner, gave us a lecture on the principles of Asdics and we were shown a film on it as well.

Wednesday 19^th May 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – We had more instruction today on the operation of Asdic sets. We were shown how to work the range and beaming recorders in the forenoon and followed that up in the afternoon by manning an Asdic Control Room set up by ourselves and doing some runs on what was called the Asdic Attack Teacher.

We spent an hour or so listening to different pitches of pings in the Asdic Gramophone Teacher room which was to teach us to estimate a submarines course and speed from only the Relative Speed of Closing or Opening and the (pick, pitch?) of the submarine echo compared with the reverberation background.

Thursday 20^th May 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – Before lunch we had instruction on mines and demolitions in the Mining Section at H.M.S. Vernon. We were told all about high explosives in general use and how to use them.

After lunch we were taken by bus over to Farlington range where we each fitted up two 1 ½ lb cordite charges with time safety fuses and electrically(?) . After detonating our own charges we were shown what can be done with Cordtex, line charges and wire cutting charges and lastly how a cavity charge can be used to cut armoured plate 4” thick.

After tea I went up on the flight deck and started to scrape a 14ft sailing dinghy which is in Martin’s charge .

Friday 21^st May 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – The Arab Legion has issued an ultimatum to the Jews still holding out in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem. There the Jews have been forced back into an area about a quarter of a square mile in which the ground is honeycombed with underground passages which the Arabs claim to be blocking with demolition charges. It is said that Irgun Zvei Leumi have taken charge of the defenders and ordered a fight to the death.

The Egyptian forces advancing from the South have captured Gaza and Beersheba and are still advancing Northwards. Tel Aviv has been dive bombed by Egyptian Spitfires.

Uno, has appointed Count Bernadette to negotiate between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. It was he who negotiated with Himmler at the close of the last war in Europe.

In the dock both the Port and Starboard propeller shafts have been wheeled out of the ‘A’ brackets and hoisted onto supports by No.1 Dockyard Floating crane. A new spare shaft has been hoisted in to replace the old Port shaft which was scoured at the “A” bracket bearing causing the whole ship’s stern to vibrate when the ship was going at high speeds.

Two trolleys fitted with jacks and cradles were fitted to run up and down the railway lines on channel bars to take out the propeller shafts. These are going to be fitted onto British Railways trucks as their chassis were badly designed making it necessary to build both a length of railway track and a track composed of channel bars of a smaller gage than the line.

We no longer have top priority for repairs in dock. H.M.S. Warrior in No.14 dock is at the top of the list now because she is going to be used in the sea trials of a rubber flight deck for landing an undercarriageless aircraft.

Tests have been carried out at Farnborough with undercarriageless Vampires on a rubber deck and have proved successful, this was known as stage 3 in this new experiment.

Stage 1 was to build a working scale model of 1” to the foot, (1:12), Stage 2 was to use a rubber deck and land on gliders, without human pilots; Stage 3 was Lieutenant [A] Brown landing the Vampire on the deck; Stage 4 will be landing planes on the deck of H.M.S. Warrior at sea; and finally Stage 5 will be to land planes at the rate of 6 per minute, or if possible in faster time still and stowing them at the same speed. Up to the least stage it is believed everything will succeed as it is a matter of low flying only to pick up the one arrester wire and then all is well, also planes can be catapulted into the air at the rate of 6 a minute by means of twin accelerators fitted with an automatic endless feeder belt system for placing the planes on the accelerators. The last stage is consider to be the one which will take the most solving as planes will have to be landed at the same rate as they were catapulted, once an action is over, and no satisfactory means has yet been found to move them quickly.

The rubber deck consists of thousands of bags of air  built up in three layers with 3/4” thick rubber. At present the bags of air are connected up in series which means that if one bag bursts or is punctured, the remainder in series will also be deflated, also there is still the fire danger to be overcome although this is not so bad as, of course, the fuel used by jet aircraft is not so inflammable as petrol. The deck is 160ft long by 40ft wide and has only one arrester wire as planes can fly round again if they fail to connect on the first attempt. The after end of the rubber deck is built up to the same height and is designed to resist a 16,000lb chock should a plane come in too low. The planes used at present are Vampires, tow have been delivered by the Ministry of Supply but four more are ordered. H.M.S. Warrior should be ready to begin sea flying trials by August.

Saturday 22^nd May 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – I spent the forenoon amending Lieutenant Clayden’s B.R.106C from A.F.O. 1514/48.

It was announced on the 9 o’clock news that our pilots have shot down 4 Egyptian planes which raided one of our airfields near Haifa today. The Egyptians attacked and destroyed two of our planes on the ground, killing some R.A.F. personnel, so our fighters intercepted and shot two down, then another two attacked and were also promptly dealt with.

It is said that the Egyptian pilots made a genuine mistake but our planes were clearly marked with R.A.F. roundels which should have been seen by the airmen.

[C.O. comment – Only use red ink for side headings. See me. JH. 25.05.48]

Monday 24^th May 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – After our usual quarter of an hour walk over to H.M.S. Vernon, via the Unicorn Gate, we marched off, after divisions, to the Torpedo Control section of the school, to start our two days course on this important subject. Mr Hughes, our T.A.S. Gunner instructor, ran briefly over the elementary principles of aiming a torpedo to hit an enemy ship which we learnt before in the training cruiser. We were shown how to use the Torpedo Control Disc, the Torpedo Control Box before graduating to the Torpedo Control Calculator and the Fruit Machine.

Before the end of the day’s instruction we were given a quick tour of the Torpedo Attack Teacher, a very complicated machine which controls the movements of a model bridge, fitted with all the types of Torpedo Control Sights, so that it pitches and rolls realistically. An artificial sea and horizon is projected onto the bowl shaped walls of the room containing the bridge, and different light effects, such as dawn, twilight, sunset and so on, can be produced by pressing a switch. A target is projected onto the horizon by another projector which is also controlled by various switches on a large panel fitted into a room, which adjoins the synthetic bridge trainer, from which the occupants of the bridge can be observed through two windows.

Palestine.

U.N.O. has ordered both sides to cease fire at 1700 B.S.T. today. The Jewish Government has responded to this proclamation by stating that Jewish forces will cease fire at the time ordered, but should the Arabs not comply with the truce but continues fighting, then the Jewish forces will have no alternative but to fight on.

This was a very wise move on the Jew’s part, as they have as little intention of stopping the struggle as the Arabs have, but realise they by saying they will comply with U.N.O.’s order they will receive credit and at the same time the Arabs will be more likely to be regarded as the primary aggressors.

Great Britain is being accused of delaying the Security Council’s decision on Palestine by her attitude towards the whole question. She maintains that should U.N.O. decide that the fighting in Palestine is a threat to International Pease and that one side or the other of the combatants is the aggressor, then U.N.O. would have to take action either by an economic blockade of the aggressor or by restoring order and peace with an international Police Force. Clearly the second course of action is impossible as there is no international force at U.N.O.’s disposal yet, but Britain also believes that the other course would not be successful either and that if U.N.O. tried to carry it out more harm would be done to U.N.O.’s prestige than has been caused by any of the recent international quarrels in which U.N.O. has tried to negotiate.

It has been reported that Jewish artillery has been in action for the first time. The Arab countries have organised troops fighting for them with heavy artillery and mobile armoured columns which the Jews will be able to match only with weapons supplied to them by their American sympathisers when the arms embargo is lifted from the Middle East.

Tuesday 25^th May 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – An apparatus for re-boring the Starboard ‘A’ Bracket has been secured in position by the dockyard. The bearing will be rebored then new bearing surfaces will be fitted before the propeller shaft is placed.

Wednesday 26^th May 1948

Practical Mine Sweeping Instruction in H.M.S. Fancy.

H.M.S. Illustrious – One of H.M.S. Vernon’s 35ft fast motor boats carried us over to H.M.S. Fancy and no sooner were we all onboard than the Captain slipped from the buoy. When the ship was clear of the harbour entrances we went below and shifted into battle dress and old uniforms for working the minesweeper gear on the quarterdeck.

Unfortunately the seas were rough following a force 8 gale and only a few of us were able to make the most of our instruction as we felt the effects of the ship’s movement only too well. We did, however, stream a double ‘L’ sweep before lunch, recovering it in the afternoon. We learned a great deal from doing all the operations ourselves.

Thursday 27^th May 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – Today a boat was sent to Asia Pontoon to take us over to H.M.S. Fancy on board which there was also a conversion course of lieutenants and lieutenant commanders.

When we were out of the Solent past Nab tower we prepared to stream a single (Oropesa?) sweep. We put it out when we were off Dunmore Head  and recovered it at a speed of 4 knots then we let it out again and recovered it once more at 7 ½ knots to demonstrate how higher speeds make it easier to see whether the sweep is fouled with a mine before the otter and float are hauled right up to the ship’s stern.

After the ‘O’ sweep we fired off an explosive Sound Acoustic Sweep which consists basically of 13 grenades, dropped over the side, which are timed to explode separately to the same acoustic waves as are set up by a ship’s propellers. This particular sweep is supposed to actuate the firing mechanisms of acoustic mines anywhere within a radius of two miles from the explosions of the grenades.

At lunch time we anchored off Ventnor, about 200 yards out from the pier. We ate our lunch in the sun on the Port wing of the bridge superstructure and we all managed to appreciate the food today as there was a dead calm. Few and I used the ship’s very primitive optical range finder to take some cuts on the beach and the 6 radar aerials on top of the hills overlooking Ventnor.

After the lunch hour we were called away in the sea boat with the Sub-Lieutenant in charge to pick up a life buoy representing a man overboard. When we were under the falls after completing our mission we had to climb onboard by the life lines. Needless to say the ship’s company was very interested in our operation, the ship’s side being lined with spectators watching the rare spectacle of officers away in the whaler.

H.M.Tug Swarthy manoeuvred the ship into position alongside Vernon jetty after our return to harbour. Once more we were lucky in being able to persuade the Officer of the Watch to let us have a boat to take us back to Asia Pontoon.

Friday 28^th May 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – The Western Union was the subject of a very lucid lecture given to us by Lieutenant Commander Lyle, who sketched the outline of European history chronologically from the time of the Romans to the present. Then he went on to give his opinions on the present grouping of powers in Europe which is divided in two essentially by two different outlooks on life, the Western outlook and the Slav, or pseudo Asiatic outlook. For instance the meaning of the word Freedom is interpreted quite differently in Communist countries to our understanding and moreover the two views cannot be reconciled. Midshipman Misra, R.I.N. spoke very convincingly on the present day problem from the Communist viewpoint, likewise Midshipman Few and Foyston talked for a few moments on the American and Dominion’s opinions on the matter. At the end we had a short discussion on the views which had been expounded to us.

In the South African General Elections Field-Marshal Smut’s United Party, standing for strong ties with Great Britain and the Commonwealth, has been defeated by Dr Malon’s party which pursues an isolationist policy openly hostile to Great Britain. The victors of the elections managed to obtain the necessary votes from the whites to win by their attitude towards the Indians in South Africa who will be left in subservience to their white masters. To safeguard the votes of a great many the Party’s attitude to Great Britain was under emphasised.

[C.O. comment – Not so much anti-British, as pro Afrikans. 1.6.48]

Tuesday 1^st June 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – Our Radar course, arranged by Lieutenant Pym, began today. We started with an introductory instruction on the very elementary principles of the radar set, Lieutenant Pym explaining in great detail how cathode ray tubes and time bases work. Later in the afternoon we learnt about the coverage lobes of radar transmissions and how tactics of aircraft attack are affected by different shapes of the lobes, also we were told how useful these lobes were for calculating the approximate heights of attacking aircraft.

Admiral Lord Fraser of North Cape, who sank the Scharnhorst in the Arctic, and Commodore D.P. Evans came onboard at midday to lunch with the Captain.

At 6.15pm the Captain held a cocktail party on the Quarter Deck to which were invited the ship’s officers and all the dockyard officers and officials who have been connected with the work being carried out on the ship in floating dock.

Wednesday 2^nd June 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – We continued our Radar course today concentrating on the practical side of radar, examining the controls of the radar sets in their particular offices.

Leading Seaman Lawley gave us an explanatory talk on the uses of the switches, buttons and dials in the 277Q and 193 radar offices. After that we went down into the A.D.R. to be shewn the Height Position Indicator and the Desibel Height Finding Diagrams there.

Thursday 3^rd June 1948

The Visit of the Turngum Sales Company Limited.

At 1330 three of the midshipmen met 70 employees of the Tumgun Sales Company Ltd at Unicorn Gate. The remaining three of us met the whole party on the jetty.

Lieutenant Commander Lyle addressed us when everybody had arrived explaining how we were going to conduct the tour. After that we divided up the party into six groups and started off on the pre-arranged route with an interval of two minutes between each group. We crossed over onto the floating dock, via the (brough?) from the jetty to the dock bottom, and made our way aft along the Port side of the ship. The visitors were most interested by the propellers, because their firm made some for an Arctic research vessel, and asked all about the drilling of the “A” brackets which is being done by the dockyard at present. We mounted the Starboard after ladder from the dock bottom and entered the ship by the after brough near the inboard end of which the Quarter Master was permanently stationed to tell the visitors to duck to avoid hitting their heads on the deck head, never the less there were a few collisions.

On the Quarter Deck we shewed them the ship’s bell which was presented to H.M.S. Illustrious at the Norfolk Navy Yard, U.S.A., on the occasion when the ship was repaired there after being badly damaged by German aircraft when she was escorting an important convoy through the Mediterranean bound for our forces in Greece.

Everyone of our visitors was surprised at the vast size and length of the hangars which we traversed before being taken up to the flight deck by the forward lift. After a very brief look at the bridge and the island we walked aft over the debris on the flight deck, explaining on passing the donkey boiler that it was not a permanent picture, but most necessary, at the present time to heat our water as we have no boilers (flashed?) up down below. All the women were considerably impressed by the neat layout and cleanliness of the ships company galley in which we saw large cauldrons of boiling soup, which the women said smelt very good indeed.

All the parties rendez-voused in the Petty Officer’s recreation space at the end of the tour where tea and buns were provided for them.

I was called upon to take two of the men down to the Main Control Room and centre line engine room on their request. I don’t think they realised it was so far down there and back and both of them were breathless by the time we did eventually climb back up to the Starboard forward gangway.

The weather, unfortunately, was not kind and we said goodbye to our visitors, on their way to H.M.S. Victory in the pouring rain. However if the visitors enjoyed the afternoon as much as we did, they must have thought their journey well worthwhile.

Friday 4^th June 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – Today we devoted another forenoon to short lectures. This time the rules for our talks were different from the last because we were given a situation in which we were called upon to make a short speech, but without any preparation beforehand.

Midshipman Misna gave us the most convincing talk. He was told to imagine that he was Staff Officer Operations who was asked to give a short talk, to stress the extreme importance of co-operation between the Navy, Army and Airforce taking part in a combined operation, to the Commanding Officers of the ships in the force just after the final briefing for the raid.

[C.O. comment – Neat and the sketches are good, Ralph Edward]

Saturday 5^th June 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – The United States cruiser Fresno and the French destroyer Triumphant are visiting Portsmouth for a few days, to be here for the unveiling of a memorial to commemorate those who lost their lives on D-Day when our forces and those of our Allies established a bridgehead on the Normandy beaches.

Sunday 6^th June 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – At 1515 a party of about 70 visitors were due to arrive on the jetty to be shown round the ship by the duty hands. Nobody had turned up by 1530 so I sent the duty hands back to their messes, as it was raining quite hard and the men had been waiting on the jetty since 1500. At 1600 a large straggling party of men and women were seen approaching the ship from the direction of Unicorn Gate so the hands were called out at the rush. The party didn’t possess a leader but one of them did step forward and say that they had come with the intention of visiting H.M.S. Illustrious. I sent the guides off with the groups of about ten, but in spite of the fact that each guide had been issued with instructions for the route to be followed, the very first one off went straight up the gangway onto the top of the floating dock instead of going over the brow (brough?) onto the dock bottom.

From 1315 till 1900 there was a total power cut in the ship because the dockyard electricians were carrying out some important maintenance job on the dockyard power lines. In spite of the Aldham emergency battery lamps which are hung up everywhere onboard, in all the passages and compartments, very few of them functioned properly, so the ship was plunged into pitch darkness. [C.O. comment – ‘Although Aldham lamps were hung up…]

During the dog watches four new midshipmen joined the ship:- Midshipmen Green, Clough, Hughes and Hillard who had just completed their short gunnery course either at Chatham or Devonport barracks.

Monday 7^th June 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – Before leaving for H.M.S. Boxer I occupied myself in bringing my radar notes up to date from the lectures we had had from Lieutenant Pym and some of the more intelligent radar ratings on board.

We all went over to H.M.S. Boxer after tea, only to be informed, when we arrived, that we would not be sailing till 0820 the next day and that we could go back to H.M.S. Illustrious for the night if we wanted to. Having worn myself out carrying a heavy suitcase and duffel coat all the way across the dockyard I decided to remain onboard and turn in early.

Tuesday 8^th June 1948

H.M.S. Boxer – At 0830 we cast off from alongside H.M.S. Belfast. The Captain went half astern on both engines with his wheel to Port, as we were alongside Starboard side to, but we didn’t manage to turn the stern round towards Fareham Creek till we were well out into the fairway because there was a strong wind from the North West.

After leaving harbour we started our Radar Course by having instruction on switching sets on and tuning them correctly. Our instructor, a radar mechanic, also gave us some short notes on elementary valve theory to help us to understand some of the stages in the sets.

After tea we anchored off Eastbourne Pier where we watched the trippers come out in their boats to have a good look at us. One boat broke down on the way back to the pier, but in spite of the evident signs of panic among the passengers and the fast current and the number of boats which were near the beach nobody came to their rescue. Luckily they managed to start the engine again, which took them back  to the dry land with much effort as the exhaust pipe was puffing out clouds of steam all the way.

[C.O. comment – The engine, or the boat?]

After dinner we went forward, down to the destroyer operations room and bridge set ups. There we plotted the movements of ships passing up and down the Channel and interrupted various tracks with imaginary destroyers.

Thursday 10^th June 1948

We spend most of the forenoon in the A.D.R. watching the A.D.R. team directing fighter planes on to others, actin as enemy bombers. They were experimenting with a transponder in an aircraft in the vicinity of the ship which, when it received R/T V.H.F. transmissions from other planes out of V.H.F. range of H.M.S. Boxer, retransmitted the signals back down to the directing ship. In effect this was really placing H.M.S. Boxer aerials up on the shy to increase the range. The tests were very successful although they took somewhat longer to complete than was a first anticipated; the aircraft taking part having to do runs out from the ship at different heights, then records of the strength of reception being made at various distances between ship and plane.

Saturday 12^th June 1948

H.M.S. Boxer – After lunch I started to put my clothes in order preparatory to packing. Just before tea, when I was having a short nap in the gunroom, I was roused out of my dreams by the boatswain’s mate telling me that the Commander wanted a duty midshipman on the quarterdeck. I didn’t have a very guilty conscience but I did not know what I was required for as I was expecting some reproof for somebody’s actions.

What had actually happened was that 25,000 cigarettes and half a dozen bottles of liqueurs had been stolen from No.5 Bombroom and the wardroom wine store. These might have been taken at any time within the previous nine days and were probably safely ashore, out of the dockyard, at the time the theft was discovered, but there was the slight chance that the stolen goods might be still on board. For this reason a thorough search was going to be made through every compartment in the ship, and the search parties were going to be led by midshipmen. My packing programme was seriously disjointed.

After tea another midshipman and I started the search from forward, my party going through all compartments on the main deck and below it, the other party the decks above. After two hours we had just completed the search from forward to 31 frame. We were delayed by the large number of compartments which were locked but whose keys could not be found either on the main keyboard or on the Important Key Board. Not a sign was seen of any cigarette cartons although we unearthed many collections of bad food and (gest got?)in and behind empty lockers in unoccupied mesadecks, particularly on the Squadron’s mesadeck.

After supper all the midshipmen onboard continued the search but by 10 o’clock we still hadn’t searched ¾ of the compartments in the ship. At that stage the duty part was secured and the midshipmen continued the search. We drew all the Bomb Magazine keys first and went through all the Bomb rooms without finding anything suspicious at all. However in NO.5 Pom-Pom magazine we found some broken seals off cigarette cartons, but we discovered the next day that they were the remains of the previous cigarette theft.

A dockyard workman, who might have been working in the vicinity of No.5 bomb room, could have easily gained access to the store by burning the lock or lasps off the door or by getting in via one of the watertight compartments all round the Bomb room which were accessible through open manhole doors. Anyway the watertight compartments round other magazines in the vicinity were opened up, and I do not suppose it would have been difficult to get in that way.

One theory was that access was gained via the bomb lift, the keys to which are kept on the magazine keyboard.

I turned in eventually at 3am on Sunday with hardly any of my packing done and due to leave the ship at 1330 on Sunday.

Sunday 13^th June 1948

After packing very hurriedly I caught the 1420 train from the harbour station for Waterloo Station. On the way up to town I gained a little lost sleep. Eventually, having had a good tea at Westways Hotel, near Euston Station we caught the 1755 boat train for Stranmaer, in which we had had seats booked for us by Midshipman Frew. As I was so tired I managed to sleep all the way inspite of the jogging motion of the train. We were shaken at 0530 at Stranmaer to leave the train and make our way over to the ship which was due to cast off at 0700 to start the crossing to Lorne.

Monday 14^th June -

In the end we reached Londonderry without any further mishaps and took a taxi from the station there to the jetty, near the Guildhall, to which H.M.S. Agincourt and H.M.S. Corunna were tied up.

[C.O. comment – Don’t try to apply Naval expressions to civilian affairs]

[C.O. comment – Really! Hard lines on the Mayor’s Parlour! Anyway, H.M. ships are not “tied up,” they are “secured.”]

Monday 14^th June 1948

H.M.S. Corunna - In the forenoon I walked round the ship and met some of the ship’s officers. After lunch Sub-Lieutenant Prichett roped both Few and myself in to play a game of cricket up on the barracks playing fields, the other side of the river.

When we came back we helped to rig the wardroom for a cocktail party beginning at 1800. I met some R.A.F. officers in the course of the evening who invited me to go flying with them on the next A/S exercise. At first I thought everything was arranged, but Captain [D] would not allow us to go because we are here for sea time not air time. It was arranged, though, for us to go over to Ebrington, the barracks, the next day for some instruction on Sono-Buoys, which are dropped by aircraft in the vicinity of enemy submarines and if they land anywhere within 1,500 – 2,000 yards of a submarine, hydrophones, hung by wire beneath the buoys, pick up the noise of the submarine’s engines and transmit the sounds to the aircraft orbiting above. By dropping a set pattern of buoys which transmit at different frequencies a set pattern of buoys which transmit at different frequencies the observer in the aircraft can estimate the course, speed and depth of the submarines with some accuracy.

The buoys are expendable, sinking after 6 hours in the water because the wax over a hole in the buoyancy chamber has been dissolved by salt water by that time. At present we are short of buoys so efforts are made to recover them at the end of the exercise; these do not meet with much success as the buoys are very small and not easily seen.

[C.O. comment – you grammar and association of thoughts are both rather weak. Try to think before writing. Sketch of ‘Corunna’ very neat. ]

Wednesday 16^th June 1948

H.M.S. Corunna - At 6pm H.M.S. Agincourt, H.M.S. Corunna and H.M.S. Jutland cast off and proceeded down the River Foyle to anchor at 7.30pm in Loch Foyle off Moville, a small town in Southern Irish Territory. Liberty boats were run for the ship’s company so that the men could make the most of our last few days in Ireland for purchasing un-rationed food and clothing ashore.

Thursday 17^th June 1948

Joint Air/Sea Antisubmarine Exercise

H.M.S. Corunna - I turned out at 0250 to be up on the bridge at 0310 when we weighed anchor. We made for the open sea in single line ahead with H.M.S. Agincourt leading to take part in the exercise which was due to start at 0400.

The situation at the start of the exercise was that an independently routed Merchant ship had been reported sunk in position 56º 00’N, 07º 10’ W at 0400 on 17^th June. Thereupon aircraft, Sunderlands of 201 Squadron and Lancasters of 37 Squadron, and a Surface Hunting Group, consisting of our three ships and the frigates H.M.S. Lock Fada and H.M.S. Loch Veyatie, were despatched to detect and sink the submarines responsible for the attack.

To the South there was an important inward bound convoy approaching Londonderry on the Western Convoy Route and it was anticipated that the submarines might have had orders to close and intercept the convoy before it reached the safety of the deep minefield.

The object of the exercise was to practice Air/Sea co-operation in detecting and sinking submarines and to enable the submarines to exercise eluding detection by air and sea forces under realistic conditions.

As soon as the report of the sinking was received aircraft went up and started a box search round the position of the attack. At the same time 6 ships which had been some 60 miles away to the S.S.E. at 0400 were diverted to detect and destroy the submarines before they closed the enemy.

An aircraft detected one submarine soon after beginning the search, and after dropping some buoys it reported accurately the submarine’s course and speed so that H.M.S. Agincourt and H.M.S. Corunna were able to detect the submarine. After closing the target on an interception course, based upon the information supplied to us by aircraft. Just before 0600 the submarine Alliance surfaced at a very step angle ahead, and I myself thought at first that her bow was a rock, as she did not come to the surface straight away but remained with her bows out of the water for a minute or so. The reason for this strange behaviour was the jamming of her after planes.

H.M.S. Jutland ‘sank’ a submarine at about 10 o’clock after its position had been reported by an aircraft from signals received from a buoy in a chain of sono-buoys which had been laid in a straight line across which all submarines in the area of the merchant ship sinking, would have had to have gone if they were to have intercepted the convoy.

Only one submarine managed to reach the convoy’s track undetected, coming half the way from her position at the start of the exercise in company with Alliance which we caught at 0600.

The lessons learnt during the exercise are that ships alone can not detect submarines in a given area half as quickly or as efficiently as aircraft co-operating with ships. Another lesson, the value of sending an aircraft straight to the position of a ship’s sinking to detect and shadow the enemy with sono-buoys or with other means until the sea forces can close and sink the submarine.

At 1200, when the exercise was completed we returned to Lock Foyle, going alongside the oiling jetty at Culmore Bay, at the entrance to the River Foyle. There was a current running out from under the jetty as well as a wind tending to push us off, consequently we took some time coming alongside seven after we had ropes ashore forward and aft, shot over with coston gun. Captain [D] took as long as we did to go alongside, before us, and so kept us waiting in the channel off Culmore Point before we could go in to secure. Oiling was completed by 2000 when we cast off and continued up stream to Londonderry where we secured starboard side to.

Midshipman Frew and I occupied ourselves during the afternoon in checking the narrative of the A/S exercise with the signals log and making a fair copy of the result.

Friday 18^th June 1948

H.M.S. Corunna - When tea was over, the hands prepared the ship for letting go. At 1810 we cast off from Agincourt’s port side and turned just in the middle of the channel with a strong wind from down river making manoeuvring very difficult. When we were headed downstream we had been blown right back near the jetty forward of H.M.S. Agincourt. By then we had enough way on to steer off the jetty into the middle of the river.

At a quarter to nine o’clock the ship anchored off Portrush. The last time I was here was in June last year when H.M.S. Devonshire anchored here for a night, and left the next day because the swell in the exposed anchorage prevented our boats going inshore.

Saturday 19^th June 1948

H.M.S. Corunna - The wind blew up a little last night causing a swell which makes the ship roll but does not prevent the drifter coming alongside, or pleasure boats which brought 815 visitors over to the ship when we were open during the afternoon.

In the London docks 18,000 dock workers have been on strike for the last two days holding up vital imports as well as causing a slowdown of our export programme.

The strike began over penalties imposed on 11 men who refused to load zinc oxides at an agreed rate.

Sunday 20^th June 1948

H.M.S. Corunna- Today we had Sunday Divisions even though the ship was rolling just enough to make standing a little difficult, of course it may only have seemed difficult to me because it is such a long time since I was in a ship that rolled. The appearance of the ship’s company was smart. Again, I suppose I noticed that in contrast to the National Service Seaman’s standard of smartness in H.M.S. Illustrious.

Monday 21^st June 1948

H.M.S. Corunna- Visit to Bushmills Consol Radio Station

The Flotilla navigator invited our electrical officer, the navigator, Midshipman Few and I to go over to the Consol Station to see how it worked and to meet the men who kept the station operating 24 hours a day. We went ashore at 9 o’clock in the H.M.S. Agincourt’s motor cutter, catching a bus at the station which went to Bushmills village (known for its distillery) where a very small van was waiting to convey us over the last 2 miles of our journey. We all managed to squash ourselves in, but the load was too heavy for the engine which gave up the unequal struggle a mile away from our destination at the top of a hill.

The station staff told us exactly how the set worked, explaining the operation of different stages in the transmitter and the organisation of this navigational aid. We were shown tow walkie-talkie sets which had been made by the operators, one of them was fitted inside a tin soap box. The other, which works very well, has a range of about 8 miles and weighs only two pounds.

We went back to Bushmills village for lunch. The van carried us back without mishap as it was downhill all the way.

On the advice of a member of the Consol staff we all went over to the hydro-electric power station which supplies electricity which works the Portrush – Giant’s Causway Tramway. The 2 water driven vertical turbines work on a 28 ft head of water  which is obtained by a channel in a water from above a waterfall very near the power house.

The turbines drive a 550 volt, 480 r.p.m. dynamo through a system of rod gearing and belt power transmission. The generated voltage is controlled by altering the speed of the dynamo, which is done by closing or opening the sluice letting water into the turbines. The operator sits in a chair with a voltmeter in front of him. When a tram starts moving or goes up hill the load on the dynamo increases, the voltage drops so the operator turns a wheel in front of him, which is on a wormed axle. By doing that a chain is pulled into the control room or is allowed to go back under the pressure of water on the sluice which the chain moves.

[C.O. comment – Not clear at all.]

The station was the first one to be worked in Europe and the overhead wiring of the tramway was also the first of its kind. At first, in 1865, when the tram lines were laid, there was a live rail. Several children were electrocuted by this, but what finally made the company build the overhead wires was the practice of the local farmers who put their sick and old cows on the live rail and then claimed compensation from the company.

The profit made by the enterprising company must have been very high as the rolling stock is the original rolling stock. In fact the only part of the whole equipment which has been renewed is the generator which was replaced in 1903 because the original one was not powerful enough.

[C.O. comment – Do split up your paragraphs into sentences, so as to make sense. Signed A. Spence Bell(?)]

Tuesday 22^nd June 1948

H.M.S. Corunna- Although the ship was open to visitors in the afternoon none came onboard because the pleasure boat coxswains would not come alongside with such a swell running.

A dance was given for the Ship’s Companies in Pleasure Ground Dance Hall, near the railway and bus stations.

Thursday 24^th June 1948

H.M.S. Corunna- we weighed anchor at Portrush at 0525, shaping our course to join up with a convoy, consisting of the depot ships Monclare, Woolwich and Mull of Kintyre, which was going to sail northwards between the Inner and Outer Hebrides under the protection of a screen of destroyers and frigates.

The aim of the exercise was to give submarine crews some experience in attacking a strongly protected main body escorted by small ships with air cover. The submarine’s commanders were to try to position themselves so that torpedoes could be fired at the heavily guarded ‘capital ships’ without being located by the screen. The exercise was not very interesting from our point of view, on the bridge, as no escorts were allowed to be detached from their stations to hunt down suspected submarines, in fact our part in the operation was mainly to give the submarines practice in avoiding detecting rather than to practice our own A/S ratings.

Having taken up our proper position in the screen, over on the Starboard side of the convoy, at 0550 we did not have any contacts till 0945 when we received some submarine echoes from which the course of the submarine was calculated. All the action took place on the Port side of the convoy, where nearly every submarine seemed to make an attack.

Basking sharks were reported as periscopes several times during the day. On the bridge we were wondering whether the asdic operators would receive any pings from the fish, but as far as I know nothing like that happened. H.M. Submarine Tactician scored a direct hit on H.M.S. Montclare with one of her torpedoes which had its head ripped open in the collision and ultimately sank.

H.M.S. Agincourt and H.M.S. Corunna left the convoy off Skey at 1915 when the exercise, or the first in a series of exercises, was over. We proceeded to the South on our way down to Cardiff.

Friday 25^th June 1948

H.M.S. Corunna- we steamed south through the Irish sea all day, at sunset passing three tugs with H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth in tow, on their way to the brea (?)

A Bren gun and a tommy gun were taken up to the bridge in the first watch, because a floating mine had been reported somewhere on our route to Cardiff south of St.Govan’s Light. Nothing was sighted during the night however,

Saturday 26^th June 1948

H.M.S. Corunna- At 0808 we anchored in the Cardiff Roads because we had to wait for a merchantman which was going out of Queen Alexandra dock through the Loch.

H.M.S. Agincourt went into the loch first, scraping her Starboard side on the lock gates as she entered, being blown over to the Starboard side of the lock by the wind and tide. We following in astern and avoided the dockside, having learned from the Agincourts mistake to allow for wind and tide. Once we were in the lock the outer lock gates were closed and we rose a few feet on the water to the level of Queen Alexandra’s Dock. We finally secured alongside at 1045, on the North wall, Port side to just astern of H.M.S. Agincourt.

The hands worked till 1230 to tidy and clean up the ship for the visitors who thronged onto the ship between 2pm and 6pm. Many small children ran about all over the decks, but apart from making a mess, they did no damage. A little half caste boy, on H.M.S. Agincourt, was discovered, just in time, before he was able to knock off the slip holding the Port anchor, having previously taken off the brake on the cable holder and unscrewed the compressor. The same afternoon a gang of small boys managed to start up the motor in a motor cutter on the davits.

Sunday 27^th June 1948

H.M.S. Corunna- The ship was again open to visitors who swarmed onboard in large numbers as usual. I was trying to write my journal in the Operations room, but didn’t succeed in composing very lucid English Prose as my attention wandered occasionally to the scuttles at which faces were continually appearing, besides that there abstraction was a continual bumping overhead, where hundreds of visitors were looking over the bridge.

In the Port of London the dock strike continues in defiance of the worker’s unions and the authorities. Royal Naval personnel and troops are prepared to go into the docks should the dockers continue to hold up our exports and imports from London. The meat ration for the people of London is jeopardised and hundreds of tons of food in some of the ships alongside, waiting to be discharged, are in danger of going bad.

Monday 28^th June 1948

H.M.S. Corunna

Visit to Guest Keene and Baldwin’s Steel Works at Cardiff.

A party of 36 was invited to see over Guest Keene and Baldwin’s steel smelting and rolling mills  at 1430. Unfortunately, adjoining G.K.B.’s there was another steel firm, by name of Guest, Keene & Nettlefold’s(?) [Nettallogy?], the entrance to which was on our way to G.K.B.’s from Queen Alexandra’s dock. Having been informed, previously, by the liaison officer here that the two firms were one and the same we entered G.K.N.’s factory. There we were met by some of the firm’s officials who provided guides at three minute notice and arranged to have tea laid on for us. We were told that although a letter had been sent to Captain [D], inviting the crews of Agincourt and Corunna to come and pay a visit to the factory, no reply had been received. We were not, then, entirely unexpected.

No sooner had small groups of us departed from the central office than we were rung up by an official at G.K.B.’s , who guessed we had arrived at the wrong place, and asked if we were, after all, going to pay G.K.B.’s factory a visit. We were then in an awkward dilemma; whether to continue our visit at the wrong place, with the knowledge that the other firm realised where we were, or to tear ourselves away from the first place, having interrupted all its organisation, to arrive an hour late at the second. We had to follow the second course of action.

Once we arrived at the right place we were shown all the stages in the manufacture of railway lines. From the stage when white hot steel bubbled in gigantic oil fired furnaces to the end of the production line where rails were bent to different shapes depending on their use later on, for instance the day we were there coal mine tunnel supports were being made.

Iron ore arrives in ships, which come alongside the firm’s wharves and unload their cargo hold into huge storage cylinders not unlike large sized silos. The iron ore is taken from these cylinders, as necessary, and mixed with coke and lime and then the mixture is automatically fed into huge blast furnaces, which take about 18 hours to produce the pure molten iron. One of the by-products of this stage is gas, enough of which is produced to supply Cardiff, Newport and Barry.

The steel is conveyed to huge oil fired furnaces where it is heated up to white heat once again. In the previous stage carbon was fused in with the iron, making the resulting metal steel.

The molten steel is poured into huge cylindrical castings with an outsize ladle, manipulated by an overhead gantry crane. Once more the castings are put into more big gas heated ovens, where they are heated up to white hot and pliable, not melted. Now the metal blocks can be dealt with by huge rolling presses, which roll out the stumpy castings into yards and yards of red or an orange hot steel rails. These are fed through countless other rollers which reduce the cross sectional area of the rails at each stage and consequently increase the speed at which the metal rails travel along the conveyor rollers.

The factory is at present working at full capacity, the only threatening factors being the shortage of scrap steel, the expense and scarcity of oil on which the factory depends, following its changeover from coal two years ago, and last but not least the threatened Nationalisation of the Steel Industry. The average wage of the workers there is 10 a week, partly earned under the minimum wage system and party by payment by results system. Not one of the workers to whom I talked complained about his capitalist employers and all agreed that Nationalisation is the last thing that the industry requires at the present time.

At 9 o’clock Mr Attlee broadcast to the country in general and the dockers in particular, announcing that the country was now in a state of emergency and that the King, on leave in Scotland, had been advised to and had signed a proclamation announcing an official state of emergency. This step gives the government the power to keep essential services running by commandeering, if necessary, equipment owned by private persons; the power to put troops to work where strikers are out; to arrest strike instigators and search private property without the usual search-warrant.

Mr Attlee told the dockers very clearly that by their irresponsible actions in not abiding by the rules laid down by the Trade Unions, agreed upon by all trade union members, they endangered their own standards of living as well as that of the rest of the country, and moreover, they were doing their very best to undo all the good that the Organisation had done for themselves and the rest of the workers since the Trades Unions were started. In short, Mr Attlee told the dockers to remember their obligations as well as their rights.

Tuesday 29^th June 1948

H.M.S. Corunna- Mr Attlee’s talk was a great success. All the dockers returned to work this morning without any absenteeism.

The ship was again open to visitors, who came aboard in their hundreds as usual. Just as we ushered the last ones off the brow a large part of women appeared on the jetty. These made straight for the brow and announced themselves as the ex-W.R.N.S. Assocation of Cardiff. I think a few of them expected to be shown straight to the wardroom for free drinks and entertainment, because no sooner had we made it clear that they had come on board to look over the ship than a few of them, without saying a word, waked off the ship and departed in the first taxi they could hire. Anyway, after an hour of showing 6 of the rather more intelligent ones the guns, the boiler rooms and the engine rooms they all gathered for tea in the Petty Officer’s Mess aft.

As soon as the W.R.N.S. were settled a large party of paratroopers appeared onboard. Again we divided them up into small parties and started showing them around the ship. We were asked many questions about the guns in which they were very interested. I learned that they were equipped with exactly the same weapons as the Royal Marines, so they had come across nothing bigger than a 3” mortar.

Wednesday 30^th June 1948

H.M.S. Corunna- A Lieutenant Commander R.N.V.R. was due to join the ship today, so I spent half my forenoon moving out of my drawers in my three berth cabin and drawing a hammock in which to sling. I heard later that the officer was not able to leave his job ashore because of the dock strikes, so I suppose I own my bunk to the strikers indirectly.

We cast off from the North Wall in Queen Alexandra’s dock at 1025, after which we secured in the lock. After a quarter of an hour both gates were closed and the sluice gates opened allowing the water in the lock to fall about ten feet to the level of the tide outside.

By 2100 we were off Land’s End, where we passed a floating dock in tow away to the South West. Frew and I tried to take star sights but the sky had clouded over during the sunset and the horizon was bad, so we could not shoot any stars accurately. The Navigator gave us some instructions on the operation of “Gei” the radio aid to navigation, which we used in turn.

[C.O. comment – a great improvement.Be up to date next Sunday.

Thursday 1^st July 1948

H.M.S. Corunna - I turned out at 0725 to go on watch for the forenoon. Between 8 and 9 o’clock the ship was passing Portland to Port. H.M.S. Alamein had just weighed anchor in Weymouth Bay and steaming out to sea close to the Portland Bill before starting an Anti-Submarine exercise which was part of her working up programme.

By 11 o’clock we had passed Lulworth Cove and were off the Isle of Purbech, the land lying to the South of Purbech Hil, Knowle Hill, Corfe Castle, Nine Barrow Down and Ballard Down. Off Swanage we calculated that we were a little ahead of schedule so we decreased speed. A little before 12 o’clock we were running in on our anchor course and exactly at midday we let the anchor go; anyway according to observers in MFV 1161, which arrived before us, very early in the morning, we were right on time.

The ship was open to visitors, as usual, during the afternoon so we had no rest after our trip round from Cardiff. A paddle steamer came alongside soon after we were open and discharged about 400 people onboard in one go. The boat came alongside several times in the afternoon, but it was decided that that practice should cease as too much paint was being scrapped off our Port side.

The week is Poole Yacht Club’s racing week so a large number of all sizes and descriptions of boats are out each day racing up and down the course, one leg of which runs parallel to the beaches. The starting line and finishing line is between a buoy, a cable from our anchor, and the pier.

Friday 2^nd July 1948

H.M.S. Corunna – The ship will be open at the usual times today and every day we are here, as we are not in company with H.M.S. Agincourt which is paying a visit to Darlish(?), Devon, at the moment.

A small travelling variety company came onboard in the evening and gave a short show to about half the ship’s company which was crammed into the port waist. The actors had a very small, and by no means flat, area on which to perform, however being used to village hall and barn stages, they put up with the odd (erye?) bolts and templates in front of the footlights.

Saturday 3^rd July 1948

H.M.S. Corunna – I spent my spare time writing up my journal, being frequently disturbed by anxious visitors.

Sunday 4^th July 1948

H.M.S. Corunna – I intended to go home for the day but very unfortunately the weather deteriated and the sea got up. At 1100 the Captain sent the M.F.V. off to Swanage to find shelter from the storm. By that time all but two of our large fenders had been torn to pieces and lost between the ship’s side and the drifter.

The pleasure boats were unable to bring off visitors in the afternoon much to our relief and much to the detriment of the profits made by the Skylark’s pleasure boatman. The Bournemouth Belle, a large pleasure boat specially built for the business and completed at the beginning of the season, lost about £400 through the day’s bad weather.

All the pleasure boats at Bournemouth are owned by a monopoly, all boats being marked by the letters J.B. on their funnels. 6 of the fleet, ex-American carvel built pinnaces, were named Skylark I to VI, the remainder of the boats, bigger than the Skylarks, have more individual names, one being the Bournemouth Belle. I should think J.B. lost about £1000 of holidaymaker’s money during the afternoon, most of which would have been clear profit.

Monday 5^th July 1948

H.M.S. Corunna – So many people were onboard, at one time today, queuing for boats on the Starboard side that the ship developed a decided list.

I turned in early to obtain some good sleep before the next day’s exercises at sea.

Tuesday 6^th July 1948

H.M.S. Corunna – I was up on the bridge at 0415 when we weighed anchor and proceeded westwards to the Portland Exercise area.

At 0600 we passed a tug towing the Battle Practice Target at which we were to fire later on in the day. H.M.S.Agincourt was sighted to the West an hour after we had passed Portland Bill abeam to Starboard.

The shoot was scheduled to start at 0815 but was began at 0830 when H.M.S. Agincourt went in and engaged the target.

At 0845 we turned in on the firing run. The main armament opened fire when the range had been closed to about 12,000 yards, as the last broadsides were being fired by “B” turret we turned to Port to carry out a dummy torpedo attack on the target. To enable observers to see where the shots from different guns were falling, when the turrets were firing broardsides, each gun fired a shell with a certain coloured dye in the nose. These noses, on contact with the sea, burst, dying the plumes (caused by the shell) a particularly bright and unmistakeable colour. The left gun of “A” turret fired shells which produced Green plumes. Right Gun “A” turret , White plumes; and left and right guns of “B” turret produced Red and Yellow plumes.

Both guns of “A” turret jammed during the first part of the run in so “B” turret opened fire before all “A”’s shells had been fired. A turret joining in again when the jams have been rectified. The Director Layer had difficulty in keeping on the point of aim, as stabilisation was erratic on the upward roll. This was found afterwards to have been due to “soft” valvesin the elevation amplifier. The rate of fire was greatly slowed down owing to the length of time on aim by the Director Layer.

After the L.A. shoot was completed we took station action of H.M.S. Agincourt and H.M.S. Alamein which had come up and taken our station astern of Captain [D].

At 09455 we opened fire at a sleeve target towed by a plane up and down the Starboard side, at a range of about 5,000 yards at an angle of sight of 10º. The pilot flew very close to our shell bursts at one time, and of course made some objections.

At 1010 H.M.S. Agincourt and H.M.S. Alamein turned away to Port, and we continued on the same previous course, parting company to commence a shoot with our close range weapons. The aircraft towed the sleeve at right angles to the ships track coming in first from the Port side then from Starboard an so on till all our ammunition was used up. The plane was ordered back to base at 1030.

The noise of the guns was not particularly pleasant on the bridge. The Bofers guns on either side of the bridge seemed to make worse bangs than the 4.5” guns, in particular the Starboard Bofars which was fired off at the highest elevation possible, when the end of the barrel was level with the top of the bridge. This was done at the end of the exercise to test recoil, and I was not expecting it.

At 1215 all three destroyers made a dummy torpedo attack on the S.S. Houffalize, a 20 knot Belgian merchant ship. We attacked on her Port bow all turning together away to Starboard when we fired our imaginary torpedoes. As soon as that was over H.M.S. Corunna, which was leading the line, was ordered to drop astern into position two cables on H.M.S. Alamein’s Starboard beam. Then we stopped engines and everybody prepared to send the seaboats crew away to pick up our life buoy. We raced H.M.S. Alamein and beat them very easily. Following that we hoisted the ensign at the mast head and the Jack forward. 5 minutes later, after various rockets and Verys lights had been fired, an astonished seaman with his shirt hanging out was standing on top of “B” turret, having gone through the escape hatch on the Port side from the after messdecks. Perhaps H.M.S. Alamein will be as quick as our crew in general exercises after 12 months of working up.

The general exercises over we proceeded East, once more, to anchor off Eastbourne at 2000.

Wednesday / Thursday 7^th 8^th July 1948

H.M.S. Corunna – H.M.S. Agincourt, only, was open to visitors. Frew and I were well occupied in swinging ship by reading off the ship head by gyro compass and magnetic at every 2 degrees of swing. The ship’s deviation has changed considerably since the last official swinging, according to our calculations.

Friday 9^th July 1948

H.M.S. Corunna – I went ashore 1245 with a party of the sips and H.M.S. Agincourt’s officers to be lunched by the Round Table Club of Eastbourne. The members of this particular club are all business men and the number of men in different businesses is strictly controlled, thus there are 3 doctors, 4 electricians, 3 butchers, 3 bakers and three candlestick makers and so on. All the members have to be under 40 years of age because the aim of the club is to get together the younger businessmen of the town for their mutual entertainment and benefit.

After lunch a very witty and interesting talk was given on the manufacture of beer. Many references to the present day quality and strength of beer were made in the ensuing speeches by members, one of whom said the speaker was more full of his subject in two ways than one.

During the afternoon, I walked about Eastbourne, looking for films for my camera. I managed to buy some ex-RAF pancromatic film for my 630 Kodak Box Brownie, and was very lucky indeed in finding a shop which stocked some 3 ¾” x 3 1/4” Kodak rea film for our 118 Kodak folding camera.

Saturday 10^th July 1948

H.M.S. Corunna – The Jews and the Arabs have started the fight in Palestine once more. Count Bernadette, the United Nations mediator, asked both sides to prolong the truce. The Jews agreed but the Arabs refused to wait any longer, as they realised the longer the truce lasted the more time the Jews would have to receive arms and fighting equipment from their supporters abroad.
The Russians have not yet replied to the notes sent by the United States, Great Britain and France, demanding the lifting of the Soviet Blockade of the Western Power’s sectors of Berlin. New restrictions have, however, been placed on motor vehicles, leaving Berlin for the West, all of which are now liable to be searched for forbidden articles by the Russians unless they possess Russian passes.

The air ‘lift,’ as the air supply route is called continues in spite of bad weather and Russian protests about dangerous flying by our pilots. It is reported that tugs have been towing lines of floating logs across Lake Havel, in Berlin, where Sunderland flying boats have been landing lately, landed with supplies of food for the German population and our garrisons there. Dakotas are being used on the same scale as those used during the war to fly supplies across the ‘Hump’ to the Chinese.

In Malaya, which has been troubled lately by a spate of murders of plantation owners and managers, the army is taking a stronger hand against the Communist inspired Chinese and Japanese terrorists.

Sunday 11^th July 1948

H.M.S. Corunna – There was a gale warning of North Westerly winds in the sea areas Hebrides and North Irish Sea in the forenoon.

When the first visitors came onboard in the afternoon the sea was a little rough, but not rough enough to deter the boatmen. Before tea the wind freshened from the W.S.W., and gradually became stronger causing a swell which threatened to stop boats running and so strand about 200 visitors onboard. The ship as closed, consequently, before tea and we managed to see all the visitors off into the pleasure boats, without mishap, by 1700, when we hoisted our own boats.

About 2100 Captain [D] originated a signal to the pier to the effect that no boats would be taking off libertymen that night. Thus our cricket team, which had played the Star Brewery and won, was stranded till 2200 when the sea moderated and H.M.S. Agincourt sent one of her motocutters ashore – without informing the Officer of the Day here.

[C.O. comment – why should he?]

Monday 12^th July 1948

H.M.S. Corunna – The wind was strong all day veering and backing from South West to North West from time to time so that occasionally we were sheltered by Beachy Head. Boats went ashore after lunch but were hoisted in the afternoon. After tea, when boats had been lowered once more, libertymen were warned that they might have to make their own way to Sheerness if the weather made it impossible to bring libertymen off before the ship sailed at 0415 the next morning.

At 1800 the M.F.V. was sent off to Newhaven, to shelter there till the weather moderated and then to proceed to Portsmouth. When weighing the drifter lost her second and last anchor due to the heavy swell and the Admiralty Pattern Anchors good holding power.

Tuesday 13^th July 1948

H.M.S. Corunna – We weighed anchor at 0415 and proceeded out into the Channel before setting course to pass two miles to the South of Dungeness light house.

Off Folkestone the United States Army Transport P.C.V. Francis X McGraw overtook us, without dipping , and then crossed ahead to go inshore to pick up a pilot.

At tea time we were passing the Goodwins to Port, the shoals well marked by half a dozen wrecked merchant ships, two of which had well painted superstructure still.

We came to No.2 buoy at Sheerness, about 3 cables upstream from H.M.S. Superb, at 1300. I went away in the whaler to take the picking up rope and buoy-jumpers to the buoy. We slipped from the falls without mishap, but the bowman did not slip the grass boat rope in time so that the boat was hauled into the ship’s side, passing eventually between the bows and the buoy with enough, but not too much, room to spare.

At 1700 H.M.S. Sole Bay, a battle class destroyer which has recently had S.T.A.A.G.’s fitted came to a buoy upstream from us. Later most of our officers went over to her wardroom for an R.P.C.

The oiler R.F.A. [blank] came alongside to Port in the afternoon and explosives, due for inspection, were transferred to a lighter on our Starboard side.

Wednesday 14^th July 1948

H.M.S. Corunna – The ship slipped and proceeded upstream at 0700 to enter the South 8 Lock at 0815, and enter No.3 basin at 0845. On the way up the Medway we were held up in a very awkward position with a slight breeze on the Starboard beam, by a merchant ship which was going to a buoy at the side of the channel, with the assistance of four tugs. No signal was made to the ship, about the merchantman being in that position, before we slipped and if the wind had been any stronger we might very well have been blown onto the mud at the side of the narrow navigable channel.

We secured alongside the West wall of No.3 basin, to the south of the opening into No.2 basin. H.M.S.Matapan, lying opposite us in No.2 basin, has just been completed and is now painted the dark blue, Reserve Fleet colour, as she is shortly being towed down to Plymouth, to be moored up in a trot there along with another 20 odd battle class destroyers in the Reserve Fleet.

The Russians have replied to the Western Power’s note to the effect that the ‘blockade’ of Berlin will continue until such time as the Western Allies come to Moscow’s terms.

The ‘Air Lift’ continues to fly in food and coal to our sectors of Berlin. We cannot yet fly in enough fuel to keep all the factories running, but we are told that we are not yet flying in the maximum of supplies possible. The Russian controlled papers are saying that we are making too much use of our air corridors over Russian occupied Germany and state that paratroop exercises will be carried out in two of the three corridors. If the Russians continue their present tactics and increase the controls on aircraft flying to Berlin we may be forced to send supplied to the city under armed escort , and if that happens anything may happen to our relations with Soviet Russia. Our negotiators are doing everything in their power to make it unnecessary for us to issue an Ultimatum, as we are not certain that the Russians would comply with our demands even then.

Thursday 15^th July 1948

H.M.S. Corunna – At 1015 the dockyard moved us from alongside No.3 Basin and towed us round, through 3 Basin, to No.7 dry dock in No.1 Basin. By 1200 we had been warped into the correct position over the heel blocks and “F” caisson had been floated into position at the dock entrance. This was done by tackles forward and aft, two tackles in the fore and after line, and two at each end to place the ship on the centre line of the blocks.

At 1300 the pumps were started to lower the water level in the dock. As we went down the cranes lowered balks of timber into position at right angles to the ship’s sides. The ends of these lengths of wood were secured level to the upper deck. While the ship as a few feet off the heel blocks these pieces of wood sloped down to the dock side at a steep angle but when we were resting on the bottom the pieces of wood were nearer the horizontal. When the water was low enough dockyard mateys wedged the timbers fast between the dock and ship’s side, thus wedging the ship securely in an upright position. When the dock bottom was almost dry more balks of timber were wedged in position under the ships stern and under the bilge heels while stokers fitted flooding bonnets to the inlets in the ship’s bottom.

The anti-fouling on the ships bottom seems to have stopped all marine growth, as weed and shell has only grown where the composition has been worn away.

Friday 16^th July 1948

H.M.S. Corunna – The Commander in Chief the Nore, Admiral Borrough, came onboard at 11 o’clock to confer with the commanding officers of H.M.S. Corunna, H.M.S. St.Kitts and H.M.S. Gabbard, H.M.S. Jutland in the Captain’s cabin. They discussed the plans for the autumn cruise, in particular what the 4^th and 5^th Destroyer Flotillas will do.

The whole Home Fleet will sail together as far as the Azores where half will continue Southwards to visit South Africa (includes H.M.S. Corunna and H.M.S. Agincourt) while the other half will shape course for the West Indies. At the end of the cruise the Home Fleet will rendez-vous at the Azores, or some as yet unspecified position, and will the return in force to England.

The whaler was hoisted onto the jetty this afternoon because the davits are going to be tested. During the cruise the davits were sprung because the boat was hoisted out without a fore-and-after being used and with the guys set up wrongly. Evaporator coils were taken out of the ship today, not without leaving a large trail of scale all over the upper deck.

Most of the work being done onboard at present is routine maintenance and stripping down of the armament, although the ship is still kept up to the highest standard of cleanliness. The O.A.’s are stripping down the bofors guns and the torpedo party is stripping down and greasing the breach-blocks of the cordite cylinders on the tubes.

I returned a point of Rum to a jar in the spirit room this afternoon. Rum had been issued for 8 men who had gone on draft this morning, so the rum, which had been kept in a drawer in the victualing office, had to be returned to the ullage jar. The atmosphere in the spirit room, under the after messdeck, was almost stifling; it affected my eyesight before I had been down there two minutes.

Saturday 17^th July 1948

H.M.S. Corunna – 60 American Superfortresses, their largest operational bombers and capable of carrying atom bombs, are due to arrive in England today. Officially their visit to Europe is just part of their routine long range flight training, but in peace time any movement of forces can be excused as for training purposes only. The Russians say they are going to carry out some practice A.A. shoots, right in the middle of our air corridors to Berlin, for ‘calibration’ only. It remains to be seen whether each side will start ‘practicing’ on the other.

Sunday 10^th July 1948

H.M.S. Corunna – at 1450 I caught the London train from Gillingham station which arrived punctually at Waterloo station at 1601. In my compartment were two American women, mother and daughter, who were on a Cook’s conducted tour of England.

The mother, a very talkative woman indeed, who had been awaiting her opportunity to come over here for a very long time, knew a great deal about England before her arrival here, mainly by reading a great deal about the country. The two had just completed a trip through Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset and all the Southern counties where they had stayed for a few days at a time at selected hotels. The old woman was continually expressing her appreciation of the English countryside and indeed practically everything English, she even went so far as to praise our food though I suppose the meals that she had eaten here had been the best that money could buy, as she was the wife of a rich Southern States business man.

The daughter, aged about 25, was plainly rather bored with mother, who obviously always di all the talking, for they had petty arguments several times about small incidents, which the daughter insisted had been due to mother’s deafness or slowness.

I left my luggage at Waterloo and broke my journey to look up my sister at her flat in Richmond. Unfortunately she was away for the weekend, but I met her friends and had tea and supper at the flat before I continued my journey to Portsmouth by catching the 21.45 train from Waterloo.

Unfortunately I was misinformed at Main Gate that boats for H.M.S. Opportune, at No.4 buoy, left from Kings Stairs. Actually, of course, they left from No.1 Basin steps, so I missed the 11 o’clock boat. I sent a P.S.B. to the ship, where luckily the Petty Officer of the Day and a stocker were on deck with the Officer of the Day, so the boat, whose crew had turned in after the last trip of the day at 11 o’clock, was quickly manned and send inshore to take me and my luggage off.

Monday 19^th July 1948

H.M.S. Opportune – I turned out at 0700 to get clear of the wardroom in which I had slept, before the stewards came in to clear up.

In the afternoon Midshipman Smith and I were sent ashore to play in the ship’s cricket team against H.M.S. Rochester. We batted first and made what we thought was quite a reasonable score, altogether I mean, not individually -  I was out for a duck – unfortunately we couldn’t get the other team out before they beat our score.

After tea I went ashore to visit H.M.S. Illustrious to collect a clean reefer and clothes. I had supper there and on my return to H.M.S. Opportune I visited Midshipman Few and Leman, at present in H.M.S. Fleetwood, an A.S.R.E. ship which is now in dry dock for a refit. She is in a very bad state, for instance where the wooden deck has been taken up, in some places, the steel below was rusted right through so that one can see through the deck to the engine room, and water leaks through the deckheads into several of the cabins below the quarter deck.

Tuesday 20^th July 1948

H.M.S. Opportune – Today all the hands were busy painting the ship externally from top to bottom in preparation for the C-in-C’s passage onboard over to Le Havre tomorrow.

At 1130 the second largest floating crane in the dockyard started to manoeuvre, with the help of two tugs, to come alongside to Starboard in order to place that C-in-C’s 12 HP Standard car onboard where the after tubes used to be. There was a strong wind blowing the crane off all the time, so it took three quarters of an hour to secure alongside, but once that had been done the car was soon lifted off the crane lighter’s deck and secured on board this ship.

I went over to H.M.S. Royalist in the afternoon to borrow a bugle for one of the 6 bugles who will be sounding the General Salute tomorrow when the C-in-C comes on board.

After tea I went over to H.M.S. Illustrious to borrow a mouth-piece for another bugler, and on the strength of that the motor boat took me over to the floating dock. There we learned that the Illustrious is going to be running normally two months earlier than was expected several weeks ago. There was also a whisper of a rumour that the ship will go over to Bermuda in the autumn cruise and then come straight back for working up, and I suppose to encourage the crew.

At 1600 37 London Sea Cadets and one officer joined the ship.

Wednesday 21^st July 1948

H.M.S. Opportune – at 0740 the water boat came alongside to top us up with water before our week in French ports.

Before we slipped at 0927 all the hands were busy putting the final touches to the upper deck, several seamen were just finishing painting all the black deck plates on the upper deck. At 0942 we came to No.3 buoy, just opposite King’s Stairs where the Admiral was to embark in his barge to come over to us.

I was sent ashore to the C-in-C’s office, as soon as we had secured, to collect some rush letters for the Captain.

At 1130 ratings began to crowd the jetty at King’s Stairs to see the Admiral off, and shortly after that the Duke of York cleared lower deck and manned the side. Ten cutters, pulled by the boys of St.Vincent, took station on our starboard side to give the C-in-C a final send off. They had great difficulty in manoeuvring for position because the tide was so strong flooding into the harbour.

At 1117 the Commander-in-Chief arrived on board and his flag was broken. Immediately after he had left the Quarterdeck everybody rushed to harbour stations, as we slipped at 1120 without delay.

I noticed, as we left the harbour, that the boys of St.Vincent received the longest salute from Lord Fraser, then his staff, who followed us towards the harbour entrance, all squashed inside and on top of his barge.

Four M.T.B.’s escorted us as far as the Warner Shoal buoy, two on either bow. They zig-zagged about before they departed, playing “Old Lange Syne” as  they left over their loud hailers. The Fleet Air Arm also supplied and escort of 9 aircraft as we passed through the Solent. The planes flew back and forth for a quarter of an hour and then returned to base.

There was a force five wind blowing from the South West which made quite a swell which caused the ship to roll a little. I was not affected by it till just before lunch when I felt a little sick, but once I had some food inside me, I felt much better. Of course the Sea Cadets, all specially picked from the London corps, were very much under the weather, most of them being sprawled about the upper deck looking very dejected.

Soon after lunch the wind dropped and the seas went down so that when at 1600 the C-in-C’s flag was struck the weather was fine and the sea calm. At 1615 we picked up the Le Havre pilot and proceeded inshore towards the harbour entrance. As we passed through the buoyed channel we sent off a signal to the Le Havre port authority by W/T requesting that a crane should be ready on the jetty, when we went alongside to lift the Admiral’s car onto the dockside. As we entered the harbour the navigator examined our chart of the port, and we discovered that it was intended to put the ship alongside in 5 feet of water. Very quickly the captain decided to secure alongside a pontoon where there was a vacant berth for us. This upset the official reception committee, which was left standing about a mile away by road from our pontoon, in fact the British Naval Attaché was the first to arrive, in his Citroen, leaving his wife stranded with the rest of the reception committee.

After an hour and a half, during which the dockyard officials and the captain were discussing whether the ship should move to another berth to discharge the car, or whether it would be possible to use another ship’s derrick, it was decided to attempt to use a torpedo davit.

Eventually, after using sisal strops the car was hoisted clear of the deck and trained outboard. The davit designed for a maximum working load of 2 tons shivered and shook as it was turned out and everybody held his breath until it was lowered safely onto the pontoon. The Admiral went below, as soon as he said what was about to be done, and took the padre with him for he said he wanted the Church at that particular time.

The Admiral went ashore at 1850 and was cheered by the ship’s company, the Captain let three cheers, then the Coxswain piped up with one for luck, and produced the heartiest cheer of them all.

Le Havre was badly damaged during the war by both British and German bombs, and really consists of two main streets of rather dirty public house now. That was how it struck me when I went ashore with the padre after dinner.

Thursday 22^nd July 1948

H.M.S. Opportune – we caste off from the pontoon at 0900 and proceeded out of harbour with two pilots onboard, the Le Havre pilot and the River Seine pilot. As we were going over the shallow water between the port entrance channel and the River Seine channel the shallow water effect was very noticeable both in the large wash that was caused astern and the slow speed of the ship when we were doing the usual number of revolutions to give us 18 knots.

The Seine Channel is well buoyed even though, we were informed, the channel is continually shifting and has to be frequently remarked. We passed a large suction dredger which is engaged in making a better and straighter channel through the estuary.

We disembarked the port pilot at the estuary entrance and the Seine Pilot took us up as far as Caudebec where another pilot came onboard and took up for the rest of the journey. All the way up the river we passed wreck upon wreck piled up on the banks, some the victims of careless navigation but most of them ships and barges sunk during the war. In many places the banks of the river had been repaired after the Germans had done very skilful demolitions to slide the whole river sides right into the channel. At Caudebec there was hardly a brick building standing. Apparently in 1940 the town had an incendiary raid from the Germans, and as all the woodwork in the town was old and dry it all burnt like matchwood and virtually the whole town, except the damaged Cathedral, was razed to the ground. Now the main shopping street is lined with prefabricated wooden and asbestos shops and public houses.

As we went on up the river past Caudebec we passed chalk cliffs on our port side, into which many caves had been cut and in which the Germans stored V1 and V2 guided missiles during the closing stages of their occupation. The country on either side as we passed up the river was magnificent, to Port mostly cliffs and high ground and to Starboard the flat, tree planted Seine valley, in which the farmers were engaged in hay making.

The port of Rouen appeared to be very busy. There must have been at least 40 large sized merchant ships discharging and embarking cargoes when we went through. Among the ships were 3 American coalers bringing coal to help keep the industries running here. Some small British colliers were also there, though not half so big as the American liberty ships. I imagine they were regular callers, anyway I hope they were. Norwegian, Danish and Swedish ships were in the majority and consequently the appearances of the ships are very clean.

We secured to the jetty just below the Seine Bailey bridge, as far up as any of the larger ships can go, just under, or almost in the shade of Rouen Cathedral, Notre Dame.

Friday 23^rd July 1948

H.M.S. Opportune – After lunch I went ashore with an English coffee merchant, who married a French girl after the 1914-1918 war and settled down in here. He took me to a café near the post office and explained to the proprietress that a British destroyer was in port and that her officers would be paying her restaurant a visit. After that we went to a cinema to arrange about booking seats for cinema shows if any of the ship’s company wanted to go. There are only three cinemas standing now, while there used to be over a dozen before the war, so it is very difficult, if not impossible, to go to a cinema in the evening and get a seat without booking in the morning.

Before tea I went ashore once more to buy a wreath which is to be laid on the war memorial, in front of the Palais de Justice, on Sunday. I went to the consulate, first, to ask advice about the best flower shops so the vice-consul sent his secretary out with me to order the wreath.

At 1700 four ships of the French naval training squadron arrived in Rouen. The French destroyers Basque and two ex-German mine sweepers secured to the jetty just down stream from us while the Yser, another ex-German ship, secured alongside. A French army band of 64 pieces played marching songs on our quarterdeck for about an hour before the French ships arrived, as the original E.T.A. was very early.

Saturday 24^th July 1948

H.M.S. Opportune – at 1130 there was a reception at the town hall, which was attended by all the officers of both French and British ships. The Prefect of Seine Inferieur, one of the most important men in the governmentless France today, was present with all the town councillors. 

Sunday 25^th July 1948

H.M.S. Opportune –

Visit to Paris

At breakfast I was told that there was a spare seat in the bus for Paris, which nobody in the ship’s company wanted; further I was told that I would have to pay for the seat whether I went or not… so I went. [C.O. comment - !!]

We set off from quayside at 0930, rather dreading the journey which we thought would be very hot and uncomfortable. The bus’s engine was at the back and all the window  would open, however, so there was the minimum of noise, the bus was airy and cool and the seats were comfortable. We roared along at 40m.p.h. through all the villages and along all the straight roads which led us to Paris, honking our horn at everybody on the road, whether they were in danger or not. At Pontois we ran into streams of cars, bicycles, buses, lorries and everything on wheels, which were taking people to see the last lap of the Tour de France bicycle race, which was to finish that evening at 5pm in Paris.

We arrived at the Arc de Triomphe at 1200, where we alighted and walked round. After that we went to Les Invalides where we saw Napoleon’s tomb and the Army Museum. The Eiffel Tower was the next place which we visited, once we had collected everybody from the corridors and halls of the Army Museum. It cost us 75 francs (1/9d) at a reduced price for service men, after we had persuaded the officials at the gate that we were British naval officers and sailors, not commissionaires. When we reached the top of the tower, after spending at least an hour in the queues at the entrance to each lift stage, we had a beautiful view of Paris as the visibility was very good, the weather being warm and sunny.

Before the bus parked at the Gare de St.Lazare, where the ratings were allowed to wander off where they liked, we paid a quick visit to the Louvre, the Tuilleries and Notre Dame. Lt Brown RNVR, Midshipman Smith and I had dinner at a small restaurant near the station. We did not want to go far away from the bus, in case we should lose our way, and be late back at 9 o’clock when everybody was told to be back at the bus.

At 9 o’clock everybody was in the bus except the French guide, who kept the bus waiting for 10 minutes before we started on the homeward journey. The men sang most of the way; by 103- they had quietened down. However we stopped at an inn and after that they sang very loudly for a short time.

We arrived back at Rouen at about midnight.

Monday 26^th July 1948

H.M.S. Opportune – The heat today was stifling everywhere onboard. The awning was spread on the quarterdeck to keep the sun off for the reception which was going to be held onboard at 1800.

After lunch a Frenchman took the Padre, Sub Lt Lambert and me to Caudebec to see the cathedral there. We paid a visit to the abbey at St.Denise, on the way, and when we arrived at Caudebec we had some beer at a café, but we forgot to visit or have a close look at the cathedral. On the way back we called in at the ruins of the abbey at Jumieges, the Abbot of which was a very powerful man indeed at the time of the zenith of the abbey’s prosperity before the French Revolution.

Tuesday 27^th July 1948

H.M.S. Opportune – We caste off at 0830, after having a lengthy argument with a French tug, which was pulling the stern out, about whether we should use our own or the tug’s wires.

The French pilot and his wife came all the way down to the Seine Estuary with us. There they were taken over to the Pilot ship in a small boat. As they left we gave them a wave and some whistles on our siren.

Visibility was poor so we relied on radar and Gec to give us fixes from time to time. We had to alter course a little to the eastward because we had not allowed enough for the set of the current.

At 2000 we entered harbour and secured alongside H.M.S. Zodiac lying outboard of H.M.S. Grenville at the North West Wall.

Wednesday 28^th July 1948

H.M.S. Opportune – The weather is still stiflingly hot. In the words of the meteorological report, a tropical storm of air has reached our shores.

The sea cadets left in the forenoon. One of them lost his camera, so it was (naturally) assumed that it had been stolen, as he had had it in his possession that morning. All the messdecks and all the messes and lockers were searched but nothing was found.

At 1530 a warrant was read on a National Service Ordinary Seaman, who used abusive language to P.O. White, with the Sea Cadets, when he was ordered to square himself off in one of the streets of Rouen. His punishment, which he well deserved, was 14 days cells.

I went round to H.M.S. Fleetwood after tea and looked up Midshipman Leman. Later in the evening we swam round Southsea Pier in the dark. Just as we were walking off along the front a very fine firework display started ion the end of the pier.

Thursday 29^th July 1948

H.M.S. Opportune – At 0900 we slipped and proceeded to sea with 44 sea cadets onboard. They are spending two weeks down here at Portsmouth, living in H.M.S. Adamant, and seem to be composed of Sea Cadet groups from various public schools, mostly in the north of England and Scotland.

We went out as far as Owen Light Ship and then turned back, to anchor at 1230 off St.Helens, Isle of Wight, running in to anchor on St.Helen’s sea mark. After lunch the hands were piped to baths.

At 1430 we weighed anchor and made for Portsmouth Harbour where we secured alongside H.M.S. Zodiac once more. The sea cadets left us by boat for H.M.S.Adamant at 1600.

Lt Brown R.N.V.R., the Padre and his wife, Midshipman Smith and I had dinner at the Castle Hotel to celebrate our return from abroad. Afterwards we went to the Padre’s house for coffee where we played a few quiet games, such as the getting-up-with-the-help-of-a-bottle competition and so on.

Friday 30^th July 1948

H.M.S. Opportune – At 0930 we caste off with another party of sea cadets onboard. We made the usual trip to Owers Light, but rain into fog when we were nearly at Owers so we turned back early and anchored at 1215 at St.Helens, where the hands were once more piped to bathe. We weighed anchor at 1430 again and entered harbour at 1515. The 1^st Lieutenant brought us alongside, for practice, without a hitch.

Saturday 31^st July 1948

H.M.S. Opportune – in the forenoon I went ashore to Victoria Barracks to collect some C.B.’s for the navigator, including the new Conduct of the Fleet which comes into force on Nov 1^st with the new flag code.

Envoys have been sent to Moscow to see Mr Molotov about a possible meeting of the four great powers, to try to settle the Berlin and outstanding East-West misunderstandings without bloodshed.