Michael D.Heath-Caldwell M.Arch.

1948

Journal for the Use of Midshipmen.
Mr J.A. Heath-Caldwell

HMS Illustrious From 9.2.48 to 14.6.1948

HMS CorunnaHMS Opportune

HMS IllustriousHMS Loch Tralaig

HMS Loch Tralaig

HMS Merlin (Donibristle)

Sunday, 8th February 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious.

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

Monday, 9th February 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious.

On Monday morning I woke up literally with cold feet, mainly because I’d already forgotten the hammock technique which I learned in H.M.S. Devonshire.After and introduction to our “nurse” in the morning we were dismissed to look for our future divisional officers. I found Lieutenant Clayden eventually, in his cabin. He was quite pleased to see me for his first information about the division’s affairs was the quite a pile of work had accumulated during the past month. 

Tuesday, 10th February 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious.

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

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

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

JAHC and other Naval Officers on deck, Illustrious, 1948

Wednseday, 11th February 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious.

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

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

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

Friday 13th February 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious. Funnily enough nothing has gone drastically wrong today despite the date. We had a talk on the Air Department of the ship and its organisation by the Commander (Air). Very soon he started talking solely about the trials themselves and what our future programme may include providing nothing very unusual happens before we have had our repairs completed.

I had the afternoon watch with Lieutenant Grayson. Nothing happened except the Captain entertained the Commodore of the R.N. Bamacho. Someone thought he was trying to wrangle more hands to bring the ships company up to a more workable minimum. If the officers heads (?) were not on the dock there would have been very little to do indeed. As it was these officers streamed back during the ‘dogs.’ I found it was very monotonous saying “Carry on” or words to that effect when about fifty petty officers went ashore at ten minutes to four just as the last notes of (carry on [correction – secure]) and coops(?) had died away.

At both watches for exercises the bugler made a very queer call which was apparently due to his instrument being blocked up, according to him. He managed to get ‘Stand Easy’ correct though, and thereafter didn’t make any mistakes. The Quartermaster spent about a half hour explaining to us how the doctors discovered that his right kidney was not working and that he had a stone there which suddenly stopped growing. He said it doesn’t affect him until the end of his forty eight hours and then it aches a bit.
[Corrections – Punctuation is very weak – signed (Squiggle) 14.2.48]

Saturday 14th February 1948
St.Valentine’s Day.
H.M.S. Illustrious. I went on Captain’s Rounds in the forenoon. Most of the Wardroom was in the rounds party as it was a mess decks inspection and the route was not definitely fixed before hand.

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

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

Sunday 15th February 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious. The congregation in the Chapel this morning was very small indeed, consisting entirely of officers. It is not at all surprising that clergy these days are very dispirited.

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

Monday 16th February 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious. The morning we were informed that four of us were to join H.M.S. Boxer P.M. today. That mucked up my fire main chasing programme, however I had decided that the only way to make a plan was to draw a large seals layout of each deck first, then put in the main and branches later. Spent at least two hours searching for pipes at the expense of a layer of oil and filth all over my hands and on my reefer.

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

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

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

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

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

 
Tuesday 17th February 1948
H.M.S. Boxer.

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

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

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

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

Facts and Figures. 

Tonnage 6,151 tons

Speed 16 knots

Length 400 ft45 ft max. breadth. 

Complement 230 ratings, excluding trainees.

Officers 14

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

Armament 12- .303

12- Lanchesters.

Radars

Fleet Carrier Set up:-Air Warning 9602 – 227 Q

Ditto 293 Q

Cruisers

Air Warning 218 B.Q.2 – 277 P.Ditto 293 P.

DestroyersTwo set ups

-219 and 277P

291 and 293

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

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

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

Wednesday 18th February 1948
H.M.S. Boxer.

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

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

Thursday 19th February 1948
H.M.S. Boxer.

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

Friday 20th February 1948
H.M.S. Boxer. 

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday 22nd February 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious.

Church was attended by officers only as usual. Foystan played the organ, instead of the Padre. [Correction by C.O. – Does he usually play the Padre?]The weather is as cold as it has been for the last few days, and the weather experts tell us that there is another fortnight to go yet before we have a let up.

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

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

Monday 23rd February 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious .

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

The Arabs are keeping the Americans out of Palestine by threatening to blast the American oil pipe lines if the USA starts backing up the Partition of Palestine by force. The Russians are starting a campaign in Czechoslovakia to bring her government into line with Moscow and all the other Eastern European states.

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

Tuesday 24th February 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious.

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

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

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

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

Wednesday 25th February 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious.

At Commanders requestmen(?) this morning six men were granted afternoon leave to watch the Navy-Civil Services football match. The Commander said this would not happen again and was not to be a precedent. The Captain had an informal talk with us before lunch.

Thursday 26th February 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious. 

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

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

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

Belize, 1948

Friday 27th February 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious

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

President Benes will probably resign.

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

Saturday 29th February 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious . 

H.M.S. Sheffield has arrived in Belize. H.M.S. Devonshire was ordered away because of reports that British Honduras was about to be invaded. The people of Belize expected an attack from the air by parachutes. The defence force in the colony consists of only 150 men with scanty equipment, while Guatemala has 21,700 soldiers, a few planes, but no navy.[Correction by C.O. – rather jerky, and then punctuation is terrible]

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

During and after Elizabeth’s reign, when English pirates, with official buccaneering licences from the British Government, were busy plundering Spanish settlements and treasure ships in the West Indies, bases were established on the islands and one, in particular, on the River BelizeContinues – two pages.
Sunday 29th February 1948

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

Monday 1st March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious 

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

Tuesday 2nd March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious 

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

Wednesday 3rd March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious 

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

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

Thursday 4th March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious 

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

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

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

Friday 5th March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious 

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

What will happen after May 15th, by which date all our troops will have been evacuated from Palestine, no one knows. Jews will probably pour into Palestine, the Jewish part of which would soon be overpopulated, and then the immigrants would have no other course to take than to attempt to beat back the arabs by force of arms. The Arabs have the advantage in desert warfare, as they know their country and have all the Moslem countries from which they can expect to receive modern arms and volunteers, to help in the cause. The Jews may have a well trained and organised army but all their arms are supplied from abroad. The help that is given by the American Government depends on the political parties in power and whether elections are in the offing, in which case the candidates in the Government in power will pander to the Jewish electorate.

At present, however, the Americans can either please the Jews and endanger their oil pipe lines across Arabia, or dissatisfy their Jewish electorate but safeguard their oil, or, as they are doing now, make vague and noncommittal statements about their policy which generally annoys all the parties concerned.

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

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

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

Saturday 6th March 1948
Warminster - Another very fine day with clear sky and hot sun. In the evening I listened to a very good play in the Home Service called “Silent Witness” by Anthony Armstrong.

In New York Rabbi Silver, representing the Jewish Agency, has announced that the Jews in Palestine will set up a State; by force or arms if necessary, whatever the outcome of the Commission, talks and discussion of U.N.O. At the same time it is announced from Jerusalem that the Terrorist Arab Leader, Fawzi Bey Kaukji, has crossed the border into Palestine and has set up[ his headquarters to assume the command of all Arab forces in Palestine. Both sides seem to be organising themselves for the time when British forces leave the country, in the mean time the position of our soldiers and police in Palestine becomes more insecure every day.

Sunday 7th March 1948
Warminster – The King and Queen and Princess Margaret are to visit Australia and New Zealand in 1949. The voyage will be made in H.M.S. Vanguard, according to the official statement. 

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

He suggest in his letter that a fleet be built for the express purpose of carrying whole families from over populated Britain to Australia, where more people are badly needed, partly for economic reasons, and partly because the Australians fear that if their population does not increase quickly the yellow hordes from China will over-run their continent.Up till now emigration has not been encouraged by the Government because it has tended to take away young people and leave behind the old, which in the course of years will make Britain a country of old people, like France before the Second World War. This new proposal aims at taking away a cross section of the community, young and old, because it will encourage and organise the emigration of whole families.

Monday 8th March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious 

Lectures on the Quartermaster Branch and Navigation by Lieutenant Satow and Lieutenant Commander Yates.

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

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

Even if the Government statements were bad policy, I think it is our position, otherwise news of everything will tend to become distorted to suit either government or party.Someone discovered today what a molgogger is when he was looking at a magazine. The Commander bet the Gunroom that they would not find out, and said he would give a round of gins if we found out.

Tuesday 9th March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious 

School in the morning and Organisation, a lecture by the Commander in the afternoon. Unfortunately nobody remembered the Commander’s wager. 

Wednesday 10th March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious 

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

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

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

One of the two German E-Boats. 

As we went past the forts outside the harbour in the Solent we saw an E-boat leave the harbour behind us. We were developing full speed, but very soon we were overtaken by the other boat which, we were informed afterwards, was only developing ¾ power.

The Germans went in for speed during the war and did not arm their craft, also they developed their E-boats long before the war whereas we had lost all records of our M.T.B.’s, as used in the first world war, and consequently in 1938 our boats were not a great (deal) improved on those used in 1918.

The Germans did more experimental work than we did, concentrating on diesel engines which were better than our petrol engines, but made manoeuvring more difficult as engines had to be stopped altogether and restarted before going astern, also their engines took four hours to warm up before use. The engines we used at first were Rolls Royce Merlins, but it was found to our cost that not enough of these could be produced by British Manufacturers so during the war Panchards, of America, built engines for our boats to our requirements.

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

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

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

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

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

H.M.S. Hornet Night Gunnery Exercise

Thursday 11th March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious  

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

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

In the 1930’s we were told by some economic experts that Britain was gradually going bankrupt, admittedly only very slowly. The reason was that we were losing the markets for our goods abroad because we were no longer the only industrial country in the world, making a living by buying raw materials from abroad, processing them, and selling them abroad again to pay for our food, which we had to import as our farmers were unable to produce enough food to feed our own population.

In the 19th Century we made a fortune by exporting machinery for countries to make their own things. Of course that was only a fraction of what we sold, but it helped to make other countries more self supporting, in that they were beginning to develop their own raw materials. Lancashire supplied cotton to the rest of the world which had not yet learned or had not the means of developing its own resources; Yorkshire did the same thing with wool.

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

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

We are beginning to lose the American market before the war because America produced everything it wanted except oil, which it did not have in large enough quantities. Another factor to remember was that we had more colonies before the war from whence we could obtain our raw materials.

Now we are rapidly losing our colonies, which are becoming self-governing countries which will take more of an interest and take more control of their own raw materials. We cannot possibly expect to continue to obtain raw materials at low prices if we surrender control of the resources.

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

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

Friday 12th March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious 

The Bulawayo trials were described by Lieutenant E. Watson. He told us what conclusions had been reached from the navigator’s and seaman’s point of view as well as the Engineer’s. the 7” rubber flexible oil fuel hose was well proved and was a great success, but it was found that the oil fuel pipes in the receiving ships were not big enough and so limited the tonnage of oil which could be pumped across in a given time.

The beam approach at speed was found to be the best method of taking up position abeam for replenishment, as, in this way, the warship avoided interaction between herself and the oiler by keeping out of the oiler’s wake. The faster the speed of the ships while refuelling, the less interaction there was between them, so that at high speeds, about 20 knots, the ships carried less helm towards each other. This was because the wake at higher speeds make a large angle with the bows.

H.M.S. Bulawayo is an ex-Government oiler, and the other ships taking part in the trials were H.M.S. Duke of York, H.M.S. Superb and H.M.S. Dunkirk [crossed out - representing most types of war vessels]. It was strongly recommended that H.M.S. Illustrious should also take prat in trials with the Bulawayo to find out what methods are best suited for oiling carriers, the astern or abeam method, and whether planes can be landed on and flown off while actually oiling, this, of course, necessitating the altering of course together while oiling. Commander Kearney gave us our current affairs lecture. This was really a discussion as the Commander (Air) did not believe in giving a lecture on one subject alone, as, he said, the subject and all the rest of the things that are happening around us tend to lose their proper perspective and proportion. 

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

Saturday 13th March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious 

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

Sunday 14th March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious 

I was on watch in the afternoon and last dog. The day was very warm as there was a cloudless sky; at 5 o’clock the temperature in the Starboard after lobby was 65º.[C.O. comment – So what?]

Monday 15th March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious

The Captain of Royal Marines talked to us about his men and their weapons, illustrating his lecture with most of the R.M. armoury which was displayed on the table in the A.I.R. The U.S. Senate has passed the European Aid Bill by 69-17 votes. The Bill, called the Economic Co-operation Act of 1948, will now go to the House of Representatives, where it will probably be passed more quickly than in the Senate, as there the debate can have a set limit, but probably more opposition.

Since the suicides of Mr Jan Masaryl the Americans have taken a more serious view of the recent events in Europe and it now seems certain that Europe will receive 1,325,000,000, in the first year, to help recovery and thus stabilise the economic chaos from which Communism seems to grow. 

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

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

Tuesday 16th March 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious 

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

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

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

Sketch above - Inside No.5 Spare Gear Store of the Engine Room Department. The Dockyard Mates are about to hoist a 4 ton – 45lbs plate into position.

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

Wednesday 17th March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious

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

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

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

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

Thursday 18th March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious - 

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

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

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

A Consultative Council shall decide on measures to be taken “with regard to any situation which might constitute a threat to peace in whatever areas that threat should arise.”The council shall also decide on measures “with regard to any situation constituting a danger to economic stability. Steps shall be taken to promote cultural ties between the three countries.”

In the forenoon we had school where we were reminded how tides affect ships, how to look up heights of tides in the Admiralty Tide Tables, and what causes them.In the dock a large sized Bunsen burner has been fitted up to heat the starboard propeller, in order to expand it and thus facilitate sliding it off the propeller shaft.A Panamanian collier, alongside the coal jetty, was discharging its hold today, to the shore dump by crane and to a barge alongside by means of a Temperley transporter. [C.O. comment – still very “scrappy.” Try to make your writing read evenly and pleasantly]

Friday 19th March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious - 

Our Current Affairs lecture this week was given by Lieutenant Hamer who discussed the Indian Ocean. He stressed that Britain must maintain bases round the Indian Ocean to safeguard our sea communications. Malaya and the Dutch East Indies are at present a loophole through which an enemy could enter the zone as Malaya is too far away from our other bases for easy and quick help.

Australia’s sphere of responsibility should include the Dutch East Indies but her forces and resources are at the moment to small to be able to take on this large expanse of sea and islands. When Australia’s population has been increased by British and European immigrants to the size which will be able to support a larger industrialisation and an army in proportion to the size of the continent and the length of its coast line, then our position in the East will be really secure. 

Saturday 20th March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious - 

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

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

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

Sunday 21st March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious - 

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

Monday 22nd March 1948
Lieutenant Ansell gave us a talk on the control system and armament of the ship. At present we have only one director for the 4.5” guns because all the other ones have been removed to clear the flight deck of as many obstructions as possible for the trials of new and experimental aircraft. None of the 4.5” guns can be fired because we haven’t the complement to provide 4.5” B.D. gun crews.

Tuesday 23rd March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious - 

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

Wednesday 24th March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious - 

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

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

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

Thursday 25th March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious - 

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

Good Friday 23rd March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious -

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

Our major faults were that we tried to go into too small details for the time at our disposal, we after said that before we began that we knew nothing whatever about the subject and lastly we, most of us, looked down at the table too much instead of looking at our audience.
At 1030 Divisions were held in ‘C’ Hangar followed by prayers. 

Saturday 27th March 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious –

The Russians have now got 250 submarines on an operational footing. [C.O. comment – see me].

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

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


Sunday 18th April 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

I caught the 1550 train from Maiden Newton and eventually reached Portsmouth after 6 hours travelling. 

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

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

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

Sir Stafford Cripps’ budget accepted as a good one by most people whose incomes were less than £2,000 a year in 1947. The remainder, whose incomes were above that figure, have had a Capital Levy imposed upon them. This step was quite unnecessary, and many people think that he did it to appease the extreme left members of the Labour Party who are really Communists in all but name.

The levy now will mean that the Government will not make so much from death duties in the future as in the past; it won’t encourage people with large incomes to invest their money, because nobody has taken the Chancellor’s promise (a “once for all” levy he called it) seriously and believe that this is only the beginning of a series of levies; it will not reduce the spending power of the population as a whole; it will encourage speculation discourage thrift and will make many put their money in banks rather than in investments because money in banks is exempt from the levy.

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

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

Monday 19th April
H.M.S. Illustrious –

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

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

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

Tuesday 20th April 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious 

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

Wednesday 21st April 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

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

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

Thursday 22nd April 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious –

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

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

Friday 23rd April 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

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

Saturday 24th April 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

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

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

Monday 26th April 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

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

After breakfast we drew our rifles from the Lower Armament Store and walked to Unicorn Gate to pick up H.M.S. Warrior’s bus to Tipner Range. The practice at the range was for the 200 and 300 yards deliberate event. In the afternoon we did the snap and rapid shooting, which, though it looked very easy beforehand, was much more difficult when actually lying down and firing. [C.O. comment – participle is wrongly attached]. My magazine jammed after two rounds, so I had a good excuse for not doing very well.At 2017 we should have undressed ship; actually we did so a few minutes before that, because the Signal Tower in the Dockyard dipped its signal too early, whereupon we hauled our dressing lines down: no sooner had we done that than the signal tower hauled its signal up again.

Tuesday 27th April 1948
Visit to H.M.S-M Sportsman.
To reach H.M.S. Dolphin by 0730 we turned out at 0530, fetched and prepared our own breakfast by ourselves and walked to Asia Pontoon to get a picket boat to Dolphin. The Sportsman left harbour at 0800 at slack water at low tide. When we were out past Nab Tower, at 0930, we dived. As the water was not deep we had to proceed at periscope depth. 

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

This photo might go here.

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

Wednesday 28th April 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday 29th April 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

I went over to Tipner Range today to fire in the team snap shooting practice. The ground was quite dry although it had rained early in the morning. Afterwards we walked back to H.M.S. Illustrious as we did not take part in the second event of the forenoon. When we arrived back onboard we found that the gunroom had been converted into a large bar for an R.P.C. for the Canadians who are joining H.M.S. Magnificent on Friday.

Friday 30th April 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious 

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

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

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

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 15th. 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 2nd 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 3rd 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 4th 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 5th 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 6th 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 dead 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 7th 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 8th 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 Earls 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 10th 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 10th 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 11th 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 did 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 

Sketch by JAHC

Sketch above – Port Propellor taken off, May 11th preparatory to taking out the Port Propellor shaft for replacement.

Wednesday 12th 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 13th 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 6th May left harbour today.

Friday 14th 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 15th 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.

Windsford Chronicle
Saturday 15 May 1948

Situations Vacant.

Wanted at once. Temporary Cook; family of 3 and two children; no nursery meals; good personal reference required; Kidsgrove address. - Mrs Heath-Caldwell, Linley Wood, Talke, Staffs.Tel Kidmore 41.

Diary of J.A. Heath-Caldwell continues ...
Sunday 16th 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 17th 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 18th 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 19th 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 20th 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 21st 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 last 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 22nd 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 24th 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 25th 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 26th 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.

This photo might go here.

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 27th 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. Frew 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 28th 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 Frew 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 1st 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 2nd 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 3rd 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 4th 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 5th 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 6th 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 7th 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 8th 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.

Staffordshire Sentinal
Tuesday 8 June 1948

Local Artists in Broadcast.

Commissioner Mrs Peter Birley has arranged a Girl Guids Rally which will take place on Saturday afternoon and evening at the home of her parents, Sir Francis Joseph Bart., and Lady Joseph, The Hall, Alsager.

It will be officially opened by Mrs T.W. Harleuy, County Commissioner for Cheshire who will be supported by Mrss Barbour, Miss Violet Royds, Mrs Heath-Caldwell and Mrs Wotherspoon. Sir Francis Joseph will preside.

Mrs Heath-Caldwell is retiring after 20 years service as a Commissioner, and the thanks of the Guides to her will be expressed on this occasion.

If the weather is favourable there will be a swimming display in the bathing pool at the Hall, and in the evening the Guides will hold a camp fire.
----(continues)----

Diary of J..A. Heath-Caldwell continues....

Thursday 10th 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, acting 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 12th 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 13th 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 14th 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 14th 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. ]

H.M.S. Corunna diagrammatic

Wednesday 16th 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. 

 This photo might go here.

H.M.S. Corunna Diagramatic

Thursday 17th 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 17th 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.

HMS Corunna 1948

Friday 18th 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. 

H.M.S. Corunna’s track – June and July 1948

Saturday 19th 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 20th 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 21st June 1948
H.M.S. Corunna

Visit to Bushmills Consol Radio Station
The Flotilla navigator invited our electrical officer, the navigator, Midshipman Frew 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 22nd 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 24th 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 25th 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 26th 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 27th 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 28th 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 29th 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 party 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, walked 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 30th 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 by next 

Thursday 1st 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 2nd 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 3rd July 1948

H.M.S. Corunna – 

I spent my spare time writing up my journal, being frequently disturbed by anxious visitors.

Sunday 4th 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 5th 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 6th 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.

Gun practice

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.

Gun practice - Bofors Guns

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 7th 8th July 
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 9th 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 10th 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 11th 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 12th 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 13th 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 14th 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 15th 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 16th 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 4th and 5th 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 17th 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 10th 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 19th 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 20th 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 21st 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

 Le Havre Dock – 1948

Thursday 22nd 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 23rd 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 24th 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 25th July 1948

H.M.S. Opportune – 

Visit to ParisAt 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 26th 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 27th 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 28th 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 29th 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 30th 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 1st Lieutenant brought us alongside, for practice, without a hitch.

Saturday 31st 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 1st 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

 Sunday 1st August 1948
H.M.S. Opportune – 

I spent all the afternoon rigging the whaler for sailing. After tea we set sail, unfortunately the wire on the main halyard was too long and before the sail was hoisted right up the halyard tackle was two blocks. After securing to a buoy we managed to get the rigging straight and in the end we had a good sail.

Monday 2nd August 1948 – Bank Holiday
H.M.S. Opportune – 

I went out sailing in the afternoon with a boy and a seaman. We made the harbour entrance with a fair wind, but it dropped when we were almost out. Luckily the tide was with us and we came back very quickly, of course the wind started blowing hard by the time we had gone too far to turn back. 

Tuesday 3rd August 1948

H.M.S. Opportune – 

At 0900 we caste off and left harbour with over 100 sea and army cadets onboard. We went as far as Owers Light Ship where we turned back towards Sandown, Isle of Wight, where we anchored at 1230 for lunch. The weather is much colder today than it has been for the last two weeks and nobody bathed over the side.

We arrived back alongside H.M.S. Zodiac at 1530, and I then went down to the Ship’s Office to receive some instruction from Lt Merry, the Ship’s Officer. 

Wednesday 4th August 1948
H.M.S. Opportune –

The ship was dressed overall today in honour of Queen Elizabeth’s 48th birthday. At 3 minutes before midday a signal was received that we were to fire a salute. Gun’s crews were closed up in time, but unfortunately nobody had time to bring up the blank ammunition from the magazine.

Thursday 5th August 1948
H.M.S. Opportune – 

I went ashore at 1000 with Lt Merry to the cashier’s office, in the dockyard to exchange all the francs which we brought back from France into Sterling. After that we went to Victory II buildings, in Portsmouth, to collect the pay ledgers, because some of the boys onboard had requested for casuals and it was necessary to see how their pay stood.

After tea I went out for a sail in the whaler. We went out of the harbour and sailed along westwards, turning back when we were off Fort Gillhicker. Unfortunately the wind dropped just after we had entered harbour and it took us about an hour to reach the North West Wall.

Thursday 5th August 1948
H.M.S. Opportune – 

H.M.S. Illustrious came out of floating dock today at 1230 and was towed round to Middleslip jetty, where the dockyard mateys will finish off their work on her.We left harbour at 0900 with boy seamen from St.Vincent and army cadets onboard. As usual we turned back when we reached Owers Light Vessel and anchored at St.Helen’s sea mark at 1230. At 1430 anchor was weighted and we came alongside H.M.S. Zodiac at 1530.

Friday 6th August 1948
H.M.S. Opportune – 

As we were leaving harbour, the largest floating crane in the dockyard was lowering H.M.S. Illustrious’ Port forward director into position. Later the donkey boiler was hoisted off the flight deck, its place taken by another one on the jetty.

We went as far as Owers then turned back to anchor at 1230 off St.Helens. The weather was very wet and I was soaked to the skin in five minutes while I was on the foc’s’le with the cable party. We weighed anchor at 1430 and came alongside H.M.S. Zodiac at 1530 as usual.

At 1600 I decided to go on a long week end, so I asked permission and caught the 1735 train from the town station for Southampton.

Saturday 7th August 1948 (or Sunday)
Bridport – I went to the seaside to the west of Bridport with friends. The weather was fairly warm, but the wind was strong and the seas too rough for bathing. We had a very pleasant walk along the cliffs and started for home just before the rain came down.

Monday 9th August 1948
H.M.S. Opportune – The newspapers today report that many people were drowned and yachts were washed ashore in yesterday’s stormy weather. H.M.S. Wave, a minesweeper and duty destroyer, was out at sea yesterday standing by a vessel in distress off Weymouth.

I caught the 1837 train from Maiden Newton for Dorchester and eventually arrived on board at 1130. H.M.S. Fleetwood came out of dry dock today and was secured outboard of us. She has not yet completed her refit for I saw some steel plates up by Middleship jetty, earmarked for her deck plating.

Near Fleetwood’s plate were many frames marked for Admiralty Floating Dock No.8, at present sunk in Grand Harbour, Malta, so I suppose that it will be salvaged and raised shortly.

Tuesday 10th August 1948
H.M.S. Opportune – We slipped from H.M.S. Zodiac at 0900 and, after leaving harbour and reaching the Owers Light vessel, we turned back to rendez-vous in the Submarine Exercise area with H.M.Submarine Spearhead.

Today we had onboard about 25 sea cadets and 70 soldiers of the King’s Rifle Regiment.At 1315 the Spearhead, having dive, fired 6 torpedoes towards 325, with their running ranges set to 3,000 yards. Five of the torpedoes ended their run and their noses bobbed to the surface within 10 yards of each other, but one had a gyro error and was some distance away. When we started recovering the torpedoes we were about two miles to the south of Nab Tower and the line of radar reflector buoys to the East. When all were recovered we had drifted about a mile nearer under the influence of wind and tide.

The Captain stopped the ship a few yards from the torpedoes to windward of them, then we just drifted right onto them. Seamen hooked onto the eyebolt, on the nose of the torpedo, with Paravane Recovery hooks, which are apparently better than the special spring hooks supplied. After that tail lines and torpedo straps were slipped onto the noses of the torpedoes after which the tails of the torpedoes were hauled to the surface. A seaman , in bathing trunks, was then lowered to the waterline in a bosuns chair, where he hooked the torpedo davit’s purchase onto the sling. 

We secured alongside H.M.S. Zodiac at 1530 and shortly afterwards a Torpedo Recovery Motorboat came alongside to take the torpedoes back to the depot.

Wednesday 11th August 1948
H.M.S. Opportune –

 Having left harbour at 0920 we anchored off Sandown at 0955. We went to Sandown principally for the annual regatta there, though there were other events going on in the afternoon in which some of the ship’s company took part. The main competitions ashore were swimming races and diving competitions, in the swimming bath near the pier, but there were also some novelty competitions such as best women’s ankles, men’s legs, and beauty contests, etc. the coxswain talked about entering the one before the last mentioned but I doubt rather if he did.

Unfortunately the swell prevented the placing of mark buoys so none of the sailing events took place, and further it rained on and off all day, so that it was decided to weigh anchor at 2000 and return to Portsmouth. Thus we missed the ball, ashore, and the firework display. Even so, in weather like this, nobody minded.

Thursday 12th August 1948
H.M.S. Opportune –

An ex-German E-boat, which has been detained at Gosport by the Board of Trade, featured in the Evening News tonight. A month ago the boat was put in the water after undergoing repairs in a boatyard. Its owner was not able to pay all at once, for the work so the boat was detained, however in a short time he reappeared with a suitcase full of £5 notes and all was well from the boat yard’s point of view. At that stage, however, the Board of Trade stepped in and had the boat detained further on the pretext that her life saving equipment was inadequate. Ian Hunter, an ex-R.N.V.R. officer who was in prison a few months ago for smuggling with an ex-M.T.B., apparently, is in charge of the boat, and everybody thinks that he was going to start up a gun running business for the Jews in Palestine. For the last month an armed sentry has been posted on the boat and an M.T.B. has been secured close by, with orders to shoot at the E-boat if it attempted to get away, even in the harbour.

Before tea I went over to Victoria Barracks to collect some C.B.’s for the navigating officer.

[C.O. comment – Very neat.]
Tuesday 31st August 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious –

 Arrived back onboard H.M.S. Illustrious after my leave and after being away for 11 (2?) weeks.

Wednesday 1st September 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious –

 After breakfast four of us, having rejoined the ship from H.M.S. Opportune and Zest, were introduced to the Commander and the snottie’s nurse.

Two deserters came up before the Commander at defaulters. One, a Royal Marine, overstayed his leave 5 weeks and was arrested by the civil police before being sent onboard; the other, a Leading Steward, overstayed his leave as well, but he also obtained a travel warrant under false pretences. The causes of both these cases were women, although it seemed to me that the Royal Marine was a misfit in the service in any case. There have been a number of thefts onboard in the past week of stores, which have been coming into the ship off all the week. Dockyard plain clothes police officers traced a quantity of meat, in the form of legs of mutton, to the ship which was found when a dockyard matey’s house was searched. It was apparent that this robbery did not implicate any of the ship’s company, however a few days later, after provisions had been transferred from a lighter alongside to the cold storage rooms, a whole side of bacon was found in the possession of a Royal Marine. [C.O. comment – This is not quite accurate] On the following days an inquisition was held in the W.O.’s mess to discover who had been in league with the culprit. [C.O. comment – The end point is not yet known]

All the midshipmen are busy this week writing, preparing, and looking up facts  and figures about the different departments of the ship. All the data gathered will be published later on in a ship’s information book designed to give any officer a fair insight into the workings of the ship when he joins. I have been compiling notes on messing and accommodation which has entailed looking through files in the Commander’s office, the Police office and consulting notices in the steward’s regulatory office. I have found it difficult to give figures about our present complement, which seems to change considerably from day to day as drafts leave and new ratings arrive.

The hull and superstructure of the ship has just received its first coat of paint since we undocked. Unfortunately most of the work seems to me to have been badly done, in fact it looks as if the hands employed did their work carelessly, although the may have done it fast. A great many corners and small rather intricate places of the hull have simply been skipped. This will be put right when the ship receives a second coat.

[C.O. comment – Largely due to inexperience and lack of supervision]

In Malaya Communist terrorists, operating in armed bands have been attacking plantations. This guerrilla offensive, although it may not assume very large proportions, is taxing our available scanty forces to such an extent that two battalions of the Guards have had to be sent out as reinforcements. At the same time a battalion is being transferred from Hong Kong to Singapore. This is an unusual mission for the Guardsmen who have seldom served in peacetime further afield than Egypt. A disturbing implication of the present situation is that Australia has insufficient forces at her disposal to fulfil her commitments for her own defence. These troops, whom we are sending half way round the world, are being sent  to defend Australia at a time when we are unable adequately to defend ourselves.

[C.O. comment - ? Singapore and Malaya are not Australian commitments]

Air Exercises.
At home full scale air exercises have been taking place to test our most modern defences against air attack, and of course mainly to try out long range enemy aircraft detection and plotting. This side of defence is more important than ever today when bombers can fly as fast as fighters did in the last war. We are told by the newspapers that the defences were proved and not found wanting, though it seems a little premature yet, before all reports and plotting have been sifted, to pass judgement. 

7th September 1948
Basin Trial
The wires securing the ship to the jetty were doubled up this forenoon in preparation for testing the main engines. Midshipmen provided with whistles were detailed to watch the wires to give warning if any showed signs of parting.

In the afternoon the outer propeller shafts were revolved at 40rpm in opposition to the centre line shaft which was rotated at 60 rpm. The tests showed that everything was in working order and proved satisfactory.

Commander’s Office.

A great deal of avoidable extra work has been made in the Commander’s Office since the drafts from H.M.S. Implacable arrived. This was because we were not accurately informed of the Part II qualifications of many of the seamen, consequently when these men arrived onboard, many Anti-Aircraft Rates found themselves in 4.5” turret crews and a few Q.R. ratings were put on Bofors guns. The lists of ratings who are to be drafted to H.M.S.Implacable in October and November contain all the necessary information which should make the work in the Commander’s Office, H.M.S. Implacable, much easier than that which has been going on onboard here for the past week.

During our period in the floating dock the ship’s company was reduced and the work which was carried on in the ship was much reduced. It was because of that state of affairs that the Commander’s office took on one extra small commitment after another and was able to cope with everything efficiently. When the ship sailed, on 14th September, the office still had all the commitments it took on before and trouble arose because the various jobs grew as the ship started on an active programme once more. Now some of the responsibilities are being transferred back to their original bearers.

Tuesday 14th September 1948H.M.S. Illustrious – 
Full Power Trial
The ship left harbour today and proceeded westwards towards Plymouth. In the afternoon we went up and down the measured mile off Polperro for the full power trial and for calibrating the new ‘Sal’ log. Number 5 cabin flat was flooded to a depth of several inches with seawater. The nuts, holding a scupper outlet on the waterline, worked loose through the vibration and a leak developed. This defect was put straight the next day by the dockyard foremen, who were in charge of the ship’s refit at Portsmouth, and who were onboard in case anything cropped up when the ship went to sea for the first time.
Exercising Oil Abeam

H.M.S. Rapid came up on our Starboard quarter at 1700 and after coston gun lines had been fired across onto her forecastle a telephone line was passed over, followed by ropes all ready for the ratings on H.M.S. Rapid’s forecastle to haul over the oiling hose. Two troughs, suspended under the starboard seaplane crane, were used to support the hose over the 50ft separating the two ships. The operation was held up because a bight(?) of hose was caught up in a loudspeaker at the side of the flightdeck and the crane had to be trained inboard before this could be freed.

Once the oil hose was secured on H.M.S. Rapid a jackstay was secured to a slip on her ‘B’ gundeck and along this a clump block, as traveller, was pulled with a provision net beneath filled with two sacks of bread.

After sunset the ship was darkened and H.M.S. Rapid steamed round and round reporting all lights that were showing. Galleys and lockers seemed to be the compartments which were most frequently left undarkened and which caused the most trouble.

The next night when we tested darken ship once again we had to use the seaboat with a portable R/T set. After a quarter of an hour, however, the wireless communication broke down and communication by flashing had to be used instead. This meant that it took at least an hour to make sure that the whole ship was darkened.

On the run back to Spithead ‘action stations’ were exercised and all the 4.5” guns were fired for functioning trials. In ‘A’ T.S. there was some difficulty at first in establishing communication with all the guns, and it was also found that the direct telephone to the Gun Direction Platform (Visual) did not work. When the guns opened up heaps of dust in the fan shafts were disturbed and clouds of choking dust were wafted into the T.S., luckily muslin bags had been fastened over all the punkalouvres otherwise the atmosphere might have become much worse.

Until the 285 gunnery radar sets are in working order the H.A. directors and ‘A’ T.S. (the only T.S. which is at present in anything like working order) will be useless, as it is the policy of the Admiralty, now, to dispense with range finders and range takers in directors and to use radar only. 

2nd September 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

The air department has just finished testing the arrester wires and the catapult. To start with it was found that the arrester wires were too slack, and while this was being attended to an Avenger was circling the ship waiting to land. The only other incident was when a Seafire, having landed, was taxying up forward along the flight deck and caught its hook in the barrier on the deck.  

Thursday 23rd September 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 
The first exercises of the operation was a night battle with 10 Motor Torpedo Boats which were attempting to break through the destroyer screen and torpedo H.M.S. Duke of York, H.M.S. Illustrious , H.M.S. Vengeance and H.M.S. Theseus without being detected. From the G.D.P. I was able to see only a fraction of the exercise but I imagined that down below in the Radar Display Room everything was clear. Such was not the case. Due to bad reporting of echoes, detected by 277Q, the B.P.R. and bridge had as little idea of the situation as we had up top.

Monday 27th September 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 
At 9 o’clock just as the last crate of air stores was being hoisted inboard from a drifter, we weighed anchor in Plymouth Sound. When we were well out to sea, all ready to land an aircraft from St.Merryn aerodrome, Cornwall, a signal was raised that visibility was too poor for the aircraft to take off. Besides the visibility being bad there was quite a swell off Lands End which might have made the first landings rather hazardous. The Commander made an announcement to the ship’s company over the broadcasters about the correct procedure for being seasick and the best cure for the malady. He addressed his speech to the Naval Air Trainees, who were causing most mishaps but who were by no means the only ones in the ship to be affected.

The dispute between the Occupation Powers in Berlin has been referred to the United Nations Security Council. This Council, already divided between the Eastern Bloc and Western one will now have another matter to wrangle about, only this time the fate of 3 million Germans in Berlin is at stake. To abstract the discussion of the problem from the very outset the Russians argue that there is no Berlin problem because Berlin is not under siege by Russian forces and besides, they argue, the matter cannot be brought up before the council as it relates to an ex-enemy state

Tuesday 28th September 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

Today the swell affected the ship more than yesterday, in spite of that, however, 6 Fireflies and 6 Seafires and 1 Barracuda were landed on during the day. 17 landings were made during the day for D.I.C.O.’s training, then the aircraft  were struck down into the hangar, as the sea was considered to be too rough for flying.

In the evening the ship hove to off Fishguard and preparations were made to lower the Admiral’s barge to take Admiral Few and his working party ashore. Unfortunately the boat swung inboard when the ship rolled, and two holes were made in the boat’s bottom when it hit the ship’s side. In the end Engineer Rear Admiral Frew and his party went ashore in the seaboat, which took bread to H.M.S. Rapid before it returned to the ship.Admiral Frew’s working party came onboard on Sunday and have been looking into the organisation of the Air Engineering Branch here. His visit here was not the only one he has made to a carrier, for he has been to H.M.S. Implacable as well, and Royal Naval Air Stations have also been visited by him, for he has the difficult job of reorganising the whole of the Air Engineering Organisation of the Royal Navy.

Wednesday 29th September 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 
165 deck landings were accomplished today by pilots in Seafires and Fireflies learning to land on by the American deck landing signs, which are now coming into standard use in all our carriers. One Firefly finished its landing in the barrier and had one of its wings badly damaged and the bottom of its engine ripped out on the barrier wires. The cause of the accident was the housing of the aircraft’s hook when the aircraft’s tail hit the round-down, as the pilot landed too far aft. Thus the aircraft missed all the arrester wires and was stopped finally by the barrier.

Drawing – RAF Firefly and RAF Firebrand

Thursday 30th September 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious –
 today 253 deck landings were completed. The record number of deck landings to have been made on an aircraft carrier in one day is 358. The days flying was a success for the fight deck handling parties considering how long they have had to work up so far; the short length of daylight; and a delay caused by the after lift, which could not be raised up flush with the flight deck because only one of the two lift motors was working.

As soon as flying was over, at 1915, H.M.S. Rapid came up on the starboard side and the oiling hose and light jackstay were rigged between the ships. Midshipman Taylor was transferred to and brought back from H.M.S. Rapid by breeches buoy. At 2000, before half the oil which we wanted to transfer had been pumped across. H.M.S. Rapil steered out too far from our ship’s side with the result that the outer strops on the water oiling trough parted and pumping had to be stopped and the hose slipped from Rapid.The Royal Marine Band was playing ‘music while you work’ on the flight deck while all this work was being carried out on the flight deck. A request for “Daisy, Daisy, Gimme your Answer Do” was received by R/T from H.M.S. Rapid as well a request for “Bladen Races,” however the band was only able to play the first one which was much appreciated by those on H.M.S. Rapid’s bridge.

Friday 1st October 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

Signals were received by TBS from H.M.S. Rapid,  our attendant destroyer, that a rating onboard her had developed acute tonsillitis. For most of the day we were standing by in case it became necessary to transfer our doctor to Rapid or the patient to us. Finally however, the patient recovered and the doctor was not required. Nevertheless it was decided to exercise transferring a case by stretcher from H.M.S. Illustrious to H.M.S. Rapid. So after Rapid had come up on our Starboard side and a light jackstay had been secured to the wheel house of Rapid, an officer was sent across on a naval cot. Unfortunately those on Rapid’s bridge were not quick enough on the uptake to have some stiff medicines ready to dose the ‘patient’ on arrival. 

Saturday 2nd October 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious –

As soon as it was light enough, about 0700, 4 Seafires and 3 Fireflies were ranged, flown off and ranged again for practice. At 0730 they were all flown off for St.Merryn aerodrome, Cornwall. We couldn’t alter course for Devonport straight away because it was believed that one aircraft had flown off into the Atlantic on the reciprocal of the correct homing course, consequently we had to keep on steaming into the wind in readiness for landing on the offending aircraft. What was worse was the knowledge that the pilot of the particular plane was an engineer officer who had only learned to fly 6 months beforehand and who had never landed on an aircraft carrier before. For this reason everybody was told to stand clear of the after end of the flight deck. Actually the plane flew into clouds, and was not seen by the rest of the homing aircraft, but landed last quite safely. 

At 1445 we anchored outside the breakwater in Cowsand Bay. We did this because there was not room at low water in Plymouth Sound for us to swing at anchor without going aground, during the spring tides. During the war the sound was not dredged enough and consequently the anchorage has silted up a little, but quite enough to matter. A dredger is at present engaged in dodging there so that H.M.S. Vanguard can anchor inside the breakwater whatever the height of the tide.

Sunday 3rd October 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

Church this morning in ‘C’ Hanger was attended by the greater part of the ship’s company. Every week now the congregation gets larger as the Ship’s Company realises that Divisions last a little longer than the church  service and that at church they are not subjected to such a critical inspection as they are at divisions. As soon as the service ends there is a stampede from the rear towards the forward hangar access doors, while the padre waits for the fire curtain to rise before he can retire

The Russian representative in the United Nations Committee on Atomic Power had made a compromise. He now says that the atomic weapons of the great powers should be open to inspection by United Nations observers and banned at the same time, and later destroyed. The rest of the Committee realise that the only way to ban atomic weapons efficiently is to start a system of international atomic inspection before the weapons are destroyed. Otherwise it would be probable that one country would destroy their weapons, which would play right into the hands of the unscrupulous powers. 

Tuesday 5th October 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 
the ship weighed anchor in Cawsand Bay at 1600 and course was set for Spithead. 

At 0525 we anchored in the Solent off Spithead. During the day 4 wrecked aircraft, 3 Fireflies and 2 Seafire, were transferred to a lighter alongside. The day was spent in preparation for ‘Shopwindow’ which comes off on Friday and tomorrow.


[C.O. Comment – You are badly adrift. Put in my cabin up to date by 1600 Saturday and include a Journal sketch] McCutin Ltd 14 Oct 

Sketch – H.M.S. Illustrious – The Island

Thursday 7th October 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – 

At 0815 the ship was ready to proceed to sea to carry out ‘Operation Shop Window.’ At that time a paddle tug came alongside and started to disembark 150 R.A.F. officers from the Royal Air Force Staff College, Bracknall.

As we passed Nab Tower the guests below were finishing breakfast and were about to start on a tour of the ship, including the messdecks where a great deal of work had been going on in preparation for this visit.

At 1015 all the visitors were assembled on the flight deck to watch H.M. Submarine Tactician dive on the Starboard bow and pass close to the ship showing Snort. This apparatus is an improvement of the German apparatus called Schnorkel, which was fitted in U-boats to enable batteries to be charge while the submarine is underwater or enables the submarine to proceed at Snort depth with the diesels instead of on batteries. With the advent of radar submarines were just as likely to be detected at night as, when they were charging their batteries under cover of darkness, as in daytime, so the Schnorkel device was invented to make detection by radar more unlikely. Basically the device consisted of two pipes; through one exhaust gases from the engine could be vented clear of the surface of the sea and through the other air was sucked to provide oxygen for the diesel engines and for the crew.

H.M.Submarine Totem demonstrated how a submarine could surface and man its 4” gun within 25 seconds to start firing at a target. She surface on the Starboard beam and fired blank rounds at the Island.

Serial 118 was a demonstration of the latest and the old standard anti-submarine weapons. H.M.S. Flint Castle fired her Squid mounting, on ‘B’ gundeck, and then H.M.S. Finisterre and Ming dropped depth charges on either side of the ship. 

Before the last depth charges had detonated Both Watches of the Hands came up onto the flight deck, by both lifts, and doubled to the after end of the deck. There ropes were manned and the last preparations for oiling H.M.S. Rapid on the Starboard side and H.M.S. Ming on the Port side were completed. Unfortunately at that minute H.M.S. Ming hoisted N.V.C. balls and signalled that all power onboard had fallen over, which meant that we could only replenish one destroyer. 

While the demonstration of oiling abeam at sea was in progress H.M.S. Finisterre came up close on our Port beam and fired off a 4.5” A.A. barrage from ‘A’ and ‘B’ turrets. As the wind was from Port we received all the cordite fumes on the Island.

Our Starboard close range armament, Bofors and Pom-Poms, opened fire next on a drogue towed by an aircraft. The noise the guns made was terrific and impressed the R.A.F. fliers. No less impressive was the accuracy of the tracers.

At 1200 we altered course into the wind and landed on a Sea Hornet, Sea Fury, Firefly and a Firebrand. The Sea Fury was put on the catapult ready for being accelerated after lunch while the other three aircraft were ranged aft, the Sea Hornet on an outrigger. 

After lunch the destroyers made a dummy torpedo attack on the ship, then made smoke and hid behind it. Then out of the blue 6 Sea Hornets swept down on the ship and beated it up, one of the attacked being made at sea  level, practically, to simulate an aircraft torpedo attack. When they were very low it was extremely difficult to spot them until they were in quite close, about 20 seconds before they were above our heads. The necessity of having good air look outs, since radar cannot be relied on to pick up aircraft flying at very low altitudes, was brought home to us very clearly. Again the necessity of having radar sets, working all the time, which can pick up aircraft 200 miles away – that it to say 20 minutes before they are overhead – became readily apparent. After beating the ship up the aircraft gave us a demonstration of accurate machine gun and rocket firing attacks on a fog buoy (splash target) 3 ¾ cables astern of us.

The four aircraft were flown off, after the Sea Hornet returned to base, and the Firebrand dropped a torpedo, with which it had been loaded while onboard, close to our port side. This was recovered by H.M.S. Rapid at the end of its run. Unfortunately we couldn’t see how this was done because H.M.S. Rapid hoisted it in on the Port side, away from us. The aircrafts method of indicating where the Torpedo’s position was, was to fly along straight for the torpedo and then climb steeply when overhead of the object. This is a standard method used by all aircraft when indicating the presence of objects in the water such as periscopes, survivors etc.

When we were approaching Nab Tower, on the way back to Spithead, M.T.B.’s from H.M.S. Hornet made a dummy torpedo attack on both the bows. This was the last serial of the operation and when it was over the spectators went below to have tea and prepare themselves for leaving the ship.

Friday 8th October 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

Today we staged another operation “Shop Window” for the edification of the Imperial Defence Staff College, Camberwell. [C.O. comment – No!] The programme was exactly the same as yesterday so everything was much easier to organise as we had the experience of the day before to guide us. 

The after lift could not be used to bring up hands, ready for replenishment of the destroyers, because only one lift motor was working. H.M.S. Ming was under control today, but she didn’t come close enough into our Port side to make the rigging of the light jackstay an easy operation. Furthermore there were not enough hands on her forecastle to pull on ropes so it took longer  than usual to pass the light jackstay. Because of the inexperience of those on the destroyer it as decided not to transfer a Midshipman across in a breeches buoy, in case something should have gone wrong and the unfortunate passenger dipped in the sea. 

Saturday 9th October 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – 

This forenoon the flight deck was the scene of great activity. Both cranes were in use, the Port one brining in fresh vegetables and spuds and the other was lifting air stores, Pepsicola, Barclays Tinned Beer and Steel Wire Rope for the Bosun, not to mention trays of cream buns for the ship’s canteen. I noticed that a plain clothes policeman of the dockyard constabulary was keeping a watchful eye on the activities on the jetty. At least this time there have been no cases of stores getting into the wrong hands so I suppose the dockyard authorities are taking more drastic precautionary measures then they have done in the past. 

After lunch I left the ship to spend a short weekend in London with friends. 

Evesham Standard & West Midland Observer
Saturday 9 October 1948

Wanted - Butler or Parlourman, Chaffeur, must be experienced in private service; good personal reference essential; small cottage if married; wife willing to help in house if required. Address, Mrs Heath-Caldwell, Linley Wood, Talke, Staff. K1409

Diary of Lt. J.A.Heath-Caldwell R.N. continues...

Monday 11th October 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

Today I am to start my course with the air department. The main duties will be to understudy the various officers on the Flight Deck and to make recordings of all aircraft take offs and landings. At 1315 we slipped from South Railway Jetty and left harbour. As soon as we were past Fort Blockhouse the hands fell in on the flight deck for Divisions. Divisions fell out when we were nearly or past Nab Tower when it started to drizzle.At 1600 we flew off the Sea Hornet which was not flow off during the second ‘Shop Window’ because it developed a leak in its petrol pipes in the gunbay. After that a Firefly and a Seafury(?) were landed on for Deck Landing Training, that is the pilots were learning to land on with a batsman using the American Deck Landing Control Signals. A Sub-Lieutenant air course was onboard today to watch flight deck procedure and in general to get an aircraft carrier background to their air course which is, of course, ashore at Lee-on-Solent. 

At dusk we anchored in Weymouth Bay.

Tuesday 12th October 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

We weighed anchor and put to sea today as early as possible after libertynes had been brought offshore so that aircraft trials could start early and be completed in good time. The Sea Fury and Firefly, which were landing on yesterday, came back today when we were ready to receive them and finished off their D.L.T.S.’s. When they flew back to base we expected to land on the Sea Hornet, fitted with a new undercarriage to be tested, for the trials. The plane, however, was unserviceable so most of the forenoon was wasted, except for a short time after stand easy when H.M.S. Rapid was replenished with 80 loaves of fresh bread by light jackstay.


Wednesday 13th October 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

Deck landing trials continued all day today with the Sea Hornet equipped with a new modified undercarriage. There are about 10 trials experts onboard who tend cine cameras placed on the flight deck (to take pictures of the undercarriage as the plane lands); two who rush to the plane on each landing and take measurements of the displacement of the shock absorbers; and one or two more men who watch from the island, who, I suppose, are there in case anything unforeseen happens which the recorders cannot put right.

Thursday 14th October 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious –

A standardised routine has been evolved by the Mate of the Upper Deck for entering and leaving harbour and anchoring in an open anchorage. This makes the task of running the routine, when coming to anchor, much easier than it has been in the past. I think it would make the task easier still if the Special Sea Dutyman Midsipman of the Watch was to have the watch immediately before anchoring instead of closing up with Special Sea Dutyman, for obvious reasons.

Friday 15th October 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

Today the ship had a rest from her normal flying programme. We remained at a buoy in Weymouth harbour all day.

In the forenoon 5 frigates of the R.N.Z. Navy left the harbour on their way to New Zealand. The High Commissioner for New Zealand, Mr Jordan, took the salutes of the ships from an M.T.B. as they steamed out through the breakwater. A helicopter, fitted with floats, was hovering overhead all the time, presumably carrying press representatives.[C.O. comment – remember the 3 fold purpose of the journal. You must improve your English. Sketch.]

Saturday 16th October 1948H.M.S. Illustrious – 
Visit to Dartmouth
At 1000 the ship slipped from her buoy in Portland Harbour and proceeded to a rendez-vous with a drifter, carrying 200 cadets from R.N.C. Dartmouth, off the River Dart.All the visitors were embarked safely into the Starboard drifter lobby by jumping ladder, and at 1430 they were all fallen in on the Flight deck, prior to being conducted up onto the Island superstructure to watch flying operations and demonstrations carried out by a Firefly, Avenger and Sea Fury.

Unfortunately visibility was poor due to rain and drizzle however that didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the cadets, very few of whom had even been onboard an aircraft carrier before, let alone seen aircraft flying off and landing on. Outwardly the Dartmouth Cadet’s behaviour differed from that of the Benbow (Special Entry) Cadets, because the former wanted to give the impression that they were really rather bored with the whole affair, having been in the Navy for 4 years, in contrast to the Special Entry cadets who had joined only six weeks before.

The high light of the afternoon was to have been the Firefly firing her 8 rockets, a pair at a time, at the splash target towed astern. Just after the plane took off its radio set became unserviceable and instructions had to be passed by flashing from the flag deck while the aircraft orbited the ship. Perhaps the pilot became tired of orbiting or a word was misinterpreted in one of the messages, anyway before anybody know or saw what was happening just at the time when everybody was watching another plane on the Port side of the ship, the Firefly fired off all its rockets when flying parallel to the ship on the Starboard side. The Sea Fury was to have carried out some aerobatics but didn’t do any because of the poor visibility.

By the time all the cadets left the ship they had a much clearer idea of what flying on and off planes from an aircraft carrier means. Although the programme did not go according to plan, it fulfilled its main purpose – of rousing the interest of future officers in naval air warfare, the most important form of naval warfare today, and in the future. 

Sunday 17th October 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

The 3rd pinnace foundered astern of the ship when bringing libertymen on the 2230 boat trip. 29 men were missing, presumed drowned, including the Midshipman of the boat.

I arrived on the jetty at 2245 to catch the drifter on the 2300 trip, however it was engaged in rescue operations so all libertymen left ashore either found beds for themselves or the floor of the N.A.A.F.I. Club or managed to find room elsewhere, while a few went round to Portland by a bus sent by Patrol Headquarters, Portland. We were informed on the jetty that no more than one bus would be sent because Rough weather routine had not been brought into force. That was an hour after the accident.

Tuesday 19th October 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 
After an unavoidable break yesterday in aircraft trials we recommenced D.L.T.’s with a Sea Meteor and a Short Sturgeon undergoing wing folding trials. 

Admiral Mackintosh of Mackintosh, Vice Controller Air, paid a visit to the ship in the forenoon to watch the trials, arriving onboard in an Avenger in a spectacular fashion. The pilot brought the plan in slightly too high so that its hook skimmed over all the arrester wires, missing them by inches  all the way. The aircraft tipped up on its nose after hitting the barrier and skidded round to Port, its Starboard wing missing the Island by a matter of a few inches and its Starboard tail plane coming to rest against No.14 bofers gun sponson. A guard and band were not provided.

Thursday 21st October 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

Meteor decklanding and Sturgeon wing folding trials were continued today. The weather held up the programme today when the cloud base came down to 200 ft. the Meteor was secured on the after end of the Flight Deck and the Short Sturgeon was struck down into the hangar.
The ship came to a buoy in the afternoon, instead of anchoring in Weymouth Bay, because Weymouth Pier was closed to all liberty boats. Wing folding trials continued after dark on the flight deck which seemed to point to the fact that all these trials could have been carried out on an aerodrome, although I suppose it was quicker to do them on an aircraft carrier because set windspeeds for the trials could be guaranteed. 

[C.O. comment -  We have no suitable wind tunnel, which would have to be large and tremendously expensive to cover so large an area]

Monday 25th October 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

Trials commenced today with a Sea Vampire. This aircraft on landing, pulled out a wire to its fullest extent, having come in a little too fast, and was then turned right round till it faced the stern because its hook did not catch the middle of the arrester wire. A few delays were caused by the aircraft’s engine having ‘wet’ starts. This happened when too much kerosene was injected into the combustion chamber of the turbojet and the engine was flooded. The result, as seen from the Flying Control Position, was usually a 6 foot flame from the jet and a pool of burning paraffin on the Flight Deck. Emptying the combustion chamber of surplus fuel was a simple matter : six men pulled down on each boom of the aircraft, thus tilting the plane till the tail-plane was on the deck, when the fuel just ran out of the jet engine onto the flight deck. 

The A.D.R. has to be all prepared to direct the Vampire back to base, during these trials, in case anything should happen to prevent the aircraft from landing on again. This is particularly important because the Vampire has a short endurance so no time should be lost in homing one should it be necessary to do so. Consequently the A.D.R. has to be prepared all the time to give the aircraft accurate directions for flying back to base in the least possible time.

Tuesday & Wednesday 26th & 27th October 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

The ship was at sea late on both nights for night flying trials which consisted on landing on a Sea Hornet and Firefly after dark on two moonless nights.

The first night the Sea Hornet’s hook gear became unserviceable after two successful landings and one overshoot when the aircraft missed all the wires and managed to throttle up and clear the flight deck and Island. After that incident the pilot reported that his hook light was not burning and he returned to Lee-on-Solent. The Firefly, which made some landings after the Sea Hornet came in practically every time from the Starboard end of the Flight Deck and came to a stop on the Port side of the Flight Deck. No doubt had it come in too high and missed all the wires it would have gone over the Port side of the ship.All the landings by the Sea Hornet on the second night were very successful. The only incident was when one of the Aircraft Handling Party on the flight deck jumped into a boat on the Starboard boat deck instead of into his safety net. At once somebody shouted “Man Overboard!” Three minutes after that the engines were stopped. Before the life buoy buzzers rang the lifebuoy sentry had been told that the man had not actually fallen overboard, so no lifebuoys were dropped. H.M.S. Rapid had a searchlight switched on about one minute after the first report.

Thursday 28th October 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

Having been at sea all night, because there was a South Easterly gale blowing and it was not safe to anchor in Weymouth Bay, the ship went round in the lee of Portland to attempt to transfer Enquiry witnesses to H.M.S. Rapid by seaboat, because they were wanted by the Board of Enquiry sitting at H.M.S. Osprey. However even to the West of Portland the swell was too high for the seaboat to go across to H.M.S. Rapid in safety so the project was called off.

By evening the seas had gone down and the wind had dropped so the ship was anchored in Weymouth Bay, it still being to windy to enter the breakwater, 15 knots of wind was deemed to be the maximum wind at which it was safe to enter Portland Harbour.

Saturday 30th October 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – Friday having been wasted at anchor in Weymouth Bay, from the point of view of storing ship, it was necessary to have the Duty Watch of the hands employed all the afternoon and most of the dog watches in storing all the fresh provisions, tinned milk, ground nut oil, potatoes etc.
[C.O. comment – Be accurate]

Most [C.O. comment – about 30%] of the officers and about 300 ratings went ashore by drifter in the forenoon to attend a memorial service in St.Mary’s Church, Weymouth.

Sunday 31st October 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – The shop proceeded to sea at 0730 today to arrive at Invergordan on Tuesday, making the passage at the ships economical speed, 16 knots. 

[C.O. comment – Improved. A neat sketch. Still rather too much a diary – remember to look further afield] 
[C.O. comment – I should describe this as little more than a log: particularly lacking in intelligent comment on matters of seamanlike interest. Signed ? 7/11]

Tuesday 2nd November 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious –

4 Seafires and 3 Fireflies were landed on today to be flown during the coming week by pilots undergoing deck landing training, either initial or for type of plane. The last plane down, a Firefly, hit the deck too heavily with a drift to Starboad and the strut of the Port undercarriage gave way under the tension. The plane came to rest on its Port wing and Starboard undercarriage just forward of the arrester wire control panel box. Among the party of trainee pilots are 2 U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commanders who have come to learn to handle British aircraft by British methods. The purpose of their visit is to standardise American and British landing techniques so that should the necessity arise our pilots can land on their carriers and vice versa. Of course, at present, when most or our aircraft are not designed specifically for use on carriers and American planes are, the techniques used by the two navies must be different. For instance all American planes can land on from right astern because the pilots, in a high cockpit, can see the D.L.C.O. over the top of their engine cowlings, whereas our aircraft have to bank all the way in to land.

 Photo – Seafire lands on.

Monday 8th November 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

After spending Saturday and Sunday at anchor 3 miles from Invergordon off Cromarty the ship continued the D.L.T. and D.L.C.O. training programme with H.M.S. Ulster in company.
There was a low long swell today which made the ship pitch quite considerably, much more than any small fishing vessels which were in the vicinity. Due party to these conditions two planes crashed on the flight deck during the forenoon. One, which came down an the round down as the round down came up, leap frogged all the arrester wires and landed fairly and squarely in the middle of the first barrier. 

The other plane’s Port undercarriage collapsed after a heavy landing, the plane finishing up in a precarious position perched on the hump of the Port crane. The pilot was not scratched luckily and nor was the crane. Had this not been the case storing ship at Rosyth on the day after next would have become a major problem with only one crane in use.

10th – 13th November 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious 
Amunitioning Ship at Rosyth
As soon as the ship was secured to a buoy at Rosyth at 0945 on Wednesday 10th November 3 ammunition lighters, the Enfield, Catapult and Flintlock came alongside Port side. At the same time a water boat, with sacks of potatoes and greens on deck, came alongside under the Starboard crane. 

The original plan for ammunitioning ship was to have all the lights alongside Port side; one by the Port after gangway lobby where ammunition was to have been hoisted inboard by whips and the lighter’s derrick; one under the Port crane, to be unloaded by the crane with the ammunition piled on trays; and the third lighter alongside the Port P.V.lobby to be unloaded by whips and the lighters derrick. To enable these boats to get alongside without hitting their superstructures or rigging on our ship’s side 3 large catamarans had been ordered from the dockyard. Unfortunately only two of the catamarans ordered came and one was secured under the Port crane while the other was placed under the Starboard crane. This effectively disorganised the programme. One lighter was sent away with orders to come back the next day. In the end it was only possible to start unloading the second lighter, Catapult, after the water boat had finished pumping and had been cleared of provisions.

One of the first minor difficulties that we were confronted with was the fact that the hooks on the slings used for the trays were too small to fit the eyebolts on the trays. This was put right when shackles were put on all the eyebolts. But this caused a short wastage of time whenever trays were hooked on, as very often the shackles were caught underneath the eyebolts. 

Altogether 4,850 rounds of 4.5” ammunition, approximately 70% of the 4.5” ammunition in the lighters, and all the Pom Pom, Bofors and Mortar, in all amounting to 2978 cases, were hoisted onto the flight deck by 11 o’clock on Saturday 18th. All the empty wound paper protective cases, in which every 4.5” round was packed, had to be hoisted back into the lighters together with 226 rounds of defective ammunition, most of which had had their cartridge cases dented prior to being hoisted onboard the ship. These defective rounds alone caused a wastage of 30 man hours, taking into account that each tray load had 60 rounds, that the turn round took 7 minutes, that the rounds had to be unpacked then repacked and hoisted down to the lighter and that 30 men were employed on the flight deck and lighter dealing with the 4.5” ammunition.

The third lighter caste off with 30% of the 4.5” ammunition, which should have been embarked, still onboard. All this could have been loaded onto the flight deck had there been more of a sense of urgency behind the operation or at least a definite target. As it was the hands, with the exception of the Royal Marines and Naval Air Trainees, did not work as enthusiastically and cheerfully as they might have done, had they known that ammunitioning was to have been completed  by stand easy on Saturday whatever happened. They might possibly have realised the urgency of the job if they had worked a little later in the dog watches, or even if they had worked through the lunch hours unloading the lighters as they did at tea time.

The hands who worked till 2355 on Saturday, striking down all the ammunition remaining on the flight deck to the magazine, worked exceptionally fast. And enthusiastically because they knew the reason why it was necessary to stow away the ammunition as quickly as possible. Because the weather outlook was by no means certain and it would have been very dangerous to have had a large quantity of ammunition loose on the flight deck if the ship had run into heavy seas. 

[C.O. comment – I still find this disappointing. From your professional point of view the two most interesting events in the period covered were:-

(i) The rescue of Lt. Fanismit(?) 
(ii) Securing to the buoy at Rosyth
You comment on neither.
The return of Mr Truman was a world event of interest and importance – no reference!On the other hand there is a disproportionate amount of space devoted to the technicalities of night landings which do not concern you at all.
Signed (illegible) 19/11]

At 1400 on Saturday 13th November the ship left Rosyth for her passage to Bangor, Northern Ireland. In the Irish Sea on Monday morning we ran into fog, nevertheless the rendezvous with H.M.S. Rapid off Bangor was affected without delay. The first ship that loomed out of the mist off Bangor was the Edinburgh Castle  of the Union Castle Line which was undergoing trials with a tug in assistance. [C.O. comment – attendance]A Motor Fishing Vessel, which was sent from Greenock, and the ship’s boats ferried across the personnel and baggage of 815 Squadron from H.M.S. Rapid to H.M.S. Illustrious during the forenoon. All the baggage was hoisted inboard by the Starboard crane by 1215.

[C.O. comment – “X”] (see later)
During the afternoon the wind got up and at 1500 all the ship’s boats were hoisted and at 1530 sea dutymen were closed up in case it should have become necessary to weigh anchor in the event of the ship starting to drag. By 1600 the gale was blowing Force 8. The M.F.V. was unable to come out to the ship to bring off libertymen till Tuesday morning, having been sheltering from the storm all night. According to the Belfast Telegraph the Reverend J.B. Johnson, Port Chaplain, accommodated about 200 sailors in Hamilton Road Methodist Church, Bangor. For this he received a letter of thanks from the Captain.

At 2245 on Sunday Princess Elizabeth gave birth to a son. To celebrate this happy occasion a 21 gun salute was fired and the ship dressed with masthead flags at 1200 on Monday. We did not sound our siren for 5 minutes at 0900, as all other H.M. ships in harbour did, because we were still under way at that time. At 1730 in accordance with an A.G.M. the mainbrace was spliced. The Gunroom drank the young prince’s health in lime juice at dinner.

Tuesday 16th November 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious – 
in the forenoon we landed on 12 Barracudas of 815 Squadron, which is the only squadron specially equipped with airborne radar for anti-submarine warfare. During the rest of the day two aircraft were used for Deck Landing Training.

Every day for the remainder of the week 815 Squadron was engaged in working up exercises. These included homing by Y.E.-Beacon, homing by direction from the Air Direction Room, homing by airborne radar and practice torpedo attacks were to have been made on Friday, but because the wind was too strong and gusty these exercises did not come off. [C.O. Comment – were cancelled.]

On Thursday evening we anchored in Brodick Bay on the East Coast of Arran, partly because it was sheltered from the West and partly because it was a better place than Bangor from which to start the next day’s flying, providing the wind did not back or veer more than 90º during the night. 

Friday 19th November 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 
the wind was blowing too hard for us to be able to fly off any Barracudas, gusting up to 45 knots at times. Eglinton reported that weather conditions were more favourable off Loch Foyle than further to the South so we went up there. During the afternoon 3 Barracudas and 2 Vampires were landed on but no aircraft at all were flown off for exercises.

Four destroyers, H.M.S. Crispin, H.M.S. Creole, H.M.S. Battleaxe and H.M.S. Scorpion overtook us to Port while we were proceeding West off the Giant’s Causeway near Portrush. These ships of the 4th Escort Flotilla are operating from Londonderry at present, and were taking part in Anti-Submarine exercises organised by the School of Anti-Submarine Warfare at Londonderry.

On Thursday, while 815 Squadron was engaged in Air Exercises and I was in the Air Direction Room, H.M.S. Crispin and H.M.S.Creole were fuelled abeam for exercise. The operation with H.M.S.Creole was carried out the most efficiently because she came in close to our ship’s side and kept station well, thus making the job of transferring oiling hose from the flight deck to her focsle a simple operation.

[C.O. comment – A wholly inadequate comment – there were several points of interest in these two [?] one of which at any rate you would well have witnessed, and about both of which you should have enquired]

On Tuesday the consumption onboard of fresh water for washing and domestic purposes was 186 tons, which is 36 tons more water than the ship can distil in one day. The maximum capacity of the fresh water tanks is 280 tons, as they were at Rosyth. Thus if the rate at which water was consumed on Tuesday was to remain the same, in 7 ½ days there would be no water in the ship other than the water actually being produced by the 7 evaporators in the ship. To reduce the daily consumption of water all the ship’s company’s bathrooms up forward are closed during the hours when nobody should need to use them. These measures should at least bring the consumption of water down to a reasonable limit.[C.O. comment – “X” – there were several points of seamanship interest on that day, and on the following Wednesday and Saturday – your remarks are empty and of no value. Sketch please.]

Communist Successes in China.
Mukdan, the key city of Manchuria has fallen to Chinese Communist forces: the fate of Suchow hangs in the balance with the Nationalist Government throwing in all its land and air forces into the battle to stem the Communist armies.

The Communists hold most of the known mineral wealth and industrial resources of China now that they are the undisputed masters of Manchuria. Whether they will be able to make as much use of these potentially rich territories as the Japanese did is doubtful because the Russians have been busy here – as they have been in overrun European countries – in removing factories and industrial equipment. Nevertheless, in spite of these disadvantages, the Chinese Communists now hold a very secure base from which they can advance against the Government held territories in North and Central China. 

The Chinese Communist forces in China cannot be classed with the forces of Russia’s satellite countries in Europe, for the Russians have done little to help their Chinese comrades beyond allowing them to break into ex-Japanese arsenals in search of arms and munitions of war. Only a few Chinese leaders were trained in Soviet Russia and these, like Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia, are not bent on completely subordinating China to Russia. The Communists owe their successes, not to a highly trained and organised minority, but to the general mass of the people, who have been persuaded that by co-operating with the Communists they will be supporting a system in which everybody with his own energies, will be able to raise the standard of life of the majority.

At present the Communist lead, Mao-Tse-Tung and his colleagues are trying to get the co-operation of anyone willing to work with them. For this reason they do not attempt to force public opinion into well defined channels, as the European Communists have been doing; instead they foster small businesses, industrial co-operatives and private enterprise. Because they have convinced the people that they have not gained their power by the age old Chinese methods of oppression, they still have the strength to hold their system together. 

The greatest weakness of Chinese communism today is its exclusively agrarian outlook, which of course has been the reason why it has been supported so well by Chinese peasants. There is nothing at present to show how the Chinese Communists will be able to solve China’s problem of rehabilitation by solving the problems of her economy, industry, finance and above all her administration, the chief defect of which has always been its corruptness. 

The Nanking Government, through not being able to maintain political or economic stability in the areas still under its control, has lost the confidence of all classes of the population with the exception of those who are still able to enrich themselves by corruption under the Government’s system. President Chiang Kai-shek’s policy, based mainly on half hearted American aid is another of the factors which does not inspire in his subjects confidence in his Government.

An American Mission from China calls for large scale aid to China at once to prevent the Communists dominating the whole of China and thus irreparably upsetting the balance of power in South East Asia and the Pacific. This could quite possibly lead to the same sort of a disaster as was caused by the Siamese Government’s pact of co-operation with the Japanese before America entered the last war.
The trend of events in China is more important today than it would have been in the past because we cannot rely so much on the support of Pakistan, India and the West Indies. Recent political change in these countries have tended to loosen their ties with the West and of course with the English speaking countries of the Empire. Because of these factors it is most necessary to stop the present rot in China before it spreads to the other countries of the Far East.

[C.O. comment – Interesting – Sketch to illustrate position required. Not enough in itself for a week’s journal work]

Saturday 20th November 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

The duty boats were hoisted out at 0800, in spite of the fact that a gale warning for the area had been broadcast by the B.B.C. Between that time and 1000 the wind blew up and the sea became choppy so that it was decided to hoist all the boats. My boat had to lie off the starboard crane for about 10 minutes before the crane was trained outboard and the purchase lowered for us to hook on. During this time the pinnace, a much less seaworthy boat than the slow motor boat, was also lying off because it can only be hoisted once the motor boat has been lowered onto its crutches and traversed inboard. The pinnace was ordered to secure astern of the motor cutter at the port after boom in the ship’s lee.Just after the motor boat had been hoisted the Port crane driver was piped to close up. The Starboard crane driver heard the pipe and immediately manned the Port crane thus holding up the hoisting of the pinnace further.

To prevent any of these delays in the future when boats have to be hoisted quickly a special routine has been promulgated. Everybody will be informed of what is happening by a pipe. The boats will be hoisted on the lee side of the ship if it is rough and Jumbo will be used to transfer the boats across the flight deck to their proper billets as necessary. If the weather is very bad the Engine Room Department will arrange to pump oil over the side forward of where the boats are being hoisted. To prevent any muddle about the duty crane driver all four duty crane drivers will close up at Port and Starboard cranes in an emergency.

Sunday 21st November 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

The ship weighed anchor at Bangor at 0700 as soon as the drifter, which had brought off the last stragglers, cast off. The weather was fine all day and the swell from the south was negligible. 

Monday 22nd November 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

At 1730 the starboard watch closed up at 4.5” Defence stations for a night encounter exercise with H.M.S. Rapid. The first few rounds of starshell which we fired failed to burst. When eventually some shells did burst they burnt short and H.M.S. Rapid was not lit up by a continuous steady barrage of star shell.

The failure of the shoot was hard to diagnose. It was however suspected that either the fuzing machine on A1 gun was not functioning correctly or that the fuze setter was not setting the correct fuses. 

[C.O. comment – Many other possibilities were considered e.g. Errors in elevation , wrong use of bubble, or incorrect fuze dials.]
Tuesday 28th November 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

During the night a gale blew up from the South East. All the hatches on the weather decks on the Port side of the ship had to be closed because of the seas. It also became necessary to traverse in the seaboat because it was being lifted up occasionally by the waves. One of the stanchions holding the pudding spar in the correct position was snapped off by the seas and the seaboat was holed on the starboard side.

In the morning the wind veered slightly and dropped a little. The seas also went down a little as we came into the lie of Cape Finnisterre although a long swell from the South West began at this time to affect the ship motion.

At 0045 when we went up on the flight deck for P.T. we noticed that the temperature had risen appreciably form the day before.

Wednesday 23rd November 1948H.M.S. Illustrious – 
The weather had improved so much by today that it was possible to continue working up 815 Squadron.
 9 Barracudas were flown off at 0900 to carry out A.L.T.’s during the forenoon. In the afternoon more aircraft were flown off for a reconnaissance exercise. The main part of the exercise was to use an aircraft, orbiting 40 miles away, as an R/T link with the aircraft on patrol. The exercise was successful though it was found that the amount of talking over the aircraft frequencies was doubled unless the correct procedure was strictly adhered to. While the Barracudas were airborne one of the Vampires was flow off to keep the pilots up to the mark. 

After sunset we carried out a second night encounter exercise with H.M.S. Rapid. Again the gunnery was rather erratic. One shell exploded prematurely as soon as it had left the barrel of the gun and burned in the sea on our Port beam for a few minutes, probably showing us as very well to H.M.S. Rapid. There was going to be a second run with starshell but this was abandoned.

Thursday 25th November 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

While some Barracuda aircraft were doing search exercises in the afternoon a Vampire successfully completed 26 landings. This brought the total of landings for that aircraft up to 100 and also completed the aircraft’s quota of deck landing trials. 

Just before sunset the ship steamed from the west into Tangier Bay, turned round to starboard and passed close to the harbour wall and to the town. This was to raise the ship’s company’s morale, and certainly practically everybody in the ship who could come up onto the flight deck to hear the Commander’s commentary and see Africa did so.[C.O. comment – [re ‘ship’s company’s morale) Almost as beastly a phrase as for propaganda purposes. Was it not done for interest, or even just for fun?]

As we steered out of Tangier Bay, westwards again to make to leeward for flying the next day, H.M.S. Rapid came up alongside starboard side to receive bread by light jackstay. The operation was completed after some initial delay because the light jackstay messenger was not correctly rigged. A heaving line was secured to the end of the light jackstay and outhaul instead of the 30 fathom length of 2 ½” rope. The result of this was that the coston gun line was not hauled right in by H.M.S. Rapid before the light jackstay was paid out from the flight deck. The whole weight of the light jackstay was taken by the coston gun line which parted. After that the hands working on the flight deck failed to check the light jackstay as it was pulled overboard by the weight of rope in the water. Before the operation could be attempted a second time the light jackstay had to be recovered which was not easy job. 

[C.O. comment – re “no easy job.” – too time. (but was surely not very difficult!]

Friday 26th November 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 
At 0900 4 Barracudas were flown off to make an attack on the ship and to be intercepted by the two Vampires.

At about the time when they should have been closing from the South West a closing aircraft was detected by radar to the S.S.W.  On the assumption that the aircraft was a Barracuda it height was calculated to be 10,000 ft as the echo received was a large one. The Vampires were flown off and climbed to 11,000ft and were directed towards the quarry. The target turned out to be a French Halifax aircraft flying much lower than 10,000ft, nevertheless the interception by the Vampires was successful and was the first interception of an aircraft by a directed jet fighter. 

At 1700 the ship entered the North Entrance to Gibraltar Harbour and came alongside the South Mole. The head rope was secured without difficulty but the wind caught the ship’s stern and flew it off. 4 tugs however were standing by and these helped push the stern into the jetty. There was some delay after we had secured in getting in the after brow because the mobile crane on the jetty was not manoeuvrable enough and there were too many people at the starboard after gangway in the way of the hands working there.

Photo – H.M.S. Illustrious arriving in Gibraltar – 1948

Saturday to Tuesday 27th – 30th November 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious –

Gibraltar – The hands were employed every day, including Sunday forenoon, in painting ship. This was most necessary as it as the first time for about ten weeks that we had the chance to employ large numbers of hands over the side and on the ship’s superstructure. Four large catamarans were provided by the dockyard with scaffolding mounted on top to facilitate the painting of our bows and stern. These were secured to a crane lighter just ahead of the ship and the seaboat was used to tow them into the right positions. The problem of handling these large chunks of wood was a difficult one. As it was we towed them alongside and ahead but I think it would have been simpler to have passed a line from the fo’c’scle to the catamarans first, then used the motor cutter for pushing the catamaran into the correct position. [C.O. comment – you try it!]Oiling did not interrupt painting the ship’s side as we connect up to oiling points on the jetty.

H.M.S. Crossbow, H.M.S. Scorpion and H.M.S. Battleaxe secured astern of H.M.S. Rapid, just astern of us, on Sunday afternoon. These ships are here to take part in operation “Chichin” and the exercises carried out by the Home Fleet on its way back to England via the Azores. 

[C.O. comment – You are a week astray]


Sketch – H.M.S. Illustrious (orange) at the South Mole, Gibraltar 1948

Tuesday 30th November 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

The ship was cast off from the South Mole at 1130 and turned round, assisted by two tugs, in the South End of the harbour and then left harbour by the South Entrance. The 4th Escort Flotilla took station ahead in a screen.

During the afternoon watch, while the ship’s company was enjoying a well earned make and mend, the duty part prepared the rigging and oil fuel hose necessary for fuelling abeam. 

At 1630 H.M.S. Battleaxe, H.M.S. Scorpion and H.M.S. Crossbow came alongside starboard side in succession and exercised oiling abeam by transferring the oil fuel hose across and connecting up to the destroyer’s hoses. 

H.M.S. Battleaxe made a very spectacular approach from the starboard beam at high speed but did not turn to starboard quickly enough when she was close to the ship with the result that she came right alongside. She was so close that when she tried to put her bows out her stern swung in towards our ship’s side under the suction effect of our screws. Her port Stag gundeck in fact hit the gangway outboard of the ship’s company information room which luckily caused only a slight dent on our structure but which might quite easily have done considerable damage had her superstructure fouled ours elsewhere. The task of getting the hose onto H.M.S. Battleaxe’s fo’c’sle was made difficult at first, till Battelaxe opened out a little, as there was little room in which to work and the oil fuel hose, hanging from the crane is two long bights, threatened to become entangled in the destroyer’s foremast even though the crane was topped right up and not trained right outboard. The messenger on the end of the hose was (wove?) through a block on the forecastle so that the hands hauling on the end of the rope had plenty of deck on which to work without getting in the way of those actually engaged in connecting up the oil fuel hose. This was now done in the same way with the other two destroyers where the hands working the messenger were getting in the way of those securing the hose on ‘B’ gundeck. 

H.M.S. Scorpion came alongside second, and having seen how close H.M.S. Battleaxe came, she kept station too far out from the ship’s side and didn’t seem to be able to close the correct revolutions for maintaining position.

H.M.S. Crossbow, the last to come alongside, probably profited from the mistakes of the other two. When astern the correct revolutions for maintaining station were found so that when she was alongside she reduced speed to the revolutions already known and from that time nobody appeared to bother to stand on the (pelorus?) all the time. She was also the correct distance away from the ship’s side where the compression and suction effects of the two ships making way through the water cancelled each other out. A short delay was caused by us for the first two coston gun lines missed ahead of the destroyer’s forecastle, for the ratings who aimed the rifles did not take into account the wind which was from astern, though a swell was coming from the West, from ahead.

The main reason why the evolutions were carried out rather slowly was lack of experience on the part of the destroyers. All the ships took too long in connecting up once they had the end of our hose inboard because, as is unfortunately the case quite often these day, the petty officers were trying to do all the pulley-hauley work themselves instead of directing the hands intelligently[C.O. comment - √]

Wednesday 1st December 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 

the atmosphere is still hot and humid in spite of our distance out to sea. This must be the result of the recent South to South Easterly winds which started to make themselves felt when we were in the Bay of Biscay on the way to Gibraltar.

During the day a dress rehearsal for ‘Operation Chicken’ was carried out. Flying stations sounded off at 0635 and at 0730 three aircraft were flown off to carry out a diverging track search, with one aircraft as an R/T link aircraft. The last aircraft, however, developed a high temperature in its radiator shortly after take off and was landing on again at once. H.M.S.Battleaxe and H.M.S. Crossbow were detached to act as a decoy, picket ships and search force. It the weather was going to be two bad for flying, Battleaxe and Crossbow were going to search for the enemy force instead of the aircraft.
Saturday 2nd December 1948

H.M.S. Illustrious 
Exercise ‘Chicken’ Serial One
Attack on 2 Light Fleet Carriers and Destroyers by One Fleet Carrier and Destroyers.

Red Force Blue Force

A.C.3 H.M.S. VengeanceS.O.

H.M.S. Illustrious

H.M.S. Theseus

H.M.S. Rapid

D.4 Agincourt *

D.6. H.M.S. Battleaxe ^

H.M.S. Alamein*

H.M.S. Crossbow ^

H.M.S. Corunna *

H.M.S. Scorpion ^

H.M.S. Jutland *

H.M.S.Finisterre ^
(Possible) 50

Firefly and Sea Fury Aircraft (Possibly)

17 Barracuda,

2 Vampire Aircraft.

Battle Class Destroyer *

Weapon Class Destroyer ^

At 0600 on Saturday Red Force was to be within 20miles of position SS(33º 55’N 29º 00’W) and Blue Force was supposed to be within 120 miles of RR (35º 15’N 31º 40’W). Red Force was supposed to be making for its base at Flores in the Azores so presumably it would have to be making good a Northerly course.

Blue Force’s task was to search for, locate and strike Red Force with Barracudas armed with bombs and torpedoes (for exercise) before Red Force had time to locate our force and attack us with superior numbers of aircraft, bombers and fighters.

We knew that when the Red Force left England on 23rd September it had approximately 50 aircraft which could fly. We deduced that after two months operation in South Africa the number of serviceable aircraft might have been halved, so really the odds against us were not great, when taking into consideration the fact that they had 36 times the area to search for us as we had to search for them. Furthermore Barracuda aircraft are better suited for reconnaissance and search than Fireflies because they were designed for that job whereas Fireflies were designed as maids of all work and carried only 2 crew as opposed to 3 in a Barracuda. Thirdly 815 Squadron were equipped with radar sets for anti-submarine work, and having operated in conjunction with the Anti-Submarine School at Londonderry they were very experienced. One of the ship’s flight Barracudas was to be used as a VH/F R/T link between the Barracudas on patrol and the ship for passing enemy reports and messages in general. 

Two destroyers , H.M.S. Battleaxe and H.M.S. Scorpion were to be detached form out force to act as decoys, H/F radio links with our aircraft if necessary and as picket ships if the enemy flew off an fighters, and lastly they were going to be used to search for and locate the enemy, with the other destroyers in Blue Force if the weather made the operation of aircraft impossible. If this was going to be the case we were going to sink the whole of Red Force by gunfire and torpedoes during a surface action for our destroyers outnumbered the enemy’s by one and H.M.S. Illustrious has 14 4.5” guns versus the Light  Fleet Carriers 40mm anti-submarine guns.

Exercise ‘Chicken’ – Serial I – What Happened.

At 0602 three search aircraft were flown off. They first flew to H.M.S. Battleaxe and H.M.S. Crossbow and started a diverging track search from that position. It was hoped that the enemy would track them in by radar and deduce our position as the point from which the tracks of our aircraft diverged. After that, if the Light Fleet Carriers had flown off any aircraft, H.M.S. Battleaxe and Crossbow would have been attacked, but if really realistic wartime conditions had prevailed we should have had a combat air patrol over these two destroyers for their protection.

The centre aircraft of the search spotted the enemy first but was unable to pass an enemy report. The two search planes shadowed the fleet and at 0721 a strike of 7 planes was flown off. These, however, missed the Red Force and passed to the West of the enemy, turned back and started a (sequence?) search, when they managed to locate the enemy and press home an attack with torpedoes (for exercise only). 

Weather conditions were not favourable for operating aircraft because there was a long Atlantic swell running which was causing the flight deck to pitch a great deal. The Light Fleet Carriers decided that the weather was definitely not good enough for flying so we had no opposition in the air at all.

The operation went of according to plan from our point of view but faulty communications might possibly have wrecked our whole plan, for the first aircraft to spot the enemy was unable to pass a report owing to a defect in its transmitter. Had the second aircraft failed to see the fleet the strike could not have been flown off in such good time. Communications between search aircraft and H.M.S. Illustrious, and C-in-C Duke of York, could have been considerably improved if the aircraft had carried a V.H./F. transponder for relaying V.H/F. R/T. This set was being tested with H.M.S. Boxer in June of this year and might have been tested operationally during the exercise.

One Barracuda missed all the arrester wires when it landed and crashed into the barrier. The aircraft was struck down after some delay during which time some aircraft were kept waiting in the air. This delay would have been considerably shorter in wartime had it been considered dangerous to have the flight deck unusable for even a short time. Then the offending aircraft would have been quickly disposed of over the ship’s side. During the exercise the plane was struck down as quickly as possible, taking into account the fact that it was necessary to handle it carefully and to fold its wings before sending it down the after lift.

The exercise showed clearly the advantages a heavy and well armed aircraft carrier has over lighter carriers armed with much lighter weapons. The weather and swell were definitely the deciding factors of the defeat of Red Force. Possibly light fleet carriers would be better employed in landing air support for landing operations, where the ship could operate in relatively sheltered waters, than in protecting convoys out in the Atlantic Ocean during the season of the Autumn gales.

After ‘Operation Chicken’ Serial I H.M.S. Illustrious and the 4th Escort Flotilla joined up with C-in-C and Red Force for a night encounter exercise. During the exercise the destroyers fired a great many star shells which landed first a little ahead of us but later astern of us because the destroyers had made an error in estimating our course and speed. We kept station 4 cables away from the Duke of York in line ahead. Station keeping was not easy using Radar Type 293 and the Captain said that continually having to pay attention to station keeping was a distraction when he had to appreciate the tactical situation. The answer is to attempt to cut down the ground wave effect when using 293, have type 268 installed onboard for close range navigation or alternatively not keep in such a close order during night operations.

Sunday 5th December
H.M.S. Illustrious – 
Replenishment of the Fleet in the Azores
The original intention was for all the ships to be replenished at sea, either from the aircraft carriers or the two oilers, Wave Sovereign and Wave Monarch.  Because of the swell running it was decided to being this replenishment operation in the lee of the Azores and what finally happened was that the oilers and the Duke of York anchored in the channel between the islands of Faial and Pico while the 3rd Aircraft Carrier Squadron, H.M.S. Illustrious and the cruisers steamed up and down the channel between Pico and the Island of San Jorge.

We managed to transfer 180 tons of oil fuel to H.M.S. Rapid during the forenoon. We intended to give her 200 tons but the oil fuel hose parted twice, once in the middle of the evolution and once at the end.

Both times H.M.S. Rapid went out a little too far, the oil fuel line tautened out and the slings on the outer trough parted. The first time the outer slings on the trough parted and the crane purchase was so far out that the purchase drum was completely unwound and of course could not give any further. The armoured part of the hose parted at Rapid’s end causing an oil spout which blackened a large part of her bridge, funnel and the side of her forecastle. We connected up again to H.M.S. Rapid using the spare set of oiling gear and everything went well until the ships got a little too far apart once more and the ring holding the slings of the outer trough gave way under the strain. The weight of the hose was then taken by Rapid’s flexible metallic hose which parted, the copper strip trailed along in the water astern.

The use of a quick release oil hose coupling would have saved the hose and probably the filth on Rapid’s paintwork, not to mention the three ratings who were soaked from head to foot in oil fuel. It seemed off that the armoured hose should have parted in the first case when the wire jackstay was recovered intact. This may have been because the wire jackstay was not secured to H.M.S. Rapid at the time.

During the replenishment operations we were not the only ship to have trouble for H.M.S. Theseus also parted a hose when fuelling a destroyer.

Operation ‘Sunrise’ – War Between Red Land and Blue Land
Blue Land represented a country with strong air and submarine forces which were to try to shadow, attack and destroy us with atomic bombs; if weather permitted, before we, Red Force of Red Land managed to arrive within air striking distance of Plymouth. From the Azores to England we expected that there would be between 30 and 20 submarines lying in wait for us, listening in to A.C.H.Q. Devonport for reports from aircraft of our whereabouts. Our forces consisted of the two light fleet carriers, H.M.S. Theseus (A.C.3) and H.M.S. Vengeance, H.M.S. Duke of York (C-in-C), the cruisers  H.M.S. Diadem, H.M.S. Cleopatra and H.M.S. Sirius, escorted by the Battle class destroyers of the 4th and 5th Destroyer Flotillas and the weapon class anti-submarine destroyers of the 4th Escort Flotilla.

On Tuesday and Wednesday 7th and 8th of December H.M.S. Illustrious operated 20 miles ahead of the main body as an advanced submarine hunting group. 10 miles ahead of us, and operating in conjunction with our Barracudas, was the 4th Escort Flotilla. The swell from the West very nearly stopped us operating aircraft altogether, but 815 Squadron, with it experience and with the confidence it gained in itself during ‘Operation Chicken’ was operated during these two days without mishap. No submarines were (seen?) by the aircraft, however, because the state of the sea made a snort or periscope wake very inconspicuous indeed. The sea also prevented our radar from picking up any but close submarine echoes because of wave clutter. 

Several shadowing aircraft were detected by our radar, and two of these were sighted and identified as Lincoln bombers of the R.A.F. We were only spotted twice by the enemy, who was unable to keep in touch with us all the time, because of 7/10 to 10/10 cloud and also because the number of planes that could be spared to take part in an operation of this sort was inadequate. It is reasonable to suppose that in wartime if an operation of this sort was being carried out the enemy would put a great many more aircraft into the air. Blue Force bombers were operating from Gibraltar, as we heard on the 1900 B.B.C. news bulletin, which accounted for the fact that nearly all aircraft were seen to close or track in from the South to South West. This fact had a first led us to suppose that half of the aircraft tracking North East were civilian airline aircraft. 

Phase II. Thursday & Friday – Atomic Bomb Attack Imminent. 

During Thursday shadow aircraft were busy searching for us all day. The aircraft should have sighted us at least half a dozen times because our ships reported engaging and identifying at least 6 different planes on different occasions, most of which were Lancasters. At 1800 the M.L.A. of the fleet was altered to nearly due North to throw off the aircraft shadowing. One aircraft reported our position 40 miles away from our real position which may have helped us. From 2000 on Thursday to 1030 on Friday the enemy did seem to have lost contact with us altogether.

At 0800 on Friday the M.L.A. was altered back to the East again but during the day we made little more than 100 miles to the East as we were more or less marking time. H.M.S. Vengeance flew off 2 Sea Furies for a C.A.P. during the forenoon. These were relieved at the same time as we flew off relief a/s patrols. At 1045 we flew off one Sea Vampire to show its paces to the fleet. Unfortunately the second Vampire was not able to be flown because it could not be started.

The Sea Furies intercepted one shadower successfully and reported, or claimed, to have shot it down. At 1500 when we had altered course into the wind to receive aircraft and relieve the a/s and C.A.P. patrols, one of the Sea Furies, revving up on H.M.S. Theseus’s deck, tipped up on its nose and became a crash on deck. H.M.S. Theseus did not fly off the relief C.A.P. and was unable to clear away the crashed aircraft quickly so we landed on her two Sea Furies.
Shadowers were in the vicinity of the fleet till 1600 but for 10 hours thereafter we were left in peace for the weather became steadily worse, a 45 knot gale blowing up from the South on our Starboard beam. 

Saturday 28th December –

At 0310 on Saturday an aircraft made contact with the fleet and flew up and down, North and South for about half an hour. It dropped flares on the fleet, one of which was reported over H.M.S. Theseus. This attack, it turned out later, was made by a coastal command aircraft which dropped 3 flares tied together in a bundle to simulate the dummy atomic bomb. The photoflash bombs, which were intended for dropping on the fleet, were at an R.A.F. airfield in Norfolk at the time because Bomber Command reckoned the weather was too bad for attacking the fleet and had recalled all its aircraft.

Phase III: Intended attack by Aircraft Carrier Based Aircraft on Devonport.The last part of the Exercise ‘Sunrise’ was abandoned because of unsuitable weather. At 0815 we were detached from the fleet and ordered to proceed independently. 

Lessons Learnt and Faults Discovered During the Exercise.As in Exercise ‘Chicken’ the advantage a heavy carrier has over lighter carriers was clearly demonstrated. The most striking instance was when we received H.M.S. Theseus’s 2 Sea Furies when she was unable to land them on. incidentally we should have operated aircraft of H.M.S. Theseus or Vengeance on Thursday if the [crossed out – light fleet carriers had been able to fly them] weather had been a little better, for although we were operating the Barracudas it was considered that our motion would have been too much for operating Sea Furies as we should have had to increase speed.

The action information organisation of the fleet was hampered by the fact that surface reports and air reports were being carried by one plot wave only. Plot Wave II was functioning perfectly well between the three aircraft carriers because it was used occasionally for heads of air departments of the three ships to talk to each other. Fleet wave, which should have been used solely for manoeuvring signals was used for some surface reports which was against all the rules. Plot wave II could have been used for air reporting between the ships, but I suppose the destroyers would have found it difficult to man both channels in these days of low ship’s complements.

The radar reporting from H.M.S. Illustrious showed up the differences of efficiency between Type 960 Air Warning Radar and Type 281 in the carriers H.M.S. Vengeance and Theseus and the cruisers. We managed to pick up regularly aircraft over 60 miles away, and very often we picked aircraft up to 90-100 miles range and tracked them out to 100 miles or more. The other ships usually detected aircraft when they were in to about 40 miles from the fleet. These detections did however apply to large bombers flying at heights of 5,000ft and over. Our own Barracuda, flying on A/S patrols at heights around 1000ft usually faded at a range of about 30-35 miles, sometimes less. The Duke of York’s Air Warning Radar seemed to be very poorly operated or giving poor results for several times we pointed out that she was reporting spurious echoes. When at night we had to rely on the Air Warning Radar sets of the other ships we had a very difficult job in plotting accurately the positions of aircraft within 30 miles of us, because the ship’s reporting the aircraft were widely separated. Again this would not have affected us during wartime as the sets would have been left operating all the time if the enemy was suspected of operating in the vicinity.

[C.O. comment – Unless radar silence except for guards were being enforced]If in the future, larger aircraft carriers are built on the lines of a new American carrier under construction, without any Island above the flight deck and having about 6 accelerators instead of 1 or 2, it will become necessary to build ships like H.M.S. Boxer for operation with the fleet. A ship designed for the sole purpose of providing good air and surface radar coverage would undoubtedly operate its radar more efficiently than other ships because there would be no distractions from the ships main job. It would of course be necessary to design the ship for its job from the very word go for it would have to be capable of steaming at high speeds, both to keep up with a modern fleet, and for evasive action.

The R.A.F.’s part in Exercise ‘Sunrise.’
The fact that the R.A.F. was unable to effectively attack the Red Fleet, has shown up the air force’s weaknesses and seem to have caused consternation amongst the higher authorities. It is officially stated that the weather, rather than the Red Fleet itself, defeated the aircraft which tried to shadow and attack the ships. However, it is well known now that many bombers didn’t take off from their aerodromes as planned because of technical defects in their engines and their electrical equipment. It is said that these defects, which kept the aircraft grounded, were due to poor, or inadequate maintenance. The inadequate maintenance points to the fact that there are either too few well trained technicians tending the aircraft today, or the technicians are not well trained, or, worst of all, the technicians themselves have not the same pride in their work as in the fleet during the war. Pay is said to be one of the factors which has made many skilled air mechanics leave the R.A.F. and find better paid jobs elsewhere in the employment of civil firms. 

In R.N. Squadrons the lack of trained personnel to keep the aircraft serviceable all the time is noticeable but those that do work, work with a will because they have the traditions of the Fleet Air Arm to maintain.


[C.O. Comment – Not bad. Your could with advantage be LARGER. Stick in or remove the pack of cards(?)]

Saturday 11th December 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 
Having been detached from the Home Fleet in the Channel the ship proceeded northwards to attempt to fly off the 2 Vampires and 2 Sea Furies to R.N.A.S. Culdrose. Off the North Cornwall coast we were in the lee of the land and so we were not affected by the southerly swell which had been making us roll and pitch most of the night.

Although the weather was mainly sunny towards midday there were a few rain clouds about and conditions were showery. For this reason the two Sea Furies were flown off first to Culdrose to report on the weather that was encountered. From their information and from the general aspect of the weather over the land it was decided to keep the Vampires onboard. The jet plane’s chief disadvantage seems to be the fact that it cannot, as yet, be flown in as many weathers as the ‘propellor’ plane.

Sunday 12th December 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 
At 0830 all the serviceable planes of 815 Squadron were flown off to Eglinton armed to the teeth with ‘rabbits and loot from Gibraltar.
 At 0930 the ship anchored off Bangor and rendezvoused with the R.F.A. oiler Celerol and H.M.S. Rapid, which had preceded us North to refuel at Londonderry. 

The tanker came alongside as soon as catamarans had been placed on our port side and H.M.S. Rapid came alongside her. While we were being oiled from the tanker the baggage and stores of 815 Squadron were transferred across via the tanker’s deck to the destroyer. This transfer of stores was followed by the transfer of all the personnel of 815 Squadron who were taken to Belfast and landed there.

All scientists, newspaper correspondents and technicians went ashore by boat at the first opportunity. It had been hoped to fly them off by 2 Avenger aircraft if the final phase of Operation ‘Sunrise’ had not been marred by bad weather.

Customs Officials came aboard as soon as we arrived and nobody was allowed to leave the ship until cleared by them. At 1500 we proceeded to sea once more on passage to Invergordon and the Customs had to leave us although they had not cleared everybody onboard.

Another attempt was made to fly the Vampires off as soon as we had weighed anchor but this time there was not enough wind. The ship’s speed on passage was 20 knots so that we could arrive of Invergordon early the next afternoon to land on the Fireflies and Sea Fires for deck landing training.

Monday 13th December 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – 
The weather during the forenoon was not particularly fine with cloudy conditions and a little rain and the wind started to get up blowing from the south. The wind, however, enabled us to fly off both Vampires at 1330 and they both reached Lossiemouth some 10 minutes later. One Barracuda was flown off, mainly I think to stretch its wings. One Midshipman went up with it to gain a little flying experience, at least he learned that Barracudas could loop the loop if he didn’t learn too much else.

At 1715 we anchored off Naime and embarked those officers and ratings who were to carry out deck landing training during the next week. 

Tuesday 14th to Friday 17th December 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – Deck Landing Training Period.
Each day at 0730 the ship weighed anchor and proceeded to sea to get as far to leeward as possible by the time that it was light enough to fly aircraft. The largest number of landings to be done were for Deck Landing Control Officers training. In all more than 400 of these landings were completed during the period.

When flying conditions were not too good the D.L.C.O. pilots, all most experienced airmen, did their landings. The trainees gained a great deal of confidence, I’m sure, seeing these men land their planes on the deck in safety time and time again.

On Thursday 2 Fireflies completed 30 landings between them in 25 minutes non-stop. Because of the speed at which we were competing the quota of landings our target was raised by an extra 120 which annoyed everybody because we thought that we should be able to set off back to Plymouth as soon as the original quota of landings was completed. Nevertheless on Friday we managed to keep up the tempo and so we did actually complete all the extra landings without any difficulty.

At 1600 on Friday the ship anchored off Cromarty and leave was granted to the Ship’s Company for the first time since we left Gibraltar. 

The weather, which we expected would be cold, was actually much warmer than the last time we were here. The mountains over to the West have no snow on them as they did in early November.

Saturday 18th to Tuesday 21st December 1948
H.M.S. Illustrious – On Saturday we weighed anchor at Cromarty at 1145 and proceeded to sea.

As we went South the weather became colder and colder and at Devonport, where we arrived during Tuesday forenoon there was no improvement.

World Affairs.
China and the Far East.
During the last two months Communist armies have been steadily advancing into North and Central China. Resistance from the forces of the Kuomintang Government under Marshall Chiang Kaishek was considerable at first but since the surrender of Pekin and Tientsin nationalists commanders seem more inclined to come to terms with their adversaries. It seems possible that large number of government troops took advantage of offers of safe conduct if they surrendered their arms.

The Communists now have direct rail communicationswith Manchuria and their bases, and, with troops to spare from the Tientsin and Pekin area, it probably won’t be long before Shanghai, China’s most important sea port, and Nanking are occupied. If the Communists feel strong enough, after consolidating their gains in Central China, they will press onwards towards Canton and to the objective of uniting China under one rule once more.

The effect on the balance of power in the Pacific depends on the colour of the Chinese Communists. The Americans are inclined to believe that the Chinese are communist in name only, and will not be drawn into the spiders web of the Soviet Government. They hope that the Communists in China will quarrel between themselves once the enemy had been finally routed and that China’s power will once more be sapped by strife between new War Lords.

The outlook will be black indeed if Russia manages to step in once the bloodshed is over. Communist activity in Burma, Malaya and the East Indies would increase greatly once Communism was securely established in China for all the extremists could then expect outside help.

Australia’s position in the Far East has never been secure. The policy of excluding all coloured peoples from settling there had the effect of placing a very large vacuum, with a thin wall, in the centre of high pressure. Australia is under-populated by white people, because she cannot get as many immigrants as she would like, while the populations of most countries in the Far East are too large to be fed by the available means. Australia’s plight would be great indeed if the dominant power in the Pacific was not one of the Western Powers.

Palestine.
During the truce period between the Arabs and Jews in Palestine, negotiated by the United Nations Mediator, the Jews re-equipped all their forces. The United Nations Organisation was unable to stop this misuse of the ceasefire because it had no international force at its disposal to enforce its decisions.

When the truce period began the Jews were in a bad position, having almost been driven back to the gates of Tel Aviv, their capital. They realised, however, how useful a truce would be to receive war material without interference from gun running ships and from transport planes, loaded with arms in Czechoslovakia. 

The Arabs found themselves up against determined resistance before the truce began, and their advance was slowed down. This probably lowered the morale of the Arab fighters who had expected an early victory.

Before Christmas the Jewish forces, having already driven Lebanese troops out of North Palestine started an offensive against the Egyptians in the Negev. Beersheba and Gaza were soon captured but the Jews clamped down on all further news of fighting in the area.Early in January the British delegate at the U.N. Assembly announced that Jewish forces were fighting in Egyptian territory.

Egypt did not ask for British aid under the terms of the Anglo-Egyptian treaty, but British troops were sent to Akaba at the request of the Transjordan Government under the terms of the Anglo-Transjordan treaty of 1948. This step was taken to forestall any Israelite attempts to size the port. The port installations were constructed early on in the war by New Zealand Engineers in case Egypt was lost and an alternative port of supply was needed.

While British troops were digging in at Akaba Jewish forces shot down five R.A.F. planes on reconnaissance flights over the fighting areas in Egypt. From all reports it appeared that our aircraft had flown over or very close to the Palestine border by mistake; that no high fighter cover had been provided; that our planes may have been mistaken for low flying Egyptian Spitfires; and lastly our aircraft were attacked by Messerschmitt 190G’s, whose performance compares favourably with that of the Spitfire.

Because of our weak position in the Middle East we were unable to take any retaliatory measures. The British Government was informed by the United Nations that the accident was the result of British interference. The Jewish authorities in Tel Aviv immediately too advantage of the situation by deliberately refusing to acknowledge any of our official complaints addressed to the Jewish authorities instead of the Jewish Government. Now, less than a month after the outrage, the British Government has had to recognise the Government of Israel. 

On the Island of Rhodes Jewish and Egyptian delegates have been taking part in armistice talks. It appears that the Egyptians have been losers, for the Jews still have several thousand Egyptians surrounded in the Negev, whose fate will depend on the outcome of the peace negotiations. 

The Ship in Dry Dock
On December 29th the ship went into No.10 dry dock at Devonport.

This docking was not routine but had become necessary for repairs to be carried out on the port propellor shaft. During the three months at sea before Christmas the shaft had caused considerable vibration in the stern of the ship and the port palm compartment had developed a leak. This was not very important in itself, but because the compartment could not be pumped out the cause of the flooding could not be ascertained. It turned out that water entered the compartment where the ‘A’ bracket passed through the ship’s side.The vibration of the shaft was due to the boring of the ‘A’ bracket woods with a tool which had drooped at the middle of the bore. Thus the shaft was rubbing the woods at the top in the middle, and at the bottom of the woods at the ends. This rubbing of the shaft had a large breaking affect which caused the vibration.

When the ship was docked down it was discovered that the eddy plates on the forward end of the Port ‘A’ bracket had been washed off, and the zinc strips on either side of the leading edge of the rudder were also missing. This gave a very striking illustration of the effectiveness of ‘zincs’ to prevent corrosion of steel near gun metal under water. All round the shaft there were pit holes, some ¼” deep, and the shaft was brand new last September. If the shaft continues to corrode it is probably that a new one will have to be fitted, only unfortunately there are at present no spare propellor shafts for aircraft carriers of our class. 

Besides shaft trouble there was a leak into the fresh water tank under the capstan flat and canvas store forward. This had been the cause of rather salty drinking water at times before Christmas.

Because our docking period was only one month the ship did not have to be de-ammunitioned before hand. All petrol compartments which had been filled with petrol had to be washed out and filled with fresh water before the dockyard would accept us for docking. Stores did not have to be landed at all before docking because the ship remained operational, in fact throughout the time we were in dock large quantities of stores were being embarked to enable the ship to proceed to sea as soon after undocking as possible.[C.O. comment - signed Lieut. Cmdr. P.J. Morgon]

The Berlin Air-Lift
The air freight carrying services to Berlin started on June 28th after the Russians had closed all land communications between Berlin and the British and American Zones of Germany. The Russians’ aim was to force the Western Powers to evacuate their garrisons from Berlin so that a Russian controlled German Government could be set up in Berlin. Besides that the effect of a withdrawal from Berlin by the Western Powers would have been felt throughout Europe where we should have lost a great deal of prestige. At the beginning of Operation “Plain Fort,” as it was called, nobody thought that the service would have to continue indefinitely. 

The maximum amount of supplies the airlift can carry into Berlin in one day depends on the most efficient running of the organisation at the receiving end. Theoretically Gatow airport can cope with 480 aircraft in 24 hours, or one landing every three minutes. The number is governed by a minimum interval between aircraft landings. The maximum number achieved in one day was 454 on Oct 17th, 1948.

The problem is to direct aircraft, with different cruising speeds and flying at different heights from widely separated aerodromes, into the funnel of the Northern Corridor from Hamburg, so that they arrive over the Focknau Beacon, 16 miles from Berlin with an accuracy of +- 30 seconds from their E.T.A. The solution is provided by the use of a system in which each 24 hour period is divided into 6 blocks, 4 hours each, during which time each batch of aircraft does the round trip to Berlin. 

Having arrived at the beacon from either the north or the south corridor the aircraft descend to 1,500ft and home on a further beacon to Berlin. The aircraft touch down at Gatow within 10 seconds of their E.T.A. If a pilot overshoots or arrives late he had to take his aircraft back to base and fly in to Berlin again with the next block.

In bad weather the time and space factors between aircraft are increased so that arrivals are at 4-5 minutes apart. G.C.A. comes into its own in poor visibility and has been used to cope with aircraft landing at six minute intervals.

The Air-Lift may be costing the Western  Powers a great deal of money but the experience gained in operating the routine service will be invaluable in a future war. R.A.F. aircrews and maintenance personnel have something definite to work for in keeping the Air-Lift operating to full efficiency and this is also paying dividends.

Last but not least the effect of the operations on the morale of the Germans, who live both in Berlin and under the air corridors, as well as on the Russian occupation forces must be for the good. No matter what propaganda is hurled at the Russian soldiers and German people the Air-Lift is something they all see every day and no lies can explain it away.

JAHC climbing a mountain in Scotland in 1948/9