Page 58 - ABA Salvoes 1999-2024

Maida Barracks. It was well known as a place to snap your spirit and send you back to your unit. I was told under no circumstances to end up being RTUd. At Maida Barracks I underwent another 6 weeks vigorous fitness training. I have never felt so exhausted as I did throughout that period of training. Running across the tank ranges mile after mile carrying a telegraph pole between 8 of you; milling, a form of gladiatorial boxing, last one standing wins, running across scaffolding about 40 feet in the air, and swinging off trapezes over water, for starters. On completion of that period I was as fit as the proverbial butchers dog.
In January 1960 I went to R.A.F. Abingdon for the parachute course. Here we were treated with a little more respect than at Aldershot and the food was great and plenty of it. ...“Stand in the Door ..Go “ ...was the order of the day. I completed 8 jumps, two from a barrage balloon cage, and the rest from Beverley, Hastings and DC 3 Dakota aircraft. I came through it all without breaking any bones, unlike some. Extremely proud to have qualified as a parachutist, I believe I was only the sixth or seventh sailor to do so in this latest role for Navy Sparkers. I wore my wings with pride, mainly because I had put in a tremendous physical effort in order to win them. I returned to Poole where now I was part of the team, and had proved my worth so to speak. Each RO2 was part of a 4 man Forward Observer party. I spent many days at St Albans Head learning my trade. Part of my role was also to help train the soldiers to read and transmit Morse code and bring them up to speed, as their maximum rate was only around 10 wpm. Although there was inter service rivalry between the matelots and the pongos, we all got on very well and worked as a team and I do not know of any individual who didn’t like the job he was doing, even the National Servicemen. I thoroughly enjoyed the town of Poole, and everything it had to offer, including the Lord Nelson, Jolly Sailor, The Angel and the Yatch pubs and not forgetting the Labour Club in Lake Road, colloquially known as the Passion Club. In April 1960 a posting came for me to go to 3 Ind. A.O.Tp .R.A in Hong Kong. Brian Coldron had already flown out there about 3 weeks before. I was a bit disappointed at the time, as I had to sail out in a troopship ‘Nevasa’. We went via Gibraltar, Malta, Port Said, Suez Canal, Aden, Colombo and Singapore. There were just 12 sailors on board with a 100 or so soldiers of the 17/21st Lancers. The highlight of every day was `tot time` a neat tot of Pussers finest which we got at midday but the soldiers didn’t qualify. They obviously joined the wrong service. The afternoons were spent lazing in the sun on deck, building up a tan and getting acclimatized. In Colombo we picked up a number of Ghurka soldiers and their families for transport to Hong Kong. We finally arrived in Hong Kong, 6 weeks later. There I joined 3 A.O. Troop R.A. at Whitfield barracks on Nathan Road, Kowloon where I met up with some old mates from Poole, and met a load of new friends. There was Brian Coldron, from Lincoln, Pete Bryant, an ex Navy Light Middleweight boxing champion, Jim George,
and Frank Pratt, from Ashford Middlesex. All four were Navy radio operators. The two bombardiers were Bob Macnaughton, an East End Cockney, and Frank Lazelle – a little more refined! Pop Kinsman from Camberley was the Troop Clerk. Others were Fred Memmott. from Hounslow, George Bilton, George Mulcairn, both Geordies, from Newcastle, Pete Gibson, Phil Hardy, Dee Wilson, Jock Reid, Ben Limmer, and ‘Pots’ Mackay the Radio Supervisor. Later on I was to meet up with another new friend, Mick Cook ex SAS. Generally there was a dribble of new guys arriving and replacing those that had completed their time. One comes to mind, a National Serviceman, Leigh Easton, a Jock from Stirling. We were later to be members of the same FO party when we saw service in Kuwait the following year. My first night out in Kowloon certainly was a night to remember. Girls in the bars wearing Chongsam dresses, with slits up the sides to their hips, clearly designed to get the hormones racing and they certainly did that.
It wasn’t long before I experienced the joys of Wanchai. We trained constantly, and worked up ships NGS procedures in Clearwater Bay. Within weeks of arriving. I was taught to drive land rovers and a 3- ton wireless truck and I remember when I took my test the Captain said, “You’ve passed but remember you are not Stirling Moss”. I think they were desperately short of drivers, because during my test I knocked over a bollard doing a reversing manouvre, which should have meant failure, but didn’t. Not yet 21 and already, I had a driving licence and a passport, and been half way round the world. Come November 1961 we had a new CO, Major “Father” Francis, he wielded the big stick for a week or to, called us a bunch of tossers who lacked military discipline, but later he came across as a really decent senior officer, and backed us to the hilt. There was also Captain Holmes, Captain Wiseman and Captain Bill Morris. The Troop Sergeant Sgt Brogan was so thin, if he turned sideways, you’d mark him absent. We exercised all over the Colony, notably with mules on Lantau Island, we also went to Borneo, the Phillipines, and Singapore. I was sometimes required to assist in the wireless office of HMS Tamar on Hong Kong Island when they were shorthanded, but that was fairly rare. In February 1961, Brian Coldron got married to a girl from the WRAC, and I was his Best Man. It was a great day for the whole unit. That left his bed space freed up for another character mentioned earlier, Mick Cooke, Bombadier and ex SAS. The stories he could tell of his time in the Trucial Oman Scouts were unbelievable.
The following June my FO party were nominated to join HMS Bulwark and we sailed to Kuwait as there was trouble brewing between Kuwait and Iraq. History has a habit of repeating itself doesn’t it? Our FO party consisted of Capt. Bill Morris, Bdr Bob Macnaughton, Gnr Leigh Easton, and me. We joined the ship with our own landrover, and kit and rations to last in the field for two weeks. Within hours of arriving off Kuwait, we disembarked from the carrier and
56 | Amphibious Bombardment Association