Page 6 - ABA Salvoes 1999-2024

boats from submarines prior to a main landing, but this SBS training was never used operationally as far as the FOOs were concerned. However, by the time of my arrival at Dundonald, training had been extended to include parachute courses for some and, indeed, airborne FOO parties did become important elements of our Unit. This was probably another ‘first’ for Naval ratings, and a bit of a shock for one small group who, in April 1943, found themselves at Ringway, near Manchester, for the first such course involving their breed. In actual fact only volunteers were used from this particular batch but, as time went on, quite a number of telegraphists completed parachute courses, including myself, and were proud to obtain their parachute wings (whether this was the result of misguided bravado, or youthful enthusiasm, or the extra two shillings per day, may be a matter for conjecture!). Whatever the initial motivation, I think it can be said that those later called upon for serious action all performed in exemplary fashion. Thus ended the early chapters of the Bombardment Unit - its formation, training, and
preparation for all the amphibious operations that followed, both in Europe and the Far East.
Much has been written elsewhere, and by scribes much more proficient than myself, giving a detailed history of all those operations. By August 1944 we had become officially known as the Bombardment Unit, and from then on it was heavily involved in all amphibious landings. As requirements demanded, the Unit expanded as time went on and, indeed, during the Normandy invasion, in conjunction with some 84 bombarding ships, no less than 42 FOB teams and 78 Bombardment Liaison Officers were used, including parties who dropped with the various airborne units. I believe it right to say that the soldiers and sailors of the Bombardment Units truly (and literally of course) lived up to the Combined Operations motto of ‘UNITED WE CONQUER’ by combining the best traditions of the Royal Artillery and the Royal Navy. The Unit’s role was considered vital to the success of all the amphibious operations in World War Two.
A Combined Operations Bombardment Unit C/3
JOHN MUIR’S SERVICE IN THE ROYAL NAVY 1942-1946
A Memoir
My call-up came on 23 Feb 42 and I had to report to HMS ROYAL ARTHUR at Skegness, Lincolnshire. This place had previously been a Billy Butlin’s holiday camp but was now converted to a dry land training ship. The training was very basic, and concentrated on squad drill, some knots, and how to row a boat on what had once been the camp swimming pool. Most of the instructors would have had trouble touching their toes, and the majority of them appeared to be men who should have retired but would no doubt have been kept on duty for the war. At the end of a month, we were given a series of tests, to find out what branch of the Service we would be best suited for.
My beer drinking roommate was sent to the stokers’ branch, the other lad to be an officer’s steward, and me
to be a telegraphist (wireless operator). All the men who were going into the communications branch were sent by train, with a petty officer in charge, to HMS SCOTIA, near Ayr in Scotland. This was another Billy Butlin’s holiday camp that had been commandeered for the war effort. On the way up, we passed through Kirkconnel station, and I threw a message on to the station platform to let my family know that I was in the area, and would write to them from my new destination, once settled in. HMS SCOTIA was about 30 miles from where my parents lived at Killoholm, Kirkconnel, and I was able to get home some weekends when not needed for the duty party. Our instructor was a chief petty officer called Slater, who had been a survivor from the ARK ROYAL, an aircraft carrier that had been sunk in the Mediterranean by torpedo.
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