Page 24 - CAMPAIGN Spring 2021

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CAMPAIGN Spring 2021
Reader’s Story by Alan S. Fawcett, 1964-65 Clean-up, Maralinga. The Royal Navy
in the Australian desert
I first came across ‘MARSU’ when serving onboard HMS Maidstone, berthed at Faslane, Scotland; it carried the flag of SM3 squadron (3rd Submarine Squadron). I was a Royal Naval radio operator.
Every so often I would read the Defence Communication Instructions (DCI) to keep up-to-date on communication issues. One section on the communication appealed for men to travel to areas around the world, in addition to ship borne areas. As I was due a foreign
Within three weeks, I was on my way to the other side of the world, at just short of 22 years old - this turned out to be a big adventure
for me. I flew from London, by Britannia Airways to Singapore,
but do not recall where I stopped en route.
On arrival at Sydney, I was met by RAN personnel once more, who escorted me to the Naval Barracks to be billeted there for one night.
I collected extra uniform for use at MARSU (and kept the Aussie hat for ages until my brother got his hands on it on my return to Blighty!).
The next leg of my journey was by train to Adelaide. Again, I was met by RAN personnel, who escorted me to the airport to catch a flight operated by ‘Ansett Ana’, on a DC3 aircraft to Maralinga.
Upon arrival at Maralinga, I was met by other RN communicators who filled me in on the base. The tour of the desert base took a couple of days, and covered the NAAFI shop, airport and playing fields/football pitch.
I was informed why I arrived to Maralinga in a hurry (another story...). After a couple of days of settling in, I was put to work in the communications complex, if you could call it that. I had a teleprinter link with Woomera, and my hours of work were 9am to 5pm, day on day off, Monday to Friday only.
During my time at Maralinga, I met and socialized with quite a few people from the UK, Australia and
posting (‘draft’ to the Royal Navy), I came across one for ‘MARSU’ Maralinga South Australia.
As I had never ventured beyond UK waters (Iceland included on fishery protection duties) this took my fancy straight away. I applied through my Divisional Officer on a Naval request form, and was duly accepted.
At Singapore, I was stationed at HMS Terror naval base for a few days. From there, I caught a flight to Darwin, Northern Territory of Australia, and met by Royal Australian Naval personnel (RAN) who looked after me until the next leg of my journey by air to Sydney, New South Wales.