大象传媒

Further Action

I duly left Davenport and joined a fast minelayer, the HMS Ariadne. It could do about forty knots; it was very fast. We left at the end of October and set sail for the Panama Canal. After passing through the Panama Canal, we crossed the Pacific to New Guinea. We were based at Hollandia in New Guinea and from here we laid mines around Weewak and other Japanese escape routes from where Japanese high-ranking officers were escaping by submarine back to their bases.

After that we joined up with the American fleet. They converted our mining deck to carrying marines by installing hammock rails along these decks. They were just below the main deck and were under cover. We were engaged in mopping up any remaining Japs on various islands in the Pacific.

I remember we went to one island which only consisted of palm trees most of which had been shot down or decapitated. I had decided to get a coconut to make into an ashtray that I had seen in a shop in Hawaii. I found one whole tree with lovely coconuts at the top, so having previously made a rope loop for my feet I started climbing up. Shortly however, I encountered large king size ants and then countless lizards, so in my imagination I saw snakes and heaven knows what higher up. I'm not a coward you understand, just careful. So I climbed down, went back to the ship and returned with a hacksaw. And so I got my coconut and still have a very nice coconut ashtray nicely varnished and with "South Seas" painted on its side. Anyway back to the war.

The big operation of course was at Laiti in the Philippines. This was a very major operation in the pacific theatre of war. Like the second front at home, when Allied Forces sailed across the Channel to invade France, so another huge invasion had to be launched to land troops at the Gulf of Leyte, in the Philippines, which was the Japanese strongest base in the Pacific. So we left our base and picked up three American destroyers and twenty-four American minesweepers. We proceeded to our fuelling stop at the Palau Island group. This was a group of islands, about half way to the Philippines from New Guinea. Although Japs had the land, they had no fuel or ammunition. We just had the anchorage, and tankers were kept there. After refuelling, we proceeded to Leyte. Our skipper was Captain Lord Ashbourne who was in command of this flotilla. On arriving at the entrance to Leyte Gulf, the mine-sweepers carried on into the gulf, and commenced what was to be three days of mine sweeping to clear it for the large invasion fleet which was due in three days time. The three destroyers patrolled outside and the Ariadne stayed at the entrance constantly checking the currents .. We never slung our hammocks during this time; we just laid them on the deck by our various flooding stations. The engineers there, when they weren't on watch, their action stations were always on these flooding valves, which could flood the ammunition lockers if they were ever in danger of blowing up.

Anyway, we lived on corned beef sandwiches and what we called "pussis kai" which in English is "purser's cocoa". We lived like this for three days. Luckily, we saw no aircraft as the Americans were constantly bombing the nearest Japanese airfields, so we were told. On the morning of the third day, we were all looking towards the horizon and eventually we saw the first mast of the invasion fleet coming, which started showing over the sky line, until the whole curve of the horizon seemed to be a mass of masts and eventually ships' hulls. Gradually, they drew nearer, and finally steamed past us into the gulf. There seemed to be hundreds of all types of ships; cruisers, I remember seeing the Australian cruiser, the Sidney, destroyers, large troop ships, rocket ships, invasion barges, every type. But now anyway, our job was done and as the Japanese Kamikaze planes started coming in, we departed and thankfully set sail back to Palau for refuelling and return to home base.

On the way back, we heard on the ship's radio, an American report of the task force's role in the invasion. This really opened our eyes. It mentioned the bravery of the men on the American destroyers and minesweepers who had stayed in the gulf unprotected for three days in order to clear the way for the main fleet. That's about the very words they used, I think as far as I can remember. There were many other words of praise followed and not once did they mention the Ariadne. Yet, you know, not only had we been there, but we'd been in charge of the whole operation. We just looked at each other, and one lad remarked, "No wonder the Americans think they are winning the war on their own." The captain had told us that we were all going to be presented with a special medal from the Americans to commemorate the action. Of course, we never got it.

I left the Ariadne on the 6th May 1945. Sometime later, I found myself travelling up to Scotland to join HMS Forth, in the Horley Loch on the 3rd July 1945, to await demob. HMS Force was anchored up there; it was a submarine repair ship. Lord Ashbourne had also been posted there and one day he sent for me. We just talked about the Leyte action. During the conversation, I said to him, "No medal then?" He just smiled and said, "I'm afraid not."

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