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Next morning and after a rough night, we were able to assess our position, we were still in the Naval base but on the perimeter, the base covered an area of about 20 square miles and was surrounded by a six foot high metal fence with spikes on top, the main road and the railway were about 300 yards away, it was only 1/2 mile from there to the gates and the causeway to Malaya. Lots of work to be done to get the place in some sort of order receiving stores of food and other necessary supplies, I had a room next to the food store and shared it with my assistant, our CQMS was a stranger to me a regular who left the food side to me whilst he concentrated on the barrack supplies, this was great as I didn’t like him anyway he was too full of himself and besides was a Brummie, not a good combination. Things gradually got better, the food was quite good and the water piped in so that we could do our washing, although quite early I arranged with a local worker to do it for me paying him with cash and kind in the shape of food.

The Japs were still walking about when we arrived, some living on a cruiser ‘Takao’ this was the one sunk by Lt. Ian Fraser and A/B Jim Maginnis on 31/7/45 they both received the VC for this exploit, the ship was in a creek halfway between our building and HMS Sultan II the actual Naval barracks and was a fair part above the waterline. Apart from visits to Singapore city I had to go in with a wagon nearly every day to collect a big block of ice from the Orchard Rd. Cold Storage works, this was to be placed in a cool cabinet in the stores to keep butter etc. in good condition, by the time we got back the block had half thawed out, a bit of a useless exercise, also we had to pick up perishables like bacon etc. from another place, this is where I saw a group of Japanese Imperial Guard, they were very big ugly brutes much bigger than our Guards also on one trip I went to the NAAFI stores to pick up a few goodies which were not available off the Navy, sauces, salad stuff, pickles and a brainwave, jelly crystals to give the lads a treat, I never thought that in the heat the jelly would not set, it didn’t, so they had to have the liquid in their mugs, one of my less clever moves. On these trips we used to go to a forces canteen which was housed in a pavilion at one end of a large grassed area used by the ex.pats to hold their cricket and tennis matches on before the occupation, we would park the wagon alongside and get our tea on the balcony overlooking the park, then after about 15 minutes would leave, on one occasion we did this as usual but had a couple of passengers, the Leggat brothers were with us for the ride, getting back to the wagon the elder brother shouted that the bacon , five sides, had disappeared , wow, I was responsible and thought the worst, anyhow we looked around and chased some lads, but nothing doing, the Leggats went into the galley belonging to the canteen, lo and behold the bacon was there, as it happened there were two red caps in the canteen, so I told them about it and they took over, I don’t know whether or not this was a good thing because they had to file a report and it got back to our unit, questions were asked, but I got away with it.

Sometimes we varied our route back to base, instead of going on the direct road through Bukit Timah we took the eastward way for a change, I always said that if after the war I got a house where I could used a name it would be called Bukit Timah, however by the time I did the powers that be had deemed that house names could no longer be used as addresses so that was that.

The island produced lots of bananas and pineapples, these were easy to get hold of and cheap, I learned that you should store a pineapple on a bed of straw so that its weight does not bruise the flesh also to take a good chunk of the outer skin off, or it will do damage to your mouth, these pineapples were about three or four times the size of the ones in our shops to-day, bananas were about 15 inches long and very thick.

Some of the lads got friendly with a family in Johore, a village just across the causeway into Malaya, I was asked to go visit them also, the object being the same as Naples i.e. supply food, but they got the same answer.

There was a request for men who could play rugby to go for trials to form a Navy team to tour Malaya, I thought this would be great so went along, got onto a strip walked onto the field, took my position and off we went, two minutes into the fray and a big Australian international flattened me, bugger that for a game of soldiers, I thought, I
was in it for pleasure not pain so went back to camp.

Several visits were made to Singapore city generally on Saturdays, there were two or three areas known as Great World and New World, these were small leisure parks with stalls, cafes, dance floors for taxi dancing, you paid to dance with a hostess, rubbish. There were elevated rings which were used for boxing and also for locals to dance, this rather tickled us because we were used to hold a partner but these danced a few feet apart, just like they do to-day. Several of our lads went to these places to box because they were paid, I was ordered to make sure that they got the best of food and on one occasion I gave some pills to a boxer called Mc Gowan from Liverpool, they were stamina pills given to me by my mothers cousins lad, Geoff Wood who was in the RAF at Seletar,I had visited him, he gave me a small phial with about 6 pills in it, they were issued to airmen in case they were brought down, they kept them going for days but the only drawback was that they took energy from the body so that when the effects wore off they left one drained, that’s what happened to Mc Gowan, he won his fight, but days later he came to me complaining that he could hardly stand, poor lad he wasn’t very bright. Going back to Geoff Wood, I went to see him one day he worked on Mosquito’s, during our meal I asked if he could get me a ride in one, OK he said turning to his mate and telling him of my request, his mate looked at me as if I was strange ‘what’s up’ I said, his reply was that they wouldn’t go up in one because as the landing speed was about 140 knots, they were prone to crash, so I withdrew my request.

At HMS Sultan ll. the Naval Establishment in the base area, was a big outdoor swimming pool which we could use, very posh, the only trouble was that the water contained some funny, invisible bugs which caused ear infections and resulted in the whole detachment having their ears syringed. Also this was the place to get most of our food supplies, one day we were picking up our food and in the next square was another lot destined for a ship, in amongst this was a wicker jar with a red slash of paint on it, I thought it was vinegar or sherry so I loaded it on our wagon with our stuff, when we got back I discovered it was a gallon of neat rum, so I transferred the contents to sundry beer bottles, smashed the jar into small pieces and threw them into the latrine pit, took one of the gill bottles and gave it to Capt. Greenfield this kept his mouth shut, and spread the rest of the bottles amongst my mates. The slops was in Sultan ll. and we could buy sundry clothes etc. from them, this is because in the Navy when a sailor joins up they provide them with all their kit, after that they are paid clothing allowance and have to buy their own from slops, I got a lovely pair of shoes for a few shillings, the same shoes were on sale in the shops when we got home for about three times what I had paid.

I met several Heywood lads, two were drivers on Admiral Mountbattens staff, Tim England and a lad called Armfield, I did not know his Christian name, they came to our place to visit and unbeknown to me pinched a bundle of blankets, I then went to see them in their villa in the city, my main purpose was to ask how they could sell blankets to the Chinese, and to also give them a rocket, because they nearly finished in the glasshouse, our CQMS was counting the blankets and had just gone away for his dinner when they purloined them, he came in to me and asked if I had seen anyone knocking about as he was a bundle missing, of course this was the first I knew, but I had my suspicions. It turned out that the Chinese took all the nap off them and made the resulting cloth into suits, they are very clever these Chinese. Our unit had a good cricket team and I was in it, we played several other units, on one occasion it was a team off a landing craft, amongst it was Raymond Daly from Heywood, we had a good talk and I arranged to pick him up and bring him to our place for a visit, just to see how the other half roughed it, he had a meal then I got one of our drivers to take him back. During our conversation he mentioned that he had bought an opal ring from the Fleet Club in Colombo, Ceylon apparently they were selling up as the war had finished so they were no longer required, he was a bit worried about how he could get it home and through Customs, I offered to bring it in the magazine of my rifle, but he declined, I don’t think he trusted me, looking back he was right.

We got a couple of bottles of beer each week which had to be paid for, I didn’t drink mine as I’m not too fond of the taste, but Lofty Buss heard about this and came round to ask if he could have it, so I let it go, next week he came again and ask the same question, I said he could have it when he paid me for the last lot, this went on until I left for home so Lofty still owes me for two bottles. On Xmas eve we had the usual booze up and at about 11 pm. the duty sergeant (Steggles) came out of the mess which was on the first floor of the middle wing and shouted ‘Lights out’, no one took any notice so about half an hour later he came out again and repeated his cry this time he was greeted with a shower of empty beer bottles, he never bothered again.

When we went into Singapore city at weekends it was difficult to get back if you missed the last liberty wagon, there was an alternative which someone found, a train left, from the Central station, for the base at around 9 pm. so we could catch that for no charge, the only problem was that it did not stop at the path leading to our place, if we stayed on it we would have had a long walk back, so the only alternative was to jump off, this was very dangerous as there were monsoon ditches along the side of the rails, I only did it once. Some of our lads missed both the wagon and the train so got a taxi, remember it was several miles from the city to our place, they arrived in the middle of the night and could not scrape up enough money to pay the driver, so they had a brilliant idea, took him into the vehicle compound and gave him several one gallon cans of fuel, off he went quite happily until he got to the gates, the Gurkha sentries searched his vehicle, found the fuel, questioned him and then called the SIB ( the Forces detectives ) they in turn brought him up to our building and toured the rooms shining a torch into every ones face to see if the culprits could be recognised, they got lots of expletives thrown at them, a beauty from me, I don’t think they ever found them.

There was a Jap supply dump in the middle of the jungle, this was visited by us on several occasions to see what would be useful there were lots of things, shirts, boots (calf length with crepe soles, none fitted me so I got the biggest pair, filled them with rice and poured water on the rice to swell and stretch them, it worked) full waterproofs, folding bicycles and lots of other stuff, I brought six beautiful thermometers home they were made by Zeal of London and had been in the dump since the Japs had invaded. After a time the Army put Indian troops to guard the dump to stop us from plundering the goods, but I just got a Signal pad and covered it with writing banged a few official looking indelible stamps on it and showed it to the sentry, he could not read English so just let me through. This dump proved very handy, we has to get frozen and fresh supplies from a fridge ship, there was always one of them in the dock, these comprised of meat, fresh potatoes and vegetables and frozen rabbits ( I’ve always held this against the Aussies ) I got friendly with the chief officer who was in charge of the allocation, went down to his cabin for a slurp whilst the native labourers carried the supplies down under the watchful eyes of my assistant, during the course of our talks I happened to mention about the Jap dump and he asked me to get him some gear as souvenirs, this I did and he gave me extra rations in exchange, I told our Exec. Officer about this arrangement and he had no hesitation in agreeing to provide transport for the ships company to be taken to Singapore city and back because they had no other way of getting there. This proved even more beneficial, although no one else knew, we got extra rations and at one stage were the only unit on the island to have fresh potatoes.

The officers mess cook used to come each day to collect their rations, he was Chinese, I gave him extra to keep him sweet, in return he brought me apple pies which he had baked, they were gorgeous. Our Capt. Greenfield the Exec. Officer had got himself a bit of fluff, she was one of the Anglo-Dutch refugees brought in from the Dutch East Indies after the Japs had been evicted, he had her installed in a villa a mile or two from our place, he came to me and asked if I could supply him with food, this was part request and part order, I was happy to do this as I had another lever to get favours off him, it worked very well because one day he sent for me and gave me an envelope in it was a sum of money, ‘That’ he said ‘is your share of the cash left over from our Victualling charges to the detachment, you have done well so deserve a bonus’ this was very generous of him then I began to think I wonder how much he’s got, however I went into Singapore and opened a Post Office account which again proved handy.

The next installment of this story can be found under ID 6997486

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