大象传媒

Doreen Partridge- The disclaimer
This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Doreen Partridge of the 鈥楢ction Desk 鈥� Sheffield鈥� Team on behalf of Edmund Cross, and has been added to the site with the author鈥檚 permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Don鈥檛 look back - (Its not there any more) - Part 3
by
Edmund Cross

Arriving before lunch and only a couple of hours after anchoring, the lighters came alongside with food, water and oil for the boilers.
Immediately after our meal, when we would normally have been relaxing, since we usually had what was called Tropical Routine, came a massive clean up of the whole ship. It was in a terrible state. Officers did a patrol to assess the damage we had sustained. Welders were aboard in no time as I 'm sure they would have been on the rest of the fleet.

On board the small ship 鈥淭he Kedah鈥�, all had been involved with the same actions around the coast of Malaya, and the islands in the Indian Ocean. The strain of battle fatigue had been there but only others saw it. Now we began to realise the condition we had really been in.

On the last night we had a sing song. I don't know how it started but somebody must have thought it might be a good idea; it was.

Late on, it was the turn of the two lads who gave us a joke session. Most of them were straight forward dirty but maybe they did make it to the theatre after the war. They could have been Bernard Manning types, except he wouldn't have been around then.

Although we were reluctant to return to the Kedah, the silence and inactivity was getting to us. This was a sure sign that things were getting back to normal.

On our return the next day the other half of the ship's company proceeded to the same camp in the afternoon, giving the working party a chance to clean up the mess we might have left.
We had filled in all the details to them before they left, and all our adventures we had, and adding not just a little in the telling. Our duties from then on kept us busy.

Finally everybody was back on hoard and settling down to our routine and everybody felt good.

The news was exciting. The European war was building up to a climax. Everyone was talking about it. The radio was on all the time for the off duty men. We were taking it reasonably easy, our only chores were the usual ones of running a half asleep ship. I suppose we could call it, on tick over.

The following few days we were involved with storing ship. Our supplies must have been very low and the heavy lighters (a contradiction in terms) were along both sides. A lighter is a vessel which carries supplies to the ships when they are at anchor and are unable to go alongside a jetty.

This storing ship went an for about three days. It was round about this time that the tannoy blasted out requesting silence. My mind worked overtime wondering what had gone wrong. We were all very apprehensive.
The captain came out on to the bridge and down on to the upper deck gathering us all together. All, meant officers and ratings alike. His face looked grave, my heart was in my shoes. I thought that maybe we had lost the war. What could it be?

When we were all assembled he made matters worse by asking if everyone was present. As if anybody knew without a roll call.
It was then that his countenance changed into a big broad smile, "Wonderful news," he shouted, "the war in Europe is over."

It was then that he had to stop and allow us to cheer, shout and scream with delight. We hugged each other and danced around. Finally we quietened down and he went on.
"The king has seen fit to send a message to all the ships of his fleet, wherever they be, and announce an extra issue of rum. Splice the main brace."
Another cheer rang out. Oh happy day. Victory in Europe at last. That was the first time and even now, it is still used when recalling that event.
"I would ask your forbearance and leave the celebrations until this evening, so that we can store ship throughout the afternoon as well."

That was unusual to say the least, because we were on tropical routine (because of the heat), and work usually stopped at lunch time.
At that time I didn't drink alcohol but it meant a lot to me to know that no more bombs would be falling on England again. What a relief.

During the lunch break, feelings were running high about our future. There were always those who were in the 'know' and would come up with the latest buzz. There were plenty on offer. Most said that we were storing ship to return to the U.K. We'd have to wait and see.
The derricks on both sides of the ship were working flat out hoisting stores and swinging them aboard, and down the hatches into the hold. By the time it was finished, the Plimsol Line was just above the water line.

The next morning, clouds of smoke were issuing from the stack; we knew that steam was up, and we were ready to move on. We had been told to be in out positions for leaving port, and we were in our best whites even though there was nobody ashore to see us leave. We were too far away.

When secure had been sounded and the men had repaired to their individual jobs, the captain made another announcement.
"You will all be pleased to know that we are going to see our friends in Singapore."
We gasped at this. Singapore was still in the hands of the Japanese. He went on.
"We have every reason to believe that Japan will capitulate in the next few weeks or so and we have to be ready."

I couldn't see it because they had been doing so well.
"We will be going down the Mallacca Straits between Malaya and Sumatra. I must point out that the whole area is heavily mined. Everybody must do their bit to see that we get safely through. It is also the time of storms, so be prepared. All hatches will be battened down and all watertight doors secured on two catches."

A watertight door had six catches, two on each side and one at the top and bottom. The two asked for will keep hold the door, but when the others are used, then there is a watertight seal.

I had thought that sailing west would have been for us in the direction of home, but it wasn't to be. When would I be able to go? The war wasn't over yet so it was south-south-east and into the gates of hell.

As usual the days were very hot and sticky, the humidity was very high. We only wore our floppy underpants, mind you they did tend to look like overgrown shorts. The modern men's underwear hadn't then been invented, or should I say, designed?

When not on duty we would just lounge about or wash our clothes, or repair them or even write letters. We would be listening to the steady ping, ping of the ASDIC as it was broadcast over the tannoy. At times we felt like screaming, but I pitied the poor operator who had this noise going on all the time in his headphones. It was unwanted background noise.

Suddenly the tempo changed. Instead of the steady stream of pings with intervals of about two seconds, they started closing in until it was a rapid ping, ping, ping.

The captain broke in and warned us that mines were close by. Look outs had been placed all round the ship and all with powerful binoculars scrutinising the surface of the water.

"There!" a cry rang out as a man pointed slightly to starboard (right), it was just below the surface.

The engines were reversed and we came to a standstill, with the mine slightly astern.

鈥淥pen fire." came the order from the gunnery officer to the man equipped with a rifle.

In a way it was a laugh, because being slightly under water, vision had been distorted. It must have been nearly a quarter of an hour before the marksman managed to hit one of the spikes on the mine. It went up with a gigantic whoosh. There was no doubt it could have sunk us had it even stroked the ship's hull.

That was the only one we actually had to deal with. All the others were given a detour and left for the minesweepers to deal with; they would come later.

The ASDIC operator continued the search for them and the pings were broadcast all the time. I have often wondered why, unless it was to remind us not to become complacent.

The ship was in convoy with some of the larger vessels. The Sussex was one. She was a three funnelled cruiser of the county class.
When the captain finally switched off the pings, a great sigh of relief went all round the ship.

"It has been reported," he announced, "that we are on a collision course with two water spouts. We must make a change of course. We could shoot at them to make them collapse, but we don't want the sound of gunfire whilst we are down the coast of Sumatra, the whole peninsular is over run by the enemy."

As soon as he had finished, there was total silence. It was the absence of the pings. I looked for'ad as everybody else did. There they were near the horizon. The sky in that direction was black and the two columns were of the same colour. The sea was dead flat and one could feel impending trouble ahead.

What had been said was quite true. The waterspouts were moving towards us and at the same time, making a course which would make them collide with each other. It is freak weather when they are formed. It's stranger still when there are two, but for them to move towards each other was uncanny. It was as though they were magnetised. There was no wind where we were but I also knew that there were strange forces at work and only extremely violent wind could cause a waterspout to develop.
With a flash of lightning and an almighty crash of thunder, the storm began. We had seen it advancing, churning up the sea as it approached. Suddenly the spouts collapsed and a loud cheer went up from the soaking men. The storm was a bad one and many of the lads were violently seasick.

Eventually we were steaming close to the shore on our port side (left), this was the coast of Malaya, or as it was then, the Federated Malaya States.

In some places we could see the jungle which came right down to the sandy beaches. The jungle always fascinated me. I would sit staring at the distant palms wondering what sort people or animals lived there.

Our speed had been very slow for the past few days, and it had caused quite a bit of curiosity throughout the ship. Originally we had thought that it was because of the mines, but this was eliminated almost as soon as it was suggested. The ASDIC would detect their positions, no it was something else.

On this particular day the captain called all the off duty watches together. He looked jubilant. What could it be?

"It's the war," he shouted. "It's over!"
This was to be known as V.J. Day. Victory over Japan Day but we didn't know that of course. We just shouted and yelled. We sang, "For he's a jolly goad fellow." I don't know why because he didn't cause the war to end.

When the shouting had died down, he continued, "Ever since we left Ceylon, we have been in contact with South East Asia Command and Admiral Mountbatten. We had known that the Japanese had been close to capitulating and we set off in advance of the anticipated armistice, to take over Singapore."

"I had been informed that something was going to happen which would bring the war to a speedy conclusion. I didn't know what it was but I have found out now. Two big cities in Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki have each had a bomb dropped on them. They were special ones called atom bombs. Each one of these had more power than all the bombs dropped on Europe. Both cities have been wiped out."

Even after all these years 1 could sti11 feel the horror of that statement. Two cities gone with two bombs. What sort of a weapon was this? Surely that must be the ultimate one. Now we know that wasn't so. The cobalt, then the hydrogen bomb, came along with the power of more than a hundred atom bombs.

We broke away with mixed feelings. Yes the war might be over but at what cost? Hundreds and thousands of men, women and children dead from a single bomb. We had no idea either that radiation would continue killing for years to come. We were totally ignorant.

We had left Trincomalee in Ceylon on August 28th, and the dawn of September the 5th saw us off the entrance to Singapore's huge natural harbour.
Because our ship was the last to leave besieged Singapore, the Kedah was allowed to nose her way into the harbour first.
As we entered, the ship's hooter sounded over and over again. The quay was a long way off but we could see crowds waving and heard the cheering.
Standing to attention in our whites on this our special day made us feel so proud. We had arrived to liberate the oppressed.

After riding at anchor for a while, we docked at Keppel harbour wharf at 3.30pm. The first of His Majesty's ships to come alongside.

On board the Kedah was Rear Admiral J.A.V.Marse, the flag officer of Malaya as well as senior officers of the British Military Administration. They were the first to disembark along with the armed guards of the Royal Marines.

Like most dockyards there were huge warehouses all over. Although the war was now officially over, it didn't mean that all the fighting had stopped, so all the buildings had to be searched thoroughly, The Japanese were notorious for setting booby traps, so caution was the prime factor.

Pr-BR

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