大象传媒

The entire area of the Rock of Gibraltar is two and a half sqaure miles. During the war this was mainly occupied by the armed forces, i.e. Royal Navy, Army and Air Force, and was a key station for the British War effort. There were very few civilians. The Gibraltarian women and children had been evacuated at the start of the war to the UK or the island of Madeira. Life on the Rock was quite spartan, but we had a varied existence, watch keeping and spending any free time in physical activities such as improvised soccer and hockey, on small gravel pitches. We were also able to visit the town in our spare time.

Overall I believe there were about 22,000 members of the forces stationed on the Rock. Fresh water was very scarce, and was obtained from rain caught on large catchments down the side of the Rock. This was supplemented with bottled mineral waters. For washing purposes, self and clothing, we each had a square biscuit tin, the ration was one third of a bucket, for every three days. We showered under salt water showers, and from our station were able to swim in the sea. We were housed in corrugated iron Nissen huts which were unbearably hot under the Medditeranean sun.

Communication with home was by letters, and understandably the service was spasmodic. During our time there, the Army R.E.M.E. (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers), were busy tunneling under the Rock, for the purpose of building quarters for the defense of it. These included a very large, and in those days, modern signals centre, where there were installed individual transmitting sets, and tele-printing equipment. I worked in this office on day and night watches, for the last year of my time there. Previously our office had been located in a cave at Europa Point itself. The work was a very responsible duty and involved shore to ship, ship to shore, and shore to shore (stations such as Algiers and Casablanca on the African coast, being two examples of the latter) communications. There were constant links on main lines with the Admiralty in London. All messages of course, were sent in code. Activity became markedly increased prior to the D Day landings without our knowing the reason why.

Moving on now to VE Day, there were great celebrations and festivities all over the Rock. Practically everyone off duty was to be seen celebrating in the bars and other hostelries in and around Main Street. Before ending this series of recollections and on a lighter note, I recall being on watch after VE Day, when messages on the Port wave were being sent in plain language. Two trawlers, sister ships, The Lord Hogarth and the Lady Hotham had been used to patrol the Straits Of Gibraltar. In the course of their changing stations I received the following signal, "Lady Hotham making water, Lord Hogarth standing by." This you can imagine caused a lot of mirth throughout our office!

Shortly afterwards I returned to the United Kingdom on the destroyer HMS Malcolm, and landed in Plymouth. I had with me a bunch of bananas, which were slowly ripening and I had to wait in dock for 10 days before going on leave. I and others with similar cargoes watched anxiously hoping that the bananas did not become over ripe too soon. Throughout the war there had been no bananas in the UK and on the way home I managed to distribute about half the bananas to ticket collectors, porters and fellow passengers en-route.

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