大象传媒

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This photograph shows my Father, nicknamed 'Lofty' when he was in the Navy. As an engineer in civilian life he was turned down when he first tried to enlist in 1939 as engineering was a reserved occupation.
The first uniform he wore was that of the Home Guard. From what he has told me the series Dad's Army came pretty close to the truth. His platoon was detailed to guard the local water works and one of his mob once shot a cow having mistaken it for a German Paratrooper!
He was eventually allowed to join the navy providing it was as a specialist tradesman, as a result, he became a Fleet Air Arm aero engine artificer.
His first posting was to Scotland, unfortunately I don't know the name of the air station. Here he worked on a variety of aircraft including the Supermarine Walrus, Fairey Fulmar and Swordfish.
By all accounts this was a happy time, and he met his first wife while stationed in Scotland. He did tell me about a terrible accident while he was there however, in which several Wrens were killed, I believe they burned to death when a Fairey Albacore crashed.
He was eventually posted overseas as part of the build up to the invasion of the Japanese home islands. 'A sten gun in one hand and a tool kit in the other' was the plan as he told me.
He was one of thousands of men taken to the Far East aboard the Escort Carrier HMS Rajah early in 1945. I have posted pictures taken by Aircraft from Rajah during the voyage, these can be found on my personal page.
Eventually they arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka. My Father describes this as an Island paradise, Hawaii with none of the mod cons. The biggest problem here seems to have been the local wildlife. The baboons would get a corner of aircraft fabric and tear great panels of it off, poisonous yellow snakes would drop down from basha roofs on to the unsuspecting men lying asleep beneath, and the monkeys kept nicking all the tools.
On one occasion, detailed in another story, an Elephant which was used to tow aircraft around the airfield took a dislike to a parked Fairey Swordfish and rammed the aircraft repeatedly until it was turned into match wood.
Here my father worked on operational aircraft, and started to encounter some of the excellent American types which were coming into use with the FAA. A few times his own rather inadequate toolbox would come up short on a particular tool, so he would nip over to the neighbouring US aerodrome to borrow what he needed. 'sure bub, help yourself' would be the reply from the American Master Sergeant as he waved a hand towards the massive, fully stocked, gleaming Snap-On Toolchests with which they were equipped.
By now, he had become very familiar with a wide range of highly compex aero-engines including the Rolls Royce Merlin (his speciality), Bristol Pegasus and the Wright Cyclone.
Taken all round I think he enjoyed both his time here, and the work he was doing. The expected island hopping never took place however, as the Hioshima and Nagasaki bombs were dropped in August 1945.
My Father told me that as his unit was preparing to leave their airfield the locals, who had all set up small business's to cater to the base, rioted, and the Marines had to be called out. The rioters set fire to the hangars and a lot of men risked life and limb to rescue the aircraft inside. As it turned out they needn't have bothered, all the American built aircraft were to be scrapped. My father tells me that somewhere on the Island a whole lot of American engines are buried, if only he could remember where!
He returned home on the Rajah late in 1946, (I recently found a Rajah ships stores chit for issue of blankets). She was crammed to the gunwhales with 14th Army soldiers. They were tough, grizzled jungle fighters, but they were reduced to miserable wrecks by sea-sickness, skating around the steel decks in heavy army boots.
My Father finished the war as a Petty Officer, and with a trade, the Navy would have kept him on, but like everyone else at the war's end he wanted to get back to civvy street and couldn't wait to be de-mobbed. Nevertheless, he has told me quite a few times that leaving the Navy was the biggest mistake he ever made. Still ... that's hind-sight for you.

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