大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Georgina Jarvis of Norfolk Adult Education on behalf of Desmond Saunt and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Desmond Saunt Date of Birth 12.10.1921

Joined up 17.7.1939

At beginning of my service I was sent to Stranraer in Scotland, it was the middle of winter, no women and fights every night. I was delighted to find out that I was to be posted to Liverpool. In Liverpool I was happy being with the boys; we were having the time of our lives. One dreadful day I found out that our Company was to be posted back to Scotland. Depressed and annoyed I felt that I just wanted to be alone.

I was determined to get drunk this night and I drank till it was coming out of my ears. The drink had no effect (I thought), and I was convinced that I was as sober as a judge. Back to headquarters I went and, as a matter of course, I looked at the notice board. There posted up was a request calling for volunteers for a 鈥榙riving course鈥� and this involved going down to Portsmouth for 8 or 9 weeks. (It struck me at the time that it was a lengthy course for driving).

Next morning the chaps who had put their names down for the course had to go and see the Old Man, (major or something similar). It was then that I found out it was a DIVING COURSE. I thought, 鈥淥h I鈥檒l have a go at anything, 8 or 9 weeks and I鈥檒l have learnt to be a diver鈥�. (Divers were elite and the pay was damn good). I can鈥檛 remember at which point I qualified but I did. I was now part and parcel of the Royal Engineers 937 Port Construction.

The training was not all doom and hard work, we were fortunate to have an officer above us who drove a smart Daimler. Occasionally we were transported in this car to work. He would often on these drives, abandon the vehicle, (not worrying where it was parked or who it inconvenienced) and roar out 鈥淎bandon ship鈥�, whereupon we all would pile out of the car and push into the pub.

The Germans had done great damage to the ports, rendering them inoperable and our job as divers was to go down and clear the bottom of the various mines, bombs, objects etc.

It took two men to dress a diver in those days, and 2 men to pump the air down to him. You were connected to the surface by means of a cable and a type of telephone. I was always 鈥渢esting鈥� for about 5 minutes before I started my work down there on the bottom because it was so necessary to communicate with the boys above and get the air correct 鈥� too much or too little and things became difficult. The diver always wore the same suit. Divers took down nothing that was not vitally necessary as any extra load was extremely uncomfortable. The need to use the toilet was of course a problem but we used what was called a comforter, (a type of scarf), this was folded into a jock strap and strategically placed to absorb the urine. I had to concentrate all the time on what I was doing, never taking my mind off the job. The longest I was down there was 6 hours and the average was 3 hours. The water got murky as soon as you disturbed the sea/river bed so it was often difficult to see what you were doing. Our job was to locate and attach the explosive to an object and then inform those at the surface that the job was done. Once we were up and in the boat we got right away and the obstacle鈥� exploded.

An essential part of the course was learning how to use explosives in general. There were three different types: Nobles 808 which was a plastic high explosive; gun cotton which was also a high explosive; and another which was in the form of a powder. The high explosives were used to cut through steel objects, (such as girders) and the powder explosives were used to blow up such things as brick buildings and to make craters in the ground.

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