大象传媒

RNVWR BRANCH Royal Naval Voluntary Wireless Reserve.

My father Commander Archie Pitman joined the RNVWR branch in Leicester and became in charge of this group and he was so enthusiastic about this branch of the Royal Navy that he recruited the largest number of men in the country. So many in fact that they had to close membership because they simply could not take any more.

The nick name of this part of the Navy was the 鈥淲avy Navy鈥� because they had wavy arm band inscription instead of the straight lines.
The trauma of my dad going away to War was so stressful that I still feel this terrible effect whenever I think of him.

Of course when he got called up to go into the War he was the last one to go out of his branch in 1939. He managed to train enough men to at least man three men to a ship, sufficient to manage the ships communications.

When he came home on leave he used to tuck me up in bed and tell me stories,
He went on a battleship to Singapore and was in charge of a communication team of at least 200 sailors and 200 natives, to begin with they did not have a doctor, and so every morning he would hold a surgery and prescribe various medications for the men hoping it would cure them. Aspirins, Malaria tablets, vitamin pills etc.
Then they started to bring their wives and children to him for treatment. When the doctor finally arrived, they wouldn鈥檛 have anything to do with the new doctor. So my Father had to accompany the doctor until they gained confidence with him.

The natives used to compete with each other to provide the evening meals. He had a good sense of humour and most people liked him. He generally liked to tell us the comical stories. Not the horrible frightening stories.

They once took over Butlins Holiday Camp area and the Navy called it HMS Royal Arthur. At one time Lord Haw Haw the infamous German Propaganda person who defected from England, Reported that the Germans had sunk HMS Royal Arthur. This raised great amusement.

One night they were told to get out onto the beaches because the Germans were invading and they did not have any equipment, guns or ammunition. So they got on the beach and every tenth person in the long line up had a rifle and ten rounds of ammunition and in between the others had sticks and pitchforks. Fortunately the Germans did not invade that day.

From Skegness to Dover, they were based at Dover Castle and because he was in charge of communication, he had wires and cables attached from A to B all over Dover Castle. At this time the local environmentalist official visited him and complained about the mess of wires, cables etc. Spoiling the place. My Father simply stated that they were staying, there was a War on, and that was that. ANN IBBS WEBSITE WILLIAM.IBBS@ntlWORLD.COM

This story was submitted to the 鈥淧eoples War Site by Rod Aldwinckle of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of Ann Ibbs and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the terms and conditions of the site.

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