大象传媒

Xmas 41 I had to propose the loyal toast 鈥� as junior subaltern 鈥� a very formal Xmas lunch. Xmas 42 I was on observation duty and had a corned beef sandwich 鈥� so thick that I had a cramp in my throat when I opened my mouth wider than nature meant it to go 鈥� quite alarming. Early in 43 I was with a group on the rifle range 鈥� right by the Spanish frontier on the Med side. A Liberator came in to land, fairly unusual because nearly all planes using the runway apart from F.A.A., when a carrier was in the vicinity with Fairey Fulmars or Swordfishes, were white painted Lockheed Hudsons and Wellingtons on convoy or anti-submarine patrol. To our horror the plane overran the runway and landed about 50 yards in the sea. There was a strong East wind blowing and a heavy sea was running. The plane slanted over to the left and the wing disappeared, the right wing of course was slanted about 45 degrees out of the water. There was movement outside the plane where the wing joined the fuselage. No rescue boat arrived, most of them were on the harbour side of the Rock. I decided I ought to make the effort to swim out to the plane so I stripped when an R.A.F. chap produced a long line. I was roped up and trailed the line behind and eventually reached the plane. A difficult object to hang on to I found. On the angle between the wing and fuselage was a remarkable sight, an R.A.F. officer and pilot in service dress, D.S.O. and bar, D.F.C. and bar, D.F.M. with a leg in plaster and all I had to help was a length of thin rope. Various suggestions were made but by that time a large inflatable had arrived and feeling a bit superfluous to the situation I undid the rope and some one grabbed it and fixed it to the plane and I swam back to shore. The 2 i/c Major Yolland (Pop as we called him with his 1st WW medals) whom I got really got on well with was present. I grabbed my clothes, a 15cwt arrived and I was driven back to Bleak House where I slunk in clad only in a pair of pants, took off my watch, which had stopped and had a shower. Later at lunch the C.O., rather a remote figure said 鈥淚 hear you鈥檝e been for a swim, well done Douglas鈥�. Fame indeed. Later that week Captain Tony Qualye, the actor, who was Staff Capt at Gov. House, was in the Mess and told me that the R.A.F. Officer who was rescued was the famous Screwball Beurling who had a number of victories both bombers and Messerschmits while flying the old Gloucester Gladiator biplanes in Malta. He also said a number of people mostly women and children from Malta had been drowned. Later we heard that bodies had been recovered from the sea up the coast as far away as Torremolinas.

I was on observation duty one night when an exactly similar accident occurred. A Liberator landing from the west overran the runway and landed in the Med. We later found that the C in C of the Polish forces General Sikorski was on board and that he and others had not survived the crash. At that time I had charge of some 4鈥� naval guns at the bottom of the North Face covering the road in from Spain. One was cleverly concealed in half of the mortuary. The other half was never used to my knowledge but on this occasion it was. I noticed the smell - unmistakeable. The sgt i/c the detachment said there had been some movement 鈥渘ext door鈥� as he said. The next day the smell was worse. I complained and was told that an Archbishop 鈥� Seville or Cadiz ( I do not remember) was coming to Gib for the funeral. I insisted that the gun detachment should be moved out 鈥� nobody was going to invade Gib after our Algerian expedition 鈥� and other accommodation was found. What on earth the situation in the mortuary was I shudder to think 鈥� no coffins? Waiting for post mortem exam. Anyway the gun position was shortly reoccupied.

One hot sultry day in 42 I and Bob Collins (whom Barbara and I met in 1947) decided to go for a swim late one afternoon at Little Bay as we called it which was south of the harbour and which was reached by a tunnel close to Bleak House. It was a tiny break in the cliffs where there were a few flattish rocks, an unauthorised swim place 鈥� not overlooked. The sun disappeared, the wind got up, as did the waves and after a few minutes we decided to get out - but we couldn鈥檛. Oh dear, we reached the rock, tried to grab it at the height of the wave but we were sucked back when the wave receded. Several times this happened, when Bob, very tall, eventually managed to hold on, resist the undertow and on the next wave managed to get out. He laid as flat as possible and reached out to me a number of times unsuccessfully when just as I was beginning to tire a particularly big wave lifted me so that he was able to grab me and haul me on to the rock. We were both bleeding from hundreds of little grazes from the barnacles on the rock. It taught us a lesson.

Over the months of 41-42 the runway grew in length with all the debris from the tunnels tipped into the sea. Large rocks first of all, lifted by the JCBs, then smaller rocks shovelled into lorries and tipped then small aggregate filling in the cracks and hollows and finally steam rollers and a lot of hard manual labour by the Pioneer Corps often of enemy alien families, refugees perhaps, but not considered liable to internment but making their contribution to the war effort; all supervised by the R.E. No doubt many of these men would have made a more useful contribution elsewhere. Anyway at the end of 42 the P.C. were shipped to Algeria 鈥� airfield complete. The Spanish must have been very upset by this development, parallel to their coastline at La Linea. I don鈥檛 think territorial waters were considered. All along the coast were houses, often large, mostly with flat roofs. On some of the roofs were large telescopes on tripods observing the naval and commercial shipping and aircraft. The Germans knew exactly what was going on. Officers in Gib in civvies were allowed day passes to Spain. I was amazed and together with John Hanson and George Redgrave decided to have a day off across the bay in Algeciras. Our application was approved and we must have had identification documents but I don鈥檛 remember about that. I think it was rather boring and don鈥檛 remember much about it except strangely, how much Cadbury鈥檚 Chocolate was on offer on stalls 鈥� all smuggled of course by the Spanish day workers on Gib 鈥� mostly dockyard workers and a few women 鈥� domestic workers, cleaners etc for there were very few Gib left there. After fish and salad, nobody took much notice of us we had a walk and decided to take afternoon tea at rather a grand hotel, Christina or similar. Now this was interesting. There were obviously men, usually 2s or 3s at some tables who were quite blatantly watching us and some of them archetypal Germans who wouldn鈥檛 have made good spies! We had been warned to expect the quizzing. Interestingly a few mature looking characters looked, we thought, Italian. We returned to Gib on the evening ferry. Barbara and I met George Redgrave on Barclays Bank Stand at the Ideal Home Exhibition in 1949.

Great excitement 鈥� Italian 2 man subs had attacked shipping in the anchorage outside the harbour and had caused damage but had not penetrated the harbour entrance where the navy were. Apparently it was discovered that an Italian merchant ship tied up at Algeciras was the depot ship for these 2 man subs. Harbour defence and guard boats with depth charges were put on red alert and although I鈥檓 not sure about this I believe further attempts were made.

When the navy was in harbour it was an impressive sight. There were usually destroyers or frigates or submarines about but when the fleet, battleships, Nelson and Rodney (sister ships, strangely truncated because they were under construction and they would have exceeded the Treaty of Washington agreed weight and armament - they were shortened with all the main armament, 16鈥� I believe, forward and no big guns astern, so they were different from all the other battleships and immediately identified), aircraft carrier, in 1941 The Ark Royal, and numerous heavy and light cruisers and umpteen destroyers. All in full view of the enemy in Spain! We met some Fleet Air Arm pilots in the Royal Bar and I was offered a flight in a Swordfish, the amazing, elderly looking torpedo carrying biplanes, which had been serviced in Gib and were to be returned to the carrier at Sea. The Ark left harbour and we took off from the airfield and landed on the flight deck - what a thrill 鈥� the first time I had flown. I had lunch in the wardroom, opposite was an empty chair and the company was subdued. Fairey Fulmars had been on an exercise and one of them had crashed into the sea. The Ark returned to harbour and I disembarked. A few weeks later she was torpedoed a few miles east of Gib. I think I鈥檓 right in saying there were few casualties, because there were destroyer escorts close by. It could be seen from the top of the Rock, a very faint shape and eventually too dark to see. An awful disaster for us. Not surprising, considering that the enemy could observe all fleet movements from a distance of a mile or two. Nevertheless what an amazing feat for the U Boat, with all the escort protection the Ark had. I bet some searching questions were asked. And then there were the convoys to Malta with the distressing number of ships that were sunk. It was a great undertaking and very risky, almost completely without air cover, but Malta was so important to the war effort in general and the 8th Army in the western desert. Two light cruisers I remember were often in Gib. the Hermione and the Penelope, and the troops said 鈥淓rmi one and the Penelope鈥� and how we looked forward to seeing those these two ships return. They often showed what they had been through 鈥� battered and scarred with bomb splinters, but they were always repaired and back to sea. Once the Penelope was in such a mess when she returned riddled with holes in her superstructure that the troops renamed her 鈥淧epperpot鈥�. Both these ships I think were eventually lost, elsewhere possibly. I don鈥檛 remember but what superb service they gave in the face of submarines and Stukas.

And then, in early Autumn 1942, with the increasing amount of traffic on the airfield and the parked planes on the runway within spitting distance of Spain we, like the Germans, realised that something was up! At this time the Lightnings arrived, superb looking aircraft, American fighter bombers, twin fuselaged with twin tail fins - completely revolutionary design quite beautiful I thought. One landed the wrong side of the frontier fence, in Spain, amongst the pillboxes. They must have had a longer range than ordinary fighter planes, but later in the war Typhoons seemed to take over I remember. At this time large rectangular boxes, or crates, started to appear, and with them, an extra job for the garrison for these crates contained Spitfires. Three crates per plane 鈥� 2 for wings and one for fuselage and we had teams fixing the wings to the fuselage with a number of large bolts an amazingly simple construction when the terrific air pressure is considered, but the wings were lifted and fitted into the groove, in went the bolts and the R.A.F. took over from there. So what to do with the crates? Someone had a bright idea. We scrounged one, fitted a door, got a barrel of beer and set up a bar for the troops but as I remember there wasn鈥檛 room to swing a cat, so the party was often alfresco. I just cannot remember what the drinking vessels were 鈥� not a mess tin surely.

Then the Americans arrived. There was a ceremony in the evening in Gibraltar, 鈥淭he Keys鈥�. It might well have dated from the 18th Century. The guard in town was changed and the keys to the gate exchanged. 鈥淗alt, who goes there?鈥� 鈥淭he keys鈥�. 鈥淲hose keys?鈥� 鈥淜ing George鈥檚 keys鈥� etc etc. I remember the top American brass was invited to the ceremony. The Somersets, a regular battalion, had a good band and they played and the guard marched off to Sousa鈥檚 鈥淟iberty Belle鈥� in honour of the visitors. Some one reported that Tony Quayle the Staff Capt. at Gov. House had said when the guard marched off one of the Americans had remarked 鈥淛esus, General 鈥� they鈥檙e playing an American tune!鈥�

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