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Every week or so we lost several of our men who were for demob, they went home as their release numbers were nearly due, it was a long wait for mine I fell due in March and should have come home on HMS Sussex a cruiser, anyhow something was changed and I was given a date to join the Persimmon an assault craft carrying ship of some 8,000 tons it was a Royal Mail steamer previous to the war, just a couple of days before I was due to leave, Sgt. Shoesmith, my old mucker, came up and said that I could have my third stripe if I would sign on for a further six months, my reply was unprintable, but meant no chance. When I was on parade with other blokes, to get on the transport to the ship, Shoesmith and other Senior NCO’s came round and shook our hands a nice gesture I thought, also Capt. Greenfield waved to us from his office, I often wonder who took my place and whether or not he got the same service.

The Persimmon was lying off Singapore Harbour we were shipped out to it and on board I found that Tim England was going home as well, this was great at least I had someone I knew from home and he had mates with him so we were able to meet after our duties, we also found out that another Heywood lad was in the ships company, Johnny Ryan he was one of the crew of a landing craft, which were manned by Royal Marines, we had some good times to-gether on the journey which was to take us six weeks.

My bunk was alongside a generator so I thought I would be kept awake by the noise, as it happened I was so tired that nothing would disturb me, the funny thing is that when we visited various places on the way home and the generator was shut down I had difficulty getting to sleep. The ship was carrying all Naval personnel apart from one Army officer, a colonel , one of the sailors had brought a parrot on board and let it loose in the bunk deck, the thing kept flying round and was a nuisance, there was also a monkey which seemed to keep to the upper deck, this was given some of his masters rum and nearly fell off the rail into the sea. This being a Navy ship we were allowed to draw our tot of rum each day at 11am. this was two in one i.e. two of water to one of rum, this meant that it was nearly a tumbler full I was not keen on it and made lots of other blokes happy by dishing it out. The ship originally carried 16 landing craft, but had left 8 behind in Singapore Johnny Ryan was a member of the crew of one of these so Tim and I used to creep into the craft during our off periods and escape from any authority. My job was to oversee one watch working in the servery, this meant brewing the tea, collecting the food from the galley at each meal dishing it out and washing up, it was not too arduous and left lots of free time because some watches started at 5 am. it didn’t matter anyway, there was no place to go, so we might as well be working.

There was such a commotion one day, all crew and men in transit were assembled between decks to be told that a Japanese sword had been stolen from an officers cabin. The Commander who addressed us said that he wanted the culprit taken to him, and there would be trouble if he was unmarked, I can’t remember the outcome.

I was allowed to visit the Petty Officers mess, courtesy of Geo. Bailey, we played cards and listened to the radio it was better that just being in the bunk space.

Our first port of call was Colombo in Ceylon, Tim, Johnny his mate and I went ashore, not a memorable visit, I wanted to see if there were any bargains left in the shop at the Fleet Club, the only one I fancied was a bracelet of rolled gold with about eight moon stones encased in it, this was 30 shillings but I could not afford it so I really missed out. The next port of call was Bombay, we got a run ashore again and went swimming at a posh club called ( I think this is correct ) Breach Kandy, the ex. Pats looked down on us, little did they realise that amongst the troops were men better qualified educationally than most of them, especially the women, this was an eye opener to me, it just showed that we were a necessary evil to facilitate their life style. Off we went again, next stop Malta, during the run from Bombay to Aden, we suddenly heard a loud noise coming from the sea, it was a very large school of porpoise, about several hundred yards square, they were all leaping out of the water and I suppose feeding off the plentiful smaller fish. When we were going along the Med. to Malta I was on the upper deck having a smoke and one of the crew pointed out a big liner approaching from astern, this was 8 am. by 9 am. it was along side us, the Caernarvon Castle it was carrying civvies home, as it passed us their ensign was dipped as a salute to a Royal Navy vessel and the passengers were all lined up at the rails waving to us, very nice.

We eventually arrived at Malta entering the harbour at Valletta, most of the men had to line up on the upper deck a Naval tradition, I was down in the servery but managed to look out of a porthole, we dropped anchor and waited for word of when we could get ashore, my watch was allowed off the second day, a much needed break, the watch before gave us a few tips of what to do, this was a really big naval port so we had to be careful. We were taken to the shore by landing craft and deposited outside a pub, with the appropriate name The First and Last, it was the first one you came to, and the last when going off shore, we had to have a drink just to say we had been there, then just along from the pub was a dosshouse, this was not what you would imagine with the name, it was just like a barrack room, but very clean and comfortable. We then proceeded up a lift on the side of the wall fortifications got our photo’s taken and went to find the Gut, this is a long narrow street right in the centre of Valletta and was entirely filled with bars and dance halls, the whole day was spent going up and down this street drinking a beer called Cisk much like dandelion and burdock, and about as strong, I counted 27 bottles we each consumed, towards night Tim went on whiskey, moonshine stuff, this took him over the edge so we decided to get back to the ship, it was now dark and the moon was very bright, as we passed a statue Tim went over to it and shouted ‘look lads, snow’ then fell down trying to scoop it up, we thought it very funny. Next stop was the Customs House steps, the place to catch the landing craft back to the ship, there were lots of men gathered there because we were told that the last craft had gone back, also waiting was a Commander the Exec. Officer of the ship he had his Alsation with him and was very drunk, he did no more than dive into the water to-gether with his dog and was trying to swim to the ship, a message was relayed to Persimmon and a landing craft sent to find him, the result was that he was put under close arrest, never saw him again. We were in a quandary, either go to the dosshouse were we had booked our space or try to get a lift, this we did by being given space on a dghajsa ( pronounced dyso) courtesy of some PO’s.

I must mention that each evening there was a broadcast over the ships relay system of records requested by anyone, the introduction to the hour long recital was a tune ‘ Sentimental Journey’ and one of the favourites was ‘Toy Balloons’ by the Andrew Sisters, the favourite tune in our place at Singapore was ‘This is the story of a starry night’ the original music is part of Tchaikovsky’s 6th. symphony ‘ Pathetique’.

Anchored across the water from us were several larger naval vessels one of which was the cruiser Ajax, each of the three nights we were there the ceremony of ‘Sunset’ was performed on the Quarter deck by the Royal Marines band, this was brilliant and I made it my business to be on the upper deck each night. At last we left for Gibraltar, when going through the harbour entrance, the water was so rough that the screw left the water and the ship shuddered like mad. At Gib. we lay offshore for a day and then set off on the last leg, up the Atlantic past Portugal, skirting the Bay of Biscay, boy was that rough, we were shipping it green for a long time, next stop U.K. at Falmouth, just to drop something off, then up the Irish Sea to Greenock.

Approaching our anchorage at Greenock I was detailed off to be once again in charge of the baggage party, this proved very tricky as the gear had to be loaded onto a lighter and the swell was about 6 feet, to get on the lighter was difficult in hob nailed boots one slip and you were going to be crushed, whilst loading some of the lads found a large box belonging to the Army colonel, it was marked ‘radiogram’ so they lifted it a foot and dropped it, tinkle was the sound, a job well done. As we were first ashore I was able to go to the Post Office and withdraw some of the money I had banked in Singapore. There was a special train to take us to Portsmouth and on the way it stopped at Crewe, I jumped off with my small kit bag which was full of things I might not have been able to get out of barracks such as a 6 lb. tin of lambs tongue, a coconut for our kid, and sundry other bits and pieces, this was put in the left luggage office and I collected it after demob, I just managed to get on the train again before it went off.

At Eastney I was put in charge of a barrack room, this meant that I had to keep a check on the comings and goings of the occupants, not easy, some of them lived locally and were in the habit of going home each night but I managed to kid the duty NCO each morning. My time was spent taking new recruits to their jobs, one was to the equipment store where all webbing left by those being demobbed was deposited and had to be stripped down ready for being issued again, the sergeant asked me what state my webbing was in, I said lousy, so he said bring it in and I’ll swap it for some just handed in off a recruit, brilliant, I’ve never had as good even the string attaching the cork to the water bottle was blancoed. Most mornings I went outside the barracks to a little café and had my breakfast, no one seemed to bother us, not much point was there?

During the voyage home I got ringworm it is easily done as the spores float in the air, mine was worse because I got a virus in it, the ships doctor prescribed Albucid but this was useless, the ones on my waist line just disappeared but the ones on my upper lip just would not go. In barracks I went to the sick bay, they put a penicillin ointment on, I looked a right sight, fancy going for a drink with a large yellow blob under your nose, so I stopped going. When I got home I went to see Dr. Young with this complaint, after I’d told him the story he said ‘ I’ll get rid of that in a week’, (clever bugger I thought) but he was right, the treatment — Zinc ointment — just an ordinary every day ointment, what price the Naval doctors?

I was only in barracks about two weeks, but was told that George, Cis’s brother had been called up for the Fleet Air Arm and was doing his trade tests in Portsmouth, I set out to find him, first of all to Lee on Solent Air Station, not there, then I got word that he was at RN Barracks in the centre of the city, so George Bailey and I set off to collect him, we were a little early and waited for him in their barrack room, all the men in his squad rushed in sat down and proceeded to demolish their tea, they were like a pack of animals, I turned to my mate George and said’ Were we ever like that’ his reply was ‘Never’. Anyhow we took George back to Eastney and showed him how civilised ‘Bootnecks’ behaved. I called for him on another night to go on a pub crawl, but it was not a success because my yellow lip was an embarrassment.

On my last parade before being discharged I got pulled up by the Adjutant for having the silk bow, at the back of my beret, tucked into the leather trim, I had done this because the bow kept undoing. Next stop the medical, the doctor asked me what was on my upper lip, I said ‘Herpes’, this got me through, if he’d known what it really was I would have been kept back for further treatment. Off we went to collect our Civvies at Cosham just up the road from Eastney, the building was a disused garage and was full of clothes etc. we were allowed to pick what we wanted, then the gear was put in a bag for carrying home, down to the station and off, George Bailey and I travelled together and at London Road station we parted never to meet again.

Before I close I must mention my two best mates in the Detachment they were Jimmy Macadie from Wick, a laid back character, he was away from H.Q. a lot, but whenever he came back we went out to-gether, he was the best driver we had and that’s saying something.
The other one was Bas Spencer, he was to the dry stores i.e. barrack room and other fitments, as I was to the victualling, so we were to-gether for most of the N. Africa and Italian campaigns. Bas taught me lots of things, he could turn his hand to anything and was a very laid back sort of person just the opposite to me, this is probably why we got on so well to-gether. I still remember him asking me to pass him the sawrer, I always thought it was a saw.

My official release date was 16th. July 1946, I had served for 4 years and 4 months, I was very lucky compared to lots of other lads, and sometimes wonder what it was all about, successive governments have given the country to any foreign nationals who come along with a sob story, telling the likes of us that we must manage on our own.

On my first walk into Heywood I said hello to several people I knew but just got blank stares, it was some time later that I realised they probably didn’t recognise me after several years away, this goes some way to explaining what happened to my Dad, he attended Mass at St. Joseph’s on the first Sunday of his return, after the service he stood against the wall smoking a cigarette, the only person to speak to him was someone asking for a light, he never got over that, after all he had been an Altar boy and a regular attender before his war.

Another annoying occurrence, I went back to work in the Co-op office in June’ 46 and was allowed 12 days paid holidays in that year, next year I was told that I could only have 10 days holiday i.e. one day for every month from the previous April to the following March, as I started back in June I was 2 days short, I was more than upset about this pettiness but as jobs were scarce could not complain too much. To-day in a similar occasion I would take them apart.

Well that’s my story, everything is factual, lots must have been missed out but I surprised myself with just how much I could remember.

I would like to dedicate this to my son John and his wife Susan without their encouragement, chivvying and supply of the computer I would not have done this. Finally, to the Royal Marines who taught me self-sufficiency, pride in the Corps and lots of other things, last of all to my mates of the Royal Marine Engineers who hardly receive a mention in the annals of the Corps. The forgotten units.

HEYWOOD 1998

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