My father was seconded to the army for east coast defence in 1940, as a gunnery specialist; I have had help from the members here and also on the naval forum in compiling a 'life' for my son and my nephews of his whole career, from 1912 till 1945, and I thought members might be interested in his WW2 experiences:- On 28th September 1938, at the time of the Munich crisis, my father received a telegram telling him to report forthwith to HMS Excellent; there he had a medical and was given a grant to replace his uniform and was sent home with instructions to notify his employer that he was ‘on call’, although on his service record it said ‘demobed’, and was told to report to Excellent, again forthwith, should there be a declaration of war. He was sent a reminder on 31st July 1939. Joke: He had kept his uniform and accoutrements in good condition in the three years since he had been pensioned, consequently he did not need to replace anything, so he used his grant to buy my mother the chiming clock she had always wanted! He always called it ‘our gift from Hitler’. World War 2 War was declared on Sunday 3rd September 1939, so father reported to Excellent (ten minutes walk around the corner) but they did not know what to do with him. They entered all his details and then got him to help sort other ‘returners’ as they arrived. They sent him home and told him to report at 9 the following day. There were four other pensioners in our two streets (we lived in a corner house) and two were declared fit and sent to barracks, two were declared medically unfit and sent home to support the war effort (all four worked in the dockyard). When he returned on Tuesday morning, they made him Chief of the Footbridge, with the task of assessing security of access to Whale Island and improving it, setting up a 24 hour rota to cover an improved check-in check-out system and re-installing the barrier outside the guardhouse, making sure there was a master-list for regular users so that strangers could be picked up immediately. He remained at Excellent until June, 1940. This period is not covered in his service history and to my queries the answer was “many records were not accurately kept during the war period”, so much of this information is from my memory of that time, and from an unidentified army source which said that ‘In June 1940 (after Dunkirk in May) 4 inch naval mobile guns were loaned to the army for the defence of the east coast in case of invasion’; the crews were mixed army and navy and the crews were all in army uniform*. It was very odd, seeing my father in army uniform as a Regimental Sergeant Major on an army lorry leaving RN Barracks, Portsmouth. Even the army archive at Glasgow has no record of this period or of his service, given his full name and date of birth, and there is no record with them of his naval identity number or the subsequent army identity number, There is, however, a strange single entry on his naval service record, of HMS Ganges on 10th August 1940. My father and his crew were instructed not to remain more than two nights at any single site; sometimes they were instructed (by motor cycle messenger) where to go, and my father then negotiated with a local farmer for a site (he tried to find one near a pub or fish and chip shop, because army rations often did not catch up with them. Their modus operandi meant they had very little rest, no access to baths and dhobi centres. As they approached Shotley, my father went to Ganges, to find any shipmates and devise a plan of campaign. He then reported to the Senior Officer that his crew (half of whom were naval seamen) had a need for food, a night’s rest, a bath, and an opportunity to change their clothes and wash their dirties. Granted. they then resumed their peregrination around the east coast. Footnote * In June 1940 four 4" guns mounted on Foden lorries arrived in Suffolk from RN Portsmouth. They could fire fore and aft with a traverse of approx 25 deg. Each carried 25 rounds as well as AA lmg's. They were commanded by Lt Wintle RN, who if CRA 11 Corps tried to get hold while off duty were informed that he was 'ashore!'. Later the RN personnel were recalled but left the guns. This is only an excerpt. Eventually, my father was returned to navy service and there is a further page of his adventures, if anyone is interested. Ednamay
Eventually, my father was returned to navy service and there is a further page of his adventures, if anyone is interested. Ednamay Marvelous stuff. Fire away, I'd like to see it.
Bodstone - thank you for requesting the rest - I hope you don't mind, it was "Back to the Navy!" Back to the navy His next move (not on his service record) was in fact to Ganges, where he re-assumed his naval identity and became an Instructor, primarily gunnery but whatever was necessary, including small boat work and parade drill. This was a period that he enjoyed, because most of the young conscripts and volunteers were keen to learn, although they were not too keen on the drill etc. (what is it they say about Ganges and Excellent, everything at the double?) One group he found particularly interesting; among the Canadian recruits was a group of Newfoundlanders, and they tended to stick together. The were extraordinarily good with small boats - not boat drill, but moving, handling, and sailing them; my father said they could ‘turn their boats on a sixpence’. They were also good at stripping down and cleaning their guns, but not at the ‘naming of parts’; but they found difficulty in marching because they were accustomed to walking with a long stride. While he was at Ganges he got a Christmas Chicken Club started among the instructors; There was a piggery to use up any food scraps, and he persuaded the ‘pig-man’ to set up a large pen next door, using any overflow scraps, but each participant paid a weekly sum to add to the foodstuffs to produce big birds. There were some hens (useful eggs) and several cockerels. The week before Christmas there was a draw to allocate the birds, and my father and pig-man killed those birds so required. However, father’s bird was an enormous Rhode Island Red and he brought him home alive, because he had some pre-Christmas leave. We called him Cardinal Wolsey, because he had enormously long heavily muscled legs. In 1912 my father, countryman to his fingertips, noticed a walnut tree at Ganges and he looked for it when he returned in 194? When he found it, he nurtured it to produce a good 14crop of walnuts and then pickled them. He brought some home with him when he came on leave, but most were sold in the mess and the money went into the mess fund for a Christmas ‘do’ Moving on. In the 1940s there was a scandal about a death in one of the Naval Detention Centres, resulting in a Parliamentary Enquiry, One of the recommendations of this enquiry was that the medical provision at these establishments should be improved and the warder staff increased; this was to be done by using recalled pensioners and older men considered not suitable for sea service to man the detention centres, and releasing the existing warders for sea service. My father was one of the pensioners sent to man Coatdyke Detention Centre, near Airdrie, under the control of HMS Spartiate in Glasgow. On arrival, he found three old shipmates, all publicans in civilian life, so the four of them became the Mess Committee. Nearly all the staff were living in lodgings in the area (one of which overlooked Albion Rovers football ground - a popular lodge!) but their hours meant that relaxation time was scarce, and some lodgings were a bit spartan, so the Mess Committee instituted a Mess Guest night on Saturdays and ran it like a Ceilidh. Staff could invite their landlord/landlady, which improved local relations, local residents were not best impressed by the extension of the Detention Quarters and the risks of absconding men. There was a concentration on physical fitness and parade ground drill. There was obviously no weapons training, but I think there were men allocated to kitchen chores, cleaning, repairs and decorating. The idea, I believe, was to keep the inmates busy and tire them out, to discourage violence against other inmates and staff. As it was, my father was attacked on one occasion by a prisoner who had pulled the leg off a chair; luckily, the other staff pulled my father clear and slammed the door, so the weapon missed his head but hit his shoulder which fortunately was not broken. Father continued at Coatdyke until the end of the war, when he was soon returned to RNB Portsmouth, officially, but for some of that time he was actually at REME where he was demobed in August 1945. Afterword Father was able to return to his job at HM Dockyard in Portsmouth as a skilled slinger, better still, his job was established so he had some security. He was a ganger, running his own team, to whom he was known as Pop, his hair having gone white during the war. He retired in 1960, and spent time rescueing his garden and building it up again. In 1966 he was rehoused by the local authority in a bungalow, part of a sheltered housing scheme, when the LA planned to build the M275 near Excellent, and he established a new garden and went shopping for the neighbours. After my mother died, he stayed on for four years, when he remarried, moved into his new wife’s bungalow at the other end of the housing scheme, and made another garden. He died after a stroke in 1979. I hope you found an odd bit of WW2 interesting! Edna
Bodston - thank you for those few kind words - as I still have my father's original recipe, I will give it to you, together with a modern version! ........Pickled Walnuts (old recipe) Take some green walnuts and test with a needle, removing any that have begun to form a shell. Put them in brine, made with 3/4 lb. of salt to every quart of water, for 9 days. Every third day change the brine. Then drain, place them on a dish, and put them in the sun till they turn black. Then put them in dry jars. To every quart of vinegar allow 2 oz peppercorns, 1 oz allspice and bruised ginger. Simmer together for ten minutes, strain, then pour hot over the walnuts. Tie down. Pickled Walnuts (modern recipe, from Paul Southey, the Vegetarian Gourmet) Protein content: 53 grams Preparation and maturing time: 8 weeks 1kg (2.2 lb) young green walnuts 350 g (3/4 lb) salt 2 litres (3 1/2 pints) water 25 g (l oz) black peppercorns 25 g (l oz) small allspice berries 1.5 litres (2 1/2 pints) wine vinegar 1/2 teaspoon grated dry ginger 5 cm (2 in) stick of cinnamon, crumbled. The walnuts must be freshly picked and should be young enough to be pierced easily with a very thick needle, even through the stem end; the outer covering should be firm and juicy. Prick the walnuts all over with a carpet needle, holding them in a cloth, or wear rubber gloves, as the juice stains almost indelibly Dissolve half the salt in half the water and pour it over the walnuts in a bowl. Do not use a lead glazed container as the solution and, later, the vinegar will dissolve the lead. If the solution does not quite cover the walnuts, then make up a little extra, using the same proportion of salt to water. Cover and leave the nuts in a cool place, stirring twice a day to ensure even brining. Drain them, then mix the rest of the salt and water, and any additional brine required, and pour this over the walnuts. Leave for another five days, stirring twice a day as before. Drain the walnuts and spread them out in a single layer on a flat dish. Let them dry in the sun until they are black. Crush the peppercorns and allspice berries with pestle and mortar - do not grind them or the flavour will be too strong. Simmer the vinegar with the spices for 15/20 minutes until it is well flavoured. Allow to cool and strain. Fill sterilized wide-necked jars 3/4 full with walnuts and pour in the spiced vinegar, adding extra if necessary to cover the walnuts. Cover securely and leave in a cool place for 6 weeks before using. Best of British luck!!! Ednamay
At the end of May, the Admiralty informed the War Office (telegram dated 30.5 in file WO 199/523) that lorry-mounted gun batteries with over a hundred guns in all were being formed, as follows: - Three Royal Marine batteries (R.M.1, R.M.2, R.M.3) with 8 x 12pdrs each - Six batteries each in the ports of Chatham, Portsmouth and Devonport, numbered C.1 to C.6, P.1 to P.6 etc. In all three cases the first four batteries would have 2 x 3pdrs and 2 x 12pdrs, and the batteries numbered 5 and 6 four 4in guns. According to various sources, as noted above, the total number of lorry-mounted 4in guns was between 40 and 50, and it does seem that some more batteries were added later. The 69th Anti-tank Regiment (45th Inf Division) had a RM battery designated “C/7” and equipped with 7 x 4in guns attached in July; at some point in Aug. the Marines left and handed over their guns to 273 Bty of that regiment (which was at that time still very short of “real” anti-tank guns).
