6 December 1953 - Last Tuesday was rather rough in this area and we had a boat out on detail. Well, it turned out she couldn’t go through a gap, the gap into Hong Kong harbour. Then we heard that the marine superintendent started flapping and phoned up Kowloon radio room to contact the boat. He certainly laid it on thick enough, “this is a matter of life and death”. When the boat arrived back the cox’n said that they had been as snug as a bug in a rug. <Read more ...>
4 October 1953 - The typhoon season officially is from May to September…we have compo rations on board. One good thing about them is that it is impossible to ruin them when they’re being cooked.
18 October 1953 - (continuing the Japan planning) I should change the money into US dollars…it appears the Japs appreciate it more than Sterling or HK dollars. <Read more ...>
20 September 1953 - On Wednesday we received a typhoon warning so off we went to the typhoon anchorage; lunchtime Wednesday until 11am Saturday, approximately 72 hours. We were rushed so much that all I had was what I stood up in and no more, no washing kit no change of clothes, blankets, nothing.. Altogether we managed about 15 hours sleep…at one time we were really worried. we had a weather forecast over the w/t, it said “Typhoon Susan is expected to pass directly over Hong Kong at mid <Read more ...>
3 August 1953 - Yesterday I celebrated my tenth month in the army. Twelve months from now I’ll be on my way home. Roll on time.
9 August 1953 - The weather is consistently hot now, still topping the ninety mark with occasional rain. The water situation is extremely serious now. The reservoir should be full at this time of year but we’ve had so little rain that it’s only a quarter full. <Read more ...>
14 June 1953 - Last monday we worked until 11pm…on Tuesday we were up until 3am. We were on a scheme with the Royal Navy in a place called Tai Po. We had to make an assault landing under pretty realistic conditions. We had one narrow escape when two “enemy” gunboats sent up star shells about 200 yards from us. We could see their outline quite clearly but they didn’t see us. <Read more ...>
1 May 1953 - We passed the “Amethyst” yesterday. She looks fine now (HMS AMETHYST was involved in a gun battle with the Chinese communists on the river Yangtze in the late 1940s and was considerably damaged). Also we passed one of the Isbrandtsen ships, the “Flying Clipper”, remember the “Flying Enterprise”? (The “Flying Enterprise”, a cargo ship, got into serious trouble in the Atlantic and took on a terrifying list. The captain became a househ<Read more ...>
19 April 1953 – (Posted in Singapore) The Tiger Balm parks…(are) really strange, small man-made caves, chinese type monsters, miniature pagodas.
Having berthed at Kowloon we were marched up Nathan Road to a transit camp, Whitfield Barracks on the corner of Nathan Road and Austin Road. It didn’t take some of our pals long to realise that Austin road was the centre of “nightlife” on Kowloon-side in the 1950s. <Read more ...>
19 March 1953 - We got up at 0330 on Tuesday morning at Bordon and left at 0630. We were at Waterloo at 0845 and the train from Euston left at 1020. The train went right down to the quay at Liverpool Docks for us, you see it was an “Empire Halladale Special”, all troops. <Read more ...>
Letter #1, “First night” October 1952. - 6A Squad, ”B” Company, No. 5 Training Battalion (Select) RASC, Blenheim Barracks Aldershot, Hants. - There are 34 of us and we all got kitted out this afternoon. <Read more ...>
