To conclude my Naval tale:-

I was back in the Barracks a few days before Christmas and was temporarily allocated to the Clothing Stores. My previous stay at Devonport had been very short and I had quickly been deprived of the `pleasures' of slumber in a hammock. On this occasion I was given rather more time but really did not master the art. Thankfully afterwards, I never had to sleep in a hammock for any length of time. I can recall little of my stay apart from attending  a parade on the morning of Christmas Day on Plymouth Hoe and seeing Wee Georgie Wood in a pantomime at a theatre in the city. On 22nd January 1945 I travelled to Liverpool to join a troopship, I think the Orion, bound for the far east.

After calling at Gibralter, Port Said and Aden (shore leave not allowed) I, with many others, was put off at Columbo, Ceylon from where we were sent by bus to Trincomalee. The trtansit camp there was HMS Mayura which, at the time I was there, gave the impression of being a clearing in the jungle. The toilets were located on the fringe of the camp and the seating arrangements comprised a number of holes in the timber covering a large pit. Sitting on this contraption was performed with some trepidation as it was alleged that scorpions were inclined to lurk beneath the timber and take their toll of any posterior in sight. The day before I left a king cobra was heard thrashing about in the pit which was eventually shot. I was not sorry when I was posted to HMS Chinkara on 3rd March 1945.    

Chinkara was a shore base located at Cochin, South India, her main function being that of a landing craft base in preparation for the forthcoming invasion of Singapore. I was part of a small team setting up the clothing store and was put in charge of the documentation procedures. As the operation expanded I successfully passed the Petty officer's examination and was promoted to Stores PO on 23rd April 1945. Shortly afterwards Chief Petty Officer Palmer arrived to take charge of the store and I became his deputy, by which time things were really hotting up. Thanks to the atom bomb we had hardly got into full swing before we entered a `paying off', phase.

After my promotion i shared a chalet with Writer PO John Bridges, also just promoted. We quickly estabilshed a regular Sunday evening bridge session with two Writers, Ernie Riley and George Mills, and the practice continued right up to those worthies leaving for demobilisation. Some other evenings were spent in the P.O. Mess (beer strickly rationed) or a trip out for a meal and/or g&ts at the malebar Hotel. Nearly all my daylight leisure time was occupied playing cricket on the matted wickets. I captained the Supply team in the Chinkara Cricket League and we had no difficulty in coming out very much on top in the 1945/46 season. We had by far the strongest team with players from such leagues as the Huddersfield and Central Lancashire. Whilst in India I enjoyed a week's leave in Madras and, more enjoyably, a week's leave and a few weekends at Ootacamund in the Nilgiri Hills. At `Ooty' i stayed with a Mrs. Gribble and her daughter, Mary, who was shortly to start a nursing career at St. Thomas's Hospital. The four or five servicemen in residence occupied their time mainly playing badminton or picnicking in daylight, or playings cards and/or listening to records after dark, female accompaniment being provided by Mary and some of her friends. Perhaps I, a lad from a Yorkshire working class family, was most impressed (not necessarily favourably) by being waited on hand and foot by bearers.

There was plenty of wildlife in Sorthern India, tigers still roamed the Nilgiri Hills and elephants were frequently seen at work or in procession. Snake charmers were a regular sight, particularly at railway stations, but I did not dally to take in their finer points. Many tales were told of snakes and scorpions but the only poisonous species of snake I came across  was a small black or dark green one known locally I think, as a tittipolonga. This was stated to have the ability to jump although I never saw proof of that. Some of our late arrival colleagues came down from a base at Visakhapatnam where, they related that for some obscure reason, it was necessary to take rheir plates full of hot food out into the open en route between kitchen and messroom. Vultures perched on the rocks above and around the base were prone to swoop and make off with any meat on the plates of the unwary.

A distressing sight throughout the state of Cochin was the comparative large numbers of natives suffering from elephantiasis, a disease normally affectiing the legs or scrotum. There is extreme enlargement of the area concerned due to nematode worms blocking the lymphatic vessels. Terribly swollen legs were a common sight and we were given to understand that a few unfortunates had to trundle their private parts around in a barrow although I never actually saw this. Another unusual sight, at least to a Westerner, was that of women working as coolies. When I arrived at Chinkara many roads around the camp were still under construction and it was amazing to me to see the way that coolies, mostly women, conveyed baskets containing 60 to 70 lbs. of earth, stones etc. on their heads and still managed to run with their burden.

Apart from the paddy fields and coconut palms, my lasting recollections are the Chinese fishing nets. These machines are immense contraptions consisting of a huge net lowered into the water on the end of a pole poised on a fulcrum. Once a catch has been lured into its meshes by a lantern on top of the `machine', it takes half a dozen men on the other end of the pole to lift the haul out of the water. At the time I was there Cochin was renowned for its coir industry and oil trade from the crushing of copra and other oil seeds. The Tata Oil Mills near Ernakulem was renowned as the home of `Cocogen', a refined and deodarised cooking oil. A stroll through the streets behind the docks revealed warehouses and courtyards heaped with spices, betel nuts and hanks of coir with a strong smell of `Eastern promise'.

All good things come to an end, and a my second monsoon season approached it was clear that i would soon be on my way back to dear old Blighty for demob. After what seemed an interminable time between leaving Cochin in mid July and arriving back in barracks in late September, I was `dispersed' on leave on 5th October, my final discharge date being 7th December 1946. I remember arriving at Skipton in the early hours of 6th October and catching the first bus to Earby where Dad was at the bus stop to meet me and help carry my kit and the spoils of war home.  

I tried again, you'll have to tell them what it's all about.  I think the filename was too long so I shortened it......

Thanks Stanley, it came out great! The pic is of Captain Haynes DSO, RN addressing the ship's company of HMS Khedive before going into action in the invasion of Southern France.

David, in spite of what Stanley says, we old uns wouldn't get very far without him keeping us on the straight and narrow.  

That was a bit better Ted.......