Attachment to Weekly News, 16 February 2025
http://hmas-leeuwin-1963.com/attachment-to-weekly-news/
Jackspeak
gash A widely used word with four distinct meanings:
Anything surplus to requirement. (you can have it its gash)
Anyone useless (don’t take him – he’s a gash hand)
Rubbish or refuse – (D’ya hear there – ditch no gash)
Any gash talent here (is a question posed when entering a night club or dance hall and is an enquiry as to whether there are any nice young ladies present who are not inextricably committed to someone else.
JOKES
If you have any jokes you would like to forward please do. I am running out. Thanks to all who have responded, your jokes are appreciated and will appear in the upcoming weeks.
Honours and Awards
Senator Malcolm Roberts
pSsootnerdu 8cb1 4iye5ai00 F54424Ma5:ri8la69ff91rmuP 836g3th ·
After the all day Senate Inquiry hearing on Friday: Senator Roberts said: “There needs to be root and branch reform of the honours and awards system.”
“It’s very clear that there has been a two tier system when it comes to medals. Senior Officers get awards like it’s part of their salary package and the enlisted ranks are lucky if their nominations aren’t just shoved in a drawer and forgotten.”
“The integrity of the Distinguished Service Crosses awarded to multiple leaders of forces in the Middle East is under a dark cloud. It has become clear that senior leaders of Defence, including the current Chief, over at least a decade have abused the definition of ‘in action’ to claim awards that were meant to be reserved for soldiers under direct fire of an adversary.”
“How can Angus Campbell claim a Distinguished Service Cross for command of soldiers which he has tried to strip a DSC from for allegations of wrongdoing?”
“The only recognition some soldiers have of their sacrifice and service is a medal. When the system that administers medals is broken, that destroys morale and is a direct contributor to the military recruitment and retention crisis.”
“The inquiry heard heroic stories of soldiers direct machine gun and grenade fire having their nominations simply forgotten, downgraded without their knowledge or manipulated. This cannot be allowed to happen”
“A fully transparent process must be implemented. It’s clear that the Defence hierarchy cannot be trusted to be impartial and objective when it comes to giving our Defence personnel the recognition they deserve.”
Read the full story: https://senroberts.com/3EuWivn
REVILLE – NSW RSL - ENEWS
Russ Dale is asking a question:
RAN Officer - Robert or John Carpenter
Did you know an ex Dartmouth trained RAN Officer by the above names Robert or John?
I never came across the name but an elderly neighbour who is in the local RSL knew him in Wangaratta High School and asked me if I knew him.
Regards
Russ
Rocky Freier forwarded these: Very interesting
RSL NSW
RSL NSW president’s firm launches legal action against veterans
Commander Rosemarie Apikotoa cordially invites yourself and your family members attend the
124th Birthday Celebrations
of the Royal Australian Navy
on the
Saturday 1st March 2025
This event will include a march-past and salute in line with Naval
traditions at 1030, along with cutting of the cake at 1100. Location: Patrick Terminal, Port of Brisbane
Dress: Smart Casual
RSVP on Eventbrite – HMAS Moreton Open Day Please select 10am timeslot for this event.
Laurie Mitchell forwarded this –
Value of Military Service
https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/on-the-value-of-military-service/
Rob Cavanagh forwarded this:
Why attack missile boats can’t replace major warships
https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/why-attack-missile-boats-cant-replace-major-warships/
KEITH PEARCE
If you have a picture of ex-Submariner 7th Intake LEEUWIN, WEM Keith Pearce please forward to Gus at- gusmellon@hotmail.com
Ward Hack forwarded these:
Squadron Leader Stanley Booker, who has died aged 102, was a Bomber Command veteran and one of the last survivors of the 168 Allied airmen captured and interned in Buchenwald concentration camp.
On the night of June 3 1944, Booker was the navigator of a 10 Squadron Halifax bomber sent to attack the marshalling yards at Trappes, near Paris. Enemy night fighters had congregated and attacked. Twelve per cent of the bomber force was lost, including Booker’s aircraft. His pilot was killed and the crew baled out.
After landing safely, he was assisted by the Resistance but was betrayed to the Gestapo and captured. He was taken to the large Fresnes prison south of Paris, where he was severely beaten and tortured.
On August 15 1944, five days before Paris was liberated, he was taken with a group of 167 other airmen in grossly overcrowded cattle trucks to Buchenwald, a journey that took five days, with little water, food or sanitation. The senior member of the party was a New Zealand pilot, Squadron Leader Phil Lamason, who insisted on military discipline and bearing to make it clear to their captors that they should be treated as military prisoners and in accordance with the Geneva Convention.
Kept on a near-starvation diet, the men witnessed many horrors, not least the execution of some Special Operations Executive (SOE) officers. The RAF contingent, ably led by Lamason, won the respect of the camp commandant for their discipline and the help they provided after the camp was bombed by the USAF on August 24 1944.
They were transferred to Stalag Luft III near Sagan, scene of the Great Escape, where the appearance of these shaven-headed and emaciated men shocked the PoWs held in the camp.
At the end of January, the camp was evacuated as the Soviet Army advanced from the east. The prisoners were force-marched westwards in the worst winter weather experienced for many years; Booker and his colleagues suffered badly on the “Long March”.
He was liberated at the end of hostilities, having been held back with hundreds of other prisoners by the Russians as a bargaining chip with the West.
Stanley Booker was born at Gillingham, Kent, on April 25 1922. He joined the RAF as an apprentice clerk on April 26 1939 before volunteering for aircrew duties later in the war. He trained as a navigator and joined 10 Squadron at Melbourne, near York.
After recuperating from his ordeal as a PoW he returned to flying with Transport Command. He flew in Dakotas with 77 and 62 Squadrons before joining 206 Squadron at Lyneham, which was equipped with the four-engine Avro York.
Following the closure of the overland and air routes to Allied-controlled Berlin, the Western powers established Operation Plainfare to deliver vital supplies to the western zone of the city. Between November 1948 and August 1949 Booker flew an incredible 227 sorties as part of the now-famous Berlin Airlift from the RAF-controlled airfield at Wunstorf in West Germany into Gatow, the RAF terminal in Berlin, at a time when one aircraft was said to be landing in the beleaguered city every three minutes.
He was recruited into the intelligence services, and served first in Hamburg before being promoted, in his words, “to the first team” in Berlin. He was responsible for monitoring the activities at Gross Doelln, a large airfield then under construction north of Berlin in 1954.
The length of the runways (more than 3,000 metres) convinced the intelligence community that they were being prepared for use by Russia’s long-range bombing force of Bear and Bison aircraft, which could reach the eastern coast of the US. When the first fuel was pumped on to the site, a sample was “secured” within 24 hours for analysis. Shortly afterwards, however, shorter-range Ilyushin Beagle bombers arrived, not the long-range aircraft that had been predicted.
After returning to the UK and to 206 Squadron, now as a navigator on the RAF’s long-range maritime reconnaissance force, Booker returned to Berlin for a second tour in intelligence. He told his biographer, Sean Feast: “Berlin was John le Carré at its best, a murky world of intrigue and dirty goings-on in which I felt completely at home.”
His return coincided with the unmasking of the spy George Blake, who shared a neighbouring office – after which, Booker recounted, “all hell broke loose.”
Blake had betrayed the presence of a secret tunnel into East Berlin that the Allies had been using to listen into Russian military communications. Booker feared, but never knew for certain, that Blake had also told the Russians what they knew of Gross Doelln airfield.
Booker retired from the RAF in June 1973 having been appointed MBE.
In later life he was a fierce campaigner for the compensation due to Allied prisoners, which he was, in part, denied because there was no evidence that he had ever been in a concentration camp. In the early 1980s he risked going back into East Germany, despite being a known former intelligence officer, and not only found the evidence he needed, but also ensured that the British were part of future commemorations.
On the instructions of the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, he prepared an official report on the presence of the British military at Buchenwald. He continued campaigning about the historic injustices suffered by surviving prisoners until well into his 90s.
In 1999 he wrote about his experiences in Jump into Hell. In 2021 the French government appointed him a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur. In later life he retired to the south coast to be near his family.
Stanley Booker married Marjorie, a nurse, in 1942, and she died in 2016. He is survived by their two daughters.
Stanley Booker, born April 25 1922, died January 26 2025
Air Marshal Sir John Walker, who has died aged 88, was a Cold War fighter pilot and one of the RAF’s foremost thinkers on the employment of offensive air power, who rose to become Chief of Defence Intelligence (CDI).
When Walker, often called “Whisky” Walker, assumed the position of Deputy Chief of Defence Intelligence in MoD in 1989, the world order was witnessing dramatic upheaval. Walker’s recent experience as a deputy chief of staff (operations and intelligence) in a Nato headquarters gave his fertile and energetic mind ample scope to review how defence intelligence would need to adapt to a post-Cold War world.
The outbreak of the First Gulf War brought concrete proof that intelligence requirements were now very different to those that had been established to meet Nato plans. Walker duly set about re-organising his department, increasing the intelligence in support of overseas operations outside Nato.
Some of the long-standing single service roles such as signals intelligence, naval collection and strategic air reconnaissance were brought under central control; at times a delicate situation, this required firm direction from Walker.
The management of the collection and dissemination of intelligence, not least to the operational commanders in the field, also had to be improved. With his lateral thinking and no-nonsense approach, Walker set about making the necessary changes.
In 1991 he was appointed Chief of Defence Intelligence and Deputy Chairman of the Government’s Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC). The fallout from the First Gulf War continued to occupy much of his time, with no-fly zones in Iraq and the possibility of Saddam Hussein possessing weapons of mass destruction, alongside the emergence of conflict in the Balkans, particularly in Bosnia. Walker also created specialist cells to develop contingency plans against potential adversaries that were emerging; in many parts of the world his foresight was vindicated.
Towards the end of his time as CDI, the government’s 1993 Public Expenditure Survey required financial savings to be found in all departments, including the MoD. Since Walker, as CDI, was serving in MoD’s Central Staffs and therefore outside the RAF’s chain of command, he was given the job of looking for savings specifically within the RAF. He teamed up with David Hart, a colourful and at times controversial character who had advised Margaret Thatcher, and was then a specialist adviser to Malcolm Rifkind, the Defence Secretary.
Walker and Hart’s recommendations, however, went well beyond what the Air Force Board expected, and felt able to accept. These included a rapid and major reduction in manpower, to be achieved by both a voluntary and compulsory redundancy programme; the cancellation of some major projects; the early closure of eight large airfields; changes to the service’s training methods; and other contentious issues. It amounted to a review of the entire structure and modus operandi of the RAF.
Walker and Hart had managed to convince ministers that there were some significant savings (some estimated £3bn) that could be made, but these recommendations led to some bruising encounters for the RAF chiefs when they were confronted by the politicians. An unsympathetic press caused further difficulties for the RAF senior management, although many thought the criticism was unjustified in the face of the need to safeguard the service’s capabilities and the morale of its people.
The study had involved very little dialogue with the RAF leadership, and seemed to some to be Walker’s personal solution to the future of his service. This did not endear himself to his fellow air marshals, and although he had made a major contribution to the operational efficiency of the RAF earlier in his career, the ensuing personality clashes were numerous.
John Robert Walker (known throughout the RAF as JR) was born on May 26 1936. He was educated at King Edwards Five Ways Grammar School, Birmingham, where he gained a cadetship to the RAF College Cranwell. He became an under officer, gained his colours at swimming and water polo and graduated as a pilot in July 1956.
He first flew Hunter fighters in the UK and then in Germany with 4 Squadron, where he became the squadron’s weapons instructor, before transferring to 2 Squadron, where he flew the Swift in the fighter reconnaissance role. This was followed by a tour as a trials pilot at the Air Fighting Development Squadron of the Central Fighter Establishment, culminating in the award of a Queen’s Commendation for Service in the Air.
After attending Staff College, he left for the USA where he served on an exchange appointment at HQ 12th Air Force based in Texas, training fighters at a time when USAF squadrons were heavily involved in the Vietnam war. His position also gave him the opportunity to fly various marks of the USAF’s latest fighter, the Phantom.
Walker’s long association with fighter and offensive support aircraft continued on his return from the USA, first co-ordinating training and exercises for Phantom and Harrier aircraft before being responsible for the development of tactics and trials of offensive aircraft at the RAF’s Central Trials and Tactics Organisation (CTTO).
In 1973, the Anglo-French Jaguar ground attack and reconnaissance aircraft was entering service and Walker led the RAF’s Jaguar conversion team, then assumed command of the Jaguar operational conversion unit to train pilots on the aircraft, for which he was awarded the AFC.
In February 1976 he assumed command of RAF Bruggen in West Germany, the RAF’s largest operational base overseas at the time, and where he had command of four Jaguar squadrons used in the nuclear strike and attack role. At the main gate, he displayed his mantra: “We train in peace for war”. Bruggen went on to achieve the highest gradings in the demanding Nato tactical evaluation exercises, and Walker was appointed CBE.
After appointments at HQ RAF Germany and a return to CTTO in command, in December 1982 he was appointed Director of Forward Plans in the RAF’s policy division at the MoD, where he was responsible for reviewing the RAF’s requirements 30 years ahead. In May 1985 he returned to the operational scene as senior air staff officer at HQ RAF Strike Command and Deputy Chief of Staff Operations and Intelligence of UKAIR, a Nato appointment.
In April 1987 he headed for the key Nato appointment Deputy Chief of Staff (Operations and Intelligence) at the HQ of the Allied Air Forces Central Europe (AAFCE) at Ramstein in Germany. In a multi-national headquarters, he was responsible for the tasking and exercising of five national air forces, developing tactics and war plans. The strong contacts he made with Nato colleagues, particularly the Americans, were to prove invaluable when he moved to MoD to take up his intelligence duties.
Walker retired from the RAF in January 1995 having been appointed KCB and elected a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
He later became a director of Airship Industries, deputy chairman of Countermine Technologies, and director of Structural Monitoring Systems, which identified potential difficulties for major construction projects. He also volunteered at the Central London branch of the Samaritans.
Described by one former RAF chief as “a formidable personality not given to self-doubt”, Walker had outstanding energy and drive, but he was also a deep thinker, and a prolific writer and lecturer on air power, in particular offensive air operations. He contributed to learned journals and wrote three volumes of Brassey’s Air Power, Aircraft, Weapons Systems and Technology Series.
Sir John Walker’s wife, Barbara, predeceased him, and he is survived their two daughters.
Air Marshal Sir John Walker, born May 26 1936, died January 29 2025
Attachment to Weekly News, 9 February 2025
http://hmas-leeuwin-1963.com/attachment-to-weekly-news/
Jackspeak
gapped something left vacant for a short period; e.g. an appointment within a ship or establishment. In theory, a crucial job or position cannot be gapped.
Gas and gaiters a nickname in the Navy for the Gunnery Branch. The phrase ‘gas and gaiters’ is a quotation from Charles Dickens ‘Nicholas Nickleby’.
JOKES
If you have any jokes you would like to forward please do. I am running out.
KEITH PEARCE
If you have a picture of ex-Submariner 7th Intake LEEUWIN, WEM Keith Pearce please forward to Gus at- gusmellon@hotmail.com
Rob Cavanagh forwarded this:
Former ADF chief General Campbell slammed over honours call
Marty Grogan forwarded this:
‘More work to be done’ to lower barriers to tech-sharing for AUKUS Pillar II, Australian official says
The problem lies within the Excluded Technology List (ELT), a list of tech that is not eligible for transfer under the existing AUKUS exemptions.
By CARLEY WELCHon January 31, 2025 at 10:15 AM
The crew of the USS Asheville assemble on the casing of the submarine during a visit to HMAS Stirling in Rockingham, Western Australia. (Australian government)
WEST 2025 — The AUKUS nations have made progress in loosening regulatory barriers when it comes to the exchange of defense technology for the alliance’s Pillar II initiative, but an Australian official said much more red tape still needs to be cut.
“If we’re going to step into this endeavor, we’ve got to be committed to creating opportunities to accelerate and getting technology into the hands of our warfighters,” Commodore David Frost, naval attache in the Royal Australian Navy, told an audience here at the West conference on Thursday. “That can only be achieved if we knock down many of the barriers to that, one of which is the licenses that are required for us to share.”
Frost was referencing licenses still withheld under the Excluded Technology List (ELT), a list that, as its name suggests, identifies tech that’s still controlled by onerous export rules like the US government’s International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). In August the US approved new ITAR rules to speed along AUKUS-related tech sharing, but experts and lawmakers have called for the alliance to go further. Frost suggested that’s been in the works.
“So Australia, and particularly in Washington, with the State Department, with the Pentagon, with the Navy, we’ve been very focused on that excluded technology list to make sure it’s as minimal as possible so we can get at sharing that technology. Now are we there yet? No, we’re not,” he said. “We need to focus on that so there’s more work to be done.”
Related: AUKUS ITAR changes not much help for Pillar 2 tech: US Studies Centre experts
Frost said that narrowing down the excluded tech list will help strengthen not only Pillar II efforts — which include capabilities such as hypersonics, autonomy, AI and other advanced weapons — but also would give small businesses the opportunity to showcase their capabilities.
“We are committed to creating an environment where not just the clients who have the ability to operate in an ITAR environment, because they have resources and people that just do that as part of their business, but small backyard people, the SMEs [small and medium size enterprises] that have really good technology that can be shared and get into the hands of the warfighter,” Frost told Breaking Defense on the sidelines of the event.
Ward Hack forwarded these:
Andrée “Nadine” Dumon, codename “Nadine”, who has died aged 102, was a Belgian courier on the Comet Escape Line, who helped save the lives of dozens of Allied airmen, taking evaders through checkpoints and to the South West of France before they were escorted across the Pyrenees.
She was born in Brussels on September 5 1922 and spent six years in the Belgian Congo, where her father was a physician. On return to Belgium she was educated at the Royal Athenaeum in Uccle.
As a 17-year-old student, Andrée was shocked and saddened at the rapid capitulation of Belgium following the German invasion on May 10 1940. Her family soon joined the emerging resistance movement, with Andrée beginning her underground work in a modest way by distributing leaflets. With the encouragement of her father, she joined her elder sister Micheline in the Comète in December 1941.
Le Réseau Comète was a resistance network that aided the escape of Allied airmen shot down behind enemy lines, resistance fighters in danger of betrayal or imminent arrest, and secret agents who had landed in occupied territory and accomplished their mission. The group was co-founded by another legendary Brussels resistance woman, Andrée de Jongh, alias Dédée. The escape line ran from Brussels to Paris and on foot across the Basque Pyrenees to San Sebastian. Those not interned by the Spanish were taken on to Gibraltar before being returned to Britain.
Travelling on false papers, Nadine guided dozens of British, Canadian, Australian and American airmen from Brussels to Paris, where she handed them over to the next escort. Her young and innocent appearance – some said she looked 15 – was an asset, but she still had to be extremely alert, ready with cover stories if questioned by police or customs officials, often explaining that her companions were deaf-mutes.
The Germans soon became aware that local people were assisting airmen who had baled out of their aircraft and the Gestapo increased its efforts to find the underground helpers. More than 700 Comète resistance fighters were arrested, often after betrayal. Nearly 300 of them died by execution, torture or ill-treatment in the concentration camps.
Fate struck on August 11 1942, when Nadine and several others were betrayed by an informant. The Secret Field Police knocked at her grandparents’ door, in the adjacent house. He shouted a warning, but Nadine and her parents were arrested. She was subjected to brutal beatings, threatened with execution and blackmailed with a threat to arrest her elderly grandparents.
She did not break, however, and was categorised under the Nacht and Nebel (Night and Fog) orders, a decree (alluding to a Wagnerian spell) issued by Hitler targeting political activists and resistance “helpers”. Families were not aware of their whereabouts and most died in captivity.
On the deportation train from Brussels Nadine suddenly had the chance to see her father for the first time since their arrest. He was also being transported as a Nacht und Nebel prisoner. They were able to speak briefly but their happiness was shortlived, as it was their last conversation. Eugène Dumon died on February 9 1945 in the Gross-Rosen concentration camp.
For Nadine, Nacht und Nebel marked the beginning of a dreadful ordeal. She was used as forced labour in the prisons of Trier, Cologne, Mesum, Zweibrücken and Essen. She was then transferred to the Gross-Strehlitz concentration camp, where she met Nina Vankerkhove, an acquaintance from the resistance. Together, they attempted an escape. But within just two hours, a local farmer discovered them and informed the camp guards, and they were soon back in prison
Nadine was subsequently deported to Ravensbrück, the concentration camp for women, and from there she was sent to Mauthausen in Austria. The journey lasted four days, in bitter cold and with hardly any food or drink. Upon arrival she was a shadow of her former self. Completely exhausted, she collapsed into the snow. With the help of fellow prisoners she managed to get back on her feet and limp onward, since exhausted prisoners were shot .
In early May 1945 Nadine was met by her mother Marie at Brussels station, their first meeting in three years. Both were shocked by each other’s appearance. Marie, dressed in black, was emaciated and looked years older. Nadine was so bad that she took two years to recover. Infested with typhoid and paratyphoid, she spent the first few months after returning home in the hospital.
After the war, she married Gustave Antoine; they built a successful textile company together and had two children. But the memories of the war and the resistance never left her. She became involved in the Royal Union of Intelligence and Action Services (RUSRA-KUIAD) and played an active role in the recognition and compensation of the Intelligence and Action Agents. Given the large number of women who were active in the Comète network, she also fought for the recognition of female resistance fighters.
For many years, Nadine rarely spoke of her wartime experiences and did not break her silence until she was 70. She started to speak in schools, took part in debates and television programmes and became actively committed to memorial projects. Until the age of 98 she continued to support the Belgian Intelligence Studies Centre.
More than 800 airmen and 300 soldiers owed their freedom to the men and women of the Comet Line. Among the many airmen Andrée “Nadine” Dumon assisted was the RAF pilot Robert Horsley. When his daughter Erica was born, she was given Andrée as her middle name. They remained in regular contact, and she was present at Nadine’s 100th birthday. Erica commented: “Today I am honoured to carry a name that is connected to such an important part of our history.”
Nadine remained in contact with many pilots and soldiers she saved and regularly invited them to Belgium. In turn, she travelled to the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the United States to meet them. She was a regular visitor to Britain and to the annual reunions of the Royal Air Force Escaping Society and its successor, the Escape Lines Memorial Society.
With her unwavering courage and lifelong commitment, Andrée “Nadine” Dumon is remembered as one of the great resistance heroines of Belgium.
She was highly decorated by Belgium and by France. The British appointed her OBE and awarded her the King’s Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom. She was also decorated by the United States.
Andrée “Nadine” Dumon, born September 5 1922, died January 30 2025
Brian Murphy, the actor, who has died aged 92, achieved his greatest success in the ITV sitcom Man About the House (1973-76) and its spin-off series George and Mildred (1976-79).
He played George Roper, the henpecked, unkempt and terminally idle husband of his over-sexed, social-climbing spouse Mildred, played by Yootha Joyce. The warring pair, subletting landlords, were originally cast in three episodes of Man About the House as support acts to the tenants (played by Richard O’Sullivan, Paula Wilcox and Sally Thomsett) who rented the flat above.
But they proved so popular that they were kept on for all six series of the sitcom before being given their own spin-off – which did even better, attracting 22 million viewers at its height and becoming the most-watched programme on television.
George and Mildred saw the Ropers move from their flat to a middle-class housing development where Mildred’s attempts at social advancement were always being undermined by her shiftless husband – with his motorcycle and sidecar – defiantly proclaiming his working-class roots and trying to corrupt Tristram, the young son of their snobbish next-door neighbours, the Fourmiles, with socialist ideas.
The pair appeared in a film version and had their own stage show which toured packed houses in the UK, New Zealand and Australia.
“I think it was so popular because it was a universal theme, the warring husband and wife,” Murphy reflected. “It translates into any language. The countries where the television show was most popular were Spain and Italy. And of course the writing was spot on.”
The pair became so well-known that members of the public would greet Murphy in the street as George and even ask for his advice on their own marriages. As George he was forever fending off Mildred’s attempts to seduce him, and Murphy recalled how a man once approached him in the pub and asked for his advice on dealing with his own wife who was “always pestering” him for sex.
Above all, Murphy attributed the sitcom’s success to his rapport with Yootha Joyce, whom he had first met in 1955 at Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop and to whom he referred as his “second wife”. “The producers of Man About the House didn’t realise we already knew each other, and they were taken aback by the chemistry between us when we instantly fell into our roles.”
The show came to an abrupt and premature end in 1980 when, with Murphy at her bedside, Yootha Joyce died of cirrhosis of the liver aged 53 due to chronic alcoholism. “We had another eight episodes of the show to go,” he recalled.
The youngest of three sons, Brian Trevor John Murphy was born in Ventnor, on the Isle of Wight, on September 25 1932 to Gerald Murphy, a grocer’s assistant, and Mabel, née Matthews. Later he moved to London with his parents, who had gone into the restaurant trade. His two older brothers were both killed on active service during the Second World War.
As a boy Brian loved acting, entertaining his friends with one-boy shows. During National Service (1952-54), stationed at RAF Northwood, he met his fellow aspiring actor Richard Briers, with whom he would spend weekends recording the great roles of Shakespeare into an old-fashioned tape recorder: “Then we’d report back for duty with very hoarse voices.”
They were almost arrested when a policeman saw them struggling with a bulky case containing the tape recorder: “He failed to see the funny side when he asked us what we’d got in there and Richard replied ‘a head’. ”
After demobilisation Murphy joined the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, but left after a year when his money ran out, though not before a glowing encomium appeared in the The Stage: “Old men, young men, odd men and drunken men, smart fellows and broken-down creatures, Brian Murphy can play them to perfection.”
He was taken on by Joan Littlewood at the Theatre Workshop in Stratford East, appearing in 1963 in the hit musical Oh! What a Lovely War, there and on Broadway, and as Hamlet in a production staged in Warsaw.
Back in Britain, however, while he had small roles on television and played an apothecary in Ken Russell’s horror film The Devils (1971), by the early 1970s he was getting a bit desperate for better-paid parts. “I had a young family and I’d put some money into a revival of Oh What a Lovely War that I was part-producing, so things were a bit tight. I got on to my agent and said maybe I should consider selling insurance or something. Man About the House fell into my lap and turned everything around.”
After George and Mildred ended, for many years there were only occasional glimpses of Murphy on television, making guest appearances in such series as The Bill, Sunburn and Jonathan Creek. Instead he concentrated more on theatre and radio, which gave him the scope to tackle straight roles as well as comic ones.
In 2003, however, he joined the cast of Last of the Summer Wine as glider pilot Alvin Smedley, Nora Batty’s dashing new love interest, after the death of Bill Owen, who played Compo, the bane of Nora’s life. He continued in the role until 2010.
In later life he made guest appearances in other comedies and soaps including One Foot in the Grave, Mrs Merton and Malcolm, Brookside and Holby City, and as a shopkeeper called Stan in the pre-school children’s TV series Wizadora.
In 1957 he married Carol Gibson, a stage manager whom he had met at the Theatre Workshop. They had two sons and fostered several other children, but divorced in the mid-1980s. In 1995 he married the actress Linda Regan, best known for her role as the Yellowcoat April in the sitcom Hi-de-Hi!, whom he met when they were appearing in the husband-and-wife farce Wife Begins at 40 in Eastbourne. She survives him with his children.
Brian Murphy, born September 25 1932, died February 2 2025
Attachment to Weekly News 2 Febuary 2025
http://hmas-leeuwin-1963.com/attachment-to-weekly-news/
Jackspeak
Gannet A sailor who is so hungry that he eats leftovers, or is always going ‘round the buoy’ for more to consume.
Former RAN Anti Submarine and AEW aircraft still flying in America for propfan research.
JOKES
If you have any jokes you would like to forward please do. I am running out.
KEITH PEARCE
If you have a picture of ex-Submariner 7th Intake LEEUWIN, WEM Keith Pearce please forward to Gus at- gusmellon@hotmail.com
DVA E-News
Rocky Freier forwarded this:
Our January edition of BROADSIDE is now available to read in book format:
https://online.fliphtml5.com/qchrf/kntn/
or,
you can read it at:
https://navyvic.net/broadside/january2025broadside.html
or,
you can download the .pdf file:
https://navyvic.net/broadside/january2025broadside.pdf
Please feel free to distribute widely.
Yours Aye!
NVN Team
Marty Grogan forwarded this on Defence Recruiting
Defence slashed its workforce target by more than 4700 last year as near static military personnel numbers threaten the federal government’s $330bn push to rearm the nation.
Defence Strategic Review co-lead Peter Dean has lashed the government for being “exceptionally slow” on addressing the defence force’s workforce crisis, warning young recruits are struggling with the lack of connection to the outside world.
Professor Dean said the government should “not discount” anything put on the table to improve recruitment and retention in the Australian Defence Force, including criticism from former army chief Peter Leahy, who this week warned a decline in national pride and a culture of entitlement were contributing to the ADF’s personnel crisis.
However, he said the government had also not collected enough data to identify “one way or another” the greatest disincentive to joining the defence force.
“One of the things I think the government and the defence force needs to do is actually invest in figuring out all of this type of stuff in detail,” Professor Dean said.
“What I would argue is it took the government over a year to move on any of these measures (since the DSR). It’s been exceptionally slow, and then they’ve kept their response quite narrow.”
He also argued that the importance of young people to “stay connected” with the world meant that joining the ADF and being offline for months at a time was potentially stopping people from ever enlisting.
“The nature of the community has changed. So you’re asking young people now, for instance, to get on a submarine and go underwater for however long a period of time, completely cut off from their community,” he said.
“And once upon a time, when there was any landline telephones and letters, that was a different world. Right now, young people are connected 24/7 to everything and everyone, so you’re asking them to step outside of that and do something very, very different.”
Defence slashed its workforce target by more than 4700 last year as near static military personnel numbers threaten the federal government’s $330bn push to rearm the nation.
Strategic Analysis Australia director Michael Shoebridge said the most significant barriers to young people joining the defence force were those erected by the ADF, including a slow and cumbersome application process and unnecessary reasons for disqualification.
“I think it’s a very practical issue about how difficult and lengthy a process it is to be recruited into the ADF, and how many barriers the military put in the way of young Australians,” he said.
“Things like, if you’ve seen a psychologist because you’re worried about stress in senior school, then that’s a disqualifying black mark.
“If you broke a limb when you were six, that’s something that they’re very concerned about.
“So normal issues in young people’s lives, including where they seek help for anxiety, are disqualified for service in the military, so they’re excluding whole chunks of our young population who have a sense of service and motivation.”
“If you’re a high-achieving, motivated young Australian, and you’re thinking about careers and jobs, you won’t just apply to the ADF, you’ll apply to other employers,” he said.
“None of them put so many obstacles in the way of talented young people, and none of them take such a ridiculous length of time.
“So the whole recruitment process is broken from its basic foundations, and it’s just not competitive with any other organisation.”
As part of its push to address Defence’s workforce challenges, Labor has allowed permanent residents from Five Eyes countries who have not served in foreign militaries to join the ADF, with 350 such recruits expected by the end of the financial year.
“By being able to recruit Five Eyes permanent residents in Australia, supporting those that are already in service with things like the continuation bonus that we rolled out last year and are now expanding and extending so that people can get that at different stages through their defence career, providing additional family supports, for healthcare, improving the housing offering for members of the Australian Defence Force … what we’ve seen now is that we’re on track for a 24 per cent increase in the number of people joining the defence force this financial year,” Defence Personnel Minister Matt Keogh told the ABC in December.
But former Defence Department deputy secretary Peter Jennings said the government was simply not investing enough money for the ADF to reach appropriate recruitment levels, arguing that defence spending making up 2 per cent of GDP was simply too low.
Rob Cavanagh forwarded this on RN Ships names and offending the French. Not a joke.
Royal Navy renames sub HMS Agincourt 'to avoid annoying the French' - https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/royal-navy-renames-sub-hms-agincourt-to-avoid-annoying-the-french/ar-AA1xVuq0?ocid=socialshare
Ward Hack forwarded these:
Captain Tony Hallett, who has died aged 79, had a successful naval career, after which he took the reins at the Rugby Football Union, leading the English game out of amateurism and into the professional era.
In 1995, when the England captain Will Carling famously described the RFU committee as “57 old farts” with a hypocritical attitude towards professionalism, he could not have meant Hallett, who was a dissenting voice within the organisation. The hypocrisy came from “the men in blazers” who enjoyed significant perks from being committee members while denying elite players the opportunity to earn proper wages from the game.
Hallett’s quarrel with senior committeemen had started 10 years earlier when the then England captain, Bill Beaumont, was accused of breaching the rules of the amateur game by earning money from an autobiography.
Hallett retired from the Navy in 1995 – though had he stayed he might have made admiral – to become secretary of the RFU, in which capacity he helped to shape the modern game. Challenges included the controversies surrounding broadcasting rights, and disagreements within the organisation.
His leadership was characterised by a commitment to modernising. His strategic vision – particularly in securing a £60 million broadcasting deal with Sky, alongside his efforts in infrastructure development, player relations and competition expansion – was pivotal in laying the groundwork for professionalism.
He was also a key advocate for the introduction of European club competitions – and remembered in his fundraising to find money for the Italian team, who were progressing towards membership of the Five Nations Championship (which they achieved in 2000, making it the Six Nations).
But after two turbulent years Hallett resigned, to maintain unity. As The Daily Telegraph reported: “Tony Hallett’s departure from Twickenham cannot be allowed to pass unnoticed. His resignation as secretary of the Rugby Football Union was the act of a dignified man prepared to sacrifice his own future for the good of the game he loved and served with distinction.”
Anthony Philip Hallett was born on February 11 1945 in Bognor Regis to a bank manager father and was educated at Ipswich School, where the tall, athletic boy was known as “Bellrope”. He joined Dartmouth as a cadet in 1963, and for the next 20 years combined his love of rugby with a promising naval career.
In 1966 he made his Twickenham debut playing for the Navy against the Army, the first of his eight caps. In the Navy he specialised as a logistician, or “pusser”, and continued to play inter-service sport for Southern Counties while at the supply school, HMS Pembroke in Chatham, and in the aircraft carrier Hermes.
In 1969 his natural ability and leadership saw him captain the Navy to a draw against the Army, and to victory the following year. Appointed as flag lieutenant to the Commodore-in-Charge Hong Kong, Hallett won a cap playing for the colony against a touring England side in 1971.
From 1973 to 1975 he was supply officer of the frigate Eskimo in the West Indies, served on the staff at Dartmouth (1976-77), and was a junior secretary in an Admiralty Board office (1978-79). He was an amusing, gregarious and innovative officer, able to deliver a witty, insightful speech without preparation or notes.
In 1981 and 1982 Hallett was deputy supply officer of the carrier Invincible, where he proved himself a remarkable entrepreneur. Determined to finance Invincible’s welfare fund, he stocked a line of souvenirs which included lingerie. “Invincible knickers” proved a bestseller, and when Denis Thatcher heard Libby Purves’s piece on the Today programme about the underwear he acquired a pair for his wife.
During the Falklands War Hallett was secretary to the chief of staff at the commander-in-chief’s headquarters at Northwood, before serving in 1984-85 as supply officer of the carrier Illustrious. There, his influence was felt throughout the ship: he inspired energy and imagination in everyone, he knew what was going on everywhere, his department was held in high regard by the whole ship’s company, and his officers and senior ratings respected him for his high practical standards and intuition and because he respected and cared for them.
Between 1986 and 1990, while a desk officer in the Ministry of Defence and then a student on the staff course at Greenwich, he became a selector for the Navy rugby union team, and in 1991 he took over from Rear Admiral Douglas Dow as chairman of the Royal Navy Rugby Union.
As the Navy reduced its financial support for sport, Hallett raised sponsorship for the naval team and for inter-service rugby – enabling him, for example, to generate team spirit on match weekends by putting everybody in the same hotel rather than spreading them around Army messes in London.
In 1991-95 Hallett worked for the Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Logistics ) and then became secretary to the Chief of Fleet Support. However, the RFU was consuming more of his time. As member and then chairman of the grounds development sub-committee since 1981, it was typical of Hallett that the development of the West Stand should include projects “X”, “Y” and “Z”, whose costs and purposes he smuggled past the grounds committee.
Subsequently Hallett had a restaurant adventure with Pissarro’s, in London, and played a vital role in reviving Richmond FC rugby club after its financial troubles in the late 1990s. As chairman, he helped to stabilise and rebuild, focusing on community engagement and financial prudence.
He was CEO of several companies and chairman of the Cotswold branch of the Royal British Legion. While living in Barnes, he turned an ordinary garden into a work of art which is open to the public. Later, in Worcestershire, he took over his mother-in-law’s garden and also opened it to the public, transforming it into something fit for a stately home and attracting busloads of American gardeners – somewhat to his wife’s chagrin, as she had to make the cream teas.
Known as Tony in the Navy and Anthony in the family, latterly he earned the nickname of “Lazarus” because he kept recovering from serious illnesses.
Tony Hallett met Faith Holland-Martin in Hong Kong, and they married in 1972; she survives him with their three sons.
Captain Tony Hallett, born February 11 1945, died January 21 2025
Marianne Faithfull, the actress and singer who has died aged 78, was one of the most beautiful and resilient guests to have attended the long drugs-and-alcohol party of the 1960s.
A blonde-haired, blue-eyed convent girl with aristocratic forebears and a heart awash with romantic decadence, Marianne Faithfull was just 17 when she went to London and took her place among the ranks of Rolling Stones groupies. Her remarkable looks soon earned her promotion to protégée.
“You wanted to seduce her, to protect her, and you knew you couldn’t do any of these things,” recalled her one-time manager Tony Calder. “She was everything you could want in a woman that you couldn’t possibly have.”
In 1964 Marianne Faithfull became a star overnight with the release of As Tears Go By, a ballad written for her by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. She subsequently had some success as an actress, appearing at the Royal Court, and made a handful of films, including Hamlet, in which she was a diaphanous Ophelia, and The Girl on a Motorcycle, a fetishistic slice of soft porn in which she donned black leather and simulated a high-speed orgasm before catapulting to her death.
She had great natural talent. But Marianne Faithfull seemed as much preoccupied with a personal quest for self-obliteration as professional success. “Death is the next great adventure,” she announced blithely. Using a series of destructive relationships as greasy poles, she slid down to explore the underbelly of life. There were drugs galore and plenty of sex – straight, lesbian, troilism – but little affection.
“Just to admit I loved anyone was kind of awful,” she said. “I always pretend I have no feelings. I was on a mission.”
She had a four-year relationship with Mick Jagger, but also had affairs with Keith Richards and Brian Jones. She noted that Jagger was tight-fisted and self-obsessed, and, in her opinion, was in thrall to his repressed longing for Richards.
She described a night with Mick in which they made love while Jagger fantasised about Richards, who lay on the other side of a thin partition wall.
She also had a close encounter with Bob Dylan – “a really cool guy on lots of methedrine” – in a suite full of “hipsters, hustlers and pop stars” at the Savoy Hotel in 1965. Dylan sat in the middle of the carnage, typing songs on lavatory paper. “Every five minutes someone would go into the bathroom and come out speaking in tongues,” she recalled. When Dylan made a pass, she was so terrified she rejected him and was thrown out.
Another fixation was the homosexual poet-apologist for heroin, William Burroughs. In the 1960s Marianne Faithfull could not get his attention, no matter what she tried. “He couldn’t see the point of me,” she recalled. Only after she had been through the heroin nightmare to which she was partly inspired by reading his works did he tell her that she was, after all, a “great artist”.
In 1967 she endured public humiliation after a police raid on the home of Keith Richards. In rumours leaked to the press, it was alleged that she had been found naked, wrapped in a carpet with a Mars Bar inserted into her person. None of this was true, and she felt that she had been the victim of a fantasist in the ranks of the police.
When in 1969 she recorded a single, Something Better, her record company withdrew it, horrified by its B-side Sister Morphine, a depiction of drug addiction evidently written by someone with experience. When the Rolling Stones recorded it in 1971 they removed her name from the credits, seemingly because any money she earned would be spent on drugs (they eventually reinstated her name in the 1990s).
The Mars Bar story had a dire effect on her self-esteem and hastened her decline. In 1969 Brian Jones drowned in the swimming pool of his Sussex home (the house where AA Milne had written Winnie-the-Pooh). Two weeks later, in Australia, Marianne Faithfull had a breakdown.
Having gone to bed after taking 15 sleeping tablets, she woke up with an “identity crisis” and went to the mirror to see who she was. When a vision of Jones appeared in the glass, she reasoned that if she were he, and he was dead, she should be dead also. She took another handful of pills and went into a coma that lasted six days. Her then manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, issued a greatest hits album decorated in funereal black.
Years of addiction followed. So slight were considered her chances of survival that The Daily Telegraph first prepared her obituary when she was 26. The publication of an unauthorised biography was, she claimed, held over in anticipation of her impending death.
She made the occasional record. Gradually her voice changed, losing its daffy sweetness and gaining a coating of tarmac. She, also, was growing a thick skin. In 1979 a comeback album, Broken English, was a revelation. Painful, angry and moving, it made her an icon of the punk generation. Marianne Faithfull blew her royalties on cocaine and clothes and was eventually shipped off to a rehabilitation clinic by her record company.
Stripped of the props of alcohol and drugs, she saw herself as she had become: “a ruin”, albeit a grand one. But she had at last fulfilled her mission, explored the lower depths, and survived. Before she had the looks, but nothing to say for herself. Now she had lost her looks but had a wealth of hard-won knowledge about sexual jealousy and human depredation.
After Marianne Faithfull had dried out, she made Strange Weather, a collection of cover versions of classic songs which showed off her extraordinary sad, gravel rasp. Included on the album was a version of As Tears Go By. Twenty years on, the whimsical hit of her youth had become a song of bitter experience and a tribute to her own remarkable powers of survival.
Marian Evelyn Faithfull was born on December 29 1946. Her father, a British Army officer, was the son of a sexologist and founded a utopian college “for intensive social research”. Her mother was the great-niece of Leopold, Baron von Sacher-Masoch, the author of Venus in Furs, who gave the world the term “masochism”.
When Marianne was six her parents separated, and she grew up with her mother in a terraced house in Reading. Though neither parent was a Roman Catholic, she was sent to a Catholic convent, where she read Huysmans, Genet and Baudelaire disguised within a brown wrapping paper on which was written “The Imitation of Christ”.
She liked talking. She married her first husband, the art dealer John Dunbar, after he lectured her on Huysman’s À Rebours (they divorced after a year), and her first night with Jagger was preceded by a discussion about the Holy Grail.
“That’s how we were then,” she recalled. “You would ask your date: ‘Do you know Genet? Have you read Les Fleurs du Mal?’ and if he said ‘Yes’, you’d screw.”
It was at a party given by the Rolling Stones in 1964 that she was spotted by the Stones’ manager, Loog Oldham. She was then, as she told Paul McCartney, keen to “experience anything and everything”. “Everything” included men. When she told a friend that she was visiting Berlin, he remarked that she should feel at home there, since both she and the city had been occupied by armies. “I thought it was a bit unfair,” she said. “It ought to have been a platoon in my case.”
High as a kite, Marianne Faithfull wandered through the 1960s. She was denounced by the Vatican as a witch and had prayers said for her by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
She recalled how she packed her bag for a trip to Tangier while under the influence of LSD. At customs, it was found to contain an Indian sari, a picture book and an assortment of sea-shells. “It seemed logical at the time I packed,” she said.
Less innocent was the human debris the Rolling Stones left in their wake. She recalled a party at which Brian Jones and his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg roared with laughter at the sight of Jones’s abandoned wife and son standing in the street, begging for money. “I was appalled when I saw it happening,” she said. “They were a tough lot those boys, but I didn’t leave.”
When she was not stoned, the round of parties, sex and shopping was stifling and dull. She divorced Dunbar, losing custody of their son, became pregnant by Jagger, but miscarried. Jagger was by that time having an affair with Anita Pallenberg.
One day she walked out of Jagger’s house in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, and took to a life of squats, drunkenness and heroin in Soho. For a while, she was anonymous; nobody took any notice of her when they found her in a gutter, and it was widely assumed that she would die sooner rather than later. Her veins were pockmarked from needles; the drugs rotted her teeth. Her looks faded. She was not sorry. “They attracted the wrong element,” she said.
After her rehabilitation she continued to drink and chain-smoke. She released further albums and a candid autobiography, Faithfull, notably devoid of repentance or self-pity. Her ravaged voice proved particularly effective on Kurt Weill songs, and her cabaret appearances were sell-outs. She also appeared in the film Shopping.
She became, in her own words, “The Queen of Bohemia”. Certainly, she could be regal in her manner, but she had earned the right to be so. Her erratic temper was part natural temperament, part the effect on her blood sugar of years of drug abuse; if she did not eat she became very ratty.
For some years she lived in Ireland, at Shell Cottage on Carton Demesne, an estate outside Dublin owned by the Guinness family. Among her close friends was the playwright Frank McGuinness and her cat McGuinness. She did not drink Guinness, but vodka, and would, given the chance, have lived off caviar and lemon tart. She was dilatory about paying bills and from time to time her telephone was cut off.
Marianne Faithfull said that she liked living alone; that she could have men by the “planeload” if she desired. But she became rather nervous of relationships; it was that “sexual thing” that was the problem. Shell Cottage finally proved too depressing in the winter and she moved back to Dublin, later living in Paris with her manager, François Ravard.
Other albums were Easy Come, Easy Go (2011), Horses and High Heels (2011), Give My Love to London (2014) and Negative Capability (2018), a collaboration with Warren Ellis described by one reviewer as “an extraordinary meditation on ageing, loneliness and loss”.
She published two more volumes of autobiography, Memories, Dreams and Reflections (2007) and Marianne Faithfull: A Life on Record (2014). and appeared in a number of later films, including Sofia Coppola’s Marie-Antoinette (2006), in which she played the Empress Maria-Theresa. She starred in Irina Palm (2007) as Maggie, a 60-year-old widow who becomes a “sex worker” to pay for medical treatment for her ill grandson. For this role she was nominated for Best Actress by the European Film Academy, but lost out to Helen Mirren.
In April 2020 while recording She Walks in Beauty, she developed Covid-19 and spent three weeks in hospital. She needed intensive care and it was not expected to recover; when she looked at her medical notes later, she claimed to have read “palliative care only”. Yet she emerged to finish her album – in which she was heard reading work of the Romantic poets to backings provided by Warren Ellis, with contributions from Brian Eno and Nick Cave – albeit with some memory loss and with the after-effects of Covid on her lungs making it impossible for her to sing.
Marianne Faithfull was married and divorced three times, first to John Dunbar (1965-66), secondly to Ben Brierly, a musician (1979-1986), and thirdly to Giorgio Della Terza (1988-1991).
She is survived by the son of her first marriage.
Marianne Faithfull, born December 29 1946, died January 30 2025
Attachment to Weekly News 26 January 2025
http://hmas-leeuwin-1963.com/attachment-to-weekly-news/
Jackspeak
Gangway: A free path through a barrier or obstruction, but not a word to be confused with the brow. The cry Gangway! Onboard means an officer or sailor on some important mission needs to get past a group of men blocking a passageway or hatch. A free gangway is the usual sage pertaining when a ship is alongside, or in Naval Establishments operating normally; this can become a closed gangway for ceremonial or security reasons. The phrase ‘Gangway before I make a bastard!’ is a rather neat piece of double meaning, inviting someone to get out of the way – or to be knocked down fatally.
Gus Melon forwarded this:
7th Intake LEEUWIN - Attn Submariners
Hello There,
I am looking for information regarding WEM Keith Neville PEARCEe who joined the RAN at HMAS Leeuwin as a JR in July 1963 and who later volunteered for submarine service. He was posted to HMS Dolphin, Portsmouth, UK for submarine training, where he died on 02May67. His service record card is online at the National Archives but it gives no further information other than the fact that he was "Discharged Dead". I was a MOBI ERA who spent 18 of my 24 years in RAN submarines and I am currently developing a list of Australian submariners who died in service for a museum display. Any help you can give would be much appreciated.
Would you also be so kind as to ask your guys if anyone has a photograph of Keith, which I will include in the Online Book of Remembrance (OBOR). I found another guy recently from the same time period, a young Subby from RANC, he did his S/M training and then qualified in a Brit boat before being diagnosed with testicular cancer. He died in the Royal Marsden Hospital and was buried at the RN Hospital Cemetery, Haslar (next door to HMS Dolphin, the Brit submarine training base in those days). Sad that these guys died in a foreign land and have then slipped under the radar of our present day Submarine Associations. But not any longer.
Regards
Gus Mellon
Gus’ email address - gusmellon@hotmail.com
Ward Hack forwarded these:
Michael Loewe, who has died aged 102, led the attempt to break the main Japanese naval code at Bletchley Park, before working on Chinese codes and ciphers at GCHQ in the 1950s; after leaving British intelligence, he went on to become a leading sinologist and one of the foremost experts on the Han Dynasty, which governed China for most of the period from 202 BC to AD 220.
Loewe was studying Classics (“Greats”) at Oxford when war broke out with Japan in December 1941. He already had such a reputation as a classical linguist that he was recommended by Bletchley Park talent-spotters at both Oxford and Cambridge to be one of first batch of recruits trained in breaking Japanese codes and ciphers.
They were ordered to report to the Inter Service Special Intelligence School, based above the showroom of the local gas company in Bedford, where they were taught Japanese by Captain Oswald Tuck, who had been a naval interpreter during the First World War.
At the end of the course, Loewe and some of his colleagues were posted to Bletchley Park, where “we were overawed by the presence of those we saw as clearly well-accustomed to the arcane mysteries of code- and cipher-breaking.
“The tall and lanky figure of Hugh Foss seemed to look down from a great height on the raw recruits assembled in the office. I remember the first day. We were given a file of typed material to read, marked Top Secret, which gave us a thrill.”
Initially, they worked in Hut 7, one of the wooden huts erected at Bletchley during its rapid expansion at the start of the war, but from late 1942 they were on the upper floor of Block B, one of a number of new purpose-built concrete buildings.
Loewe worked on the Japanese Navy’s General Operational Code, designated JN-25 by the codebreakers, and eventually became head of the JN-25 Bookbuilding section, trying to recreate the actual codebook from scratch.
JN-25 was an enciphered code system. The Japanese operators used a codebook which provided five-figure groups for common words or phrases and for individual syllables. Having encoded the message and produced a stream of five-figure groups, the operator then took a stream of randomly produced figures from a separate “additive book”, lined them up under the encoded message and added the two streams of figures together using non-carrying arithmetic to produce the fully enciphered message.
“You had to find out if that table was being used only once or by several people,” Loewe recalled. “If it was only used once you probably couldn’t do anything more with it, but if you found three to four Japanese navy clerks had opened that cipher table at the same page and were using it, you could do something about breaking it. You were looking to uncover a series of five-figure code groups and you then had to break the meanings of the groups.”
The Japanese tendency to rigid discipline, sending certain types of message in a very specific format and at precisely the same time of day, helped the codebreakers immensely. “More rarely, we could be helped by a message sent twice, once in an old readable system and once with the newly introduced book.”
The Japanese changed both the codebooks and the additive books on a regular basis, making bookbuilding a sometimes frustrating process, but the widespread nature of Japanese naval operations across the Pacific and Indian oceans led to the occasional capture or “pinches” of actual codebooks.
He separately took a degree course in Chinese at Soas. Two years later he and a colleague were posted to the British consulate in Beijing: “Our job was to learn the language. We were given teachers who took us along in conversational Chinese and we were free to get around the city as much as we could.” It was during this period that he first became interested in the history of ancient and early imperial China.
Asked towards the end of his life if he felt that the work he did at Bletchley Park and GCHQ had helped him when he subsequently worked as an academic unravelling the history of the Han Dynasty, Loewe replied: “I think it was extremely valuable as a discipline. It involved a disciplinary regimen which I think has been extremely valuable.
“It required intellectual effort and also a great deal of work subtracting figures from letters or letters from letters. A great deal of that was very boring but keeps yourself awake to see if there’s a result. Working on a code or cipher does involve an intellectual discipline. When you put the stuff on your table you’ve damn well got to work at it.”
The closure of Communist China to the outside world in 1949 meant that Loewe and other western academics studying Chinese history were unable to do any research there. Loewe’s own contacts would anyway have been limited for security reasons.
Michael Arthur Nathan Loewe was born on November 2 1922 in Oxford, where his father Herbert was a professor of Semitic languages. His mother was Ethel Hyamson. He studied at the Perse School in Cambridge before entering Magdalen College, Oxford.
After leaving GCHQ, Loewe took a post as lecturer in the History of the Far East at Soas, and from 1963 to 1990 was lecturer in Chinese Studies at Cambridge, briefly interrupted in 1976 by a visiting professorship at the University of Stockholm. A succession of American visiting professorships followed his retirement, at Harvard, Chicago and Berkeley. He was a Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, and an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Loewe married his long-term partner, Carmen Blacker, whom he had met at Bletchley Park, in 2002. She died in 2009. There were no children of the marriage.
Michael Loewe, born November 2 1922, died January 1 2025
Eleanor Maguire, who has died from cancer aged 54, carried out groundbreaking research on human memory, making headlines with her study of London black-cab drivers which challenged the prevailing view of the brain as, at best, static and, at worst, constantly being diminished, whether by knocks, ageing or hangovers.
Eleanor Maguire spent her career exploring how experiences forge memories, who we are and how we think and navigate. From the moment she set out on her scientific journey, her motivation was personal. She told Roger Highfield, The Daily Telegraph’s science editor at the time: “I am absolutely appalling at finding my way around. I wondered: ‘How are some people so bloody good and I am so terrible?’ ”
She focused on a region deep in the brain called the hippocampus (Greek hippo-, “equine”, and kampos, “sea monster”), so named because an Italian anatomist initially likened it to a seahorse.
Her life’s work, mostly at University College London, or UCL, would bridge that of two influential figures, both Nobelists. She was first inspired by John O’Keefe of UCL, who wrote a classic book proposing that the hippocampus was critical for navigation. He became her external examiner, and was so impressed by her 1994 dissertation that he remarked that she was going to change the field.
Eleanor Maguire’s first advance came in 2000 with a study that followed up research on squirrels and birds suggesting that the size of the hippocampus depends on the demand for spatial memory. After watching Jack Rosenthal’s film about cab drivers, The Knowledge, she realised that they would be ideal subjects for an experiment.
She scanned the brains of 16 London black-cab drivers, who had spent an average of around three years learning the Knowledge, the tens of thousands of streets in London. They had a larger hippocampus than control subjects, particularly on the right side. The longer on the job, the larger their hippocampus, showing that it plays a key role in storing spatial memories.
Eleanor Maguire would win a share of the highly coveted Ig Nobel Prize, a parody of the Nobel prizes, and over the years received hundreds of media inquiries about this work, which she augmented with experiments that were meticulous and ingenious: bus drivers do not have the same enlarged brain area, reflecting their restricted routes.
Only half of trainee taxi drivers pass their final test of the Knowledge and, gratifyingly, she found that they had the greatest hippocampus growth. After tracking down retired cabbies – “they are so hard to find because they never seem to retire” – she found that their hippocampus had shrunk because it behaves like a muscle: use it and it will grow, and vice versa.
Studying a working hippocampus was tricky. Because a brain scanner is room-sized they will not fit in the back of a cab. She devised navigational tasks on a screen inside a scanner, after her colleagues succeeded in a monumental job adapting a PlayStation 2 video game, The Getaway, which contained a simulation of London’s streetscape. Her studies found that the hippocampus is most active when the drivers plan their route.
Eleanor Maguire came to focus on the role of the hippocampus in laying down autobiographical memories. She investigated episodic memories of everyday events by showing volunteers a short film of someone posting a letter or getting ready to ride a bike.
They were then asked to recall the films while being scanned. Remarkably, it was possible to tell which film they were watching from their brain activity, revealing the precise circuits used to lay down a recollection to a resolution of just over one cubic millimetre.
She made a fascinating discovery with Hassabis when she asked amnesia patients to describe imaginary experiences in commonplace settings, as well as potentially plausible future events such as a Christmas party or meeting a friend. Their ability to envisage forthcoming events was impaired: the role played by the hippocampus in processing memory was far broader than reliving the past – it also helps us imagine the future.
In recent years, she switched to the most powerful scanners, 20-ton “7 Tesla” machines, and a technique called Optically Pumped Magnetometry Magnetoencephalography, which measures tiny magnetic fields produced by brain cells, using a mouth sensor to get inside the head. That provided a high-resolution glimpse of the hippocampus at work as her subjects navigated a virtual reality town she had built called FILbury, where FIL stands for Functional Imaging Laboratory.
Eleanor Anne Maguire was born in Dublin on March 27 1970 to Anne and Paddy Maguire. As a young girl she began her lifelong (“long-suffering”) support of Crystal Palace because, as her colleague Cathy Price remarked, “she thought it sounded very pretty”.
A Star Trek fan who was inspired by Spock, Eleanor had a thirst for facts, notably in archaeology, astronomy and biology. When it came to university, her parents ruled out archaeology, “as they felt I couldn’t make a decent living from it... in Dublin in the late 1980s, studying astronomy seemed like pie in the sky. So, I quite happily plumped for a career in biology.”
She did not enjoy University College Dublin at first, but then the neuropsychology module started, “and I was hooked”. After an MSc in Swansea, her quest to understand memory began in earnest during her doctorate at UCD and nearby Beaumont Hospital.
She ended up as professor of cognitive neuroscience at UCL, where she headed the Memory and Space research laboratory. She was intense – her mantra was “we want to plant seeds, not prune hedges” – but also kind, with a dry sense of humour.
She won many prizes, including the Cognitive Neuroscience Society Young Investigator Award, Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award and the Feldberg Foundation Prize; and she was named as one of “Twenty Europeans who have changed our lives” by the European Union.
In 2011, Eleanor Maguire was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences; in 2016 she had the distinction of being made a Fellow of the Royal Society and the next year became an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy.
Eleanor Maguire never married, but doted on her two nephews – and, as Hugo Spiers remarked, looked after her research group like a family.
Professor Eleanor Maguire, born March 27 1970, died January 4 2025
Attachment to Weekly News 19 January 2025
http://hmas-leeuwin-1963.com/attachment-to-weekly-news/
Jackspeak
Galligaskins Very old name for the wide breeches or petticoat trousers worn by Jack up until the early 1800’s; the canvas material, impregnated with tar, was the only form of waterproofing then available for men lying across the yards aloft and handling wet sails.
Gammy Adaption of game for an injured limb or digit..
Ward Hack forwarded these:
Sir Thomas Dunne, who has died aged 91, could reasonably be said to have embodied the county of Herefordshire.
The heir to an estate near Leominster that had been in his family since 1678, Dunne was for three decades the Queen’s representative in the county, serving as its Lord-Lieutenant from 1977 to 2008 (and as Lord-Lieutenant of Worcester from 1977 to 2001). It was an astonishingly long tenure, which he crowned by chairing the Lord-Lieutenants’ Association, effectively making him the senior Lord-Lieutenant in the kingdom.
He was also president of the Friends of Hereford Cathedral, the Hereford Historic Churches Trust and the Herefordshire Nature Trust, steward of the Hereford and Ludlow racecourses, and trustee of a dauntingly long list of local museums, choral societies, cricket clubs and scout associations.
The secret to his unfailing energy, he explained, was that he positively enjoyed the rows and dramas in all the organisations he was asked to lead, since he was born and bred in fox-hunting country, where rows and dramas were both ferocious and frequent.
Although Dunne looked every inch the dashing young Lord-Lieutenant – even chosen by Miles Jebb as the cover star for his history The Lord-Lieutenants and their Deputies – and he dispatched his ceremonial duties with the panache to be expected of a former captain in The Blues, he was not at all pompous.
His greatest delight was in telling stories against himself, and he was thrilled when, on his first engagement as Lord-Lieutenant, he clanked into a town hall in his full regalia, only to be firmly turned away by the lady serving tea, who told him: “I’m sorry, love, but the band are having their tea downstairs.”
Dunne was equally tickled to learn that the “Gatley” of his ancestral home, Gatley Park, meant “goat hollow”, and in the early days of email, while his fellow landowners were concocting rather more stately email addresses, he made his own email “goathollow”.
When in 2008 he was made the 1,001st Knight of the Garter – Prince William being the 1,000th – he took as his crest “a wolf rampant holding between the forepaws a bottle”. (The bottle was understood to be whisky.)
That year, when he stepped down as Lord-Lieutenant of Herefordshire, 2,000 people turned up to Hereford Cathedral to attend his farewell service – more than could fit inside the nave, and a substantial portion of the entire Herefordshire population, which was around 180,000.
On his death, the flags of council buildings across Herefordshire were lowered for a week to half-mast.
The eldest of three, Thomas Raymond Dunne was born on October 24 1933 to Captain Philip Dunne, later an MP, and his wife Margaret, née Walker, a whisky heiress; Thomas’s younger brother Martin would become Lord-Lieutenant of Warwickshire (1997-2010), and his sister Philippa would marry the 2nd Earl Jellicoe.
Their father was something of a Boy’s Own hero: a noted figure in the hunting world and on the Turf, celebrated for his bravery and gaiety, he had been awarded the MC at Salerno Bay in September 1943, and earlier fought in North Africa with the No 8 (Guards) Commando.
The family home was Gatley Park, a romantic, early-17th-century brick house set in hilly parkland that had been sold to the Dunnes, then landowners in the Welsh Borders, by the widow of the Royalist MP Sir Sampson Eure. The family, formerly “Dwn”, were descended from the Welsh princes.
Young Thomas, however, spent his early years at his mother’s home of Chadshunt in Warwickshire, where he hunted passionately; the unwritten rule was that the children would have to ride to any meet within eight miles. Later he would be joint master of the Radnor & West Herefordshire Foxhounds.
After Ludgrove, Eton and Sandhurst, he was commissioned in 1951 into the Royal Horse Guards, serving in Germany and Cyprus.
In 1957 he married Henrietta Crawley, a niece of the television commentator and MP Aidan Crawley; the actress Anna Massey was a bridesmaid at their wedding at St James’s, Piccadilly, which was attended by Princess Alexandra.
Over their 67-year marriage, the beautiful Henrietta was the linchpin of all that he did, whether making Christmas stockings for his officers in The Blues or handling the intricate seating plans at the annual consultation for Lord-Lieutenants at Windsor Castle.
In 1959 Dunne left the Army to look after the 1,500-acre estate at Gatley, but retained a strong affiliation with the Forces, serving later as president of the West Midlands Territorial and Army Volunteer Reserve Association and national vice-president of the Royal British Legion, and as an honorary colonel in the Mercia Regiment, the Worcester & Sherwood Foresters and the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry.
In 1981 he accompanied the then Prince of Wales to the SAS base outside Hereford, where they were invited into the regiment’s famous Stun Chamber. Noise and smoke grenades were thrown in to the darkened room, but the commanding officer deemed the explosives insufficiently impressive, and ordered more to be added. When the pair emerged suitably shaken but roaring with laughter, Dunne’s hair was standing on end.
In 1972 he sought the Conservative nomination for the soon-to-be vacant seat of Leominster, but was not encouraged when, during one of his campaign speeches, he noticed one of his best friends sound asleep in the front row. He lost out to Peter Temple-Morris, who would hold the seat for the Conservatives until 1997.
Among many other endeavours, Sir Thomas Dunne was president of the 3 Counties Agricultural Society, joint-president of the Mid Wales & Herefordshire Magistrates Association, West Midland regional director of Central Television, vice-president of the Friends of Abbey Dore, governor of Bishops Bluecoat School and Lucton School, and a church warden.
Evelyn Waugh described Dunne’s father Philip as “‘chivalrous, with a sense of private honour uncommon nowadays”; the same was true of Thomas Dunne, who never raised his voice, always put people at their ease and was a fount of sound advice, particularly to the young.
In 1995 he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.
He is survived by his wife Henrietta, by their daughter, Milly Soames, a Deputy Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, and by their two sons, Philip Dunne, former MP for Ludlow (2005-24), and Nicky Dunne, chairman of Heywood Hill bookshop; another daughter, Letty, predeceased him.
Sir Thomas Dunne, born October 24 1933, died January 6 2025
Raymond Whitwell, who has died aged 105, took part in the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from France and the ill-fated Operation Market Garden.
Having been drafted into the Royal Army Service Corps in January 1940, Whitwell crossed the Channel to France as part of the BEF; he drove a Bedford truck delivering petrol. The officer in charge of the unit was in his 50s and had run the British Petroleum depot in London.
In the last week of May, during the withdrawal, Whitwell and his comrades drove to Dunkirk, where there were thousands of British troops on the beach waiting to be evacuated. Instead of joining them, Whitwell with eight others drove inland, led by their officer in his Austin staff car. They subsequently abandoned their vehicles and proceeded on foot, hiding in the woods during the day and walking at night in order to avoid detection and capture by the Germans.
Over a period of 16 days they were able to cover more than 200 miles to the port of Cherbourg; on the way they picked up a group of English nurses. For the last 30 miles they were able to commandeer a train at gunpoint and force the driver to take them to Cherbourg. In the docks they found a Dutch fishing boat which was sailing for England. They boarded and arrived at Southampton without mishap.
Raymond Whitwell was born at Acklam, near Malton, Yorkshire, on March 17 1919 and went to the village school. Always known as Ray, in December 1939 he enlisted and spent the first night of his life in the Army at Ramsgate in Kent, sleeping on the floor with a couple of blankets and his boots for a pillow.
After two years training in England, including parachuting at Ringway Airport in Manchester, followed by active service in North Africa, in July 1943 he took part in the invasion of Sicily. The objective was to capture an Italian radar station on a clifftop, and he landed by glider in moonlight. The Italians surrendered without a fight. Whitwell was fortunate: many gliders were released early, falling into the sea, and the soldiers drowned.
After an unopposed landing by destroyer at Taranto on the Italian mainland, they were commanded by a new, inexperienced officer. He said that the Germans had all left and ordered them to march down the street instead of dodging from doorway to doorway. A machine gun opened up, killing the officer and several others. Whitwell, who had kept to the doorways, survived.
In September 1944 he took part in Operation Market Garden, the attempt to establish a bridgehead over the Rhine and an invasion route into Germany. He flew in a glider carrying a jeep and a trailer packed with ammunition and hand grenades.
The jeep had to be abandoned and, to prevent its use by the Germans, bayonets were used to puncture the radiator. His unit was ordered to help defend the Oosterbeek Perimeter. They had a Bren gun and used wood from a hen coop to make a covered underground bunker, which protected them against the daily barrages from mortars and 88mm guns.
When they went to the farm to collect water, snipers shot holes in the buckets. After the Operation failed to secure the bridge at Arnhem and the order was given to withdraw, Whitwell evaded capture and got back across the river to the British lines. He finished the campaign in Norway and was demobilised in March 1946.
After the war, he found work in Leeds and Malton and subsequently had his own greengrocers shop. He was a friendly man with a fund of amusing anecdotes and people liked doing business with him. He loved selling, and he always had a stall in the market to supplement his income.
He visited his son in America until he was in his 90s and returned to Arnhem every year in trips organised by the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans. In 2022, the local gliding club took him up in a glider to see the place where he had landed many years before. Settled in Malton, in the same house that he bought in 1962, he lived alone and was able to care for himself until he was 103.
Ray Whitwell died on November 20. He married, in 1947, Iris Sawdon. She predeceased him and he is survived by two sons and a daughter.
Raymond Whitwell, born March 17 1919, died November 20 2024
Attachment to Weekly News 12 January 2025
http://hmas-leeuwin-1963.com/attachment-to-weekly-news/
They have no grave but the cruel sea
No flowers lay at their head
A rusting hulk is their tombstone
A'fast on the ocean bed.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
KENT, David John “Larry”. Aged 77 years. Late of Bargara. Passed away peacefully at the Mater Private Hospital, Bundaberg on Friday, December 13, 2024. Beloved husband of Penny. Dearly loved father and father-in-law of Mitchell and Rian, Stephen and Ali, Daniel, Nicole and Sam, Lisa. Loving grandfather of many. Loved brother of Margaret Anderson and loved uncle of their respective families.
This is a sample of Larry’s introduction and time spent in LEEUWIN. The full sample is contained on our website:
http://hmas-leeuwin-1963.com/photos/
Jackspeak
Galley pepper Jack’s nickname in older times for the soot and ashes that would on occasion fall into the victuals as they were being cooked; still used on a banyan when sausages or steaks are being grilled over an open fire.
Galliano shoulders A more extreme version of coke-bottle shoulders and nothing to do with the effects of a Harvey Wallbanger.
Russ Loane WAS going on this tour on 28 Feb – did you want to join him?
This tour generated interest. There is a ‘however’. The tours are booked out for this year, yes, this year. They are popular. UNFORTUNATELY, we missed out.
Something to look for when you visit England.
The little-known everyday street object that helped save hundreds of lives during WW2
Ward Hack forwarded this:
26 September 2002 • 12:04am
Vice-Admiral "Rocket" Rod Taylor, the former head of the Royal Australian Navy, who has died aged 63, oversaw important changes in his country's relationship with Britain, while retaining the RN's respect for its sister service Down Under.
The significance of this evolution, which can be easily exaggerated, was signalled in 1969 when
Taylor was operations and bombardment navigation officer in the new Australian guided missile destroyer Brisbane which had commissioned at Newport, Rhode Island, as the Australians were changing from British to American equipment.
Brisbane, known as the "Steel Cat", was then, for political reasons, rushed into action in Vietnam without being fully worked up.
There were problems with her gunfire control system, which had been cannibalised from a sister ship, and serious malfunctioning led to an explosion in one turret.
But Brisbane steamed more than 40,000 miles to fire 7,891 rounds of 5 in shells in support of American troops and the 1st Australian Task Force, who were fighting in Phuoc Tuy province.
The Americans later demonstrated their confidence in Brisbane by giving her command of the screen protecting the American carrier Oriskany in August 1969. Taylor's role in the conflict was recognised with a mention in dispatches.
Twenty-two years later, when he was Assistant Chief of Defence Force (Operations) during the Gulf War, Taylor had learned the lessons of the Vietnam War, and immediately placed his department on a war footing when he had to deploy RAN ships to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Desert Storm. General Peter Gration, Chief of the Australian Defence Force, was particularly pleased at the rapid dispatch of three ships and other elements of the fleet for the war zone.
Rodney Graham Taylor was born on June 11 1940 at Toowoomba, Queensland. His family had had no connection with the sea, but eventually his brother, his sister and a nephew were all to enter the RAN.
He went to the Royal Australian Naval College at Jervis Bay, aged 13, at a time when corporal punishment was still liberally meted out for minor lapses of concentration.
He soon showed determination to succeed and excelled at everything he did: rugby, cricket, in the classroom and on the parade ground. On passing out in December 1957, at Dartmouth, he was awarded the Queen's Medal by the Duke of Edinburgh.
Taylor was always meticulous and deliberate, and so he naturally decided early to specialise in navigation.
It was a sign of his immediate self-confidence in this role that, as a junior officer in the fast frigate Quiberon, Taylor, realising that the fleet would be nearly two hours late arriving at Sydney Heads, signalled on his own initiative the Fleet Navigator, who quickly adjusted the time of arrival.
Taylor's training and exchange duties took him to England on five lengthy occasions in ranks from midshipman to commander.
He was a "season officer" in the Royal Yacht Britannia; navigating officer of the British 7th Mine Countermeasures Squadron based at Malta; served on the staff at the Joint Warfare Establishment at Old Sarum; and completed the Advanced Navigation Course.
He also attended the Canadian National Defence College in 1985-6. Taylor quickly rose in the RAN through a series of key sea and staff appointments.
But all he really wanted to do was command a destroyer; everything else, he said, was a bonus.
In 1979-80 he had his first command in the Daring class destroyer Vampire, creating a happy and well-trained ship by quickly learning to know every member of the ship's company by name. In 1994 Taylor was promoted to vice admiral and became Chief of Naval Staff, a title which he changed to Chief of Navy.
The other changes which he witnessed were the withdrawal of British-built ships and RN manned submarines from the Australian Navy theatre and their replacement first by American-built destroyers and then Australian ANZAC-class frigates and Collins-class submarines.
On recovering from heart surgery in 1993, he returned to supervise major RAN manpower reforms concerning pay, conditions and rank structure as well as the repatriation of training from the UK to Australia.
The RAN also led the way for other navies in becoming more tolerant towards homosexuals and women at sea. He continuously stressed the importance of preserving the Navy's values, however: tradition, ethos and professionalism - especially during a "defence efficiency review".
Taylor loved all sports, got on with everyone and had that rare gift in naval officers of not imposing his thinking on others.
In retirement he helped his wife on their farm at Glenhaven, Wamboin, near Canberra, where she bred alpacas. He learned to wire fences, lay water pipes, renovate an old tractor, and bottle-feed newborn alpacas - sometimes several times a day for several months.
Glenhaven also became a meeting place for friends from Taylor's 43 years of service, from his overseas appointments and courses, and his neighbours.
Taylor, who was appointed OA in 1992, died on September 1. He is survived by his wife Judy Smith, whom he married in 1964, and a son.
Attachment to Weekly News 5 January 2025
http://hmas-leeuwin-1963.com/attachment-to-weekly-news/
Jackspeak
Galley packet rumour In the days of sail, the galley was the only place below decks where smoking was allowed and smokers would congregate there to chew the fat and hence generate rumours. A packet was a ship carrying mails and passengers; the Falmouth Packet was and is Falmouth’s local newspaper and because of the town’s geographical location was often the first place to get news from overseas. Nowadays, the term galley packet has been replaced by buzz, which dates from the introduction of wireless telegraphy.
Russ Loane is going on this tour on 28 Feb – do you want to join him?
Home / Shop / Tours and Cruises / Navy in Sydney Harbour Cruise, East
Navy in Sydney Harbour Cruise, East
$80.00
Would you like to know more about Royal Australian Navy (RAN) activities and facilities in Sydney Harbour from 1788 to the present, especially during WW II?
You are invited to join the Naval Historical Society of Australia for a three-hour cruise east of the Harbour Bridge. A comprehensive commentary is provided supported by information and photos on TVs to bring the commentary to life. A complementary booklet with lots of information and photos is provided as a souvenir
If booking for a group of 10 or more contact the Cruise Coordinator, Email: – cruises@navyhistory.au or Phone 0451 218 336, to create your booking to receive your discount. If you can organise a group of 60 to 80 people it may be possible to schedule a dedicated cruise for you.
The places you will see and learn about include:
Dawes Point. The story of the observatory built by Lt William Dawes and the construction of the gun battery.
Sydney Cove. The story of Fort Macquarie and the Navy activities to protect ships and the colony after the arrival of the first fleet.
Garden Island. The first use of Garden Island as a garden and its later development. The construction of the Captain Cook Graving Dock was second largest project after the Snowy Mountain Scheme and larger than the construction of the Harbour bridge. The story of the hammerhead crane and the role of HMAS KUTTABUL. The decision in 1987 to establish two Navy bases – Fleet Base East and Fleet Base West to cover both the Pacific and Indian oceans.
HMAS RUSHCUTTER. One of the oldest RAN shore bases, commissioned in 1920. A Naval Reserve training facility for anti-submarine warfare, diving, and radar.
Clark Island. The storage of gun barrels during WW II. The Japanese midget submarines were also brought here after they were salvaged.
Rose Bay. The story of HMAS TINGIRA that trained over 3,000 sailors from 1912 to 1927.
Watson’s Bay. HMAS WATSON the training centre for maritime warfare. Watson’s Bay was the home base for pilot boats and the lifeboat over the years.
Georges Head. The location of the western end of the anti-submarine boom net during WW II.
Chowder Bay. The base to protect the Harbour with mines during the 1880’s. Now a fuel installation for the RAN.
Bradley’s Head. Ships were degaussed here during WW II to protect them against magnetic mines. The story of our first battle and first victory involving HMAS SYDNEY I and the SMS EMDEN.
Neutral Bay – Sub Base Platypus. Home of the six OBERON class submarines for 30 years and the torpedo factory established during WW2. The current COLLINS class submarines are based at Garden Island off Rockingham in Western Australia.
A comprehensive commentary is provided supported by information and photos on TVs to bring the commentary to life. A complementary booklet with lots of information and photos is provided as a souvenir.
$80.00Info and options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
Please let me know if you wish to attend
Marty Grogan forwarded this: Narco-subs tech a twist we need for maritime defence
MICHAEL SHOEBRIDGE AND ANTHONY BERGIN
They sit just below the water with small chunks of the vessel above it. One intercepted by the Colombian Navy in November 2024 shows they’re capable of sailing to Australia from Colombia, more than 12,000km.
The small, crewed sub was about 5400km from Colombia when it was intercepted about 1900km southwest of Clipperton Island, an uninhabited French coral atoll in the Pacific. Maps found on it indicated the narco-sub was on its way to Australia.
This was the third such vessel seized by the Colombian Navy in that part of the Pacific. It looks like criminal gangs have established a new direct and covert maritime smuggling route to Australia. The incident has implications for counter-drug smuggling strategies: cocaine is up to $240,000 a kilogram here, six times higher than the US price for the product.
Colombian authorities working with dozens of other countries have seized 225 tonnes of cocaine in the space of six weeks, a global record for any single anti-narcotics operation, finding some of that haul on a “narco submarine” travelling on a new drug trafficking route to Australia. Picture Colombian Navy
But it also has implications for our navy and long-term security. It demonstrates the democratisation of technology. You don’t need to be a state to design and build systems for long-range, undersea operations. As the narco-subs show, relatively small investments are delivering rapid and large improvements in underwater capabilities. They can take advantage of huge amounts of unclassified research and development in artificial intelligence, battery efficiency, autonomous navigation and materials.
The new players don’t just include drug lords; the Houthis have been shutting down maritime trade through the Red Sea using cheap weapons acquired from Iran and produced themselves.
Fortunately, it’s not just bad guys we’re seeing in this new world. Enterprising companies here and across the democratic world are pushing the boundaries of real-world performance, whether it’s start-ups supplying Ukraine with weaponry, including uncrewed surface vessels to sink Russian warships, or Australian companies developing large, uncrewed submarines that can operate in the open ocean fully submerged, not semi-submerged like the narco-subs.
Our defence officials talk about the huge distances involved in military operations in our region. But they downplay the proliferation of uncrewed systems we’re seeing in Ukraine and the Red Sea as far less relevant to us. The interception of the Colombian narco-subs highlights that modern energy and propulsion technologies mean small, cheap systems now have very long ranges.
It’s relevant to our military strategy. The 2024 National Defence Strategy recognised that distance no longer protects us. But it didn’t draw out a key point made in the 2023 Defence Strategic Review: uncrewed long-range undersea warfare capabilities are critical for our defence force. Beyond one project with a US company, we’re failing to acquire them or learn how to protect our forces from them.
Navigating a semi-submersible narco-submarine across the Pacific would be gruelling work. But the drug lords probably won’t need to convince human crews to undertake that uncomfortable work. Uncrewed narco-subs each carrying a payload of cocaine travelling from South America to Australia will get cheaper and more reliable in the next five years.
From a military perspective, it’s possible to have large numbers of cheap uncrewed subs, about the size of these narco-subs, packed with high explosives sitting off a major port. They’re no more complex than an electric vehicle and can have lots of common components and systems of an EV. By the mid-2030s, when AUKUS is meant to be delivering our first nuclear-powered submarines, those small uncrewed underwater systems will have proliferated in the thousands.If the Chinese military is smart enough to keep applying advances in navigation, battery technology and manufacturing from EVs to defence systems, then before our stealthy nuclear-powered submarines even get out to sea they’re going to need to clear a path through loitering Chinese uncrewed subs first. That’s assuming these haven’t already launched hundreds of small flying drones that have punched a lot of holes in our AUKUS subs tied up at the dock.
Some analysts have suggested that technology is making the oceans more transparent, rendering submarines, nuclear-powered or otherwise, obsolete. It’s hard to know whether that will be the case.
But we know the emergence of the new species of small autonomous vessels will make the oceans very crowded. And those are likely to be the biggest threat to the ships and submarines that are at the core of our defence acquisition plans.
Drug lords, Houthis and creative Ukrainians are showing what’s possible in the world of maritime technology and warfare. Our navy needs to convince government ministers and senior bureaucrats to get out of their way and let them get the autonomous underwater capabilities that Australian companies can provide.
There’ll be little point in spending $368bn on eight large nuclear-powered subs or six frigates for more than $45bn if they can’t leave port safely or, if they do make it to sea, defend themselves against lethal systems that even drug lords can create and use.
Michael Shoebridge is director of Strategic Analysis Australia. Anthony Bergin is a senior fellow at SAA and expert associate at ANU National Security College.
Rocky Freier forwarded this on Nuke sub training
Ward Hack forwarded this:
Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, who has died aged 100, took up office in 1977 as the white knight pledged to bring a fresh, outsider approach to Washington politics; he departed at the beginning of 1981 defeated at the polls and excoriated as a weak and inept leader.
It was a sad ending for a president who believed that he had been elected to do the Lord’s work, and who had brought high intelligence, inexhaustible energy and fanatical dedication to the task. His troubles were certainly attributable in part to bad luck; but it was his ideals, rather than his ill fortune, that prevented him from being an effective president.
In foreign affairs, for instance, Carter had made a point, in his campaigns, of denouncing the selfish realpolitik of Richard Nixon’s and Gerald Ford’s administrations. He promised to cut the waste in the defence budget, achieve detente with the Soviet Union, tackle world poverty and control nuclear arms.
He also declared his intention of putting human rights at the heart of his foreign policy – though this was bound to sour his hope of improved relations with Leonid Brezhnev’s Russia.
This dilemma was accentuated by the division between Carter’s Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, and his national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski.
Whereas Vance believed that beneath the geriatric leadership in the Kremlin, there were Soviet officials anxious for detente, Brzezinski took the view that the only way to defeat the Russians was to maintain relentless pressure on them.
Carter, who had little experience in foreign affairs, thus failed to give consistent signals. On the one hand he pardoned Vietnam draft dodgers and stopped the development of the B-1 bomber; on the other he approved further work on the neutron bomb. However arguable his case on any particular issue, he succeeded in offending both hawks and doves.
Yet in 1978 Carter scored a notable success by brokering an agreement between Israel and Egypt. The achievement derived from his meeting with President Sadat of Egypt in April 1977 when, as Carter put it, “a shining light burst on the Middle East scene for me.”
Three months later, in July 1977, Carter professed himself hardly less impressed by Menachem Begin – “a very good man”. That November Sadat made a dramatic visit to Israel. Begin, though, became increasingly intransigent, and it was only Carter’s decision to invite him and Sadat to Camp David in September 1978 that kept hopes of a settlement alive.
Carter’s triumph was to keep Sadat and Begin together during 13 days of intense argument. Eventually Begin agreed to withdraw from Sinai, but made no commitment about the West Bank or Gaza, or about the question of a homeland for the Palestinians. Sadat, for his part, recognised the existence of the state of Israel.
The Camp David Accords, and the Treaty signed in Washington in March 1979, were far from the comprehensive peace settlement for which Carter had hoped. But after 30 years of hostility between Israel and Arab countries, any measure of detente was to be welcomed.
There were other successes in Carter’s foreign policy, not least his solution to the contentious problem of Panama, which had been a thorn in America’s side since the riots of 1964 had threatened to close down the Canal. By September 1977 Carter had negotiated two treaties, whereby the Canal would be jointly operated by the US and Panama until the end of the century, and thereafter controlled by Panama alone.
It was a generous settlement, buttressed with safeguards which gave the US the right to defend the Canal against external attack, and guaranteed passage for its ships in an emergency. But Carter faced a titanic struggle to get the treaties through Congress. Not until the spring of 1978 were they approved by the Senate, and not until the summer of 1979 were measures to ratify them implemented by the House of Representatives.
Meanwhile Brzezinski was striving for rapprochement with China, to the alarm of Vance, who feared that it might undermine his attempts to negotiate an arms limitation treaty with the Soviet Union. At the end of 1978, the United States bestowed official recognition upon China.
Notwithstanding his worries, Vance did sign a Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (Salt II) in June 1979. It was a very good treaty from the point of view of the US, setting a ceiling for strategic nuclear missiles while requiring Moscow to dismantle 270 launchers and allowing the US to bring 190 more into service.
But Carter gained little credit. “President Carter and his supporters in the Congress seem like Santa Claus,” Ronald Reagan remonstrated. “They have given the Panama Canal away, abandoned Taiwan to the Red Chinese, and they are negotiating a Salt II Treaty that could very well make us Number Two.” The Salt agreement was never ratified by the Senate.
Carter’s difficulties in foreign policy were the more serious because the $66 billion deficit he had inherited from President Ford’s administration left him limited opportunities to enact the social legislation he had promised. And although siren voices in the Democratic Party urged him to spend his way into popularity, he proved a conservative economist, determined to cut the deficit and contain inflation no matter how badly he offended the party’s natural constituency.
Carter also made brave attempts to tackle the problem of energy consumption. When he became president the United States was importing 50 per cent of its oil, which left the economy vulnerable to events beyond the government’s control – as in 1973, when Opec had quadrupled the price of oil. For Carter, the fight to moderate the domestic demand for oil was not merely a vital part of the fight against inflation but also essential to America’s independence.
On taking office he established a Department of Energy. But it was one thing to lay out a national energy policy, quite another to force a practical programme through Congress. As Carter somewhat naively noted in June 1977: “The influence of the special-interest lobbies is almost unbelievable, particularly from the automobile and oil industries.”
By dint of a mammoth struggle, various measures of oil conservation were passed by Congress in October 1978. Penalties were introduced to discourage the manufacture of petrol-guzzling cars; the pricing policies of electricity companies were remodelled to discourage waste; tax incentives aimed at stimulating coal production and solar energy.
Most Americans remained unconvinced that there was any need for this legislation. But there was something in Carter that relished the fight of righteousness against the forces of Mammon.
“Carter’s got this Baptist inclination not to do anything that will help him politically,” his frustrated vice-president, Walter Mondale, remarked, “he thought politics was sinful.” The President had “the coldest political nose” that Mondale had ever encountered: “The worst thing you could say to Carter if you wanted something was that it was politically the best thing to do.”
It was certainly true that Carter had neither the stomach nor the talent for the kind of horse-trading required in his dealings with Congress. “I owe the special interests nothing,” he loftily declared, “I owe the people everything.” It did not help, though, to make Congressmen feel like squalid vote-grubbers. “He had a holier-than-thou attitude,” complained one of them. “And no one likes to be the thou that someone else is holier than.”
Surrounded by his entourage from Georgia, Carter lacked the Washington contacts that might have made up for his lack of political nous. And though no one ever questioned his energy or determination – “Iron Ass Jimmy”, Mondale called him – he was always rather a manager than a leader. When he could have been out stumping the country in favour of his policies he preferred to remain in the White House poring over memos. He instinctively preferred numbers and figures to passion or eloquence.
No detail was beneath his attention. It was said that he kept a keen eye on who was using the White House tennis court. A hostile journalist described him as “foundering in hyperactivity”.
Carter wanted to convey an image of ordinariness and frugality. Eager to end what he called the Imperial Presidency, in his first months he would not even allow the band to play Hail to the Chief. The White House thermostats were virtuously turned down; drinking spirits was banned at receptions; the presidential yacht was sold; the vast Nixonian limousine put in mothballs. There was much emphasis on family life.
The lack of a political base, which had worked in Carter’s favour during the election, now made him all the more vulnerable. Polls showed that Senator Edward Kennedy, who seemed increasingly likely to attempt to oust Carter from the Democratic ticket in 1980, was leading him by a margin of three to one in the opinion polls.
Carter attempted to rally support in a television address to the nation in July 1979, calling for “a rebirth of the American spirit” and insisting on his determination to confront the energy crisis. “Beginning from this moment,” he declared, “this nation will never use more foreign oil than it did in 1977.”
His presidency was temporarily restored, but ultimately ruined, by two crises in foreign affairs which engulfed his administration in the latter part of 1979. Carter had long worried about what would happen if the American diplomats in Iran were taken hostage, and it was only with the utmost reluctance that in October 1979 he risked provoking the Ayatollah Khomeini’s regime by allowing the Shah to enter the United States for medical treatment. Twelve days later, on November 4, a mob seized 63 Americans from the embassy in Tehran.
On November 7 Ted Kennedy announced that he was standing for the presidency. But though the sight of mobs in Tehran burning the Stars and Stripes, chanting anti-American slogans and parading their hostages, produced a savage reaction in the United States, and at first Americans rallied to Carter as the national leader. Carter, for his part, demanded an increase in defence expenditure from Congress.
Then on Christmas Day 1979 Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan. Carter recalled the US ambassador from Moscow, rallied world opinion against the Russians, banned American athletes from taking part in the summer Olympics in Moscow and imposed an embargo on selling grain to Russia.
The President had suddenly emerged as a man of action. Claiming that he was too absorbed with the national crisis to devote time to campaigning (while at the same time assiduously involving himself in the primaries on the telephone), he comfortably saw off Kennedy in a succession of primary elections.
Though he subsequently lost the contest in New York – having antagonised Jewish voters just before the poll by denying Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem – by June he had the Democratic nomination sewn up.
The renewed sense of Carter’s impotence was reinforced by pictures of him collapsing when taking part in a long-distance running race. Nor did it help when he quoted his young daughter Amy’s opinion that the atomic bomb was the most important issue in the election.
Yet as late as October 1980 it seemed that Carter had an evens chance of winning another term. But in a television debate with Ronald Reagan a week before the poll, he had no effective answer to the questions his opponent put: “Are you better off than you were four years ago? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was?”
The final straw for Carter was the collapse of a last-minute hope for the hostages’ release. On election day he carried only six states, gaining 41 per cent of the popular vote to Reagan’s 50.7. He laboured to the last to free the hostages, but it was not until a few minutes after Reagan’s inauguration that they left Iran.
His mother (née Lillian Gordy), a teacher, adopted a more sceptical attitude towards religion, and devoted much of her time to helping black families – even if, as she admitted, “none of my birth-control talk ever worked.”
The Carters had lived in Georgia since the 1780s, and in America even longer; it was in 1637 that an ancestor called Thomas Carter had emigrated from England to Virginia. The Carters were a hard-living, hard-working, quarrelsome lot; in three successive generations from the mid-19th century a Carter either killed or was killed in a dispute about property.
It was Jimmy Carter’s uncle Alton who took his family (including his brother Earl) to live near Plains, named after the place in the wilderness where Nebuchadnezzar had raised the golden idol which Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had refused to worship.
Whereas the Carters were generally content to be farmers, Lillian Gordy, whom Earl Carter married in 1923, was the daughter of a man who lived for politics. Jim Jack Gordy never stood for office, but he knew how to get others elected, and gained his reward from such appointments as deputy federal marshal.
When Jimmy Carter was three his parents moved outside Plains to a small clap-board house without electricity or running water. He grew up helping with all the farm work, pumping water, fishing for eels and cutting wood. Though as a child he mingled on familiar terms with the black workers on the estate, such easy familiarity did not survive into adolescence.
The boy soon began to show the eager, restless drive which would characterise his entire career. At five he was selling peanuts. At 11 he bought five bales of cotton, which he sold two years later, investing the proceeds in five tenements which brought him $16.50 per month.
At Plains High School Jimmy read hard and made a habit of collecting gold medals. “A person who wants to develop good mental habits,” he concluded, “should avoid the idle daydream, should give up worry and anger; hatred and envy; should neither fear no be ashamed of anything that is honest and purposeful.”
Inspired by an uncle in the navy, Carter conceived the ambition to enter the US Naval Academy at Annapolis. His father pulled strings with the local Congressman; Jimmy prepared himself by studying at the Georgia Institute of Technology and by rigorous physical training.
The nearest he came to naval action was cruising down the eastern coast of the US in an old battleship during the summer of 1944, for which he received a combat ribbon. Since he was also in the navy during the Korean conflict, he was able to say – and did say – that he had served in two world wars.
More significantly, on leave in Plains in 1945 Carter met a strong-willed local girl called Rosalynn Smith, whose family had been settled in the town since before the Civil War. But they had fallen on hard times, and after the death of Rosalynn’s father, a motor mechanic, she had been left in charge of the other children while her mother worked. She married Carter in July 1946, after he had graduated 59th out of 820 from the Naval Academy.
Carter’s first naval posting was to Wyoming, an old battleship that had been converted into a laboratory for testing electronics and gunnery equipment. In 1948 he joined the submarine service, and went out to serve at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. He did well, and was soon selected for the atomic engineering programme.
But in 1953 his father (who had unexpectedly stood for the Georgia state legislature and been elected) died; and to Rosalynn’s dismay Carter gave up the navy to return to Plains and run the family farm. “God did not intend me to spend my life on instruments of destruction to kill people,” he explained.
Carter was as successful with peanuts as he had been with nuclear submarines, and within a few years had the farm running at a healthy profit. By the late 1950s he had time on his hands, and began to turn his attention to local politics.
Asked in 1958 to join one of white citizens’ councils formed to prevent desegregation, he refused to pay the $5 entrance fee: “I’ll flush this money down the toilet before I give it to you.” But as a member of the Sumter County school education board he found himself unable to make progress in integrating education.
In 1962 Carter presented himself for the Democratic nomination for the Georgia State Senate, only to lose through blatant ballot-rigging. Ever tenacious, he had the election result set aside in the courts and went on to win his seat in the State Senate.
The result left Carter profoundly depressed, unable to understand how God could have allowed him to lose to such a man. Inevitably, positive counsels prevailed; the Lord had been testing his faith. Sceptics, however, began to complain that Carter took his initials too seriously.
When he ran again for governor in 1970, his faith in the Lord was allied to a more prudent approach to racial issues, calculated to win him the support of the kind of Democrat who voted for Governor Wallace in Alabama. His declared aim was no longer to promote integration in Georgia’s schools, but “to return control of our schools to local people”.
In consequence he won the Democratic primary with only seven per cent of the black vote – though it came back to him in the ensuing election. And once in the governor’s mansion he soon regained his principles. “I say to you quite frankly,” he announced in his inaugural address, “the time for racial discrimination is over”.
Carter proceeded to increase the number of black people in Georgia’s public administration, and developed alliances with black leaders. He also encouraged the employment of women in state government offices.
Other reforms included the introduction of a merit system for cabinet and judicial appointments; improved rehabilitation programmes for prisoners; day-care centres for the mentally handicapped; and clinics for drug abusers. Every department of the state government was required to justify every item of expenditure.
But within 18 months Carter’s thoughts were turning to national politics. At the Democratic National Convention in 1972 there was an attempt to have him adopted as George McGovern’s vice-presidential candidate. When that failed Carter immediately turned his attention to the possibilities of 1976.
Elected chairman of the Democrats’ national campaign committee, he was able to build up an important network of contacts. In December 1974, just before the end of his mandatory single term as governor, Carter announced his intention of running for president.
His advisers planned a grass-roots campaign that would undercut the traditional Democratic power brokers. In the disillusioned post-Watergate atmosphere, he spoke about the importance of competence and trust, and tried to avoid being pinned down to specific commitments. “They wanted to put Carter on Mount Rushmore,” the joke went, “but they didn’t have room for two more faces.”
But Carter’s strategy, and his tireless campaigning – he entered 30 of the 31 primaries – secured him the nomination as Democratic candidate. At that time the polls gave him a 33 per cent lead over President Ford.
An interview which Carter gave to Playboy – “I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times” – raised doubts about his judgment. As the campaign proceeded there were other gaffes, and his lead was soon whittled away. In the end it took some bad economic figures, and an extraordinary pronouncement by President Ford – “there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe” – to see Carter home.
The disappointments of Carter’s presidency in no way diminished his habit of running like a man possessed. On leaving the White House he addressed himself to his book Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President, published in 1982. He then turned his attention to the creation of the Carter Center, which emerged as a series of linked circular buildings in a park overlooking Atlanta. Inside was a library and a museum, with a replica of the Oval Office during Carter’s presidency.
By the 1990s his availability for peace missions was well established. In 1994, for instance, he negotiated the framework of an accord with President Kim Il Sung of North Korea, and acted as President Clinton’s representative in dealings with the junta in Haiti. He also visited Bosnia.
The next year he was striving to prevent genocide in Rwanda, while in 1996 he was monitoring elections on the West Bank of the Jordan. Latterly he became a vocal critic of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
There were those who derided these efforts as self-important, naive and dangerous. But Carter was regularly voted one of America’s most admired men; and by the turn of the century Americans had even begun to take a favourable view of his presidency. In Plains he took his turn with the other citizens in cleaning the church, and taught in Sunday school.
In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts through the Carter Center to find “peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development”.
He published numerous books, some dealing with his global moral concerns and others personal, including: An Outdoor Journal (1988); Sources of Strength (meditations on the Bible, 1997); The Virtues of Ageing (1998); Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis (2006); We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work (2009); White House Diary (2010); A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power (2014); and Faith: A Journey for All (2018).
Among several later volumes of memoirs were Turning Point: A Candidate, a State and a Nation Come of Age (an account of his first political campaign, 1992), An Hour Before Daylight (2001) and A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety (2015). A book of poems, Always a Reckoning (1995), was generally well received. “The Washington Post was critical,” Carter joked, “but I couldn’t understand the language.”
In October 2019 Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter overtook George and Barbara Bushto become the longest-married presidential couple. Rosalynn predeceased him on November 19 2023; their daughter and three sons survive.
Jimmy Carter, born October 1 1924, died December 29 2024
Attachment to Weekly News 29 December 2024
http://hmas-leeuwin-1963.com/attachment-to-weekly-news/
Jackspeak
Gaff The spar which secures the upper edge of a four-sided, fore-and-aft sail. To blow the gaff was to show the ship’s colours suddenly from this point and colloquially means to betray or give away a confidence.
Galley Any area of food preparation and cooking (never a kitchen)
VOYAGER Memorial Service 10 February 2025
For your information: Russ Nelson has informed me that the Husky RSL Sub Branch is encouraging their members to attend this service.
This is good news. The more advertising of this special event the better, I say.
Rocky Freier forwarded this:
BROADSIDE
Members,
Your DECEMBER edition of BROADSIDE is now available to read in book format:
https://online.fliphtml5.com/qchrf/ibgc/
or,
you can read it at:
https://navyvic.net/broadside/december2024broadside.html
or,
you can download the .pdf file:
https://navyvic.net/broadside/december2024broadside.pdf
Please feel free to distribute widely.
Yours Aye!
NVN Team
Russ Dale forwarded ‘The Hornpiper Dance by Indian Navy Sea Cadets’
https://youtube.com/watch?v=G1_m9lq-wCE&si=DHP0SuwpEzRIENSL
Ward Hack forwarded these:
HMS GLOWWORM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Jy2im6hFMM
Captain Larry Taylor RN
Captain Larry Taylor, who has died aged 102, was navigator of the destroyer Savage at the Battle of the North Cape on Boxing Day 1943, and Director of Marine Services after the war.
Savage was part of the destroyer screen for the covering force of Convoy JW 55B to Russia, led by the battleship Duke of York, when it sailed from Loch Ewe on December 20 1943. This convoy was expected to reach Bear Island on Christmas Day about the same time as the homeward bound Convoy RA 55A, when the Admiralty signalled that the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst was at sea.
Scharnhorst’s attack on the convoys, on the morning of Boxing Day, was driven off by the close escort and the German, heading south, fell into the arms of Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet, in Duke of York.
“It was dark and stormy as we came up from the south-west, the heavy sea from astern threatening to broach Savage, but at about 19:00 we got into position to attack with torpedoes,” Taylor recalled. “The starshell which suddenly illuminated Scharnhorst fell into the sea and continued to burn underwater with a lurid green light, which with the searchlights and gun flashes was like a fireworks display from hell.”
Two pairs of destroyers, Savage and Scorpion from one side, and Saumarez and the Norwegian Stord from the opposite side, attacked simultaneously. Savage launched her eight torpedoes at a range of 3,500 yards and was credited with scoring at least two hits. Duke of York ceased firing and Scharnhorst sank at about 19:45. Taylor recalled that out of Scharnhorst’s ship’s company of nearly 2,000 people there were only 36 survivors who were plucked from the icy sea.
The battle was the last between British and German big-gun capital ships.
Lawrence William Howson Taylor was born on October 26 1922 in Finchley, north London, and brought up in Thorpe Bay, Essex. He was educated at Southend High School for Boys and joined Pangbourne Nautical College in 1938 through a scholarship from the Union Castle line, staying only long enough to complete the qualifying time for direct entry as a midshipman into the Royal Navy.
On May 1 1940 he was on the train to Dartmouth, and by September he was in the heavy cruiser Sussex when she was bombed while in dock in Glasgow; he suffered a head wound which troubled him for the rest of his life. Next, he joined the battleship Nelson, where he was made the navigator’s “tanky”, responsible for charts, chart corrections and adjusting deck watches.
He recalled meeting the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill: “I was midshipman of the watch and was sent down to the bottom of the gangway to help him aboard. It was a very rough day and as I reached down, he took my hand.
“Nobody warned me that he weighed about 18 stone, and I was teetering on the verge of losing my balance – I just managed to grab a rail in time, otherwise the two of us would have been flung into the cold waters of Scapa Flow. I don’t know who would have survived but I doubt it would have been him.”
Taylor took part in Arctic, Atlantic and Mediterranean convoys in several ships, until in May 1943 he joined the new destroyer Savage, which was being built in Newcastle. On D-Day 1944 she took part in deception operations in the eastern Channel, and in 1945 in operations off the Norwegian coast. In June that year he became first lieutenant of the frigate Start Bay, built in Belfast for the war in the Far East.
In 1946-47 he was staff officer operations to the Commodore, Palestine, whose task was to intercept and detain illegal immigrants and transfer them to camps in Cyprus. In 1951-53 he was staff officer plans in Hong Kong, and in 1955 he gained his first brief command, of the destroyer Decoy.
Promoted to captain, but on the “dry list” with no possibility of seagoing command, after appointments in the Admiralty and the Ministry of Defence, in 1965 he began language training to become naval attaché in Moscow and Helsinki.
He travelled widely in the Soviet Union and always recalled with relief when he was able to cross the border into Finland – “and the contrast as we came back into the western way of life with a clean station, and a refreshment room and a decent cup of coffee, which spoke volumes for the evils of communism which we were temporarily leaving behind.”
In 1969-71 he was the Naval Adviser in Canberra, and his last appointment in the Navy was as Captain of the Port, Queen’s Harbour Master and Chief of Staff in Chatham.Larry
Taylor retired to become Director of Marine Services with responsibility for the Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service, which operated the MoD’s ocean-going tugs, salvage and diving boats. In 1977 he was pleased to be able to invite his wife to launch one of the larger marine service ships on the Tyne not far from where he had watched Savage launched more than 30 years before. He was at the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Fleet Review that year, and in 1982 sent two of his ships south to participate in the Falklands task force. That year he was appointed CBE.
In retirement in Winkleigh, Devon, he was active in his local Conservative Association, church warden at All Saints’ (1987-96) and lay chairman of the deanery synod (1991-1994), trustee of various village charities, including the local motorbike club (though he had only ever fallen off one), and president of the local Royal British Legion.
His story was recorded in My Grandfather So Far (2002) by his granddaughter Rebecca Everett for a school project.
Larry Taylor married Margaret Kenny in 1951: she predeceased him in 2015, and he is survived by their two daughters and a son.
Captain Larry Taylor, born October 26 1922, died October 29 2024
Attachment to Weekly News 22 December 2024
http://hmas-leeuwin-1963.com/attachment-to-weekly-news/
Jackspeak
FWMMASFOHSBITASHTSTTCNATTCUFN
Finished with Main Motors and steering, Fall out Harbour Stations Below, Open the accommodation Space hatch, Trot Sentry to the Casing, No access to the Casing until further notice.
Bob Stupple is looking for a mate:
Whilst I was on HMAS Stuart 1965-1968 Keith Brennan was a ships diver with myself
and several others.
Keith was a ABUC at the time and we were great friends then and for years after
our Navy days.
I really want to make contact but have no idea where he has moved to, I think maybe
still WA, where he was gold fossicking which he did mostly.
I know he moved somewhere north of Kalgoorlie, but that was 12 or so years ago.
Maybe someone may know his whereabouts.??
Bob Stupple
Something to Ponder
Imagine you're driving alone after a very stressful day. You are really tired and frustrated.
All of a sudden your chest pains. They are starting to radiate in the arm and jaw. It feels like being stabbed in the chest and heart. You're only a few miles away from the nearest hospital or home. Unfortunately you don't know if you can make it..
Maybe you've taken CPR training, but the person running the course hasn't told you how to help yourself. How do you survive a heart attack when you're alone when it happens? A person who is feeling weak and whose heart is beating hard has only about 10 seconds before losing consciousness. But you can help yourself by coughing repeatedly and very strongly! Deep breaths before every cough. Coughing should be repeated every second until you arrive at the hospital or until your heart starts to beat normally.
Deep breathing gives oxygen to your lungs and coughing movements boost the heart and blood circulation. Heart pressure also helps to restore a normal heartbeat. Here's how cardiac arrest victims can make it to the hospital for the right treatment. Cardiologists say if someone gets this message and passes it on to 10 people, we can expect to save at least one life.
FOR WOMEN: You should know that women have additional and different symptoms. Rarely have crushing chest pain or pain in the arms. Often have indigestion and tightness across the back at the bra line plus sudden fatigue.
Also carry a two aspirin pack in your wallet , in your car , your golf bag and near your bedside. A friend of mine had a heart attack while driving on the interstate and was not near a hospital...he chewed two aspirin and finally found a hospital ..the doctor told him the aspirin thinned his blood and saved his life.
I do not have a medical background but this sounds like good advice.
Reville
DVA E-News
https://mailchi.mp/dva.gov.au/dva-e-newsfor-july-august-5727478?e=10b2c67d44
Rocky Freier forwarded these:
ingira VOICEpipe magazine, summer edition, is now available for download from the website www.tingira.org.au
Please pass this issue on to interested friends if possible.
Many friends of Tingira now have new emails and this issue has all the rollout and booking details for the 2025 Junior Recruit Reunion in Perth next year, thank you.
MARK LEE
Secretary
Tingira Australia Association
E. tsec@tingira.org.au
M. 0417 - 223 040
Upcoming Veteran Strong VR program commencing from Jan 2025
To whom it may concern,
I hope this email finds you well. I’m reaching out to share details of our upcoming Veteran Strong Virtual Reality Program, an initiative designed to support Veterans' mental, physical, and emotional well-being. We would greatly appreciate your help in sharing this unique program with your members so they can access its significant benefits. We are doing a rolling start which means Veterans can commence whenever they are ready!
The Veteran Strong Program:
- Suitable for DVA White and Gold Card Holders with appropriate GP referrals
- A multi-disciplinary 12-week program offering targeted support for:
- Depression and anxiety
- Chronic pain management
- Social Isolation
- Available in-clinic or via telehealth/ virtual reality sessions
- Includes a VR headset for every participant
Veteran Strong utilises advanced virtual reality therapy and real-time physiotherapy and psychology coaching from registered professionals to deliver outstanding results in improving veterans' quality of life. With the holiday season fast approaching—a time when many veterans face additional challenges—this program provides an accessible, innovative, and evidence-based solution for those who need it most.
We kindly ask you to share this information with your members to ensure they are aware of this incredible opportunity. Attached, you will find a brochure with all the details that can easily be forwarded.
Thank you for your dedication to supporting our veteran community. If you or your members have any questions or need more information, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Kind regards,
Bart
Bart Traynor - Clinical Psychologist
Head of Operations- Atlantis Recovery Centre
1/25 Upton St, Bundall, QLD 4217.
Ph. 0432687152
"A ship is safe in harbour but that is not what ships are built for"
Subic Bay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFQn4dc4GAY
.
Ward Hack forwarded these:
Attachment to Weekly News 15 December 2024
http://hmas-leeuwin-1963.com/attachment-to-weekly-news/
Jackspeak
Furcle/furgle Grope and fumble with a female acquaintance.
Furious palm tree A helicopter, the nickname was derived initially from the gently waving motion of its rotor blades when the aircraft is shut down and at rest. When ‘burning and turning,’ it then becomes either a furious or a rotating palm tree..
I have received a copy of the Bat Bulletin. It is the quarterly magazine edited by Dave Rickard for those who served in or have an affinity with VAMPIRE. Could you please contact me if you would like it onforwarded to you? I cannot publish here as the format does not suit this page.
Rob Cavanagh forwarded this:
How a Navy sailor fell off his ship, played dumb — and became a Vietnam POW hero - https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/how-a-navy-sailor-fell-off-his-ship-played-dumb-and-became-a-vietnam-pow-hero/ar-AA1vtNTD?ocid=socialshare
Marty Grogan forwarded this on Robotic Submarines
This is compulsive reading – Jerry a former USN Officer and relative of Bev’s lives in Texas. Only in the USA – not sure. Read on and become stirred up. Bastards.
https://youtu.be/PD5gtM1A990?si=kK6Bp8H79wTEV4L0
This must be seen and shared to allow others to understand that our elected and appointed government officials can not be trusted.
I lost a good friend and classmate that was aboard that day….RIP Lt Steven Toth.
Jerry
Ward Hack forwarded these:
Neale Fraser, who has died aged 91, was a much-loved Australian tennis star and patriot who later scorned lucrative offers to turn professional, desperate to become Davis Cup captain.
He won the Wimbledon singles crown in 1960, part of the gilded generation of Australian greats that included Frank Sedgman, Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson and John Newcombe, who were all mentored by the legendary coach Harry Hopman.
Fraser imbibed Hopman’s uncompromising attitude to discipline and physical conditioning and later helped to transform the once hot-headed Pat Cash from “punk hustler with a mullet” to seasoned professional and Wimbledon champion. He also worked with his fellow-lefty Martina Navratilova, imparting extra spin and bite to her serve, a major element in her eighth Wimbledon singles victory, over Steffi Graf.
A losing finalist in the Australian singles championships in 1957, 1959 and 1960, he was disappointed never to win his home “major”, although he more than compensated by becoming the only player to achieve a clean sweep of the US singles, doubles and mixed titles in the same year, twice running, in 1959 and 1960, years in which he was ranked the world’s top amateur.
His father Archibald was a distinguished lawyer and politician and although Neale and his brothers initially gravitated to cricket and Australian Rules football, their mother Gertrude, née Prendergast, encouraged them to play tennis on the public Regent Tennis clay courts opposite their home to keep them out of trouble.
Mr and Mrs Simpson, who ran the courts, took Neale and his younger brother John under their wing, allowing them to play for nothing once the paying customers had left, and although the boys at first considered tennis “a sissy game”, both quickly showed great promise, coached by Mick Sweetman and Bryan Slattery.
Despite losing his first match on the famous Kooyong ground 6-0, Neale was soon representing his school, St Kevin’s College, and won a string of regional junior tournaments. At 15 he took the State schoolboys under-19 singles and doubles titles and set his sights on a career in tennis.
Thrashed in the Inter-State championships by the prodigious “tennis twins” Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall, representing New South Wales, he realised that improvement was needed, but relished the verdict of the former international John Bromwich, who wrote: “Victoria’s No 1 player Neale Fraser impressed me most. He is a well-built left-hander and he has a fine service in which he hits a flat first ball and a viciously kicking second ball. He believes in attack and invariably follows his service to the net. His anticipation is good, although at times he is inclined to fail at his volley through over-eagerness.”
It took him several years to break into Australia’s Davis Cup squad, which then dominated world tennis, captained by the legendary Harry Hopman, who insisted on far higher levels of fitness than any other coach. He put his protégés through a punishing schedule of running, weight training and circuits.
Recognising that he lacked the natural ball skills of a Laver, Fraser compensated by building formidable strength and athleticism. A dogged competitor, he overcome a disappointing start to his career, losing 14 times in a row to the imperious Hoad and 13 times to Ashley Cooper.
His fortunes changed when, influenced by the great leg spin bowlers, he developed a fearsome “googly” serve, arching his back and brushing up through the ball with a ferocious wristy action which sent it shooting in unpredictable directions. By the late 1950s Fraser was beating the world’s best.
After his heartbreaking loss to Laver in the 1960 Australian final, from two sets and match point up, he arrived at Wimbledon with a point to prove, but looked down and out in the quarter-finals. Trailing the brilliant American teenager Earl “Butch” Buchholz by two sets to one and 14-15 down in the fourth, he had already survived five match points when, according to The Times, “poor Buchholz suddenly pitched forward writhing in agony, his ankle twisted. Patched and strapped, he hobbled for two more agonising points before staggering helplessly away to leave a hollow victory behind on Fraser’s drooping shoulders.”
They were not drooping for long. Four days later he defeated the 21-year-old Rod Laver in a tense four-set final.
By now a linchpin of the Australian Davis Cup side, his proudest achievements were when representing his country. He won 18 of the 21 matches he played, spearheading four consecutive Davis Cup triumphs between 1959 and 1962.
In the first he won all three of his matches, beating Alex Olmedo on day one, then partnering Roy Emerson to defeat Olmedo and Buchholz before sealing victory in the decider, beating Barry MacKay in four sets. Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph ranked him the top amateur in the world in 1959 and 1960.
A fine doubles player, he won 11 major men’s crowns, mostly partnering Cooper or Roy Emerson, and five mixed doubles titles. In 1962, he persuaded his younger brother John, by now a qualified doctor, to travel with him on a worldwide tennis tour. Amazingly, both reached the semi-finals of the Wimbledon singles, the first brothers to do so since the Britons Laurence and Reginald Doherty in 1906.
Fraser was famed for his sportsmanship and outgoing personality, and it was telling that some of his closest rivals were also his best friends, notably Ashley Cooper.
On one occasion, Fraser realised that Cooper was smitten with Helen Wood, the reigning Miss Australia, after he had spotted her in a hotel lift and remarked, with typical Aussie understatement: “She wasn’t bad.” But Cooper was too shy to go alone to meet her again, so Fraser came along to play Cupid. His kindly gesture paid off and his friend enjoyed a long and happy marriage.
By the 1970s Fraser was working in insurance but returned sporadically to play at Wimbledon, even coming through qualifying in 1974. His doubles successes continued and in 1973 he reached the men’s final with John Cooper.
Not all his charges accorded him similar respect. On discovering that the freewheeling John Newcombe had sneaked off for an illicit visit to a Nottingham night club on the eve of a big match, he combed the dance floor of heaving bodies while the errant player made a rapid exit down the fire escape.
“Neale was a lovely guy and a great team man,” recalled his friend, the doyen of British tennis writers John Barrett. “He was a terrific grass court serve-volleyer, and he turned down millions to go professional, staying amateur so he could take over from Harry Hopman as Davis Cup captain in 1970. He was a real disciplinarian and taught the young players he was working with the value of hard work and fitness.”
He returned to watch Wimbledon almost every year, keenly following the modern game, though somewhat bemused by the huge sums even journeyman players now earn.
Among numerous honours, Fraser was appointed MBE and to the Order of Australia.
Neale Fraser married first, in 1961, Wendy McIver, and, secondly, in 1989, Thea Hattam, who survives him with the five children of his first marriage.
Neale Fraser, born October 3 1933, died December 2 2024
The battalion was raised in 1939 and consisted entirely of volunteers. Recruiting officers worked closely with tribal authorities but initially most of the key positions were filled by New Zealanders of European descent. Attached to the 2nd New Zealand Division (2 NZD), it fought in Greece, Crete and North Africa before taking part in the Italian Campaign.
On October 22 1943 Gillies, a private serving in B Company, 28 MB, and one of the newly arrived reinforcements, embarked at Port Said, Egypt, and landed at Taranto, Italy.
The country had surrendered to the Allies the previous month but the Germans had swiftly taken over. The Maoris faced a long slog northwards over some of the most challenging terrain in Europe, mountains and rivers, snow and mud, every mile bitterly contested, a topography and climate which greatly favoured the deeply entrenched German forces.
In mid-November, 28 MB moved 250 miles north to join the Eighth Army. The following month, it was in action near the River Sangro before crossing the mountains to take part in the assault on Orsogna, about 30 miles south of Pescara. Gillies was hit in the arm by shrapnel while he was unloading an ammunition truck.
They were involved in fierce hand-to-hand fighting but the Germans managed to hold the position. In the course of a battle lasting more than a month, 11 of the battalion’s men were killed. Gillies was one of more than 200 men wounded.
In January 1944, 2 NZD transferred to the Fifth US Army for the push up the west coast of Italy and the attack on the Gustav Line. The key to the Gustav Line was the fortress monastery of Monte Cassino which guarded the approaches to the Liri Valley and had stalled the Allied advance.
On the night of February 17, 28 MB attacked Cassino’s railway station. Gillies recalled that as A and B Companies crossed the Rapido River, flares were going up and mines were exploding. They were under relentless harassing fire and artillery shelling destroyed the wireless communications linking the companies.
The battalion took the station but neither infantry reinforcements nor armour could get through to them and counter-attacks supported by tanks forced them to withdraw under cover of smoke. They suffered heavy losses. Out of 200 men, 128 were killed, wounded or captured. In May, Monte Cassino eventually fell to Polish troops.
Aged 17, after three failed attempts to enlist in 28 MB, he gave a false date of birth and joined the reinforcements for 2 NZD which landed at Port Tewfik, Egypt. Axis resistance in North Africa had collapsed in May 1943 and the New Zealanders set about training for the Italian Campaign.
In July 1944, after rest and re-organisation following the heavy losses at Cassino, 2 NZD returned to the front line and 28 MB took part in the advance on Florence and was engaged in heavy fighting around Rimini. German forces in Italy surrendered on May 2 1945. The Italian Campaign cost the Maori Battalion the lives of 230 men and close to 900 wounded.
On Boxing Day 1945, Gillies joined about 700 men of the Maori Battalion who embarked on Dominion Monarch and returned to Wellington and a big Welcome Home party. As a young man, he played rugby for the Waikite Rugby Football Club. For most of his life, he was a builder, a farmer, a hunter and a fisherman.
In 2014, 2019 and this year, he attended the ceremonies in Italy marking the 70th, 75th and 80th anniversaries of the Battle of Monte Cassino. In 2021, he led the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the return of B Company to Rotorua.
In 2019, he was appointed a Cavaliere of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, which he said he accepted on behalf of the Maori Battalion and, in the 2022 New Year Honours, he was appointed a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. He was invested by the Governor-General, Dame Cindy Kiro, at Government House, Wellington, in May that year.
He had declined these honours several times but accepted them at last on the understanding that they were for those of 28 MB who never came home.
Bom Gillies married, in 1948, Mariana Pareararoa Ratima. She predeceased him after a marriage of more than 60 years and he is survived by two of his three sons.
Sir Robert Gillies, born February 14 1925, died November 7 2024
Attachment to Weekly News 8 December 2024
http://hmas-leeuwin-1963.com/attachment-to-weekly-news/
Jackspeak
Fungus face A bearded individual.
Funny fags Cannabis.
DVA E-news
https://mailchi.mp/dva.gov.au/dva-e-newsfor-july-august-5727408?e=10b2c67d44
RSL NSW Policy and Advocacy
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Rocky Freier forwarded this:
Members,
Your NOVEMBER edition of BROADSIDE is now available to read in book format:
https://online.fliphtml5.com/qchrf/ulpx/
Please note that all links now work in the book format and
BROADSIDE can be shared on social media using the bottom menu bar.
or,
you can read it at:
https://navyvic.net/broadside/november2024broadside.html
or,
you can download the .pdf file:
https://navyvic.net/broadside/november2024broadside.pdf
Please feel free to distribute widely.
Yours Aye!
NVN Team
Marty Grogan forwarded these:
Wouldn't it be good if Australian War Heros (like Heston Russell) received similar support from the Government for the false accusations from the ABC and major newspapers.
British War hero demands compensation for veterans falsely accused of Iraq atrocities
Military Cross holder backs solicitor’s call as human rights lawyer who pursued innocent troops faces sentencing for fraud.
Daily Telegraph UK, 30 November 2024
Brian Wood, who won the Military Cross in Iraq, says a compensation scheme should be set up for soldiers falsely accused of war crimes.
A war hero has called for soldiers who were falsely accused of committing horrific war crimes in Iraq to receive financial compensation.
Solicitors representing service personnel who faced fabricated accusations of brutality and abuses against Iraqi civilians are demanding the Government apologise and put in place a financial redress scheme.
And the call is being backed by Brian Wood, a former colour sergeant and Military Cross holder who was questioned over the allegations.
On Monday, Phil Shiner, a former human rights lawyer, will be sentenced for three offences of fraud linked to false claims made against Iraq war veterans.
Shiner, 67, who pleaded guilty to the charges, led the pursuit of legal claims against British soldiers accused of ill treatment of Iraqi detainees after the 2003 Iraq war.
Disgraced lawyer Phil Shiner admitted three charges of fraud over his claims against Iraq War veterans Credit: Ian Nicholson/PA Wire
The Al-Sweady Inquiry, which cost £24 million, concluded in 2014 that allegations of torture and murder were “wholly without foundation and entirely the product of deliberate lies, reckless speculation and ingrained hostility”.
Among the claims made by Shiner against British troops were that Iraqi civilians had been captured, tortured and executed in the aftermath of the 2004 “Battle of Danny Boy” near Basra, in which members of the Mahdi army, an Iraqi militia, ambushed a British patrol.
Mr Wood was summoned to give evidence at the Al-Sweady Inquiry five years after being awarded the Military Cross for leading a charge across open ground in the Battle of Danny Boy.
He has given his support to calls by Hilary Meredith-Beckham, the solicitor representing the falsely accused soldiers, for a financial redress scheme to compensate them.
‘Innocent driven to brink of suicide’
Mr Wood told The Telegraph: “The allegations were absolutely horrific – unlawful killing, mutilation and mistreatment of prisoners of war.
“That just did not happen. Phil Shiner’s criminal conduct has left a trail of devastation. Lives have been ruined. Innocent men and women have been driven to the brink of suicide.
“I fully support Hilary Meredith-Beckham’s call for a financial redress scheme. It is time to stand up for the men and women whose lives Shiner has destroyed.”
Mrs Meredith-Beckham, the founder of Hilary Meredith Solicitors, provided evidence to the Select Defence Committee on the Iraq historic abuse cases, which ultimately contributed to the closure of the Iraq historic allegations team (IHAT).
She said: “The falsely accused have paid a huge price – shattered lives, broken marriages, ruined finances, stalled careers, poor mental and physical health.
“It is abundantly clear that the MoD breached the duty of care it owes to our service personnel and veterans. They owe a duty of care in law, under the military covenant, morally and ethically to stand by those who serve. Instead, they allowed IHAT to pursue innocent troops with false evidence of vile war crimes.
“It is now time for the current Government to draw a line under this shameful episode, apologise and introduce a financial redress scheme.
“There is absolutely no need for this process to become mired in litigation with lawyers talking to lawyers and our brave servicemen and women forced to relive their worst nightmares in court. It is time for the Government to do the right thing.”
See here for details of Australia's Heston Russell's battle against 'the System' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXlK-DR3pV0
HMNZS WRECK
John Hatchman forwarded this FAA publication. It contains amongst other pics a pic of LEEUWIN from the air as we knew it.
https://issuu.com/seafury/docs/flyby_dec24v2
Ward Hack forwarded these:
Ian Redpath, who has died aged 83, played 66 Test matches as an opening batsman for Australia in the 1960s and early 1970s. Tenacious and disciplined at the top of the order, he was also vice-captain of his country in two series, supporting Ian Chappell and then his brother, Greg.
A distinctive, long-necked figure with a lean, gangly body, Redpath was a compact right-handed batsman who often displayed great courage against quick bowlers. Technically superb, he essayed his shots with a truncated back lift, had an admirably straight bat, was adept at leaving the ball outside his off stump and was rarely tempted into the danger of a hook shot.
After a rather disjointed start to his international career he finished with a fine Test batting average of 43.45, and 14,993 runs in first class cricket, mostly made with his state side, Victoria. Afterwards he coached Victoria while nurturing a business career in the antiques trade.
Making his first-class debut for Victoria in 1962 aged 20, he scored 261 in only his 10th match, against Queensland. He was called up for his first Test two years later against South Africa in Melbourne, declining to accept the match fee so that he could maintain his amateur status as an Australian Rules footballer for Geelong, although two years later he finally did turn professional.
Redpath scored 97 on his Test debut in an opening partnership of 219 with the obdurate Bill Lawry. Yet he was dropped for the next match and spent the following seven years trying to establish himself as a regular, only making his maiden century in his 49th Test innings, against West Indies in Sydney in 1969. Thereafter, however, he kicked on impressively, scoring seven more Test hundreds and making himself an indispensable member of a resurgent Australian team under both Chappells.
That year he played in Australia’s first one-day international, against England in 1971, though he appeared only four more times in that format during a period when such matches were relatively rare.
When Australia regained the Ashes against Mike Denness’s England at home in 1974-75, Redpath was vice-captain to Ian Chappell, and when Ian stepped down in late 1975 he continued in the same role with Greg, who was one of his greatest fans. By then, however, Redpath had established a successful antiques shop, Redpath Antiques, in Geelong with his wife Christine, a former air hostess, and the business had increasingly begun to take up his time and attention.
In 1979 Redpath was tempted out of retirement by a lucrative contract to play in the rebel Kerry Packer World Series, although he missed almost all of its first season with a snapped Achilles tendon and made little impact in the second.
He was subsequently banned from some cricketing activities because of his involvement with Packer, but after eventually being allowed back into the mainstream game he was able to take up a coaching position with Victoria, where he helped to nurture Damien Fleming and Paul Reiffel, among others. He also helped out at Geelong cricket club and continued with his antiques business.
A skilled furniture restorer, in later years he took up painting as a hobby and was a keen cyclist, golfer, tennis player and fisherman. A fine storyteller, he was in demand in the media for his wry, self-deprecating reminiscences about his playing days.
He was made MBE in 1975 and in 2023 was entered into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.
Ian Redpath’s wife Christine died in 2021. They had four children.
Ian Redpath, born May 11 1941, died December 1 2024
Shalom Nagar, who has died aged 88, was one of the Israeli prison officers assigned to guard the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann and was the one chosen to execute him at midnight on May 31 1962 in Ramla Prison, an experience he found deeply traumatic.
Known as the “architect of the Holocaust”, Eichmann had orchestrated the mass deportation and extermination of European Jews during the Second World War. As the war ended he escaped to Argentina, where he lived in obscurity as “Ricardo Klemen”, the manager of a launderette. But in 1960 he was tracked down by Mossad, Israel’s secret service, kidnapped and taken back to Israel to stand trial for genocide.
At first, Eichmann was taken to a prison in Yagur near Haifa. In late 1961 he was transferred to Ramla Prison in central Israel.
The eyes of the world were on Israel and the authorities wanted to ensure that correct procedures were followed. Because most of the Prison Service guards were Ashkenazi Jews – who were either concentration camp survivors or had lost family in the Holocaust – prime minister David Ben-Gurion ordered that the 22 guards assigned to Eichmann be Sephardic Jews, who trace their ancestry to the Middle East, North Africa and Spain. Nagar was of Yemeni origin.
“They put him in a special wing on the second floor,” Nagar recalled. “We called it Eichmann’s ‘apartment’. There were actually five rooms. We worked in 24-hour shifts and then went home for 48 hours... There was one guard always in Eichmann’s room, which was always me. In addition, there was another guard in the next room to guard me and Eichmann. And there was another guard in a third room to guard the two of us!
“For six months, I guarded him, facing his cell in the innermost room... where he rested, wrote his memoirs, ate and used the facilities. He was extremely clean and washed his hands compulsively... Food was brought in locked containers to prevent any attempt at poisoning. Still, before I gave him his meal, I had to taste it myself. If I didn’t drop dead after two minutes, the duty officer allowed the plate into his cell.
Adolf Eichmann in the yard at Ramla Prison: he had a five-room apartment in the prison Credit: John Milli/GPO via Getty Images
Guards with prison camp numbers tattooed on their arms were not allowed on the second floor. But before Nagar knew about the rule he had agreed to swap a shift with a guard from another floor. “I assumed he just wanted to get a look at the man who destroyed his family... I figured, why not?”
The guard approached the door of Eichmann’s cell and rolled up his sleeve, saying: “Once I was in your hands, and now the tables have turned. Look who has the last laugh.” Nagar recalled: “It was the middle of the night, and Eichmann jumped up from his bed and started ranting in German... From then on we had clear instructions: no switching or we’d get court-martialled.”
In court Eichmann, a gaunt, balding man, embodied the phrase Hannah Arendt coined in her account of his trial, “the banality of evil”. He remained impassive as more than 100 Holocaust survivors brought to life the horrors of the Nazi final solution. In his testimony, he insisted he had no choice but to follow orders. He was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
On May 31 1962, the Israeli authorities denied the request for clemency. Eichmann was to be hanged at midnight.
Nagar was off-duty that day and was out for a walk with his wife Orah and infant son when a police van screeched to a halt in front of him. Inside was his colleague, Avraham Merchavi, the prison’s head warden, who told him that he had been chosen to carry out the sentence. Nagar was reluctant: “I said maybe he should find someone else to do the job. Then Merchavi took me and several other guards and showed us the footage of how the Nazis took innocent children and tore them to pieces. I was so shaken that I agreed to whatever had to be done.”
After an hour, Nagar and Merchavi went down to release the body: “His face was white. His eyes were bulging out. His tongue was hanging out, and there was a little blood on it.” As the head lifted, air came out, “a dreadful sound of ‘baaa...’ I thought I was going to die. I thought he was eating me.
“We took him to the other side of the courtyard, where the oven was waiting... The oven was so hot it was impossible to get too close. So they’d built tracks so that the stretcher could slide into it. It was my job to push the stretcher into the oven, but because my hands were shaking so, he fell from the stretcher, once to the right and once to the left. In the end I got him into the oven and closed the doors.”
Nagar suffered badly from nightmares for some time afterwards and felt so haunted that when he passed the rooms in which Eichmann had been held, he was always accompanied by two fellow guards. “My shift colleagues used to poke fun at me and say: ‘What you afraid of, it’s a dead man, you yourself cremated him – what can he do to you?’ It insulted me, but the fear didn’t leave me.”
He later embraced the religion he had abandoned as a young man and became a kosher butcher, his faith helping him to come to terms with his 1962 role. In 2004, he said: “I understand the great merit I was given. God commands us to wipe out Amalek [the enemy nation of the Israelites according to the Hebrew Bible] and ‘not to forget’. I have fulfilled both.”
Shalom Nagar was born in Yemen in 1936. His father died when he was young, and by the age of eight he was an orphan, his mother having abandoned him. “I lived alone without parents and without help,” he recalled. He arrived in Israel aged 12 among a group of Yemeni immigrants, first living in temporary transit camps before establishing a home in Rosh HaAyin.
He joined the Israel Prison Service after serving in the Israeli Defence Force Paratroopers Brigade.
For years after Eichmann’s execution Nagar and his colleagues were sworn to secrecy: “My commanders feared reprisals from neo-Nazis and others who thought Eichmann was a hero.” He broke his silence in the early 1990s when an Israeli radio station wanted to produce a 30th anniversary programme of Eichmann’s capture and hanging, and he went on to give several more interviews.
Nagar was one of the first settlers in Kiryat Arba, an Israeli settlement (illegal under international law) on the outskirts of Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. After his retirement he spent his days in a kollel, an institute for the study of the Talmud and rabbinic literature.
Shalom Nagar, born 1936, died November 26 2024
Attachment to Weekly News 1 December 2024
http://hmas-leeuwin-1963.com/attachment-to-weekly-news/
Jackspeak
Full power trial Part of a warship’s work-up following a refit.
Full set A beard, i.e. the full set of moustache, sideburns and neatly-trimmed facial whiskers. Nothing less is permitted for Jack.
Anniversary today of Teddy Sheehan VC RIP fame
Sinking of HMAS ARMIDALE 1 Dec 1942
Rick Avey forwarded this: Fortunes of War SYDNEY
RSL NSW
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Russ Dale forwarded this: Veteran Hearing Service
See below for information recently received regarding improvements to hearing services via DVA.
A Wellbeing approach to the Veteran Hearing Service Offering
This initiative will support the delivery of a veteran-centric wellbeing-focused approach to veteran hearing support and funding decisions by progressively implementing business process improvements
from 1 July 2024.
The Veteran Hearing Services Framework will provide a streamlined pathway to fair and consistent funding decisions on appropriate hearing devices for veterans with complex service-related hearing needs that place whole-of-person considerations at the centre of decision-making.
This will be delivered through improvements including:
-enhanced communication with, and information for, clients and providers
-updated forms for providers and audiology advisers, and
-updated guidance material for DVA decision-makers.
Updated forms and business processes will be co-designed with audiologists and will make the process simpler for veterans and hearing professionals.
Why is this important?
Ensuring veterans with complex service-related hearing needs receive improved and more timely access to high-quality hearing support that better meets their needs will ensure the best possible wellbeing outcomes for the veteran community.
With a focus on simplifying the customer journey, the Veteran Hearing Services Framework will also support greater transparency and accountability so veterans can better understand the process, and streamline existing processes to provide a more positive experience for veterans with complex service-related hearing needs.
Who will benefit?
Up to 10,000 veterans per year currently access partially subsidised hearing devices through the Hearing Services Program (HSP). Within this cohort, veterans with complex service-related hearing needs will now be able to more easily receive a better hearing device to support their social connectedness, employment, and wellbeing.
Date of effect:
From 1 July 2024
How much will this cost?
This initiative will be delivered within existing funding.
Examples
1. A 52-year-old veteran white card holder has bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, tinnitus, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other conditions affecting her whole of person wellbeing. The Veteran Hearing Services Framework would ensure that PTSD management
needs are considered alongside hearing loss-related needs. In this example, consideration may be given to more technologically advanced devices (with additional features and that are simpler to use) that would provide optimal hearing outcomes in a range of social settings, increasing social and vocational participation and improving overall wellbeing outcomes.
2. A 76-year-old veteran gold card holder has bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, tinnitus,
and arthritis and other conditions affecting whole of person wellbeing. The
Veteran Hearing Services Framework would ensure that functional impairment limitations are considered alongside hearing loss-related needs. In this
example, consideration may be given to more technologically advanced devices that are able to be recharged, rather than relying on devices that require fine motor skills to replace batteries
Ward Hack forwarded this:
Captain Bill Owen, who has died aged 96, was a key figure in the establishment of the Royal Australian Navy’s modern submarine arm.
In 1967, Owen transferred to the RAN from the Royal Navy in the rank of acting commander, and took command of the British 4th Submarine Squadron, based in Sydney and composed of British boats manned by a mixture of British personnel on exchange service and Australians. Owen oversaw the transformation of this force into the Australian 1st Submarine Squadron, predominantly manned by Australians, and equipped with Oberon-class diesel-powered boats.
In subsequent years he was the Australian submarine-training commander, and then, in Canberra, director of submarine policy. He introduced several projects which enhanced the war-fighting capability of the Oberons, and argued successfully for increasing the size of the squadron to six boats.
Owen’s submarine weapons update program (SWUP) ensured that these boats fulfilled their potential as strategic assets for Australia; it thus provided the confidence, many years later, for Australia to embark on its own new-construction Collins-class boats.
Promoted to captain in 1976, Owen returned to command the squadron and one of his last duties, in December 1978, was to welcome the new submarine HMAS Otama, in which his son, Frank, was serving.
William Lloyd Owen was born in Aberystwyth on December 16 1927. As a child of empire, young Bill spent most of his prep-school years in England and his summer holidays in Khartoum, where his father was the chief justice, until he entered Dartmouth in 1941.
He completed his training at sea as a midshipman in the cruisers Frobisher and Glasgow, and was promoted to acting sub-lieutenant in 1947, with four and a half months’ seniority for the first-class passes he had earned under training.
In 1948 he learnt to fly in a Tiger Moth biplane at the Royal Naval Air Station, Gosport, but that experience caused him to volunteer for “the Trade” instead, and his first submarine was the veteran wartime boat Tantalus. He progressed rapidly by appointment to the submarines Springer, Totem, Scorcher, Sanguine, Trump and, as first lieutenant, of Tiptoe.
By 1954 he was on the naval staff course at RNC Greenwich; he also qualified as a German interpreter.
He passed the submarine commanding officers’ qualifying course, the “Perisher”, the following year, along with his fellow student the future Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fieldhouse; he was promoted to lieutenant commander and to command Subtle, followed by two years from 1959 in Sydney in command of Anchorite, part of the 4th Submarine Squadron.
While in command of Anchorite, Owen collided with an uncharted rock in the Hauraki Gulf, off Auckland. No one was injured, but Anchorite spent several weeks in Calliope Dock, in Devonport, Auckland, for repairs.
Owen was acquitted at the subsequent court-martial, but when, in the time-honoured tradition of the sea, he claimed the right to call the rock after himself or his ship, he chose the name, “Owen’s Knob”, only to be overruled by a po-faced hydrographer who placed the name “Anchorite Rock” on the chart.
In 1964-65 he commanded the submarine Opossum, first while building at Cammel Laird’s yard in Birkenhead; later he took Opossum under the Arctic ice cap, claiming a record for the furthest north by a conventionally powered submarine.
While surfaced in a polynya (an area of unfrozen seawater within otherwise contiguous ice) to play cricket, the officer of the watch reported what appeared to be glow-worms flying past the conning tower. When Owen ordered a Geiger-counter “swipe”, this gave off loud crackling noises, and he concluded that the “glow-worms” must be fallout from a Soviet nuclear test.
His last uniformed appointment was as Naval Officer Commanding Queensland, 1980-83. He settled in Brisbane, where he remained active in the defence sector as a consultant to industry.
In 1954 he married Ann Nicholson, daughter of Major-General F L Nicholson CB, DSO, MC, with whom he had two sons and four daughters. His wife and two daughters predeceased him.
Captain Bill Owen, born December 16 1927, died October 4 2024
Attachment to Weekly News 24 November 2024
http://hmas-leeuwin-1963.com/attachment-to-weekly-news/
Jackspeak
Fudging the issue faulty aims or reasoning processes in an argument or discussion.)
fujiama ‘Eff you Jack, I am alright.
Some Anniversaries coming:
The end of the Siege of Tobruk 27 Nov 1941
Sinking of HMAS ARMIDALE 1 Dec 1942
Vale John Johnstone former POATWL – look at the Weekly News for details
Knocker Whyte forwarded this on a DVA Scam: Important to read
Received the above text and thought it was genuine so clicked on the link and put my password in as requested, I ended up with an error message. Did not think anything was wrong went to the My Gov website and found no alert there.
I then received a call from Patrick from DVA Income Support two days later to check if I had requested a Lump Sum Advance (LSA) and change of bank account for my DVA payment to go to a different bank which I had not. Thank goodness they picked this up as my next pay would have gone to a different bank and I would be paying back the LSA.
Do Not Click on this link
DVA and I have reported this as fraudulent.
Well done DVA for picking this up.
Regards
Knocker
Ray Sandford forwarded this:
Dear all , I thought it prudent to forward a survey link to the GALLIPOLI MEDICAL RESEARCH .G M R is an of annex Greenslopes private hospital and is dedicated to veteran’s health /care . apart from the attached survey ,there may be an opportunity to promote a collaboration with Griffith university .
Yours Aye
Ray
From: GMR - HELLO <Hello.GMR@gallipoliresearch.org.au>
Sent: Monday, 18 November 2024 3:40 PM
To:
rtsandford@hotmail.com; Raymond Sandford <advocacy@navalassocqld.org.au>
Cc: GMR - VMH <VMH.GMR@gallipoliresearch.org.au>
Subject: RE: New submission from Contact Us
Hello Raymond,
Thanks so much for reaching out. We are currently running advertisements to recruit for ex-serving families (within the last 10yrs) or current serving families soon to transition. The survey is open to people aged 13+ and will be used to gather information so that we can carry out research into the strengths and needs of military families in transition.
Here is the link to the survey: bit.ly/GMR_FamiliesInTransitionSurvey
Please don’t hesitate to contact us, if you require and further assistance.
Thanks,
Angela
Angela Maroney Work Days: Monday to Thursday
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Marty Grogan forwarded this
Australian/Canadian Partnership
Russ Dale forwarded this:
Hi all
Latest copy of "DEBRIEF" Magazine attached below:
"Debrief - Nov 2024"
HONOUR THE DEAD BUT FIGHT LIKE HELL FOR THE LIVING
Ward Hack forwarded these:
Theodore Eric Nave (1899-1993), naval officer, code-breaker, security specialist, and supporter of naval veterans, was born on 18 March 1899 in Adelaide, eldest child of Thomas Henry Theodore Nave, clerk, and his wife Ethel Sophefia, née Petterson. After leaving Hindmarsh District High School, where he was a good scholar and fine cricketer, at sixteen Eric joined the South Australian Railways as a clerk. Keen to serve in World War I, he obtained an appointment in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) on 1 March 1917 as a paymaster’s clerk, with the rank of Midshipman, and served at sea in the Pacific. He chose Japanese to demonstrate a required foreign language proficiency and discovered an instinctive affinity for the language. This seemingly trivial decision determined the course of his life. He was promoted to Paymaster Sub Lieutenant in 1920 and Lieutenant in 1921.
While studying in Japan (1921-23), Nave surprised officers at the British embassy with his grasp of the language. The British were concerned that Japan had designs on their Far East and Indian interests, but their intelligence-collection efforts were hampered by a lack of linguists and code-breakers. After Nave returned to Australia, the British Admiralty asked the RAN that he be lent to their China Fleet as an interpreter and (with the RAN’s knowledge) for secret code-breaking duties. While on the China Station (1925-27), he succeeded in breaking two Japanese naval codes. Impressed, the Admiralty then asked that Nave be lent to work in London; in January 1928 he joined the Government Code and Cipher School, Britain’s signals intelligence headquarters. His progress was spectacular. Made head of the naval section, he deciphered two more Japanese codes, one being the naval attaché code, enabling the British access to Tokyo’s exchanges with its attachés in Europe. He was promoted to Paymaster Lieutenant Commander in 1929.
Keen to retain Nave, the Admiralty offered him generous employment terms, which he accepted. His appointment with the RAN was terminated on 29 August 1930 and he transferred to the Royal Navy (RN) the next day. His career thenceforward comprised postings to the Far East and London; in 1937 Nave became head of the code-breaking section of the all-source Far East Combined Bureau in Hong Kong. He was promoted to Paymaster Commander that year. Japanese incursions southwards in China created demands for more intelligence and threatened the bureau’s existence. Nave’s health deteriorated in the tropical climate and he was admitted to hospital late in 1938. In August 1939 the bureau was evacuated to Singapore where, on 2 September at the Anglican Cathedral, he married Helena Elizabeth Gray, a nurse who had cared for him in hospital.
In London and Singapore the code-breakers struggled with the Japanese Navy’s new main fleet code. Although they broke some code groups by Christmas 1939, nearly forty thousand remained unsolved. At this juncture Nave’s health collapsed and he was sent to Australia to recuperate. There the RAN applied his skills to enhance its own code-breaking capabilities, despite Admiralty demands for his return. In May 1941 he formed the joint army-navy Special Intelligence Bureau in Melbourne, where his team made considerable progress against Japanese codes. United States Navy code-breakers, whom the Japanese had forced from the Philippines, arrived in Australia where, together with Nave’s organisation, they formed the Fleet Radio Unit, Melbourne. Differences in philosophy and command relationships, however, doomed their cooperation and, after contributing to successes against the Japanese in the Coral Sea and Solomon Islands, in October 1942 Nave was ejected from the organisation he had founded.
Nave’s return to Britain seemed inevitable until, at the request of the Australian Military Forces, he was posted to General Douglas MacArthur’s Central Bureau in Brisbane in December. Placed in charge of the section dealing with Japanese naval material, he quickly made his mark, particularly in training field units to break codes in forward areas. In 1944 he was promoted to Acting Captain. He helped ensure that Australia’s wartime code-breaking experience and expertise were preserved in a permanent Australian organisation, later known as the Defence Signals Bureau.
Nave was placed on the RN Retired List on 18 March 1949, having ceased duty with the RAN the previous day. On 20 October he became a senior officer in the newly formed Australian Security Intelligence Organisation based in Melbourne. In October 1950 he was promoted to Assistant Director, ‘C’ branch, investigation and research, and in 1957 became regional director for Victoria. He developed procedures for security vetting, and was responsible for security during the 1954 royal visit and the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. Nave retired in March 1959.
He was a gregarious and charming man who had many friends. Active in the Naval Association of Australia, he became its first national president in 1960. Following the death of his wife in 1969, he married Margaret McLeish Richardson in December 1970. In 1972 he was appointed OBE for services to ex-servicemen. An enthusiastic gardener, he was president and life member of the Brighton Horticultural Society.
In 1991 Nave was named as co-author of James Rushbridger’s controversial book, Betrayal at Pearl Harbor: How Churchill Lured Roosevelt into World War II. The book argued, without evidence, that Churchill withheld from Roosevelt decoded Japanese messages about its planned attack on Pearl Harbor, to ensure America’s entry into the war. Nave later repudiated the claim and denied any part in making it. Survived by his wife, two of the three daughters, and the son, of his first marriage, he died on 23 June 1993 at Mooloolaba, Queensland, and was buried in Brighton Cemetery, Victoria.
Source: www.adb.online.anu.edu.au.
Lieutenant Michael Tibbs, who has died aged 102, served in convoys during the Second World War and took part in two of the longest ever diesel-powered submarine patrols of the time.
On the equator off Singapore in November 1944, Tibbs was navigator of the submarine Tantalus, commanded by Lt Cdr “Rufus” Mackenzie (later Vice-Admiral Sir Hugh Mackenzie KCB, DSO and bar, DSC), when the boat was hunted by Japanese aircraft and two destroyers. All machinery was shut off, to be silent, and with the ventilation turned of the atmosphere became stifling as the destroyers passed overhead, making a noise like express trains charging through a station.
“All this time, a photographer had been creeping through the boat with his cine camera, photographing paint coming off the bulkheads, light-bulbs bursting and the wardroom lampshade with its scantily clad ladies whizzing round and round as there were explosions all round us.
“We were on the continental shelf with a depth of only 60 feet – normally one would go deep down to about 150 feet – so we were scraping along the bottom, and the top of our periscope masts was only a few feet below the destroyers’ hulls.”
Eventually Tantalus was able to draw away.
Tibbs had joined the submarine Tantalus in August 1943, just as the boat’s work-up at the Lough Larne base in Co Antrim was interrupted by urgent orders to intercept the German battleship Tirpitz, which was reported to be off Spitzbergen.
Tantalus missed Tirpitz by some hours, but on surfacing met a German U-boat: both boats dived and circled each other, but neither reached a position to fire. Tibbs recalled that it was so cold he and the crew wore “submarine frocks” – sweaters which came down below the waist – and long johns known as “dunghampers”, both made from thick, white wool.
Soon, Tantalus deployed to the Indian Ocean and the coasts of Burma, Siam and Malaya, where the dress code was sarongs and sandals. There, on patrol in early 1944, she sank a supply ship and two smaller vessels in the Malacca Strait, and in April during Operation Remarkable IV she landed two Chinese-Malay agents on the enemy-held coast.
In May that year Tantalus carried out a torpedo attack, sinking a supply ship, and the next month, in addition to mine-laying, she intercepted the Japanese submarine I-66, though the subsequent torpedo attack failed. In July there were air-sea rescue duties during the British Eastern Fleet air attack on Sabang on the north-west tip of Sumatra.
In September 1944 Tantalus changed base from Trincomalee to Fremantle in Western Australia, from where she resumed operations against the Japanese; two months later she was involved in the failed mission to retrieve from the island of Merapas the survivors of Operation Rimau, an audacious plan for commandos to attack shipping in Singapore harbour using “sleeping beauties”, or powered submersible canoes.
On the same patrol, Tantalus sank a supply ship and damaged the Japanese submarine-chaser Chi. The submarine returned to Fremantle after a patrol of 52 days.
Next, on January 3 1945, Tantalus sailed for air-sea rescue duties during the British carrier-borne air attacks on oil installations in Sumatra, and then into the South China Sea to attack small craft there with her gun.
When she returned to Fremantle after her final patrol, she had covered almost 12,000 miles in 55 days and her crew were living off ship’s biscuits (hard tack) and tinned guavas. The two patrols were almost certainly the longest of the war and probably the longest ever before the advent of the nuclear-powered submarine.
Tibbs was mentioned in despatches.
Geoffrey Michael Graydon Tibbs was born on November 21 1921 in Ewell, Surrey, while his father, the Rev Geoffrey Tibbs, was chaplain in the battleship Iron Duke; his christening in the upturned ship’s bell (now in Winchester Cathedral) was witnessed by Prince George, later the Duke of Kent.
Young Tibbs was educated at Mount House prep, outside Tavistock, where he got full marks for a 10-minute lecture about submarines, and at Berkhamsted School, Hertfordshire, where he joined the OTC.
He recalled that when, in 1932, his father took the rural living of Lynchmere, near Haslemere, he visited his parishioners on horseback. His father wanted him to become a dentist, but was persuaded to take his son to the naval recruiting office in Portsmouth where they were caught in a blitz: they fled “with bombs falling, ack-ack guns firing up, some of the planes were very low and dodging through the wires of the barrage balloons. We drove at 60 mph up Commercial Road that, needless to say, was quite deserted.”
Tibbs joined as an ordinary seaman in September 1940, trained at HMS Collingwood, and discovered in his first ship, the destroyer Cottesmore, that he was seasick. Sent for abbreviated officer-training at Lancing College near Hove (then named HMS King Alfred), he proudly recalled that King George VI stopped to speak to him, but he could not remember what he said.
As a midshipman, still under training, Tibbs joined the light cruiser Sheffield on convoy duties in the Arctic, Atlantic and Mediterranean. In September 1941 he was on the bridge of Sheffield when as part of Force H, she escorted Convoy WS11 into Grand Harbour, Malta where “every single vantage point was covered with cheering people greeting the ships that had brought the first supplies they had had for six months; a welcome from the brave people of Malta that none of us would ever forget.”
Promoted to sub-lieutenant RNVR in April 1943, Tibbs volunteered for “the Trade” and trained at HMS Elfin, Blyth, and at HMS Dolphin, Gosport, and joined the submarine Tantalus later that year. He served in her until July 1945, rising from navigator to communications officer to first lieutenant.
When the news of VJ Day broke, Tibbs was second-in-command of the submarine Varne and in line to command his own boat when it was ruled that only career officers would be eligible for peacetime command.
Disappointed, in 1946 Tibbs went up to Oxford to study geography, before joining the Sudan Political Service. When Sudan became independent, he settled in Lynchmere. He was a manager at the Automobile Association and later secretary for 18 years of the Royal College of Physicians, for which he was appointed OBE.
In 1951 he married Anne Wortley after a whirlwind romance while home on a short leave from Sudan. She died in 2019, and he is survived by his two sons, both of whom are doctors.
Tibbs’s wartime memoir, Hello Lad, Come to Join the Navy? (2013), is based on the thousand or so letters which he exchanged with his family during the war.
Tibbs kept his naval greatcoat all his life, with the Gieves receipt for its purchase for £12 10s in the pocket.
Lieutenant Michael Tibbs, born November 21 1921, died October 2 2024