
The reminiscences of Telegraphist Kenneth Peterkin.
Kenneth joined MONAB 4, HMS Nabaron, at Ludham and remained with
the unit throughout its commission at Ponam, returning home for
Christmas 1945 with the ships company of ‘Nabaron’ aboard HMS
Slinger.
I was transferred direct from Yeovilton
to RAF Ludham and found the conditions there verging on the
disgusting. All units were in dispersal areas on the perimeter. Some
were two miles from the mess. It was freezing winter at the time and
very few men could face the four mile walk there and back for
breakfast. Fuel was in short supply and the Nissan huts often had no
heating at all. Men slept dressed and covered their beds with an
overcoat to keep warm.
A crude attempt was made to teach
assault tactics and all ratings were issued with full Army battle
dress, boots and gaiters. Most of the instruction was on Sten gun
training and Mills bombs. The workshop units were set out on a
runway and practice made with mobile generators, aerial erection,
and driving of Jeeps and 5 ton Foden wagons with trailers. The
trailers carried the workshop units which could be lifted to the
ground, connected to an electrical supply and became operational
immediately.
Most of the drivers had only driven on
the airfield runways and were expected to drive a wagon and trailer
from Ludham to Liverpool in black ice conditions. A wagon and
trailer overturned in front of me as it was leaving the station. RAF
Ludham was quite unsuitable for this type of training, which would
have been better carried out at a Marine Depot. Took passage on HMS
Dominion Monarch, stopping at Colon, then Sydney.
After about four weeks east of Sydney
under canvas on a racecourse, we loaded up all our equipment on an
LCT Empire Arquebus and took passage via Brisbane, New Ireland, New
Britain to Manus harbour, and then to Ponam. On the trip from Sydney
to Ponam on the Empire Arquebus messing was American style using a
stainless steel partitioned tray with officers and men eating
together. The ship was infested by a flying beetle, which had come
out of baled tobacco. The beetle was smaller than a ladybird but
very voracious. All food had to be eaten quickly, beating off the
beetle all the time.
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The airstrip at Ponam had been built on
our arrival and we took over from US Seabees, Some remaining with us
as maintenance staff. Ponam was about 22 miles by sea from the
larger US base at Manus. We had a motor launch, which collected
supplies from there each week, taking passage between Manus island
and the barrier reef. I often went on this and used to buy slops and
other items of clothing from the US store.
We only had one Marine attached to HMS
Nabaron and he used to service the launch and was a regular
crewmember. The same Marine also appears on the photograph of the
‘pacific post’ delivery. This purports to show a daily delivery of
the BPF's own newspaper, 'Pacific Post'. The Marine is the driver.
The rating standing is Puffer Train, Leading Hand WT, who was the
editor of the daily newssheet, 'Jungle Echo’; I was present when the
photograph (below) was taken. It was done for publicity purposes and
the posters were stuck on the truck and removed immediately
afterwards. That was the only day we ever received the 'Pacific
Post' on Ponam. I cannot remember the name of the Marine but he was
a good footballer and cricketer. He had played professional football
for Plymouth Argyle. Puffer Train was well liked by the officers and
was one of the few ratings who played badminton with them. He was
about 38 and somewhat older than most of the crew. As editor of the
'Jungle Echo' he had direct access to the Skipper and used to
discuss articles with him before publication. Puffer was one of the
few lucky ones to be flown back to Sydney for two weeks leave. He
got as far as the Blue Mountains. Puffer's home was Plymouth. All
MONAB 4 men were Devonport ratings.
The 'Jungle Echo' was only made
possible with the assistance of the Seabee detachment who remained
on the island. They supplied all the reams of paper, stencils and
the printing machine. Puffer was very good at collecting news but
could not type and this made daily publication problematical. Up to
50 copies were printed each day and circulated to all ranks, and the
Seabees. One of the collectible issues was when the first atomic
bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. This news was picked up from Tokyo
Rose by the night WT watch as "a bomb with the equivalent power of
100,000 tons of TNT was dropped on Hiroshima destroying most of the
city." This was telephoned through to the Skipper immediately and he
would not believe it. He instructed that the tonnage be reduced to
1,000 tons. It was only after the second bomb was dropped on
Nagasaki that we all realized that something enormous had happened,
something beyond our comprehension. Tokyo Rose was an English
speaking Japanese news commentator. Something equivalent to Lord Haw
Haw from Germany. The Japanese news was generally reliable and the
radio signal came through clearly to the Admiralty Islands, perhaps
transmitted for the Japanese left at Rabaul some 200 miles away.
On Ponam we had a small church, a
football pitch and cricket pitch. We also manufactured small sailing
dinghies out of packing cases and sailed the boats in the
lagoon. My particular friends were Puffer Train (Plymouth), Raymond
Loxton (London), John Slee (Bradford), Norman Langdon (Notts).
Shortly after VJ Day an aircraft landed
from Singapore and has several former English female prisoners of
war on it being repatriated to Sydney. They were in very poor
condition and were the first females we had seen for months. Each
week an aircraft flew us out a schooner of beer from Australia, some
members also were flown to Townsville and Sydney on leave.
The Seabees on Ponam had no liquor and
relied on us to supply it. Pusser's rum was in great demand and used
as barter for clothing and equipment. I once gave a Seabee half a
mug of neat rum, which he drank down in one gulp. All he said was
"Jesus!" as he fell back on to a bunk. He sipped it next time. We
had special dispensation from the Admiralty to issue our tot of rum
at 6pm as when it was issued at the normal time of noon we all fell
asleep with the heat.
When we landed on the island the
indigenous population was evacuated to the larger island of Manus.
One problem was the native burial ground on the western end of
Ponam. This was sacred territory and it was agreed it would be
permanently out of bounds to all naval personnel. Most breaches of
discipline involved trespass into that area. Manus Island was German
territory from 1914 onwards. There were several German missionaries
on the island and quite a lot of the Melanese spoke simple German
phrases. The Japanese invaded the Admiralty Islands in 1942. The
islands later became an Australian Protectorate. It was well known
that the original natives were cannibals and referred to a dead
human corpse as "long pig".
I was shown a stone trough, something
like a sarcophagus, which had been used as a human cooking pot. It
was the custom when a death occurred, to prevent the corpse being
dug up and eaten, for an elder member of the family to remain
sitting on the shallow grave for three days until putrefaction set
in. Burials were still permitted on Ponam. A body was brought over
on an outrigger canoe for burial, and an elder remained guarding the
grave, often for several days. He appeared to fast during this
period.
The distance from Ponam to Manus is
about two miles. The larger island is covered with jungle but it was
possible to make out a native village and see the canoe activity
taking place. Several unofficial attempts were made to swim across
but there were large sharks in the channel and the crossing was not
for the faint hearted. I know that at least two men swam over and
back as the natives fed them with green coconuts before their
return. Green coconuts were quite delicious. The nut kernel had yet
to harden and was like a soft white sweet jelly. The milk was very
sweet and clear. Coconuts could be opened using a metal spike driven
into the ground. The outer cover was then pierced until the inner
kernel was revealed. Regular trading began to take place.
The natives particularly wanted
tobacco, cigarette papers, knives, rope, wire, clothing and matches.
Fishhooks were in great demand and many men wrote to friends in
Sydney and asked for them to be posted to them. The natives could
only offer cowry seashells and fruit. The younger natives dived very
deeply for the cowries, often using a rope with a rock anchor to
descend. The cowry shell had a small trap door in the shape of an
eye and these were particularly valuable. Cowry shells were used as
currency on the larger islands.
Not all our ratings were honourable
with the natives and the Skipper was particularly enraged when he
found ratings offering newspapers in lieu of cigarette papers.
Eventually the launch was used to take ratings over to the village
and one of the missionary boys arranged a walk through the forest
using local jungle paths. Leprosy was endemic. A very small island
near the main village was used to isolate sufferers who appeared to
be abandoned. I visited this island and was appalled at the
appearance of the older infected natives. Not all our ratings were
honourable with the natives and the Skipper was particularly enraged
when he found ratings offering newspapers in lieu of cigarette
papers.
Eventually the launch was used to take
ratings over to the village and one of the missionary boys arranged
a walk through the forest using local jungle paths. Leprosy was
endemic. A very small island near the main village was used to
isolate sufferers who appeared to be abandoned. I visited this
island and was appalled at the appearance of the older infected
natives.
The fresh water supplies on Ponam were
interesting. The Seabees were masters of improvisation and found
that by drilling into the coral rock that parts of the sub-strata
had caverns filled with a mix of sea and fresh water. By pumping the
top layer of water, filtering and purifying it, we had a good supply
of water. Later chilling plant was installed to cool the water and
make it more potable. Regular warnings were given out about using
water for drinking purposes only. It was easy to keep clean by
diving into the lagoon and laundry dried in the heat very quickly.
Unfortunately both these substances
turned the skin bright yellow which took up to a year to disappear.
I was still yellow when I was demobbed. The high temperatures
induced heavy sweating and it was common for men to collapse in the
heat. They were suffering from salt deficiency. Eventually six salt
tablets were issued with the evening meal and these had to be taken
singly throughout the day. Many men attempted to take the six
together before the meal.
The salt acted as an emetic and they immediately threw up what they
had just eaten. There was also a daily issue of limejuice which was
very popular with the Seabees. They had plenty of coke as the main
depot at Manus had installed a coke bottling plant and it was
brought in weekly on our launch.
The Seabee unit at Manus all downed
tools because they had no coke. A coke plant was flown out from Los
Angeles and was working within days.
The informal discipline of the
American units never failed to amaze me. The main medical problem on
the island was tropical ulcers caused by getting coral sand in a
small abrasion. Men swam a lot in the lagoon and were always cutting
themselves on the coral. Once started on a leg the ulcer grew
rapidly and refused to heal. I had an ulcer on my leg months after
leaving the island.
One of the most interesting men on the
island was the Vicar. He had been in the Para Regt and had
transferred to the FAA. We used to chuck coconuts on the roof of his
hut and he used to retaliate by chucking them on ours and chiming
the church bell at an unearthly hour. The padre was good at
identifying fish that were good to eat. Almost anything that looked
like a small trout was edible. Most of the other fish were
poisonous. The lagoon itself dried out at low tide and it was
possible to walk out on the reef to the Pacific breakers. Many
seashell collections were made. Some of the marine life was strange
with many large sea slugs, like a huge maggot, in the pools. Sea
snakes were numerous and deadly. It was most unnerving to be
swimming and be joined by one of these marine reptiles.
One serious injury occurred when the
Chief Petty Officer Telegraphist opened up the transmitter unit and
the safety switch on the cage failed to turn off the power. This
unit was fitted with large thermionic valves about a metre high with
power provided by a Coventry Climax generator. There was a flash
back and he was badly burned. Part of the training at RAF Ludham
included the erection of mobile transmitter towers and these were
used on Ponam. Six men could erect a 100 metre tower in about half
an hour with practice. It was possible to receive messages from the
Fleet Train and retransmit them to base using this type of
equipment. An American style coding machine was introduced. This
appeared to have been similar to the German Enigma machine but had
six rotors instead of four or five. There were constant problems
with the crude telephone installation on the island. Attempts to
teach WT operators to read Japanese Morse were not successful. Some
of the Japanese signals included letters up to twelve dots and
dashes long. The Americans seemed to prefer RT for daily use.
We were finally picked up by HMS
Unicorn, a fleet carrier, and returned to Sydney. On the return to
Sydney a long paying-off pennant was flown, this broke and drifted
overboard much to the Skipper's consternation. Two of our crew dived
overboard in Sydney Harbour and swam for it; both had girl friends
in Sydney. We were not allowed ashore and finally worked ship, in
HMS Slinger, back home to Portsmouth to be demobbed.
On the return journey it was found that
a large number of ratings had picked up venereal disease in Sydney
and there were large queues at the Sick Bay each morning. Up to six
percent were infected. King's Cross in Sydney had been used by the
Americans before our arrival. One of the last things I remember was
a Tannoy announcement as we crossed the Greenwich Meridian on the
return journey, west of Gibraltar, that, "All original members of
HMS Nabaron have now circumnavigated the globe." There was a
huge cheer and we spliced the main brace.
Kenneth Peterkin
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