Hello,

Another original subject has been posted on our website www.navtechlife.com

In the days before jet flight, a country would be represented abroad by the visit of a warship. At home, when in port, the ship would be visited by friends and family. A newly-commissioned ship was visited by government ministers and the Admiralty. "Showing the flag" was both a social and a political gesture. Over 20 photographs, many from personal collections, are presented on this topic.

Have a look!

John

Did this research lead you to discover anything interesting, Ian?

If you could scan and post up a copy of his service record, someone should be able to work out the ships names etc...

Hi all.
Some  mentioned Baldur way back but my father served in that regiment in Iceland under the name Baldur first in Hnífsdalur/ Ísafjord that was look out station then in Hvitanes in Hvalfjord were allt convoys resupplied near Reykjavík. His Port Division was Portsmouth P/JX 210596.
On the 12 of Mars 1941 he and another navy man from Hnifsdal were suddenly called and ordered to to go on Minesweeper from Isafjord.
I was wondering if they were replacing those two mentioned earlier that got lost at sea. 

I have few wartime ships mentioned in his War time Certificate of service, Victory was one but I could not find that ship.
Fortitude was another and 3 entries on Baldur then one ship I am having hard time reading  but this is nearest i could get. HMS  Boehrane II (Alahester) ? 

Most of the mines were out of Westfjords but my father served some time trying to blow up runaway mines and in his Diary he said they used 500 rounds to blow one up. Must have been rough sea.   

Hi,

I am looking for any information related to the Fleet Air Arm station on Mauritius, HMS Sambur.  Although construction was started by the FAA I have evidence to show construction was either never completed or completed by the RAF after the site was handed to the RAF. The RAF Museum have been kind enough to provide a plan of RAF Plaisance and whilst I can align this with a public road and the compass, none of the remains match this plan, not even the runways.  This leads me to believe the RAF either completed the FAA plans or used the site as it was.  Although there is not much remaining, using the timeline in Google Earth there are 2 Compass bases, some peri-track, some unidentified buildings whilst the aircraft butts are still standing:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/historicmauritius/albums/72157697031901680
https://www.flickr.com/photos/historicmauritius/albums/72157712013191922

Eventually, the site was handed over for civilian use and is currently the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport with a lot of the remains long since bulldozed into history.  I have attached two images, one which shows the remains with some conjecture as well as one which shows the overlay of the plans for RAF Plaisance which you will see does not match anything other than the public roads.  The original public road was moved in living memory and used to pass close to the eastern end of the main runway until the runway was extended.


If anyone can shed any light on the handover from the FAA to the RAF or has any further information it would be greatly appreciated.  I can be contacted at contact@historicmauritius.com

This is for a non-profit, personal project where I am attempting to record all of the remaining, tangible history of Mauritius, hence the rather large number of photos at http://historicmauritius.com all of which are freely available for non-commercial use.

Shore leave would be granted whenever possible, normally from the end of the work day until start of work next day – say 4.30pm to 07.00 if not required for duty.
If onboard a ship, then leave would probably be granted by sections or watches – i.e. only a proportion of the ships company could be ashore at any one time.  There may have been restrictions on time if the ship were under sailing orders, or in certain ports.
Longer leave (i.e. longer than overnight) was granted on the scale of three weeks leave per year, plus bank holidays. These were usually taken at Christmas and Easter.  For ships serving abroad, extra days were added for the length of time served overseas – I think at this time it would be a week for every six months.   It would mean that when returning from abroad, a rating would have a lot of accumulated leave, which was always looked forward to…

How much leave did they get in WW2?
Did it depend on this and that?

LCT.4040 was HMS Bastion – a Mk.8 Tank Landing Craft.  Built in 1945 at Alloa and served in the RN until 1961.  Took part in the Suez operation in 1956
See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_8_Landing_Craft_Tank

Hi!
I’m really sorry to gatecrash this thread but I’m new to this forum and am trying to start a new thread to track details of my father in laws vessel on which he served in the 1940s? It was LCT 4040. Can anyone help me start this thread and apologies again for the gate crashing!

GLOUCESTER III was the name briefly used by the RN base at Aden.   Commissioned in January 1939 and renamed SHEBA in April 1940