NAVY NEWS, NOVEMBER 2009 49
Tales of the Stone age
IN THE streets of Plymouth there was singing and gg
“The dark nights were alivre alive with
dancing.
the sight of tracer bthe sight of ullets and the leets and the
Sailors and soldiers shook hands with each other – and with – and with
sounds of gunfisounds ofs re.”
complete strangers. Sirens and hooters blasted constantlylly.. Pe People ople
He wHe H as Mentioned in nntioned in
rolled up newspapers into trumpets and bellowed their delight eelight
DispaDispD tches for his serr his service
The bells of the city’s churches chimed, while Plymothians thhians
with HMS Newfoundland wi NNewfoundland
hung the Union Flag from any building – or object – they hey
in the Med,in d,, particularly
could fi nd: trams, poles, windows.
durdu ing the ininvasion of
Working
The city’s pubs closed early. They didn’t want a repeat
Sicily when the crSici he cruiser was Enjoy an
of the “wild and unrestrained behaviour” in Plymouth
tortoro pepedoed.
which had followed the relief of Mafeking.
“It w“IIt as a dramaaamatic
(MI)9 to 5
scene down below,” he
Immediate
The date is not May 8 1945. It is November 11
scene do
1918.
wriites,tes, “buut we stokerkkers
But this is how Britons celebrated the end of the Greaeatt
weren’t prone to panict proner . On OOn
THERE are many stories of the
War – and this is what William ‘Bill’ Stone experienced.
manmany previous occasions I y previoous s I
Response
clandestine war fought by the
In the fi nal years of his life, Bill Stone came to symbolise the olise the
had been fihad been fi g ghting htinh imaginararryy
Royal Navy between 1939-45.
sacrifi ces made by his generation alongside fellow WW1 v1 veterans
fifid res and repairiing make-believing m vvee
IF YOU didn’t rush and
Henry Allingham and Harry Patch.
destruction, sometimes in the
Tales of X-craft operations,
somet ee
buy Maj Mark Hammond’s
TV directors would show footage of men going ‘over the top’ while
dark.”
‘hoofi ng’ account of life as a
‘the man who never was’ and
reporters would bang on about the ‘futility of war’, ‘slaughter’, ‘senseless
Newfoundland made
Royal Marine fl ying Chinooks
the Shetland Bus are pretty well
sacrifi ce’.
Malta and eventually Boston
in Afghanistan following our
known.
But as the late senior rating reminds us in his excellent memoirs Hero
in the USA for repairs.
review last month, here’s a
Not so perhaps the work of
of the Fleet (Mainstream, £17.99 ISBN 978-18459 65082), it wasn’t
Bill’s last service to
chance to get hold of a copy
MI9 (the number of nebulous
seen like that at the time.
his country came on the
for free.
military intelligence organisations
It’s ironic that the Devonian would be singled out as one of the nation’s
German island of Sylt
We described the WAFU’s
went all the way up to 19…)
last Great War veterans: he never saw action in the 1914-18 (he was still
making sure the Nazi
book as “a brutally-honest
charged with supporting
undergoing training in Devonport, training which was protracted by
resistance movement,
account of life on the ground
resistance movements in occupied
illness).
Werewolf, didn’t fl are up in
and in the air”.
Europe – and helping PoWs and
And the media focus on Bill’s WW1 career unjustly ignores what
1945 (it didn’t).
Those nice people at Immediate
important fi gures escape.
followed: a quarter of a century’s distinguished service.
To reach the remote
Response’s publishers, Penguin,
Former fi sherman Ronald
Indeed, Bill Stone’s life is an echo of the RN – and the nation – in the
island, he had to pass
have three copies of the green
Stephens found himself working
fi rst half of the 20th Century.
through Hamburg – pounded
beret’s memoir to give away.
for this shadowy organisation
He joined the fl edgling Boy Scout movement. He was struck down by
by Allied bombers in July and d
To win, tell us the name of
aboard HMS Tarana, a trawler
the fl u pandemic in 1918. He witnessed the scuttling of the High Seas
August 1943.
the 2001 film by Ridley Scott
based in Gib.
Fleet. He served as an engine driver during a rail strike. He was part of
“I remembered how I had wdd wept as
depicting a raid by US forces
On the Rock, the ship’s
the transition of the inter-war Navy from one of big guns to a submarine
I walked through the devastaastation of
to seize warlords in Somalia
company would wear naval whites
hunting and escort force. He experienced the Empire in the halcyon days
Plymouth and was somehow glad to see gglad to see
in 1993; the raid has become
in summer with HMS on their
of peace when men did indeed join the RN to ‘see the world’.
it was not only the British cities thaiees that had
commonly known as the ‘battle of
tallies, while the White Ensign
To the very end of his life, Bill Stone was fêted by the HMS Hood
suffered,” he recalled.
Mogadishu’.
fl uttered on the grey-hulled
Association (and sang unrepeatable ditties at their events…). He took
“However, seeing the effects of the ects of the
Send your answer, plus your
Tarana.
part in what became known as the ‘Empire cruise’, a fl ag waver intended
Allied blitz and the many stary ving,
contact details, by email to
But once out of harbour, the
to rally Britain’s distant colonies and remind the world of the greatness
homeless people lining the street wsstreet was
immediateresponse@navynews.
hull was hurriedly re-painted, the
of the RN.
another matter. It was terrible to see bble to see
co.uk or in the post to Immediate
White Ensign lowered and the
His memoirs give a fascinating insight into what became known
such destruction, no matter which side wwhich side
Response Competition, Navy
Portuguese fl ag raised – hence
unoffi cially as the ‘world booze’: the heat of Sierra Leone and South
was the victim.”
News, Leviathan Block, HMS
the name of this memoir HMS
Africa (in days when air conditioning meant sleeping on deck); the
Britain lost all three of its last ss last WWW1 W1
Nelson, Portsmouth, PO1 3HH.
Tarana: Under Two Flags
warnings of rampant venereal disease in Singapore; the 140 men who
veterans this year; Bill Stone passed appassed away
Closing date is mid-day on
(Ten Bells, £9.75 ISBN 978-0-
deserted in Australia in the hope of a better life; the Maoris and Fijians
in January.
Friday December 4 2009 and the
9531269-4-1) – while the ship’s
who welcomed the visiting sailors with festive dances.
All three left memoirs and Bill’nnd Bill’s are s are
usual Navy News competition
company dressed as any good
There are some choice extracts from journalist Scott O’Connor’s
undoubtedly the most coherent and cooherent and
rules apply.
Portuguese fi sherman would.
tubthumping Empire Cruise which perfectly capture a middle-class
comprehensive, an important addition to nnt addition to
■ THE winners of the Man Down
Tarana made numerous trips
Briton’s view of the inter-war world: of Sierra Leone – “if the hand of
our literature on the lives of the lotthe lowewer decks r decks
competition in our September
to the coast of southern France
England were removed from this Colony it would be a disaster for its
between the wars and during WW2.W
edition are: Mark O’Halloran,
to collect ‘parcels’ – downed
people”; of the Empire – “we alone of the great nations engaged in the
Add to that the extra infornformation and tion and
Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset;
airmen, French politicians, Polish
war had begun to pay our debts and it was plain to all men that our word,
accounts included by the editordditors and you
Stephen Burns, Fareham, Hants;
refugees, who were informed
long honoured, would continue to be our bond”; and of the British sailor have a gem of a book which brings Bill and his i Bill d hi
Terry Cotter, Sittingbourne,
about the boat’s arrival via
– “every man on the ship becomes a sort of envoy from the Homeland”. era back to life.
Kent; Steve Dunn, Wallsend,
clandestine messages on BBC
Like HMS Hood, Bill Stone would have to wait two decades for his He ends his tale with 90th anniversary commemorations of the end of
Tyne-and-Wear; D O’Gorman,
foreign-language broadcasts.
fi rst taste of active service. It came with a vengeance: Dunkirk. the Great War which will leave many a reader with a tear in their eye.
Cippenham, Berkshire; Mrs A
The most famous rescue
He sailed three times with HMS Salamander to rescue troops – “the “Sometimes I can hardly believe that me, a farmer’s boy from Devon
Yates, Wednesfield, Wolverhamp-
Tarana conducted was Operation
most terrible experience of my life”. It may have been described in the and now well over a hundred, should have been to so many important
ton; P Sisson, Keyworth, Notts; V
Bluebottle in the summer of
newspapers as some great triumph, but the experience for the ordinary events and met such wonderful people,” he wrote just weeks before he
McMillan, Emsworth, Hants; N
1942.
sailor was rather less glorious or victorious. died.
A Worwood, Salisbury, Wilts; R G
The phrase Les Marrons sont
“The bodies of the clothed and the naked were covered in oil, which “I feel sure that someone has been taking care of me over all these
Bond, North Bersted, W. Sussex.
cuites (the chestnuts are cooked)
coated large sections of the sea as the swell and tides either took them out years. I only have to think back to Dunkirk when, with ships sinking all
was broadcast… and scores of
or brought them back to shore. around me, I said: ‘God help us’ – and He did.”
parcels were collected from the
beach near Perpignan. They were
taken to Gibraltar in foul seas.
“The air was thick with the
stench of sick and dirty bodies More than mere criminals
but with the weather so atrocious
no hatches could be opened to
let in a bit of fresh air,” Stephens
RESPECT to Ross Kemp.
spread the anti-piracaccy,, a and pro-andnd pro-o- the athhe average Somali liverar ge es on bunch – but not in the same
recalls.
You may (or may not) like him
RN, message. under $2 a daunder e $ y. way that a fundamentalist in
His time with with Unlike the people
“The water was strictly for
as an actor, but he’s carved out an
Un Afghanistan are fearless.
Northumberland taught taught traffitra ckers in the “If pirates don’t fear a Type
cooking and drinking only, so no
admirable niche as a documentary
him that he “would hahaveve regre ion who ‘help’ 23 frigate, then they don’t fear
one could have washed – even if
maker.
to look at what was as Somalis cross the S anything,” he points out. “A
he’d had a mind to.”
Not in the Desmond Wilcox,
happening not only y Gulf of G Aden to merchant vessel was taken from
It’s a shame the author doesn’t
John Pilger, Michael Apted cure-
out at sea, but YYeemen (illegally).m under our noses despite the
go into slightly more detail
the-socio-economic-problems-of-
also on land” and They earTheh y n a fortune impressive military presence.”
about the nuts and bolts of these
the-world sense, more in the Chris
that the Gulf of and don’and don t care whether This is a really good read and
missions – it may well be modesty
Terrill prepare-to-get-your-hands-
Aden is not a small their ‘cargo’‘car reaches its gets to the rub of the issue better
on his part, but the Tarana’s crew
dirty sense.
stretch of ocean. destination or not.tion o o than any academic study or work
were brave men, as evidenced by
He’s twice joined troops on the
“Ships wwere ere NorNorthumberland and Kemp thumbem by a celebrated maritime expert.
France’s award of the Croix de
front line in Afghanistan, he’s been
dotted around belobelow w came across a dhocame across a d w crammed to And because of its author’s
Guerre to them.
on the mean streets of various cities
us,” he says of a flfl ight in the gills with ‘fi sher s men’. “These reputation, it should enjoy a wide
HP BOOKFINDERS: Established
But Stephens does give an
to look at gang culture, and earlier
Northumberland’s Merlin,Merlin “but ut people could hapeople could havvee been fi shermen, audience far beyond those who
excellent – and very lively –
this year he was fi lmed looking at
professional service locating out
even though there were many but you’d have more luck tickling normally pick up nautical tomes.
account of life in one of His
the pirate problem in Somalia.
of print titles on all
of them, they were insignifi cant trout than trying your luck with “Piracy is a seaborne menace
Majesty’s Trawlers, life in
A spin-off of that documentary
compared to the vastness of the that kind of tackle.” that has its roots in poverty and
subjects. No obligation or SAE
Gibraltar in the eye of the storm
is Pirates (Penguin, £16.99 ISBN
ocean.” The second half of Kemp’s book political unrest on land,” he
required. Contact: Mosslaird,
such as the work of the burial ship
978-0-718-15443-1) which divides
During the presenter’s looks at the problem on land – and concludes. “And long as these
Brig O’ Turk, Callander, FK17 8HT
HMS Laurel, and the liberation
its time between land and sea.
time aboard, one ship, MV not just in Somalia, but also the continue, pirates will always take
Telephone/Fax: (01877) 376377
of Marseille.
The latter was spent with
Saldanha, was seized by pirates; Malacca Strait and Nigeria where to the sea.” martin@hp-bookfinders.co.uk
Tarana was the fi rst Allied
HMS Northumberland escorting
Northumberland was told not there’s a less-publicised pirate
www.hp-bookfinders.co.uk
ship into harbour in September
shipping to Somalia over the
to engage the enemy in case the scourge.
1944 (Allied engineers blew up
winter – and running the pirate
brigands vented their anger on In many cases, the pirate
part of a blockship so she could
gauntlet in doing so.
the hostages. For the Merlin crew, operation in Nigeria is run along
sail in) and ended the war in the
Kemp was an ‘RN virgin’, so
their GPMG locked and loaded, it Mafi a-esque lines.
Med performing general duties,
the guys in the senior rates mess
was “f**king frustrating”. It was Yet here too issues on land are
ferrying prisoners and mail
made him feel at home: a picture
perhaps the right decision. After driving actions at sea. Nigeria
around.
of Sharon and Roly the dog
two months, the Saldanha’s crew makes $40bn a year from its oil
She was fi nally brought back
from EastEnders pinned to the
were released unharmed (a ransom reserves; a good $30bn of that
to England and returned to her
underside of the bunk above and a
of nearly $2m was paid). ends up in the pockets of one per
original owners. “She had never
‘gentlemen’s’ mag to ‘read’.
What also comes through is that cent of the populace, while 90
deserted us or let us down,” says
Don’t expect a literary
pirates aren’t some cardboard cut- million Nigerians live on less than
the author as the ship’s company masterpiece, but if you want out Hollywood villains. You may a dollar a day.
left Tarana for the fi nal time. “No something which spells out in very despise what they do, but in many And if the Somali pirates are
throat was without a lump and simple, honest terms what the RN cases they are desperate people seen as local celebrities, those in
few eyes were dry.” does and why it does it, this is it. acting desperately. Nigeria are seen as superhuman. A
In fact it’s about the best “Foreign ships have made a policeman told Kemp adamantly ■ Navy News readers can buy
the book for the discounted price overview of the problem, written beeline for the Gulf, hoovering that bullets would simply melt
of £7.50 (including postage) in layman’s terms that you’ll fi nd. up the precious fi sh stocks – to upon striking the skin of a pirate.
from the publishers at 21 Burrs Kemp explains a very the tune of $300m a year – to “It does. I have seen it. They have
Road, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, complicated problem in sell around the world, destroying juju.”
CO15 4LA, quoting the reference uncomplicated terms – and that’s the livelihood of these Somali What strikes Kemp is that the
‘RNN’. no bad thing if you’re trying to
fi shermen,” Kemp points out; pirates themselves are a fearless
048-049_NN_Nov.indd 2 19/10/09 17:02:52
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