About me? 52 years old, ex-sailor (10 yrs in the RN), now living in Liverpool.
My father, who served aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Kedive during WW2, used to tell a story of a plane needing to land on the ship, that had no hook to grab onto the arrester cables stretched across the deck.
After much discussion, the problem was solved thus - 'Right, when the plane touches down, we all rush out and grab it. That should work.' - No health and safety issues in them days.
I've put together a slideshow which features a photograph of the incident, along with a few others showing 'Crash on deck'. It can be viewed at
myverdict, an exercise in Direct Democracy. I enclose one of them here.
The photos in the slideshow at
myverdict, an exercise in Direct Democracy were taken in the Far East, in 1945. There is some more memorabilia that I intend to post. I am currently putting together another slideshow which will show, among other things, some signals received by the Khedive, informing the crew of the end of hostilities against the Japanese. It will take a few days before they're posted.
My father was a bit of a crooner, in the Bing Crosby mode and used to do shows for the troops.
One story he told still brings tears to my eyes. They were giving a concert for the prisoners-of-war, from Changi. So traumatised were these men, that, after the concert, they went back into Changi, seeking some comfort in the familiar, that was that hellhole.
I recently received an email from an American, telling me that his father had been repatriated via Singapore and may well have been at that concert.
My only regret is that I was unable to complete the slideshow while my father was still alive. He died in July, so this was a bit of a memorial for him. I may do a bio of him and his service and post that aswell.
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