Volume 5, Issue 2 April 2016

Editorial By Shipmate Norrie Millen Hi! Shipmates, The Rum Tub or Norrie’s Nocturnal and Nautical ow has your year been so far? Better than Natter Hmine, I trust. Now four weeks into a very bad chest infection, which foolishly I aggravated In this issue by going out on cold evening to deliver my Editorial...... 1 Welfare Seminar report to RNA Torbay. Then Polo Shirt Diagram ...... 2 rubbed ‘salt into wound’ by attending a Shipmate’s Boy on a battleship ...... 2-3 90th birthday bash two days later. I decided on leaving party Life onboard a warship...... 4-5 early and getting back to my ‘sick bed’ History of the swastika ...... 6-8 Satan the wonder dog ...... 8-10 iterally counting the minutes until I could get back into a US aircraft carrier did not exist ... 11-12 Lwarm bed, I had just exited Besigheim Way (South Devon Highway) and heading down to the large roundabout to take Water Teignmouth road. As I slowed to exit the slip round, went to A woman goes to the Doctor, change down (gears) and found I could not. Just a horrible, worried about her husband's temper. expensive grinding sound! Managed to coast onto the grass of the roundabout, offside wheels hanging dangerously into lane The Doctor asks, "What's the problem? The woman says: and placed a call to AA Rescue. As I was considered to be in a very dangerous position, the AA placed me on very high priority "Doctor, I don't know what to do. Every day my husband seems to lose list, which was good as it only took the rescue van and hour to his temper for no reason. It scares turn up! Eventually towed to a repair facility, I did not get me." home for two hours after I left the party. The Doctor says, "I have a cure for ow my wallet is £488 lighter because of getting new that. When it seems that your Nclutch. I had intended to pay with my credit card until husband is getting angry, just take a the garage receptionist informed me it would cost me an glass of water and start swishing it in extra £100 to use a credit card. So beware when using the your mouth. Just swish and swish credit card on large bills, it could cost you more money than but don't swallow it until he either you want to spend. leaves the room or calms down. Two weeks later the woman comes am in process of gathering in orders for polo shirts with back to the doctor looking fresh and IUlster crest and text beneath, which I have emailed out to reborn. The woman says all on internet. There are many colours to pick from, so have "Doctor that was a brilliant idea! a think about it (that’s long enough!) and let me know what Every time my husband started size and colour you would like, you can order as many as you losing it, I swished with water. I like for £14.00 each plus postage.(See diagram next page) swished and swished, and he calmed right down! How does a glass of n closing, I will touch on the In/Out campaign of water do that?" Iremaining members of the EEC. I remember and seem to The Doctor says, "The water itself feel we were much better off before we joined the market, I does nothing. It's keeping your could be wrong. I am sure you have all been watching and mouth shut that does the trick". listening to the two main groups, the Stay in and Get out groups. A lot of merit in what they both say, but I feel there is a lot more we don’t or won’t know until it’s all over. No matter how we all feel, the politicians will get their way and leave us high and dry no doubt. The way I see it anyway! Volume 5 Issue 2 April 2016

Boy on a Battleship

A monograph published by the TON Class Spike's descriptions of exercises on a grand Association recording observations of life scale and conduct of 14 - inch gun shoots aboard the battleship HMS DUKE OF YORK would be hard for most former sailors to in 1948 by TCA member CPO Spike match. His observations of routine in the Wheeler, then a Boy Seaman. There is no one Captain's Office are quite different to the currently serving in the who has experiences gained by some of us in small ever seen a battleship and very few in the ships. However, the passages, which many RNA or any other associations, who actually will find of most interest, are his views on the served in one. wealth of goods, and particularly foodstuffs, The monograph is in the form of a diary with available in the Caribbean and USA. comments about daily routine in a battleship. Comparisons with the extant Post-War It is a unique record of that era and has a rationing in Britain are an eye-opener! particular value of being life seen through the This monograph follows other extracts of the eyes of a teenage Boy Seaman. As such, it diary kept by Spike throughout his 28 years’ has value for the serious historian, as well as service in the RN, including clearing the Suez former sailors everywhere. Canal Block-ships in 1956, search for the lost Rum Tub Page - 2 Volume 5 Issue 2 April 2016

Scimitar aircraft in 1958 and the 1000 foot Two great white sharks swimming in the dive in 1959. ocean spied survivors of a sunken ship. "Follow me son," the father shark said to Boy on a Battleship, You will enjoy the 30 the son shark and they swam to the pages of Spike's diary if you: ever served in a mass of people. battleship, or ever wondered what it was like "First we swim around them a few times to live in a floating barracks with over 2000 with just the tip of our fins showing." others. If you enjoy tales from the Lower And they did. Deck, especially seen through the eyes of a "Well done, son! Now we swim around Boy Seaman or can reminisce about the when them a few times with all of our fins the RN still had capital ships, or if you are a showing." student of Social History of the Royal Navy. And they did. £1 from each copy sold is donated to the "Now we eat everybody." RNBT. The softback illustrated monograph is And they did. available for a modest £7.50 Inc. P & P. When they were both gorged, the son asked, "Dad, why didn't we just eat them Cheque payable to Ton Class Association, all at first? Why did we swim around and around them?" His wise father replied, "Because they taste better after you scare the s*** out of them."

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Life onboard a warship in our much-reduced Royal Navy By Nigel Farndale – The Spectator – February 7th 2016 Submitted by Shipmate Mick Dowling HMS Ulster 1958-60

The helmsman’s a woman, the They still refer to a ‘man overboard’ even wardrooms are unisex... but the stokers though 10 per cent of the crew are now are disappearing in droves women — including, incidentally, the ‘helmsman’ in the rescue boat. There was The Royal Navy is known as the Senior some resistance to the introduction of Service because of its illustrious history; women to frontline duties back in 1990. Francis Drake and all that. However the But now no one notices. The wardrooms days when it ruled the waves have long are unisex, and women do the jobs men gone. In 1945, it had almost 900 do. warships and a million men. By the time of Doing the rounds of the the Falklands ship is a DVD of Sailor, War, it was down the 1970’s BBC TV to 70 warships documentary set on and 70,000 HMS Ark Royal. men. Now it is Officers are amazed less than half that, at scenes showing with more admirals porn mags lying than there are fighting around the wardrooms. ships. That wouldn’t happen today. They are intrigued that all the The arrival this year of HMS Queen officers speak in public-school accents, Elizabeth, the much-heralded new which is no longer the case. However aircraft carrier that has cost £6 billion what surprises them most is how not (for 50-odd years of life), will draw much else has changed, especially in unwelcome attention to the Navy’s terms of the ‘Jack speak’ (as in Jolly Jack significant manpower shortages. As one Tar). The paymaster is still ‘the Pusser’, senior officer put it, the carrier will bring your bunk is still your ‘grot’ and even ‘new challenges, relearning old tricks some now very un-PC terms survive, such perhaps and some new — not least how to as ‘-gollies’ (naval intelligence officers). man it’. They put a brave face on things, They still toast the Queen sitting down, as you would expect. But what is morale and the toast to Nelson on Trafalgar Day really like in the Royal Navy? is still ‘The Immortal Memory’, followed To find out, I joined HMS Bulwark on by silence. manoeuvres in the Mediterranean for a However, the captain told me other few days. I was given unprecedented traditions are being lost to political access — I went up in a £100 million correctness. The Saturday toast ‘To our submarine-hunting Merlin helicopter, wives and sweethearts; may they never and out at night with Royal Marine meet’ has recently been replaced by ‘To commandos in one of the ship’s four giant our families’, which he thinks ‘lacks assault . Most edifying of all, humour, somewhat’. He also rues the I got the chance to talk candidly with recent changing of traditional senior everyone from the stokers in the engine titles, such as ‘flag officers’ to ‘assistant room to a visiting commodore over chiefs of naval staff’, which he thinks has dinner in the captain’s cabin. I also found less gravitas and ‘tone’; something about myself taking part in a ‘man overboard’ which the Royal Navy has traditionally drill. cared deeply.

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In other areas, the language has changed They sleep in cramped conditions, three with the times. When I sat in on briefings, bunks high, and rarely see daylight I understood about 20 per cent of what because there are no windows on the was being said because the Navy speaks ship, apart from on the bridge. ‘If it’s in acronyms. When the captain wanted to steak for dinner it must be Saturday,’ one pass on congratulations to the company said to me. Another complained: ‘We’re on the way they conducted themselves on in a lower pay-band than the stewards, shore, for example, he said: ‘BZs all and all they do is fluff up officers’ round.’ It stands for Bravo Zulu and pillows.’ He added: ‘In the past the main means ‘Well done’. incentive to do this job for 22 years was Another surprisingly modern departure the pension, but now that has been cut to from traditional Navy decorum and a quarter of what it was.’ reserve (think Noël Coward in In Which Last summer, Bulwark was a familiar We Serve) is the way the service is sight on TV as it rescued thousands of slightly obsessed with Twitter. It has two migrants from overcrowded boats off the million followers, which is pretty coast of Libya. Though all the crew impressive, but still. members I talked to found this Down in the engine room, I encountered humanitarian mission rewarding, the some disaffection. None of the stokers on reality was less heart-warming than the Bulwark are planning to leave, but news footage suggested. One officer told elsewhere in the Navy, they are me that when they came on board, the disappearing in droves, partly because of first question some migrants asked was: the 2010 Strategic Defence Review. The ‘Where can I charge my iPhone?’ And the RN agreed to far too many cuts, some stench was terrible, with the dozen or so 6,000 sailors, only to find they are now Portaloos in the hold unable to cope. 3,000 to 4,000 men (and women) short. Parliament has soon to decide whether or Turmoil in the Middle East and Russia’s not to build four replacement Trident aggression everywhere — Putin is no submarines. The move has majority slouch at getting propaganda images of public support, but Jeremy Corbyn and his warships firing cruise missiles at Syria Nicola Sturgeon oppose it, so the subject on to the news — have since forced the will be hotly debated. In the cabinet room government to take the threats to at No. 10, meanwhile, there is now a Britain’s national security more seriously. model of the Queen Elizabeth, a daily Even so, after the defence review last reminder to the PM of what a useful asset November, the Royal Navy was he will soon have at his disposal, both as underwhelmed by the allocation of a ‘hard power’ and ‘soft’. (Russian envoys mere 450 extra sailors to make up the can expect a few invitations to cocktails shortfall. They have been told they will on board.) have to find the rest by transferring So, with all this duality of purpose, is the sailors from other ships, which means Royal Navy’s identity crisis set to deepen? longer deployments. When I asked Captain Nick Cooke-Priest, The RN will even have to recruit sailors shortly before we sailed into harbour at from foreign navies to fill gaps in Malta, he dismissed the idea, ‘because specialist engineering, and lately the one of our primary functions is to protect Admiralty has been busy writing to the seaways that underpin the nation’s former stokers now in Civvy Street, economy and that hasn’t changed.’ He did asking if they will consider returning. concede that ‘We do need to get some There haven’t been many takers, not least equilibrium back, after years of managed because they get paid so much more in decline. civilian jobs, and life at sea is so hard.

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History of the Swastika Researched by Shipmate Norrie Millen The average person (including This conjecture of Aryan cultural descent of the you) sees this flag and German people is likely one of the main reasons immediately thinks of NAZI why the Nazi party formally adopted the swastika Germany, However I know it or Hakenkreuz (Ger., hooked cross) as its symbol will surprise you to learn that in 1920. History of the Swastika or symbol dates back The Nazi party, however, was not the only party 12,000 years! to use the swastika in Germany. After World War The swastika has an extensive history. It was I, a number of far-right nationalist movements used at least 5,000 years before Adolf adopted the swastika. As a symbol, it became Hitler designed the Nazi flag. associated with the idea of a racially “pure” The word swastika comes from state. By the time the Nazis gained control the Sanskrit svastika, which of Germany, the connotations of the means “good fortune” or swastika had forever changed. “well-being." The motif (a In Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler wrote: “I myself, hooked cross) appears to have first meanwhile, after innumerable attempts, had laid been used down a final form; a flag with a red in Neolithic background, a white disk, and a black Eurasia, swastika in the middle. After long trials I perhaps also found a definite proportion between representing the size of the flag and the size of the the movement white disk, as well as the shape and of the sun through thickness of the swastika.” the sky. To this day, A Maypole topped with a swastika is raised for a it is a sacred symbol May Day parade in the Lustgarten in Berlin. The The swastika would become the in Hinduism, May holiday became an important celebration in the most recognizable icon of Nazi Nazi calendar. Germany, April 26, 1939. Buddhism, Jainism, propaganda, appearing on the and Odinism. It is a common sight on temples or flag referred to by Hitler in Mein Kampf as well houses in India or Indonesia. Swastikas also have as on election posters, arm bands, medallions, and an ancient history in Europe, appearing on badges for military and other organizations. A artefacts from pre-Christian European cultures. potent symbol intended to elicit pride among Aryans; the swastika also struck terror into Jews The symbol experienced a resurgence in the late and others deemed enemies of Nazi Germany. nineteenth century, following extensive archaeological work such as that of the famous Despite its origins, the swastika has become so archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. Schliemann widely associated with Nazi Germany that discovered the hooked cross on the site of ancient contemporary uses frequently incite controversy. Troy. He connected it with similar shapes found The swastika (also known as the gammadion on pottery in Germany and speculated that it was cross, cross cramponnée, or wanzi) (as a a “significant religious symbol of our remote character: 卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious symbol ancestors.” that generally takes the form of an equilateral In the beginning of the cross, with its four legs twentieth century, the The symbol of the Swastika bent at 90 degrees. It is swastika was widely used considered to be a sacred in Europe. It had numerous and its 12,000-year-old and auspicious symbol in meanings, the most Hinduism, Buddhism and common being a symbol of history Jainism and dates back to good luck and before 2nd century B.C. auspiciousness. However, the work of Schliemann soon was taken up by völkisch It has been used as a decorative element in movements, for whom the swastika was a symbol various cultures since at least the Neolithic. It is of “Aryan identity” and German nationalist pride known most widely as an important symbol long used in Indian religions, denoting "auspiciousness."

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It was adopted as such in pre-World known by different names in different War I-Europe and later, and most countries - like ‘Wan’ in China, notably, by the Nazi Party and ‘Manji’ in Japan, ‘Fylfot’ in Nazi Germany prior to World War England, ‘Hakenkreuz’ in Germany II. In many Western countries, the and ‘Tetraskelion’ or swastika has been highly ‘Tetragammadion’ in Greece. stigmatized because of its use in A Sanskrit scholar P. R. Sarkar in and association with Nazism.[4] 1979 said that the deeper meaning of This has happened to the point the word is ‘Permanent Victory’. He where it is seen as meaning Nazis and also said that as any symbol it can have Hitler. positive and negative meaning depending on how It continues to be commonly used as a religious it is drawn. So in Hinduism, the right-hand symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism. swastika is a symbol of the God Vishnu and the Sun, while the left-hand swastika is a symbol of Western literature's older term for the symbol, Kali and Magic. The double meaning of symbols gammadion cross, derives mainly from its is common in ancient traditions, like for example appearance, which is identical to four Greek the symbol of the pentagram (five gamma letters affixed to each other. pointed star), which is viewed as The name swastika comes negative when pointing from the Sanskrit word downwards, and positive when svastika (Devanāgarī: pointing upwards.   क), meaning "lucky or auspicious object". The earliest swastika ever found was uncovered in The swastika is a symbol used Mezine, Ukraine, carved on an by of one of the most hated men ivory figurine, which dates an on Earth, a symbol that represents the incredible 12,000 years. One of the earliest slaughter of millions of people and one of the cultures that are known to have used the Swastika most destructive wars on Earth. However, Adolf was a Neolithic culture in Southern Europe, in the Hitler was not the first to use this symbol. In fact, area that is now Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and it was used as a powerful symbol thousands of Herzegovina, known as the Vinca Culture, which years before him, across many cultures and dates back around 8,000 years. continents. In Buddhism, the swastika is a symbol of good For the Hindus and Buddhists in India and other fortune, prosperity, abundance and eternity. It is Asian countries, the swastika was an important directly related to Buddha and can be found symbol for many thousands of years and, to this day, the symbol can still be seen in abundance - carved on statues on the soles of his feet and on temples, buses, taxis, and on the cover of on his heart. It is said that it contains books. It was also used in Ancient Buddha’s mind. Greece and can be found in the On the walls of the Christian remains of the ancient city of catacombs in Rome, the symbol Troy, which existed 4,000 years of the Swastika appears next to ago. The ancient Druids and the Celts also used the symbol, the words “ZOTIKO reflected in many artefacts that ZOTIKO” which means “Life have been discovered. It was of Life”. It can also be found used by Nordic tribes and even on the window openings of the early Christians used the Swastika mysterious Lalibela Rock churches as one of their symbols, including the of Ethiopia, and in various other Teutonic Knights, a German medieval military churches around the world. order, which became a purely religious Catholic Order. But why is this symbol so important and In Nordic Myths, Odin is represented passing why did Adolf Hitler decide to use it? through space as a whirling disk or swastika looking down through all worlds. In North The word ‘swastika’ is a Sanskrit word (‘svasktika’) meaning ‘It is’, ‘Well Being’, ‘Good America, the swastika was used by the Existence, and ‘Good Luck’. However, it is also Navajos. In Ancient Greece, Pythagoras used Rum Tub Page - 7 Volume 5 Issue 2 April 2016

Welfare Report

the Swastika under the name ‘Tetraktys’ and By Shipmate Norrie Millen it was a symbol linking heaven and earth, with the right arm pointing to heaven and its It’s that time of life, we always seem to have couple left arm pointing to Earth. of shipmates in the ‘Walking Wounded’ category and we wish them all a speedy recovery. It has been used by the Phoenicians as a symbol of the Sun and it was a sacred symbol I would like to request that you phone email/about any used by the priestesses. problems/medical issues so that I can, (if you wish) let the other shipmates know in the newsletter. How and why did so many diverse countries Mick Morris has experienced some ongoing medical and cultures, across many eras, use the same issue’s, which has seen him in hospital twice over last symbol and apparently with the same few weeks. Get well soon Mick. Ron ‘Darby’ Allin meaning? also has had a couple of sessions in RDE for some minor surgery, last but by no means least, poor It is ironic, and Barbara Beer has been having a terrible time lately unfortunate, that a with her chronic arthritis and a terrible bout of a chest symbol of life and infection which has dragged on for weeks, that has seen her very poorly. I am sure all shipmates will wish eternity that was all three a complete recovery soon. considered sacred for thousands of years I am part Volunteer Veteran's Support Group in Kingsteignton. Primarily to support sufferers of has become a PTSD and other and associated mental health issues symbol of hatred. There are other groups in Torbay and South & East Devon. There are also groups all over the country. If The swastika, the Phoenician sun symbol, on the you know of anyone that would like some support, Phoenician Craig-Narget stone in Scotland, and please put them in touch with your local group. on the robe of a Phoenician high priestess.

Satan the messenger dog who helped Allies turn tide of Great War remembered 100 years on

The black crossbreed dodged German bullets Satan’s amazing dash is an almost-forgotten as he dashed across no-man's land during act of valour in one of the bloodiest battles of bloody Battle of Verdun to deliver a vital the First World War. message to French soldiers American war reporter Albert Peyson Loyal friend: Soldier and messenger dog Terhune wrote: “The garrison was able to wearing a gas mask Image hold out until reinforcements came all A brave messenger dog because one hairy mongrel refused called Satan survived a to die while his errand was still hail of German bullets uncompleted and because he to help turn the tide in was too loyal to quit.” the bloody Battle of Hellish: French infantry Verdun, which during lull in Verdun began 100 years ago shelling Image on Sunday. Verdun was one of the Pitifully wounded, he longest battles in history. It staggered through no- was also one of the most man’s-land with a broken savage. leg. More than 300,000 men lost their And even after seeing his master shot dead he lives in a hellish struggle, which raged around pressed on to bring hope to a besieged the ancient French city on the River Meuse battalion – encouraging them to renew the from February to December 1916. fight and end the enemy push on Paris. The Germans first attacked on February 21. They aimed to “bleed the French army white”

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and force them to surrender, leaving Britain He called out, urging him on. When the dog to fight on alone. heard his master’s voice he quickened By autumn, soldiers trapped inside his pace, leaping from crater to Verdun were badly outnumbered crater. and outgunned. Supplies were For the first mile and a half running low, so was morale. he was able to dash One French officer said “the between bushes to avoid whole valley was turned into being spotted but the a volcano, its exit blocked by second half of his the barrier of the slain”. journey was across open fields. A small contingent of soldiers boxed in by the enemy had When the Germans spotted been ordered to hold out until Satan they unleashed their reinforcements arrived. entire arsenal in his direction, determined to stop him For days they fought on but no help delivering his message. came. Telephone and telegraph lines were down and no homing pigeons remained to Journalist Terhune wrote: “Satan staggered send word of their desperate plight. to his feet, reeling and dizzy. For an instant he seemed to have lost his way. Then he Seven men had tried to deliver messages to settled into the steady run again. HQ. All had been cut down. “No longer could he travel so fast or use the Then the besieged troops, low on food, bullet-dodging gait his trainers had taught ammunition and hope, peered from their him. Yet it did not occur to his great soul to trenches during a fresh artillery onslaught call it a day and to collapse under his wounds and saw an amazing sight. But Satan had and the mortal agony that wracked him.” heard his master’s voice and it was enough to spur him on. Satan stumbled on, his wounded leg hanging limp, miraculously making it to the French A large winged shadow was racing towards trench where he collapsed shivering into the them, moving so fast it almost appeared to be arms of the waiting soldiers. flying. At first it was difficult to tell exactly what the apparition was. It wore a hideous The troops gently removed his gas mask gas mask and across its shoulders and retrieved the letter from was something that looked the brass tube attached to almost like wings. his collar. It read: “For God’s sake hold on. We Some soldiers thought will relieve you their prayers had been tomorrow.” answered by a “heavenly saviour” like Then they saw the the Angel of Mons who “wings” on Satan’s supposedly appeared to back were actually two protect the heavily baskets. Inside each was outnumbered British army in a carrier pigeon scared 1914. almost to death. But one French soldier knew otherwise. The captain scrawled two messages giving co- Duvalle was a dog handler who trained two ordinates for the German gun battery that messenger dogs to carry communications. was reducing the town to rubble. He told his commanders he would hold on but begged His Irish setter named Rip was shot dead them to take out the guns. shortly after being sent to the front. But his other dog , a black crossbreed named Satan, He pressed the notes into small metal tubes had cheated the guns time and again. attached to the pigeons’ legs and cast them into the air. When Duvalle saw the black shape sprinting across the wasteland he knew it was Satan carrying a vital message.

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German snipers were waiting and shot down of the poisonous chemicals seeping through the first pigeon but the second escaped and the soil. flew to HQ. Just setting foot in those woods can be An hour later the roar of the deadly. They are still littered by French guns began and unexploded shells – up to the German battery fell 15% of ordnance fired silent, smashed to during the First World rubble. War did not detonate. It was the beginning of In 2007 a mine blew the end for the enemy. up, killing two workers Satan was not the only who were carrying it to a canine hero from the First munitions plant to be World War. More than defused. 50,000 dogs served in the The following year the trenches. They performed some of the most government decided to fence off the worst dangerous jobs: carrying messages, pulling affected area for ever, the Place-a-gaz in the ammunition carts, and acting as sentries near Spincourt Forest. the top of the trenches, to quietly alert their In these eerie woods the scars of history’s owners to enemy intruders. longest battle will never heal. It is rumoured that Adolf Hitler kept a dog Bizarrely, despite no British forces taking when he served as a lance corporal on the part, the battle prompted hundreds of Western Front. wartime parents to name their babies Britain even set up the War Verdun. Dog School of A total of 901 children were Instruction in 1917 to given the name including a recruit and train brother of Hollywood actor animals. Run by Lt Richard Burton. The next Col Edwin most popular battle baby Richardson, it name was Ypres with 71. trained many of the Unsurprisingly 15 were 7,000 pets given by called Somme after the 1916 owners to fight – and in battle in which British and many cases to die – for Empire troops suffered 420,000 their country. casualties It is not clear what became of Satan. Some accounts say that once his job was done he “treated his tortured body to the luxury of death”. Others claim he slowly recovered from his injuries and retired from the army a national hero. But there is no doubt how badly the battle devastated Verdun and the surrounding countryside. Names of the 162,000 French dead are listed on the battlefield Douaumont Ossuary memorial. The carnage was so appalling both the French and Germans referred to Verdun as “Hell”. A crescent of land covering 25,000 acres around the town was soaked with so much arsenic from exploding shells that the government bought the land and declared it a “red zone” where nobody was allowed to live. They planted forests across the region but 100 years on much of the land remains grey and lifeless, the trees unable to grow because Rum Tub Page - 10 Volume 5 Issue 2 April 2016

This U.S Aircraft Carrier Did Not Exist There was no USS 'Robin'... One of the strange little stories December 1942 was one of America’s of World War II involves the aircraft low points. It was a year after Pearl carrier USS Robin, which didn’t really Harbor and the Japanese fleet had not exist... There was a carrier that sailors yet been crushed. In the South Pacific, called the Robin. She and her sailors the Navy had one fully operational fleet were underneath U.S. Navy command, carrier, USS Saratoga. Japanese took part in American aircraft and destroyers sent battles and the carrier USS Hornet to launched U.S. the bottom in October. planes with USS Enterprise was American pilots. battered. Army She certainly was troops and Marines a carrier, not to had just begun be confused with expelling the last of another USS Robin, a Japan’s troops from minesweeper. Guadalcanal — the beginning of an island hopping campaign that would But the carrier Robin, generally eventually extend thousands of miles speaking, was an illusion. into the Western Pacific. A renewed So what was going on? Turns out, Japanese carrier assault could reverse Robin was the product of the Navy’s these early, meagre gains. That’s when desperation in the Pacific theatre during HMS Victorious came to rescue the the tumultuous months of late 1942 American fleet. and early 1943. Robin was actually the The carrier first arrived for her refit at codenamed HMS Victorious, a British Norfolk Naval Shipyard in January Illustrious-class carrier leased to the 1943. United States. After the Norfolk refit, the Victorious At the time, America needed every transited the Panama Canal and carrier it could get. arrived at Pearl Harbor in “Aircraft carriers had March 1943 to join the arrived at the point of Saratoga Battle Group, technological Task Force 14. Between development that they March and May, the gave a range-extension Victorious underwent option that was not additional modifications available to a battleship at Pearl to specifically fleet,” historian Francis Pike handle the American wrote in his recent and versions of the Grumman TBF exhaustive book Hirohito’s War. Avenger (or British Avenger) and F4F Wildcat (British Martlet). To complete “With overwhelming superiority in the makeover and new look, the terms of numbers of carriers, quality of Victorious temporarily shed her typical aircraft and above all, superb fliers, British Atlantic “admiralty disruptive brilliantly led and trained, Japan camouflage scheme” (irregular patterns needed to bring the U.S. Pacific Navy to of dark and light tones) for the battle as soon as possible.” American standard navy Gray. HMS Victorious before she became USS Robin. Royal Navy photo

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On May 17, 1943, AN IRISH GHOST STORY the Victorious, This story happened a while ago in Dublin, now code-named “Robin,” along and even though it sounds like an Alfred with USS Hitchcock tale ... it's true. Saratoga, John Bradford, a Dublin University student, arrived at the was on the side of the road hitchhiking on a very dark night and in the midst of a big as part of Task Force storm. 36 commanded by Rear Admiral DeWitt The night was rolling on and no car went by. Ramsey, USN. The Saratoga and The storm was so strong he could hardly see a Victorious would become the core of Task few feet ahead of him. Suddenly, he saw a car Group 36.3 under Rear Admiral F. P. slowly coming towards him and stopped. Sherman along with the USS North Carolina (BB-55), USS Massachusetts John, desperate for shelter and without (BB-59), USS Indiana (BB-58), USS San thinking about it, got into the car and closed Diego (CL-53), USS San Juan (CL-54), the door only to realize there was nobody HMAS Australia (D84, a heavy cruiser) behind the wheel and the engine wasn't on. and several escort vessels. Her ship’s The car started moving slowly. John looked at crew was British, but her aircrew and the road ahead and saw a curve approaching. aircraft were American. No one involved Scared, he started to pray, begging for his life. had any illusions that she wouldn’t be Then, just before the car hit the curve, a hand identified as the Victorious by enemy appeared out of nowhere through the window, pilots, so she proudly flew her British and turned the wheel. John, paralysed with Jack throughout her time with the Yanks, terror, watched as the hand came through the even when only the Yanks were flying on window, but never touched or harmed him. and off her flight deck! Shortly thereafter, John saw the lights of a pub Of Note: appear down the road, so, gathering strength; At the time U.S carriers had wooden he jumped out of the car and ran to it. Wet and flight decks and suffered greatly from out of breath, he rushed inside and started attacks, but British carriers telling everybody about the horrible had steel decks and fared much better. experience he had just had. A silence enveloped the pub when everybody realized he was crying and wasn't drunk. Suddenly, the door opened, and two other people walked in from the dark and stormy night. They, like John, were also soaked and out of breath. Looking around, and seeing John Bradford sobbing at the bar, one said to the other.... ‘Look Paddy there's that fooking idiot that got in the car while we were pushing it!'

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