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RE: A New Year dawns

 
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RE: A New Year dawns - 8/19/2011 2:56:11 PM   
witpqs


Posts: 26087
Joined: 10/4/2004
From: Argleton
Status: offline 		Percival to Christmas Island. Sort of like being sent to the North Pole on a Very Secret Mission - "Maintain radio silence and stand by for important messages from HQ!"

(in reply to Roger Neilson II)
Post #: 31
January 3rd 1942 - 8/28/2011 10:27:43 PM   
Roger Neilson II


Posts: 1517
Joined: 7/16/2006
From: Newcastle upon Tyne. England
Status: offline 		Yo bloody ho ho me hearties and a life on the ocean wave!

So here I sit on this rust bucket the AM Toowoomba, moving somewhere up the Malayan coastline. Every now and then we pull into the overhanging trees as another Kate flies overhead. We have seen bigger ships in the distance, we have heard the inevitable bombings and secondary explosions. I’m on a ‘top secret’ mission - that’s what Pulford wanted to see me about. My job is to get to Ultan Meiltang and see if the Japs are there. I’m also supposed to find the 22nd Indian and ‘evaluate’ their combat readiness as they got badly mauled by the Japs at Kuala. There’s no armour on this tub and apart from a couple of antiquated deck guns and some rigged machine guns there is nothing to dissuade even a Malaccan Pirate from taking us on! Pulford said he wants maybe to land some troops at this Ultan Meiltang and cut the Japs off as they move on Singers - he is of course as deluded as Percival was.

Why me? What had I done in my so far unremarkable military career to alert him to me prowess for this task? Might have something to do with begin caught with General XXXXXXXXXX’s daughter on the billiard table in the mess on New Year’s Eve. I did hear that said General wanted my goolie chits removed! Not the first time I’ve been caught in this position - but the girl was ripe for the chase and it was good fun.

So maybe this is Pulford’s way of getting rid of me…. a sort of ‘one way ticket’? Whilst i was pretty well ill informed about the war in Singers, I’m now blinder than a blind man in a coal black dungeon. How to get out of this predicament is what I keep wondering.

Editor’s note, I have excised the name of the General that Flashman refers to here in the interests of preserving his own character and that of his daughter - who latterly made a very good marriage.

< Message edited by Roger Neilson II -- 8/28/2011 10:32:38 PM >

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Post #: 32
3rd January 1942 - 8/28/2011 10:30:12 PM   
Roger Neilson II


Posts: 1517
Joined: 7/16/2006
From: Newcastle upon Tyne. England
Status: offline 		Duplicate entry, strange.

< Message edited by Roger Neilson II -- 8/28/2011 10:33:16 PM >

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Post #: 33
January 6th 1942 - 9/3/2011 7:19:16 AM   
Roger Neilson II


Posts: 1517
Joined: 7/16/2006
From: Newcastle upon Tyne. England
Status: offline 		Well now, sat in Port Sweetenham harbour. Still on this rust bucket - which has its advantages as the japs can't be ar**** to waste a bomb on us. They have plenty of other targets mind you - 12 other ships of varied sizes and designs all embarking the remnants of the 22nd Indian Brigade. Includes two destroyers. Pulford has decided to save this lot for another day and despite raids from Betties, Kates and Lilys - supported by Oscars there is only one reported sunk ship and one badly damaged. It has to be asked whether this is a good use of ships mind you jut to save some native troops. Has Pulford gone soft or is this a diversion to keep the jap airforce busy here rather than elsewhere? Hopefully the remnants of the force will embark overnight and Port Sweetenham will be empty for the next round of air attacks.....though the ships still have to clear the Malacca Straits. I am racking my brains as to how to extricate myself from this place.....

Editor's note: It is interesting that Flashman is entirely unaware of the successful extrication of the Australian Brigades from Singapore, the orderly withdrawal of the Burmese forces to the Akyab lines, the build up of defences on Sumatra, the powerful development of the Andamans. Today also marked the first day of air attacks on Port Moresby from the newly taken Rabaul airbase.

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Post #: 34
January 9th 1942 - 9/17/2011 10:42:35 AM   
Roger Neilson II


Posts: 1517
Joined: 7/16/2006
From: Newcastle upon Tyne. England
Status: offline 		Well we are somewhere off Bangka Island - its to our Port if I have this naval speak sorted in my head. We are steaming southerly. Behind us is Singers, which we passed overnight. Still on this tub and not a lot has happened thankfully. Landed at Port Sweaty to find the pace empty apart from some disabled vehicles - rotor arms removed etc etc, We gathered from the locals that there is fighting going on East of there and maybe some of our forces have gotten behind the Jap advance. Good luck to them I say, though frankly I doubt if the Japs will treat them very well if they get taken - which is highly likely - there don't seem to be a landing spot anywhere on the Malayan coast left now.

So Lcdr Hirst gets in touch with Singers and we have new orders.... but he hasn't chosen to share them with me. Chappies on deck spend all day looking toward at the sea surface - maybe looking for periscopes - and upwards in case the Jap flyboys come calling - one good near miss and this tub will fall apart.

Editor's note - this was puzzling me until I realised that this was Flashman's second visit to Port Sweetenham. The first still had the troops being evacuated, whereas this one obviously records the successful embarkation of all of them.

Wish I knew what was going on - I don't know where is safest until I have some clue about where not to be.........

< Message edited by Roger Neilson II -- 9/17/2011 10:45:19 AM >

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Post #: 35
January 11th 1942 - 9/23/2011 12:56:29 PM   
Roger Neilson II


Posts: 1517
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From: Newcastle upon Tyne. England
Status: offline 		So we arrive in this little port called Ossthaven - Duch place. I have a 'chat' with LCDR Hirst and point out that unless I can see specific orders pertaining to me then I will count myself a supernumerary on his fine vessel (my A*****) and needs must go and locate higher command and find out what my orders are. This flummoxes the navy boy who obviously has no authority over me on land and may in fact, if truth were told, be glad to be rid of me.

So I stow my gear, and am promptly deposited on the jetty and off he goes.......

Place is a bit busy with lighters loading up with troops, pulling away from the piers and heading out to bigger ships offshore. A local boy comes up and offers to carry my kitbag... and off we stroll. He takes me to some warehouse place where HQ is situated and there, cohabiting is Malaya Army HQ and 223 Group RAF. Its all a bit busy but I present myself to Colonel Leister and once my 'bona fides' have been checked he deigns to see me for a few moments. Turns out I have been completely forgotten about, presumed food for the sharks. He has no use for me (suits me to old boy I thought) but can find me a berth on the XAP West point - currently in harbour (typical bloody army passes the problem to someone else always) so my orders are speedily cut and I have the 'boy' carry my kitbag back down to the piers again..... then the humiliation of it all, I have to join a queue with loads of other HQ types and wait my turn for a space in one of these lighters...... Finally on board, having to clamber up rope ladders is not my way of arriving for a cruise - and we all are just bedding down in any bit of deck available. I gather in conversation with others that both Manila and Rangoon have fallen to the slant eyes. My orders are to rejoin Malayan Army HQ - but they failed to specify where they are..... again the rumour mill on board has it variously at Port Blair, Chittagong, Cocos Islands, Diego Garcia, Singapore, Australia....... maybe when we are out at sea I can persuade a matelot to tell the the course and speculate on where we are heading, though I gather there's a lot of 'zigzagging' to throw any Jap subs off their attacks.




Attachment (1)

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Post #: 36
January 13th 1942 - 10/11/2011 7:28:04 AM   
Roger Neilson II


Posts: 1517
Joined: 7/16/2006
From: Newcastle upon Tyne. England
Status: offline 		Well I must say the accommodation leaves a lot to be desired, its surely not The Ritz, the decks are hard, there is no nice totty wandering about and no gleaming trays of G&Ts to be summoned at a moment's raise of an eyebrow.. However the course has left Oosthaven behind two days ago and despite the zig zagging we are predominantly heading with the dawn behind us, so its Westerly Ho with a song in the air........ and ahead of us must be Cape Town and a nice safe berth for the rest of the War. No slant eyes will get that far and its going to be a very nice place to sojourn for the duration. Don't know how many days - weeks on board the West Point before we sight land, but I can put up with this 'roughing it' for the moment.

Editor's note, its interesting how wrong HIP's calculations are........ I can only assume his knowledge of geography was surmounted by what may be termed, 'wishful thinking'.

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Post #: 37
RE: January 13th 1942 - 10/11/2011 9:04:03 AM   
Alfred

 

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Status: offline 		You mean to say he has confused dusk with dawn.

Actually that mistake would be quite understandable when you take into account his nocturnal activity. Flashman could easily confuse the two time periods.

Alfred

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Post #: 38
RE: January 13th 1942 - 10/11/2011 9:22:32 AM   
Roger Neilson II


Posts: 1517
Joined: 7/16/2006
From: Newcastle upon Tyne. England
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Alfred

You mean to say he has confused dusk with dawn.

Actually that mistake would be quite understandable when you take into account his nocturnal activity. Flashman could easily confuse the two time periods.

Alfred


Editor's comments: For some commentators it is a good thing that HIP is no longer with us. In his lifetime he employed in later years the firm of Sue, Grabbit and Runne Solicitors on a regular basis to 'defend' his reputation and many people who accused him of being a lothario, a lounge lizard, a louche or worse ended up subsidising his 'comfortable' lifestyle. As Shakespeare says, 'The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred......' though to be somewhat candid it is often difficult to discover from his diaries the 'good' that his reputation is based upon up to now.

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Post #: 39
January 15th 1942 - 10/21/2011 9:14:50 AM   
Roger Neilson II


Posts: 1517
Joined: 7/16/2006
From: Newcastle upon Tyne. England
Status: offline 		Well I'm off the West Point, now back on 'dry' land. Well dry land of sorts. There is much activity in building emplacements out of sand to defend this place with HQ typewriters and carbon paper! At the moment we are still the Malayan Army HQ - though maybe this should be redesignated as the Cocos HQ.........

Its all very improvised, but at least we have a lot of ocean between us and the Japs........This has got to be some temporary staging post though surely?

As usual no-one knows anything - there's a sense of rush around and look busy - maybe we will confuse the japs as much as ourselves and win the war that way.

Am I doomed to sit the war out here or can i find a way of getting to somewhere at least that has bars and totty?



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Post #: 40
January 17th 1942 - 11/9/2011 3:45:58 PM   
Roger Neilson II


Posts: 1517
Joined: 7/16/2006
From: Newcastle upon Tyne. England
Status: offline 		Well hip hip hooray and lets all have a drink or three..... trouble is that on this patch of crab inhabited waste there's nothing to drink unless I start to ferment carbon paper and invent a new cocktail.

Ah well its all right for some, back in the bars and dives across the Empire they will be raising a glass to our brave boys in the navy.

It would seem that a force of the CL Achilles and some escorting destroyers managed to sneak into some major Jap staging port of Babblydabbly or something. They found four juicy oil tankers there with a couple of destroyers as company, all tied up for the night. Scenes from Dante's Inferno ensued as the Tankers went up full of fuel. Now the brave lads have just got to sneak back home through a lot of nasty Jap planes.

Anyway the CO says we all have to have a good 'knees up' about this and has issued an extra ration of tea to everyone.

Ye Gods I will go crazy here.........

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Post #: 41
RE: January 17th 1942 - 1/3/2012 5:44:45 AM   
Roger Neilson II


Posts: 1517
Joined: 7/16/2006
From: Newcastle upon Tyne. England
Status: offline 		Very sad news that DivePac lost his battle with his illness in late November.

RIP Des, thoughts to all his family.

Roger

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Post #: 42
RE: January 17th 1942 - 1/3/2012 1:50:14 PM   
PaxMondo


Posts: 9750
Joined: 6/6/2008
Status: offline 		Ahh, I was quite afraid of this news for sometime.  Condolences to his family.

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Pax

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Post #: 43
RE: January 17th 1942 - 1/22/2012 1:15:49 PM   
Roger Neilson II


Posts: 1517
Joined: 7/16/2006
From: Newcastle upon Tyne. England
Status: offline 		Since the 'news' broke DivePac has been in touch to say he is still in the land of the living, has been very ill and is under doctor's orders as to what he can and cannot do. One of those strictures is that he is not to play WITP, so this campaign has been halted.

Maybe Flashman will rise again......

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Post #: 44
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