4 October 1953 - The typhoon season officially is from May to September…we have compo rations on board. One good thing about them is that it is impossible to ruin them when they’re being cooked.
18 October 1953 - (continuing the Japan planning) I should change the money into US dollars…it appears the Japs appreciate it more than Sterling or HK dollars.
14 June 1953 - Last monday we worked until 11pm…on Tuesday we were up until 3am. We were on a scheme with the Royal Navy in a place called Tai Po. We had to make an assault landing under pretty realistic conditions. We had one narrow escape when two “enemy” gunboats sent up star shells about 200 yards from us. We could see their outline quite clearly but they didn’t see us.
Loading a 25 pounder on to an LCM:
1 May 1953 - We passed the “Amethyst” yesterday. She looks fine now (HMS AMETHYST was involved in a gun battle with the Chinese communists on the river Yangtze in the late 1940s and was considerably damaged). Also we passed one of the Isbrandtsen ships, the “Flying Clipper”, remember the “Flying Enterprise”? (The “Flying Enterprise”, a cargo ship, got into serious trouble in the Atlantic and took on a terrifying list. The captain became a household word whilst a British tug went out to save her).
19 April 1953 – (Posted in Singapore) The Tiger Balm parks…(are) really strange, small man-made caves, chinese type monsters, miniature pagodas.
Having berthed at Kowloon we were marched up Nathan Road to a transit camp, Whitfield Barracks on the corner of Nathan Road and Austin Road. It didn’t take some of our pals long to realise that Austin road was the centre of “nightlife” on Kowloon-side in the 1950s.
Mr Howell Green has kindly shared his memories (and photos) of this time with us. He writes:
I was posted to the water transport division of the RASC (Royal Army Service Corps), acting as deck crew and/or helmsman on launches, small trawlers (otherwise known as general service launches) and landing craft. A soldier, my trade was “seaman”, my army number was T/22726147, and rank was private.
