A good read

[Seahawk]

Thought I'd just recommend "Alarm Starboard" by Geoffrey Brooke as one of the best war reminiscences I've read for some time: I'm surprised it's passed me by thus far.

It almost reads like a novel, where our hero (Hornblower, Sharpe, Biggles, whoever) contrives to be on the spot for most of the major events of the war. But this guy was indeed

- on board Nelson when she was torpedoed early in the war,

- in Prince of Wales for the Argentia conference (when (of course) he met Churchill),

- and the Hood/Bismarck exchange

- and for her sinking,

- present at the fall of Singapore

- serves in Bermuda on the Russian convoys and

- ends up as Chief Flight Deck Director in Formidable during the strikes on Sakashima Gunto and the kamikaze attacks.

Quite a bit of the book is devoted to his escape from Singapore, culminating in a voyage across the Indian Ocean from Sumatra to Ceylon in a prahm, a sort of junk- or dhow-type thing. I thought this bit would drag but it actually proved one of the most moving bits of the book, opening my eyes to the countless acts of selfless and barely recorded bravery ordinary people demonstrated in the post-Singapore shambles.

And to cap it all the guy write in a lively manner: you get vivid, eye-witness accounts. Heartily recommended.

Oh, and BTW the photos include several of Gloss Sea Blue Corsairs on Formidable: one showing part of some nose art.

Nick

[DCRanger]

Oh, and BTW the photos include several of Gloss Sea Blue Corsairs on Formidable: one showing part of some nose art.

Nick

Nick, do any of the photo's include Hammy Gray's Corsair? His usual aircraft was 119 though on his last flight he flew 115.

John

[stevehnz]

Thanks for the recommendation Nick, it sounds like one to track down. I recently read "Escape from the Rising Sun" by Ian Sidmore about the escape from Singapore by Geoffrey Rowley-Conwy & his journey on the same craft, the 'Sederhana Djohanis' as Brooke. It was a good read too & quite an epic. It has an interesting twist at the end concerning another of Brooke's shipmates. Does he mention the 'Krait'?

Steve

[Seahawk]

Nick, do any of the photo's include Hammy Gray's Corsair? His usual aircraft was 119 though on his last flight he flew 115.

John

No, none of the photos include any discernable details of any of the things we modellers care about viz serials, side nos. The only bit of modelling intelligence I could glean is that the undercarriage doors carried only the last two of the side number (eg "21" "43") but I think everyone but me knew that: certainly Airfix did for their new FAA Corsair sheet. Also some Corsairs show some ghosting around the national insignia where inadequate masking has led to overspray. And there's a shot that catches a folded wing Corsair at just the right angle to show what the clipped wingtips should look like.

As regards Gray's aircraft (ducks in anticipation of incoming from IanG) there's a thread on another forum about this, with weighty contributions from a Canadian gentleman who's gone into the subject in depth. Personally I take my steer from David Hobbs' article in "The British Pacific and East Indies Fleets - 50th Anniversary", where he says that a CPO Sweet who took the spotting report of the ships in Onigawa Wan out to Gray in his aircraft just before take-off "noted that Lieutenant Gray, whose own aircraft was damaged, was in KD658", which Sturtivant lists as "115/X" and "believed" to be Gray's a/c in this attack.

Brookes had met Gray and records his impressions but admits he did not know him well.

HTH

Nick

[Seahawk]

Thanks for the recommendation Nick, it sounds like one to track down. I recently read "Escape from the Rising Sun" by Ian Sidmore about the escape from Singapore by Geoffrey Rowley-Conwy & his journey on the same craft, the 'Sederhana Djohanis' as Brooke. It was a good read too & quite an epic. It has an interesting twist at the end concerning another of Brooke's shipmates. Does he mention the 'Krait'?

Steve

Yes, he does. Presumably you're referring to Ivan Lyon and his 1943 attack on merchant shipping in Singapore harbour. 39000 tons of shipping destroyed? One feels that, had the same exploits taken place closer to home, there would decorations and publicity galore plus a film in the 1950s.

But what moved me was the self-sacrifice of ordinary servicemen in various God-forsaken muddy Sumatran creeks who knowingly abandoned their own chances of escape to help others do so. I found it humbling to belong to a nation that produced such people.

Nick

[DCRanger]

As regards Gray's aircraft (ducks in anticipation of incoming from IanG) there's a thread on another forum about this, with weighty contributions from a Canadian gentleman who's gone into the subject in depth. Personally I take my steer from David Hobbs' article in "The British Pacific and East Indies Fleets - 50th Anniversary", where he says that a CPO Sweet who took the spotting report of the ships in Onigawa Wan out to Gray in his aircraft just before take-off "noted that Lieutenant Gray, whose own aircraft was damaged, was in KD658", which Sturtivant lists as "115/X" and "believed" to be Gray's a/c in this attack.

CPO Sweet is also mentioned in A Formidable Hero (Stewart E Soward) and according to him Gray flew 119 on a regular basis from February onwards. On the day 119 was blocked between two damaged aircraft and so Gray had to take 115 instead. No serials mentioned.

Can you provide a link to the other forum that you mention?

[Seahawk]

CPO Sweet is also mentioned in A Formidable Hero (Stewart E Soward) and according to him Gray flew 119 on a regular basis from February onwards. On the day 119 was blocked between two damaged aircraft and so Gray had to take 115 instead. No serials mentioned.

Can you provide a link to the other forum that you mention?

Not really, I afraid: not sure I remember where I saw it. Probably Hyperscale.

Nick

[Seahawk]

Can you provide a link to the other forum that you mention?

Found it! In case this link does not work, it's a thread entitled "Robert Hampton Gray Corsair IV? Onagawa" started at 1249 on 27/12/2005. Includes details on which Corsairs active on which days.

http://www.clubhyper.com/forums/forum.htm

[DCRanger]

Thanks - that opens a whole new can or worms as far as markings go!

John