• Eric joined as an Ord Signalman 25 February 1940
• Posted to the UK that year posted to Victory
• Upon finishing his training he was posted to the destroyer HMS Beverley 27 Sep 1940 – 31 May 1941.
• He is showing as being posted to the shore establishment HMS Eaglet in Liverpool 1 June – 15 October 1941
• Was sent to HMS Drake from 16 October 1941 to 21 April 1942
• Posted to the shore establishment HMS Clio at Barrow-in-Furness from 22 April-2 June 1942
• Posted to HMS Drake IV from 3 June-31 July 1942
• He was serving in the destroyer HMS Catterick that was built in 1941
• He is then sent to HMS Tana, a shore establishment at Kilindini, Kenya posted there from 1 August 1942 to 12 November 1942.
• Africa must have agreed with him, he was then posted to the shore establishment HMS Kongoni in Durban South Africa from 13 November 1942 to 23 February 1943.
• He then moved to HMS Assegai also located at Durban – he was there from 24 February to 29 April 1943
• He then returned to New Zealand as he his posted to HMNZS Philomel from 30 April 1943 to 11 March 1944
• At one point he is at the ACH[?]-
• In August 1943 he is made an Acting Leading Signalman
• He returned to the UK in 1944 and to HMS Drake. He is showing as been posted to Water Queen, I’m not sure on the name as it does not appear in my books as a ship or shore establishment – he serves from 15 June 1944 to 19 January 1945.
• He is then back to Drake from 20 Janaury to 4 March 1945
• He is then posted to HMS Boscawen at Chatham with satellite units at Soton and Portland from 5 March to 13 November 1945
• He is then put on the books of HMNZS Philomel and returned to New Zealand, being discharged 13 March 1946 as an Acting Leading Signalman.

If you can provide any detail on some of these units it would be most helpful.    Please leave  any feedback as a comment.  It is also understood that Eric was a good pal of ‘Nutty Nichols’

31 Jan 2011 – More cutbacks for the UK Armed Forces

THE Army yesterday suffered its biggest manpower cull in decades – with 2,900 soldiers getting the chop.

They are among 4,200 members of the Armed Forces to be axed in a bid to plug the £38billion black hole in the defence budget.

About 1,500 of the soldiers are veterans of Afghanistan. And 400 Gurkhas – including some who served there alongside Prince Harry in 2008 – will get their marching orders.

All ranks are hit – from 500 infantry privates with at least six years’ service to eight brigadiers and 60 lieutenant colonels.

The Sun can reveal that those for the sack include up to six Household Cavalry majors and 41 captains as well as four majors and 27 captains of the Royal Engineers. The Royal Corps of Signals must lose about 35 majors, 23 captains and hundreds of lower ranks.

The latest – and most ruthless – cuts will also devastate the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and, for the first time, the Royal Marines.

The RAF is to lose 1,000 personnel including 15 air commodores, 30 group captains, up to 40 wing commanders and 115 squadron leaders and 95 PT instructors.

About 300 losses in the ROYAL NAVY include five commodores, 17 captains and 37 medics plus 80 from the Fleet Air Arm.

The ROYAL MARINES will have 19 brigadiers, lieutenant colonels and colonels chopped.

The savage cuts are the most significant since the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review first announced massive job losses.

The MoD has sent more than 14,000 notices to personnel offering voluntary redundancy. But it is thought there will be compulsory pay-offs.

It is also understood that hundreds of soldiers who signed up for 12 years will not have their contracts renewed.

Recruitment is being drastically cut – with the number of soldiers entering service slashed from 7,000 to 5,000.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said yesterday that the Government HAD to wield the axe – but said the military will remain “agile”.

He said: “Difficult decisions had to be taken to deal with the vast black hole in the MoD budget.

“As we continue with the redundancy process, we will ensure we retain the capabilities that our forces will require.”

Under the SDSR, the Navy and RAF must cut 5,000 jobs each by 2015, the Army 7,000 and the MoD 25,000 civilian staff.

The army needs to reduce its total fighting force from around 100,000 to 82,000 by 2020.

Shadow Defence Secretary Jim Murphy said: “The most important baseline is national security and we worry these cuts are wrong-headed and rushed.”

Campaigners also hit out at cuts to the Gurkhas, who will now lose about one in eight of their 3,400-strong brigade – equivalent to almost a full battalion. Actress Joanna Lumley called the cuts “a tragedy”.

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In 1957 Royalist was in Korean waters when Peter Mollison, a sparker, became ill. He was transferred ashore to hospital and unfortunately died there. He was buried in the United Nations Cemetery in Busan ( previously called Pusan).

It has been on my bucket list that my wife and I should return to Busan to pay my respects to Pete.

Early in November this year I found that four New Zealand war Vets would be travelling to Korea as guests of the Korean government to take part in services to commemorate the eleventh of the eleventh.

I made contact with the Korean Embassy in Wellington and through the Korean Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs made arrangements to join the group, at my own expense, and take part in the ceremonies. Unfortunately Jan was not able to travel with me.

Our NZ group met up with others from United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, making 21 in all.

Barrie Chivers (ex Chief Yeoman), who had previously visited Korea, gave me an insight of what to expect.

The Korean people have not forgotten how the United Nations Troops came to their rescue nearly 60 years ago. Those I spoke to knew of NZ but not always where it was except that it was a long way to come. The NZ contingent was the second highest based on population of any of the 21 nations involved.

On the first day we were taken to the DMZ and viewed the building and table where negotiations took place after the Ceasefire. It is a surreal place where the line goes through buildings with the North Koreans not many metres away. Both sides still have posts looking at each other.

Next day it was by train to Busan. This train gets up to 300k per hour along most of the track. They are working on having the trip completed by next year. We had a tour of the city which is second biggest with 4 million in the population,

We visited the UN cemetery the next day and took part in the wreath laying ceremony. The service was very impressive with a guard of honour and many dignitaries there. Children also sang in both English and Korean. This is where Pete has a grave stone. I glued a small version of the Royalist crest and shed a tear. I shed a tear also for his family whose son is buried in a foreign land so far from home. It is a well kept place and I will include some photos. There is a large stone from Coromandel and carved with a Maori motif which is very impressive and alongside the flags of all the nations. There are two other NZ sailors also with stones but whose bodies were never recovered. Someone may know the stories which go with them.

After a train trip back to Seoul we were taken on a sight seeing trip around the city. It has a population of 11 Million which increases to 25 Million when the outer suburbs are added. In 1953 at the time of the ceasefire Seoul was a ruined city on the side of the river Han with just one bridge across the river to the airport on the other side.It has expanded considerably across the river and now has 27 bridges across and building another two. Nearly all live in high rise apartments. There is no recession there with nearly everyone employed. They have no natural resources and import everything. The country cant grow enough food as the ground freezes over in winter. Even the stones for the concrete are imported from China. From the airport they have built a second motorway and because there was no room on the land it is built over the water. The first length of 27K is called a bridge. The crime rate is low and the locals very friendly. They have the four biggest ship building company’s in the world and one is called Samsung. They specialize in building LPG tankers and have build a ship for our Navy as well.

The following day we attended another wreath laying ceremony at the National Cemetery. Again an impressive place and another Guard. Here on large bronze plaques about four metres high are the names of all the troops who were killed in their war. The civilian population also had two million killed.

North Korea has 1.2 million under arms and South Korea has 770,000 also. What a waste of resources.

I am very pleased to have been able to join in and get to see Pete’s grave and I thank those who made it possible.

Click on images to enlarge

BENJAMIN, John Sydney
DUNCAN, Arthur James
WILSON Trevor John (John)
JOHNSON Clarence (Clarrie)
TE PAA Warren Hemi LRD
BROCKBANK Robert William
CAMPBELL Colin Ken
TAIT Alexander Robert (Alex)
BOULTER Robert Donald (Don)
POTAKA Tapiu (Taps)
SULLIVAN John Joseph (Jo) ARD
SLATER Lionel JP (Jack) TEL
BACHOP Thomas Alfred
RINTOUL Ralph
MacGIBBON Michael John (Balkey)
MILLER Lawrence Noel (Buster)

You may be interested in a new book which I got out of my local Library called “HOSTILITIES ONLY – TRAINING THE WARTIME ROYAL NAVY” by Brian LAVERY written in conjunction with the National Maritime Museum and published by Conway Books ISBN 9781844861460.   A very interesting read detailing the development, training, promotion etc. of the RN before and during WWII. Useful to see where our training methods came from and I would imagine that most of these were still in use by the RNZN in the 50s. See if your local library holds a copy and let us know what you think.

Thanks Dennis for the contribution.

Purpose

1.   The purpose of this RNTM is to inform all relevant authorities of the decision by the Naval Board Personnel Change Programme (NBPCP) to transfer the responsibility for Communications and Information Systems afloat, including the management and administration of the CIS and CISSM personnel, to the Weapon Engineering Department.

Background

2.   The role, functions and systems support that the CIS/CISSM branch provides is far removed from that which were delivered at inception and whilst a shift has been evident in all branches of Warfare none has been as dramatic as that of CIS. Individual roles within CIS/CISSM have been recognised as being fundamentally different to the roles of equivalent Warfare Branch Operators and it can be argued that CIS/CISSM personnel are often regarded as “somewhat different” by their fellow Warfare ratings with senior management increasingly less familiar of the roles and responsibilities required to deliver the current communications information systems. An information orientated Navy continues the drive towards a capability based delivery function and has required a shift of working practices away from operator to such an extent that in assurance and administrative terms, it sits more closely with the WE department and requires a technical head. Indeed, the roles and responsibilities have increasingly converged over the past few years that in many instances the core professional requirements are very similar.

Trial Outcome

3.   To prove the concept a number of trials have taken place. Initial SSN trials completed in Jan 10 and were subsequently extended under RNTM 001/10. Similarly, HMS ASTUTE adopted the Communications and Information Systems Engineer (CISE) concept at build and this is also being trialled in SSBNs, commencing with HMS VIGILANT post refit. HMS LIVERPOOL and HMS MANCHESTER have also trialled the concept of the management and administration of the CIS sub-branch under the WE Department.  The formal Fleet trial in HMS DAUNTLESS will complete in Dec 11 and the ship has already submitted an interim, post BOST, report which was highly encouraging.

5.  Units that have taken part in trials have reported unequivocal success, with the WE and IS working together in a unified structure and whilst promoting a feeling of ‘belonging’ amongst CIS ratings it has also enabled a more technical oversight of the delivery of information to the Command.  It has been recognised that we are able to maximise operational capability of the communication systems and services through this approach and it is also coherent with the other areas where the WEs provide an assured service to the command (in this case assured information delivery and transmission).

Future

6.  Units operating under trial programmes will permanently adopt this way of working, informing the Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) on recommendations to assist further implementation across the Fleet. An MDT will convene in the New Year to collate the feedback from surface and sub-surface units in order to:

• Review recommendations from previous and current trials.
• Implement a rolling programme to bring into effect WE responsibility of the CIS branch at sea.
• Produce a Fleetwide implementation plan, under NBPCP governance, linked to the change in responsibility.
• Identify and discuss future training objectives and career path options.
• Address downstream issues including the provision of a headmark for the future of the CIS branch.

Review

7.         This RNTM will be reviewed on 1 Jul ‘12

Thanks to Gary Kingdon for the contribution.

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — A former ship captain fired from her post for “cruelty and maltreatment” of her subordinates will be allowed to leave the Navy with an ‘honorable’ retirement, officials said Saturday.

Capt. Holly Graf, who was removed from command of the Yokosuka-based guided-missile cruiser USS Cowpens in January 2010, will also retain her O-6 rank upon retirement, according to a statement from Juan Garcia, Secretary of the Navy for Manpower and Reserve Affairs.

Graf lost her command after an Inspector General report substantiated five claims leveled against her: breaches of ethics; use of her office for personal gain; dereliction of duty; and both verbal and physical assault.

The Inspector General investigation reported that Graf’s abusive patterns stretched back at least as far as her tour as commander aboard the USS Winston Churchill in 2003.

“In making my determination, I thoroughly reviewed the matter, and weighed heavily material provided in the statements recorded during the initial investigation, the record of proceedings from the Board of Inquiry, and her performance over 26 years of naval service,” Garcia stated.

Following her dismissal from USS Cowpens, Graf was transferred to the Navy Air and Missile Defense Command in Dahlgren, Va. She later faced a board of inquiry, which recommended that Graf be retired as a captain — a recommendation later approved by Garcia.

“Ultimately, Capt. Graf’s conduct fell short of that expected of our commanding officers,” Garcia stated. “As a result, her non-judicial punishment, early transfer from command and early retirement are warranted.

“However, I have also determined that her conduct did not rise to a level sufficient to warrant the characterization of her service as less than Honorable, especially when weighed against the totality of her service to the Navy.”

– Stars and Stripes reporter Chris Carroll contributed to this report.