I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety

Happy New Year! Thanks to everyone who has  downloaded and read my book during 2012. All the best for 2013. Cathy

Best wishes for a very Happy Christmas. I'll be back in 2013  with more additions to the story  and details of a new family history project.

A couple of days ago I visited the National Railway Museum in York. When I was looking at my photos later I realised that some were photos of trains from the old London, Midland and Scottish Railway. I remembered that my dad had made a reference to that railway company in his diary which I'd quoted in I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety: The Diary of a Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II. He wrote: "On Tuesday 8th May (1945) the newspapers were head-lined "It’s all over in Europe" and gave histories of the last five years. Flags were flying in Sydney but no crowds surged through the streets. We made sure our rooms were booked at the British Centre and went for a drink to celebrate Victory. A couple of drunken sailors were the only signs of the momentous day it was. At seven o’clock we were steaming out of Central Station just as the city began to warm up and celebrate. Australian trains are horrible. They are uncomfortable, slow, draughty and

As I wrote in my previous post, my dad (Norman Buckle) had kept a copy of the first edition (Friday July 20th 1945) of  The Pacific Post: Daily Newspaper of the British Pacific Fleet with his photographs and diary. It's only a 4 sides of a folded sheet newspaper but it is crammed with interesting stories. It's fascinating to read what the authorities thought would interest the servicemen all those thousands of miles away from home. Here are the remainder of the cuttings from the front page:

I explain in I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety: The Diary of a Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II that o n Friday July 20th 1945 "The Pacific Post: Daily Newspaper of the British Pacific Fleet" was launched. My dad, Norman Buckle,  saved a copy of the first edition with his diary. He was a member of  MONAB 4 stationed on the island of Ponam as part of the support network for the British Pacific Fleet in 1945. [If you click on the cuttings they're easier to read when they are on the black background.]   First page of the first edition of the Pacific Post: Daily Newspaper of the British Pacific Fleet 20/07/1945     Close-up of the main picture story.     Editorial Part 1     Editorial Part 2     From the front page of the first edition of The Pacific Post  

In the introductory pages of I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety: The Diary of a Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II I've written about my father's background: " Norman was a working class lad who was born in 1924 and brought up in the village of Royston , near Barnsley, in South Yorkshire . He was fortunate, having passed his eleven plus, to have enough family support to go to the local grammar school at Normanton. He was studious, worked hard and passed his School Certificate. At the age of sixteen he was offered employment as a clerk at the salary of £1 - 0s - 0d per week (about £30 in to-day's money) in the Public Health Department of the West Riding County Council in Wakefield thus breaking three generations of the family's tradition of going down the pit." Norman in 1939 aged 15 years. Normanton Grammar School in 1920 Normanton Grammar School in 1925. Norman started there about ten years later. In August 1

When I was researching the background to I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety: The Diary of a Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II I tried to find out about the development of the island of Ponam, near Manus, in the Admiralty Islands (part of present day Papua New Guinea) as the naval air base to which my dad was posted in 1945. I was delighted to find out more last week in Hansard (the record of Parliamentary debates). In The House of Lords on July 11th 1962 in a debate to do with Naval Estimates Lord Ashbourne reminisced about the base at Manus, in the Admiralty Islands of which he had had first-hand knowledge during the war. "Within about three months of capturing the Admiralty Islands from the Japanese the Americans had turned this almost desert island into a great fleet base, with alongside berths for unloading cargo, with floating docks, with a 10,000-feet airstrip, completed, they say, within fourteen days of the initial landings on the island. They bu

I wrote in I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety: The Diary of a Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II that when my dad was de-mobilised from the Fleet Air Arm at the end of World War II he received a war gratuity properly known as a Certificate of Post War Credit. The actual document was preserved amongst his papers.

I wrote in I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety: The Diary of a Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II about some of the abbreviation's my dad had used in his diary. The most difficult to interpret was P.D. (See previous post). More on the subject of "pack drill". A member of the WW2Talk forum pointed me in the direction of Hansard (the record of Parliamentary debates which is available on-line) where there are a couple of interesting references. In April 1943, Mr Walter Edwards (1900 - 1964), the M.P. for Stepney and Whitechapel, asked the First Lord of the Admiralty if pack drill was being used as a form of punishment in the Royal Navy. The First Lord of the Admiralty gave him a categorical assurance that it was not and had never been used as a form of punishment   in the Royal Navy. In July 1946, Mr Jack Lawson (1881 - 1965), M.P. for Chester-le-Street and briefly Secretary of State for War (1945 - 1946) assured the House of Commons tha

When I was researching the background to I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety: The Diary of a Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II I joined a forum called World War Two Talk. I lurked around the site for several months before I signed up. It was here that I got my first clue as to why my dad had been sent to Freetown , Sierra Leone . Until I read about the convoy system on one of the WW2Talk threads I didn't have any idea about the strategic importance of the harbour at Freetown to the war effort. While exploring the site I realised that several members were asking for help with their enquiries into a wide range of topics. I had become stumped by several abbreviations that my dad had used in his diary and decided to see if any members of the site could help: so I signed up, introduced myself and posed my question. Within a couple of days most of my problem abbreviations were solved but one remained stubborn. "P.D." My dad had used the abbreviat

When I was researching the background to I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety: The Diary of a Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II I became very interested in the history of the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. Amongst my dad's papers was a page from the weekly edition of The Times newspaper which included these images of life on an aircraft carrier. I speculated that it was after seeing these photographs that he decided that he wanted to join the Fleet Air Arm.  On board an aircraft carrier, Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm December 1940  On board an aircraft carrier, Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm December 1940  On board an aircraft carrier, Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm December 1940  Links to Kindle Store on the Amazon site for the I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety: The Diary of a Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II by N. Buckle & C. Murray book page. http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009QXEUG2 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009QXEU

I wrote in I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety: The Diary of a Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II about my dad's papers: "I knew that this was a collection of photographs and postcards that my dad had stuck in the book accompanied by captions in his tiny, precise handwriting. Folded into the book were lots of pages torn from an old diary for 1944 and several sheets of notepaper covered in that same spidery handwriting." To illustrate what his handwriting was like here's the page in his diary where he wrote about the fruits that had become available and includes the quote that gave rise to the title of the book. Sample of the diary pages that were part of Norman Buckle's record of his WWII experiences.

Name, Rank and Number Norman Buckle, Petty Officer, FX585169 This photograph was taken in May 1945 when Norman was based at H.M.S. Golden Hind (Sidney, Australia) before he went to join MONAB 4 at Ponam in the Admiralty Islands.

I am delighted that to-day exactly seventy years since my dad, Norman Buckle, joined the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm as a wartime volunteer I have published his annotated diary. Now available to download from the Kindle Store: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009QXEUG2 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009QXEUG2

In my book I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety: The Diary of a Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II, I explain that in 1945 my dad was sent to a naval air-base on Ponam Island in the Admiralty Islands (part of present day Papua New Guinea). He was  a member of MONAB 4. The MONABs were Mobile Naval Operating Air Bases which were needed to provide repair, maintenance and servicing for the aircraft used by the Fleet Air Arm on board the ships of the British Pacific Fleet. The plan was that there would be ten MONABs in total. Each MONAB was given an H.M.S name that began with " Nab " to reflect the NAB in MONAB. Norman was attached to MONAB 4. All the war-time MONABs were based in or near Sidney or Brisbane in Australia . The exception was MONAB 4 which was to be based in the Admiralty Islands over two thousand miles from Australia in the Pacific Ocean. MONAB 1 - R.N.A.S Nowra (approximately 99 miles south of Sidney , New South Wales , Australia

In my dad's service records it says that he finally left the Fleet Air Arm in July 1946 and his pension records show that he went back to his pre-war job as a clerk before starting a course of study at Bradford Technical College. This photo is dated September 1946 and was taken at Filey. There was a Butlin's holiday camp at Primrose Valley, Filey, Yorkshire so presumably he'd gone there for a holiday before starting college. Strange to think that his war service started at the Butlin's at Skegness. I wrote in  I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety: The Diary of a Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II that "on 15th October 1942 Norman had arrived at H.M.S Royal Arthur, a shore establishment of the Royal Navy at Skegness . Previously a Butlin's holiday camp it was commissioned as a training establishment in 1939 for new naval recruits. The holiday camp had opened in April 1936 and was the first of the camps designed by Billy Butlin to pro

Sunday 2nd September 1945 The formal surrender to the Allied commanders by the Japanese leadership took place on U.S.S. Missouri . These photos were in my dad's diary: The Japanese leaders at the signing of the formal surrender.   The signing of the formal surrender. The signing of the formal surrender. 

In 1945, Norman Buckle was stationed at HMS Nabaron on Ponam Island (Admiralty Islands) as part of the support network for the British Pacific Fleet. Ponam Islanders, Admiralty Islands. Ponam Islanders, Admiralty Islands. Ponam Island Ponam Islanders, Admiralty Islands.

In his diary my dad, Norman Buckle, had some photos of his Fleet Air Arm colleagues which identifies his group as the support unit MSR6 (Maintenance, Storage and Reserve 6) of MONAB 4 (Mobile Naval Airbase) which was stationed on Ponam Island in the Pacific Ocean. The base was known as HMS Nabaron. From the air Ponam Island looked rather like an aircraft carrier and the American SeaBees (CB's - Construction Battalions) had built an airfield on it using crushed coral for the runway. It was handed over to the Royal Navy with all services including the airstrip, aircraft repair shops and storage for aircraft parts, petrol and oil storage tanks, a control tower, jeeps and trucks, huts for accommodation, an officers' mess, dining halls, a hospital, water de-salination plant and kitchens (including an ice-cream maker). The U.S Navy also left behind a forty strong team of SeaBees personnel to maintain the island and its facilities. Norman 's unit M.S.R.6 was attached to H