B&C No 90 JUN 98

Slope aaaaahhh .......
As a Saturday Bn parade assembled in 1955, a colony of crows vacated the square and circled overhead. As the RSM was about to give the executive word of command, after the customary, lengthy cautionary 'Slooooow...p' the crows interceded with a loud 'Awk' !
Yan Moosun

HONG KONG
Tales from our regular contributor, Yan Moosun, of Hong Kong in the 1950's, appeared in B&C 88 Jun 97 and B&C 89 Dec 97.
Here is another.

THEY SHALL NOT PASS - IT'S YOUR ROUND
When the 9th left Korea the new task given to them was to defend Hong Kong to the last man, the last bullet, the last San Miguel beer and fried prawn. Nobody ever actually said that, but, I mean, if you call a defensive position 'Gin Drinkers' what else can you have in mind? To us fell the honour of holding on long enough if and when the Chinese hordes decided to fall upon us; for the civilians to sell their houses, hold farewell parties, settle up their club bills and depart in style - thus maintaining 'face'. The Americans had a different approach to the same problem.
Moored in the middle of Hong Kong harbour was an old, very old, liberty ship - old soldiers will know what they were - the USS Algol. Yes, it was part of the US Navy and it was there for the specific purpose of evacuating all US citizens should the said hordes decide that they did not wish to dally at the 'Gin Drinkers' line. The ship never moved except to see if the engines worked.
There was in Hong Kong at that time a huge charity organisation to which everyone gave their money. It was called the Happy Valley Racecourse. On this particular day, Frank Fleming had given them more money than he intended so he was not amused. He, Rick Oddie and I were in need of alcoholic fortification in order to face up to the perils of the Gin Drinkers line. Thus we found ourselves in an oriental establishment somewhere within stumbling distance of Nathan Road. I was here that we met two young officers of the US Navy. Intelligent and worldly-wise, they were reasonably certain that Great Britain had been on their side in WW2. After a few more drinks, and because by then none of us had any money left, they invited us back to their ship, boat, what have you - the USS Algol.
They, having borrowed Rick Oddie’s last 10 cents, telephoned the ship and by the time we found the quayside a liberty boat had arrived to collect us. Smart sailors all in white did their best to tip us into the harbour but Frank had had enough bad tips for one day so we survived. On arrival at the Algol we were piped aboard with all the frills. In civvies just what do you do? You can’t salute the yardarm but whatever it was we did - perhaps they could not see us through our alcoholic mist - it was OK. The Officer of the Watch informed us we were to follow him to the Captain’s cabin. Now, the Captain was a 4 ringer by the name of Hawkins, a good British seaman’s name if there ever was, who, at the beginning of 1939 had served almost a year’s attachment to the Royal Navy. As such, he had a healthy respect and knowledge of tradition and custom.
We inspected the ship from binnacle to barnacle, saw the Coca-Cola dispensers, sampled the iced water and refused the offer of any choice of 50 varieties of ice cream. Then we realised that in accordance with US Naval tradition the ship was 'dry'.
We left much more sober, and, if we are honest, somewhat impressed.
When recounting the tale a few days later in the mess to Uncle Bob (Lt Col Robert Turner-Cain. Ed), he suggested we organise a Regimental weekend and invite a few of them to Dills’ Corner.
'Them' later materialised into being Capt Hawkins, his Executive Officer and about 20 sailors, matelots or whatever.
'Get them here in time for lunch on the Saturday, organise sport in the afternoon and a dinner night - but dress informal as they probably do not have uniforms. Keep them in camp on Saturday night then Sunday morning sleep or church, back to their ship after lunch. Let’s show them what it is all about.'
And this is where the story begins. The weekend arrived and so did the US Navy. We managed to pry the sailors out of the NAAFI for a game of cricket in the afternoon which the records will show they won by 15 wickets. Mark you, I am not sure that WG Grace would have approved of throwing the bat away after hitting the ball, sliding into the crease after making a run and not knowing the difference between bowling and chucking when we were batting. Oh, well, the Regiment that burnt Washington could afford to be magnanimous.
At dinner that night all the silver was out so the table was something to behold. If the aim had been to show these ex-colonials that class was a British word then we were more than successful. The meal went well but after the debris of the main course was cleared away Capt Hawkins rose. Horror of horrors, surely he was not going to make a speech. But no, he merely said: 'We of the USS Algol would like to make a presentation to you of the Norfolks.'
'What would it be?' we asked, 'baseball caps bearing some badge/emblem/message which would require us to wear them back-to-front, or perhaps worse?'
With permission granted, 2 US sailors entered, carrying the largest cake I have ever seen. It was about 3 feet by 2 feet, in the shape of Britannia, iced in full colour and perfect in every detail. This was to be our pudding.
Later that evening, acting upon yet another suggestion made to us, Frank and I visited the NAAFI to ascertain that our other American cousins were being looked after properly.
On entering, our chests swelled with pride. There were the 20 or so sailors being 'looked after' by well over 200 members of the Regiment. What a grand lot our lads were to give up a Saturday night in Kowloon in order to entertain our US guests.
It was only the next day I learned that the US sailors, on first entering the NAAFI premises, not being used to military establishments that sold booze perhaps, gave the NAAFI manager something like $2000 with the words: 'Drinks on the house for everyone. Let us know when it runs out for there is plenty more where that came from if it is necessary.'
I gather a host of Holy Boys did their very best to make sure it was necessary.
Afternote Mar 2006, Chris e-mailed, seeking USS Algol ship and crew photographs of the 1940s. He was invited to look at the Algol site www.ussalgolaka54.org and sent a high resolution copy of the photograph of the R Norfolk and USS Algol offrs, above, sent by the late Maj Tom Styles who died in 2001.
[B&C 106]