British Voices (9 page)

Life went on as usual in the squadron until a date was set for the Inter-Services Championship, to be held at Stamford Bridge. I stuck a stick up somewhere on the aerodrome and when I felt like it, I took a jump! This was all the preparation I had for the big event. A few days before the event I travelled down again by Bristol Fighter near London, I think it was Uxbridge. Arrangements had been made for me to take advantage of a trainer who had previously trained competitors for the Olympic Games. I'm afraid I did not spend a lot of time with him. London was only a bus ride away and always held a great attraction for me, as it did indeed for a great number of the Australians. The afternoon before the big event I did spend a few hours with the trainer loosening up my muscles by vigorous massage and heat treatment after which he suggested that I take a gentle run around the track, which I did but on the way back to the dressing room I noticed some of the competitors having a little practice over the horizontal bar. I joined them, but wearing my sand shoes and the grass being damp my right foot slipped and I strained my ankle, not seriously, but enough to cause me to limp back to my trainer, whose comments could not very well be repeated here! He had given me strict instructions that I was not to jump over the bar and I had disobeyed him. I know he had good reason to be annoyed. Apparently he still thought there was a possibility of my winning this event so he spent a lot of time with heat lamps, finally binding the strained ligaments with an elastic bandage. He sent me back to my quarters to rest. At noon the following day he gave me further treatment after which I felt I could give a reasonably good account of myself in the event.

There were three entries from each of the three services, Army, Navy and Airforce. The horizontal bar was set up first at 5 feet 6 inches, which height presented no problems to any of us. It was then raised one inch after each successful clearance. We all cleared 5 feet 8 inches, but at 5 feet 8 and half inches the Navy team failed and so were out of the running. The Army team continued to 5 feet 9 inches but failed to reach the next half inch as did one of the RAF competitors. The Sgt Major with whom I had tied previously and I remained in the contest. Neither of us had before reached this height, and the bar seemed awfully high to me. It was not yet over. The bar was still being raised, half inch after each successful jump. We both succeeded clearing the bar at 5 feet 11 inches. The next half inch proved the crucial height for both of us. I missed my first jump as he did, but I was successful at the second attempt. Unfortunately for him he missed with his next two tries, which gave me the championship at 5 feet 11 and half inches. I was naturally elated, not for myself only but also for the RAF AND my own squadron 141. I sent a telegram to the CO Major Baker. I wonder if Air Marshal Sir Brian Baker would still remember the young Australian who won these athletic events? In due course I received from the RAF committee through Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Co Ltd, of London, a 22 carat gold medallion to commemorate the event. On the obverse side, the three services are depicted, Navy a warship, Army a tank and Airforce an aeroplane in flight. The other side bore the inscription ‘Presented to Lieut. F.C. Penny'. This, of course, is one of my treasured possessions.

I returned to Dublin a few days later to find that another letter had been received from the Australian authorities in London, requesting me to report for repatriation back to Australia and as my CO had no valid reason for retaining my services, I made arrangements to go to London. I handed over my administrative duties, attended three farewell parties, Officers' Mess, Mess and WRAF and said a very regretful farewell to all my good friends in 141, and this time took the boat from North Wall, Dublin to Holyhead and from there by train to London, where I reported to the Australian Headquarters. They posted me to a repatriation camp at Flowerdown near Winchester.

When I arrived here I discovered that I had met the CO previously. He suggested that if I were not in a hurry to return to Australia he would be happy to have me on his staff as one of his officers, a job which involved taking charge of groups of officers who were being repatriated back to the countries from whence they had come. Frequent visits were made to Tilbury Southampton, Plymouth and Liverpool. On occasions there were as many as 30-40 officers, many of them senior to me, and when their ship sailed from Liverpool it was necessary to arrange overnight accommodation in London. It would need no stretch of imagination to understand their desire to have what to them was ‘a somewhat riotous time', on their last night in London. There was little I could do about it, but to put them on their honour to report to me at a given London station the following morning.

A passage was arranged for me on the
Indarra
sailing early December, but just before sailing time I was asked to give my cabin to a woman who, because of emergency, wanted to leave England immediately. This I agreed to do and ultimately sailed on the
Orsova
in the same month. We were in Gibraltar on Christmas Day and after a most happy voyage, returned home to Australia in January 1920 after a most eventful!! happy though dangerous time away.

Details

This account is taken from Admiral Grohman's personal papers which are held in the Imperial War Museum. He trained as a cadet aboard the HMS
Britannia
. He served aboard the cruiser, HMS
Grafton
, the flagship of the British navy's Pacific Fleet from September 1904 to 1905. From 1905 to 1907, he served aboard the flagship of the Atlantic Fleet, the HMS
Edward VII
, which was often based at Castletown Berehaven. Grohman witnessed the beginning of the ‘Second Revolution' in China in 1913, while serving on the HMS
Monmouth
. He was based on the HMS
Lively
at Devonport at the outbreak of the First World War, the
Lively
joined the 7th Destroyer Flotilla, seeing action during the German raid on Great Yarmouth. During the War, he also served on the destroyer, HMS
Gurkha
, the minesweeper, HMS
Gentian
, and the minesweeper, HMS
Totnes
. During the War of Independence, he served aboard the HMS
Truro
, a minesweeper based in Portland, which was employed in fishery protection duties. It was also based in Cobh, and acted as a support to coastguard stations, and to prevent smuggling.

Ireland 1920 to 1921

S
ERIOUS REBELLION IN
Ireland raised its head again in 1919 to 1921. My ship the
Truro
had two spells of service there together with three others of the Minesweeping Flotilla in 1920/21. With a number of destroyers, we were based at Queenstown (now called Cobh) then the British naval base in Ireland. It is a really beautiful harbour with lovely country round it. Of course there was no Eire then, and all Ireland was as much part of the United Kingdom as Scotland and Wales.

144,000 Irishmen had voluntarily joined our armies in the First World War and the Navy had always Irish recruits. Nevertheless, during a most critical period for us in the First World War, some Irish rebels known as Sinn Féiners, raised a rebellion in Dublin later to be known as Easter Rising 1916. It was later estimated that there were not more than 2,000 of these rebels. They were known to be in touch with the Germans from whom shiploads of arms were expected. These were intercepted by the Navy. In this rising some 100 British troops were killed in the street fighting and 200 wounded. Moreover a number of British officers and their wives murdered at night in a most cold blooded way, while asleep in various hotels. Much damage to Dublin was done. The rebellion was put down, and ten rebels were executed, but the trouble simmered on.

The Irish called the 1919-21 ‘trouble' the Anglo-Irish War and their early policy was to ruthlessly murder isolated units of the Irish Constabulary but eventually matters got worse, murder, arson, troops ambushed or attacked individually and so on. But as far as I could ascertain then or since, no Naval officer or man had been in any way attacked. It was the Irish Constabulary, our Army, and any civilians who supported them in any way who were the targets. Eventually the British sent to Ireland auxiliaries who became known as the Black and Tans to keep order, they became exceedingly unpopular with the Irish.

In Belfast, there were many shootings and ruthless murders between July 1920 and July 1921. Many of the Catholic clergy supported the so called Anglo-Irish War, whose object was a completely independent Ireland. Over the centuries, the British has resisted this, fearing to have an enemy on our flank, possibly supported by a European country, and one moreover so situated geographically as to be able to control our essential sea lanes and so our destiny.

The result of this trouble was the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921, which gave all Ireland Dominion Status, with Ulster given the right to opt out, and remain part of the United Kingdom while Great Britain reserved the right to keep certain ports in Ireland including Queenstown, Berehaven and Loch Swilly. This right was given up by our Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in December 1938, to the surprise of the Irish Government, as a gesture to the Nazis, thereby greatly handicapping us in the protection of shipping in the Second World War and costing hundreds of lives and many ships.

However, once this settlement of December 1921 was made, a terrible and most destructive civil war broke out in Ireland against the new Irish Government – Irishman v Irishman.This was a worse trouble for Ireland than the previous one. How the Irish love a fight! As before, this too often deteriorated into cold blooded murder.

The Irish Government forces took a year to put it down, and at the end of 1923 the worst was over and the Government had some 70,000 prisoners on their hands and 70 executions had been carried out by them in this year.

The main job for the Navy during my first spell there in 1920 was to help maintain the coastguard stations and the lighthouses round the coast of which there were a large number. The crews had been sent to Coventry by the Sinn Féiners, and no-one dared contact them in any way or keep them supplied. Incidentally, the great majority of the men in the coastguard stations were Irishmen who had served in the Navy, but this made no difference to their treatment by the Sinn Féiners.

There were many of these stations, some exposed to the full force of the Atlantic weather and others tucked away in sheltered coves and inlets, the sort of place where smugglers might want to land, and which the CG St. were there to prevent.

My ship had quite inadequate boats for this sort of work. Two clumsy 20 foot merchant type 4 oared gigs, one small dinghy and no power boat. It was tough going at times to land on the weatherbeaten coasts. Some of our charts of the Irish coasts were old, some dated 1840. Leading marks given had often disappeared and shoals shifted. This did not exactly help matters.

For a period I had two Rear Admirals on board, Rear Admiral Somerville, the Rear Admiral in charge of Coastguards for Southern Ireland and Rear Admiral Glossop who was taking over his appointment. The plan was to inspect all coastguard stations from Dublin southabout to Galway, and
Truro
was selected to take them. It was quite a job, I had no Navigator, and would have to do it all by myself.

All went well at first on board, but unfortunately the two flag officers started a fierce quarrel between themselves. Apparently, a British Army officer had been travelling in plain clothes by train from the North of Ireland to the South. He was in a railway carriage with five or six other travellers, when, at a small railway station, the Sinn Féiners searched the train for someone they wanted, and one could guess pretty certainly that, if found, he would be murdered – such were the times.

It was the British Army officer they were after. He was taken off the train at pistol point, without any protest or resistance from the other occupants or passengers, and before the train started again, the volley ending his life was heard. Glossop – new to the country – took the attitude that it was most cowardly of the Irish and the other occupants of the carriages not to resist. Somerville – an old hand and Irish – strongly disagreed and insisted it would have been useless. So for some days there was an embarrassing time, especially when each Flag Officer in turn came to me separately and gave me his views on the matter. However they calmed down after an interval.

I recollect Rear Admiral Glossop, although he had been a Navigator himself was a great nuisance on the bridge when entering or leaving harbour for he would place himself bang in front of the standard compass. ( I should mention he was Captain of the cruiser
Sydney
, which sank the German raider
Emden
early in the war.) I wonder how many coastguard stations we visited. Was it thirty or could it have been more? At this distance of time I can't remember. I was some weeks in this job and really enjoyed it.

It was anxious navigation for me at times into the harbours, but we survived! Sailing directions and charts were old and out of date.

During this time I had much contact with the Army both on the shore and when military parties took passage in my ship. Several officers told me of the obscene mutilations carried out on dead British soldiers after an ambush or attack. These they had themselves seen, it was no yarn. They could not believe that any Irishman could commit such atrocities and put these mutilations down to gangsters over from Chicago or New York. There were rumours that many had come over.