|
Diary of Frederick Lloyd
Supplied with the kind permission of Steve Lloyd
1941
February 1st - I completed the course and passed out AC1 Instrument Repair Class 1. I I was immediately put on overseas posting and was given leave before being sent overseas.
After leave I reported to RAF West Kirby, Merseyside, and although I managed to dodge the daily posting parades, was eventually posted to Singapore, we reported to the SS Duchess of York. (Her crew called her the "Drunken Duchess" because of the way she rolled and pitched in bad weather. She was actually sunk by aircraft in July 1943). When we went on board we were told to take our main kit down to the hold, I was told to report to the PM, or Provost Marshall by the NCO who was controlling the hold storage. The PM said I was to be a ture military policeman for the duration of the trip and that I could sleep in the deck cells, this turned out to be a godsend as in the heat of the tropics it was much cooler at deck level.
It was an uneventful trip (Sierra Leone-Capetown-Bombay-Ceylon) so the PM let us ashore first in Capetown and later in Bombay. We finally arrived in Singapore and reported to Seletar on the Singapore Straights facing the mainland of Malaya.
We soon got used to the heat and the monsoon rains, when it rained the ditches filled up really fast and they were six feet deep and ten feet across. At this time it was like a peacetime station Cand since it was to hot to work in the afternoons (you could fry eggs on the aircraft wings), we spent a lot of time in the large swimming pool on the camp.
I was put on gyroscopic instrument repair in an air-conditioned workshop with four other men. The workshop had to be kept very clean because of the instruments that were being repaired there. We had a native Tamil whose job it was to polish the floors, he used to lie on the floor occasionally and fall asleep, the sergeant would yell and give him a kick in the butt, and he would then polish like hell for a few minutes, and as soon as no one was looking he would go back to sleep.
After seven months in Singapore I promoted to LAC, Leading Aircraftsman. It was around this time that watched the Royal Navy ships the Prince of Wales and the Repulse come into the naval base, everyone knew that something was going to happen. Two days later both ships left the naval base.
December 7th - We had the first air raid, our Brewster Buffaloes aircraft were no match for the Jap Zeros, the Buffaloes had their gunpower reduced making them very vulnerable. Three days later we got the news that the Japs had landed at Kota Baru, and everyone started to flap as we also heard that the Prince of Wales and the Repulse had both been sunk by the Japs. The island then started to fill up as the troops from up country started to retreat. There was one incident where an Australian squadron the 242 squadron refused to fly the Buffaloes, they were sent back to Australia in disgrace. Later on we did get some Hurricanes, but it was obvious that there wasn't going to be enough.
|
 Previous Page
|
|
Next Page 
|
|
|
Home Page
|
|
|
|
