September Newsletter

HARWICH & DOVERCOURT ROTARY CLUB SEPTEMBER 2015 NEWSLETTER

On Monday 21st September our speaker was Peter Hesketh and his subject was ‘Circumnavigating the World on Container Ships’, giving a very comprehensive and interesting description of his voyages on three container ships. I am sure our non-seafaring members learnt a great deal about these ships and the conditions that the crews live under to bring us all the things that we need or think that we need to enjoy life. The first two ships that Peter travelled on were owned by French companies with not a Frenchman in sight – otherwise the food would have been far better. Instead they were manned by Croatians and Filipinos with the last ship,(although an Italian Company) manned by Rumanians. Nowadays, shipping companies go for the cheapest crews and probably year long contracts with no holiday pay or pension entitlement. When I was at sea most countries had their nationals serving in their Merchant Navies but in the late sixties we began to see deck crews from the Cape Verde Island and later mainland Spain – then it moved on to Filipinos , Polish, Yugoslavs and then on to any cheap labour. P & O have always had their Goan and Lascar crews but I think that they have probably disappeared now. I was speaking to Peter afterwards and he told me that when he left school he went to work for Ellerman Lines in the catering trade and rose to the rank of Asst Purser but could see which way the British Merchant Navy was going, so left the sea and joined the Police. Now retired, he is giving this talk in an effort to raise money to help the crews of these container ships get ashore in the very limited time that they have in port. A vote of thanks was given by Richard Coolen. ​​​​*******************************************

Reception of Visitors September 28th​Visit to RNLI Headquarters for Fish & Chip supper October 5th​​John Wade​​David Wells​​Chris Whittam ​ 12th​​Malcolm Ablett​​Nigel Barnard​​Greg Bloss ​ 19th​​Charles Bull​​Tony Burrows​​Norman Cory ​ 26th​​Cathy Calver​​Adrian Dann​​Denis Foster ​​​​**************************

Dates for your Diary Monday 28th September​-​​Fish and Chip Supper at RNLI Headquarters Monday 5th October​​-​​CLUB COUNCIL Monday 12th October​​-​​BUSINESS MEETING Monday 19th October​​-​​PRE CARNIVAL MEETING Monday 26th October​​-​​Speaker John Bank Saturday 31st October​​-​​GUY CARNIVAL Monday 2nd November​-​​DISTRICT GOVERNORS VISIT !! ​​​​*****************************

For our older members I am sure that September brings back a lot of memories – firstly the 3rd when war was declared. I can remember the day very well – we had been to Sunday school and my sister, a friend of mine and myself went for our usual Sunday walk, usually a few miles. At 11am the sirens sounded, and half expecting to be bombed at any minute we ran to our respective homes. It had been decided that if war came, we would move in with our step-grandmother and rent out our house which was two streets away and when we arrived at our new home on that morning, mother thought that it would be a good idea to go to our house and collect the family’s gas masks. She arrived back safely and we all waited to see what would happen – of course the first few months of the war were relatively quiet and it would be the next year when everything changed. My father was working for the Orient Company (taken into the P & O fleet after the war) and he was onboard the SS’Otranto’ cruising off New Guinea with Australian passengers and the Master was ordered to proceed at full speed to Garden Island and Cockatoo Island, the Australian Naval bases in Sydney to have a 6in gun fitted on the poop and 3 anti-aircraft guns fitted in various places. (The 6in gun had been taken off HMAS ‘Sydney’ which had sunk the German raider ‘Emden’ at the Cocos Islands in WW1.) After the guns were mounted and tested the ‘Otranto’ embarked 3,000 Officers and men and left for the Suez Canal. My father was Chief Butcher (they carried five in those days) and had to adapt to feeding that number instead of the usual 600 passengers. But of course we at home had no idea where they were going and when he would next be home, like so many other men and women during the war years. Another memory from September for me is the ‘Battle of Britain’ in 1940 – living in Kent we would get used to seeing so many planes in the sky, both friend and foe culminating on 18th September when it was claimed that the RAF shot down up to 187 enemy planes. This was proved to be an over estimation later, but believe me it was very good for the morale of the public, especially the people in the East End of London and elsewhere who had suffered a lot and were to suffer many more raids. I remember standing in the back garden and watching the dog fights going on in the skies and on one occasion while we were picking hops, a Messerschidt 109 just about cleared the poles and crash landed in the next field. That particular year, because my mother had been late booking in, we were in with the Londoners and Clara in the next row, who had been bombed out at least once, made off across the field to sort the pilot out, but luckily for him the Army had arrived first. I have read that there were cases that German airmen had been attacked and injured by angry mobs. The Luftwaffe had failed to take control of the skies and with the overwhelming superiority of the Royal Navy, Hitler had put ‘ Operation Sea Lion’ (the invasion of Gt Britain) on hold and no more landing craft were sent to their Channel ports. Very few B of B pilots survive, but like Trafalgar and Waterloo, the Battle of Britain will go down in history as a defining moment. I think that I have mentioned before that my elder brother and his friend witnessed the only shots fired on British soil in WW2. It was also in September 1940, the 27th, when Junker 88 bombers failed to make contact with their fighter escort but decided to press on with their attack on London and were met by Spitfires and Hurricanes over Kent and Surrey. They were shot to pieces and there were crashed planes all over SE England. One badly damaged Junker 88 (the lastest model !) decided to crash land on Graveney Marshes (close to Seasalter and Whitstable) where my brother and his friend were fishing in the dykes. It landed about 100yds away but it was not long before British troops arrived from the nearby ‘Sportsman Inn’ (now a high class restaurant, I believe) where they were stationed. As they approached the plane, the crew started firing and the soldiers took cover and told my brother and friend to get behind a convenient bridge. Shots were exchanged but after a while the airmen appeared holding a white flag and were taken prisoner – one of the army personnel who was obviously a bomb expert went into the aircraft and defused a charge. As the prisoners were marched off they were talking to each other and said that a second charge should blow the plane up – luckily one of the Army group could speak German and overheard this remark so a second charge was defused and so the plane was saved for the experts to examine. A few years ago (probably 2010 – the 70th anniversary) there was a reunion and ceremony to mark this event and my brother’s son-in-law took him down to the ‘Sportsman Inn’ were he met a collector who had managed to obtain the manufacturers plate from this Junker 88 ! My brother was also asked to be interviewed by Radio Kent. ​​​​**********************************

The Woman’s Institute – 100 years I always thought that the WI started in the UK and ,like so many other organisations,‘exported’ to the Commonwealth, but in fact it came from Canada where it had started in Stoney Creek, Ontario in 1897 by Adelaide Hoodless. It started in the UK in Llanfair, Angelsey in 1915 to revitalise rural communities and to encourage women to become involved in producing food during WW1 and after the war went on to provide women with educational opportunities and a chance to build new skills. The organisation has over 200,000 members and is independent of any political parties . Church and Chapel which encourages non-establishment women to join and get involved – they have been very reluctant to get involved with war work, despite their wartime formation. The only war work that was undertaken was looking after evacuees and running the Government sponsored Preservation Centres, were volunteers carried out canning and making jam from excess produce, A government grant of £1,400 allowed National Federations of WI to buy sugar and distribute around the country to WIs who were prepared to take part in the Co-operative Fruit Preservation Scheme and in 1940, 1,631 tons of preserves were made and by the end of the war 5.300 tons of fruit was preserved. The Americans, through the Associated Countrywomen of the World, sent 500 Dixie hand sealers (home canners) together with a complete Food Presevation Unit and all equipment needed to make jam and preserve fruit. So, some of the jam that we oldies ate during the war was probably made by members of the WI. ​​​​*********************************

* Operation Market Garden – September 17th – 24th 1944 It is the 71st anniversary of this much discussed operation which was dogged by bad weather including fog, when the second force comprising 1st Polish Airborne Division could not be landed on the first day which meant that troops had to stay behind to defend the drop zone instead of the whole group fighting their way to the Arnhem bridge. Major General Roy Urquhart and Army planners wanted the paratroopers to be dropped closer to the Bridge and had put forward two drop zones, one to the north and one close to the south but the RAF planners had selected a drop zone which was some miles away. At the other bridges which were targeted and where the drop zones were close to the bridges, the objectives were successful. The first group consisted of the 1st British Airborne Division and the Glider Pilot Regiment with a total of 10,000 men which was considered adequate to hold the Bridge for two days before being relieved by the British XXX Corp advancing along the roads. As it happened only 740 men under the command of Lt. Colonel John Frost made it to the bridge and they managed to hold out for 4 days being attacked with mortar and gunfire. With so many wounded including, Lt. Colonel Frost, a two hour truce was agreed and the wounded were evacuated into captivity. After four days the remaining troops either made their way back to the small bridgehead around Osterbek to join the remaining troops or were captured The 1st Polish Airborne Division did eventually land but this was south of the Rhine. On the night of the 25th September it was decided to evacuate the bridgehead and all but 300 troops managed to cross the river to safety, Of the 10,000 from the attacking force 1,485 were killed, 6,414 were taken prisoner of which a third were wounded. Montgomery’s idea was to take the bridges over the Rhine and attack the Ruhr around the German Siegfried Line. It has been argued that those in charge of the Tank Division were too cautious and that they could have broken through. We shall never know. It was also claimed that the German strength was under estimated and that the British Intelligence failed to involve the Dutch Resistance which they thought had been infiltrated by double agents – which later proved correct. ​​​​******************************

Its MacMillan Coffee Morning again on the 25th September and Jan is holding her usual coffee morning serving cakes and sausage rolls and would be delighted if your wives/husbands would like to come along or in fact if any Rotarian also would like to come along and join us to hopefully raise a good lot of money to help MacMillan carry on their good work. As you know parking is limited in Queens Road, so could I suggest to park in Hall Lane. Look forward to seeing you.