A Soldiers Journal (PAGE4)
Suddenly I awoke in a cold sweat, As I sit and think on what I have bear witnessed too. I can't help but wonder what these dreams are about and why do I keep soaking my bedding, But I had no time to worry about this For today was a new day and today we get to live fire shoot. First up we used the 303, as was only a small man the kick back on this rifle would nearly put me on my bum. Next was .38 pistol this would be your side arm and was a bit more suited to my body size but would not be good in distance, so getting better with the 303 was top priority. I got very excited like a kid in a candy store when they brought out the next gun. we were all having a go on the Thompson sub machine gun this was a very quick high powered weapon and was not easy to control.I am afraid I put more holes in the air and very few in the targets. I don't know if I have dark sense of humor but I had to laugh today.The sailors who went ashore when we arrived, Were removing old ordnance that were installed to blow hole in the reef to create a channel. All the ordnance that was not used was to be removed, they had spent days pulling them up and stacking them in a heap on the beach and had placed a charge on the huge pile to blow them all up. As the charges went off the sound was deafening,
it almost made many a mans ears bleed.The earth shook and the bush surrounding caught fire thus a enormous bush fire begun to burn and we were all dispatched as fire fighters. fires was not all they created that day mass havoc and injuries were caused at the resort. they had blown all the windows spraying glass over many of the guest and created a hole on the beach roughly the size of three Olympic size swimming pools. After the fire was out we diapered before the public relation nightmare began.we slowly made our way down the coast the Captain was keen to do some fishing so we dropped a pattern of five depth charges on the reef set at a depth of 50 feet. As the hit the reef they exploded it scared the shit out of me the whole boiler room vibrated and made a ringing sound unfortunately we caught no fish, I can't help but wounder the trouble we would be in today blowing up reefs. as we continued our way back to Brisbane we performed another task, this time it would be using the ships anti aircraft guns this was the Main armament for the frigate it consisted of two QF 4-inch (102 mm)/45 calibre Mark XVI guns. Massive weather balloons were released and we took turns in shooting them down you would not see them hit instead see a powder smoke in the air. today we had received a distress call to a light house the keeper had managed to cut his leg open with a axe I hoped this would not take long as we were nearly home. as a boat was with the ships doctor that captain said we could have R&R this time was spent by many of the men gambling and writing letters to loved ones. it was not until latter that after the doctor came back and we continued on down the coast. At 24 hrs before we were due to arrive, we where told we would be arriving six hours early, the engine room had been given the order to increase engine revs, this was known as homeward bounders. the engine was a massive Propulsion machinery consisted of two Admiralty 3-drum boilers, feeding steam to reciprocating vertical triple expansion engines, which produced 5,500 horsepower to pump two propeller drive shafts with a Maximum speed of 20 knots and maximum range was 5,180 nautical miles at 12 knots. this was my first trip to sea which I had many good stories to take home and share. I was pleased with this trip and was to find many more to come over the years.
To be Continued
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