[SOC] RE: GB> Australia's Veteran's Magazine - 102 yr old Signalman's Article - [long]

Thu, 13 Mar 2003 23:58:10 +1100

I Know this is OT, but with us on the brink of war again I would like to
relate this story.

In 1991, just 6 months or so before the Balkans blew up, I travelled
through southern France around Lyon visiting places of religious
significance.  (After France we travelled through Serbia, Croatia and
Bosnia, but that is another story).  On a bus heading roughly NE from
Lyon to Belley (I think) we went down into a valley at the bottom of
which there was a stream crossed by a stone bridge. The road then wound
up the other side.  One side of the valley was covered in stone and the
other side was covered in pine forest.  I kept experiencing this sense
of d=E9j=E0 vu, yet I had never been to France before (although decended =
in
part from French speaking Belgians for what that is worth).  Suddenly it
came to me that this was the where a scene in a war movie might have
been shot.  Just then the guide remarked that at the top of the valley
we would see some grave stones.  The graves contained mainly maquisards
(French resistance fighters) but the bodies of 14 Australians were
buried there also.  Every week, local French people put fresh flowers on
the graves.

I think fresh flowers on the graves is wonderful, especially as the
locals have been maintaining the practice for over 50 years.  But I
would much rather that the lives of these brave young men and women had
not been cut short in the first place.

I support strongly the women and men of the ADF who are now in the Gulf.
But I do question the logic that our government  applied to this
problem.

73
Kevin
VK3DAP / ZL2DAP
mailto:[email protected]
Home page: http://www.qsl.net/vk3dap
=20

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ian C.
Purdie
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2003 9:27 PM
To: Flying Pigs; [email protected];
[email protected]; Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion; SOC
Subject: GB> Australia's Veteran's Magazine - 102 yr old Signalman's
Article - [long]

It wouldn't come as a huge shock to folks to know that I am a member of
Australia's principal veteran organisation, the RSL, known as the
Returned Services League.

Each month we receive our magazine which has feature stories, anecdotes,
letters to the editor etc. along with advertisements for funeral homes
and retirement villages [all familiar?] and so forth.

This month's issue features a young 102 year old 'Yeoman'. A signalman
by any other name [a living legend]:

At the risk of prosecution [copyright], persecution and whatever - allow
me to relate his story [long]:

ALBERT FLINT

[Who did win the battle of Jutland? We spoke to a man with very firm
ideas on the subject - and he was there]

Among the crowd at Earlwood-Bardwell Park RSL Club, one small figure
stands
out: smartly dressed, wearing his service medals proudly. Albert Flint
is fulfilling his daily independent ritual of meeting friends and
enjoying a healthy meal, washed down occasionally by a glass of port.

At 102, Albert [all photographs included show from early days - to the
present, a man of obvious strong personal character, the chin stands
out, right from age 12 to 102] is a legend in the district, always
turning up to commemorative events, taking part in RSL sub-branch
activities, and happy to share his memories of a long naval service that
began in World War 1.

"I was only 12 when I joined my first training ship" he says "and by the
time I was 14, I was in the Royal Navy as a signal boy. I followed my
father into the navy. He was on minesweepers."

Albert is one of a tiny handful of surviving veterans of the biggest sea
battle of them all - 31st May, 1916, the Battle of Jutland in the North
Sea [or as the Germans know it, the Battle of Skagerrak]. It was the
only action he saw during WW1, but it was enough for a lifetime.

Albert was on "The Dom": the battleship HMS Indomitable.

"We struck rough weather and I'll never forget being seasick for half an
hour. Then I got over it. We were in the Third Battle Squadron. We could
only go 25 knots and were lagging behind. We lost 'Indefatigable',
'Queen Mary' and "Inflexible', and if we'd been able to go the same
speed, we'd have gone too."

When she joined the battle, HMS Indomitable engaged the German ships
'Derfflinger', 'Seydlitz' and 'Pommern', and was soon under fire
herself, but, remarkably, took no casualties. The teen-aged signal boy
was one of those most exposed to the enemy shells.

"I was on the bridge the whole time", says Albert. "I got very nervous -
and that's what eventually got me discharged, a nervous disability. You
couldn't see much - there was black smoke everywhere. All the ships were
coal burners and you couldn't see the signals".

"It was terrifying. There was just smoke, and all the noise of the guns
firing, and the ship shaking. I wouldn't want to see another Jutland,
that's for sure."

The Royal Navy fleet, under Admiral John Jellicoe, deployed 28
Dreadnought destroyers and 9 battle cruisers at Jutland; the German
commander, Admiral Scheer, had 16 Dreadnoughts and 5 battle cruisers.

The British lost 14 ships and 6,784 men compared with German losses of
11 ships and 3,058 men. Using those figures, Germany claimed victory.
For Britain it was a tactical loss but a strategic gain: the Germans
remained blockaded in their ports for the duration of WW1 and never went
to sea again.

Almost 87 years later Albert Flint has no doubt about Jutland being a
British victory.

"They go around saying who won the Battle of Jutland - but who
surrendered? That's who the loser was".

[edit - at 102 no one would dare disagree]

And in his view Admiral Jellicoe was never given due credit. Even today
Albert is quite passionate on this point.

"Beatty got all the glory and Jellicoe got was to be made
Governor-General of New Zealand. But Jellicoe never got all the messages
he should have done [sic]. You couldn't see the signals - there was no
visibility - and there was a real mix-up in communications."

Albert remained on HMS Indomitable for the rest of the war.

"I have good memories of old 'Dom'. Our sleeping quarters weren't great
- we had hammocks slung down below decks. And we weren't allowed to
smoke on board or have a tot of rum until we were 18 - but I used to
have a smoke when I was ashore!"

Albert stayed with the Royal Navy after the war and was posted to Malta
to join the Grand fleet, serving throughout the Mediterranean on a
variety of warships, including 'Eagle', 'Seraph', 'Ajax', 'Ramillies',
'Seaton', 'Hood', 'Vivid', 'Monarch', 'Trinidad' and 'Tedworth'.

In 1925, as a yeoman, or leading signalman, he agreed to transfer to the
Royal Australian Navy for what wa supposed to be a two year assignment.

The journey out was to be significant: asked to assist a female
passenger who was seasick, he met the woman's daughter and fell in love.
Albert and Sarah married and had two children; after Sarah's death he
remarried but also lost his second wife, Amy, due to illness. Today he
lives alone, caring for himself.

Albert spent six years in the RAN, serving on the 'Canberra',
'Cerberus', 'Brisbane', 'Australia', 'ANZAC' and 'Penguin'. After his
discharge in 1931 he worked as a gatekeeper at Concord Hospital [Vets
hospital[, then as a gardener at the adjoining Red Cross hostel, until
he was 85.

"I've been back to England twice but it's not the place I knew" says
Albert. "The house where I grew up in Battersea is still there though."

Today, as a proud Australian, Albert Flint never fails to observe ANZAC
Day and Remembrance Day, usually laying a wreath with his sub Branch at
the local RSL Club. And there is one other day of commemorative
significance marked on his calendar.

"21st October is Trafalgar Day and I join other members of the Royal
Navy Association in laying a wreath at Kirribilli."

The era of british sea power has long been extinguished, but the proud
naval tradition born of Trafalgar and Jutland continues to burn brightly
in Sydney, in the 'indomitable' form of Albert Flint.

[This post pays homage to a very remarkable Albert. It also pays homage
to my father, Richard [Dick] Purdie, VK2RP, VK3RP, VK2ARP - SK. Yeoman
and Signalman
- RAN 1916 -1928. Wireless Operator, Senior Training Officer, Signals
Intelligence, Radar - 1930 - 1952]

72/73's

Ian C. Purdie
Budgewoi N.S.W. Australia - Co-ords S33=B014', E151=B034'
VK2TIP "I'll give ya the TIP mate" QRP-L #1978. SOC #171 FP#91
http://www.electronics-tutorials.com/