As Sea Dangers Grew a New Regiment Came Into Being

Taranaki Daily News, 28 August 1942, Page 2

As Sea Dangers Grew a New Regiment Came

Into Being

THE explanation of an intriguing military badge that may be seen worn by soldiers in coastal ports in the Dominion is given in this interesting story of the formation and duties of Britain's Maritime Regiment. I met some interesting men in khaki the other day, says William Holt. One of them — a sergeant— was wearing a new kind of badge at the top of his sleeve, a black square with a red anchor, and a white rope, and two white capital "A"s. They are serving in a newlyformed body known as the Maritime Regiment. When I say "newly formed," [ mean they have only just been given a name and official status as a regiment. Until recently the public knew nothing about them. Now that the story can be told and people are getting to hear about them, you hear them referred to as "webfeet" or as "sea-soldiers," or "Churchill's Snipers." This is how the regiment was founded. At the beginning of the war, when the Athenia was sunk, and it was clear that the Nazis were out to "sink at sight," we realised that every ship would have to be ready to defend herealf. Within the first year 3000 of our merchant ships were fitted with guns. It was a big job. The ships had to be specially strengthened to withstand the shock of gunfire, crews of the vessels had to be trained in gunnery, and to make sure that the best use would be made of the guns which were mounted, a number of pensioners and time-expired seamen and Royal Marines were got together as gunlayers and put in charge of the mercantile ships' gun crews. Guns Exceeded Gunners. As more and more ships were laid aside for merchant ships, they began to exceed the number of trained gunlayers available. The Fleet's heavy requirements had to be met first, and so men were recruited to train as D.E.M.S. gunlayers (D.E.M.S. means Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships) and many enrolled from all walks of life. The nonseaman staff of large liners, such as Btewards, cooks, butchers, barbers, many of whom were thrown out of work by the outbreak of war, came forward as volunteers. I remember those early days. We were short-handed even in crews, as the Royal 1 Navy had called up reservists, many of whom had been serving in merchant ships in peace time. I signed on and shipped out as an ordinary seaman. We worked 14 hours a day and all of us ■ including ihe coolc and cabin boys— took our turns on watch on the gun platform. We were trained to fire the gun and we each had our action station. ■ But as the war went on and the encmv began furious atlacks by air on our merchaui ships, we put a lot of

machine-guns and other anti-aircraft weapons aboard, in addition to the armament already mounted, and this is where the Maritime Regiment now comes in. After the fall of France, a lot of our men, evacuated from Dunkirk, were without weapons, so an arrangement was made between the War Office and the Admiralty. that a number of soldiers should be lent to the Navy to supplement the D.E.M.S. ratings in merchant ships.* These trained men were recruited from many different regiments, including infantry. But in fighting they soon developed esprit de corps. So these men were grouped into four Maritime Regiments of Royal Artillery. They were dressed in khaki, and are still under the War Office for the purpose of administration, but the Admiralty controls the operations. They are trained to splice ropes, pull boats, hoist a sail, and swim— but this is all for their own safety. Actually they are not coneerned with the navigation of merchant ships. They are aboard to fight —soldiers afioat. Every one of these sea soldiers has attended a special training course at a school in Britain for antiaircraft fighting at sea. Dome Training. As far as is possible, actual battle conditions are reproduced. They are first put through a stiff course inside a place called a dome-training sehool. Americans may understand better what I mean by the "dome," because in America there are planelaria where you can go inside a dome-shaped building and see a very realistic reproduct.ion of the stars and the movement of the heavens at night, while a talk is given by an astronomer. Inside our dome-training Bchool for gunners, full-sized Heinkels and other enemy aeroplanes are projected inside the dome by means of a film. These aeroplanes swoop and dive with terriftc noise towarsd the student at the gun sights, looking very realistic in the dim light.' They can be projected anywhere in the dome, so that aeroplanes come swooping from unexpected angles,

and the gunner has to act quickly and train his sights on the diving aeroplane. Meanwhile, the trainer is shouting encouragement and keeping his eye on a spot of light on the screen where the sights have to converge to get the aeroplane in a vulnerable spot. Afterwards, in the open air, they fire tracer-bullets and live ammunition at moving targets. Many kinds of guns are used, including Hotchkiss, Oerlikon, and Marlin-twin. The weapons are very effective, and recruits who have never practised with such weapons before often hit a 12-inch toy balloon at 600 feet in their second burst. Some of the weapons are based on the principle of rocket propulsion, and some fling Mills bombs and a writhing steel cable far into the air. They are sometimes called "shuttle soldiers." Some of them told me they'd got their sea legs, but they hadn't got their sea stomach yet. Never at Sea Before. They were very sunburnt and looked pretty fit. I found some had volunteered for this special work. Others said they had been detailed for the job and had had no idea of where they were going until they were marehed aboard a ship. One fellow who volunteered told me that he rushed aboard and the ship sailed within half an hour. He'd never been at sea before in his life. I asked them how they got on with the naval ratings and with the boys of the merchant navy. "They welcome our help, naturally," one of them said. Sometimes these sea soldiers sail on board and protect ships of our allies — Norwtegians, Greek, and eo on. , This is an instance of improvisation which has proved successful. We have been compelled to improvise a lot since this war began, because so much that is new has come into warfare. There was the Air Force Regiment which we formed. That came after the capture of airports by the enemy. Now we have our Maritime Regiment. It is a romantic story, reminiscent of the maritime regiments of the L th century, of CromweH's "sea fencibles."