Arrival

My tour started at Seletar at the end of 1959. A tour for a single man lasted two and a half years (30 months). I arrived as a junior technician, 19 years old, fresh and innocent, having just completed a Ground Radar course at RAF Locking. The journey to Singapore was by a civilian Brittania from Gatwick (Hunting Clan Airways, I think). I can remember being surprised at the smell and heat when I first arrived at Paya Lebar airport. I was posted to 390 MU and was set to work repairing radios that I new nothing about (I was a radar man - used to high voltages and complicated displays).

Living Conditions

I lived in G Block. Each floor has a bearer who cleaned shoes, made our beds, fetched and delivered dhobi. KD was awful when new. It took several visits to the dhobi before it became stiff with starch and the stitching turned white (thus denoting that you had got some overseas time in). New arrivals were called ‘Moonies’, probably on account of the blinding white, knees, faces and arms. Mosquito nets were issued but never used. I think that when your blood had a high Tiger or Anchor content they left you alone.

Your world consisted of a bed, a tall locker, and a small locker. You very rarely sat in chairs, mainly lying on your bed reading.

On top of your tall locker was your ‘deep sea kit’ (i.e. you UK uniform packed in a special box to resist damp’ It was totally ridiculous having to take your blue uniform to Singapore, getting it packed in a box, and then bringing it home unopened.

Camp Life

I can remember new arrivals being lectured by the MO on arrival about the foolhardiness of relationships with the bargirls of Singapore (gory VD films). There was a map showing which parts of Singapore were out of bounds – most of the town seemed to be shaded in red. We were also warned not to eat the local food – hell! we would have starved if we hadn’t. The photographs of the little Black and White bus that used to ply between West and East Camp brought back memories. There was a similar bus that used to travel from Seleter to Changi hospital, We used to call it the ‘Blunderbus’ because it transported blokes with suspected ‘clap’ and pregnant wives.

On West Camp we used to think of ourselves as something special (East Camp was for ‘shinies’). There was also quite a ‘them and us’ feeling in the relationship between single men and the married men living in quarters. In fact we used to refer to married families as ‘scalies’ (I don’t know the origination of that phrase, perhaps you can enlighten me). You could always tell a married airman because he would not be wearing the issued KD – it would be specially tailored kit from the village, in a slightly different colour, with shorter shorts. A single man would not be seen dead in that stuff – he would be considered a ‘traitor’ by his peers.

Life as a single man seemed to revolve around the lack of money and when the ‘Duty Free’ was going to run out in the NAAFI.

Leisure Time

We were paid fortnightly, and always seemed to be broke two or three days after pay day. National Servicemen, who had even less, used to play a lot of bridge to while away the time. You would never let it be known that you had money during the second week – if you did, you would have a continual stream of mates wanting to borrow until next pay day. I used to hock my Seiko watch at a Chinese Hock shop in a village on the way to Singapore – it would raise 15 dollars.

Trips to Singapore from Seletar would usually be by taxi, with several lads crammed into one taxi. I think it was about 18 miles from Seletar to Albert Street – our usual port of call. The taxis were Mercedes Benz diesels with the occupants exhorting the driver with shouts of “Piggi La Casse John”.

One evening we all went to the football stadium to watch a Singapore side play an all-star team from England – Tom Finney (a bit past his prime) played on the wing

The West Camp NAAFI and Canteen block had a small Astra cinema. It normally showed up-to-date films, with the result that married families from East Camp would venture over to West Camp for a night out. In doing so they had to endure a bit of ribaldry from the single lads leaning over the balcony in the NAAFI. There was also a Sergeants Mess at West Camp.

We used to eat regularly at the macan stalls in Jalan Jayu (even after being warned by the MO not to eat local food) – there was an Indian stall on the right at the northern end of the village that sold a fearsome curry (they used to provide cucumber to cool down your lips).

After you had got some time in you could handle these curries without any bother. Often, we’d take a curry back to G block in a condensed milk tin with a ‘baguette’ to soak up the juices.

During a tour you could do a 2-week jungle course at Fraser’s Hill (north of KL). It was the best two weeks of my tour. The catering was done by the NAAFI.

61 Signals Unit

One of the Radar Heads (Type 14?) at RAF Seletar

After some time at the MU, servicing old fashioned AR88 radios, I was posted, internally, to 61 Signals Unit, a mobile radar convoy that was situated beside the runway (on the left hand side looking North). It consisted of Type 13 and 14 radar heads linked to cabins with consoles for range and height finding. These consoles were manned by officer controllers and airman operators. Wetechnicians maintained the equipment, under a Flying Officer (a man who had risen through the ranks, I remember).

The radars were powered by Lister diesels, which we had to start up early in the morning before running up the radars and tuning them in for the best signal response. These Listers were a ‘pig’ to start, requiring four warm up turns on the big starting handle before the fifth turn encountered the compression. After a night on the beer this was not a pleasant experience. In addition, the humidity count was very high - the needle on the humidity meter in the radar cabin was usually wrapped round the end stop. As you gradually wound up the HT voltage on the magnetron, this humidity would cause a massive spark to arc across a spark gap, giving you a real fright.

The photograph right shows us at a Christmas function at a Hotel in Singapore. The fellow in the white jacket on the right was the Flying Officer in charge of us technicians:

Naval Aircraft

When an aircraft carrier, such as The Victorious, visited Sembawang, its aircraft flew into Seletar for the duration. We often used to wake up to see the dispersal areas lined with Gannets and Sea Vixens.

Beverleys

Beverleys were based at West Camp. They had a very short take off length and when you see the size of the aircraft it was quite amazing. They were always practising supply drops over the runway (see photograph right).

Beverley Over Seletar With 61 SU Radar in Foreground

I came into closer contact with Beverleys later in my RAF career - they lifted our radar unit off the Yemen border during the troubles there in 1967.

Meteors

I can also remember Meteors flying from Seleter (especially the night flying type NF13s). A Beaufighter was used as a target tower when the Meteors went for firing practice.

Motor Racing

At West Camp there was a Corporal who was a very good motor cycle racer. So much so that Honda provided him with their latest 4-cylider machine. He raced in Singapore and Malaya. I think Honda used him to test whether the bike would be competitive on the race tracks of Europe. His name was, I think, Chris Profit White. The photo shows him at speed on the Honda 4 at the Johore Grand Prix meeting.

Although the main car race was called a Grand Prix, it was really a hotch potch of different cars owned by the wealthy of Singapore and Malaya.(see left).

Johore Grand Prix

Speed Trials were held on the runway at Seletar (G Block in the background):

 

Going Home

Two and a half years is a long time for a young single airman to be away from home. The things that you looked forward to were: real milk, fog, frost, green fields, winter evenings.

With about six months to go, the average airman would count down to the wonderful day when he would go home (broadcasting his ‘chuff number’ to those unfortunates with years to do – a chuff number was calculated by dividing days done by days to do. On the day of departure it became infinity).

Having obtained a date and flight number, you would celebrate with a Boat Party, usually in the Brit Club, Singapore. My trip home was by RAF Comet 4 (landing at Gan, Nairobi, El Adem and finally Lyneham).

 

Regards

Mike Rees, 39 Fosseway Avenue, Moreton in Marsh, Glos, GL56 0EB