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July 1943 to June 1944
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D-Day to VJ Day and beyond
Background information & the last months
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Background information & the last months
Location: Hampshire
HMS CRICKET (Cricket Camp) – MANOR FARM COUNTRY PARK
PART 4: Background information & the last months
Layout of the camp
The boundary of the camp was secured by a fence consisting of one roll of barbed wire lying on top of two other rolls, the whole being served by a track all round the perimeter. The guardhouse, which can still be seen, stood just inside the main gate to Pylands Lane and from there a track ran off to the S.W. and led to the Wrens and officers quarters across the valley at Freehills and Brixedone. This was always guarded and was out of bounds to all male other ranks!
Inside this boundary were contained the many buildings of HMS Cricket, which amounted almost to a small town. There have been differences of opinion about the layout, which may have varied from time to time, but as far as we can tell it was as shown in the accompanying plan. The camp was fairly heavily wooded but alongside the entrance road an area had been cleared to serve as a parade ground; here the crews paraded at 8.00 a.m. every morning for inspection and instruction in the day’s duties. At the easterly end of the road a track, wide enough for navy lorries, ran down to the landing craft bays and a scaffold pier at Hoe Moor Creek. A small hut for sentries was situated near the bottom of the path. On the other side of the creek a large marquee housed an armament store and it was here that a flying bomb fell in July 1944 killing three servicemen who were on guard; a tragedy only alleviated by the fact that the V1 did not hit the store, which could have caused disaster over a wide area.
Life in a Nissen hut
These prefabricated buildings were of a very well-established design conceived by a Col. Peter Nissen fifty years or so earlier, when an increasingly modern army found that tents were totally inadequate as temporary accommodation. Half-cylinder shaped sheets of corrugated steel formed the roof and sides (technically a very stable design) and these sat on a solid base which was usually of concrete, the end walls being of wood or brick. In these walls were the doors and windows, the number depending on the basic size of the hut. Opening roof lights formed little dormers along the sides. Recollections of the internal layout differ somewhat after sixty years but it would seem that a typical hut contained a row of five double bunks down each side, access to the upper bunks being by steel ladders. At each end of the centre aisle were tables with bench seats where the men could eat, read or play games during what little leisure time they had.
In the middle of the hut stood a closed stove with a chimney passing up through the steel roof, the whole apparently getting red-hot at times. However, this did little to alleviate the freezing temperatures prevailing in the huts in the winter (they were also
uncomfortably warm in summer.) Coke was the approved fuel for the stoves but two visiting marines had a different recollection. “Coke!” they said, “We didn’t have luxuries like that. We used to get the axes from the landing craft and cut down trees in the surrounding woods to burn in the stoves. After a while the woodland got so thin that the Commander took away all our axes and so we had to manage in the boats without them.”
Some of the personnel at HMS Cricket The “Bosses” (Administration)
At the time of the Normandy landings the C.O. of HMS Cricket was Commander Piper, CBE. RN (ret.) and his deputy was Lt. Commander Hughes, RN (ret.) In addition to a wardroom of general service Naval and Royal Marine officers there was a Surgeon Lt. A.D.J. Watt, two Paymaster lieutenants and a variety of engineering officers and NCOs. Bosun J. Kelly, Shipwright T. Roberts and Warrant Engineer W. Grainger were a vital part of the base staff.
Bosun Kelly had been brought out of retirement for the duration and was reputed to be aged about seventy. He had served in Queen Victoria’s navy and was the oldest bosun in the Royal Navy. In the words of one marine, “He was a very gentle and likeable person but at the same time would stand no nonsense and always believed in getting his own way. He was certainly no respecter of seniority, especially when it came to other officers of higher rank. On more than one occasion he detailed a working party, for a job that he wanted doing, from a group already engaged in a task for some more senior officer. I never saw anyone remonstrate with him other than giving him a look of open-mouthed disbelief at his audacity. The only person he appeared to respect was the C.O. and even then his salute to him was never more than one or two fingers just touched to the peak of his cap.” Nevertheless, it seemed that he ran a very tight ship.
The W.R.N.S.
Members of the Womens’ Royal Naval Service, always known as Wrens, played a significant part in the efficient working of the landing craft forces on the Hamble River. Their technical skills were put to use in degaussing the LCs, adjusting the compasses and repairing the craft – all tasks needing great care and diligence. They also undertook much of the ferry work on the river, taking crews to and from the landing craft moored out on the trots and carrying personnel and goods hither and yon. There are many stories about these girls and several of them have written their own accounts.
The Wrens at Cricket were not generally required for boat service but worked as office staff or as cooks for the officers' mess or in the canteen. Marine John Watson met his wife Dorothy when he was stationed at the camp and she was serving in the canteen. Married for nearly sixty years they were both able to come to the ceremony in June and while visiting the exhibition at Manor Farm, with their family, they found a photo that they had never seen before. It showed John with the other members of his flotilla: “I know that one’s Dad,” said his son, “I’d recognise those ears anywhere!”
HMS Cricket – the final year
As previously related there was much activity at Cricket after the Normandy landings and during the next eleven months, with flotillas coming and going and, sadly, more fatalities among the crews during the attacks on Walcheren and the Scheldt islands. Even after VE Day, training for the Far East continued apace and in July 1945 the Royal Marines Combined operations base was moved from Westcliff, on the Essex coast, and Cricket became an official Royal Marine base. Below is an Autumn 1945 report from “The Globe and Laurel”, the RM publication, which describes the latter days of HMS Cricket.
The Westcliff contingent had barely arrived in Hampshire when the dropping of the Atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought a sudden and unexpected ending to the war. VJ Day had arrived; bonfires were lit, mainbraces spliced and a great revelry lasted for two days, the only casualty being the NAAFI piano, which somehow got burnt. There were riotous parties at the White Swan, the Red Lion and the Crow’s Nest as the camp, along with the whole nation, celebrated the arrival of peace. The officers challenged the senior NCOs to a cricket match – and the officers won.
The End
After VJ Day, Cricket assumed the role of a transit centre for servicemen returning from the war zones. Kitting up, medical re-grading, leave and release routines became the base staff’s forte. Residential E.V.T. courses were introduced to prepare participants for life in civvies. The Christmas activities of 1945 were enjoyed by all but then the staff began the rather sad process of winding down the establishment, with the inevitable splitting up of groups of comrades, some of whom had served together for a considerable period. Many parties were held as old pals and shipmates bade farewell to their comrades and the camp.
Soon only the base staff remained and after the Easter leave of 1946, HMS Cricket paid off.
Story compiled by Bob and Rosemary Nimmo
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