Words on Wednesday.
The prompts that Cindy has provided this week are the 2nd group. mentioned below.
VANISH.
MESSAGE.
TOKYO.
TWIST.
MAIM.
WANDA.
Coming up is my historical story.
It was on the 5th day of August in 1962 my family arrived in Hong Kong for that promising cushy job at the naval base HMS Tamar.
We settled down for two days into the Shamrock hotel In Nathan road Kowloon. On our arrival we learned that Marilyn Monroe had passed away on that day.
On the 7th of Aug we moved into Jubilee bldgs the naval married qtrs at the top of Nathan road in Kowloon. and also taking up my new duties at the base on H K Island..
After a couple of weeks we received severe storm warnings for Hong Kong, these MESSAGE'S were to become only too real, when on 10 AM Saturday 1st of September.it became a reality..
We were informed early that morning of it's impending arrival, most people took the warnings seriously; our neighbour failed miserably. We Closed every window door and placed carpets over the windows secured by battens etc and waited for the worst Typhoon ever to hit Hong Kong -Typhoon WANDA. The lady next door who did not get the MESSAGE , and on the corner of the building, I rescued after her flat was wiped out completely.
The epicentre of Typhoon WANDA passed directly over the colony, winds reaching 300 klms ph were recorded, over 10 thousand souls perished 40 thousand injured and 100 thousand homeless. Cars , shops, trees, public signs buses would VANISH and the debris MAIM unprotected animals and the already homeless.
That same morning I was due at the Base at 1130, they the heads of dept needed an explanation for my abscence, had not noticed that all public transport had ceased to operate and the Star ferry had ceased too.
This windy MESSAGE from the God of storms was not the first to be encountered. On Sat the 31st March 1945 The British Pacific fleet was caught in the tail of a minor typhoon which prevented the A /C carriers from flying their aircraft on the day of the Okinawa landings 'All fools day; Easter Sunday April 1st.45. and in another TWIST of fate ,just in case the Allied ships failed to get the MESSAGE .the US and Brit ships copped another typhoon on entering Sagami bay, prior to our entry into TOKYO Harbour for the surrender of Japan . The ship I served on; The Battleship HMS King George V. Flagship of the BPF With Vice Admiral Sir Bernard Rawlings C IN C and Captain Schofield the Co of the Ship.,was the third ship to enter TOKYO Bay, I was aged 19 years and one month and had been to sea for the past 2.5 years. After a lot of repairs mainly to our steering the ship finally returned to the UK March,13, 1946.
VANISH.
MESSAGE.
TOKYO.
TWIST.
MAIM.
WANDA.
Coming up is my historical story.
It was on the 5th day of August in 1962 my family arrived in Hong Kong for that promising cushy job at the naval base HMS Tamar.
We settled down for two days into the Shamrock hotel In Nathan road Kowloon. On our arrival we learned that Marilyn Monroe had passed away on that day.
On the 7th of Aug we moved into Jubilee bldgs the naval married qtrs at the top of Nathan road in Kowloon. and also taking up my new duties at the base on H K Island..
After a couple of weeks we received severe storm warnings for Hong Kong, these MESSAGE'S were to become only too real, when on 10 AM Saturday 1st of September.it became a reality..
We were informed early that morning of it's impending arrival, most people took the warnings seriously; our neighbour failed miserably. We Closed every window door and placed carpets over the windows secured by battens etc and waited for the worst Typhoon ever to hit Hong Kong -Typhoon WANDA. The lady next door who did not get the MESSAGE , and on the corner of the building, I rescued after her flat was wiped out completely.
The epicentre of Typhoon WANDA passed directly over the colony, winds reaching 300 klms ph were recorded, over 10 thousand souls perished 40 thousand injured and 100 thousand homeless. Cars , shops, trees, public signs buses would VANISH and the debris MAIM unprotected animals and the already homeless.
That same morning I was due at the Base at 1130, they the heads of dept needed an explanation for my abscence, had not noticed that all public transport had ceased to operate and the Star ferry had ceased too.
This windy MESSAGE from the God of storms was not the first to be encountered. On Sat the 31st March 1945 The British Pacific fleet was caught in the tail of a minor typhoon which prevented the A /C carriers from flying their aircraft on the day of the Okinawa landings 'All fools day; Easter Sunday April 1st.45. and in another TWIST of fate ,just in case the Allied ships failed to get the MESSAGE .the US and Brit ships copped another typhoon on entering Sagami bay, prior to our entry into TOKYO Harbour for the surrender of Japan . The ship I served on; The Battleship HMS King George V. Flagship of the BPF With Vice Admiral Sir Bernard Rawlings C IN C and Captain Schofield the Co of the Ship.,was the third ship to enter TOKYO Bay, I was aged 19 years and one month and had been to sea for the past 2.5 years. After a lot of repairs mainly to our steering the ship finally returned to the UK March,13, 1946.
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