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.

Comments

Vest said…
Like . OMG! You were there and saw it all. You may explain why I went out of the side window on a rope to get to the veranda
Chris Bowyer said…
Like, I think it was to unblock the drain.
Vest said…
Unknown. or sedentary Sid. You were a seven year old at the time and you remember, amazing !!. I hope your memory bank is still in good order. 2x $50-00 = $100 cash you borrowed for SMOKES., cough up sport.
Vest said…
CINDY. When one is pushing 92 one becomes part of history. Thanks for calling.
Chris Bowyer said…
I also remember Mum who was holding on to the rope at the time, grinning and saying to me, "Shall I let go and see if Daddy can fly?".
Vest said…
Unknown. In the face of adversity, A little humour can pave the way to success. Anyhow your Mother was good at hanging on to things like ropes.
Elsie Hanlin. said…
What a great story! And true of course. I don't think I could ever live in an area where typhoons were common, I hate the idea of losing everything each time.
Vest said…
Elsie. Even early warnings of impending disasters and the safety measures taken to prevent them are usually inadequate. Mother nature has a habit of winning these battles.

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