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Saturday 29 May 2010

Milford Korean War Veteran remembers Singapore

Last year we ran a story about Derek Newland & fellow servicemen on RAF National Service during the Korean War 1951-1953. We have now received another recollection from Derek which we are more than happy to share with you.

“In the early 1950’s I was posted to RAF Seletar in Singapore 205 Squadron as a clerk looking after five 4-Engined Sunderland Flying Boats. As such I did all of the documentation for the flying crews & ground servicemen, engine mechanics, airframe mechanics & electrical wireless fitters, which was a fulltime job then. We did three months in Singapore, then a week on sea rescue duty in Hong Kong, followed by three months at Iwakoni in Japan. When moving around not all of our men could get back to Singapore on the Sunderland’s at times. After one particular detachment we got transported on a York 4-Engined Transport Plane, only to have one of the engines fail. We were forced put into the huge USAF Air Base at Clark Field near Manila in the Philippines for an engine change. We were there for a week, with no money whilst we waited for the replacement engines to come from Singapore. What an education, we came across for the first time small individual cartons of cornflakes & small cartons of milk, not milk out of a churn or cornflakes from a big tub as we were used too. Grilled streaky bacon, fried eggs – ‘easy over, smashed or sunnyside up’, iced tea or coffee in mugs with no handles. These ‘Yanks’ certainly lived it up there. We got friendly some of the Americans who took us to a ‘drive-in cinema’ for the first time and we sat in their cars eating popcorn & drinking Coke. The Korean War was good for a few of us & leaves good memories from 60 years ago.”

Derek lives in Sea Road, Milford on Sea & is an active member of Milford on Sea Bowling Club, he can often be seen around the village on his bike.

RAF Seletar Association Website:


Derek’s Previous Story

Reading some old archives in the Daily Echo, we came across the following fascinating story that we thought was worth sharing:

Chatting with two fellow bowlers at the Milford on Sea Bowling Club in 2003, Derek Newland got on to the subject of the Korean War in the early 1950s. Derek, of Sea Road, Milford on Sea, commented that he did most of his National Service at Iwakuni, an RAF detachment station about eight miles from Hiroshima in Japan. "Blimey," said ex-Bowls club captain Sam Randle, "I was there, too!" "So was I!" said Jim Donaldson. "What a coincidence - to be 11,000 miles away from the UK together and not know each other". Jim and Derek were on the same troopship HMT Lancashire at the same time but didn't know each other. Jim was in the Army section of the ship and Derek in the RAF side.

Derek was a Leading Aircraftman and 205 Squadron Clerk in 1951 and travelled with the squadron wherever their three serviceable Sunderland Flying Boats were sent in the Far East. Derek wrote: "The job of the Sunderland’s in Japan was to take aerial photographs in Tsushima Straits between Korea and Japan of merchant ships carrying Russian tanks and guns between Cuba and Korea. Also they were an air-sea rescue service. The aircraft did eight-hour patrols in all weather every day in conjunction with American mariner Flying Boats, dividing the 24-hour day between them."

Sam Randle was a Sergeant Flight Engineer with 88 Squadron, also on four-engined Sunderland’s and travelled with his three aircraft wherever they went. Jim Donaldson was a Corporal in the Army Medical Service with the 26th Field Ambulance Corps in Korea. On one occasion he injured his hand and was flown to a military hospital in Kure in an old Australian Dakota (DC3) so old that, Jim said, "he could see daylight through the closed door".

Derek finished his letter saying that considering there were only 35 RAF Personnel in the whole of Japan at any one time it was a big coincidence for all three Milford-on-Sea bowlers to be on the same unit at the same time. He would like to know if any other Sunderland men or "Kypper fleet" men as they were known are living in the Hampshire or Dorset area who were at RAF Iwakuni early in 1950/52. Derek can be contacted on 01590 642134.

2 comments:

  1. George Charters-Rowe2 June 2010 at 15:53

    My history does not go so far back as Derek`s but I did have the pleasure of serving in Malaysia and Singapore from June 1966 to November 1968 with The Household Cavalry (The Life Guards). No War stories but I did have the pleasure of catching one Ted Dexter in the gulley in a match against a visiting XI Captained by "Lord Ted" in Singapore.

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  2. Colin
    I was stationed at RAF Iwakuni late 1952/early 1953 till 1955 I was a Teleg working in the Signal Centre in the HQ. I remember all the Sunderland Sqdn's plus the Austers, Valletas and Hastings that flew in and out, Aussie Daks and Meteor's???
    charlie44clarkfield@yahoo.co.uk

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