“When a 37 Squadron Shackleton was detailed to participate in an exercise in the Far East, I was assigned from 131 MU Sonics Bay to ensure the Sonabuoys were kept in fine fettle. You can’t imagine how crest-fallen I felt while at Changi when a rather vexed aircraft captain summoned me to his office to inform me that all six Sonabuoys they dropped that day had failed to detect anything at all, when they knew from intelligence that a submarine was nearby. Having told me that he would ensure an adverse report was recorded, I spent a restless night worried sick, what I could possibly have done wrong.

The following day, to my great relief, he approached with a huge grin and slapped me on the back saying, “Don’t look so worried Corporal, it wasn’t your fault, Nav re-checked the coastal charts last night and found the sea depth was only 30 feet in that area”. Now the hydrophone detector extended below surface on a 60 ft cable before it rotated to sweep for submarines, so little wonder their monitor said no rotation, each hydrophone having been embedded in mud! The crew had a good laugh and from then on it was a great trip and the captain invited me to fly the plane for an hour on the last leg back to Aden. They turned out to be a real friendly crew and that was the nicest apology I ever had!”