501206 Raymond Boulton Moss Navy HMS Ness My father is Raymond Boulton Moss, he served as a Stoker on HMS Ness during the 1939-45 war. He is in his eighties now and the other day was recounting a few stories about his time on HMS Ness (something he rarely does) serving under Captain Fox, who, he remembers, was something to do with Fox's umbrella frames. He has tremendous respect for his old captain. He mentioned an incident (that I later found recounted on your website by Alan Gordon) about when the U Boats surrendered. His story had a slightly different ending to Alan’s. I should say that my father has an enormous sense of right and wrong and what sticks in his memory is one particular U-Boat surfacing - flying the black flag - and the officers of the Ness taking some umbrage at the flag’s colour. In my father’s tale the German officers were persuaded to find, very quickly, the largest white flag they had and change the colour of their flag to reflect the fact that they were surrendering. The Sub was soon flying what he took to be a pristine white bed-sheet. My father still has little sympathy for his wartime enemies. He also mentioned his time 'mopping' up in the Philippines - searching for Australian Special Forces, who had been dropped into the area previously to set up radio stations. He was very matter of fact about the fact that none of them had survived. Ness was also involved in disarming Japanese prisoners and my father tells of a sword he ‘borrowed’ from one of them for a souvenir - and of an American pistol that he similarly relieved from them and subsequently used for personal protection against the local inhabitants who made strolling in the local towns an dangerous pastime. He sold the weapons to an Australian Merchant Seaman when the Ness left the area.
Perhaps the most fascinating thing about his tales was his recounting of a story to describe how dangerous the area was for British troops. He told of a British nurse and an officer who had been murdered during a walk in
the port. He said that the two had simply disappeared with stories reaching the port that they had been killed by locals. To try to find them the authorities posted a reward for anyone who could tell them where the bodies had been buried. Six men came forward to claim the reward and the six were accompanied to the site by a team of Ghurkhas - for whom my father has a great affection and an equally great respect!! The Ghurkhas were to dig up the bodies and return them to British lines – this they did and then went on to slit the throats of the men who had taken them to the site and refill the grave with their bodies. Even in today’s PC times my father sees that as being exactly the right thing to have happened. On the Ghurkhas he also told a story of a fresh shipmate of his, who was showing a penchant for 'acquiring' things.
My father wanted a Khukuri and had already asked one of the Ghurkhas if he could buy his – and could he take a look at it please – when the owner told him that to draw his Khukuri meant the must also draw blood, my father took the hint that that may be his own blood and went rapidly off the idea. In a conversation later, his mate had suggested that there may be a spare Khukuri or two in the nearby Ghurkha warehouse of supplies, and that the two of them should maybe visit it and chat-up the guard to see if he would let them in to see if there was anything in there that would be more at home aboard HMS Ness. My father shared his belief that, whilst the Ghurkhas were superb comrades, very polite and honourable – and while the guard on the door may well have let his shipmate into the warehouse – my father wasn’t so sure that he would be let out again!! Father’s memory also stretches to disarming the Japanese troops and dropping the hoards of weapons overboard into the sea. He told of one trip to take captive some Japanese troops based inland. The Ness only had one Japanese officer on board to help with the language and to persuade the Japanese troops that Japan had indeed surrendered – so you may imagine this was quite a dangerous task and he spoke of Captain Fox sailing the Ness backwards down some of the rivers, to enable a swift escape if things went wrong. He also said that the guns were kept covered in the spirit of a friendly force, but the gun crews were always in place.
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