thedrifter
01-09-06, 01:18 PM
World War II Veteran Tours Mombasa Base
The East African Standard (Nairobi)
NEWS
January 9, 2006
Posted to the web January 9, 2006
By Philip Mwakio
Nairobi
Retired soldier Christian Dittert once served as a Royal Marines soldier during the second World War.
His tour of duty took him to Mombasa where he served as a telegraph operator aboard a minesweeper, the HMS Dusk, in 1942. Two weeks ago, Dittert, an ageing grandfather, was back in Mombasa with fond memories of wartime. He was a guest at the Mombasa Serena Beach Hotel in the North Coast.
His trip to Kenya was courtesy of the Royal British Legion through a programme dubbed "Heroes Return". He was accompanied in the all-expenses paid trip by his daughter, Susan Blakey
The launch of the programme by the New Opportunities Fund and the UK Ministry of Defence aims at taking back war veterans to former battlefields, including Normandy, Italy, Arnhem, Norway, North Africa (including Libya), East Africa, India, Sri Lanka and the Far East.
Dittert, who served in the Royal Navy overseas and spent two years in the Africa, still remembers his Royal Navy service number as LTJX 264618.
HMS Dusk, a coal-run vessel, was formerly a little Portuguese sardine fishing trawler that had been converted into a naval ship.
Dittert, who loves to wear military attire and uses a walking stick, says Kilindini Harbour was abuzz with activity when they arrived. He was also special guest of the Kenya Navy on November 28. Kenya Navy Deputy Commander, Brigadier Samson Mwathethe, led naval officers at the Mtongwe naval headquarters in welcoming Dittert.
The veteran sailor was taken on a tour of Mombasa aboard the Admiral, a VIP naval boat reserved for top military officials and their guests.
He told The Standard that he felt greatly honoured. "I was abit surprised that the Kenya Navy has grown into a very modern naval force. I could not pick from where we left for home," he said when asked whether he could remember any of the sites within base.
Dittert enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1941 at the height of the war and trained at Portsmouth Naval College . He was one of the few trained personnel who boarded HMS Dusk and sailed in a small convoy, detecting and detonating mines laid by German forces.
"Our journey to Mombasa saw us drift slowly down the Atlantic Ocean where we made a stopover in Frere Town, Lagos, Walvis Bay, Cape Town, Durban and Mombasa," he said.
Since their ship was small, they spent some time in Durban where the vessel underwent repairs.
"Life in the Navy by then was free and easy and Mombasa just proved that when we anchored. There were lots of other bigger navy ships that were at port," he says.
While it would have been logical to use the Mediterranean Sea and transit through the Suez Canal down the Red Sea before connecting the Indian Ocean into Mombasa, it was too dangerous, he says.
"The Germans and the Japanese had laid mines and were sinking all British ships including civilian vessels," he says.
Dittert adds that though they never came under attack, some of his colleagues were killed when their vessels exploded and sunk after hitting mines in the ocean.
But on their journey back home - the Italians, who were fighting alongside the Germans had surrendered - the Mediterranean route was safe enugh to use.
"We went up north and this time, on another bigger naval ship, as our own remained in Mombasa and headed into the Red Sea before entering the Mediterranean.
The HMS Dusk patrolled the East Coast and frequented Dar es Salaam, Tanga and Zanzibar in its odysseys.
In one of the sea manoeuvres, Dittert remembers that they went up Mombasa's North Coast after receiving information from a colonial District Commissioner that an unknown device had swept ashore.
"Local fishermen who had found it near the shore rolled it up the beach for several metres... It turned out to be an old contact mine that failed to detonate after an initial attempt by our navy gunners. It was on the third attempt that it exploded," he says.
During breaks, mostly when the vessel was undergoing repairs, Dittert and his group would travel by the famous steam train to Nairobi and visit British settler families.
"People were so nice and would just take us in and offer to accommodate us for days on end," the former school teacher says.
"Many teachers perished during the war and there existed many vacancies," he says.
After being trained in an emergency programme for former soldiers, he rose to the rank of a school principal and quit teaching in 1974.
Dittert says during his time of active duty at sea, he missed his family so much and only communicated via airmail.
He and his daughter jetted out of Mombasa via Nairobi, from where they flew to Heathrow in the UK aboard a Kenya Airways flight on Monday December 5.
"Your country is lovely. Unfortunately, I may not live long enough to come back," he says.
Ellie
The East African Standard (Nairobi)
NEWS
January 9, 2006
Posted to the web January 9, 2006
By Philip Mwakio
Nairobi
Retired soldier Christian Dittert once served as a Royal Marines soldier during the second World War.
His tour of duty took him to Mombasa where he served as a telegraph operator aboard a minesweeper, the HMS Dusk, in 1942. Two weeks ago, Dittert, an ageing grandfather, was back in Mombasa with fond memories of wartime. He was a guest at the Mombasa Serena Beach Hotel in the North Coast.
His trip to Kenya was courtesy of the Royal British Legion through a programme dubbed "Heroes Return". He was accompanied in the all-expenses paid trip by his daughter, Susan Blakey
The launch of the programme by the New Opportunities Fund and the UK Ministry of Defence aims at taking back war veterans to former battlefields, including Normandy, Italy, Arnhem, Norway, North Africa (including Libya), East Africa, India, Sri Lanka and the Far East.
Dittert, who served in the Royal Navy overseas and spent two years in the Africa, still remembers his Royal Navy service number as LTJX 264618.
HMS Dusk, a coal-run vessel, was formerly a little Portuguese sardine fishing trawler that had been converted into a naval ship.
Dittert, who loves to wear military attire and uses a walking stick, says Kilindini Harbour was abuzz with activity when they arrived. He was also special guest of the Kenya Navy on November 28. Kenya Navy Deputy Commander, Brigadier Samson Mwathethe, led naval officers at the Mtongwe naval headquarters in welcoming Dittert.
The veteran sailor was taken on a tour of Mombasa aboard the Admiral, a VIP naval boat reserved for top military officials and their guests.
He told The Standard that he felt greatly honoured. "I was abit surprised that the Kenya Navy has grown into a very modern naval force. I could not pick from where we left for home," he said when asked whether he could remember any of the sites within base.
Dittert enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1941 at the height of the war and trained at Portsmouth Naval College . He was one of the few trained personnel who boarded HMS Dusk and sailed in a small convoy, detecting and detonating mines laid by German forces.
"Our journey to Mombasa saw us drift slowly down the Atlantic Ocean where we made a stopover in Frere Town, Lagos, Walvis Bay, Cape Town, Durban and Mombasa," he said.
Since their ship was small, they spent some time in Durban where the vessel underwent repairs.
"Life in the Navy by then was free and easy and Mombasa just proved that when we anchored. There were lots of other bigger navy ships that were at port," he says.
While it would have been logical to use the Mediterranean Sea and transit through the Suez Canal down the Red Sea before connecting the Indian Ocean into Mombasa, it was too dangerous, he says.
"The Germans and the Japanese had laid mines and were sinking all British ships including civilian vessels," he says.
Dittert adds that though they never came under attack, some of his colleagues were killed when their vessels exploded and sunk after hitting mines in the ocean.
But on their journey back home - the Italians, who were fighting alongside the Germans had surrendered - the Mediterranean route was safe enugh to use.
"We went up north and this time, on another bigger naval ship, as our own remained in Mombasa and headed into the Red Sea before entering the Mediterranean.
The HMS Dusk patrolled the East Coast and frequented Dar es Salaam, Tanga and Zanzibar in its odysseys.
In one of the sea manoeuvres, Dittert remembers that they went up Mombasa's North Coast after receiving information from a colonial District Commissioner that an unknown device had swept ashore.
"Local fishermen who had found it near the shore rolled it up the beach for several metres... It turned out to be an old contact mine that failed to detonate after an initial attempt by our navy gunners. It was on the third attempt that it exploded," he says.
During breaks, mostly when the vessel was undergoing repairs, Dittert and his group would travel by the famous steam train to Nairobi and visit British settler families.
"People were so nice and would just take us in and offer to accommodate us for days on end," the former school teacher says.
"Many teachers perished during the war and there existed many vacancies," he says.
After being trained in an emergency programme for former soldiers, he rose to the rank of a school principal and quit teaching in 1974.
Dittert says during his time of active duty at sea, he missed his family so much and only communicated via airmail.
He and his daughter jetted out of Mombasa via Nairobi, from where they flew to Heathrow in the UK aboard a Kenya Airways flight on Monday December 5.
"Your country is lovely. Unfortunately, I may not live long enough to come back," he says.
Ellie