“BACK-ROOM BOYS”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 16 August 1944, Page 7

“BACK-ROOM BOYS”

WORK BEHIND THE SCENES THE HYDROGRAPHIC DEPARTMENT OF THE ROYAL NAVY (By Lieutenant lan Higgs. R.N.V.R., in the 8.8. C. Overseas Service) | Do you recall a pleasant little phrase made popular about the same time as the big blitz on London? Lord Beavcrbrook first gave it prominence in 1941. His phrase was ‘‘the boys of the back room.” or, as we say today. “the back room boys.” He used it when praising certain unknown skilled members of his staff at the Ministry of Aircraft Production. The other day I had been thinking of the coming assault in the west, and the phrase again came suddenly, and naturally, to my lips. I had been turning over in my mind and trying to visualise, all the thousand and one details that are going to make up General Eisenhower’s forces. Whenever one gets thinking about the Western Front, ships and the sea take a prominent place. You doubtless remember that in November. 1942, the United Nations sent 850 ships to North Africa, for the No. 1 operation of this war. Some months later, almost 300 cralt of all types were used to invade Sicily, last summer. Every one of those vessels had completed its voyage and arrived offshore at the exact spot required by the Admiral commanding the naval force. Now. I don’t want you to run away with the idea that they arrived there haphazard, or by luck. Seamanship, but more especially good navigation. got them there. It will be the same next time. When the first landing craft crash through the surf and grind their blunt bows into the beaches of Western Europe, chance will have played no part. Skill and guts, and last, but by no means least, good navigation, will land our men on the enemy-held shore. Mr Churchill has emphasised that all large amphibious operations require long months of organisation. One of the more imnortant of the preparatory tasks is that of supplying every ship taking part with special charts of the theatre of operations. These—and in fact all British charts —are compiled in the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty. And it is one of the jobs of the department to print and supply some 5,000,000 charts every year to ships of His Majesty’s Navy. When the armies of liberation land on the mainland of Western Europe, much will depend on the work of these Admiralty “back, room boys,” their contribution to a successful landing will be almost as important as that of the soldier who races up the beaches, killing Jerries as he runs. At their supplies establishment—a great factory hidden away in the country—they like very much to tell of the immaculate young Women’s Royal Naval Officer who said she had called for the charts of a certain destroyer—and obviously expected to carry them away under her arm. Actually, a warship, on average, is supplied with as many as 2000 charts. Their weight, in fact, is so great that they have to be packed in stout wooden boxes, and transported by lorry. For the invasion of Sicily the Supplies Establishment had to provide many tons of charts for the thousands of vessels taking part. That, I think, will give you some idea of the magnitude of the task that faces these “back room” people before the Grand Attack. MAKING RELIABLE CHARTS The British Admiralty first established its Hydrographic Office almost 150 years ago—in 1795. Very few, if any, reliable charts had been constructed, or published in England before the first of Captain Cook’s voyages, which h e began in 1768. But as far back as 200 years ago the Admiralty had employed private individuals to make surveys of certain coasts. The work of these pioneer surveyors in the early days was extremely hazardous, for among other things they had to contend with pirates, as well as other kinds of attack.

In 1812 Sir Francis Beaufort, who later became Hydrographer of the Royal Navy, together with his surveying party, were set upon by a band of Turks, and he was so severely wounded that it was only by great good luck that he survived. But subsequently he lived to see his department, which had beguir as little more than a map office, grow into a model on which other countries later based their own.

He was aware when he took office that even the coasts of England were only partially sounded. However, Sir Francis initiated a series of works which he intended should one day include all the surveys of the seven seas. He realised when he began that there was scarcely a correct chart of any portion of the globe in existence. At once, however, he proceeded to send members of his staff to all parts of th e world—as far away as New Guinea, Greece and the West Coast of North America. For a quarter of a century he continued to urge his surveyors to bigger and better accomplishments. Long after his death, it was said of Sir Francis Beaufort that he achieved more for the advancement of marine geography than all the other European surveyors put together. To-day, the output of the Hydrographic Department runs into several million charts every year. USED BY MANY NATIONS British Admiralty charts are used more widely than thdse of any other country. Japan, before this war, used British charts, so did Germany, except for their own coastal waters! Russia, Italy and the Scandinavian countries also used British charts. The United States, too, also uses some 800 different Admiralty charts. You doubtless remember that the big Japanese anchorage at Truk was given a spectacular and devastating bombing just recently. Aircraft from an American Naval Task Force carried out the attack. To get to Truk they had presumably steamed for many hundreds of miles past countless islands of the Carolines Group. Up to the time of that attack the Carolines had been shrouded in a smokescreen of mystery—in fact, ever since 1921, when the islands were mandated to Japan. Truk is many thousands of miles away from London. But the day after th e American attack was announced, being in somewhat of an inquiring frame of mind, I looked out our chart of Truk, to see how much detail was shown. Our “back room” boys had scored again. With not a little pride I observed all the navigational detail it gave for entering that secret Jap hide-out, far out in the Pacific. The surveying of th e coast of all our Dominions, in the early days, was naturally done by the Royal Navy. But Canada has. in fact been charting her own waters for some 40 years 1 T’ow. Before this war began, each na:ion was considered responsible for | the charting of its own waters, and I those of its dependencies. Information

was freely exchanged between nations. While foreign government charts were utilised and incorporated in the various publications produced by us. KEEPING UP TO DATE British charts are published with a view to meeting the needs of seamen in all parts of the world. For generations they have been famous for their accuracy. Some now in use are actually based on surveys made over 100 years ago. But they naturally, of course, are constantly being revised. Much of the information used on the chart changes rapidly, and the never-ceasing task of keeping them right up to date and accurate has assumed enormous proportions since the outbreak of war. Sunken wreckage, ' changes in the position of a minefield, or even of a single buoy, must all be speedily passed on to our warships riot forgetting the Merchant Navy.

Minor alterations on the chart arc made by hand, but when a considerable number of corrections —as they are called—have been made, the entire chart is reprinted. This work of correction calls for very great accuracy. Even under the stess of war, with masses of new data coming daily to hand, the same high standard of efficiency has to be maintained. At one time, only men were employed on this work. To-day, however, with the ever-growing calls on the nation’s manpower, most of the correcting is at present being done by women—a large number of them are peacetime art students. The Admiralty’s present collection of original charts and maps is probably the most valuable in the world —besides being the largest. Its different proofs have been estimated to number almost a quarter of a million. Several of them are nearly 300 years old, while there are a number of fine specimens drawn upon sheepskin.

I mentioned just now that the production of charts is a highly responsible work. For upon a single chart the lives of many thousands of men daily depend. A buoy misplaced could mean sudden disaster—possibly the loss of a troopship, or the sinking of a battleship. Which reminds me of an incident that took place on the bridge of a destroyer one sunny spring afternoon far out in the North Atlantic. Our First Lieutenant, having partaken of a particularly good meal at noon, came up on the bridge in the very best of spirits. His cheerfulness was infectious, especially when he began to explain very humanly, to a group of keen young sailors just how it was possible to estimate exactly where the ship would be in 24 hours’ time. Later on he picked out one seaman, told him to estimate that our speed, on a steady course was 25 knots and sent him into the charthouse to work out where we ought to be in two days* time. Back came the sailor, after a brief absence, a satisfied grin on his face. With all the confidence in the world he declared that in two days’ time we would be 100 miles west of New York—yes, west of New York! The First Lieutenant’s reply? Well, I'm afraid that wouldn’t pass the censor, but accuracy really does mean everything in navigation. For their goings and comings beneath the surface of the ocean, the men of our submarine service have special charts prepared for them. These show, among other things, the density of the water, and its temperature. Aircraft, too, need special charts, most of them in colour. For a combined operation largescale maps are issued to all three services so that if a place near the coast is to be bombarded by sea, land and air, t,he Nayy, Army and Air Force all have a common map reference. You begin to see now why. for an operation on a grand scale—such as the attack from the west —why the Royal Navy needed so many thousands of extra charts.

RED BLOOD CELLS SALVAGED Red blood cells, formerly a waste by-product in the large-scale production of blood plasma in the United States, were salvaged and used successfully in place of whole blood in the treatment of anaemia and, when dried and powdered, to hasten wound healing. The treatment of burns with a new plaster cast method, which stops pain, rests and protects the burned part from further injury, prevents swelling and slowing up of the blood circulation in the burned area, showed good results. Innovations developed for aiding in skin grafting included: refrigeration anaesthesia of the area from which the skin is to be taken; use of a dye, fluorescein, injected into a vein to indicate when the circulation has been established in the graft, and use of a chessboard pattern sticky-paper method to fix small bits of skin for grafting over a large area.—U.S. 0.W.1. .bulletin.