Mutiny in the RAF - Secret History

now for the secret history of a major challenge to British military authority [Music] [Music] [Music] just after World War 2 the RAF sent a 25 year old wireless operator to prison for 10 years for mutiny [Music] young Norris symbolist was accused of being one of the instigators of the biggest single act of mass defiance in the history of Britain's armed forces this is the story of that mutiny of how it shook the establishment and of how it exposed bitter divisions between officers and men [Music] this was once RAF Jodhpur a remote airbase in northern India two months after v-j day something unprecedented happened here 2,000 Emin went on strike the commanding officer he went down to take the parade there was no one turned up at all he wondered whether it was Sunday and that he realized there was a mutiny on he then called in the Indian troops who came in with armored cars and guns at the ready it was a very tense moment the strike ended peacefully after four days but it had demonstrated the men's deep resentment particularly over living conditions conditions were excellent we lived in the Maharaja's old palace which contained a swimming pool tennis courts squash courts every two officers had a bearer which was a servant to lay out his clothes in the evening to run his bath for him give him the call in the morning with a cup of tea life was very luxurious by contrast there were no luxuries for the lower ranks many ordinary Airmen lived as though they were still at war the food was murder the counts are we were used to root used to supply was obviously a crude because of the meat that was put on the table was was old buffalo meat and I'm talking about the top station one day it would be it would be resource I never seen anything like it we used to call them [ __ ] I play poker regularly before other people and the procedure was that we would buy ourselves a bottle of gin or a bottle of whiskey from dinner onwards we will play cars we would drink our drink and by 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning we went to bed very tight and very happy in searing temperatures with water often rationed some men died from heat exhaustion it was very hot there 120 in the shade and you couldn't work in the afternoon so you got up early about I think we got up about 6 o'clock I think it's early for me and you worked in the morning and then you just laid on the bed with the mosquito nets around you for the rest of the day and your Hut and you can't sleep and you're sweating pouring now this causes the pores especially across the back to exhaust and they become inflamed then they become infected especially via scrotum once they're infected you're in terrible trouble in India every one of our hundred and twenty thousand Airmen could expect to be in hospital with an infectious disease at least once a year sometimes more BOAC the new state airline was seen by Whitehall as a useful tool for binding the post-war empire together on some of the larger bases mm were used as cheap labor to service BOAC aircraft there were units that were complaining they were servicing BOAC airline airlines on the staging posts across India which they hadn't been restricted to do being scripted to fight against fascism not to help service commercial organizations while officers ordered this work to be done the men simply wanted to get home the first strike at Jaipur had lasted only four days but it was enough to alarm the authorities and it sent signals from the Middle East down to Singapore at more than 60 air bases a series of strikes broke out involving over 50,000 ordinary Airmen mechanics fitters and electricians [Applause] with the end of the war many Airmen found that they had little to celebrate the New Labour government had been helped into power by the votes of millions of servicemen and women who expected labour to bring them home quickly [Music] [Applause] [Music] demobilizing five million people was a massive task for three years Whitehall had been drawing up plans to do it smoothly anyway it's goodbye to air force blue at last sometimes it seemed that this day would never come in the first year of peace the army would be cut by 62% the Navy by 50% but the RAF by only 42 percent only a hundred and forty thousand Airmen were to be demobbed for the first six months of 1946 a slower pace than the other services it was a recipe for descent we were the Forgotten army the war was over and they were getting on with su v--'s Street in England and we were stuck out there and nothing was happening at the end of the war the RAF had over a million men and women in uniform it had sixteen hundred bases stretching from Europe to the Far East some were in exotic locations but these no longer held any attraction for the men the more they kept me there away from my wife at all nearlywed I had a deep fired anger within me on everybody else did in Southeast Asia the plan to repatriate Airmen was called Operation Python it was soon behind schedule we had very little shipping to spare having lost enormous numbers in the Battle of the Atlantic we had no longer very few long-range aircraft transport aircraft and it was not possible to carry out Python up to time the end of the European war [Music] thousands of men including myself were posted out to the Far East to carry on the war against Japan and these men felt that they had done their bit and won the war in Europe and they felt going out to the Far East that's all there Chum staying at home are going to get the best jobs in civil life and they were very upset about it many Airmen were angry over what they saw as official incompetence and rumors began to spread and they said well we were supposed to be repatriated but there's no space on the boats going back and the sailors said well that's a load of nonsense because we are actually on the boats that are coming back and forth and they're going back to England empty of course that lit the blue touch paper didn't it [Music] RAF Droog rode a large Air Base near Karachi here events were about to take a dramatic turn [Music] after dark nearly a thousand disgruntled Airmen gathered on the camp football pitch there was anger in the night air [Music] every Saturday the men at drug road raided in the fierce Indian Sun they were ordered for the first time to turn out in their heavy woolen best blue uniforms they refused to obey [Music] news of the parade ground protests was soon on the wires as the message spread other bases followed suit just two days later three bases in Salaam came out and that's how it used to come through and moment news comes through it spread like wildfire through pretend then two bases in the Middle East went on strike and the strikers had taken the keys to the station signal room this is the the radio room and then will using the equipment to influence other stations back at drew growed 1200 Airmen had signed a petition by passing their officers they sent it directly to Prime Minister Clement Attlee they told him they were not satisfied with the slow demob rate nor with British foreign policy why cannot demobilization be speeded up is it because British foreign policy in India and Indonesia require larger forces if so we demand a reversal of this policy actly must have learned that the men were right since the end of the war British troops had been fighting nationalist and communist groups in Indonesia and the duchies Indies a new Vietnam would thrown Ho Chi Minh out of Saigon Britain could not afford a large army but the Empire had to be policed recently released documents showed that as far back as October 1945 the government had come up with what it thought was a discrete solution John stretchy Undersecretary of state wrote to the chief of the air staff a relatively large RAF and a small army is by far the most economical way of meeting our world commitments but nobody told the airmen resentment was inevitable what do they do when an airman stands up and says I don't want to be used to implement government foreign policy on these peoples all those peoples in Indonesia or in India itself or in Malaya or in Burma I mean what does a commanding officer do to this I mean as I said he could uh he could deal with a complaint about the food or about they leave he couldn't deal with this was outside his camp well the authorities immediately said that it was a mutiny they said that according to the Air Force regulations and the Air Force Act it doesn't permit you to go on strike in the Air Force and if you do anything of that kind it's a mutiny against Authority Doug Denny and his fellow Airmen at their base at - Kerry northern India had a co who had no doubts about whether the action was a strike or a mutiny this officer said you have refused duty I am empowered by the Kings regulations to tell you that if you do not report for duty I will select 10 men and I will execute shoot one of that 10 if I if if then the remainder of the 10 refused duty I will shoot the 10 and they said I'll keep going and select another 10 and do the same if it continues on and on and on it'll keep selecting 10 and killed one of his 10 and then the 10 I'll shoot them that's all everybody went back to their billets and the next next thing was back to work tomorrow well there's no answer sighs there's no answer time on the son basis though other Airmen decided that there was an answer to this sort of threat we decided that um if there is going to be any military action taken against us we weren't going to be defenseless so we decided to make sure that the keys of the armory were kept safely my hands of a member of the strike committee after fighting for their country for five years eminent bases in the Middle East India and Southeast Asia were now preparing for a new and much greater wave of strikes they continued to meet but they made sure that it was after dark so there was less chance of them being identified they've been arranged for the Yemen to meet macam kansian that night and they were sitting around drinking talking he sudden the lights went out and someone got up no one knew who onto a table with a pencil and mouth to disguise their voice and outline the plane for the strike to convince the following day Bernhard Schilling was based at al-abaad northeast India his experiences were to be repeated at camps as far away as Singapore it was touch-and-go that morning because those on the strike committee was standing waiting outside his RAF hangar could only see this bare expanse of parade ground and absolute silence everywhere until in a distance you could hear the sound of marching feet and from all sides of the camp mm Airmen and the control of corporals came marching smartly in direction of the fray ground and as they reached a prey ground they veered sharply left and right and made their way into the cinema which is a converted RAF hangar Bernhard Schilling just 19 years old was elected by the men to make a statement to senior officers we do not wish to have our demobilization delayed while we are used out here for reasons of imperius foreign policy over the next three days nine more bases went on strike it seemed as if the situation was spiraling out of control these unique photographs which show an actual strike meeting in progress were banned and confiscated by the authorities at the time sometimes the names of faces on strike were painted on the side of aircraft flying the transport routes next the startling news that corn poor in central India had come out home poverty displacement law thousands of men there it was the largest mu Mendes unit in the empire as more and more bases came out senior officers were losing patience Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park in charge of the RAF in Southeast Asia sent a signal to London [Music] what assistance may I call on the army to give in the event of men refusing persistently to return to work when ordered by their officers Londyn replied the same day you can of course pull on the army to give whatever assistance you may consider practical and necessary later that day a crucial event took place a thousand men of the Royal Indian Air Force came out making the same demands as their British counterparts British troops these are infantryman of the orcs and lengths driving Stuart tanks in a Muslim area are regarded as a reassuring asset in this tense situation in 1946 India was demanding independence the British were terrified by the spread of disaffection to the Indian Airmen with rebellion in the air they needed loyal troops you have to remember that no decision has yet been taken to give India independence that came later I say again some months later therefore India was not quietly waiting for independence and there was a possibility of India would rebel and would actually fight for independence and in that case God nurse or would heaven or hell would broke loose On February the 18th all hell did break loose to the horror of the British 1200 ratings of the Royal Indian Navy mutinied in Bombay Harbor It was as if they'd taken their cue from the RAF airmen in Bombay thousands had taken to the streets in support of the mutineers in the rioting that followed Mervyn jones witnessed the killing of Indian civilians by British troops I was standing in a vain Road and very suddenly a British Army truck came round the corner driving quite fast were two machine guns mounted on its April truck two machine guns and opened fire into the crowd and every hit the debt including me are as probably near being killed than I ever was in the war and when one looked round you know there were people with structures taking away the wounded and turned number of people have been killed and wounded on that occasion and then I learnt making enquiries that this was not an isolated incident RAF bombers flew over the Indian mutineers threatening to sink their ships a tactic which angered many Airmen the use of RAF bombers to intimidate and repress Indian naval mutineers was something that we didn't really want to happen we didn't feel it should have happened and is precisely one of the reasons why we articulated the demands that British troops should not be used to impose Colonus relate regimes any longer and we weren't going to be useful a purpose an alarmed Air Chief Marshal Park signaled London I I do not believe that the airman who who took part in the recent so-called strikes appreciate that their their action may be endangering the safety of India [Music] then the strike spread to Singapore 4000 minutes Seletar came out in the biggest strike so far these are photographs of the strike meeting Air Chief Marshal Park had come to confront the men but many of them walked out claiming that he'd not been straight with them on the evening of the 27th the disturbances spread to RAF Kellogg close to the town of Singapore six members of the strike committee was surprised by a group of officers and arrested for incitement and mutiny [Music] an hour later an angry confrontation was taking place between officers and men who were demanding their release Norrish symbolist who'd been voted chairman of the strike committee jumped up on the back of a lorry with officers to address the men symbolist became even more outspoken and before long he was arrested oh yeah symbolist a young airman from a Jewish family in the East End of London was not a conscript he'd volunteered to join the RAF to fight fascism Nora symbolist was one of four airmen to be arrested and charged with mutiny the others were Jimmy's stone Mick Noble and Arthur Atwood of the four only Arthur at word is still alive he returned to India to tell his remarkable story Atwood was a trade unionist and chairman of the triggered strike committee a high-risk occupation but what you do you do in that situation if everybody decided to go and hide that would have been tantamount to betraying the men on that side betraying the men who were decided then you know there is time to try and give vent to their feelings now if you'll run away from the problem apart from people are myself feeling that we were cowards you would be helping those who wanted to keep ourselves out there indefinitely and use for what we consider with thoroughly wrong purposes while Arthur at word and the others were angry at being kept abroad in bad conditions the difference now was that with a Labour government in part they felt able to speak out EVT education law and vocational training ironically the RAF encouraged men like at word to discuss politics through its own training unit known as EVT now I want to come on to the second part of the discussion by the end of the war vigorous questioning and debate were commonplace in all the forces what we expect from the government what's the first duty of the citizen do you think well the first duty is to citizen to use his vote at one large RAF cab which I was at they even the education people even invited the Russian ambassador to Britain to come down to speak to a large meeting and talk to us about the Russian involvement in the war and so on so this is how far things were going organized organized quite officially by the educational side in the Royal Air Force at the end of the war that would had joined a group of communist Airmen which started to meet at a house in Karachi after the unrest came to a headed regrowed Atwoods camp the communists met to decide how to respond John Savile was chairman of the group there was no way that the discontent was going to be in any way dampened down or stopped what was necessary was that the discontent should in fact be organized in ways which would bring results and that I think was the purpose of the small communist group the authorities on the other hand saw the purpose as much more politically sinister they were organized by this small party of hotheads and political activists that you get in any community and naturally amongst these basically civilian Airmen there were quite a number and there's no doubt about barrack room lawyers we call them and they certainly organize things and lead things and quite a number of them were were caught since the four airmen charged with mutiny were members of the Communist Party this seemed to confirm official fears we wanted to try and ensure to the extent we had any influence they took the correct direction as we perceived it and this we did no more or no less than that and since as an individual I'd already got involved I accepted the responsibility as far as I could holding that meeting to play my part collectively both were partying non party people with labour party people with all kinds of other people and we demonstrated that in the weeks ahead and so did something like fifty thousand other Airmen not just me well of course they would think this was communist lead or communist inspired or moscow inspired but it's Whaley official mine thought at a time they couldn't possibly conceive this was a spontaneous protest by ordinary British Airmen [Music] spontaneous or not the RAF had decided that the Communists were indeed the culprits and by the beginning of March the crackdown on the strikers had begun the RAF sent in its own investigating officers known as the si B or Special Investigation Branch they interrogated thousands of Airmen they soon established a reputation for underhand methods the si B said they were under instructions from the Foreign Office when they arrived in Karachi they soon focused on Arthur Atwood [Music] they indicated there was a chair so I sat down the flight lieutenant asked me if I was one of those Li say that what he said were you one of those who attended the meeting that took place in the dark on the football field on the 17th of January one of those I didn't ask the direct question but said I can recall attending a subsequent parade of the commanding officer well it was clearly understood by myself that the whole incidents to which you refer had been forgiven and that there would be no victimization I therefore pointed out to the flight leftenant under these circumstances I was not prepared to make any kind of statement and then shut up because that word was so popular with the other Airmen the SI be treated him with caution at RAAF corn paw in northern India Jimmy's stone one of the strike organizers came under investigation by the siab he was told frequently that he needn't be concerned about his wife and child which was me at home because of the close proximity that my mother lived to Russell Square and I believe that that Canadians and an American Americans were stationed in in Russell Square and the they were told they told my father that my mother was being well entertained and well cared for by by Canadians and that you needn't worry about our welfare at what was told that he was to be repatriated and was ordered to Bombay a journey across India that would take a week in the heat of Bombay he spent days in a transit camp straining to hear names being called out from long lists the names of men picked to go home his name was never called after two weeks he was told the truth I was told for the first time I could forget about this because I would not be going home two days later while he was sleeping in his barracks two armed RAF MPs arrested that would they turned out his kid bag and took his address book which he never saw again [Music] that word was taken to Cali on a huge barracks 50 miles from Bombay and held in solitary confinement he was later charged with incitement to mutiny as the SI be continued its investigations the promises of no victimization turned to dust he said if you agree to go back to work tomorrow I will make it my business to put your complaints to the authorities in the air force authorities in London I will also guarantee there'll be no victimization the two-strike leaders at corn poor Jimmy stone and Mick noble were about to receive the same treatment as that word when they too was sent to Bombay they thought they were about to be shipped home for Dammam they didn't quite make it he was actually arrested as he was going up the gangplank of the boat that was to take him home it seemed like a particular emotional cruelty to to wait until you were actually on the gangplank to go home and then arrest you stone and noble were imprisoned in rat-infested cells next to Atwood at Kalyan here they would learn the harsh techniques of the SI be a lot of the difficulty was at surrounding this sort of emotional assault and that he would be woken up in the night and taken to a different place and questioned and left to go to sleep for a while and woken up and put into the truck and moved to another place and this would go on for most parts of the night I guess they were wanting him to say that he was trying to get the people to be involved in a full-scale mutiny but he wouldn't have been able to say that because he wasn't in Singapore young NARAS symbolist was to discover that the whole night of the military establishment was out to crush it [Music] Norrish symbolist was about to become the defendant in a show trial so Keith Park had been ordered to ensure the sentence should be given the widest publicity in a top-secret message sir Keith's ordered ringleaders are to be dealt with most severely and not to be shown any leniency by unit commanders for court-martial in solitary Norris symbolist wrote home to his father dear daddy thank em for the papers only one correction I wasn't waiting very long for the court-martial in fact it was pushed through as quickly as possible no doubt the reason was to prevent me getting in touch with those who might have helped I was arrested in secret when I and everyone else thought I'd be on a boat bound for home for over 50 years the transcripts of symbolist court-martial have been restricted now they've been released and we know what happened the president of the court-martial was group captain Gerald Marvin why would I picked well you have to ask my sea horses that one but I only come to one conclusion the fact that I was a fairly experienced court-martial president without done 250 when I was convalescence but I broke on deck in 1940 and did a standing court-martial for for six months so I have good knowledge of the gobots procedures and also I was the one station I knew who hadn't had any trouble grip captain Marvin like his fellow officers in the court-martial had no formal legal training he was told not to make a muck of it they skated around tricky case and that good a sake there to mess up the court-martial about technicalities himself into heaven procedures symbolist was facing two charges one inciting Airmen to mutiny and to using insubordinate language to a senior officer first met him when he walked into court and watched him he made self assured there's my impression a little bit cocky symbolist didn't think much of the men trying him either he wrote home my infamous court-martial I'm sure a more bigoted set of reactionaries were never in one room in the interests of injustice than that crew much of what happened is not recorded but it is still apparent that not one word given in my defense was accepted as the trial progressed the transcripts revealed the case against symbolist was by no means clear the prosecution and defense agreed that simplest had used the words these gentlemen at least the Air Force : gentlemen the question was did you do this say this to the officer yes or no as soon as it is but had to keep on saying that but the defense witnesses said that symbolist had used the words only after an officer had used obscene language had sarcastically referred to the men as gentlemen and had called symbolist a Hyde Park soapbox orator the prosecution portrayed symbolist as a ringleader and an agitator out to provoke a strike in support of the striking airman at Seletar and the five arrested committee men they claimed he shouted we want those five men out I'm calling on you you still with me come out and strike until they're released it's up to us to support our comrades at Seletar 9 defense witnesses including one officer argued that symbolist was not the ringleader but a spokesman fairly representing the Airman's views they said he shouted au in favor of going on strike until the manor released the majority of the men answered by raising their arms symbolist tried to coerce a Keith Park as a defense witness he wanted to prove that his views were no different from tens of thousands of other strikers no action had been taken against them Park did not appear instead he left to inspect troops in salon the trial lasted a week before symbolist was found guilty now they had to agree on a sentence [Music] on a slip of paper starting with the most junior officer each man wrote down how long the punishment should be [Music] as president of the trial grip captain Marvin had final say but he had to reach a figure that was agreed by all the other officers although he wasn't happy well I didn't know how I gave a highlighter I'd like to do that now so I could I couldn't at the time - I didn't see their ones we're so inexperienced officers Giulio juniors I thought and we created capably obviously they sense one was ten years being served you how long would you've been happy with I can't - Bobby cover my mind was 15 years the ten-year sentence was a clear warning to any more Airmen thinking of striking Norris symbolist was stripped of his wings dishonorably discharged from the RAF and sent back to England to start his sentence to be stripped of his wings that was more painful for him than a lot of what happened in the rest of that situation I mean he was so proud to have had his wings and he wasn't a conscript he volunteered for to go into the RAF those wings were were so precious to him but it was as if he lost something that was very dear to him when he lost his wings the trial of Arthur Atwood was held in this large colonial house used as an officer's residence in the suburbs of Bombay he was defended by a firm of local solicitors mullah and Muller who had only four days to prepare his case and find witnesses so they're about 15 witnesses there but they were all witnesses for the prosecution so you didn't have any witness we had no witnesses no situation yeah well that's typical of the whole treatment of the case wasn't it you know in fact mullah and mullah won the case because that would CEO had promised no victimization that would was released but the victory was short-lived [Music] the RAF simply refused to accept the verdict that wood was reared and imprisoned at Warley camp near Bombay three days after his arrest Atwood was back in court the RAF had performed a shameful u-turn it was clear they've been instructed that I they got to reconvene the court and be they got to find the right verdict which was a verdict of guilty notwithstanding the evidence notwithstanding condemnation and so on that word was found guilty and returned to prison to await confirmation of his sentence the strain was beginning to affect his health laying on this bed you know to a ruined Ford breathing very rapidly and I couldn't stop myself breathing my chest was heaving up and down that's that's one way that some nervous break downs occur and a tendency towards crying you know these companies back home an Atwood defense campaign supported by the trade unions was already underway the pressure was building for a review of the mutiny charges you must I think appreciate that the general feeling and sentiment in the country was such that it expected that the Labour government would act quite differently from previous Conservative government's and this was only 1946 remember less than a year after the election and the ordinary people of the country and the trade unionists in particular after all were very numerous in those days and strong politically speaking did expect a Labour government to act quite differently from the way in which a conservative administration would have would have operated in Bombay that word was transferred to a military hospital to undergo psychiatric care although he was still watched by harm guards while Atwood was convalescing in hospital there was an astounding announcement on the radio it was revealed this morning that the charges against la see Edward have been dropped he could hardly believe his ears he thought it was another siab ploy to my surprise within one or two days the door opened and two of my colleagues came in see me it happened to be two people though in residence in the next cells to me not worried and was none other than Jimmy stoned [Music] is it is that's an amazing moment yes [Music] the old emotion government got at me okay there is no question that without a defense Committee of the kind that we were able to put together in London there is no question that Arthur would in fact have gone the same way as simplest that is to say he would have been sentenced as symbolist was to allow long number of years of imprisonment on the 27th of June the charges against stone and Noble were dropped the campaign had worked the implications of this victory were even more profound a shaken establishment realized that men had joined for one cause could not be manipulated to fight another oh yes undoubtedly it was a success in that respect yes because it showed that the the conscripted Armed Forces couldn't be counted upon to do what was necessary to hold the old British Empire together I'll use the word never had a mutiny or a sort of action against Authority like this before or since I mean it was something unknown unheard of the Air Force and therefore it was the humiliation they were hitting themselves which to our delight brought about the end product which was got as home when Arthur Atwood returned to England he immediately joined the campaign for the release of Norrish symbolist as a result of the pressure around Norrish simplest his sentence was reduced to five years but that was not satisfactory and after a long struggle especially by the National councils two villages and by the unions and many an individual Norah's Simlish only I say advisably only served 22 months in fact he served a third of his vicious sentence and it's the credit nor assemblies and the movement that we eventually played a part in his release in November 1947 Norris symbolist was released from prison the RAF unnerved by the unrest demobbed an extra hundred thousand men in the early part of 1946 by the end of 1947 most of the RAF s-- civilians in uniform had gone home [Music] [Music] yeah

Channel: John Salisbury

Views: 174,977

Keywords: RAF, RAF Mutiny, WW2

Id: -1SkyxdlSR0

Length: 51min 6sec (3066 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 13 2019