Ralph Stobart Robson, signalman, life in the British Royal Navy World War Two, sinking of Prince of Wales and the Repulse, Singapore
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  1. Chatham to Gourock
  2. The Messman Discovered
  3. Life on Board
  4. Crossing the Line
  5. The Sinkings
  6. H.M.S. Sultan
  7. The Signal Office
  8. Left to Our Own Resources
  9. Colombo
  10. Drafted to Mombassa
  11. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
  12. Sharks, Lobsters and Going Dutch
  13. Askari Skirmishes and Tea Making
  14. Tramp Steamer
  15. Molo
  16. Deer Hunting
  17. Ralph the Italian and off to Bombay
  18. Arrival in Bombay
  19. Vultures and Buffalos
  20. Poona
  21. Swimming Motorcycles and Monsoon Storms
  22. The Royal Corps of Signals
  23. 'Trixie' Vaughan Lewis and Drowning Men
  24. On Leave in the Himalayas

    Ralph as a telegram boy before the war

19. Vultures and Buffalos

That evening the RAF lads went down the road to a little Indian restaurant for a meal where they had trained the Indian owner to cook English style. Whether these airmen got paid more or not I never found out but all we could afford to do was lie on our charpoys and chat or go ashore.

Around about seven o'clock night began to descend and I heard a peculiar mewling sound. One of the ratings told me it was "those big black bastards in the trees outside". I rushed out to look and to my delight saw black vultures planing in to land in the tops of the palms - what a marvellous sight their planing was, but I must say they were rather ugly birds.

That night was spent just chatting until soon the bugle called "lights out" and all was still. The birds woke with the sun but made no attempt to take off until the sun had heated the air, causing the currents to rise, before seeming to fall out of the sky to swoop low over the camp and continuing out seawards where they glided upwards in large spirals before disappeared as minute dots in the increasing haze.

We were now in the grip of "Combined Operations", in which this group had to change it's ideas as it went along and we were now an integral part of that change. This day we fell in with the other groups on the parade ground. These groups had been in operation for about a month and some fundamental changes were apparent. One was that most signalling was done with Aldis Lamp and Morse code - semaphore flags were almost out, so we spread out along the road and practised signalling.

The day of the route march had arrived and groups of sigs and tels marched all over the countryside north of Bombay. With little bundles of such things as bread and cheese and apparatus for making tea we marched as far north as Juhu Beach, now the sight of an airport.

I was one of the very few who was fascinated by the birds, the vegetation and farming and of course the people, most of whom lived in poverty. Whenever we stopped a few locals always gathered, most of them children. We always created waste and took to taking more than we could eat, at least I did, and they would always take our gifts bowing their heads low and with their hands together before running off with their spoils.

One day a buffalo was seen dead in the bed of a river. When we returned in late afternoon there was only a mound of bones accompanied by a solemn group of vultures - they had "buried" the buffalo! Law protected these birds, considered sacred and it was a crime to harm them but their job as scavengers was well known.

Shortly after the road to Bandra turned south in the direction of Bombay there was a slaughter place with high walls lined with vultures. Beyond this was a large, flat gully about a quarter of a mile wide and beyond that the houses of the city started. This gully was covered with temporary houses of all kinds, cardboard boxes, widths of hessian and all sorts of rubbish. The significance of this will appear later.

Shortly after the road to Bandra turned south in the direction of Bombay there was a slaughter place with high walls lined with vultures. Beyond this was a large, flat gully about a quarter of a mile wide and beyond that the houses of the city started. This gully was covered with temporary houses of all kinds, cardboard boxes, widths of hessian and all sorts of rubbish. The significance of this will appear later.
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