Chocolate Incentive: Edward Balaam's Naval Transfer

Edward Balaam was called up to the Royal Navy on 4/1/43. He was sent to Skegness and trained at Butlins there, before being assigned to HMS Royal Arthur as a radio operator. In June 1944, he was transferred to the destroyer Havelock.

He volunteered to go onto the submarine Safari as submariners got an extra chocolate ration. It was a hard life and as he didn't want to hot bed in a hammock; he managed to make himself a bed between the torpedoes. He remembers the sub being a greenish colour from the chlorine gas. The Safari sank and damaged 70 enemy vessels.

After the war, he served on the mine hunter Lundy, destroying mines around the British coast. This was dangerous work and some of his fellow companions were killed.