John Reid - Operation "PLUTO"

Gary Tait said that the collection of artefacts that he has brought in was from his grandfather John Reid and "lived in a little brown box on the top of his wardrobe", "but he never ever spoke about it". It looks like John Reid was possibly in the Merchant Navy but was transferred to the Royal Navy as he has a Merchant Navy discharge book.

John Reid's year of birth is given as 1927 so he was exceptionally young being just 17 in 1944. It was normal practice for people to give an earlier date of birth so they could join up. His discharge book indicates that he was on cable-laying ships. One of John's ships was HMS Abatos which was a Royal Navy establishment responsible for the planning of Operation Pluto, based in Southampton.

Operation Pluto (Pipeline Under The Ocean) was an operation to lay cables under the sea which would be used for the Allied invasion of Normandy to supply petrol and oil. It was a top-secret operation the Senior Naval Officer in command of Operation Pluto was John Fenwick Hutchings. This is the person who has signed the letter to John thanking him for his service on Operation Pluto. It seems extremely likely that John was involved in the cable laying ships for Operation Pluto.

HMS Gold Drift mentioned in his discharge book was a converted Thames motor barge which was used to lay the HAIS cable for PLUTO and it is possible he was operating on this ship after the war salvaging these cables.

There are also photographs of Heligoland in 1947 showing the aftermath of Operation Big Bang the largest man-made non-nuclear explosion which aimed to destroy the German base at Heligoland by using surplus ordnance.

After the war, John returned to the Merchant Navy and then worked at a chemical factory in Jarrow.