Training the RNZN

Training the RNZN

©RN Communications Branch Museum/Library

Written by Godfrey Dykes.

Over time I WAS DIRECTLY INVOLVED with the training of the RNZN and all of it in the UK.

It started off when New Zealand flew hundreds of its naval officers and ratings from Devonport Auckland North Island NZ to the UK where branch on branch they took up training and accommodation positions in various establishment including HMS Sultan, HMS Collingwood, HMS Dryad, HMS Mercury, HMS Excellent and HMS Pembroke, the S and S School of Logistics.

The Canterbury’s comms crew was just a tad larger than an RN Leander Class Frigate, and as tradition had it there were three sub branches. I took the admin of the MCO crew under my wing and the sparkers were instructed by the Senior Rates Assigned to the Mercury departments of GT and GC, (and when the abridged syllabus had completed, the sparkers were introduced to their ships departments of the MCO, the UHF Office, and CCR’s - she was an ICS2 rigged vessel .

HMNZS Canterbury was ordered and built to a normal beamed size Leander ‘spec in the UK, modified to address the specific requirement of the NZ Defence Department. Some of those were unusual and most un-warlike. For example the main deck (Burmah Road) was fitted in its entirety with lino tiles and looked very smart and so different from a painted deck. However, the COS to FOST (known as CST = Commander Sea Training) wasn’t always pleased when the Exec Officer, a two and a half striper of the Canterbury tried to put barriers in the way of spoiling his deck tiles when fire and NBCD (Nuclear Biological and Chemical Defences) were exercised and water was everywhere other than where it should be in the seas underneath his precious ship.

Eventually, after having gone through the mill, the ship arrived in Portland ready to taste the conditions likely on board in wartime when hostilities governed conditions which were to last in varying degrees for approximately eight weeks. Sadly for nuclear reasons, I and many other Royal Navy sailors never got to New Zealand, so I was not au fait with their work-up training and just how brutal it could be especially in adverse weather conditions.

I observed and took part in ship evolutions making sure that they were conducted to NZ Task Book level and commitment, to my entire satisfaction. The crew took part enthusiastically and integrated well with sister departments namely EW and Signalmen to meet those criteria of communications provided to the CO and the task group (TG) in which Canterbury operated. From the MCO, the SCO and the CRS provided a pan-branch support such that the fighting efficiency flowed fluently from bottom up to support the ships AIO (Action Information Organisation) in a multi threat environment. As part of that environment was a combined naval Thursday War (often there were many foreign navies using our training facilities). Twice in Canterbury’s BOST (Basic Operational Sea Training) we exercised an opposed landing against a part amphibious group comprised of the R.A.S.C. (Royal Army Service Corps) and R.M. (Royal Marines) with S.B.S. (Special Boat Service) equivalent to the S.A.S. (Special Air Service) involvement. In fact, the Canterbury involved itself in all aspects of modern warfare except those of directly connected inter-ship data-comms AIO to AIO via sophisticated computer radio links and some Helo ASW operations in which Canterbury could not compete - not fitted for or with. On leaving Portsmouth her plucky performance was noted and assured, returning a positive, meritorious operational work-up (or shake down as many would say) adding a small but sure and competent attack unit to the Oceania navies.

Later for the 1973 RCI Course for which I was the overall course instructor and instructor in RCE and Technical training, I had the good fortune to have on my course a CRS from the RNZN, one Neal Catley who was paired with our very own RS John Littlefield for the preparation of the course combined OP ORD assessed at the end of the arduous course, the compilation of which demanded a high level of skill and knowledge for all the subjects covered in the course syllabus. Although the course prize was won by a very competent RS, the Catley/Littlefield OP ORD was adjudged the best, professional and workable fleet OP ORD.

With some justification Neal’s Plaque, presented during a two day stay over by Neal and is wife Mary Ann at our apartment in the old R.M. Barracks at Eastney Portsmouth prior to the commencement of their European Tour which says on a part shaded brass plate "To Godfrey (Jeff) Dykes, in Appreciation from your New Zealand friends" and dated 2007.

By 1980 Neal had been promoted to a Lieutenant RNZN and we have been close friends for many a long year.

In 1985 Neal left the RNZN as a Lieutenant Commander attracted by a more demanding job, and joined the NZ section of the 5 EYES Organisation. The Five Eyes (FE) is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These countries are parties to the multilateral CANZUKUS agreement, and by the time of his final retirement many years later, had reached a relative rank far higher that would ever have been possible in the RNZN, leaving with the status of a high level civil servant equivalent to a very senior naval officer.