"SINK THE BISMARCK !"

K.M.S. BISMARCK, bows on escorted by seagulls.

"In May of 1941, the War had just begun" according to the American pop song     " Sink the Bismarck" (1960). Well, it was a pop song and not History.  

The Second World War began on 3rd September 1939. By May of 1941, it was already 21 months old. Through all those 21 Months the full panoply of British patriotic fervour and all its manifestations had been swiftly mobilised to win the War: "God Save the King", "Land of Hope and Glory" and especially "Rule Britannia!" swelled loyal chests.  The people did not really need to be reminded that:

 "It is upon the Navy

under the good Providence of God 

that the safety, honour and welfare 

of this realm do chiefly depend" 

( taken from the preamble to "Articles of War"

 of King Charles II (1630-1685). 

H.M.S.HOOD

Nothing better exemplified the inevitability of Victory in this struggle than that same Royal Navy. And the pride of the Fleet remained the 46,680 tons Battle Cruiser  H.M.S. HOOD with her awesome main armament of eight 15 inch guns and her impressive speed of 32 Knots, even though she had been commissioned in 1920. 

Unknown to the populace, she was overdue for a major refit when War broke out. Her steaming capacity was limited so much that she could only make 28 knots.  Despite this, HOOD was sent, in company with the new 43,786 tons Battleship H.M.S. PRINCE OF WALES to attack and destroy the new  50,300 tons German Battleship K.M.S. BISMARCK sailing in company with the new 19,050 tons Heavy Cruiser K.M.S. PRINZ EUGEN. 

K.M.S. BISMARCK

But the key to what happened was not only the nature of each ship but also the way it was being used.

HOOD was designed to avoid a battle with a superior ship such as BISMARCK, but she was used to seek out and attack BISMARCK. Of course, it could be argued that sailing in company with the Battleship PRINCE OF WALES - brand new and still suffering some operating problems, the pair were nominally far superior to BISMARCK and PRINZ EUGEN. 

K.M.S. PRINZ EUGEN

H.M.S. PRINCE OF WALES

PRINCE OF WALES had been commissioned four months earlier, on 19th January 1941. She had a displacement of 43,786 tons, a speed of 28.3 Knots and a main armament of 10 x 14-inch guns. But both before and throughout the brief, but disastrous encounter, she was suffering major equipment failures, the worst of which was the jamming of "Y" Turret (the final one toward the stern, the second of her two four- gun turrets).

Another intruding factor was that the Flag Officer Commanding the Squadron was in HOOD, the pride of the Royal Navy. It was unthinkable that he would leave the attack to his hierarchically subordinate companion vessel.

THE ACTION

The brief engagement on 24th May 1941 provided what were to be among the most devastating minutes of the War. The British Squadron first spotted the German ships at 05.37  and the action was broken off by PRINCE OF WALES at 06.05. Twenty-eight minutes had elapsed. But in three of those minutes,  HOOD had been hit by BISMARCK'S remarkably accurate gunnery. She blew up and sank with the loss of 1,418 men leaving only 3 survivors. It was a horrendous and awe-inspiring event which profoundly shocked those onlookers in the other ships, both German and British.

We know from eyewitness accounts, and from the wreck discovered in 2001, that the after magazine had exploded breaking the great ship's back and destroying her stern. The wreck also revealed that portion of the bow was missing - suggesting an explosion of the forward magazine either just before, or just after the ship sank below the surface.

Precisely what caused the catastrophe is keenly debated. The probable causes are either :

a direct hit by BISMARCK's 15" Shells penetrating to the HOOD's after magazine, or, 

that a massive fire known to have been caused by another of BISMARCK's 15-inch shells in the midships section caused the 4-inch ammunition lockers (which were not armoured) to explode, causing damage to the 15-inch magazines resulting in the fatal explosion, or, 

that a BISMARCK 15 inch shell fell short and travelled underwater striking the ship below its armour plating and exploding in or near the after magazine. 

There were also several theories suggesting that accidents within HOOD's own guns or the explosion of her own torpedoes might have been to blame. Both have been conclusively disproved. The ideas seem to have been intended to suggest that it was not the enemy that sank the HOOD - foolish disinformation.

The British had opened fire at 05.52 with HOOD firing on PRINZ EUGEN which was ahead of BISMARCK. Three minutes later the Germans returned fire, both their ships concentrating on HOOD.  An 8-inch shell from Prinz Eugen struck HOOD between the funnels starting a large fire amongst the ready use ammunition for the anti-aircraft guns. Just before 06.00 HOOD was hit directly by BISMARCK's fifth salvo at a range of 10.35 Miles. This resulted in the catastrophic explosion and within three minutes HOOD was gone along with all her crew save three, as we have said.

The first two salvos from PRINCE OF WALES had landed more than half a mile beyond BISMARCK. Her 6th, ninth and thirteenth salvos straddled BISMARCK. Two direct hits were made - one holed her bow and caused the loss of 1,000 tons of fuel oil. The second had fallen short and struck BISMARCK below the armour belt exploding in a boiler room. 

Tellingly, HOOD and PRINCE OF WALES in their eagerness to engage BISMARCK and PRINZ EUGEN had approached them at an angle of about 30 Degrees off the bow. The effect of this was to limit the British guns that could be brought to bear to the forward "A" and "B" turrets of each ship., whereas the German ships were able to bring all of their guns to bear. This was a serious tactical misjudgement. 

Nevertheless, it still left the British with 4 x 15-inch guns and 5 x 14-inch guns in action vs. the German ships with 8 x 15-inch guns and 8 x 8-inch guns in action. This meant that each firing of the British guns hurled 23,335lbs. of shells toward the Germans, and each time the Germans fired they hurled only 16,152 lbs in return. This is a result of the disparity in shell weights  :

HOOD                                 1,920lbs each x 8      Rate of Fire 2.0 per min. per gun

                                           

PRINCE OF WALES      1,595 lbs each x 5      Rate of Fire 1.3 per min. per gun

BISMARCK                       1,800 lbs each x 8      Rate of Fire 2.5 per  min.per gun

PRINZ EUGEN                    269  lbs each  x 8     Rate of Fire 4.0 per  min.per gun

The actual difference in weight of shells fired depends of course on the rate of fire actually achieved since the above rates of fire are design figures.  We know that the BISMARCK was firing its salvos at the rate of one per minute.

                               K.M.S. BISMARCK  bows on (note the "escort" of gulls.)

SUMMARY

The complexities of the contest are even greater than shown above, but the main outline has been given. The struggle was one of epic proportions and intensity.

The crushing loss of H.M.S. HOOD was a psychological blow to British confidence. It was the falling of one's champion in battle. Contrary to the anthem, it called into question the claim that "Britannia Rules the Waves." 

To British pride, this was intolerable, quite apart from being tragic. The old Lion Rampant himself, Winston Churchill gave the order: "SINK THE BISMARCK !  " and all hell broke loose at sea as the Royal Navy threw everything it could muster into that effort. 

On the 26th May, as BISMARCK made for the port of Brest for the repair of damage sustained, Torpedo Bombers from the Aircraft Carrier H.M.S. Victorious made hits on her stern, jamming her port rudder in a turning position. This condemned her to steaming around in a given area.  British destroyers kept watch on her position overnight. 

And finally on the 27th May the British Battleships KING GEORGE V and RODNEY came up into position , and with the aid of several Cruisers attacked the crippled BISMARCK and sank her with considerable loss of life , 111 survivors were rescued, but hundreds more were left in the water when U Boats were detected in the vicinity. These later saved some of those survivors after the British ships departed. The great ship was like a bear in a pit surrounded in an unequal fight.

HUBRIS

The headlong dash of H.M.S. HOOD and H.M.S. PRINCE OF WALES into the attack on K.M.S. BISMARCK and K.M.S. PRINZ EUGEN brings to mind the quote attributed to Admiral Lord Nelson :

 "Never mind manoeuvres go at them" 

Was this necessary, or advisable? The two German ships had been spotted the previous day by the British Heavy Cruisers H.M.S. SUFFOLK and H.M.S. NORFOLK. These two sister ships were substantial combatants in their own right each displacing 13,450Tons, carrying a main armament of 8  Eight Inch guns (as did K.M.S. Prinz Eugen). They also carried two quadruple mounts of 21" Torpedo Tubes and they each had a speed of 31.5 Knots.  They had not only sighted  BISMARCK and PRINZ EUGEN the day before the battle, but they had followed them continually, vectoring HOOD and PRINCE of WALES onto the German Squadron. They clearly had no trouble keeping up with the great ships of either side. Their involvement in the action would have had the advantage of enabling the British to achieve the maximum advantage by obtaining the best angle of attack, so that ALL their guns were brought to bear. This could be done using the Cruisers' torpedo tubes to fire on the German ships causing them to alter course to avoid the torpedoes. (This was done repeatedly during the war, often by mere Destroyers with great effect.) Even their main armament  - a combined 16  8- Inch guns could have been very useful as we see with PRINZ EUGEN and her 8- Inch guns scoring hits on the HOOD.

But the services of SUFFOLK and NORFOLK were NOT used. However, after HOOD had been sunk and BISMARCK damaged, they joined company with PRINCE OF WALES at last, and then, were brought in to assist KING GEORGE V and RODNEY to despatch the crippled BISMARCK.

It seems that the hubris induced by the "Britannia Rules the Waves" syndrome, the Nelsonian  "Never mind manoeuvres " exhortation,  and the myth of "the Mighty Hood" as she had long been known, had led to the decision not to use all available forces, and not to seek the optimum angle of approach. It is easy to be the armchair Admiral after the event of course. But the facts are the facts.

In December of the same year 1941, the British Battleship PRINCE OF WALES and the Battle Cruiser REPULSE were sunk when attacked by eighty-eight Japanese land-based Aircraft. The ships, with only 4 Destroyers and no air superiority cover, were despatched to reinforce Singapore. With its massive seaward pointing defense guns, Singapore had been "impregnable".  Until the Japanese attacked "through the back door" piercing through the"impenetrable" jungle. 

These two traumatic events, following so closely on the loss of HOOD, finally put "paid" to British hubris.

VULNERABILITY

For all the consideration given to Armour to protect the waterline and beneath it, to protect the main deck, the gun turrets, the barbettes on which the turrets were mounted ,adding thousands of tons of weight to the great ships, they all retained a point of vulnerability out of necessity : the stern beneath which there extended the propellers and their drive shafts and the rudders. Both propellers and rudders must, by the very nature of their operation, be exposed in order to have their influence on the seas.

                                 Fairey "Swordfish" Maximum Speed 134 MPH.

And it was at this point of vulnerability, that the ancient, obsolescent Fairey "Swordfish" bi-plane Torpedo Bombers from the carrier H.M.S. VICTORIOUS were successful in striking the BISMARCK, leading to her sinking. One of their torpedoes struck her stern and the explosion jammed BISMARCK's port rudder at an angle of 12 Degrees to Port. This caused the great ship to begin to circle and defied all efforts to regain control of her direction. 

The whole story is too long to recount here, but basically, the British had lost contact with BISMARCK earlier due to her clever maneuvering and the pursuing armada of battleships, battlecruisers, cruisers and destroyers had, in any case, desperate needs for fuel. Only King George V and Rodney were able to stay the course and were joined by Suffolk and Norfolk. Finally, a Catalina Flying Boat detected Bismarck and those ships moved in for the kill.

The great drama came to a close.

CONCLUSION

A matter of Hubris and Vulnerability - there are lessons here - not only Naval but for all of us in our lives, not to be led astray by inflated ideas of ourselves and to know ourselves well enough to consider our weakest points both moral and spiritual.

 

HUBRIS AND CATASTROPHE

78 Years ago today 0n 24th May 1941, almost a year after the seeming miracle of the Dunkirk evacuation, H.M.S.HOOD in company with the Battleship PRINCE OF WALES was in search of the German Battleship K.M.S. BISMARCK which was known to be at sea sailing in company with the Heavy Cruiser K.M.S. PRINZ EUGEN. There were to be no miracles on this occasion.

It is difficult today, to recover the sense of how large some things loomed in the public consciousness even 50 years ago. Today instant communications and a hysterical Public relations industry create "sensations" overnight and discard them just as readily.

But in the decades before 1941, the public mind was accustomed to long-lasting "bests and greatests". They gave the world a sense of order and an imagery that made it easier to comprehend.  High in the ranking of "greatests"  was the Battlecruiser H.M.S. HOOD. She was, and had been for over twenty years, the very embodiment and symbol of the might of the British Empire. She proved that "Britannia Rules the Waves!"

Commissioned in 1920, she had been laid down in 1916 and launched in 1918. For the twenty years after her commissioning, she was the largest and most powerful warship in the world. She had the nickname "The Mighty Hood". In fact, she became the ultimate symbol of the power of the British Empire.

Weighing 47,000 Tons and 860 Feet long with a Beam of 104 Feet, her 144,000 SHP engines could drive her along at 32 Knots.  The concept of the Battlecruiser had evolved as a ship with the armament of a Battleship but the light armour of a cruiser - so that she could catch anything she could outgun and evade anything whose armour she could not pierce. She did have light armour but nothing to match that of a Battleship. Her deck Armour was arranged on the Upper Deck and on the two decks below it. This was quite clever, the idea being that an enemy shell would be detonated on hitting the Upper Deck and the blast would be progressively absorbed by the two decks below.  However, in the twenty years since her commissioning, the invention of time delay shells had invalidated that theory because they would pierce probably two or even all three decks before detonating with immense effect in the bowels of such a ship. In addition, in those intervening years the Heavy Guns being mounted in Battleships were much more powerful than the 8 x 15" Guns of her main armament. The new 16" guns fired heavier shells over a greater range with increased accuracy. There were plans to improve many aspects of HOOD but the outbreak of war in 1939 prevented the work from being done.

K.M.S. PRINZ EUGEN

Just before dawn, at 5.37am   HOOD spotted the PRINZ EUGEN ahead of BISMARCK. At 5.52 am HOOD opened fire on PRINZ EUGEN. This was an act of inbred hubris. 

The angle of approach meant that HOOD could only engage the enemy with half her armament - the two turrets forward, AND she was engaging a force including a battleship -  BISMARCK -  which she was designed to avoid. True, she obviously hoped to dispose of the inferior PRINZ EUGEN in short order, and she was accompanied by the new battleship H.M.S. PRINCE OF WALES, but PRINCE OF WALES was experiencing operational teething troubles with some of her guns. Had the force commander in HOOD not been confident that the "Nelson spirit" would give the British the absolute advantage over the enemy, prudence would have required a less precipitate engagement. The German ships were able to bring all their guns to bear.

Three minutes later, at 5.55 am BISMARCK and PRINZ EUGEN opened fire on HOOD scoring a hit on the secondary armament ready-use ammunition on the boat deck between HOOD'S two funnels. A Massive fire ensued. Four minutes later, BISMARCK'S main armament scored a direct hit on HOOD at a range of 18,210 yards (10.35 Miles). HOOD was in the process of turning 20 degrees to Port to bring her after armament to bear.  A huge sheet of flame shot up from the area of the main mast followed by a mighty explosion of the after magazine which entirely destroyed the after part of the ship. HOOD's back was broken and her bow stood vertically before the whole of the ship disappeared beneath the sea. 

In 3 minutes she was gone, taking with her all but 3 of her crew of 1,416 men.

H.M.S. HOOD

Observers on PRINCE OF WALES, PRINZ EUGEN and BISMARCK were all likewise appalled at the horrendous character of the event.

PRINCE OF WALES made a few hits on BISMARCK before disengaging due to the failure of a number of her guns. BISMARCK had sustained a hit which contaminated part of her fuel supply and caused her to head for a French port under German control.

The loss of HOOD was a severe blow to British pride and confidence from Winston Churchill to the man in the street. Early efforts to explain what happened sought to correct the official version given above. Efforts were made to say that it had been the ship's torpedoes which had blown up in an accident, or the that the magazine had blown up in an accident. A second official Inquiry found the same as the first - enemy shells had done the deed - there was to be no denying the fact. In more recent times the wreck of HOOD has been located and examined confirming the official account.

The BISMARCK's fate is a story for another day.

THAT BOUQUET OF MOTHERS

MY MUM in later life. She was born in 1905 and died in 1971.

Here I am surrounded by a pictorial  bouquet of Mothers !( I think "bouquet" is a suitable collective noun for a group of Mothers!) Each one of them I have had the privilege and joy to share my life with, and each one has been a remarkable example of love and kindness in action, even in the gravest difficulty. The pictures are in no particular order. Obviously, the first Mother I knew was my very own dear Mum, who led a life of self- sacrifice, love, and loyalty in the most adverse circumstances. Her love was generous and kind, never in the least demanding.

She was the ideal example of her Father's philosophy that love and respect go hand in hand: if you have not got love you will show no respect, if you show no respect, you have no love. Grandad hit the nail on the head, and my dear Mum had absorbed the lesson and lived it out.

 

My Grandma Dixon -Elinor Margaret (Mag) Dixon

Born  1882       Died 1948

Next, I got to know my Grandma Dixon who lived on the next block one street behind us. Hers was also a tough life coping with a difficult husband and who gave herself to helping many human strays in the family orbit. She was very loving in her treatment of me and in early primary school days I used to walk home via Grandma's place, where she would always be seated on the verandah - waiting for me with a One Shilling piece( with its Merino Sheep Head image on it) clutched in her hand which she gave to me for treats. I can still recall its warmth from her hand, today.

My Grandma Beckmann. Born 1886  Died 1965.

My Mum's Mother, Grandma Beckmann, was a very special lady too. She was more self - confident and outgoing within the family group than my Mum or Grandma Dixon and her love was open-hearted and generous, her hugs big and strong. She was totally devoted to her husband "Ted" Edward Beckmann and in the family circle, she would refer to him as "Daddy"( they had 9 children!). When I knew him his health was failing, and though she would firmly proclaim that "Daddy and I are going to live on into the (Biblical) Millenium", looking back, I can see her anxiety that he was slipping away. She was a wonderful example of love and affection and that, constant and reliable. She had had a tough life with never a lot of money around, and when some windfall occurred an adverse development would sweep it away. She suffered a lot for marrying a "German" especially in World War I as did the older girls, reproached for being "Germans".I recall her unconditional love of me, and those strong, generous hugs today. And, as she lay close to death in Hospital, I can recall her calling out "Mummy" - my Grandmother, at the end of her 

life - calling out for Her Mother!

Robyn and the children in the Autumn leaves of Mount Wilson in 1979.

Then we come to the full-colour Mums. My dear wife Robyn and those three beautiful children, what fun we had that day in the bracing air and rich autumn tones of Mount Wilson! What fun we have had over all the years - and how much of that is due to Robyn, loving loyal, devoted wife and Mother. I guess we have had more good times than all the predecessor Mothers and their families combined and yet we have had a ton of tough times, but Robyn has been a constant source of love and loyalty through thick and thin, and even thinner! No - one could ask for a better Wife or, the children, a better Mother.

Our daughter Justine with 2 mths premature son Daniel (born 1st June 2009)

 now a charmer & picture of robust  good health

The latest Mother in the family bloodline is our dear daughter Justine, Mother to Emily, Christopher, and Daniel. Words nearly fail me (nearly! I always have a few left!) As parents we could not be prouder of this thoroughly modern Mother. She is an exemplary model of love and devotion in effective action, handling even the strain of tiny Daniel's birth, when this tiny literal handful of life seemed to us too fragile , she brought him to the fullness of healthy life with dedication and love, without skipping a beat in the care of Emily and Christopher and husband Paul. And like her paternal Grandmother, she is a stalwart strength for her parents.

So, Mothers of mine, I salute you and honour you, but most of all, I love you unfailingly.

ONE OF TWO FATHERS

Tomorrow is MothersDay. It takes two immediate Fathers to make a Mother. My own Mum's immediate Father had died thirty years earlier. My Dad, who made her a Mother with God's help, died twenty-seven years ago today.

HERE, IN 1927 DAD LOOKS LIKE THE TYPICAL YOUNG 
BANKER OR CIVIL SERVANT
WHICH HE WAS NOT, HE ALWAYS WORKED IN
 BLUE COLLAR OCCUPATIONS

Today, Saturday 11th May 2019 is the Twenty-seventh Anniversary of my Father's death just three weeks short of his 85th Birthday. He survived the death of my Mother by almost 21 years.

Sent to work at age 11 years in 1918, in a metal foundry, he had a pretty tough life. His life experience together with his local social network, made him a lifelong Labor Party voter. He persevered in this even after he said he was convinced that the Labor Party was riddled with Communists whom he despised. He just could not bring himself to desert the "working class party". And in fact, he did see the world and the nation in those Victorian-era Class terms, they coloured every aspect of his life and limited his ideas of what he could or should do, how he should dress, or where he should go. It is a mental prison that many people on the "Left" still inhabit.

My Dad was born a Catholic and educated in a Convent School which was sited on the other side of the back fence of his family home, but for long periods he did not practise his religion. Yet when his "kind eyes" won the heart of Miss Elsie Georgina Beckmann, a petite and beautiful, modest girl from a devout Evangelical Protestant family, he required that they be properly married in the Catholic Church. Miss Beckmann was instructed in the Faith and duly became a Catholic, and they were married in 1927.

To-day's cynicism might suggest that he was being hypocritical. But in those days people were honest about doing wrong  - he knew it was wrong not to practise his religion, but he also knew that there are absolutes of such importance that you don't abuse them: he would not betray his Religion, even if he did not practise it - that Truth was bound to him for life.

When I was born, Dad was 32 years old, he was never unkind to me, but not outgoing or physically demonstrative of his love. ( The Poet James Macauley writes powerfully of his own Father's inability to physically express any affection.) 

He lost his job with the onset of the Great Depression of 1929 and despite daily trampings from job site to job site, did not succeed in getting a job for several years. Living on the Dole as it was called - a Federal Government handout of food each week was soul-destroying. This was exaggerated by the fact that my Mum's process worker skills had enabled her to get a job on the weaving machines of Vickers Mills at North Parramatta, adding cash to the Dole.worked on the construction of the great Garden Island Graving Dock, for the Navy - the largest engineering project in Australia's History up to that time. Work on the necessary Coffer Dam started in 1940. This was a protected employment category, which prevented him from being sent in the labour battalions to Darwin when he received the call-up in the Second World War. He could not be in the regular forces because of faulty eyesight resulting from an accident at the Newlands Iron Foundry when he was about 13 yrs old.

Photo from around 1916.

My Dad John Joseph Dixon on the left (one sock needs pulling up!) his Mum Margaret "Mag" Dixon, his baby brother William (whom Dad always admired, though Dad's life was more admirably lived except that Bill, as he was known, got to serve in the Army in WW II) and Albert ("Abby" whose Surname I never knew , but who was one of several children Grandma informally "adopted "and raised.

As I grew up, all my interests were largely alien to my Dad except Politics, and even then we were on opposite sides of the fence! Only after many years did  I hear that Dad was very proud of my progress in Banking and in other areas and used to regale his regular drinking mates at the hotel in Lidcombe with my latest efforts. We almost never got to talk at any length on any subject, conversation being limited to brief exchanges of statements never pressed too far lest the heavy crunch of disagreement should wreck things.

In my twenties and thirties, I could perceive all my Father's faults with clinical efficiency. Of course, I made every allowance for any tendency to deficiency on my own part. As the years went by my Dad evolved, particularly after he came to see the devastating effect on my Mum's mental health, fragile following a Hysterectomy. He came to see in time, how cruel was the effect of his stubborn, sullen silences - sometimes lasting 3 days - over some exaggerated "offence", on someone so vulnerable. That was the result of his own inability to express himself. Happily he was transformed.

He also returned to the practice of the Faith which was very pleasing to see and he took great delight in his three grandchildren, Marianne, Justine and Matthew and never ceased urging me to look after my Wife!

But still, he could not freely and easily communicate either emotions or ideas. Whether or not this disability stemmed from the treatment he received from his brutish and drunkard Father, I cannot say for sure, but if I were a betting man......

Dad's later years were plagued by troubles with his heart - suffering from an "enlarged heart" which caused recurring build-ups of fluid around the heart, this required repeated hospitalisation to relieve them but there could be no cure.

In fact, he had just successfully completed one such routine and was about to be released from Hospital, when he suffered a heart attack and died. The Catholic Chaplain to the Auburn Hospital where Dad died was quickly on the spot to minister to his poor body and pray for his soul. His name was Father Stephen Swift and I was most impressed by the card he left endorsed with all that needed to be done to ensure a proper Catholic burial - for Father knew nothing of the family.

We were living in Brisbane at the time and I received a call from my Brother Pat telling me of Dad's death and saying that the Hospital wanted to perform an autopsy. I was on the first plane down the next morning and went straight to see the Doctor in Charge -  a young Asian gent. He was prompt to offer condolences and almost as prompt to proffer a form authorising an autopsy for signature. When I objected that they clearly knew the cause of death and that this was unnecessary, the form quickly disappeared into the pocket of his white coat. I informed him that after the long periods of my Dad's health problems, I did not want his body used for training purposes. This is a matter which I believe the Hospital handled very badly, to say the least.

My dear Mum and Dad.

Mum died in 1971

and Dad 1n 1992

Requiescant in Pace.

So John Joseph"Jack" Dixon I love you dearly and hope we have the opportunity to understand each other far better in Paradise. My prayers for the repose of your soul and of Mum's soul are daily made.

 Originally Posted 12th May 2012 by vexilla regis slightly revised

A WILD RIDE IN AN AMBULANCE - FIVE YEARS AGO

SIMILAR TO THE AMBULANCE THAT TOOK ME TO HOSPITAL

FIVE YEARS AGO TODAY

It was a Thursday. Only three days earlier, I had been released from Hospital after very successful Triple Bypass Heart Surgery a week before that. 

The previous night had been an ordeal, as I felt increasing pain in my shoulder and neck, rising temperature and a severe headache and I could not get comfortable lying down, sitting or standing - let alone get to sleep. Upon waking, my Wife found me draped across the lounge to which I had crept early in the evening, continually moving, seeking relief. Alarmed she got me some clothing and helped dress me and rushed me in our car to the Doctor's Surgery. We arrived as they opened for the day. I must have looked pretty awful because, as my Wife helped me out of our car, I caught sight of some people in the crowd waiting on the Railway Station. They were looking at me with faces registering shock and even horror. Less than encouraging.

My Wife was heroic, managing to get me stumbling and more or less powerless across the road and into the Surgery.

In no time flat, our marvellous G.P. had me out the back of the Surgery in the treatment room and the Registered Nurse assisted him. He gave me an Electro Cardiogram and was pretty certain that it was NOT a Heart Attack. He gave me a moderate pain killer by injection , but told me that he would not give me a severe painkiller(Morphine) because he had called an Ambulance to get me back to Royal North Shore Hospital, and the stronger injection might mask symptoms of a Heart Attack if that was what it turned out to be.

As the painkilling injection took effect, I became more at ease.

Then He arrived!  "Captain" Ambulance: tall strongly-built decked out in Hi-Viz uniform and bringing all his paraphernalia with him So far so good. 

But he began to talk: "Stand aside!" this to the delightful Nurse "I AM A QUALIFIED HEALTH PROFESSIONAL!" - I did not feel much like laughing, but this got me near to it! The Doctor in a very professional manner, related my recent history, the present situation, the treatment given and his estimate of the likely situation. "I will make my OWN judgement. He should have been given Morphine to relieve the pain!"  Clearly, the Doctor saw the problem and that it was pointless to argue with "Captain" Ambulance.-all the Doctor wanted was for me to get to the Hospital ASAP!

Needless to say, my Wife got even less attention than anyone else. It became obvious that for "Captain" Ambulance I was only the means to assert his dominance over all and sundry. I suspect he was a leader in the Ambulance crews' ongoing industrial campaigns.

His Gurney or Trolley was set up and I was piled onto it and out to the Ambulance with scarcely a chance to farewell my Wife. The driver of the Ambulance was a younger fellow, obviously in absolute awe of "Captain" Ambulance. The latter set about "Doing my own Electro Cardiogram" then calling another Ambulance to meet us on the way because his Ambulance had no capacity to fax/email the ECG printout to the Hospital. In due course, we made the rendezvous and in no time at all the ECG was sent off ahead of us to the Hospital. Back on the road, I had just thought to myself that we were making good time ( I am very familiar with that stretch of the Highway) when Junior the driver asked "Captain" Ambulance:"Should I put the Siren On?"

"YES CERTAINLY" came the theatrical response and off we went WHINING AND SCREAMING to complete the journey.

"What are you doing?" I asked Captain Ambulance as he hovered over me with a Syringe - "I am giving you an injection of Morphine because I care about relieving your pain EVEN IF YOU DOCTOR DOESN'T!"    "But I don't want......" BAM it was done. So much for me and the highly- qualified General Practitioner.

ROYAL NORTH SHORE HOSPITAL

Shortly afterward we arrived at the EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT of Royal North Shore Hospital. A horde of Doctors came out and as Captain Ambulance began to recount his Triumph I heard a Doctor say to him - forget it -IT IS NOT A HEART ATTACK AS THE ECG SHOWS! I never saw "Captain" Ambulance again, nor do I care to!

For the next month, I was bound to Royal North Shore Hospital which I had left only days before.  The problem was diagnosed as GOLDEN STAPH infection, which had attached itself it seems, to the metal clips holding my chest together after the Triple Bypass (CABG) Surgery of 20th January. The next month was a blur of multiple bouts of surgery, X Rays, Blood Tests, Ultrasounds, onto trollies, off trollies and untold discomforts. After a while, I came to live inside my head the rest was being wrecked by the infection and the powerful antibiotics that finally killed it.

My slender grasp on reality was maintained through the regular visits of those who love me, notably my Wife and my two daughters ( my poor Son was bound to far distant Queensland and the care of his children). My dear Wife's carefully prepared food was all that I survived on because I could not abide the Hospital food. Her daily journeys to and fro and lonely wonderings how it all might end must have been dreadful. And whenever I was conscious, I was able to pray. Thanks be to God for life. On three occasions the Priest Chaplain came and gave me Holy Communion which was truly marvellous. The difficulties people surmounted to visit me I cannot forget. How I loved singing silently to myself the German Hymn "Behute Mich Gott"("Protect me God" ) so much loved by one who is in dire trouble.

I finally got out at the end of February and began, with my Wife's patient and steady help, the months of rehabilitation. But I will never forget that Ambulance ride and my experience of "Captain" Ambulance!

GRANDCHILDREN - GRAND TOUR - GRAND FAITH

As I write this, three of our grandchildren with their dear Mum and Dad are midway through a vacation tour that has led them back to Canterbury in England, from Euro Disneyland(!) Paris is no longer safe for the time being.From there they will soon travel to Rome - the children's first visit to the Eternal City.

For days thoughts have been swirling in my head about all the things I would love to tell them , in order to try to give them the fullest impression of what they will be seeing and the connections that exist between those places.

To begin with, I would have to tell them that by beginning at Canterbury, they are starting at what was the end of an epic story.

It was in Canterbury Cathedral , originally named the Cathedral of the Holy Saviour in A.D. 597 by the First Archbishop of Canterbury Saint Augustine (not to be confused with Saint Augustine of Hippo in North Africa the Great theologian and Philosopher( A.D. 354 - 430). Augustine was sent to convert the Angles by Pope Saint Gregory the Great of whom we will hear more in due course.

SAINT AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY

Canterbury Cathedral we can plainly see, was from its very beginning a Catholic Cathedral indeed , the Mother Church of all England just as saint Mary's Cathedral Basilica is the Mother Church of Australia. Sadly  for Canterbury, the Deformation of the Church by King Henry VIII resulted in this great Cathedral , like al the others in England, being stolen from the Catholic Church. The same thing happened to the Parish Churches and Monasteries and Chapels and Schools and University Colleges.

But, stepping back in time from that tragic event, we come to Archbishop Thomas A'Beckett, the great Saint and Martyr who was murdered in his Cathedral at Canterbury by several Knights trying to please the King of the time King Henry II . The King was striving to overthrow the legal rights of the Church as they had existed for centuries, and had nominated Thomas A'Beckett as Archbishop, because he was he very close friend. When the Pope confirmed the appointment , Thomas , who was a layman , was ordained Priest and then Bishop with the Title of Archbishop of Canterbury and Primacy over all the Bishops of England.

Martyrdom of Saint Thomas A'Beckett

Archbishop A'Beckett took his sacred office seriously and would not be the King's puppet. Their disagreements became intense as the King pressed harder to get his way and the Archbishop strongly defended the Church's legal rights. A crisis point was reached when one of the King's nobles murdered a Priest who was defending  a cleric according to the Law.  He did not repent and for this offence Archbishop A'Beckett excommunicated him. The  Rite of Excommunication in the Cathedral is well shown in this now famous Clip from the movie "BECKETT" Starring the late Richard Burton as the Archbishop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRt2cKvJLlE

The King was furious and attempted to have the Archbishop arrested on false charges- without success as this further Clip shows:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p9CiBJfbik

But, in his raging the King utters the fatal words "Who will rid me of this meddlesome Priest?". Only too willing to curry favour with the King , several Knights set out for Canterbury Cathedral and the murder of the Archbishop in the Sanctuary of the Cathedral as he celebrated the Liturgy of  Vespers with the Monks of the Abbey attached to the Cathedral. The tragic scene is recreated faithfully in this further Clip from the movie:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHCiziDnrS8

In the aftermath the King submits to physical Penance - he has lost the contest in the end. 

That was more than demonstrated by the fact that the Shrine of Saint Thomas A'Beckett at Canterbury Cathedral became one of the two most popular and sacred in England, along with that of Our Lady of Walsingham. So beloved was the memory of Saint Thomas A'Beckett that when King Henry VIII's Deformation arrived at Canterbury Cathedral, the Kings's Commissioners destroyed the Shrine of Saint Thomas A'Beckett and removed "the gold and silver and precious stones and sacred vestments taken away from the shrine filled six and twenty carts". The sacred relics of Saint Thomas were publicly burnt after being treated with every indignity.

Protestantism had arrived.

When the Catholic Religion became legal again in England ( The Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829), there began a steady process which led to the re-establishment of the Catholic Hierarchy in England but the Brits were ultra sensitive about titles. As a result, the ancient Catholic titles of Archbishop of Canterbury,or York, or Lincoln or Bishop of London, were denied to us. So the senior Catholic Prelate in England is now the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster (in London of course).

In a bizarre twist, once a year a Catholic Priest or Prelate is allowed to celebrate Mass in the Cathedral at Canterbury. His Eminence Cardinal George Pell has done so on one occasion. How remarkable to have the privilege of bringing the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ back  - if only for an hour -to the great Church dedicated to Him.

His Eminence Cardinal George Pell

MY FATHER ....CRYING.....WHAT COULD IT MEAN?

Seventy years ago to-day, my paternal Grandma died - at age Sixty - six years.Here is a Post from 2011 which covers what for Eight Years old me , was a sadly memorable event.

 My Dad John Joseph Dixon 

                                                      at about the age I was that 

                                                                      morning.........

                                                     

His Mother Eleanor Margaret Dixon
  taken the same day as Dad above.

Friday , 20th August, 1948:  I was asleep in my bed, just clear of the inward opening door of my bedroom at the front right hand side (facing), of our two bedroom timber cottage in Second Avenue Berala NSW. I was woken when the door opened hastily.

There stood my 41 years old Dad .A tumble of thoughts into my gathering consciousness : Dad doesn't wake me in the morning ( Shift work meant he was either at work, or not long in from work and sleeping at this hour),  why was his hat crammed on his head in the house? and....... what! My Dad was crying..... what could this mean?  "You'd better get up quick Anth, Ma has died",and he sobbed even more. 

Turmoil. Mum was already up at Grandma's which was in Third avenue just behind us and a tad higher on the gentle hill. Up I got, dressed quickly, no breakfast and round we went. The 1900 vintage cream painted timber house, had originally been much smaller, but had been added onto. Up the front steps into the hall and I was taken down to Mum who was busy holding the family together, consoling this one, calming that one, and meanwhile getting them fed. My maiden Aunt Nell who was a very good hearted soul, but at that stage of her life very tense, afflicted with a bad stutter, suggested while Dad was there, that I should be taken into Grandma's room to see her body. You can perhaps imagine my horror - at eight years of age - at the suggestion. I had no experience of death and I had no desire to see the Grandma I loved so devotedly , and who loved me , in death. I would NOT go in.

 Dad was too absorbed in grief to intervene, but mercifully Mum came across, asked what the fuss was, saw my reaction and put an end to that idea. I can't remember the rest of the day.

The funeral was some days later from our Church-School - St. Peter Chanel's on the hill at Berala. My mind boggled at all the relatives and friends and fellow Parishioners - the Dixons were not the greatest Church goers( masterly understatement - I'm getting better at it!) , but in earlier times the wooden Church as well as the Convent, had been in Fourth Avenue behind Grandma's place  and there weren't many houses in those earlier days ,so " Mag. Dixon" was well known to the Nuns and to many Parishioners. That old wooden Church had been hauled up the hill to the new Parish location sometime in the 20's or 30's,and was now the Parish Hall.

Grandma was 66 years old.

Dad's Father, Thomas James Dixon died on the 2nd August, 1950. I had rarely seen him. He had left the family home many years before, had a major problem with drink, and was not a very endearing person (actually, I'm getting better at it!) He was 66 years old also - I had never realised the coincidence of their ages at death until a minute ago ,when I came to write this !

Deaths in August were to become more common in the family for some reason as you will see if you bear with me.And, as it happened, when my dear Mum died in August, 1971 she was also 66 years old.


Requiescant in Pace.