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Thread: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

  1. #21
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    Default Re: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

    The Genie may give you the two fat ladies next bingo day John.
    Des
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    Default Re: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

    Re # 18.
    Hi John,
    I laughed at your wife's remark saying she didn't notice any difference and I visualise the look of dismay upon your face when she said it.
    I must emphasize one definite sign of getting old is attending bingo sessions.

    Regards from,
    Fouro.

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    Default Re: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

    Talking about this has brought my memory back to 7 months ago on the post about tha Altmark and saying I would post the name of my relief on a Chowgule ship or should say I relieved him , his name was Norie Smith a little Welshman who was a 16 year old at the time and was rescued by the navy at Narvik . He died a number of years ago. He finished up as Master with World Wide Shipping of Hong Kong. Better late than never with the info. on the off chance someone knew him . JS.
    Last edited by j.sabourn; 13th August 2021 at 03:23 AM.
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    Default Re: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

    #21. Funny thing is Des I don’t really play the actual bingo , I just buy a few raffle tickets , and with the beer comes other tickets for chase the ace where we won $840 dollars the first month here. Also have mock horse racing. The Bingo the wife helps an old lady do her bingo . There is also a meal at half time . My job is to accumulate the tickets via drinking the beer to chase the ace , next Wednesday is back up to $640 as gets bigger every week and the pack of cards gets smaller. There’s plenty of fat ladies for the picking if that way inclined. The caller doesn’t even know about legs 11 , not like the old bingo callers of the uk . If I was doing the calling I would put the emphasis on 69 as well . Cheers JS
    Last edited by j.sabourn; 13th August 2021 at 06:44 AM.
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    Default Re: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

    Hi Jon.
    That sounds Identical to our Club except he has cut out the bingo. We get free chase the ace tickets, and sometimes free raffle tickets
    Des
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    Default Re: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

    We used to have chase the ace here but with all the WOKE stuff going on she now refuses to participate.
    Said those black fella wont allow it any more.
    Happy daze John in Oz.

    Life is too short to blend in.

    John Strange R737787
    World Traveller

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  10. #27
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    Default Re: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

    Nowt wrong with: We used to have chase the ace here but with all the WOKE stuff going on she now refuses to participate.

    RE: But, those black fella wont allow it any more.

    Is either very totally not acceptable or needs a lot of explaining / reason.

    K.

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    Default Re: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

    I was wondering if anyone here might be able to shed some light on a few things.


    First Question: Russian Jubilee Medal

    I’ve often been wondering about this medal, or rather the “awarding” of it. How was it possible that the Soviets knew the names and contact details of those veterans which were awarded with those medals?

    Was it a result of registering crews upon arrival in Russia, data collected during the war? Or was is it from a post war effort of locating those people in some sort of classic KGB fashion? Who would have qualified as a candidate for those medals, and why was it awarded some 40 years after the war?


    Second Question: Arctic Convoy Procedures

    What was the common practice when those ship arrived and offloaded their cargo in those Russian ports (Murmansk, Archangel …). I’ve read different stuff, from crews being prohibited from disembarking and not allowed of going ashore, to getting wasted on Vodka while undergoing treatment in hospital or wherever.
    What (if any) was the basic, common or official rule and order in place, for allied crew members during their time while docked in Russian ports?


    Third Question: Post War fate of foreigners serving in the MN

    As written before, the SS Kalev was an Estonian vessel which was requisitioned by the Ministry of War Transport and transferred into the MN as the war broke out, including the former crew, or at least some part of them.

    From the movement cards held in the National Archives, the vessel records its first voyage in November 1940 and remained in duty until November 1945, therefore somewhat beyond the end of the war.

    Would an Estonian national who served in the British MN for the entire duration of the war be awarded for his service and eligible for benefits of some kind, perhaps even been granted some special status, or at least allowed asylum in Britain? Especially with consideration that Estonia was under Soviet occupation.

    From my research regarding Estonians and the post-war UK era, I know that several thousand Estonian refugees who had fled westwards ahead of the Russian advance, and then got caught up in Allied Sectors at the end of the war, were first interned in Ex POW camps. Some of them then managed to get asylum and ended up in various places across Britain, mainly to support the post-war rebuilding effort.

    But I’ve not found anything about Estonian MN veterans, like those who served alongside with my Grandad for month and years. Where did they end up? What happened to them?

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  13. #29
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    Default Re: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

    A 1: Jubilee Medal "75 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945", the names etc would have been provided by the list held for the Russian Ushakov Medals for Arctic Convoy veterans.

    Keith.

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    Default Re: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

    Quote Originally Posted by Keith at Tregenna View Post
    A 1: the names etc would have been provided by the list held for the Russian Ushakov Medals for Arctic Convoy veterans
    Thanks Keith for your answer!

    My question then would be, how did those names get on that list?

    edited to add: he received his medal (40 years of victory...) in 1985 (signed by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1984)

    Russian Medal.jpg
    Last edited by Dennis Billaney; 19th August 2021 at 10:05 AM.

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