Talking about RN tales, one of my favorites was from one of my best remembered teachers at school who had been in Burma during WWII.
He was an officer with the Gurka's, of whom he was very proud and pleased that he spent some time with a very loyal bunch of soldiers.
He told us lads, one day in a boring maths lesson, of the time he got a weeks leave and decided he would hitch a ride on a naval gunboat to the local city. It was a nice sunny day so he was treated quite well with wardroom drinks on deck watching the world go by.
At this point a tannoy came "Foo, foo...Foo foo, that is all" at which point the RN lads ducked below decks and shut all the hatches leaving himself and one other Army officer puzzled on deck as they were well behind enemy lines.
Then they noticed coming the other way a line of barges towed by a small vessel. Oh dear these barges were filled with buffalo dung ready for the paddy fields etc and with the temp during the day there were also millions of flies etc.
Appears no-one went near these two officers for some time and they belongings joined them on deck as they were no longer permitted to go below decks for the rest of the trip.
In was a great pleasure a few years ago to be chatting to a member of staff at the Watercress Line only to find out he was George's son. That brought back a few school memories and tales but also a shame to find out George had been a victim of the big C a few years previous.