SH Songbook for sale

[Visitation]

Anyone interested in buying a copy of the SH Songbook that I purchased at Gutersloh sometime around 1978?

Good condition. Best offer by 4 Aug secures. Photo available.

Visitation

[Old-Duffer]

Does it include the full words to the 110 Sqn song "Satu Ratus Sepoloh", a ditty from Borneo days and sung to the tune: The Times They Are A' Changing?

Old Duffer

[teeteringhead]

Unlikely I fear O-D. 'Twas very much a "twin-engined" collection, mostly Wessex and Puma, and many from Norn Iron......

Still much more extensive than the SAR Songbook..............!

[NutLoose]

That the one with the Wessex on the cover shot looking down at it, I think it was an OCU one, BV or BU? I wonder what happened to my copy.

[mcdhu]

...........or the full version of “Eskimo Nell” - all 26? verses.
funnily enough, the only person I ever heard reciting it in full was a legendary Equipment/Supply wing commander.
cheers
mcdhu

[Old-Duffer]

Well if the songbook does not have the 110 song in it then it should! Here 'tis.

For those youngsters too young for the Brunei revolt and Borneo Confrontation, feast on this.

Basically, 110 was based in Singapore and its crews did month and month about RAF Seletar and RAF Kuching, although some ground crew were on 12 month unaccompanied tours. One of the detachments was Nanga Gaat which was 'up country'. The detachment was taken over from the Royal Navy, who had made themselves very comfortable and had built a number of pads for the Wessex 1 and 5 they operated and the Anchor was their social club. The navy had a bad smash at NG on 12 April 1965 when a pair of cabs hit each other during a break to land. The sole survivor was a crewman called Ted Crispin (no longer with us), who unclipped his monkey harness and fell into the river. The two wrecks are still there. The other places are mostly in Kuching town.

SATU RATUS SEPULOH



(The 110 Squadron Song – Origins & Lyricist Unknown. Sung to the tune “The Times They Are A’changin”)



We bring you a tale of One Hundred and Ten

Of weird whirly birds and far weirder men

The Far East is where these strange deeds were all done

With the aircrew all rapidly ageing

But the strife is all over, the battles are done

And the times they are a changing



T’was at Nanga Gaat that we first found our fame

But now we are told we won't go there again

No more happy nights in the old Anchor Inn

Where we drank till the darkness was fading

Then flew all the day before drinking again

But the times they are a changing



The market place knew down in old Kuching

And many a night that they would all hear us sing

Of Simangang, Sibu, Nanga Gaat and such

And how we all like them so very much

But now we are moving up to Labuan

How the times they are a changing



The Tokyo our custom is now bereft

All our young maidens we have now left

No more nights spent down on good drinking sprees

Our times spent dodging the redcaps

For now we are once more civilised chaps

Gosh the times they are a changing





So live with your memories my merry men

Friar Tuck’s saahnie boxes you’ll ne’re see again

For banished abroad from this fair land are we

Across t’ other side of the ocean

But given the chance would come back again

But the times they are a’ changing

Old Duffer

[Visitation]

The SH Songbook that I'm selling is the one with a Puma and Wessex on the front cover. It has 39 songs beginning with The SH Song and ending with The Lord's my shepherd. Mainly songs from the NI era.

Visitation

[Fareastdriver]

Old Duffer.

That 110 Sqn. song must have been composed at the end of 1965 just after we on 230 had won the war and handed over Labuan to 110.

I was on 110 from 1968 to disbandment and I have never heard of it.

[Old-Duffer]

Ah FED, your memory plays tricks with you!!!

'Twas late 1966 (not 65) when 230 put its whirly birds in the back of several Belfasts (or BelSlow as one wag would have it) and departed to UK, leaving Labuan in the clutches of 110.

Up to that point 103 and 110 - both based at Seletar - shared Kuching (225 having been disbanded in Nov 65). 110 had already taken over the Nanga Gaat detachment from 845/848 and it was at that point that somebody penned the 110 Sqn song.

Old Duffer

[Bigpants]

I have a 31 Sqn songbook from the 1990s but the lyrics are rather bawdy and it lacks any musical notation, clearly not a very cultured bunch back then. I also own a very tasteful Flight Safety Calendar from long ago graced with scantily clad young women but that's not for sale. I often wonder what happened to those young women?

[Fareastdriver]

Old Duffer. Absolutely correct! I should look into my log book before engaging pen.

Last trip in XS 412 from Sepulot to Labuan on 9th Sept 1966. UK refam with XS412 again at Odiham 7th Nov. 1966.

I didn't see much of Labuan in the last few months. An extended detachment at Tawau and meanwhile 230 had swopped Sepulot for Bario. I was then sent to Sepulot to do all the Navy's tasking for them because both their Wessex were sick and there were no spares.

A week later I was on a Valletta/civvy Brit on route to the UK.

Two years later I was at Seletar on 110 Sqn..