I can guess that a few people in Australia will be driving round in new Citroens soon just as many years ago when I was a kid the neighbour's father who was an Air Force offical and went  on several trips to france to decide on the purchase of the Mirage was.   Not a one off either,,,,every few years till I moved.

Many a moon back I was invited to have a look at submarines and becoming a sub mariner, due to the fact I had an uncle who was a sub commander and another cousin who was a second officer.

So off I go in company with three other young Dartmouth lads into the sub .Old Chief met us and took us forward to the galley for a chat .Bloody dreadful smell as personal hygiene in subs is somewhat limited, cramped quarters o.k if you were a dwarf,I kid you not.

Any way after some 24 hrs we put to sea on the surface and we were in the meeting ops room ( an oversized Huntley and Palmer biscuit tin if my memory serves me correct) .

The chief had linked a line across the boat and it was festooned with paper flag nice and tight.Well dive stations were taken up and down we went. Not my ideas of fun as I said if the bloody ships sinks down from the surface I am in with a chance, down here I am no 1 on the food chain if the worst comes to the worst.

Then we noticed the line was sagging and the noise was getting louder,I was not a happy boy decided to question the chief about the matter, the noise, well that was the hull(s) coping with the pressure etc and the sagging line effect was due to the pressure pushing the hull(s) as we went deeper. well to cut a long story short 3 days later sanity returned as we also returned to port. I as a result of the''sea trials declined the opportunity to become a sub mariner.

Those Andrew men who wear the heavy white sweaters are indeed a special breed of mariners who I admired greatly, but it wasn't for me thank you.

To me it was a case of, ''A Life on the Ocean Waves as opposed to a ''Life Under the Ocean Waves.''

My Dad spent the whole of WW2 in the British Merchant Navy, trying to avoid having his ship blown out of the water by German U-Boats.
He told me that the submarine crews were mostly volunteers and they preferred unmarried men with no kids. Was this the case ? Were they really that bad ?

^ NO !

That should be..."Mais Non!" with a wave of the arms.

Push the button goes into automatic reverse and the white flag is automatically deployed via the periscope ?

Where are these things being built ?...hope not Aussie, the unions there are worse than the froggies..the construction crews will always be on strike over the flavour of the ice cream in the mess