![]() However attacks by the Italians using Midget Submarines during the First World War put soon paid to this idea. In those days diving equipment was very rudimentary, as up to the outbreak of the Second World War the Navy did not consider the Diver to have an offensive role, and used them mostly for clearance diving or repairing ships bottoms. (incidentally, when I did my Ships Diver training in 1967, there was no requirement for you to be able to swim) Crabb hated the idea of any sort of fitness training, smoke and drank heavily and could only just swim three lengths of a swimming pool, but the head of the Diving team Lieutenant Bailey, accepted him because he was good at mine disposal. After doing this for a while he thought he could be of more use if he became a diver, and applied to join the Team. His job was to make safe the mines and warheads that the divers discovered. He was sent to Gibraltar in 1942 to work with the Mediterranean Fleet Clearance Diving Team. Fed up, Crabb volunteered for Special Duties, and ended up becoming a mine and bomb disposal expert. Unfortunately he had to have a medical at some stage, and when he did, it was found that he had a weak left eye, and so he was banned from further sea service. When the Second World War started up he trained as a Merchant Seaman Gunner, and because of this he was able to join the Royal Navy Patrol Service that used trawlers to clear mines.
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