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Our toilets and ablutions were right in the stern of the ship and after a few days at sea., with each roll of the ship water etc sloshed from one side to the other. I'm afraid it got in a very disgusting state but nothing could really be done about it until the ship was in port again. I found life on a troopship to be really horrible, hundreds of men all crammed together for so long. For the rank of Sergeant and above it wasn't too bad., at least they had decent accommodation. We were issued with salt water soap, fresh water was much too precious to be used for washing. Sometimes in the evening darkness we went up on deck for a breath of fresh air. No lights of any kind could be seen. No smoking either. But when daylight came again, every ship was in its place. 1 felt sorry for our friend Bert Payne. As soon as the ship put to sea he became very ill. I have never seen anyone to be so seasick. He sat at the end of the Mess table very ill and I don't think he moved or had anything to eat for about a week. But slowly, very slowly, he did eventually get well again. On board with us in the R.A.F. were some regiments from Scotland., namely the "Black Watch" and the "Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders". They played "Crown and Anchor" most of the day. Lots of money changed hands. After about a week at sea the two carriers left the convoy and went into the "Med". The "Eagle" was later sunk by enemy action. Whilst they were with us, some days we would watch the aircraft take off and fly round the convoy. The planes were Fairey Swordfish and Grumman Marlets. On trying to land on the carriers' decks I saw planes miss and drop into the sea. Chapter 3After being at sea for about two weeks, eventually we sighted land and the convoy came to anchor off the West African port of Freetown in Sierra Leone. It was known as "the white man's grave”. Some of the local young boys came out to the ships in their boats with all sorts of things to sell but mostly they were shouting to us to throw them a "Glasgow tanner", this being the old silver 3d coin. After staying there for about a day the convoy set sail again and another two weeks of inactivity on our part was spent. When those weeks had passed land was again on the horizon. This time it was Durban, South Africa. It was a lovely sight to see all the white buildings along the seashore - it looked grand. As our ship came into harbour I saw the largest liner I had ever seen, it was the French ship the "Louis Pasteur". That evening we were allowed to go ashore and as we walked into to\\-1} the sight made our eyes pop out. Cadbury's chocolate filled the shop windows and there was fruit of all descriptions. We went into one restaurant and gorged ourselves on bacon and eggs. As we walked do\'v1} West Street we could see that the pubs had little swing doors, just like in the old western movies. The next day we disembarked and was I so very glad to get off that ship. We were taken to a racecourse just outside Durban: it was called Clairwood. Here we stayed for two weeks. Every day we could go into Durban if we wished, which of course we certainly did. It was here that I met once again my friend Les Watson. He was on his way to India. It was great to see him again. Durban was a very nice city, with a wonderful waterfront. If you did not want to walk about you just took a rickshaw there were hundreds of them, just like taxis, their owners all done up in their finery. The people of Durban were very generous; lots of the troops were taken into their homes. South Africa - what I saw of it - was a lovely country. There was just one thing that took some getting used to. Just as it started to get dark so the crickets started up and they certainly make quite a racket. After the two weeks at Clairwood, kit was packed again and we were taken back to the docks, this time to embark on another large troopship. It was a Dutch ship, the "New Amsterdam". We were the last draft to board as no one seemed to know anything about our draft. I think it was Number 3802. It seemed there was no room for us below decks so we had to get down on the open deck. Unfortunately, after we had sailed from Durban, it poured with rain so we didn't get much rest that night, although the rest of the time aboard was fine. This was a very nice ship, luxury compared to the "Ormonde". It even baked its own bread, lovely small loaves and plenty of them, too. It took about twelve days sailing to reach the Port of Suez, Egypt. This was where we had to disembark. However, the ship did not tie up at the dockside but it anchored out in the harbour and we were taken off by tender. I remember seeing, as I was on the tender, our kitbags in large nets being lowered down into small boats alongside but some of the kitbags fell off into the water. When we got on land and came to sort out our kit I could not find one of my kitbags. It contained my best blue, too, a blanket and other pieces of equipment, with not much chance of getting anything replaced. Once on land we were taken by road to R.A.F. Helwan just outside Cairo. Here we got our first mail for months. This was some time in the month of April. It was here at Helwan that I first saw an aeroplane crash and that was a very harrowing |
