大象传媒

HMS Barham 鈥� Repairs in Durban

The following are extracts from censored letters written from the Barham by my father, Surgeon-Commander E.R.Sorley, RN. The Barham spent two months undergoing repairs to bilges and the damage to 鈥淵鈥� turret inflicted by aircraft operating out of Scarpanto during the Battle for Crete, May 1941.

1st July, 1941, Life in Durban

鈥淟ast night was the mid-summer feast of the Pass-over, as we call the promotions nights. All of our candidates - Roberts-West, Bill Brodrick, Barchard and others had been on tenterhooks for weeks but poor blokes! They were all disappointed. My leave has been approved by Uncle Geoffrey (the skipper) and I am going up-country to the big city (1) on Thursday arriving there on Friday morning. I'll have 5 1/2 days there. I'm going quite alone, as it is a good thing to get away entirely from one's messmates even though one likes them. I have, therefore, got many references to people in the big city - including the Professor of Medicine at the university, and from all accounts there is no fear of my being lonely. As the climate will be cold, I am going in uniform, not having a plain-clothes overcoat with me - so my uniform greatcoat will come into use again. The trip should be a terrific change for them- and I am looking forward to it eagerly.鈥�

I am taking an unique opportunity of getting my present to you through Pay Sub-Lieut. Glason, whom I have invalided home (lucky devil!) and whose home is near Pangbourne. The dressing case I hope you will like. I got it made especially in Egypt. Actually, the original design is that of a tennis case, for clothes and racket, but I thought it would serve you well as a dressing case.鈥�

Note: (1) Johannesburg

18th July, 1941, Diversions in Durban and Johannesburg:

鈥淚 have just had a good mail, containing letters from you dated 10th June, and 21st May, and one postcard of 10th June. On the strength of that I have sent off a cable saying "all well and happy ...." and I hope it comes through all right. Yesterday I had a cable form you of 15th July - the cryptic "all well - Joan " - so I am feeling particularly cheery tonight. I am having a quiet evening on board - my 5th evening meal on board in 28 days, which you will admit, is pretty good going. Diversion has not been hard to seek, and the days since my return from leave have been just as hectic as those which preceded it. I have been having a really jolly time, and I think rightly so, because after this spell is over jolly times will be very hard to come by, and life again will be grim and earnest. Frankly, all of us have let ourselves go socially in this place - after a pretty hellish time in the Mediterranean - it must be a reaction or something, I suppose - and I have seized nearly every opportunity to go out. In a sense I shall be glad to go from this place, because the pace gets hot at times, and perhaps a spell of war routine will do everyone of us good. Next Wednesday's lunch party on board should be very interesting indeed. We - the Captain and senior officers are entertaining the Greek princes and princesses - a Royal party. I shall have to be on my best behaviour that day. A few days ago, we entertained a chieftain of one of the neighbouring large states - along with his retinue. He spoke English, although he had never been out of Basutoland. He was escorted around the ship, and took great interest in the Sick Bay. I volunteered to have his hand x-rayed; he assented rather fearfully, I think, but felt he could not let the side down before his followers, so we took two pictures of his hand with our portable x-ray machine, and he left the ship clutching the finished pictures - impressed by this manifestation of white man's magic.

I am so sorry that my letters before the Crete business were morbid and depressing, but we all felt that anything might happen for the pace was very sticky. Here we are safe at the moment, but the future is uncertain.鈥�

8th August, 1941, South Africa

鈥淭his letter might well be entitled 鈥淪outh African Saga鈥�, because for the most part it treats of six weeks spent in that very delightful country. The censorship ban which has closed my lips before has been lifted now; we have said good-bye (2) to South Africa and we can talk of our experiences. To start at the beginning - all of us were thrilled and not a little relived (after the ghastly business around Crete) (3) to hear that we were proceeding to Durban for repairs. 9 month鈥檚 continuity of war鈥檚 alarms had made us feel that a respite was deserved.

I cannot yet talk freely of our passage, except to say that the mounting heat turned us into a floating village of semi-nude bodies. Let me first begin by talking of 鈥渃rossing the line.鈥� (4) This we did with due ceremony on 11th June. There were 800-900 initiates, including the Captain. I, or course, as a hardened veteran of over 10 years, was technically exempt from ill-treatment from Neptune and his bears. I say 鈥渢echnically鈥� because late in the day, distinctions were cast to the winds and all and sundry came to grief in the ducking pool. I was the official librettist; that is, I composed the book - the doggerel spouted by Neptune and his Queen before the ceremony took place. It went down well. I will enclose a copy later. A good time was had by all and for myself the ceremony ended by my being seized affectionately by four lusty ratings and dumped in the bath. The same treatment was accorded to Pay (another veteran) - his main anxiety was that he might lose his false teeth in the rough and tumble. However, all was well.

Note: (2) Barham sailed on July 31st, 1941, (3) Crete bombing (4) Naval tradition of Crossing the Equator for the first time

And so to Durban on the 19th June. A beautiful city - a gracious city - a generous city. My first impression as it rose from the sky-line was of saffron-coloured buildings (some of the skyscraper variety on a mild scale) offset by a background of green vegetation and distant hills. Along the harbour front as we entered to come along side a goodly crowd of citizens were watching us curiously, and here and there waving handkerchiefs. I stepped ashore that afternoon - and from that time until we left, I was impressed by the generosity - the open hearts - of the Empire city. The city is intelligently planned and beautifully laid out; the streets are wide and spotlessly clean with well-controlled traffic. I had not expected such a simple beauty, nor such an up-to-date appearance. I had visualised Durban as something on the lines of a glorified Freetown or Mombasa, but it is more like an improved Singapore.

The colour bar is very strict so the native element with its dirt, squalor and smells is never allowed to intrude. Of course, one of the delights to me, and indeed to us all was the novelty of city lights and neon signs and the glow in the sky from their brilliance. It was the first time I have seen real illuminations since our homeward journey from Singapore. Considering Durban as a whole, I would say it is the most beautiful seaport, and that included Edinburgh and Aberdeen. And the climate. Whilst we were there it was delicious, but of course, we had the winter season, when Durban is one of the great social and health centres of South Africa. Days of an English spring - the sun nearly always shining until a cool velvety darkness fell about 6 o鈥檆lock. Of the entertainment which we were given I have spoken already; and almost all of us threw ourselves into the maelstrom gladly. There was never any need to seek diversion - lunches - cocktail parties, dinners and dances.

Leave in Johannesburg. This deserves a separate chapter. I left by train for the City of Gold on 4th July and returned on the 10th. Two days before I was due to go, I learned with a thrill that John and Jessie were arriving in Durban on the 4th in the morning. I hesitated about postponing my leave, but as it had been granted and my passage had been booked and also J and J were going to be in Durban for over 3 weeks, I decided to go. They quite understood. To throw off the worries of the ship - the pipes - the bugle calls - the enclosing walls of my cabin - even the sight of my messmates was a real delight, and I loved every minute of my holiday.

I had many introductions - but I had not the time to use them all. I think I have told you of my activities - the zoo, a gold mine, a visit to the medical school. I travelled 鈥渓ight鈥� - went in uniform and wore it most of the time, except when by myself during the day. In the streets of Johannesburg, a naval officer is an unusual sight and the way that people stared at me made me take refuge in my blue gent鈥檚 suiting when I wanted to go shopping or sight seeing. I did not go to Pretoria, because there is an undercurrent of anti-British feeling. Jo鈥檅urg occupied all my time. My friends there from the war as they are, treated me almost as a celebrity, and plied me with questions about Matapan and the Battle for Crete - questions which I was not permitted to answer as fully as I wished. Johannesburg is a fine city, but in construction and charm cannot compare with Durban. The streets are narrow and arranged in blocks - rather like those of New York. The outskirts of the city are marred from the aesthetic point of view, by the presence of great mountains of yellow sand where the searches for gold have burrowed like moles in the earth. The weather was glorious and bracing as it should be at 6,000 feet, sunny but cool during the day and cold enough at night to enforce the use of coal fires.

On my return to Durban on the 10th July, I came once more into the whirl of entertaining, but eschewed many of the parties to go out with John (5) and Jessie. I did enjoy meeting them again so much and they brought a breath of good homely humour into my life. I had many meals at their hotel and 鈥渙ut鈥�, and I managed to get John on board one Sunday forenoon to see the ship and stay to lunch.

Of my other activities I think I have told you much, - of the visit to the ship of the King of Basutoland, of the lunch party with the Greek royalties and so on. I did not tell you how early one morning, I was taken by car out to the Zulu nature reserve and shown around the kraals, which are the round houses they live in. Let me say that in the country around Durban, the authorities have set aside a great part of the land for native life only - and no white man is permitted to encroach therein except on business. In that way the natives are kept very content - and for the most part segregated from the whites so that both races are happy. The Zulus I saw seemed to be exceedingly happy, and burst out laughing on the slightest provocation. In their own little land, they were living quiet unambitious lives - what more can men want? Another interesting trip I had was by car to the Military Hospital at Pietermsariztburg - through the glorious valley of the Thousand Hills - a wondrous panorama of green hills picked out in light and shadow.

I will continue my story in the next letter, although there is little to tell else, except to sum up my impressions of South Africa as a whole.鈥�

Note: (5) Brother Dr J.T.Sorley

To be continued

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