大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Susan Crabb on behalf of Sidney Hollinrake and has been added to the site with his permission. Sidney Hollinrake fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

In 1941 when I was 16 I decided to join either the RAF or the Royal Navy and told the recruiting officers that I was 17. However I was turned down due to my eyesight not being good enough and not wanting to join the Army where I would end up digging trenches in the Pioneer Corps I decided to apply for the Merchant Navy. Ten days after this I was sent to a college in Westminster where I was trained to be an assistant cook.

The first ship that I served on was the 鈥淓mpire Rain鈥� which left Southampton on the 23rd of December 1942 bound for Antwerp loaded with aviation fuel, shells and bombs. When we arrived in the port we could hear the gunfire of the German Army on the outskirts of the town. They were firing V2 bombs and I had a couple of close encounters in the town. My first was when a bomb hit a fuel dump which was just two hundred yards away from where I was causing an enormous explosion. The second was when I decided not to go to a cinema on the basis that the film was not in English and the cinema was hit by a bomb killing five hundred Canadian soldiers. I helped to dig out the bodies afterwards. This was as near as I ever came to experiencing the war first hand.

After this we went to Ghent which was very different as there was no sign of the war. We sailed there along a very narrow canal with barely room to pass on either side and the banks were lined with kids all cheering and waiting for the chocolate bars that we threw to them!

I made several more trips on the Empire Rain and then moved to a French made ship the 鈥淟ouis Pasteur鈥�. This ship was never finished and left the port where it was made with a 5 degree list to starboard which could be seen even when the ship was in port.

We would start our trip by joining a convoy of sometimes up to 50 ships and when we got to Deal and Dover we would all go our separate ways. The risk of submarines was always present but we did not dwell on it. The only action that the ships could take to avoid them was to always take different routes which zig-zagged around and to have no lights on deck at night. I got used to finding my way around in the pitch black. I remember once that one of our escort ships caused a panic when their radar detected something underneath the water. They dropped a couple of depth charges only to discover that it was only a large school of fish!

After this I joined the 鈥淎quatania鈥� and we made many trips on this vessel as a troop carrier to Halifax in Nova Scotia which at that time was a very tiny place with two main streets and only three buildings made of brick. However we did see some other more interesting places and once spent ten days in Sydney which at that time had beautiful unspoilt beaches. We also sailed with Churchill on board to New York where we collected President Roosevelt and transported them both to Bermuda for a conference. They and all their staff occupied the top deck and there was no access for anyone apart from the crew who were their serving staff. They were guarded by the Canadian Army who patrolled the decks. The only glimpse I got of either of them was when they came onto and left the ship.

After that I served on the 鈥淐arnarvan Castle鈥� and the 鈥淲indsor Castle鈥� which took troops backwards and forwards to Cape Town in South Africa via Grand Canaria. It was very hard work being a ship鈥檚 cook as we had to prepare meals for 5,000 troops and 1,200 crew three times a day. In our time off we were allowed a ration of 1 pint of beer a day and had to produce a card which would be stamped when we bought it.

I eventually left the Merchant Navy after the end of the war when the bigger ships were recalled from active service back to their original roles as cruise liners and the Merchant Seaman鈥檚 pool was signed off. All in all I crossed the Atlantic 128 times during my spell with the Merchant Navy and really enjoyed this period of my life.

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