- Contributed by听
- helengena
- People in story:听
- James William Spry
- Location of story:听
- En route from Burma to UK
- Background to story:听
- Army
- Article ID:听
- A7456700
- Contributed on:听
- 01 December 2005
Bill Spry in 2005 with the kit bag he brought home with him from the Far East sixty years before
This story is submitted by Bill Spry and added to the site with his permission.
After serving four years overseas I became due for repatriation. With others I sailed on the HMIT Ellenga for Madras. This was an Indian ship. The captain naturally put the Indian soldiers on the upper decks, with the British troops on the lowest deck.
We ran into a typhoon on the way across. The floors where the Indians were, were covered with vomit. We had to go through their quarters to get to ours, so some of us decided to stay on deck.
Some of the waves coming towards us were so high that it seemed that the ship would be engulfed, but thankfully the ship always seemed to rise in time.
In Madras we were put in a transit camp, sleeping in a large marquee. In the morning I awoke to find a large ugly looking Indian bending over me with a "cut-throat" razor in his hand. It transpired that it was the custom there for Indians to give you a shave in bed before you woke up!
We sailed from Bombay on 3rd August 1945, on the SS Arundel Castle. Just like the song says:
"They says there's a troopship just leaving Bombay, bound for old Blighty's shore
Heavily laden with time expired men, bound for the land they adore"
We anchored off Liverpool in the early hours of 23rd August, moving alongside the quay at two p.m. It was completely empty. No welcoming bands, no nothing. We had been away for four years. Compare that with the huge crowds who greeted the men returning from the Falklands who had been away for less than two months!
Incidentally the European war ended while I was in Burma, and the Japanese war ended when I was on a ship coming home, so I missed those celebrations as well. I started my journey home on 2nd July 1945, arriving in Cardiff on 25th August, 54 days later.
I still had to serve several months before I was due for demobilisation so the Army, after I had taken some leave, sent me as far from home as they could. I ended my service in Glasgow, in the West Scotland District Signals.
I was finally demobilized on 17th December 1945 and transferred to the Z reserve.
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