大象传媒

I was an 18 year old Motor Transport Mechanic based at RAF West Kirkby, near Liverpool.

In early February 1943 we were given 3 bags of kit/clothes and travelled by train to Greenock on the Clyde where we were to depart for who knows where.

We met other RAF lads who were going back from leave to Iceland and were to sail on the same ship as us. They didn't have very much compared with our padded coats, wool underwear, feather bed rolls, red felt socks and fur hats. They took one look at our kit and told us we were going further than Iceland.

We had a meal on board ship that day and left port at night. When we got out where the North Sea meets the Atlantic, we met very stormy weather. We had two escort ships and we lost one of them the next day. We didn't know if it sank. We just didn't see it again.

After spending the night in hammocks, swinging violently, hitting the roof, we all moved to make-shift beds on tables, benches and racks. I cleared a wooden shelf to make a more solid resting place.

We lost the second escort ship the next day, Friday. That night the ship tried to turn it's head into the winds as we were getting pushed further east. But we were caught by a massive wave, which burst the side of the ship - cabins and portholes on the port side were smashed in. We were one deck below the damage and the water poured down the staircase and gangways. Watching the water flood through where we lay, no-one even moved, just trying to cope with the sickness. Every man was ill, not even the ship's Captain ate for the whole journey.

We were due to arrive in Reykjavik on Saturday, and were told later that we'd been only 50 miles from the Norwegian coast at that time.

On Sunday, the wind subsided and we were on our way to Iceland. In the camp church, prayers were said for our 'lost' ship after an RAF airsearch had failed to find us.

The bright lights of Reykjavik were so good to see on Tuesday. We ate our first meal for six days and we missed the only bit of daylight that day while eating.

We were told we had missed the convoy that we were to meet by two days! It was headed for Russia taking supplies to the Russians. We later found out that it lost two-thirds of it's ships with German bombers and submarines picking off our ships in 'bomb alley' off the Scandinavian coast.

As we'd missed the convoy we were transported to RAF Kaldardarnes on the south coast, forty miles away.

On arrival, we were put on duty immediately. I was set to work winding up the beacons for the airfield when I collapsed. At West Kirkby I'd had treatment for boi(s on the back of my neck. They were still badly infected, made worse by the 5 days lying on the ship. I told one of the lads I was going to the hospital and was there six days. When I reported back, they were surprised to see me, the message hadn't been passed on, they thought I was missing!

A few days later, the river beside the camp burst it's banks and flooded the camp. We returned to Reykjavik for four weeks till the floods subsided and we returned to Kaldardarnes.

I was then asked if I wished to go home, as I was too young for duty in Iceland! Also I shouldn't have been moved from West Kirkby as I was undergoing medical treatment! However, I declined the offer after having such a, bad journey and the experience of the past few weeks. So I stayed, to return home on leave after six months there.

Kaldadarnes closed down as an airbase and on return from leave I was posted to an American air base where I stayed until March 1944.

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