大象传媒

I was in the Army Medical Corps and we were posted to join a ship at Glasgow Oronsay. Setting off in convoy to South Africa we sailed around the outside of Madagascar and up the Red Sea, the troops disembarked at Port Tewfig in Egypt (Port of Suez). We returned to Durban and set sail from there to Freetown in Sierra Leon. We never reached Freetown. On the 2nd of July 1942 we were hit by a torpedo. I was on duty at the time and I went to check that all the patients were ok but they had gone. I then checked the fellow crew members and they were also gone. I looked for my appointed lifeboat but this had gone. At this point things get a bit hazy - I presume I jumped because I was in the Atlantic waters. After about four hours the captain's launch picked up survivors including myself and took us to a lifeboat.

The ship then sank. We started collecting lifeboats seven or eight of which were tied together. We rowed around heading roughly West for approximately 2 weeks, living on water gathered from the condensation from the canvas sail and a few Horlicks tablets. We were eventually sighted by a Sunderland flying boat and told to drift until the Navy picked us up. At about 2 a.m. the Destroyer HMS Brillant picked us up. 24 hours later we arrived in Freetown.

'This story was submitted to the People's War site by Terry Greenwood of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of Jack Smith and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

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