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Sunday, May 15th 1994

Dear David,

Trinidad, as you know, is the width and length of the Atlantic Ocean away from Europe, but what we called ‘the war in Europe’ brought enemy activity all over the world. Also, Trinidad was a then a British colony and loyal to the British Crown so England’s war was also our war.

We were not bombed, we were short of some foods but had plenty of others. We had few clothes in the shops. When I went to New York, right after the war, in November, I had only a pair of sandals to wear but I bought shoes in New York.

Great Britain had not made plans for a war, but the Germans had for a long time. They had spies positioned all over the world to keep them well informed from early — Trinidad which was always a mixture of all races of people was full of spies. I knew one or two at our Country Club and around the place before they were apprehended and removed! The Germans had ‘filtered’ submarines throughout the south Atlantic as well as the north. They were our principal anxiety.

The island was full of service men. We had a Fleet Air Arm Station (the flying branch of the Navy) teaching young men to be Navigators. You may know that the smaller aircraft were catapulted off the warships. Attached to this Station was a lovely small vessel H.M.S. ‘Corsair’ used at sea as a practice target. I have forgotten the name of the type of aircraft at that Station but I could always recognise their particular drone overhead. Then there was another Station, H.M.S ‘Benbow’, for the officers and crews of a large fleet of Motor Torpedo Boats (‘M.T.Bs’). I danced with many of those officers!

The Americans had a complex building of offices for their administration. They took over patrolling the seas around the island seeking out subs. and they had small ‘look-out’ stations on the coasts and points of Trinidad. They also had an enormous permanent camp for the aircraft that went on patrol and all sorts of personnel. At one of our popular bathing bays a U.S. Naval base was set up which was unseen to us but large. After the war, they stayed on and used to launch the early trial unmanned satellites.

We were allowed access to the beach on a separate path (The Americans swam on another side) and, in return for using our holiday area, they built us a beautiful club house on the hill which we were permitted to use all through the war. At first I was not married and a friend and I took a Red Cross First Aid Course, then a Home Nursing Course. We were very keen and got high marks. My first volunteer job was to visit a huge (temporarily arranged) ward of English sailors and cheer them up.

Their ship had been sunk off Africa and they had saved one lifeboat. This was full of men and the others held on outside or were tied on. They were attacked by dogfish (a kind of shark) and could only splash and kick to protect themselves. Their flesh was very torn and cut up. They managed to pick up a floating old raft and towed that so everybody alive now had a rest of sorts. The sun burned down — They were left with only a little rainwater when they landed up in Trinidad. Look at an atlas and see how many, many sea miles those men travelled and survived. They were one of hundreds of such cases — Wally had his own small office in Port-of-Spain near the harbour, and Texaco (then Trinidad Leaseholds Limited ) set him up with staff.

He was responsible for arranging the collection of shipping that sailed out of Trinidad in convoy to protect each other. He also controlled the limited fuel oil supplies that had to be rationed out to the shipping, considering the distance a ship had to travel before its next destination. No sooner had the convoys gone out, than without fail one or two vessels were sunk and back came the survivors. Wally saw these men into specially set aside buildings to house them. Some poor men came back three and four times.

My next job was to serve a hot meal to the Maltese crew of a sunk ship. They could not speak English but were so polite and grateful. Then I had a severe bout of malaria and went to bed for weeks!

I saw a ship sunk. I was on holiday with friends on the lonely north coast. The house looked across the sea from a cliff. My friend and I went swimming. We were quite alone: long white sands and a clear blue sea. We could look across to the island of Tobago. It looked so near and beautiful. We went back to the house to dress, leaving a lone cargo ship on the horizon going to come between Tobago and us. Sometimes they did this and rejoined the convoy at the end of the Channel.

After my shower I went to hang wet bathing suits in the veranda and the same ship, as I was watching, had its bow thrown up high above the sea and its stern the same way at the opposite end and it was broken in half in the middle. Those in the engine room would have been killed instantly — later in the tiny village we saw the survivors (they were Greek) waiting in the school room for a bus — and the big life boat was tied to the little wooden jetty. When Helen ( my friend was a Helen!) and I were swimming we were sharing that clear blue sea with a German submarine close by -
In Port-of-Spain there was also an enormous block of an office housing the censorship staff- mostly young women-who spoke several languages.
Then Wally and I got married and after that I did more volunteer office work for the Red Cross and other bodies and worked for wartime charities. Wally was out all day and most nights.
There was also an RAF flying boat station and the Catalinas used to fly in from South America and all over the world.
Being British many of our young men went away and joined up, white and black. They were so far away we never saw them for the duration of the War.
Yours sincerely,
Pinkie.

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