大象传媒

I鈥檓 sure the Germans were based in Spain. They wouldn鈥檛 let us ashore in Spain - If you were trying to go across to Gib鈥�. We sank a couple of submarines and they were full of wine and Spanish gold (from when they had found the subs and brought them up out of the sea). They were entertaining the Spanish. They were supposed to be neutral. We had our doubts about them. They wouldn鈥檛 entertain us. They used to send their women with castanets into Gib鈥� and they would be dancing, entertaining the sailors. We went there a lot until we were sent to Australia, Columbo and South Africa. Once, we had shore leave for about 14 days (after we鈥檇 been in the India Ocean for 8 months). We went back to Durban for leave and we had 14 days in Jo鈥檅urg in a posh hotel. We wined and dined with gold miners. I enjoyed that part of it. We had weekend leaves in Australia into Sydney, Queensland and Brisbane. The Australians and South Africans were very good to us. My grandchild (28 years) has his first girlfriend now and she is from Sydney. We used to go around Sydney etc, when we were on leave. We would go up the Sydney Harbour Bridge and they would say, 鈥淗ow do you like our bridge, Pommy?鈥� English contractors built that bridge.

There were women in cages in Bombay. Their way of life was entirely different. There was also lots of malaria. We used to go ashore in Columbo. We used to have the Indians coming aboard and they would go right into the gas bucket, where we scrap all the food rubbish. They would go right into that. They had nothing there did there {poor}.

We had entertainment on board the ship. When we were in the Pacific, Joey Brown came along. Gracie Fields. They used to come into the hangers and give us a show. We鈥檇 be all drinking or having limejuice to keep us cool. Monty Banks (an Italian that Gracie Fields married). We had quite a lot of entertainers. They would fly out to us. We used to swap films with the Americans because we had like a cinema in the hanger sometimes. That was the only entertainment 鈥� ENSA Shows. We also had quite a few shows at Magnesium Electrum before I joined the Navy. Charlie Combes used to come and play the piano. They used to go round England entertaining.

I heard from home when I was away. I had another sister and brother-in-law. She used to send me the Pendlebury Journals. Some of them used to be months old because we were at sea. Our mail was always months old. We would get it when we docked at Scapper {for repairs etc}. These journals used to tell you things. A bloke called Harry Cooper, who played with me, lost his life in the Royal Navy. Another lad lost his life on the HMS Hood, Joe Orbinson; He was my prefect in Pendlebury. A lad called Les Idle lost his life. Arthur Whittle. All the sailors. Wilfred Anderson, who was in the 8th Army with my brother. He was a parachutist and the Germans machine-gunned him on the way down. It鈥檚 all war experience. The Australians used to ask us what it was like being bombed as the only bombing they got was in Darwin.

We used to sing the songs in Scapper Flow canteen. Ginger Chilton used to play the piano. We used to sing war songs with ship names in them etc and about being 鈥榣imeys鈥�. There was only sheep in Scapper Flow. There were a couple of lady friends in Glasgow but we weren鈥檛 long enough there. We were mostly in and out then back at sea. It was the same in Australia 鈥� we had pen pals there. Also, in Durban. They would send us little cakes and mementos. We were only there for weekends so it wasn鈥檛 long enough. It was more enjoyable in Durban and Cape Town and into Australia.

I didn鈥檛 get seasick. I would be down the engine rooms. It was that rough. We had to drink a lot. There were a lot of lads that were seasick, 鈥楤ad sailors鈥�. I felt it a little a bit, sometimes in your stomach. We got a lot of sweat rashes and prickly heat. When you went ashore, you had the mosquitoes. At nighttime, we would put mossy nets on (in Columbo and Bombay). What we call the Goldface. We鈥檇 go ashore and have a pint of beer and a game of bingo, we called it 鈥楾ombola鈥� - That was the only game we ever played on the ships. The proceeds went to the people that had been killed. It was only a small fee. Sometimes we played crib {cards} on the Mez鈥� deck and dominoes. We played a Ludo game but we had another name for it, 鈥楳aking Barriers鈥�. Sometimes when we went ashore, we used to tell stories, 鈥淲ho did you meet?鈥� etc.

One night in Bombay, me and Ryan (from Liverpool) went ashore and went to Grant Road but we got lost. We were going back to where we were docked and we couldn鈥檛 find the ship. We were running all around and we were really drunk. It was hot. We thought we might as well crash there. There was an Indian there and he had a mat. My mate asked him to get up and he rolled up and gave us his mat. We went to sleep and we woke up and I could hear the turbines going. When I looked up, we were alongside the gangplank. The India had got his head down because the marine had sensed that he was on the gangplank. The marine thought that we wouldn鈥檛 get up there so we鈥檒l leave them to sleep.

We were in Durban one night, South Africa, and the coloured people weren鈥檛 allowed in the white places. There was a Padre officer who had got his head down this night on to one of these seats. He was drunk and went to sleep. He came aboard and he had only got his socks on. He had lost his ring, his watch. If he woke up, they would have probably knifed him (This is what happened. 2 people before him had got stabbed). He woke up and he was drunk.

When I have spoke to people about the war they say can鈥檛 you forget it. But you don鈥檛, you never forget it. I dream now quite a lot that I am a drift. I know we went through a lot at home as well but people don鈥檛 realise. I dream a lot now. I have flashbacks. Dream analysis they call it. I dream that I am adrift and that I am under punishment and really, all through my Navy career I got all VG鈥檚 (very good), for my character. But I was always in fear. We were disciplined that much. One half second adrift, if you weren鈥檛 on that quarterdeck, you were under punishment. It鈥檚 in your mind all the time. They need more discipline these days.

When I came out, I had that Alapecia. It鈥檚 like nerves. I had one very short leave in England when we dive-bombed in the Bay of Biscay. I had 7 days leave. We patched her up as well as we could and we went in to have these plates removed. They took about 3 plates off the Portside. I went home my sister鈥檚. I got up one morning and all my face was swelled and everything. Dr. O鈥橠onnell said I couldn鈥檛 go about the ship if I was like that and he gave me extended leave for another 7 days.

We went to New Zealand once, after being in the Pacific and the India Ocean. When we went back down to New Zealand it was just like going to Scotland - The Sea went dark green. We were going back into the Tropics again. They sent us good parcels and things like that, knitted gloves and scarves. Just off Wellington. We didn鈥檛 get onshore though. We were just in and out. We were in tropical heat just after, wearing little shorts.

I came out 1st September 1946. Before that, we were bringing all the prisoners of war back through South Africa, back to Australia. All the people that we鈥檇 trained up. We had to ship them all back. We picked a load of gold bars up coming back into South Africa. We had filled all the lockers with gold and tinned stuff. We had to come back round the Cape because we were loading the gold. When we went through the Suez Canal, our big ship scrapped the sides so we had to get rid of all the oil fuel. The Arabs were all along saying, 鈥淵ou鈥檙e going the wrong way!鈥�

I had about 8 campaign medals: Italian landings, Russian, Malta. We also got France and Germany bars. We didn鈥檛 actually know what we were letting ourselves in for. The commander in charge of the ship was Skipper Graham (in the Atlantic), then a South African (I think he was from England originally). Skipper Graham was a great skipper. He left after a period and we got somebody else. I could have left the Unicorn ship many a time. I was special duty and I got many privileges, being a tradesman. My privileges included extra, all night shore leaves and neat rum instead of 2 in 1. 2 in 1 was 1 of neat rum and 2 of water. It was traditional to give rum. I used to save it and brought some home with me.

They banned 2 in 1 eventually because there were that many deaths 鈥� lads committing suicide with it. On birthdays and things like that, it didn鈥檛 help us out (they got drunk). We called many of the old sailors (free badgers) Rum Rats. The drink didn鈥檛 do them any good. Their arms swelled and they got alcoholic poisoning in their livers. A leading stoker used to make suits and they鈥檇 wrap you up. They reckoned that the old sailors in Nelson鈥檚 day would take some kind of stuff and go into a coma. Then when they buried you at sea, they鈥檇 come round and swim off. Therefore, the traditional if they thought you were dead was wrapping you up in canvas and putting leds on your feet. Then the last stitch would go through your nose because there鈥檚 like a nerve centre there. If you were still alive, it would bring you round. They made sure you were dead before you hit the water.

When we were in the Indian Ocean, some sharks were following us. Just before this lad died, I read a book (Reader鈥檚 Digest) out of the Padre鈥檚 library about burials at sea. At that period, I was working over the side (flake deck), catching the planes and sending them off. I was looking over the side and I could see sharks following us. I thought that something might happen when this lad was buried at sea. The sharks disappeared after we鈥檇 buried him at sea. They know and sense. The sharks fed on all the dead sailors that went over. We had them swimming around the gas shoot in the deepest harbour in the world. We used to send the pennice round to chase them away. They used to pie pans to bath.

When we were in Trinca Malle, the Renown was on the far side of us. There was the Unicorn, the Victorious, the King George 5th, the Illustrious and then 3 battle ships. Arthur was on the Renown and I used to write to him. The sailors used to write to one another (we got that mail quicker than the ones from England). We鈥檇 chased the sharks away. We used to play water polo - We played the Rischola (the French battleship) at polo. We used to dive of the gangplank, off the steps. Gilly Redford (stoker from Eccles) and I were swimming over the ship鈥檚 side. I said, 鈥淪hould we swim around the ships?鈥� Everyone swam all around the ships in the Bay. We got onto the upper deck of the Renown and I said that I would just go down to the stoker鈥檚 Mez鈥�. I asked the Sensory what the time was. I told Gilly I would see him in half an hour and we鈥檒l swim back. I found my friend鈥檚 Mez鈥�. He was on CO2 watch (which I鈥檝e also done). I asked him if he was going ashore that night. Then, Gilly and I dived in and were going to the Illustrious when something grabbed his feet. The sharks were following us. We climbed on board and we were on watch because we saw the Officer 鈥� we could have been charged with breaking the ship because all the other guys had gone in. We crept up the gangway. We heard the officer going up the quarterdeck so we shot up for him.

We used to swim with the sharks. They didn鈥檛 mind us. I think they were that well fed in those days, with the ships going down {all the dead bodies}. We used to give them the sinkers i.e. the food waste (it was really heavy and gluey). The Indians also loved sinkers. When we went ashore we were always bit 鈥� the bugs were terrible e.g. mosquitoes. When the sun was on the ship all day, it was like an oven. The ship鈥檚 sides were red hot. The Indian Ocean was the worse for the heat. The Mediterranean was also hot but not as bad as the Indian Ocean 鈥� many people died of heat exhaustion there.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.