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This story has been submitted by Margaret Payne of the Lancashire Home Guard on behalf of Mr D W Halden and has been added to the site with his permission.

I joined as a 17 year old youth, went through the normal training procedures (HMS Glendower, Pwllheli, North Wales) and after training I was sent to Oban in Scotland to join my first ship, that being a Norwegian Cargo Boat, which was bound for America. I was then sent backwards and forwards on Atlantic convoys. I was paid off my last cargo ship in Southampton.

I then went over to France on D-Day, taking supplies on a ship named the Empire Battleaxe. I made two or three trips on that ship. I was sent back to America, New York and then joined a ship called the Ruhaine to Panama and then in Panama I joined a tanker, the Empire Airman, bound, as we found out later, for Australia. When we arrived in Australia, we were chartered by the Americans to carry octane spirit to fuel the planes on their carriers. I did that from 1944 until the war ended in 1946 in Japan. We used to go into Australia every three or four months — to Williams Town on the River Yarrow to load and then be escorted back into the islands in the Pacific, mainly New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and various other islands until we were empty again.

As young men we were obviously very frightened of the kami kazi pilots, but at least I made it home safely as I’m here to tell the tale. I came home in 1946.

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