大象传媒

Chapter Three:
A Trip to the USA

The stay at Lee eventually came to an end. At the beginning of October 1943 I paid a second visit to HMS Waxwing at Dunfermline and was able to see Georgina again; I certainly did not complain about that.
It was only a nine day stay at Waxwing during which time I was issued with full tropical gear and told to be ready to move off at short notice; I was expecting to go to hot climes.

When the 鈥淒raft Chit鈥� came it only specified that I had to travel to Greenock to join a troop ship, no other details were available. I followed instructions and joined the Aquitania, which was anchored off Gourock, still without a clue as to which direction it was going to travel. (I think it was the Aquitania but it was a long time ago).It was a large ocean liner with every inch of space taken up with bunks; I was on the upper deck protected from the elements by a heavy tarpaulin sheet.

Once all the bodies were loaded we set sail down the Clyde, still without a clue as to where we were going, the weather was fine and the sea calm so it was like the start of a pleasure cruise. We joined a convoy just clear of the Clyde and away we went. It soon became obvious that despite the issue of tropical gear we were not going to a hot place and at some stage we were told that the next stop was Canada.
Generally it was a quiet trip, there was some enemy action but there were no losses. The main problem was that some folk were quite sick, not sea sickness , it was induced by the rich food on board, everything was American and we were used to plain fare. It did not affect me.

I think it was six days later that we got to the river Hudson and moved on to Montreal, that was where the various components were split up for onward transport. In my case that meant a troop train heading for New York then from there to Astbury Park, New Jersey. The train trip was interesting, there was a stop at Quebec where very few folk were friendly, one chap who did speak to us in English told us that it was because the French speakers blamed the British for the fall of France.
Eventually we arrived at Asbury Park which I found to be a delightful place, it is a small town with many facilities. The RN barracks comprised two hotels which were fenced and had a centre forecourt as a parade ground. The accommodation was excellent.

Asbury Park was basically a drafting station but we were all given duties and for some reason I was put on to a 鈥淭eleprinter鈥�, that equipment was the E/mail of 60 yrs ago. I had never seen one of those things before but after a few days I had learned the general principles and apart from being a bit slow on the keyboard I managed quite well.

One thing I discovered after a few days in the USA was that our pay was increased to reflect the higher cost of living and the exchange rate, in fact things were cheaper there than in Britain so we were well off.

On my first night ashore at Asbury Park I went to the roller skating rink, that was a large indoor rink with a Mighty Wurlitzer to provide the music, I soon met a young lady named Betty Bagley who was really good on skates, she taught me to dance on roller skates. I was already quite good on both roller and ice skates but had never thought to try dancing. Betty introduced me to many of her friends and to her parents ; that made Asbury Park a real Home from Home.

Some time, about mid November 1943 I was put on a temporary transfer to 802 Squadron, they were based at Brunswick Main. Working up for operational duties. I was there over the Christmas/New year period of 1943 to1944 and there was great hospitality from the Americans, I spent the festive period in the homes of some very nice people.

The work at Brunswick was not so good, as it was mid winter it was extremely cold, the flying was done from an airdrome about 90 miles south and each morning we travelled that distance on the back of a lorry, unheated, at least we had been issued with some very good fleecy lined clothes which was just as well because my job was fuelling the planes then making sure that the Pilots were secure. Checking the Pilot meant standing on the wing whilst the engine was running; in temperatures well below zero that was a cold job.

Before starting the day at Brunswick it was compulsory to attend Morning Divisions on the parade ground, we attended that dressed in working gear complete with ear muffs and gloves; one day the Commander decided that we were a scruffy lot and that in future we would attend in No.2 uniform without the earmuffs and gloves. We had no choice in that but during the first parade without protection one chap got frost bite in his ear lobes, after that we could attend dressed as we liked and the Commander kept out of sight.

After about five weeks at Brunswick it was back to Asbury Park for a few days then off to Oklahoma

The reason for going to Oklahoma was to attend courses on American aircraft. The place was the Naval Air Technical Training Centre, just outside Norman, a few miles south of Oklahoma City. Getting there took six days by train, ten RN personnel went on that trip, travelling by first class Pullman. There was a great deal of interesting country to be seen.

We were the first British forces seen in most of the places we passed through so most folk were interested in us and were very friendly.

For our stay in Oklahoma we had been given four weeks L&PA money (Living and Provision Allowance) as it happened the Americans offered to give us barrack accommodation for a nominal payment, we all accepted that and made a good few dollars profit.

Four weeks training passed quickly but I made a good many friends and had some fun, some of the folk kept contact for several years but eventually communication stopped.
One particular friend was a PTI, he had a Fort car with a rumble seat at the back, with him two of us had some good weekends; at that time Oklahoma was a 鈥淒ry State鈥�, the only alcohol available was a very week lager, we made three trips to Texas to get bootleg whisky and returned to sell it to local hotels.

Training at Oklahoma presented a few problems as far as attending classes was concerned, the RN system was that an Airframe Fitter was just that and one person dealt with all aspects of the airframe, the American system was to break things down into smaller units so that for the airframe they had four specialists. We overcame that problem by attending a lot more classes than the Americans and basically working a lot harder.

Another fun thing was spending evenings at Norman or Oklahoma City. We had all seen American films which showed the Deep South and the southern drawl, during the first evening visit to a caf茅 we heard it for
real and it raised quite a laugh with us, the folk we had met there could not understand what we were laughing at, they thought that we spoke funny.

The stay at Oklahoma came to an end and I was instructed to go to Vancouver to join HMS Premier ,Escort Carrier CVE42; again it was a long journey by first class Pullman. When I reported in at Vancouver no one had heard of HMS Premier so I was given a bed and told to wait whilst enquiries were made, it took four days to find out that the ship was on the way to Norfolk Virginia so I was instructed to travel to Norfolk, another long train journey.

At Norfolk no one knew about the Premier and it took a few days to find out that it had been on sea trials and was going back to Vancouver. I was given another travel warrant to return to Vancouver. Again Pullman travel.

I eventually joined Premier at Vancouver and a few hours later we set out for Norfolk. A pleasure cruise, down the Pacific seaboard though the Panama Canal and up the Atlantic seaboard of the USA.

HMS Premier arrived at Norfolk and went into dry dock, staying there for a few weeks whilst the flight deck welding was reinforced as well as some of the hull welding which had shown signs of strain. That gave me a good chance to explore Virginia and as I was duty driver in charge of the ships transport I could get around quite a bit, one trip I made was to the Virginian hills; that was another culture shock to discover that Hillbillies actually existed and were not an invention of the film makers.
One other thing which I did not like was the way the coloured folk were treated , they had to give way to the whites in everything .

One totally stupid thing I did whilst in Norfolk was to have a tattoo on my arm. A particular friend and I were walking through the main town when we saw the tattoo artists shop, my friend decided that he would like a tattoo and asked me to join him, he offered to pay so I gave in, we both had Brittania on the right arm and I had the names of my two current girl friends on the right arm. I regretted that as we left the shop and have regretted it every day since.

Time came to leave Norfolk, the hanger and flight deck were loaded with aircraft and we set out for New York to take on a load of general cargo, then it was into a convoy to head for Britain.
We had three round trips on the same basis; Liverpool , Greenock, Norfolk, New York all carrying aircraft and general cargo. There was always a fair amount of enemy activity and quite a few ships lost, mostly tankers; the carriers were the best to be on as they were in the centre of the convoys and well protected.

On the return trips to USA we went by the South Atlantic route taking a load of RAF Spitfires to fly off to the Azores.

On the third trip I managed to miss the ship at New York and had to report to the RN barracks in Brooklyn. I stayed there for a week awaiting transport back to the Premier but during that week I was able to spend a lot of time in New York and it was a good time. Actually I was supposed to be confined to barracks but the American gate sentries thought that I was a senior NCO because of my uniform, in Royal Navy terms it was known as 鈥淔ore & Aft Rig鈥� also I was wearing my No. 1 suit complete with gold badges and so I spent a lot of time ashore just getting back for the three times a day reporting.

Another treat at Brooklyn was a Sunday evening musical concert which was held in a large concert hall in the basement of the barracks with the music by The Boston Symphony Orchestra. One piece they played was Ravels Bolero. That has been a favourite of mine ever since.
After a week a berth was found for me to return to the UK, it was on HMS Ruler, another escort carrier.
I rejoined Premier in Liverpool where she stayed a few months for a refit, there, although I had been awarded a period of stoppage of leave for missing the ship I spent most of my time ashore as duty transport driver. I learned a great deal about Liverpool.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Becky Barugh of the 大象传媒 Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of John Gilbey and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Gilbey fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

See more of John's stories:

• People鈥檚 War according to John Gilbey 鈥� Chapter One
• People鈥檚 War according to John Gilbey 鈥� Chapter Two
• People鈥檚 War according to John Gilbey 鈥� Chapter Four

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