大象传媒

BEST OF TIMES, WORST OF TIMES:
SERVING IN THE FAR EAST -JANUARY 1943 to JULy 1946
BY THOMAS E. NuTT
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After home leave in Christmas 1942 I returned to my base at Henlow. I was told that I would be posted overseas and would have to on embarkation leave immediately. I went home again to Ballymoney for 10 days. My parents didn't appear unduly worried. They probably didn't know what this implied and if they were worried they didn't show it.

All RAF personnel going overseas were kitted out at Blackpool. I was supposed to report to the centre at Blackpool on a Monday morning, but because of a delay in crossing the Irish Sea in stormy weather, I didn't arrive until the Tuesday. By this time the others on the draft had their kit so I had to run around on my own to pick up the various items of clothing. All the kit was tropical, which at that stage meant we were either going to North Africa or the Far East. For security reasons we were not told where we were going. A tour of duty overseas lasted four years for a single man and three and a half for a married man.

After a few days in Blackpool -it was enough all seaside resorts are much the same in the middle of winter -we were off to Liverpool to join the troopship, the Dominion Monarch. It had been a very large passenger and cargo ship converted by the military to a troop carrier.

There were about 4,000 army and air force personnel on board; just one was a woman, a Red Cross nurse. The hold of the ship, which had been refrigerated and used to carry meat and Iamb from Australia, was now fitted out with bunks, one above the other. There were hundreds of us in it. We were divided into groups and each group was allocated a lifeboat station on deck. We had to get to know the location of this so that we could find our way to it at any hour of the day or night.

Within a few days of embarking we left Liverpool and sailed through the Irish Sea and into the Atlantic. Later we joined a large convoy of merchant ships of all sizes which spread out as far as the eye could see. Guarding the convoy were a couple of Royal Naval destroyers. They guarded their charges like a couple of sheep dogs, shepherding stragglers and slowing down the faster ones.

The Dominion Monarch was a fairly fast ship but all ships had to travel at the speed of the slowest. All had to adopt a zigzag course, to make it more difficult for submarines to target them. As it was we were lucky we were not attacked. We had plenty of lifeboat drills, some during the hours of darkness. When the bell sounded it was impossible to tell whether there was a submarine or whether it was just another drill.

Being on board such a large ship, we did not feel the swell of the sea very much. The Bay of Biscay was very rough, sometimes the smaller ships seemed to be sitting above us and then they would disappear into a trough and it looked like they were gone for good.

Eventually when the North African ports were passed it was obvious that the Far East was our destination.

The army personnel had daily drill on the deck and performed guard duties which kept them occupied. The RAF had no duties of any kind so life for us got a bit boring.

Sometimes a few of us would hang around and watch the army drilling. One man made some critical remarks about the poor standard of their drilling. The sergeant in charge overheard his remark and ordered him in no uncertain terms to "fall in" and see if he could do any better. This man had served 12 years in a Guards regiment and of course his performance was perfect much to the disgust of the Army sergeant. We had a few ex-Army personnel in the RAF.

The most memorable occasion was the crossing of the line ceremony. King and Queen Neptune came on board and everyone was supposed to pay them due homage. If you didn't do this you were thrown into the small swimming pool which had been filled for the occasion. "Crossing the line" certificates were presented to those on board. I still have mine.

In 1943 the Suez Canal was closed to ships which meant we had to sail around Africa and into the Indian Ocean. It was a distance of some 8,000 miles -and made it a huge journey compared to what should have been a relatively short journey through the Mediterranean, through the Suez canal and straight across the Arabian Sea to Bombay.

We stopped for a few days at Durban. On entering the harbour we were welcomed by a lady dressed in a white flowing gown singing "Rule Britannia" on the dock side.

We were given a very royal welcome by the white population and some of us were lavishly entertained at their homes; collected from the ship by car and left back afterwards. Two of my friends and I were collected by a businessman and his wife and driven to their lovely home with beautiful lawns overlooking the Indian Ocean. Some of their friends came to visit and talk to us. In the evening a sumptuous meal was laid on and three servants attended us all. Everything was so different to life on board the ship and to the austerity back home. After dinner our host left us back to the dock. We had to be on board by 10 o'clock. My impression of South Africa was that it was a lovely country and I would not have minded spending the war there.

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