大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Simon Harris and has been added to the website on behalf of Eileen Batley with her permission and they understand the site's terms and conditions.

My father had been posted to Singapore with the Naval Stores and was one of the last to leave the island as the Japanese invaded. He had earlier in life survived the First World War and when a hospital ship had been bombed by a Japanese plane as it left Singapore, he felt lucky to get away again.

He was sent to a naval store depot in Durban and I and travelled with my mother, younger brother and sister to join him there. We did not go on the ship that we were originally meant to travel on. Tragically this ship was sunk off Freetown with no survivors but once again our family had miraculously escaped loss! We eventually travelled on the SS Nester in convoy with eight other ships. During our eight week voyage we were tailed by German raider craft. One of the vessels dropped depth charges and I remember that there were women and children running and screaming in all directions. The life boats were launched but fortunately we did not have to use them.

The first thing we did in Durban was to buy a bunch of bananas and a huge bar of chocolate. Our four years stay in Durban included some of the best years of my life. I worked as a telephonist in the naval stores and spent some glorious days on the lovely beaches. I endured some hard times in Rainham and South Wales in the earlier years of the war but now I had my heaven!

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