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Part 2 The voyage to Egypt September 1943

On 14th September 1943 I said good-bye to my parents. I wonder how they felt seeing the last of their five children leaving the family home. I know they were proud of us all. My sister Nancy came with me as far as Charing Cross and I went on to the Foreign Office where I said good-bye to my friends on the shift and to the officials in charge of the Department. At Euston, Dorothy and I bought 1d platform tickets as we had been instructed. This was the only ticket we ever had for our journey to Egypt!

We were part of quite a large party that included King Peter of Yugoslavia, then aged twenty, the members of his Government and the staff of our Embassy to the Yugoslav Government. King Peter was escorted along the red carpet on the platform by the top-hatted station-master. Dorothy and I were introduced to the other members of the Embassy staff: Mr Stevenson, the Ambassador, Mr Robertson the Archivist and the two secretaries Miss Bingham and Miss Whitcombe. We left London at noon and had an excellent three-course lunch on the train including apple tart and CREAM!

We were having afternoon tea as we ran into Liverpool and after surrendering ration cards went on board the Reina del Pacifico at about 5pm. King Peter inspected the guard before being piped aboard. The ship was full of service people going out to the Middle East or beyond, mostly RAF, including a number of Polish airmen. This was the first convoy to go through the Mediterranean with women on board.

Dorothy and I were sharing a first-class cabin on D deck with Miss Bingham and Miss Whitcombe, with a basin the cabin and another in the bathroom adjoining. While we were having dinner the ship moved into the middle of the river. It had rained all afternoon so Liverpool did not look its best but we went up on deck after dinner and talked to a couple of the crew.

The following morning we were brought tea at 8 o’clock and, at breakfast, there was no sign of rationing: eggs and bacon, white rolls and lashings of butter and marmalade. After breakfast we went up on deck and were told by Lady Carlisle, an A.T.S. Controller that there was going to be boat drill at 11 a.m. and we must have our lifejackets. We collected them from the cabin and had to have them with us wherever we were for the rest of the voyage.
After boat drill, during which we found the ship had weighed anchor and we were on our way, we went up on to the reserved deck, which was solely for the use of our party, and watched the Lancashire coast. It was quite cold but we had all donned slacks when we got up which felt strange as I had never worn slacks before. Between tea and dinner we walked round and round the top deck, partly to keep warm and partly as an anti-seasickness measure.

The next day the sea was quite choppy. We watched some P.T. in the morning and in the afternoon the Yugoslavs playing what looked like a kind of hopscotch. At dinner I retired after the soup but felt better after a plate of bully beef sandwiches in the cabin and didn’t miss any other meals. One morning our elderly steward warned us against the cornflakes as they had ‘weasels’ in them!

There was only fresh water in the washbasins between 7 and 8 a.m. and 5 and 6 p.m. so we had to organize our ablutions, but there was always hot and cold sea water in the bath and we had been warned to take special sea water soap.

The first seven days we were in the Atlantic, the convoy zigzagging all the time. We spent the days watching P.T., for which the Polish airmen wore hairnets, chatting to the crew and servicemen, or reading on deck. I found myself darning socks for some of the servicemen. On the first day out the Yugoslav Minister of Finance started P.T. for our party, one session before breakfast and another later in the day. On Sunday there was no P.T. for the troops but a service was held. We had our own P.T. as usual. When it became warm enough to sunbathe we had our P.T. at 5 pm and later only in the morning. There was also deck tennis, and dancing in the evenings. Some of the troops held a boxing match, and a tug-of-war.

Six days out we saw three ships on the horizon which had left the convoy to call at Gibraltar and at 3 am the following morning Nancy Bingham rushed into the cabin to say we were passing Gibraltar. Dorothy and I hastily donned slacks and jackets over our pyjamas and went up to the top deck. The towns on both coasts were brilliantly lighted and our friendly ‘Sparks’ who came off duty at 4 am told us they were Tarifa and Ceuta. He fetched some binoculars for us to look at Gibraltar. We passed a Red Cross ship, also well lighted, as neutral ships were too. It was thrilling to see the lights after so many years of blackout at home. The stars were wonderful too.

The next morning when we went on deck we had lovely views of the North African coast. All the troops on board were now wearing tropical kit, and the Navy followed suit next day looking very smart all in white. An aircraft carrier had joined the convoy and our ship, and some others, were now flying barrage balloons, which went up higher at night. One balloon lost a fin and dived madly round and round! On 23rd September we passed Algiers and some ships left the convoy to go in. We could just see some barrage balloons over the town. Further on, we passed close to Pantelleria, a small island in the channel between Sicily and Tunisia. On one occasion I went down to the cabin and felt that a depth charge had been dropped near us.

In 28th September, after thirteen days at sea, we were nearing the end of our journey. We first saw native fishing boats, then had views of the coast and at 3 pm arrived at Port Said. We got ready to disembark, and then learned we were to stay on board another night. It was very interesting watching all the little native boats and there was a great deal of noise and shouting. We had farewell drinks with some of the servicemen we had talked to on the voyage and said good-bye to members of the crew including our friendly ‘Sparks’. After dinner, we stood on deck and watched the baggage being unloaded under arc lights.

The following morning, we were up at 5.30 am, had breakfast and were on shore before 7 am when King Peter disembarked and inspected the Guard. The whole party then left in a convoy of fifteen cars, Mr Robertson, Dorothy, myself and a Times War Correspondent being the last to leave. Our route was alongside the Suez Canal for much of the way and there were some big ships going through including an aircraft carrier, perhaps from our convoy. There were soldiers stationed at intervals along the Canal, apparently watching for mines that had been dropped two years before.

The country was very flat but there were trees along the canal, and we passed the King’s reservation, which looked very pleasant. At Ismailia we left the Canal for the Cairo road beside the Nile. There were date palms with bunches of reddish dates and a lot of cultivation and animal husbandry. We saw some sheep and cattle, also camels and donkeys. The villages looked very dirty; collections of mud huts with pigeon lofts. We saw various methods of irrigation, all in common use: blindfolded beasts going round and round in a circle, turning wheels; shadoof and Archimedes’ screw.

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