大象传媒

Mrs O'Beirne has agreed to have her story entered onto the People's War website and agrees to abide by the House Rules.

My brother William Arthur Martin was second officer on the SS UMGENI. He was also the gunnery officer. He was known to everyone as 'Bud'.

On the day of the action, Bud was not on duty but had been in the chart room. As he came up on deck he looked towards the horizon and noticed a plane disappearing into the clouds. He did not know at the time whether it was friend or foe. However he ordered the few passengers below deck and had the gun ready for action. When the plane suddenly attacked it came in from the stern and raked the decks with machine gun fire dropping a bomb just clear of the bow. One of the ships crew was hurt. The enemy plane, a Focke-Wulf Condor then gained height, turned and banked to attack once more presumably from the same direction. It was then that Bud gave the order to 'fire'. The plane continued on its way then suddenly it dropped into the sea. The plane's crew took to a life raft but made no attempt to come near to the Umgeni. The ship's captain skilfully manoeuvred close to them. Bud went over the side and rescued the Germans. The pilot had been killed by the ship's fire; however the ship was almost a sitting target at the time for further enemy attack.

The survivors of the Focke-Wulf were then handed over to authorities in a British post and the SS Umgeri put out to sea once more and continued on its way.

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