大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Margaret Walsh of The Royal Star and Garter Home on behalf of Louis Pengelly-Phillips and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I suppose that the most unusual thing was when I escorted Churchill to the 1943 Quebec Conference.

I joined the Marines when I was 17 and I went down to Plymouth to train. I was what they called a Plymouth Rating. My Royal Marines Service number was PLY E/X110153. You never forget these.

In the 9 months of training you do 鈥� well, a lot of marching, saluting and that sort of thing. And you also go out to Dartmoor for a few months for survival.

In the squad there were 40 marines. We were in four sections for training 鈥� I was a section commander.

Anyway when we finished training the head man said, 鈥淚鈥檝e got to choose 4 of the squad for a special mission. I can鈥檛 tell you what it is but you鈥檒l enjoy yourself. Where you鈥檙e going is very hot - no food rationing, no black-out.鈥�

He didn鈥檛 really want to send me. He didn鈥檛 like my double barrelled name; he said it was a bit posh! Anyway he did choose me and after about a week there were about 35 of us congregated 鈥� including 4 from our squad.

About a week later we were taken up to the War Office in London and we went into a largish room. On the floor were masses of tin boxes 鈥� about 2 feet long, 1 foot wide and 1 foot deep 鈥� all locked. The major who was in charge of us said, 鈥淵ou must never leave these boxes out of your sight. You are to guard them night and day.鈥�

Well, I didn鈥檛 know what was in those boxes. But later I found out that they were the plans for D-Day. We went up to Glasgow with the boxes and we were taken down the Clyde. There was the Queen Mary. Then the Major said, 鈥淚 can tell you where you鈥檙e going. You are going to the Quebec Conference 1943 in Canada. Your job is to guard the boxes and look after Churchill.鈥�

We went on board about 4 o鈥檆lock. At about 6 o鈥檆lock Churchill and his entourage come on board and at 8 in the evening we sailed for Canada.

There were 35 in a squad with a major in charge. To keep us fit they sent us with 3 PTI鈥檚 [Physical Training Instructor], one to every 10 men 鈥� I don鈥檛 know why the hell they did that! Anyway every morning we had to get up at 6am and run around the deck of the Queen Mary for an hour, doing our physical jerks. When we came back we had a shower, but we didn鈥檛 have hot water, only cold sea water 鈥� it nearly killed me!!

I remember that from the time we started this journey to the time we returned home three months later we never drank anything but champagne. We just signed a chit and they gave us a bottle of champagne. [I don鈥檛 know who was paying for this!]

To get back to the crossing. We had an escort of 3 destroyers. When we were a day out we met very heavy weather 鈥� gale force winds. One of the destroyers radioed the Queen Mary and asked us to reduce speed. Churchill said, 鈥淣o, we鈥檒l go on alone.鈥�

When it was going at speed the Queen Mary reached 40 knots 鈥� zigzagging, to make sure a German U Boat could not hit it with a torpedo.

One night I was on guard outside Churchill鈥檚 cabin. I don鈥檛 know why, but they gave me a rifle. I don鈥檛 know who they thought I was going to shoot on the Queen Mary in the middle of the Atlantic!

About 10 o鈥檆lock Churchill came out of his cabin in his pyjamas and dressing gown. I had to present arms or I would have been in trouble! Churchill was going from his cabin to the Wireless Room to hear the latest reports on the War.

It took us about 5 days to get to Canada and we arrived at Halifax in Nova Scotia. [Now a lot of people do not know this but the Queen Mary could only dock in 2 ports in North America 鈥� Halifax and New York.]

When we got there 鈥淲elcome to Canada鈥� was written in the sky by aeroplanes. We got off with all our boxes and Churchill and his entourage. We caught a train for Quebec and stayed in the best hotel Chateau Frontenec 鈥� a marvellous hotel.

Then, a few days later, Stalin came from Russia and Roosevelt from America. The idea was to plan the D-Day landings. That was the whole object of the exercise.

The Conference lasted two and a half months. We had to do our guard duties 鈥� Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin and the boxes 鈥� that was our job.

We also had to do parades for the local people. I think it was really for propaganda. We were also invited to the homes of Canadians and had lovely meals, with no black-outs and no rationing!

I was given special permission, and they paid the fare, for me to go from Quebec to Baltimore to visit an old 鈥榞irl friend鈥� of mine. I was brought up in Somerset near Yeovil and went to a grammar school where they had a writing club. You wrote to different people around the world. I ended up writing to Mary Strickland in Baltimore. She was a very pretty girl and had married a school sweetheart.

I met her husband down in Devon when I was training to be a commando. He was training as well. Mary was very good to me 鈥� she sent me films for my camera that you could not get in England.

During my time in Quebec I was introduced to Stalin and Roosevelt as Marine Pengelly-Phillips. I shook hands with them. Stalin asked me how old I was and how long I had been in the Marines. Roosevelt did the same 鈥� from his wheelchair.

Stalin seemed a reasonable chap to me, but I didn鈥檛 know what to make of Churchill. He seemed a man who was at odds with himself.

When the Conference finished we packed up everything. Stalin went back to Russia and Roosevelt to America. We went back to Halifax and got on board with all our bits and pieces. We had the escort of 3 destroyers like before.

This time the weather was good and the destroyers managed to keep up with us. We were about a day before we docked in England 鈥� 3 or 4 hundred miles south of Ireland 鈥� zigzagging 鈥� with the destroyers going alongside, when the following incident occurred at 2am.

For some reason, I think it may have been a navigational error, one of the destroyers went across the bows of the Queen Mary. The Queen Mary was going at full speed, hit it, and virtually cut it in half. It went straight down to the bottom. About 120 escaped, but about 40 died.

When we got back to England Churchill personally thanked me for looking after him. For some reason he gave us the Italy Medal. There are only 35 of us who have got the Italy Medal and have never been to Italy!

After that I trained as a commando. When they planned D-Day they didn鈥檛 have enough commandos 鈥� so they formed an extra Commando 鈥� called 48 Commando [about 500 strong] under Major Moulton, who wrote a book about D-Day.

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