大象传媒

Getting Hitched.

When it became known in late June 1941 that the brigade was to be sent overseas for a considerable period of time, Fred proposed to Doris who naturally accepted and a special dispensation to be married quickly (without the bans being read) was granted by the Archbishop of Canterbury. They were married at St James-The-Less Church, Bethnal Green, London on 5th August 1941 and were together as a married couple for ten days, after which they would not see one another for two and a half years.

4.
Off To War.

After what amounted to nearly a year of training on the 15th August 1941 Fred boarded the P & O ex-cruise ship Orion at Avonmouth Docks, Bristol, bound for Egypt. The direct route through the Mediterranean Sea was blocked by German U-Boats (submarines) and warships so the troopship had to route the whole way around Africa, the Cape and back up the East African Coast. They docked for a couple of days to re-fuel and restock at Freetown, Sierra Leone on 28th August and then headed for Suez. On the way the Orion was escorted by the battleship H.M.S. Revenge which sailed a continuous criss-cross pattern ahead of the Orion. On a brightly lit night off the South West coast of Africa Fred was on guard on deck in the early hours of the morning when the two ships begun to come very close. Fred thought 鈥渋f the warship hits us we are done for鈥� but instead the Orion ploughed into the Revenge amidships with sailors scattering in all directions. There was panic below deck on Orion because it was thought a mine had been struck or they had been torpedoed but Fred was able to tell them what had occurred. The whole of the first ten feet of the Orion was bent at 45 degrees so an emergency stop had to be made at Cape Town, one of the worlds most beautiful cities, the prospect of which disappointed no one! On arrival the people of the city were queuing up at the docks in cars and cabs to show Fred and his comrades to their homes and take them out on the town. Fred鈥檚 memories of the three days are very hazy but his mates told him later he was brought back to the ship in a wheelbarrow! He only came round properly a day or so later by which time the ship had left port (14th August). After making its way up the east coast of Africa and into the Red Sea the Orion docked at Suez, Egypt, where the men disembarked and were billeted in tents ready for the 400 mile journey to Libya.

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