大象传媒

MY WAR IN THE MERCHANT NAVY 1939 鈥� 1945
JAMES SAMUEL WOODBOURNE

Easter 1939
I Started training in London as Radio Officer.

Easter 1940
I Completed my training and joined Siemens Brothers.

May 1940
I joined my first ship 鈥楴orth Devon鈥� in Cardiff. This was small tramp ship and we sailed on our own carrying coal to Freetown, West Africa. Here we loaded Iron Ore which was a dangerous cargo as the ship would sink in a few minutes if torpedoed. We returned to Middlesborough in a convoy of 10 ships with no escort. Nearing England the convoy was attacked by long range plane, a Focke Wolf Condor. The ship astern of us was bombed and sunk so we stopped to pick up the crew. Sailing down the east coast we had two additional soldiers with a Bren machine gun. All merchant ships were fitted with one 6鈥� gun and a 12 pounder anti-aircraft gun. These were manned by the crew and I received some training as a machine gunner.

September 1940
We repeated the trip to Freetown this time in convoy with 2 armed trawlers as escort. On my first trip I caught dysentery but I was OK this time.

June 1941
Leaving for my third trip we called at Leith near Edinburgh. Here the coal bunkers on the ship caught fire and burned for 2 days and consequently we all had to leave the ship.

February 1941
Next I joined a brand new ship 鈥楨mpire Storm鈥� at South Shields. My first night on board I took a trip ashore. When returning to the ship on my own in the black-out I couldn鈥檛 see a thing so I walked off the quay and fell into the dock. I shouted for help but no one came so I had to climb out myself! I was very lucky. We sailed to Loch Ewe, North-East Scotland to join a convoy to cross the Atlantic. This time we had corvettes as escorts so things were improving. Also the ship had a machine gun fitted in each wing of the bridge. One early morning in mid-Atlantic a German U-Boat surfaced just in front of us as we were lagging behind the rest of the convoy. Eventually we fired our 6鈥� gun to sink it. It was half out of the water at a 45 degree angle before sinking. I felt sorry for its crew. On reaching Canada we sailed up the St Lawrence river to Montreal. Here we loaded wheat and returned to Halifax, Novia Scotia to join a convoy.

March 1941
Leaving Halifax the convoy sailed into dense fog and we sailed on alone. The weather was perfect one afternoon when we got torpedoed. We took to the life boats and watched as a second torpedo split the ship in two. We spent the night in the boats and were then picked up by a Norwegian ship which turned back for us. It must have heard our SOS. This ship took us back to St John鈥檚, Newfoundland.

May 1941
From St John鈥檚 we were taken by boat back to Halifax and then by train to Montreal. This was an interesting trip and I joined a Canadian ship called 鈥楻.J. Cullen鈥� and we loaded up with large bales of paper before joining another convoy at Halifax. Several of the crew were British. This time when we sailed we met fog again. In this fog we met a pack of eighty icebergs and some ships hit them. I saw one iceberg in the fog not many yards from our ship but luckily missed it. When the fog lifted the convoy was re-assembled and we sailed to London. This was the only time I visited a port near my
home. I left the ship in London.

September 1941
As I got a good report from my previous Chief I next joined a fast cargo ship 鈥業mperial Star鈥�. I was surprised to find it was being equipped with 10 Oerlikon guns (20mm) and 2 Bofors guns (30mm) so I realised it was not a normal trip. After taking on several troops, some of whom manned these extra guns, we sailed as a convoy of 9 fast ships. After a few days we joined our main escort which consisted of three battle ships, an aircraft carrier, 5 cruisers and 18 destroyers.

We were going to Malta which was surrounded by enemy territory so convoys were only sent every 6 months. It was reported that the Italian battle fleet had put to sea so I thought things would get exciting but I was glad to hear that they had gone back to port. The day before we reached Malta the convoy came under heavy air attack. The Battleship 鈥楴elson鈥� was hit. That night a plane roared overhead and hit us with an aerial torpedo. We were the only merchant ship hit. Our ship kept afloat so a Destroyer tried to tow us but without success. Consequently we were taken off on the Destroyer which please me as all our gun crews had already left on another ship. The Destroyer then sank our ship with gun fire.

Next morning when we landed in Malta we were put on a cruiser 鈥楬ermione鈥� which left that night for Gibraltar. There we were transferred to the cruiser 鈥淓dinburgh which took us back to Glasgow. Whilst we were in Glasgow the 鈥楨dinburgh鈥� sailed on to Russia and was sunk.

November 1941
My next ship was a small refrigerator ship 鈥楾udor Star鈥�. We had an uneventful trip to Buenos Aires to return with a cargo of frozen meat. I found this city to be exciting and it became my favourite port.

March 1942
I now joined the 鈥楬ighland Chieftan鈥� which was a passenger liner. We carried 2,000 troops to Durban who were taken on from there to Egypt to join Montgomery鈥檚 Army. We then sailed on to Buenos Aires again.

May 1942
On the way to Buenos Aires we called at Tristan da Cunha, a small island in the middle of the Atlantic, to drop stores for the naval telegraph station. The island had a mountain 7,000 feet high but we never saw the top because of mist. Anchored off here one afternoon a family of whales were playing under the stern of our ship. Two of them were mating so it was a very unusual sight.

Next we went to the Falkland Islands. There was nothing much here but one day we sailed a lifeboat to a penguin colony. Argentina would not accept papers from the Falklands so we had to call at Monevideo first before going to Buenos Aires. After loading up with frozen meat we sailed for home, taking back a few English men who wanted to join the British Army. The English people living in Argentina were very hospitable to British sailors during the war.

August 1942
I remained on 鈥楬ighland Chieftan鈥� for another trip. The same as before except we didn鈥檛 stop between Durban and Buenos Aires. On the way out 2 ships in our convoy were torpedoed and sunk in broad daylight as we neared South Africa. I hadn鈥檛 heard of submarines operating in this area before. I also heard that one crew were in lifeboats for 20 days.

January 1943
I joined another brand new ship in South Shields called 鈥楨mpire Cato鈥�. This turned out to be the happiest ship I was ever on. By now the standard armament fitted on a
Merchant Ship consisted of 6 Oerlikon Guns (20mm) and 1 Bofors Gun (30mm) plus the usual 6 inch gun. There also were some rocket devices with wires attached. The ship was equipped with 2 large derricks capable of lifting 50 tons so that army tanks could be carried. As we sailed towards the East Scottish coast we were caught in a bad storm. The ship rolled so much that both these large derricks were torn out of the deck and hung over the side they also smashed out lifeboats. It was equivalent to being dismasted. We put into Dundee for repairs and then sailed to Canada. We had bad storms all the way.

April 1943
After loading a cargo of wheat we sailed back to Glasgow. I had my 21st birthday on the way.

June 1943
After some leave I rejoined the ship which had been modified to carry 300 troops. These were Canadians and our crew got on well with them. At sea we learned we were going to invade Sicily. The night before the invasion there was a terrible storm so most of the troops were seasick. Nevertheless the invasion went well. Most troops were carried on liners in a separate convoy. The Americans also invaded to our left. I think Sicily was conquered in a month. For 5 days we were anchored and loaded our military equipment into landing craft.

Then we sailed back to Algiers and loaded more army equipment. One army officer on board caught smallpox, fortunately no-one else caught it. Whilst we were in Algiers an Ammunition Ship caught fire and eventually exploded. It was the loudest explosion that I ever heard during the war. A Destroyer had been alongside trying to put out the fire and both ships were completely destroyed with 400 men killed.

Next we sailed for another invasion, this time at Salerno near Naples on the Italian mainland. This was much worse that the Sicily invasion as the Germans were expecting us and many of the invading troops were killed. Our ship was in the second wave of the invasion, four days after the initial attack. Again we were anchored for 5 days unloading our cargo and men into landing craft.

During this time we had several air attacks every day. We had a good view of the battle ships out at sea firing their 15 inch broadsides over into the enemy positions. Unfortunately the enemy replied and their shells were landing right near us. One night the Germans made a heavy counter attack and many shells landed near us. As we were loaded with petrol and detonators I was glad when the shelling finished. Often Destroyers laid a smoke screen around us which was comforting. Eventually Montgomery鈥檚 Eight Army landed further south and joined up with our troops and then things were quieter for us. We sailed back to Africa after 5 days,

June 1943
At some time during this period we were anchored off Malta when the Italian fleet surrendered and sailed to Malta. It was an impressive sight.

September 1943.
Next we were told to sail to Bombay where we were joined by other ships of the Italian Invasion Fleet. I was not happy with this as I expected invasions in this area to last for years. I learned later that Mountbatten had proposed to invade the coast of Burma but had eventually abandoned the idea. Consequently the ships were dispersed.

December 1943
We took army stores to Chittagong in the North East of India. It was not far from the fighting against the Japanese. On the way to India a ship that was behind us was torpedoed and the lifeboats were machine gunned. The Japanese often did this.

We spent Christmas in Chittagong but one afternoon the Japanese bombed the port. A stick of bombs landed alongside the ships, these were fragmentation bombs so the ships were hit with shrapnel. Luckily no crew members were injured.

When we left there I learnt we were going back to Buenos Aires. I couldn鈥檛 believe this I thought it was too good to be true to be returning to one of my favourite ports. From the worst port to the best port in one trip. We loaded grain there and took it to Lisbon and then sailed to Cassablanca where we loaded fertilizers.

May 1944
We left there in a convoy which went past Gibraltar into the Mediterranean again. I thought we might be going round Africa again. It was only a dummy run to make the Germans think the invasion was in the South of France. I was glad when the convoy turned round and went back by Gibraltar in the dark and then went back to England.

June 1944
I went on leave and went home to Liss in Hampshire just after the invasion of North France. One afternoon I stood by the main London to Portsmouth Road and watched thousands of tanks and all kinds of army vehicles going down the roads to the South Coast. Also I saw the hundreds of planes fly overhead on the way to their bombing missions in Europe.

So far I had been a second Radio Officer but now I got another certificate to allow me to be First Radio Officer. I took my examination in the middle of an air-raid in London.

July 1944
For my next ship I was taken by boat out to Naples to join the 鈥楨mpire Harmony鈥�. This ship had 2 large derricks to lift 80 tons. Its job was to unload railway engines for the Italian railways as their engines had been destroyed in the War. We were in Naples for a year and a half. Nothing exciting happed over this time. The only things out of the ordinary were when I occasionally took the ships wheel when moving around the harbour or when I operated a winch when engines were being unloaded or drove a lifeboat to take people ashore or pick them up. The War ended in the summer of 1945 but we didn鈥檛 return to England until we sailed home in the Spring of 1946.

April 1946
My next ship was a tanker called 鈥楤ritish Promise鈥�.

May 1946
I didn鈥檛 like tankers as they only stayed in port for 2 days. Anyway we sailed for the Persion Gulf where we loaded oil before sailing to Australia. We did 2 trips one from the Persian Gulf and Melbourne and the other from the Persian Gulf and Sydney. It took 30 days each way with just 2 days at each port. This was boring and it was not a happy ship. The Persian Gulf was far too hot for me. I was glad when we returned home for Christmas 1946 and then I resigned from the Merchant Navy to work on my Dad鈥檚 farm in Liss.

In general I enjoyed my time at sea as I saw sights and had experiences which would never have happed otherwise.

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