大象传媒

The Tracker left the home port in 1944 and sailed for New York where we spent Christmas until the New Year 1945. It was my duty to collect the official post from the Cunard building in New York. I returned after collection to Brooklyn Navy Yard and had a detour into a bar near the entrance for a couple of snorters! After taking my medicine I sauntered back to the Navy Yard to the ship and found to my surprise a reception party of the Captain, Commander, Officer of the Watch etc anxiously waiting for the mail which contained our sailing orders!

We then sailed New Year鈥檚 Day down the coast to Panama, through the canal to the west coast of America. We sailed to San Diego where we went through some refitting to make us ready to take supplies of aircraft and personnel to American bases in the Pacific. I was given hospitality by an American family in San Diego and subsequently I named my daughter after the wife of that family (Nadeene, surname Clarke). I used to visit every time we returned to San Diego.

My time we went from San Diego to San Pedro which is the port of Los Angeles and had shore leave from there. We used to go into Los Angeles and Hollywood and appreciated the marvellous hospitality particularly at the Hollywood canteen. The stars used to serve the servicemen and free meals and accommodation were provided. I was given tickets to the Milton Burle show in a Hollywood theatre and was dragged up on stage to take part in one of the acts and because of my novelty I was asked to repeat performances whenever I was there. One of the performers was married to an American in the show who came from Brixton London and as I came from Streatham, adjacent to Brixton, I could supply home news which she really enjoyed.

Our ship then became a cruise liner and went to Hawaii, Pearl Harbour and tied up behind one the Arizona, one of the ships sunk by the Japanese. From Hawaii we sailed to our first destination, the Admiralty Islands off New Guinea where we discharged our cargo and returned to the US. There we did more trips to other American bases until we heard on the radio about the atom bombing of Japan. There upon we were given orders to return to the UK where we sailed into Southampton and paid off.

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