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TROOP SHIP TO DURBAN

I joined the WRENS in 1941 and was trained as a ‘cinema operator’. This involved training cadets or new recruits in aircraft recognition, seamanship, radar and ASDIES (special nautical instruments). In 1943 I was drafted to Durban.

First we went from London to Glasgow on the night train and boarded the Empire Trooper which took us out to join the convoy somewhere in the Atlantic. I understood we were one of the first to go through the Suez Canal on its re-opening.

On the way to the Canal, going past Gibraltar, it was twilight. I looked up and saw a shooting in the sky. The alarm went and we all went below decks. We stayed below, at the ready all night and the next day sailed into Port Suez.

From there we went by train to Port Tufic. We stopped at various encampments to be fed and watered. We lived under canvass for several weeks, and Italian prisoners of war there looked after us.

We then caught the Almond Zorra (troop ship) to Durban, and we arrived on 21st December 1943. The original plan was to send me to the Far East, but there was a big troop ship in Durban, HMS Assigai, and it was decided I should stay there.

I spent 2 years in Durban and came home on the Mauritania in September 1945, and got married a week in October.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by June Woodhouse of the CSV Action Desk at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Mrs G Mason and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions

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