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MY GREAT GRANDAD IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR
by Kiran Solanki class 6M

My great grand dad was born in India in 1908, on Christmas Eve. He became a doctor, and from then on, every one called him ‘Doc’.

When WW2 started, Doc decided that he wanted to help by using his medical skills. He joined the British army. At this time, India was a part of the British Empire.

At the beginning of World War II, the Royal Navy was supposed to be the best.
But not under the seas. The Germans had submarines that were very powerful.
Before the war, the Britain had to bring most of its food from other countries, such as, lamb from Australia, corned beef from Argentina, oranges and lemons from Florida, Israel etc.

As soon as the war began, rationing began in Britain, and ships used most of their space to bring in equipment and weapons from Canada and the USA, rather than food.

Convoys going across the Atlantic lost most of their ships and their cargoes, because the Germans had a powerful fleet of U-boat hunting in packs.

U-boat stands for underwater boat or submarine.

At this time, Doc was the Chief Medical Officer, in charge of looking after the officers and crew on board the TSS ULYSSES. The ship was part of a convoy — lots of ships travelling together for protection, with armed ships called DESTROYERS to protect the passenger ships.

On the ship were many children who were being evacuated from England to Canada.
The convoy was attacked by German planes and Doc’s ship was torpedoed from a German submarine. The ship, hit by torpedoes, and German planes attacking from the air, started to go down.

Everyone had to abandon ship as quickly as possible.
Doc climbed down a rope ladder into a life boat. On his way down, the people above and below him were shot, and fell into the sea.

Doc and his companions in the life boat survived terrible Atlantic storms and the constant fear of being discovered by the enemy, for three days and nights, until they were rescued off the Shetland Islands near Scotland.

Doc’s own words, as written on the back of a ship’s menu:
Sunday 15.6.41.

I was shocked by a sudden loud noise. Depth charges are being released from the destroyer. We are all terrified travellers on our way from England to Canada…on the opposite side of the world to India.

Dangerous, anxious journey. Huge ocean.

While we were having our dinner, the alarm went off twice.
We immediately left our tables, put on our life jackets, and waited for the life boats.
We are all in for a very anxious night.
German U Boats are chasing us.

Will we be able to escape from them?

The destroyers are trying their level best to save us.

Let us see what happens…

We are all ready by the evacuation ladders…men, women and children.

If we survive this night, we will have lived one more day.

Is that too much to hope for?

15th June Night 11pm - 12.45
NO ANSWER EXPECTED

Doc wrote in Bengali to his fiancée, Rekha, and added words of love and longing.

This is a precious family document.

When Doc used to tell this story, his biggest regret was that he lost his violin which went down with the ship!

THE BLITZ LONDON IN 1941

Doc was in London during the Blitz. My Nan told me that he had lots of stories about the terrible things he saw. But he always said how wonderful Londoners were at that time. They were always cheerful, determined and courageous even when bombs were falling all around.

That’s when he decided that one day he would come back to London to live and work.
London at that time had trams as well as buses.

One day Doc had gone to visit friends when the air raid siren went off. They all took shelter until the ‘All clear’.
By this time it was quite late, and once the trams started again Doc went home.
The next day he heard from his friends that the last tram that night had been blown up by a bomb from a German plane flying very low.

It was a mystery where that plane had appeared from, especially, after the ‘All Clear’. So it seems, that Doc had yet another narrow escape!

Doc survived the war and fulfilled his dream and came back to London with his wife, Rekha and two daughters: Krishna born 19th September 1943 in Calcutta, India [my nan], and Debika born 17th May 1946 in Calcutta.

Doc became a G.P. and looked after thousands of patients in south east London for over forty years.
THE END

Kiran Solanki 28th April 1994 London

Amiya Ranjan Biswas
Born in Dacca,India 24th December 1908 Died in London 25th January 1971

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