Woodbines !
I don't think that Woodbines were allowed in the Navy. After all they are the "Senior Service" . Actually that photo showed us all watching the traditional Ship's Concert and must have been later on as the first part of the voyage was very dramatic.
We sailed around the 22nd. of May and, to the ship's crew's amazement , had the Battleship HMS Rodney and four destroyers as escort, and no other ship in the Convoy. The size of the convoy was amazing but the cargo was precious. All the machinery for setting up the U.S.A.'s training of British pilots under the "Arnold scheme", after it's founder General "Hap" Arnold, was on board and we, numbering around five hundred, were the forerunners of this scheme which would, eventually, train 6,000 pilots for the RAF. One of the very interesting passengers that we met was Richard Hillary, the terribly disfigured fighter pilot who was one of the heroes of the Battle of Britain. He took great interest in us and we listened, fascinated, to his accounts of the "Dog fighting" and tales of that battle. He was one of the first patients of the famous Dr. Archibald McIndoe, at the Hospital at East Grinstead who had done so much for the terrible cases such as Richard Hillary, but we had some very mixed feeling, as we listened to him , as to our very near future.
We were about two or three days out when we were dismayed to see that the Rodney and three of the Destroyers were leaving us and as one left, it signalled us. Most of us were pretty good at Aldis by now and easily read the signal which read "Bismarck out. Knows your position, make full speed. Good luck." Full speed on the "Britannic" was around 28 knots and the Atlantic was no mill pond. There were some of us, especially those of us in the crowded quarters of the bow and stern who would not have complained if the "Bismarck" had caught up with us. Then we heard of the dreadful loss of the "Hood" with only a handful of survivors and the terrific news that our escort, the Rodney" had finished off the "Bismarck" after she had been crippled by the gallant old "Stringbags" as the Fairey Swordfish, torpedo carrying, biplanes were fondly named. We docked at Halifax, Nova Scotia, after eight days at sea and marched, gladly off the ship, straight on to a waiting train , complete with "Cowcatchers" just like the movies. We were to stay on that train for two days and finally pulled in around midnight at the end of May 1941 to a platform which displayed the huge sign "Manning Pool. Toronto". .........Enough for today.
Last edited by regle; 19th Sep 2008 at 15:44.